Shortly after the passing of this act, the following twenty-three townships of the Fylde were banded together for parochial purposes, and denominated the Fylde Union:—Bispham-with-Norbreck, Bryning-with-Kellamergh, Carleton, Clifton-with-Salwick, Little Eccleston-with-Larbrick, Elswick, Freckleton, Greenhalgh-with-Thistleton, Hardhorn-with-Newton, Kirkham, Layton-with-Warbreck, Lytham, Marton, Medlam-with-Wesham, Newton-with-Scales, Poulton, Ribby-with-Wrea, Singleton, Thornton, Treales, Roseacre, Wharles, Warton, Weeton-with-Preese, and Westby-with-Plumptons. In 1844 the guardians erected the Union Workhouse at Kirkham, at a cost of about £5,400, and in 1864 the building was enlarged so as to be able to accommodate 250 paupers. All small, local workhouses in the districts comprised in the union were of course closed on the opening of the central one. The guardians of the different townships constitute a board, in whose hands rests the regulation of all matters concerning the union.
By a subsequent act, the original Central Board of Poor Law Commissioners was superseded by a controlling board composed of four members of the government, ex officio, and certain other commissioners appointed by Her Majesty in council, the inspectors, whom, it should have been mentioned, were provided under the previous act, were now invested with more extended powers; workhouse visitors were appointed; annual reports were ordered to be issued; and a clause forbidding the cohabitation of man and wife in the workhouses was dispensed with after the parties had arrived at sixty years of age.
FOOTNOTES
[1] William Camden was born in London in 1551. His most celebrated publication is entitled “Britannia,” and consists of a survey of the British isles, written in elegant Latin. He died in 1623, at Chiselhurst, in Kent.
[2] The reader must not confound these canoes with some others found in Martin Meer, North Meols.
[3] Cæsar’s Bell. Gall., v. 14.
[4] Ptolemy was a native of Egypt, and lived at Alexandria during the first half of the second century. He was an astronomer, chronologer, and geographer. His geographical work was in use in all schools until the 15th century, when it was supplanted by another treatise containing the more recent discoveries of Venetian and other navigators.
[5] Mr. Thornber mentions this path in his History of Blackpool.
[6] “In the memory of man large portions of Kate’s Pad existed with various, but irregular interruptions: these, however, the moss cutter yearly removes, and shortly no remains of it will be found.”—Rev. W. Thornber, Blackpool, 1837.