Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/93

 visitors during the summer, and for many years was a more popular resort than Blackpool. In Mr. Baines's account of Lytham, published in 1825, we read as follows:—"This is one of the most popular sea-bathing places in the county of Lancashire; and if the company is less fashionable than at Blackpool, it is generally more numerous, and usually very respectable."

A list of the Catholic Chapels and Chaplains, together with the number of their respective congregations, in the county of Lancaster, was collected in 1819, and subjoined are enumerated those situated in the Hundred of Amounderness:—

Place. Chapels. Priest. No. of                                          Congregation. Preston           2    Revd. — Dunn } "                    "   — Morris}    6,000 "                    "   — Gore  } "                    "   — Bird  } Alston Lane       1      "   — Cowburne     400 Fernyhalgh         1      "   — Blakoe       500 The Hill          1      "   — Martin       450 Claughton          1      "   — Gradwell     800 Scorton           1      "   — Lawrenson    350 Garstang           1      "   — Storey       600 New House         1      "   — Marsh        600 Cottam             1      "   — Caton        300 Lea               1      "   — Anderton     400 Willows            1      "   — Sherburne    600 Westby            1      "   — Butler       300 Lytham             1      "   — Dawson       500 Poulton           1      "   — Platt        400 Great Eccleston    1      "   — Parkinson    450 Total          16                       12,650

In 1836 the first house of Fleetwood was erected, and in a few years the desolate warren at the mouth of the Wyre was converted into a rising and prosperous town. The rapidity of its early growth may be inferred from the following paragraph, extracted from a volume on Lancashire, published during the infancy of this new offspring of the Fylde:—"As a bathing place, it possesses very superior attractions: hot water baths, inns, and habitations of all kinds have sprung as if by magic on one of the most agreeable sites it is possible to imagine, very superior to any other