This page is a personal view of the villages "Over Wyre", and lying within the Borough of Wyre on the northern section of the Fylde plain.

Nateby is on the edge of civilisation. It is a very quiet hamlet on the border between Garstang and Over Wyre. It boasts a school, a post office, a few houses and lots of cows. Between Nateby, Pilling and Winmarleigh are some of the most isolated farmsteads you could imagine, with roads you really need a four wheel drive to negotiate, and which switchback up and down as the peat moss has sunk unevenly over the years. This is the deepest and darkest part of Over Wyre, site of Pilling Moss and Winmarleigh Moss and home of the "Mosslet" the name given to someone following a simple, basic rural life in the mossland. (as in: "Ees nobut a mosslet" - he is only a simple mossland chap) and where some of the older folk still think that if you travel past Garstang, there is a danger that you might fall off the edge of the earth.

Pilling is most famous for having Pilling Moss, an area of rich fertile peat soil overlying sand. In ancient times, residents with the right of "turbary" could, as of right, cut peat from the moss to use as fuel for their homes. Pilling was also famous for the "Pilling Pig" a railway that ran from Garstang to Pilling (and eventually Knott End). In keeping with the pace of rural life and the freewheeling lifestyle, the rail timetable was erratic, and if the driver saw someone he knew beside the line, he might well stop for a chat. It closed in the 1960's. Today, Pilling is a little famous for having a pottery (Pilling Pottery!) and as the source of much of the "Sea Washed Turf" often seen advertised. Pilling is also famous for having the website of Fold House Caravan Park.

Preesall used to be very famous for its salt mines. Workmen would go down between 300 and 1000 feet underground and mine rock salt, producing in the region of 3,00 tones every week. By the early 1900's, and as with many small scale mining operations, this resulted in large areas of subsidence. Eventually, the subsidence itself (including a crater of 200 feet across which was reported to have appeared almost overnight) became a tourist attraction, pulling coachloads of visitors from far and wide. Today the salt mines are gone, and Preesall is mostly a residential area, so the built up parts are moving from their dialect roots, therefore you are less likely to hear youngsters looking for a biscuit say "tintintin" (It is not in the tin) or adults belittling a non swimmer with "Ee dursned purrisheead under t'watter" (He dare not put his head under the water). Time marches on.

Knott End may be described, perhaps a little unfairly, as "the last resort". It is a small seaside town just across the mouth of the River Wyre from Fleetwood. About an hour by road and five minutes by the small ferryboat (which only takes passengers, not cars). It is at the end of Over Wyre, and there are no more resorts till you get right around the bay to Morecambe. Hence it is the last resort in Fylde. If you go for a ride Over Wyre and get lost, chances are you will end up in Knott End, as you can go no further. In the 1960's the National Westminster Bank operated a sub branch at Knott End from it's main branch in Fleetwood. One night the Knott End branch ran out of (the old) threeppeny pieces, so they rang the Fleetwood Branch to ask if a Clerk from Fleetwood could finish work a bit early and take a bag of £20 worth. The transfer was arranged, and the bookeeping at Fleetwood branch adjusted to show the money issued to the Clerk. It was a rough night, and standing on the side of the pitching and rolling ferry, he lost his footing, fell, and the bag of money slipped from his grasp into the water. There was an enquiry, of course, and eventually the clerk's story was accepted. It is said to be the only time in the whole history of the Fleetwood Branch that a cash shortage has been put down in the accounts as being "Lost at Sea".

Hambleton is just across the first land bridge over the River Wyre and, as a result, it is one of the most civilised parts of Over Wyre. It used to be famous for having a toll bridge (owned privately by the Shard Bridge Company). This has now been replaced by a free municipal bridge. Hambleton is now famous for a good restaurant called "Ryecroft Hall" which has recently been altered and extended. It is also famous because it gives access through a side road to Wardleys Creek, and a pub (The Wardleys) that most people except locals don't know about. If you want to leave "Over Wyre" by a southern route, you will almost certainly leave via Hambleton, and across the new Shard Bridge.

Stalmine was not really famous for anything except the "Seven Stars Pub" which, at one time in the past also had the village post office under its roof. To-day it remains not really famous for anything, and is a quiet village on the edge of the wilderness of the mossland.

Out Rawcliffe is a bit further East than Hambleton, is thus further from civilisation, and therefore more rural. It has a history of more intensive vegetable growing, and is probably most famous for Rawcliffe Hall, one of the better countryside houses. Rawcliffe Hall was popular with services personnel (UK ands USA) during the Second World War, and often held dances where the local girls could get to know the military folk better. (often to the consternation of the local lads!). To-day Rawcliffe Hall is most famous as a caravan holiday park, although the Hall is used for car rallies and exhibitions,