Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/327

 descended to the children of Mary Tyldesley, or returned again into the more direct line, it is certain that not many years after the death of Thomas Tyldesley it had ceased to be one of their possessions.

Thus, the annals of the founders of this solitary mansion carry us back to the period between 1660 and 1685, that is from the restoration to the death of Charles II., but certain entries in the register of Bispham church show that there must have been dwellings and a population, however thinly scattered, on the soil anterior to that period, sometime during the sixteenth century, and it was doubtless the descendants of these people who inhabited the neighbourhood when Edward Tyldesley appeared upon the scene and erected Fox Hall. The primitive structures forming the habitations of these aborigines were built of clay, roughly plastered on to wattles, and thatched with rushes more frequently than straw, the whole fabric being supported on crooks driven into the ground. About the epoch of Thomas Tyldesley drainage and cultivation began to render the aspect of the country more inviting, and fresh families were tempted to come down to the coast and rear their humble abodes under the wing of the great mansion, so that after a while a small hamlet of clustering huts was formed. It is more than probable that the morals and conduct of the dwellers in these huts were influenced in some way or other by the sojourners at the Hall, but whether for good or evil we are unable to say, as the time is now so hopelessly remote and no records of their habits and doings are extant, so that in the absence of any proof to the contrary, it is only fair and charitable to surmise that their lives were as simple as their surroundings

Whether the Tyldesleys were induced to locate themselves on this spot solely by a prospect of possessing some of the territory around, or were actuated also by a desire to have a retreat far removed from the scenes of disturbance with which the different factions were constantly vexing the land, is a matter of little importance, but to their presence it was due that the natural beauties of Blackpool were brought before the people at an early date. There can be no doubt that the priests and others, who had fled to the Hall as a harbour of refuge, would, on returning to their own districts, circulate glowing and eulogistic accounts of