Salwick railway station is situated on the Preston to Blackpool railway line, 5¼ miles west of Preston, and lies between Preston and Kirkham, near the village of Clifton. The station was closed on 2 May 1938 along with Lea Road railway station to the east, but was reopened on 8 April 1940 to serve the adjacent industrial complex and in particular the nearby nuclear fuel plant.

The area of “Clifton With Salwick” was in the Archdeaconry of Richmond in the Diocese of Chester. The etymology of Salwick is unclear. The “wick” may come from Old English wic, meaning an earlier Romano-British settlement specialised in farming; but the “Sal(w)” element is unclear.