Morecambe Bay, Lancashire
Historical Description
Morecambe Bay, a sea-inlet on the coast of Lancashire and Westmorland, entering between Rossall Point, 2½ miles W of Fleetwood, and Haws Point, at the S extremity of Wal-ney Island, belonging to Furness. It measures 10 miles across the entrance; it extends 19 miles north-eastward to the mouth of the river Kent; it expands, in the lower part of the SE side, into Lancaster Bay; it connects, at the middle of the NW side, with the estuary of the river Leven; and it has a mean breadth of about 10 miles. It presents a grand appearance when the tide is up, but is nearly all a waste of sands-with shifting pieces of soft and dangerous bottom during a long period between tide and tide. The sands can "be crossed on foot; and they formed, from remote times, the line of communication between central Lancashire and Furness; but they ought never, on any account, to be attempted "by a stranger without a guide. The views from them include a great sweep of country, away to the Furness Mountains and to the backbone of England, and are very imposing. The southern and central portions are often called Lancaster Sands; and the north-western portions, toward the mouth of the Leven, are called Leven Sands. The bay is noticed by Ptolemy as Moricambe Estuary.
Church Records
Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Lancashire Archives, have images of the Parish Registers for Lancashire online.
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Lancashire is available to browse.
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Lancashire newspapers online: