Singleton, Lancashire

Singleton is a village and civil parish in Lancashire, England. It is situated on the coastal plain called the Fylde. It is located south-east of Poulton-le-Fylde, and at the 2001 census had a population of 877, increasing to 889 at the 2011 Census. The parish is sometimes referred to as two parts – Great Singleton is the larger part containing the village, and Little Singleton is a small area north of the village bordering the River Wyre.

History
At the time of the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century AD, the area around Singleton was inhabited by a Celtic tribe called the Setantii. The village was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Singletun. The "Single" in Singleton is thought to derive from the Anglo-Saxon word "scingol" (shingle, a thin piece of wood used as a house-tile) while "tun" is the Anglo-Saxon word for a farmstead or village. Thus, Singleton would appear to mean "the tun with shingled roof(s)".

Singleton railway station once served the village as part of the Preston and Wyre Joint Railway. The station was situated west of the village, on the road to Blackpool.

Singleton Hall is a Gothic-styled mansion on Lodge Lane, built in 1855 by Thomas Miller (1811-1865), son of a prominent Preston industrialist, also named Thomas Miller. The Hall was later used by Lancashire County Council as a special school for senior boys with disabilities, known as the Singleton Hall Residential Special School for Physically Handicapped Boys (Senior). The hall was largely untouched until 2004–2005, when it was extended and converted into private residences by Crosby Homes. Public pathways outside the Hall have been developed and maintained by the Richard Dumbreck Singleton Trust, endowed by Richard Dumbreck, a great-nephew of Thomas Horrocks Miller. Pevsner's The Buildings of England describes the hall as "Large and unlovely, in brick and stone trim with an entrance tower and a taller stair-tower. The style is domestic Gothic", and says that "1871-73 is supposed to be the date, but this may refer to extensions." He mentions "unremarkable lodges and various estate buildings", and notes that the hall, and these further buildings, have been converted to flats.

The Miller family also commissioned Singleton's parish church, St Anne's, designed by Lancaster architect Edward Graham Paley and completed in 1861. It has been designated a Grade II listed building by English Heritage.

Fracking
In 2011, drilling equipment was installed at Grange Hill, east of the village, to test for shale gas in the Bowland Shale Formation around 3 km below the surface. In 2013 Cuadrilla and Centrica made plans for hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, at the site.

Governance
Singleton is combined with Greenhalgh-with-Thistleton to form the ward of Singleton and Greenhalgh, which elects one councillor. it is represented by Maxine Chew, an independent councillor. Singleton also has a parish council.

The village is represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom as part of Fylde. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. Since the 2010 general election, Fylde has been represented at Parliament by Conservative MP Mark Menzies. The village was part of the North West England constituency of the European Parliament.