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Fleetwood
Fleetwood maps
Historic maps of Fleetwood and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Fleetwood maps
Fleetwood area books
Displaying 1 of 17 books about Fleetwood and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Fleetwood
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memories of Fleetwood.
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Knott End - The Ferry
My grandma's unmarried brother and sisters lived in Knott End. Me and my many cousins - all post-war boom babies - would spend many days there in summer. The biggest buzz of all was when the 'Wyresdale' was operating. How I loved that boat! With its double deck and hissing steam pipes (doomed to meet with a tragic end ..) it was to all of us just like another comment said -'Better than any cruise liner'. A favourite bit of fun at the Knott End ferry slip was to use mussels as bait to catch any number of mangy green crabs that used to live at the water line by the slip, put them all in a bucket, wait for the queue to build up - there were a lot of passengers in the mid 1950s - and release them all in one and giggle profusely as the girls and women all started screaming as the enraged crustations vented their anger at their feet! Ha ha ha - real Just... Read more
Fleetwood Ferry
My great-grandfather, Thomas Newton Croft, a member of the family that founded the Fleetwood to Knott End ferry, managed it for the local council from c.1896 to his death in 1915. I am told that my grandmother, Alice, used to do cartwheels to entertain the passengers waiting for the boat to come in. The service was re-privatised a few years ago. Being involved in marine business myself I like to refer to it as "the family shipping line"!
Fleetwood, Miniature Railway c1955
The miniature railway was built by a Mr Dove and his family and I know this as they stayed at my parents hotel, The Fairhaven, and we had parts of the trains in the garage. Mr Dove and his family came from the Derbyshire area.
Update July 2011
65th birthday on July 19 - what better way to rediscover lost innocence than a visit to Knott End and a ferry boat trip. So we all piled in to the ageing family MPV and up the M6 and over Shard Bridge we went - recalling the anachronistic way one used to have to pay a toll to the troll who manned the imaginary barrier. Well quick and clean and quiet the modern boat may be, but nothing could ever beat being open to the elements on the slatted benches of the Chugga Lug Lunevale or Old Smokey Wyresdale. Particularly when one now has to sit down so as not to rock the boat! Part of the fun of the Wyresdale was being on the upper deck when the waves were rolling. In the mid 1950s Robert Newton's Treasure Island was on release and for a 9 year old in 1955 it was easy to be Jim Hawkins on the Hispaniola on the deck of the Wyresdale ....... Read more
The Minature Railway
This model rail was built by a man from Wales and the money for it was provided by Randolph Turpin, the former boxer and middle-weight champion of the world. He lost his title to the American, Sugar Ray Robinson. The project went bankrupt after about 4 years and the lines were taken up by Albert Foulds, a local scrap merchant
Fishermans Friend
This shop was Lofthouses Chemists who sold the original Fishermans Friend cough medicine. You took your own bottle and paid sixpence to have it filled, no matter how big the bottle was.
Ice-Cream Van at Rossal Beach & Fleetwood
My grandfather Walter owned the Mr Softie ice-cream van that operated around Rossal beach & Fleetwood. I am looking for anyone that may have pictures of that van on the sea wall there? Gary
The Paddling Pool
I certainly remember the paddling pool in Fleetwood, and the puppet shows, but I believe that they called them The Marrionettes. I also remember Fleetwood Carnival, and what we called Morris Dancers, that were probably kind of Majorettes. Mrs Kenmar, her daughter, and some other friend of hers. Back to your laughing policeman on the pier, Mrs Kenmar and her friend were on Opportunity Knocks singing 'The Laughing Policeman'. They performed it regularly at the Old Age Pensioners Hall, just on the corner of Radcliffe Road and Ash Street, on the Pantomimes produced by Hazel at the Chesters Dance Studio. The star was always Barbara Pye. Young girl, wonderful voice. Wonder what happened to her?
