Hardhorn-with-Newton

FYLDE'S MOST COSMOPOLITAN VILLAGE

ALTHOUGH the parish of Hardhorn-with-Newton may be only 10 minutes by car from the Golden Mile and many of its residents have roots in Blackpool it is a quiet place with a character all its own.

In winter the village nestles quietly amid snow-clad fields off the Preston New-road and in summer comes to life when more than 1,000 holidaymakers fill the 500 caravans occupying 10 sites in the parish. Hardhorn-with-Newton stepped into the headlines recently as a result of Blackpool's take-over bid for the northern 29 acres of the parish adjoining the Normoss part of Poulton.

Opposed

This area has a total of 324 residents and a rateable value of nearly £3,000, figures which comprise nearly a third of the parish's total rateable value and more than a third of the population. The local parish council and Fylde Rural District Council decided to oppose the take- over after a referendum taken among ratepayers in the area which would be affected showed 29 in favour of joining Blackpool and 57 against.

Hardhorn-with-Newton, the 1,396 acres of which have a rateable value of £9,359 and a population of about 800, is probably the most cosmopolitan parish in the Fylde. Its population is made up of farmers and other residents who may have lived in the area all their lives, of retired people from inland towns in East Lancashire and Yorkshire, and of office and factory workers who travel to Blackpool to work. Many of the latter live in the “take-over" area at the north end of the parish. This is the area where many of the newer homes of the parish are to be found.

The village

But it is in Staining village, the centre of the parish, that most of the older residents arc to be found. Here one can see an ancient windmill, old cottages, some of which began their lives as tithe barns, and the old village church and school. The mission church is 100 years old in 1965. A school was included in the church buildings after it was built. But there were homes in Staining long before the church was built.

The village pub "The Plough", where you'll meet licensee Mr Harry Goddard, a former member and Chairman of the parish council, has a licence which dates back to 1810. First a licensed farmhouse catering for the coaching trade, the house later became an inn. From school teachers to farmers and businessmen to poultrymen, the membership of the parish council indicates the cosmopolitan nature of the residents.

Woman Chairman

Chairman is Coun Mrs Catherine Hawthornthwaite, of Willow Bank Staining, the first-ever woman Chairman of the council and a native of Kent who married a local farmer, Coun Clifford Stott of East View, Castle-lane, Staining, a civil servant at Preston has lived in the village for nearly 25 years. In addition to the parish council he has been a member of the Fylde Rural District Council since 1960.

The "father” of the parish council is businessman Coun Charles Eddlestone, of Willow-Bank, Staining, and other members are Coun James Moon, of Staining-road, Staining, a market gardener and poultryman, Coun J. McLaren, a fire service employee, of Whalley-crescent, Staining, Coun Mrs Beatrix Dixon, of Chain-lane, Staining, a teacher at the Staining Church of England school, Coun Bert Feecham, a farmer, of Church Farm, Staining, Coun James Parkinson, County . Council Highways department foreman. of Staining-road. Newton, and Coun Hume, a caravan site operator of Willow Bank, Staining.

New homes

At the moment the rural district council is preparing a scheme for the erection of 24 homes including eight old people's dwellings at Chain-lane, Staining, which along with any private development should bring the parish population to about 1,000 in the next year or so.