IN A FAIRY REGION
THE HEART OF WINDMILL LAND
Allen Clarke's memoirs of the Bonnie Fylde.
'And a jolly rich heart it is too.'
Pictures of white windmills on green uplands by woodlands and plantations with village orchards foaming into pink and snowy blossom of thatched huts and raintubs in delightful winding lanes of farms and cattle of fields where lapwings are called pee-wets and the bleating of lambs. Pictures of men ploughing and sowing of milkmaids and shippons of farm dames feeding the pigs and poultry, bonny little gardens and church spires. Towers of old halls set amid trees, blue skies and white clouds set against the the purple dark fells on the horizon.
What a view you get when standing onthe top of the hill near tthe smithy at Little Marton. From this eminence you behold the heart of windmill Land, so let's get into it!
There are no roads across the heart of Windmill Land and perhaps better so. It is an uninvaded seclusion.
Allen's love affair with windmills
THE TRIP TRAIN
60 years ago I fell in love with a windmill I had seen from a train window as a little boy. I had travelled from my hometown of Bolton with other poor children on hard cushionless seats but when I saw my first windmill its red sails and white tower set amidst the corn fields, I knew I would one day come to live in the Fylde.
TOWN OF THE WINDMILL
It is the only town in the British Isles with windmill sails in its coat of arms. When Blackpool became a borough and got its coat of arms, there were four windmill sails in the design, as you can see by looking at the Corperation buildings, trams etc. At that time the countryside around Blackpool was a Windmill Land and sixty years ago it had many working windmills:
Clifton, Treales, Kirkham, Warton, Wrea Green, Westby, Weeton, Little Marton, Great Marton, Staining, Hoo Hill, Carleton, Thornton, Great Eccleston, Cockerham, Pilling, Lytham and Preesall.
Courtesy of the Gazette & Herald circa 1900
18 December 2007, shirley