River Wyre

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Map sources for the Wyre estuary at grid reference SD340479

This article is about the River Wyre in Lancashire. There are other rivers with the same name such as the River Wyre in Cardiganshire.

The River Wyre is a river in Lancashire, England that flows into the Irish Sea at Fleetwood. The river is a County Biological Heritage Site.

Rising in the Forest of Bowland in central Lancashire, it flows south through Garstang where it meets its major tributary, the River Calder, followed by the River Brock. Flowing west until it becomes tidal near Little Eccleston, it defines the north-eastern limit of the Fylde peninsula.

The Wyre actually starts as two rivers, the 'Tarnbrook Wyre' and the 'Marshaw Wyre'. A pumping station was built below the confluence of the two near the village of Abbeystead as part of a water transfer scheme in the 1980's. During a site visit by villagers from nearby St Michael's On Wyre, a major explosion killed 16 people.

It is the only river in England where you can see its estuary from its start.^{[citation needed]}

It is crossed by a toll bridge at Cartford between Little Eccleston and Out Rawcliffe. A former toll bridge at Shard Bridge, close to Poulton-Le-Fylde, has been rebuilt and is now free. The Lancaster Canal crosses on a small aqueduct at Garstang. A pedestrian ferry runs between Fleetwood and Knott End but the ferry to the Isle of Man no longer runs.

Major industry exists at the former ICI site at Burn Naze, close to the estuary of the river. Originally an alkali works taking brine from mines and wells across the river in and around Preesall. Later processes undertaken on the site included those dealing with Vinyl Chloride Monomer, although this was later moved to Runcorn and ICI activity on the site wound up. Industrial activity by a number of various companies continues by the river, albeit on a much reduced scale.

Fleetwood at the mouth of the river was a major fishing port up until the latter half of the 20th Century. With the decline in the size of the fleet, most of the dock complex has subsequently been converted to a marina and the adjacent "Freeport" shopping village.