This fascinating selection of photographs traces some of the many ways in which Poulton-le-Fylde has changed and developed over the last century

Poulton-le-Fylde, the small market town a few miles inland from Blackpool in Lancashire, has a history dating back over 12,000 years. It appears in the 'Domesday Book', the town Gala has been running for over 200 years and there is archaeological evidence showing that hunter gatherers lived in the area as far back as 10,000BC. To celebrate this rich and long history, the Blackpool Dead Good Poets' Society, have created this collection of original poetry. Some of these pieces were performed at the 2013 Gala, all of them have been created for this book.

The origin of the names of many English towns, hamlets and villages date as far back as Saxon times, when kings like Alfred the Great established fortified borough towns to defend against the Danes. A number of settlements were established and named by French Normans following the Conquest. Many are even older and are derived from Roman placenames. Some hark back to the Vikings who invaded our shores and established settlements in the eighth and ninth centuries. Most began as simple descriptions of the location; some identified its founder, marked territorial limits, or gave tribal people a sense of their place in the grand scheme of things. Whatever their derivation, placenames are inextricably bound up in our history and they tell us a great deal about the place where we live.