Churchtown

Churchtown is an ancient village on the banks of the River Wyre. Now a suburb of Kirkland, between Preston and Lancaster in Lancashire, the village is an historically fascinating place to visit and features on the Churchtown Pub Walk.

The village church, Saint Helen's, was once known as the "Cathedral of the Fylde" and includes: a "lepers' window" by which those afflicted with the disease could attend its services; a grave marker for the village's sole victim of the Black Plague; and a large rafter, which is said to have been presented to the parish by King Henry VIII during the Reformation.

It is thought that the church was once a druid temple, as the circular churchyard planted with yew trees seems to suggest. The village may also have been the site where Christian missionaries first arrived in Lancashire from Ireland since Churchtown is situated at the end of the navigational portion of the River Wyre. The church is one of just two Grade I listed buildings in the Wyre.