LYTHAM, a parish in the hundred of AMOUNDERNESS,
county palatine of LANCASTER, 6 miles (S.W. by
W.) from Kirkham, containing 1292 inhabitants. The
living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry of
Richmond, and diocese of Chester, endowed with £800
and a rent-charge of £7 private benefaction, £600 royal
bounty, and £600 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage
of John Clifton, Esq. The church is dedicated
to St. Cuthbert. There is a Roman Catholic chapel. A
free school was established in 1704, with the produce of
various benefactions, which, with others of a later date,
yield an income of £104. 18. per annum; the number
of scholars varies from seventy to one hundred and
twenty. A Sunday school affords instruction to about
one hundred children. Lytham is situated on the western
coast, on the northern shore of the sestuary of the
Ribble, and is much resorted to for sea-bathing. Some
improvement has taken place within the last few years,
by pulling down an extensive range of old buildings,
and, after leaving an opening from the Clifton's Arms
hotel to the beach, erecting several new houses, among
which is a billiard-room. Part of the beach has also
been levelled, and a public walk formed along it, affording
a pleasing view of the scenery on the southern side
of the estuary. About a mile eastward is Lytham pool,
a large natural basin, where vessels bringing corn, &c.,
to the port of Preston, discharge their cargoes into
smaller craft; at its northern extremity is a gravingdock,
for building or repairing vessels. A few of the
inhabitants are employed in fishing. Lytham Hall
comprises, in its kitchens and out-offices, a portion of
the biiildings of a Benedictine priory, founded, as a cell
to the monastery at Durham, by Richard Fitz-Roger,
in the latter part of the reign of Richard I., and dissolved,
with the smaller monasteries, by Henry VIII.