If you aren’t lucky enough to live in the area, you’re probably confused about the names you hear for local places. So if there’s Fylde Coast & Fylde Borough – what’s the difference? Get ready for a series of maps!
Fylde Coast & Fylde Borough – what’s the difference?
Fylde Coast
The Fylde Coast is the name for the coastline on the peninsula of land between two rivers on the North West coast of the UK in Lancashire. That is, the River Wyre in the north at Fleetwood and the Ribble in the South at Lytham. It includes the seaside towns of Cleveleys, Blackpool and St Annes. That’s just the coastal strip though, because ‘the Fylde’ is the name for the wider area which also extends much further inland…
‘The Fylde’
Draw a line from north to south on a map to chop this bit of land off but exclude Preston, and you’ve more or less got it!
Wikipedia describes it as “a coastal plain in western Lancashire, England. Roughly a 13-mile-long (21-kilometre) square-shaped peninsula, bounded by Morecambe Bay to the north, the Ribble estuary to the south, the Irish Sea to the west, and the foot of the Bowland hills to the east. It approximates to a section of the M6 motorway and West Coast Main Line.”
This whole area is very varied in its towns and villages, the geography and the feel. There’s the huge household name of bright and glitzy Blackpool. Cleveleys is a quirky, family friendly town with great shops and Fleetwood’s full of historic charm. Confusingly, Lytham St Annes is two separate places – and there are plenty of tiny villages with tight knit communities and great country pubs! Have a look at our A-Z of Places and visit all of the ones on the list!
This is the Wikipedia map –
…and Visit Fylde Coast!
We are The Rabbit Patch, a small independent company based in Cleveleys, and we publish Visit Fylde Coast. It’s a digital media product which includes websites, social media pages and weekly enews. Find out more about us, what we do and why we do it, here.
Local Authority Areas
Are you with us so far? Good – because this is where it gets more complicated! This relatively small area of land has a complicated governance structure involving not one, two or three – but four councils!
Blackpool is lucky – it’s a relatively small, narrow oblong area of land governed by Blackpool Council. It’s a unitary authority which means it controls its own finances and makes its own decisions. This enables life to move at a faster pace in Blackpool!
To the North of and wrapping around the edge of Blackpool is the Wyre Council area. This is a huge and mixed borough which includes the busy seaside town of Cleveleys (and Fleetwood) at the coast. In sharp contrast, there’s also many tiny rural villages and hamlets stretching out to Pilling and Garstang.
The borough of Fylde is at the south of and wrapping around the edge of Blackpool (more about that below).
To complicate matters, both Wyre and Fylde Councils are district level authorities within the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire. Lancashire County Council provides top-tier services including highways, education and social services etc. And most of the area is also covered by civil parishes. Town and parish councils form a third tier of local government.
Fylde Borough
Back to Fylde Borough. Like it’s neighbour Wyre in the North, the borough of Fylde is a diverse place as you can see in the Google map below.
In the West at the coast is the Victorian seaside town of St Annes and it’s own graceful neighbour, Lytham. The borough comes almost into Blackpool at Normoss (in the Newton Hall Holiday Park area) and into Wyre at Skippool. Out into the rural landscape at the east, the villages of Elswick, Roseacre, Treales, Salwick and Clifton are all included.
It includes the towns of Kirkham and Wesham – but strangely not Great Eccleston (which is in Wyre!) – and plenty of rural villages. Geographically it extends around the coastline and into the Ribble estuary for quite some way, including the BAE aerodrome facility at Warton. In the East, Preston is Fylde Borough’s next door neighbour.
Fylde Council
Fylde Council is the local government office which administers The Borough of Fylde. They provide district level services like street cleansing, tourism and leisure facilities and flood defences. Like Wyre in the North, top-tier services are provided in the Fylde Council area by Lancashire County Council. And most of the villages in the Fylde Council area have their own Parish Councils – a third layer of local government.
Founded on 1 April 1974 it currently has 37 councillors and covers an area of 64 square miles. Fylde Council is headquartered and holds meetings at the Town Hall, South Promenade, St Annes.
Send us a Letter!
Unfortunately all of these administrative systems have developed in isolation over time. Which means that they don’t all geographically match up!
The Western half of the Fylde falls into the FY postcode area. But the Eastern half of it is in the PR (Preston) postcode area. It makes for complicated qualification rules for things like resident discount offers at Fylde Coast attractions.
Historically, the Fylde formed the western part of the wapentake or hundred of Amounderness. But that’s another subject for another page. If you’re interested in local history have a look at Nick Moore’s History of Blackpool and the Fylde.
Why we love the Fylde
There are hundreds of reasons why we love this area. So much so, we’ve made publication of Visit Fylde Coast our life’s work! Explore the pages of our eight websites for a fabulous welcome to the Fylde Coast.
You’ll find miles of some of the best UK seafront between Fleetwood and Lytham. Walk all of it in a continuous stretch if you feel fit enough! Marvel at the amazing sights you’ll see, from starling murmurations to sandcastles and seaside attractions.
There’s entertainment, events and things to do in abundance at Blackpool, but the whole area excels in providing things to do. There’s country shows, village galas, league football, big name bands and pumpkin picking. You name it – there’s something for all the family in our Events Guide.
Along with those amazing beaches and attractions, there’s some great towns to visit too. Enjoy all the fun of the coast and the varied shopping centres with plenty of bars, cafes and restaurants. Across the patch you’ll find a wide selection of high street names and independents.
And before your visit you’ll want to know what the weather is doing – and we can even tell you that too! Check out the Weather and Webcams page for forecasts, tide times, weather now and more.
While you’re here…
Go to the homepage of the Visit Fylde Coast website for the latest updates.
Love the Fylde Coast? Sign up for your email newsletter. Packed full of interesting things it arrives in your inbox all 52 weeks of the year.
Join us on Facebook at our Visit Fylde Coast Facebook Group and follow us on Twitter @visitFyldeCoast
Plus hundreds of videos to watch on our YouTube channel – from all over the Fylde Coast!
Booking a stay? Pick a safe, clean and legal place to stay, at the very best price. Book using the Visit Fylde Coast Accommodation guide.
