River Douglas, Lancashire

Freckleton Pool or Dow Brook is a tributary of the River Ribble running through the Fylde plain in Lancashire, England, passing the towns of Kirkham and Freckleton west of Preston.

Freckleton is a village and civil parish on the Fylde coast in Lancashire, England, to the south of Kirkham and east of the seaside resort of Lytham St. Annes. In 2001 the parish had a population of 6,045, reducing to 6,019 at the 2011 Census. The village is near Warton, with its links to BAE Systems. Warton Aerodrome's 1.5 miles (2.4 km) runway is partly within Freckleton's boundary. Freckleton has a parish council, and is part of Fylde Borough, and Fylde constituency.

On 23 August 1944, a United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) Consolidated B-24 Liberator crashed during a test flight into the centre of the village of Freckleton, Lancashire, England, killing all three crewmen aboard the aircraft and 58 individuals on the ground, including 38 children aged four to six.An official inquiry was unable to pinpoint an exact cause for the accident, although a sudden thunderstorm and the resultant reduced visibility immediately prior to the accident had caused the test pilot of the B-24, First Lieutenant John Bloemendal, to be ordered to abandon the test fight and attempt to return to base. The report was unable to discount structural failure of the aircraft in such extreme weather conditions as a factor for the accident, and recommended that American pilots be warned how to respond to British thunderstorms.This aviation accident would prove to be the deadliest to occur in Britain during World War II, and would remain the second worst aviation accident in the world (in terms of number of fatalities) until the 1950 Llandlow air disaster.

Hesketh Bank is a small agricultural village in Lancashire, England. It lies to the north-east of the town of Southport on the Irish Sea estuary of the River Ribble. The area falls under West Lancashire Borough Council for administrative purposes, and Hesketh-with-Becconsall Parish Council for parochial matters. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 4,041. It is in the South Ribble parliamentary constituency.

Warton Aerodrome (IATA: WRT, ICAO: EGNO) is located in Warton village on the Fylde in Lancashire, England. The aerodrome is 6 NM (11 km; 6.9 mi) west of Preston, Lancashire, UK. Today the airfield is a major assembly and testing facility of BAE Systems Military Air & Information. It is also part of Lancashire Enterprise Zone. Warton Aerodrome has a CAA Ordinary Licence (Number P748) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction as authorised by the licensee (BAE Systems (Operations) Limited).

Quaker's Wood (also known as "Twill Furlong") is a Quaker burial ground in the parish of Freckleton, near Preston, Lancashire, which was established in 1725. Situated at the side of Lower Lane, about midway between the village of Freckleton and the town of Kirkham, the ground is a small roughly rectangular plot, of about 420 square metres (500 sq yd). It is surrounded by a low hedge and contains about 20 trees of various ages and species. Although it is the resting place for perhaps as many as 35 persons, it has only one gravestone.

All Saints Church is in Station Road, Hesketh Bank, Lancashire, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Leyland, the archdeaconry of Blackburn, and the diocese of Blackburn.

Hall Cross is a hamlet in the Borough of Fylde in Lancashire, England, between Kirkham and Freckleton. The name of the hamlet would seem to originate in the practice of placing of stone crosses along the roads of the Fylde. There is one of these in Hall Cross at the end of Hillock Lane. Such crosses are thought to mark resting places for funeral processions where the burial place was to be in an adjacent parish to the deceased's own.The oldest building at Hall Cross is Hall Cross Farm, a Grade II listed building, the datestone of which bears the date of 1777.Hall Cross is included in the parish council of Freckleton, and is part of the Fylde borough, and the Fylde constituency.

The West Lancashire Light Railway (WLLR) is a 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge railway that operates at Hesketh Bank, situated between Preston and Southport in North West England. The distance between the stations on the railway is 430 yards (393 m), though track extends eastwards beyond Delph station on ledge above the old clay pit which is too narrow to contain a run round loop. An extension of up to 435 metres (1,427 ft), running along the north bank of the fishing lake has been proposed. The railway has seven steam locomotives, three of which are in operating condition; two are currently being rebuilt and another is on static display. There are also two electric locomotives and many IC locomotives.

The Ribble way is a long-distance walk between the Lancashire coast and the Yorkshire Dales National Park largely following the course of the River Ribble.The route begins in Longton and ends at the source of the Ribble at Gayle Moor near Ribblehead, it is around 116 kilometres (72 mi) in length.The route passes through a variety of landscapes including tidal marsh, open moorland and limestone gorges. It begins to the south of the Ribble estuary, the route then runs through Preston and on to the historic town of Clitheroe. Next it heads up into the Pennines to reach its source on remote Cam Fell.

Newton-with-Scales is a village in the county of Lancashire and in the Borough of Fylde. It is situated on the A583 road, 5 miles (8 km) from Preston and 11 miles (18 km) from Blackpool, in the civil parish of Newton-with-Clifton. It has a park situated on School Lane, a restaurant / pub called the Bell and Bottle, a primary school called Newton Bluecoats, a shop called The convenience store which also has a Post Office. On the main road out of the village you will also find a Petrol Station and an Indian Restaurant called Ali Raj. Formerly the village was two hamlets: Scales on the main road from Preston to Kirkham, and Newton on a loop to the south. The name Newton is from Old English, meaning "new farm" or "new village"; Scales is from a word of Scandinavian origin meaning "hut".Newton was mentioned in the Domesday Book as a member of the fee of Earl Tostig. By 1212 it had become part of the barony of Penwortham. In the 16th century both Newton and Scales were referred to as manors. Newton Bluecoat school was established in 1707 by John Hornby for boys and girls up to the age of 14 years; it is now a primary school. It was rebuilt in 1864, and replaced by a new building in 1969.The township of Newton-with-Scales was part of the parish of Kirkham; by 1912 it had its own parish council and formed part of Fylde Rural District. Located east of Freckleton and west of Clifton, the township extended north from the River Ribble to boundaries with Kirkham to the north-west and Treales, Roseacre and Wharles to the north. It included the hamlet of Dowbridge on the main road near Kirkham. As of 1912 it consisted of 1,5221⁄2 acres (including around 15 acres of tidal water in the Ribble estuary). Most of the area was pasture. The southern part, crossed by the Preston to Freckleton road, is flat and includes reclaimed land close to the river; the village is to the north on a slope that rises to 50 feet. As of the 1931 census the civil parish of Newton-with-Scales had a population of 343. In 1934 it merged with Clifton-with-Salwick (1931 census population: 428) to form Newton-with-Clifton.Formerly a rural community, it has expanded with many new houses built since the 1940s. Since World War II, Springfields nuclear fuel production site and British Aerospace at Warton Aerodrome have been major employers in the area, and also by the 1980s many residents worked in Preston, Blackpool and other towns in the region.

Hesketh Bank railway station was a railway station on the West Lancashire Railway (WLR) in North West England, which served the village of Hesketh Bank. The station, originally known as 'Hesketh Bank and Tarleton', opened on 20 February 1878 and was located on the western bank of the River Douglas near a dock where the WLR operated a steamship across the River Ribble to Lytham St Annes. By 1882 the station was referred to as 'Hesketh for Tarleton', but by 1895 the station appears to have been formally renamed to just 'Hesketh Bank'.The station was originally the northern terminus of what was to be the Southport-Preston Line, running from Hesketh Park on the northern outskirts of Southport; the line through to Preston was opened in September 1888 after the opening of a swing bridge over the Douglas in May of that year. An engine shed was located at the station but closed when the station became a through station, and was demolished by the following year.In 1880 a short goods line, approximately 1.25 miles (2 km) long, was opened along the west bank of the river to a terminus at Tarleton Lock, at the end of the Rufford Branch of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. As the WLR did not own the land upon which the line was constructed, nor was it acquired by an Act of Parliament, the company had to pay a lease fee (presumably to the local borough council) until 3 September 1881, after the land was vested by Act to the WLR on 3 June 1881.The station closed on 7 September 1964 as a result of the Beeching axe, the buildings and platforms demolished and the rails removed by February 1965, and the land later developed as a housing estate.