Their tenants would also have had rights of common, such as grazing their livestock, collecting reeds for thatching and cutting turf for fuel.

Due to its proximity to the coast, large areas of sand dunes had long-since formed on the coastal stretch of Layton Hawes.

As late as 1837, it was described by the Reverend William Thornber as an 'unproductive sandy surface', in which crops have 'in the sea blast, a destroying enemy'.

Parliament agreed and passed an Act of Enclosure, appointing six commissioners, who swore their oaths at the house of John Forshaw in Blackpool on 25 May 1767.

After two years' work the commissioners signed the Enclosure Award on 1 April 1769, entitled: An Act for Dividing and Inclosing the Common, Waste Grounds, and Sand Hills, called Layton Hawes, within the Manor of Layton in the parishes of Poulton and Bispham in the County Palatine of Lancaster.

[3] A direct result of these enclosures was the later development of South Shore which today retains an almost identical layout to that in the 1769 Award.

Land which was better suited for building began to increase in value and by 1819 the first house was built on the foreshore near the corner of Waterloo Road, soon to be followed by several more.

[6][7] As nearby Blackpool was already a burgeoning resort, some of these cottages in the tiny South Shore hamlet began to advertise for the reception of visitors.

[8][6] Thomas Moore, owner of Great Marton Windmill and a large landowner, was the man responsible for building the first houses and the founder of South Shore.

During Thomas Moore's lifetime, South Shore was to develop into the pretty hamlet described by Thornber in 1837.

The Layton with Warbreck Tithe maps and land apportionments show the development of South Shore in its first 20 years.

Marton and Bispham Hawes were assessed separately and show no developed areas, with the majority being isolated farms.

[14][15] The 1841 Census gave no road names and listed 313 people in the South Shore district of Layton with Warbreck.

The foreshore now had a large number of neat rows of houses on several terraces as far as present-day St Chad's Road.

[22] By 1873, Harding's map[23] shows three pairs of larger houses between Waterloo Road and South Shore Station, built in 1871.

[25] Nearby existing properties today show the much larger, grander designs which would become synonymous with many of the houses built on Lytham Road, as far south as Squires Gate Lane.

Further South on Lytham Road, several large properties had been built by 1880 and numerous land sales encouraged further building and development – Stony Hill Villa was in existence by the beginning of 1857,[27] Leighton House (now 504 Lytham Road) was also built in the early 1850s and was owned by Robert Rawcliffe,[25][28] Westover House and Arnold Villa (now forming part of Armfield Academy) were commissioned in 1866,[25] Crown Villas were built in 1878 (date stone on property).

[31] In 1846 another property was erected on the corner of Dean Street and Lytham Road and was in use as schoolrooms for older pupils, with accommodation for a teacher (now the site of a garage).

[34][35][36] Roman Catholic pupils in South Shore were only accommodated from 15 August 1880 at St Cuthbert's RC Chapel and School on Lytham Road.

In the 1881 Census, of the eight inhabited houses on South Parade (between Waterloo Road and Britannia Place), six heads of households had been born outside of the local area, including one from Scotland.

[49] In the 1891 Census, the related Hawes areas were still recorded as the hamlet or village, within the Borough of Blackpool, but this practice was obsolete by 1901.

[53] The newer suburb of South Shore grew far more rapidly in the 20th century to accommodate the ever-growing population, as evidenced in census returns, directories and OS maps.

In 2023, parts of Waterloo Road and Bond Street were designated an Area of Special Local Character in order to protect future planning and development.

The report stated said that "commercial pressures and poor development management in the past have resulted in the loss of historic shop fronts and architectural features."

[70] Designed by civil architect JC Robinson, the building was constructed in 1938 as Harrowside Solarium and incorporated a winter garden, sun lounge and palm court style cafe.

[72][73] Alluding to the town's ballroom culture, They Shoot Horses, Don't They is an artwork by Michael Trainor that was installed on South Promenade in October 2002.

The Blackpool Tramway has 14 stops in South Shore between Manchester Square and its terminus at Starr Gate.

[80] Burlington Road Halt also served the area from 1913 to 1939,[81] replaced by Blackpool Pleasure Beach railway station[82] on the same site in 1987.