On the low, exposed edge of the Wyre Estuary, where marshland once stretched toward the Irish Sea, the town of Fleetwood was created not by gradual settlement, but by vision. It was a product of the Victorian age, born from confidence in progress, engineering, and the power of planning. At the centre of this ambition stood Sir Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood, a wealthy landowner and Member of Parliament who, in the 1830s, believed the future of transport lay at the meeting point of rail and sea. He imagined a modern port town that would serve as a gateway between England and Scotland,…
