Fleetwood, ENG - Postcode - FY7 8LS

Fleetwood, England

Located in the northwest corner of the Fylde, Fleetwood is a coastal town in the Borough of Wyre in Lancashire, England. As of the 2011 census, the population was 25,939.

In the 1830s, Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood, High Sheriff and MP, the town's primary landowner, had an ambitious plan to re-develop the town into a thriving seaport and railway spur, giving Fleetwood its contemporary identity. Several large public structures, including a pair of lighthouses, were designed by Victorian architect Decimus Burton at his request. The transportation hubs planned by Hesketh-Fleetwood never came to fruition. The town grew rapidly in the first part of the twentieth century as a result of the increasing need for fishing and passenger ferries to the Isle of Man.

Fish processing is a key economic activity in Fleetwood, despite the decline of the fishing sector that began in the 1960s and was expedited by the Cod Wars with Iceland. Lofthouse of Fleetwood, maker of the lozenge Fisherman's Friend, is currently the town's largest employment.

Geography

Fleetwood is situated on the western side of the mouth of the River Wyre on the Fylde Peninsula, some 13 kilometers (8.1 miles) north of Blackpool. The peninsula on which the town sits is almost three kilometers (kilometers) wide and is flanked by the Irish Sea to the west, Morecambe Bay to the north, and the River Wyre to the east. As a result, getting into and out of Fleetwood is difficult, and there were only two ways in and out for a long time. At low tide, visitors to Morecambe Bay can see a massive sandbank known as the North Wharf, which stretches for over 2 miles and 14 kilometer. Towards the east, the bank ends at the river's edge. This, in addition to the bigger Bernard Wharf across the river, significantly impedes river traffic. By contrast, the harbor is exceptionally protected from the usual westward breezes.

The soil is relatively flat across the Fylde, with the Mount, a massive sand dune in the northern half of town, serving as the town's focal point and radiating point for the original street pattern. At high tide, much of the northern and western edges of Fleetwood are submerged, and the town has a substantial retaining sea wall running along much of its western side. Nevertheless, in 1927 and again in 1977, Fleetwood was flooded. Although the second flood was far less severe than the first, it still caused significant damage to many more homes since so much construction had taken place in the town's lower lying areas since the 1960s. General sandy soil, but large marshy areas to the south and east near the river. The urban core covers an area of about 4.1 square miles (10 km2).

Fleetwood, like the rest of the British coast, experiences a maritime climate. Northwesterly winds and weather patterns cause slightly more rain than the national average, though this is mitigated by the lack of nearby mountains. Frost and snow are unusual in coastal regions, as is the case elsewhere. The weather is relatively typical for the United States.

Economy

Fishing, tourism, port activities, and light industry remain essential to Fleetwood's economy, but the city has been struggling economically since at least the 1970s. The town has five wards, and according to a government report from 2006, three of them are in the top five percent most impoverished in all of England. 

According to the same government assessment, the decline of the fishing industry led to the loss of almost 8,000 jobs in Fleetwood, with the number of people employed in fishing-related industries dropping from around 9,000 to around 1,000. An additional 4,500 jobs were lost in the area when the ICI Hillhouse factory closed. The town's commercial and industrial growth has stalled for the past 15 years, and there is only one major firm in the area with more than 200 workers. Commercial and residential real estate are both losing value. 

While Wyre Borough as a whole has a lower unemployment rate than the rest of the United Kingdom, Fleetwood's is significantly higher.