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People call Thornton a Domes Day village, but the history goes back a lot further than that. Stand by the road leading to Marsh Mill and you will see a dike, follow it above ground and it works its way past the engineer’s track and under the bridge at the sports centre, next it appears at the top of Meadows Avenue, then it must turn (underground) and go down Meadows Avenue and Church Road and appears again in Royles Brook School (the school is named after the brook). The big and very deep pond in the grounds is part of Royles Brook. It then disappears and comes out between the end shop and Woodland Avenue, across the road and under the first car park of Marsh Mill and back to our start. Could this be the enclosure for early marsh settlers?
The Segantaii or Setantaii were marsh dwellers and the area could have possibly been known as Thorn-Tree enclosure, which is where Thornton is said to have got its name. The Danes raided down the west coast, where the Setantaii killed or converted by the Danes? Bearing in mind the ground inside the enclosure would have been high ground.
In Queen Mary’s military muster 8 men from Thornton were put up to fight.
In 1794 Marsh Mill was built in the reign of George the third (or farmer George was his nickname). The marshy area was drained and the Act of Enclosure in 1800 was granted, this meant that farms were separated by fences etc.
What is now Cleveleys used to be called Lower Thornton, and was just a rabbit warren as was Fleetwood. Cleveleys (Lower Thornton) sprung up as a town during and after the first World War and Fleetwood was ‘born’ in the 1830’s and 1840’s.
All of this land including Burn Naze and Rossall came under the Lord of the Manor of Thornton. There was a railway station where the supermarket is now and the station was called ‘Thornton for Cleveleys’ and the day trippers had to walk the mile or so to the sea front at Cleveleys.
The road was originally called Ramper road but was changed to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee to Victoria Road. So people of Thornton should not be disgruntled at having Cleveleys tagged on to its name because it has always been part of Thornton.
The library and lecture hall (now Little Theatre) were built in 1937. The little church in the trees (Christ Church) goes back to the 1800’s, so called because trees surrounded it, much less so today.
Thornton has changed a lot since Victorian times, gone is Villamar, gone are the old farms and the railway, gone are the traditions and legends. Gone the smithy and the forge in the mill grounds. People call it change, progress; what will Thornton be like in 100 years from now? It certainly won’t be the sleepy little village it once was.
By L Walker - North West Mills Group
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