Let's Have A Day Out - To Lytham St Annes

The Green

Travelling north from Southport we come to two separate resorts. St Annes, a small but bustling resort with a pier, a padding pool and a bandstand with a fully-fledged slice of seaside life which lies just north of Lytham, an even smaller residential town fronting the estuary of the River Ribble, rather than the sea, with the Welsh Mountains in view and the street lights of Southport twinkling comfortingly across the water. The name Lytham comes from the Old English 'hlithum', plural of 'hlith' meaning '(place at) the slopes'. It is first thought to have been settled by the Anglo Saxons c.600AD with an economy that, for many centuries, was dependent on fishing and shrimping until the advent of tourism and seaside health cures. The last of the Norse descendents was Richard Fitz Roger who, as he had no heir, bequeathed all his lands at Lytham to the Benedictine Monks of Durham. For a period of 350 years Lytham belonged to Durham, governed by a succession of Priors residing in the small Benedictine Priory in the Lytham Hall Park area. In 1606, as part of a land deal, the Clifton family of nearby Westby came into possession of Lytham and in their 250 year association with the town carried out huge agricultural improvements to their large estate. As early as 1707 doctors believed that bathing and drinking sea-water had great health benefits which helped popularise sea bathing with the effect that coastal villages such as Lytham started to attract visitors in ever-increasing numbers. From the 1790s onwards, the Clifton family oversaw the transition of Lytham from a farming and fishing community, to a health resort and residential village but progress was initially slow.

After the start of the Industrial Revolution manufacturers' wealth grew and they visited Lytham for their health and with wealthy industrialists moving here from the east of the county, hotels were built and enlarged and several schools opened for their sons and daughters. Until the middle of the 20th century, the Clifton family was the leading family in Lytham and two of the town's main thoroughfares are named in their honour, with the main shopping street being named Clifton Street and one of two roads to Blackpool being Clifton Drive. Winston Churchill often stayed at the Clifton Arms Hotel on the front when the Tory party conference was being held in Blackpool. Once the site of small coaching inn on the estate of the Clifton family, as Lytham grew from rural hamlet into an attractive, bustling town, the current hotel was built.  The Green, a strip of grass running between the shore and the main coastal road, is a notable Lytham landmark with the recently restored Windmill and the Old Lifeboat House located here. The centre of Lytham contains many notable buildings, such as the former Lytham public library, the Market Hall and Lytham Methodist Church.There was once a small pool on the eastern side of Lytham, used when larger boats couldn't make it any further along the River Ribble to Preston and a graving dock there led to the establishment of shipbuilding works. The nearby hamlet of Saltcotes is said to be named after a salt refinery once worked there. The market-house was built in 1848 and a cottage hospital was opened in 1871, and Lytham Institute, containing the library, opened the following year. At the same time Mr. Clifton gave the Lowther Gardens at the west end of the town to the public and the public baths were opened on the central beach, now the Assembly Rooms. Some of Lytham's oldest buildings are located in Henry Street, Dicconson Terrace and Bath Street and its tree-lined streets are flanked by small shops, many of which are family businesses with a wide range of bars and pubs, from wine bars to real ale pubs such as The Taps and the Craft House (micropub). Lytham is also the location of the Foulnaze cockle fishery. The fishery has only opened the cockle beds on the Lancashire coast three times in twenty years and August 2013 was the last of these openings.  LS Lowry loved Lytham St Annes and spent his childhood holidays there as he sketched and painted it throughout his life. Its offshore yachts figure in one of his earliest works – from 1902, when he was 15 – and in one of his last, from 1975, the year before he died.

Fairhaven Lake

The extended promenade goes to Fairhaven, the district between Lytham and St Annes on the coastal side of the railway line. It is named after Thomas Fair, an early resident of Lytham St Annes and the land agent of the Clifton estate. It is believed by other researchers that Thomas Riley named his Master Plan for Fairhaven after the Bible passage, Acts 27 verse 8 referring to Paul's journey to Rome, with many of the road names connected to Paul and his journey. Its main claim to fame is the artificial lake, known as Fairhaven Lake or more formally as the Ashton Marine Park, which is an important wildfowl habitat. It contains many sporting activities, bowls, tennis, crazy golf and a skate board park with all manner of boats available for hire on the lake itself. Its other famous landmark is the Fairhaven United Reformed Church, aka 'The White Church', built in Byzantine style and faced with glazed white tiles. The sands and tidal mudflats of the area are an important feeding area for wintering waders and the RSPB operate a visitor centre from Fairhaven Lake to provide information and guided walks. Fairhaven Lake has been flooded by the sea in the distant past but is now protected by a substantial sea defence wall. In the 1870s the sand dunes and farmland at the West End of Lytham Manor was developed into the new resort of St.Annes on the Sea. There's not much of a beach at Lytham, more a salt marsh, but there's a glorious beach at St Anne's, which merges with Fairhaven somewhere along a parade of classy retirement homes.

St Annes Beach

 

St Annes began with a chapel built in 1873 by the then Lord of the Manor, Colonel John Talbot Clifton. He dedicated it to Saint Anne in honour of his wife's aunt, Lady Anne Bentinck. The chapel was built to serve the tiny hamlet of Hey Houses, which is at the northern end of Lytham. At the time the chapel was among the sand dunes but became the parish church of St Annes, which from the late 1800s, continued to grow. In 1846, a branch of the Preston and Wyre railway line made it to Lytham. Then in 1863 was extended along the shore to Blackpool, with stations at Ansdell and St. Annes. St Anne's-on-the-Sea (also known as St Annes-on-Sea or St Annes) was a 19th-century planned town whose growth really took off from 1874 and it was officially founded on the 31st of March 1875 when the cornerstone of the St Annes Hotel was laid. Mr Elijah Hargreaves, a businessman from East Lancashire, was on holiday in this fledgling seaside town and was inspired with the areas potential. After negotiating with Thomas Fair of the Clifton estate he formed the 'St Annes on Sea Land and Building Company Ltd' with seven others. He was the one responsible for drawing out the plan of the town by the Bury firm of architects Maxwell and Tuke who later went on to construct the Blackpool Tower. Elijah foresaw that attracting large numbers of visitors from the mill towns of Lancashire could be highly profitable. By 1894 it had become an Urban District Council as by then St Annes had grown considerably with the pier open and steamer boat trips running from the end of it. There were new houses and hotels at Clifton Drive North and South. In 1897 the Lytham St Annes Tramway was operating gas powered trams between the towns. The original St Annes Hotel has since been demolished but it was quickly followed by the Hydro Terrace (later to become St Annes Square) and the railway station. It retains much of its original character today as a traditional quiet Victorian seaside resort with some up-market hotels, a sandy beach and pier, plus the ice cream stalls and a statue of Les Dawson. Sand dunes fringe the beach and the town has an excellent, but little-known sand dune nature reserve and very good floral displays. There is also St George’s Hall and Gardens, later renamed Ashton Gardens. In 1921 St Annes merged with Lytham to become the Municipal Borough of Lytham St Annes. Other claims to fame include being the original home of ERNIE, the premium bond selector and that the world’s greatest golfers—amateur and professional—have played over the the Royal Lytham and St. Anne's golf course in open championships over many years.

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2022/06/lets-have-day-out-to-betws-y-coed.html