Fleetwood

Fleetwood acquired its modern character in the 1830s, when the principal landowner Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood, High Sheriff and MP, conceived an ambitious plan to re-develop the town to make it a busy seaport and railway spur. He commissioned the Victorian architect Decimus Burton to design a number of substantial civic buildings, including two lighthouses. Hesketh-Fleetwood's transport terminus schemes failed to materialise. The town expanded greatly in the first half of the 20th century with the growth of the fishing industry, and passenger ferries to the Isle of Man, to become a deep-sea fishing port.

Decline of the fishing industry began in the 1960s, hastened by the Cod Wars with Iceland, though fish processing is still a major economic activity in Fleetwood. The town's most significant employer today is Lofthouse of Fleetwood, manufacturer of the lozenge Fisherman's Friend which is exported around the world.