The inside line on Blackpool ahead of their showdown with Bristol Rovers
Together, these suggest that Fleetwood may well have been the location of this Roman port. No direct evidence of the port has been found, but in , an Iron Age settlement was discovered at Bourne Hill, just south of present-day Fleetwood, suggesting the area was populated in pre-Roman times. A manor house at present-day Rossall , in the southwest of the town, was in the possession of the Allen family by the time of Henry VIII. Cardinal William Allen was born at the manor house in The land remained in the Fleetwood family for years. A man of somewhat liberal views for his time, Hesketh believed that the sheltered harbour and views over Morecambe Bay gave the area the makings of a busy seaport and popular resort for the less-affluent. With no rail link between London and Scotland , he envisaged Fleetwood as the transfer point between the railway and the steamers to Scotland, and set about encouraging a railway link from Preston.