Victoria Road, the main shopping street of Cleveleys, was originally called Ramper Road, this name came from ramparts or banks enclosing the marshland. Gravel from the beach was used in the making of the first road which led over Thornton Marsh and was orderd by the Marsh Act Award in 1805. Ramper Road was re-named Victoria Road at the time of the Queens Jubilee.

An old resident recalled that in 1909, when rates were less than 5/- in the pound, Victoria Square was offered at 2/6 a square yard. It then contained only a confectioners shop and a tea garden over which towered a pear tree. The same land sold in 1939 for £5 a square yard.

And then back even further ..... Heading out about a mile into the sea in front of Rossall School was Singleton Thorp, the name Singleton being a derivation of Shingleton. In 1555 the sea surged inland and destroyed several villages, one of which was Singleton Thorp but the inhabitants or the bulk of them escaped and traced inland and settled in what is now Singleton Village. This was the end of the Forest of Amounderness, and farmers still find broken twigs from that surge in their fields today. The sea never retreated back to where it came from, and year of year the Fylde coast started to erode. There is still the evidence on the beach at Cleveleys of petrified forests when the tide goes out – what look like brown soggy deposits are actually the ends of tree stumps which were buried under the tide all those years ago.

In 1643 a Spanish Vessel came ashore at Rossall Beach. Both armies were after the prize, but as Cromwell’s army had to go round by Garstang and over Wyre where his supporters were, and Lord Derby being amongst friends was able to march right up to Layton Hawes and alongside the Fylde coast without any interference, therefore securing the Prize for the Royalists.

There is lots of history to be uncovered on this coast, most of which is accessible through the internet, if this small section has whetted your appetite!