Lytham Through the Ages Quiz | UK History

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. In which English county is Lytham?

Answer: Lancashire

Lancashire is in the North West of England and is known as the Red Rose County. It encompassed Liverpool and parts of Greater Manchester until boundary reorganisations in 1974. Currently its population is 1.4 million. The county town is Preston which was made a city in the Queens Golden Jubilee year (2002).

2. What year did the town of Lytham merge with its neighbour to form the borough of Lytham St Annes?

Answer: 1922

In 1922 the urban district councils of Lytham and St Annes merged to become a larger borough. In 1974 Lytham St Annes merged again with Kirkham and district to become Fylde Borough.

3. The River Ribble flows past Lytham. At 75 miles long, where does the Ribble rank in terms of England's longest rivers.

Answer: 7th

At 75 miles long, the River Ribble is actually the seventh longest river in England and the 17th longest in the UK. Its source is a Ribblehead in the Pennines and it flows through the former port of Preston before meeting the Irish Sea at Lytham.

4. Lytham was mentioned in the Doomsday Book and had a priory cell established in 1194. The monks were attached to the Priory of Durham. Which order of monks governed this priory?

Answer: Benedictine

The Priory was dedicated to St Cuthbert and Lythams' parish church still carries the dedication. The last monks left in 1540 during the Reformation when Henry VIII confiscated the Priory lands.

5. What name was given the village of Lytham in the Doomsday Book?

Answer: Lidun

Lidun was the original name of the village where a few poor peasants scraped a living from salt panning. The other names I just made up.

6. William, born in 1227, was the first to take the name that would be synonymous with the squires of Lytham for the next eight centuries. What was that name?

Answer: Clifton

The Clifton seat was originally at Westby, about three miles away. The Clifton family were staunchly Catholic Royalists, and after the civil war when three of the four Clifton sons died in the service of King Charles I, the family moved to Lytham.

7. The 9th of December 1886 saw the worst disaster in RNLI history. How many volunteer lifeboatmen drowned that fateful night on the Ribble?

Answer: 27

The Lytham, St Annes and Southport lifeboats were launched to assist the German barque "Mexico" in trouble in a gale off Southport. The St Annes and Southport boats were lost with only two survivors from the Southport boat and all in the St Annes crew drowned. The Lytham boat eventually struggled back with the Mexico's crew of twelve.

The disaster led directly to the foundation by Sir Charles Macara of the Lifeboat Saturday Fund. It raised thousands of pounds before evolving into the Lifeboat Flag Day street collections. The RNLI is entirely funded by public donation,and provides nine out of ten sea rescues around the UK coast.

If you would like to help this worthy charity, visit http://www.rnli.org.uk/

8. What great leap forward in the town's development happened in 1840?

Answer: The building of the railway from Preston

The original railway, paid for by the Clifton family, terminated at Lytham. It was later extended through the sandy wilderness of Ansdell and Fairhaven to the new town of St Annes and eventually, Blackpool South.

9. Lytham Hall was built between 1752 and 1764 for Thomas Clifton. Which famous architect designed the house?

Answer: John Carr of York

Lytham Hall is arguably the finest Georgian house in the North West. Squire Thomas Clifton commissioned John Carr of York to design his grand new home. Carr had also designed the hospitals at Lincoln and York along with racecourse stands at Doncaster, York and Nottingham. A prolific architect, he built the prisons at Wakefield and Northallerton.

10. Henry Talbot de Vere Clifton (b. 1907) was the last Squire of Lytham. He wasted the last of the Clifton fortune, was forced to sell the family estate and died penniless in a hotel in Brighton. So who was the last of the Cliftons to live at Lytham Hall?

Answer: His mother, Violet Clifton

Henry Talbot de Vere Clifton inherited the family fortune before he was 18. He led a lavish lifestyle which included owning a string of racehorses, a yacht and suites kept permanently reserved in some of the world's top hotels. The income from the family estate was not enough to keep this expensive lifestyle going and he eventually had to sell the estate at Lytham. Some say he was the inspiration for Sebastian Flyte in "Brideshead Revisited".

Source: Author mikew41

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Lytham Through the Ages Trivia Quiz

I live in a small town called Lytham St Annes. It's made up of two towns, Lytham and St Annes. Here are a few questions about the town of Lytham. I'll write a separate quiz about St Annes.

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