Way back in time, 10,000 BC, there appears to have been human habitation in the area and, in 1970, the bones of an Elk dated as 12.000 years old was discovered on Blackpool Old Road, Carleton and this caused Poulton-le-Fylde to gain international recognition. What made the find so important was the discovery of hunting barbs embedded in the leg bones, indicating that human hunters had lived in this area around 10,000 BC. This is the earliest evidence yet found of man living this far north, in the days when Britain was part of the continent of Europe and it would have been possible to walk from Poulton to the Ural Mountains in Russia.
At the time of the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century AD, the area was inhabited by the ‘Thesetanti’, a Celtic tribe of the time. Several interesting discoveries have been made in Poulton and Skippool that, in addition to a 4th century hoard of 400 Roman coins, have included a medal of Germanicus, a prominent general of the Roman Empire, who was known for his campaigns in Germania.
In 1086 Poulton was recorded as Poltun, derived from the Old English words pull or pōlor tūn meaning “farmstead by a pool or creek”. In later years it was recorded variously as Pultun, Polton, Potton, Poolton and Poulton. The addition of ‘Le-Fylde’ (“in the district called the Fylde”) was added in 1842, to distinguish the town from Poulton-Le-Sands, a village that is now part of Morecambe.
The people of Poulton fought on both sides in the 17th Century Civil Wars, but more men of the Fylde were on the side of the Royalists. No actual battles took place in or even close to Poulton but the area was affected, along with the rest of the county, by the widespread poverty that resulted from the wars.