Portal:University of Oxford/Selected biography/29

Sir Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood, 1st Baronet, (1801–1866) was an English landowner, developer and Member of Parliament, who founded the town of Fleetwood, in Lancashire, England. He was educated at Trinity College, Oxford, and enjoyed an active social life in Oxford and London. Predeceased by an older brother, he inherited estates in west Lancashire in 1824. Inspired by the transport developments of the early 19th century, he decided to bring the railway to the Lancashire coast and develop a holiday resort and port. He hired architect Decimus Burton to design his new town, which he named Fleetwood; construction began in 1836. Hesketh-Fleetwood was instrumental in the creation of a railway line between Preston and Fleetwood which opened in 1840. His new town flourished, but the expense of building it left him close to bankruptcy and forced him to sell most of his estates including Rossall Hall, which had been his family home. (more...)