The story of Fleetwood, located in the county of Lancashire, can be seen as a microcosm of everything that we as a nation have learned about economics, trade, business, and civic institutions. Indeed, many stories have been told about Fleetwood's unique past and growth and there are many lessons that can be gleaned from these tales.
Fleetwood was originally what was called a "planned" community. During the Victorian Era, England was growing admirably despite some troubles abroad and the government began to institute the creation of entire towns. This was a very marked departure from the status quo at the time, though, because England was home to some of the oldest civilized settlements on the face of the Earth and the rich history of the nation was thought by some to be sullied by the building of whole cities from nothing. At any rate, Fleetwood was the first of these planned communities and therefore it is less than two hundred years old, making it one of the youngest cities in Great Britain.
Fleetwood may be an infant compared to towns like York and London but this doesn't mean that it hasn't had its share of woes. This is what makes the story of the town so interesting, in fact. The town has seemingly exhibited the natural trends that befell so many real, organic towns in England but at a vastly accelerated rate. In the "beginning", Fleetwood was designed to be a deep sea fishing port and this was deemed to be the main economy of the town for the rest of its days. By the mid 1800s the town had already been completed for the most part and it was beginning to experience some success as a port town as well as garnering some attention as a seaside resort town. Unfortunately, this success wouldn't last because, not far away, another city was growing exponentially: Blackpool. To this day Blackpool is synonymous with seaside fun and it earned that reputation throughout the end of the 1800s. This cut severely into Fleetwood's reputation for being a great place to visit and to live in and so Fleetwood ended up taking a more commercial route and became better known for shipping and cargo.
Eventually Fleetwood began to experience real, lasting success and by the early days of the twentieth century the town was a successful fishing town and it even began to attract clientele looking for a more pure seaside experience than what was offered in the sometimes salty atmosphere of Blackpool. By the 1920s Fleetwood was at the top of its form but then a drastic flood ravaged the town and caused millions of dollars worth of damage. Fleetwood never seemed to recover and by the 1960s the town was mired in debt and economic woe. Fleetwood is still alive and well to this day but it is a pale shadow of the glorious town that it once was. What is so interesting, though, is that we have managed to see the rise and fall of a mini-civilization in a sort of vacuum. Perhaps this is the fate of all planned communities, not unlike the way that clones supposedly live and die at faster rates than their human counterparts.
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