The Hawes was a vast swathe of common land between the Manors of Layton (modern Blackpool) and Lytham. This land stretched around the coast from Lytham to Blackpool (near Manchester Square) where Marton Mere emptied into the Black Poole on the shore. The Hawes extended inland as Hawes Side Lane & Common Edge Road in Blackpool.

The boundary between Layton Hawes and Lytham Hawes had been set in the 1500s at Division Lane (boundary of Blackpool Airport) near Cross Slack.

Lytham Hawes was common land used by the tenants until the Clifton Family enclosed it under an Act of 1616. Over the years they converted most of Lytham Hawes into farmland and leased it to tenant farmers.

The amount of common land was reduced to roughly that bounded by modern Worsley Road, Ansdell, Church Road, St.Annes and Blackpool Airport.
The hamlet which developed at the Lytham end of the common was named Common Side and is marked on this map as South Houses.