Westby-with-Plumptons

Westby-with-Plumptons is a civil parish in Lancashire, England. The parish is in Fylde district and contains the hamlets of Great Plumpton, Little Plumpton, Lower Ballam, Higher Ballam, Moss Side, Peel, and Westby.[1] At the 2011 census, the parish had a population of 1,205.[2] Westby and Plumpton are mentioned in the Domesday Book, as "Westbi" and "Pluntun".[3]

Westby-with-Plumptons
St Anne's Church
Westby-with-Plumptons Shown within Fylde Borough Westby-with-Plumptons Shown on the Fylde Westby-with-Plumptons Location within Lancashire
Population	1,205 (2011 UK census)
OS grid reference	SD384318
• London	196 miles (315 km)
Civil parish	Westby-with-Plumptons
District	Fylde
Shire county	Lancashire
Region	North West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	PRESTON
Postcode district	PR4
Post town	BLACKPOOL
Postcode district	FY4
Post town	LYTHAM ST ANNES
Postcode district	FY8
Dialling code	01772 01253
Police	Lancashire
Fire	Lancashire
Ambulance	North West
UK Parliament	Fylde

Westby-with-Plumptons is part of the Warton and Westby ward, represented by three councillors on Fylde Borough Council.[4] On Lancashire County Council it is part of Fylde West ward, which elects one councillor.[5]

The parish is generally low-lying, with arable land in the south and pasture in the north, which rises to 100 feet (30 m) above sea level at Great Plumpton in the north-east of the parish.[3][6]

The parish is now the home of the steel farm-building construction company J. Wareing & Son (Wrea Green) Ltd. which was for many years based in the neighbouring village of Wrea Green.

Moss Side

Moss Side (Grid Reference SD379302) is located in the south of the parish in between Wrea Green and Lytham with the B5259 road (Lytham Road) being the main road running through the hamlet.

The railway from Preston to Blackpool South runs through the hamlet with Moss Side railway station being located where the railway crosses Lytham Road at a level crossing. The station first opened in 1846, closed in 1961 and was re-opened in 1983. The station in the past had a stationmaster's house and signal box, both of which have been demolished.[7] It is also close to where the Moss Side rail crash occurred in 1924 which claimed the lives of 14 people.[8]

Moss Side used to have a hospital which opened in 1902 as the Fylde Isolation Hospital (later known as Moss Side Hospital) for people with infectious diseases.[9] The hospital closed in 1988 due to being surplus to requirements as well as changes in medical practice and was demolished to make way for new houses.[7][9]

There was also a small Wesleyan chapel on Lytham Road during the early 20th Century.[10]

Peel

Peel is a small settlement on the outskirts of Blackpool, featuring Whitehills Business Park which includes several car dealerships, a B&Q store and a Premier Lodge. A business park has increased in size over the years to include a variety of small businesses from lawnmower repairs, a print and design company and BMW servicing to larger concerns such as a renewable energy company and building merchants. Local theatrical group Junction 4 Productions has its home here and Penny Farm run by World Horse Welfare is also nearby. Further afield, there are several caravan parks (Pipers Height and Clifton Fields Caravan Park) situated on Peel Road.

Ballam

Ballam is a small hamlet in between Moss Side, Peel and Lytham, consisting of a small number of dwellings, a few farms and a small church which was previously the village school.

Westby

Westby is another small hamlet, towards the north of the parish, located in between Wrea Green and Ballam, just south of Preston New Road.

St. Anne's Church

Interior of St. Anne's Church

Westby is notable for the fine Catholic church of St. Anne's, designed by E. W. Pugin and built in 1860.

The conventional church exterior does not prepare the visitor for the striking interior with its elaborate timber roof. Above the altar the timbers follow the apse and form a frame or focal point. At the west end is a gallery.

Despite the unusual shape of the nave windows, the stained glass is largely unspectacular. But two of the windows are noteworthy - the Pre-Raphaelite styled "St Cecilia" in a green gown, with roses in the cusps, and the "Millennium" window with its inscription.[11]

Fracking at Little Plumpton

Protestors in July 2017

Cuadrilla Resources' first and only high-volume hydraulic fracturing job[12]^:4 was performed in March 2011, near Blackpool.[13][14] Cuadrilla halted operations in May 2011 at the site due to seismic activity damaging the casing in the production zone.[15]

In June 2015, Lancashire County Council voted to reject an application by Cuadrilla to extract shale gas by means of fracking at a site at Little Plumpton.[16] This decision was appealed by the company, however, and the government accepted their appeal in 2016. An appeal against this reversed decision was lost in the Court of Appeal in January 2018.[17][18]

In November 2017 Cuadrilla, in agreement with the government, financially compensated the local community for the disruption. A community fund of £100,000 was created, and additionally households within 1 km will receive about £2,070 and others within 1.5 kilometres will receive about £150.[19] The cost of Lancashire Constabulary policing the site, since January 2017, was estimated to have been between £6m and £8m.[20]

See also

• Listed buildings in Westby-with-Plumptons

References

1. "Map of Westby-with-Plumptons CP". Lancashire County Council. Retrieved 17 July 2008.
2. "Parish population 2011". Retrieved 4 June 2015.
3. "Townships: Westby-with-Plumptons". A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 7. British History Online. 1912. pp. 174–176. Retrieved 17 July 2008.
4. "Council and Democracy: Councillor Search: Warton and Westby". Fylde Borough Council. Archived from the original on 10 March 2007. Retrieved 17 July 2008.
5. "County Councillors by Area (A-Z)". Lancashire County Council. Retrieved 17 July 2008.
6. "Westby-with-Plumptons Parish Council". Lancashire Parish Portal. Lancashire County Council. Retrieved 17 July 2008.
7. Ramsbottom, Martin (15 November 2013). Kirkham & Around Through Time. Amberley Publishing Limited. ISBN 9781445616728.
8. "Test Engineering drawing". www.nrm.org.uk. 28 February 2013. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
9. "The National Archives | Search the archives | Hospital Records| Details". www.nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
10. "GEN UKI".
11. St. Anne's Westby
12. Department of Energy and Climate Change (February 2014). "Fracking UK shale: Water" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 22 October 2014.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
13. "Blackpool shale gas drilling begins". BBC News. 28 March 2011. Retrieved 29 February 2012.
14. Charles Hendry (22 September 2011). "The potential for shale gas is worth exploration". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 26 February 2012.
15. Terry Macalister (13 March 2013). "Fracking company Cuadrilla halts operations at Lancashire drilling site". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
16. "Council blocks Little Plumpton fracking application". BBC News. 29 June 2015. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
17. Dehon, Estelle (9 August 2017). "Legal landscape: The case against fracking". The Planner. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
18. "Preston New Road campaigners lose fracking appeal". BBC News. 12 January 2018. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
19. "Little Plumpton fracking households to share £100,000". BBC News. 6 November 2017. Retrieved 26 March 2018.