The Ship at Freckleton.

Text Bill Shannon.

The place-name scholar Eilert Ekwall said that Freckleton ‘is a very difficult name’.  The ‘tun’ bit is easy enough – but on balance he thought the best interpretation of the first elements is O.E. frec meaning ‘greedy’ or ‘dangerous’, coupled with O.E. wæl, meaning ‘pool’ – so the whole means something like ‘the village by the dangerous pool’.  If true, this must relate to a deep place on the bend in the Ribble above the Neb of the Naze, the headland which projected into the Ribble, sheltering a deep-water anchorage. It should be noted that all the land to the east of Freckleton Pool had been reclaimed by the date of this map – and that The Ship had once stood almost on the Ribble estuary.

Yates’ map of 1786 shows, but does not name, the Naze – but marks ‘Freckleton Warehouse’ near where the vessels anchored at this date. To the west are marked ‘Guides Houses’, and it is noted that the Ribble is ‘Fordable at Low Water’ here, across to Hesketh Bank.  The reference in the place name to the pool being ‘dangerous’ may be from the perspective not of ships, but of people fording the estuary  here. For how long that ford had been used cannot be said – but it is beginning to look like it was in use at least from Roman times, linking the important fort at Kirkham through to the newly-discovered fort at Burscough.

Hesketh means horse race-course in Norse – implying a Viking race track along the sands by the “road” at least 1000 years ago.  Adjacent Becconsall, may mean Beacon Mound, perhaps a light for travellers going south to aim for.

One famous time that the ford was used was in 1644, during the Civil War, as recounted in A Discourse of the Warr in Lancashire (Chetham Society edn, 1864), author unnamed, but probably Edward Robinson of Newton-with-Scales, who served as a Major in the Parliamentary forces. The book contains numerous references to the ford across “Ribble Watter” at Hesketh Bank, and is good evidence for routine crossings here in 17th cent.

However, in 1644, after the defeat of Royalists at Marston Moor, Parliamentarians under Sir John Meldrum and Colonel Ashton were pursuing Royalists under Lord Molineux, who had fled into the Fylde. On Sunday 18 Aug, the Royalists rendezvoused on Freckleton Marsh, intending to escape south the next day. The account tells us “They lay upon the marsh and in the towne until one of the clock … for the Flood was soe there was noe passage over Ribble till that tyme”.

Meanwhile, Meldrum in Preston gave the order “Toward the Fyld Country; to the Enemie”. His original plan was to march along the shore-line, not the road. “Yet the Carriages and Artillery could not pass at the Stakes, it was so soft with Quickmires, that they were forced to goe through Greaves towne, and that made them march slow… When they were came as far as Lea Hall, the Enemy was discovered to be marching over Rible Watter when it was very deep….”

Meldrum at Lea could see Royalists escaping, so “Command was given that Horsemen should take behind them Musketier who rid up speedily to Proud Bridge in ffreckleton…and comming up within musket shot of them killed one or two, and the rest fled; but it being Marsh ground and many pooles and hooles nor very passable for strangers there was not pursuit of them” Clearly the Roundheads didn’t have a Guide with them, and were on the wrong side of that “dangerous pool” – so the Cavaliers got away, across the river.

Freckleton is named in Domesday, within Amounderness, as part of the Preston Lordship of Count Tostig Godwinson, listed between Newton and Ribby. Traditionally, it was within Kirkham parish, and did not get its own church until 1839.  It seems to have been one of those places where not a lot happened, and history largely passed it by.  Throughout the middle-ages the lords were a family called Freckleton, then it passed to a family called Huddleston, then in 1496 it was sold to the Earl of Derby.

According to the Victoria County History, sailcloth and sacking, rope and twine, were made in Freckleton, presumably in association with its role as a small port.  It is probable that hemp was grown fairly extensively in the immediate area. 

The Tithe Map of 1838 shows a Rope Walk, indicated by dotted lines in a long narrow field (number 449), just a bit up Preston Old Road from The Ship Inn – the name of which clearly recalls the village’s maritime heritage. 

The Ship Inn itself is said to be more than 300 years old, but it is not a listed building, and Pevsner does not mention it. There is a tale that the Ship was associated with smuggling – but then, there always is, isn’t there?