The Fylde Country Life Heritage Centre is set out in 10,000 square feet of farm buildings. There are twenty-six major exhibits set out in realistic scenes of shops, rooms and buildings. They cover living, working and leisure. A cottage, blacksmith, clogger, office, dairy, lineshafting, and World Wars 1 and 2 are only part of the wide range of displays. Most of the collection has been restored to working condition by members of the Fylde Country Life Preservation Society.
The museum is only part of what makes Farmer Parrs a fabulous day out. They also have the wonderful Tractor Shed Bistro, Jumping Pillows and Animal World.
In 1974 a group of enthusiasts got together and formed the society with the objective of promoting the history of rural craft, industry and agriculture of the Fylde area. A unique area of lowland including the towns of Fleetwood, Blackpool, Poulton le Fylde, Lytham St Annes, Kirkham and Garstang. In 1990 the members of the society decided to set up a permanent base for their larger exhibits and a museum was started on a farm in the countryside near Garstang. After six years of success including being runners up in two tourism awards, the museum was looking for a new home. After inspecting many sites it was decided to accept the offer of Farmer Parrs Animal World.
The Parr family has been farming for generations. Family roots can be traced back to Inskip and Hornby; with James Parr (senior) and Margaret Parr moving to Fleetwood, to farm Fleetwood Farm in 1951. They initially found the change from rural to urban to be a challenging one.
The Parr family have seen lots of change over the years. Changes in industry, employment, housing and schooling. With many of Fleetwood’s houses and schools being built on land they used to farm. As for the opening date of the history museum, it can be found in the inscription on the photo at the entrance.
The inscription on the photo above says: ‘Opening of Fylde Heritage Museum by Doris Thompson 13 April 1998. Jim Parr, Doris Thompson, Margaret Dobson, John Harrison & Margaret Parr. © Farmer Parrs
Text source: Taken from theirwebsite
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