LYTHAM HALL

Lytham Hall is a short walk inland from the town. It is a Grade 1 listed building and probably the finest Georgian house in the North West. It was designed by John Carr of York for Thomas Clifton and built between 1752 & 1764. 

VISITING DAYS & TIMES

The grounds are open every Sunday, Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday from Easter to 31 October.

Historic Parkland, Lily Pond, 18th c Dovecote, Countryside Exhibition, Disabled Access/WC

The House is open every Sunday from Easter to 31 October for a Conducted Tour starting at 2pm.
(disabled access to house is limited to the ground floor)

Tea-room open every Sunday Easter to 31 October.

Lytham Hall,
Ballam Road,
Lytham St Annes,
FY8 4JX
Tel : +44 01253 736652
Website: http://www.lythamhall.co.uk/opening_times.html 

 Lytham Seafront

The area now known as Lytham Green was a marsh in the middle ages but by the 1800s, centuries of blown sand had created a range of small sand dunes; part of a belt of sand dunes which stretched along the coast as far as South Shore, Blackpool.

From the 1830s onwards the dunes were gradually levelled, a path created, greensward laid and sea wall built.

Lytham Windmill was built about 1805 and is open to the public during the summer season; entry is free of charge. Visit the new website for more information and to check opening times. Alongside is the Old Lifeboat House.

Facing Lytham Green are many Georgian and Victorian houses.

A house on West Beach, Lytham.

The town is situated on the mouth of the Ribble Estuary and on a clear day there are good views of Southport & the Welsh mountains.  Opposite the Queens Hotel is Lytham Lifeboat Station and alongside is a wooden jetty.  There's a lot of deep mud and grass on the foreshore which is dangerous to walk on so the jetty is the only safe way out to the Ribble Estuary. Although there's no longer a beach at Lytham (CLICK HERE ) there are miles of safe sand and sand dunes at St.Annes.

On Lytham Green, opposite Dicconson Terrace, is a board giving a brief history of Lytham.

 Lytham Town Centre

Cottages in Henry Street	Some of the earliest buildings in Lytham can be found in Henry Street. Many  of these were originally single-storey thatched cottages. From about 1850 the tenants cottages were improved by the Clifton family, the local landowners. Many have dripstone mouldings over the windows, porches, ornamental bargeboards and gothic features. Lytham Heritage Centre is on the corner of Henry Street and holds regular exhibitions on a wide variety of subjects.
There's an art gallery - the Fylde Gallery located on the first floor of Booths Supermarket, Haven Road (off Station Road) which displays some of the Fylde Borough Art Collection; the building also houses a restaurant.	Pebbles are used as an architectural feature in many buildings and walls in Lytham. There is also pebble paving with various designs along Bath Street and outside Capes Dunn, Auctioneers on Queen Street.
The main shopping area is Clifton Street and there are many small family-run shops, boutiques and cafes.
Public Houses            Public houses include The Queens, The County Hotel, The Ship & Royal and The Hansom Cab. The Taps on Henry Street is noted for its real ale.

Lowther Gardens 

 To the west end of the town is Lowther Gardens which has children’s play facilities, toilets, café, Lowther Pavilion, crazy golf, crown green bowling, hard surface tennis courts, floral displays, picnic area, rose garden, & aviary. In the centre of the gardens is a statue "The Lytham Shrimper".

There are antique fairs in Lowther Pavilion every few weeks and regular shows. Nearby is the Parish Church of St.Cuthbert.

  ANSDELL & FAIRHAVEN

A little further along the coast from Lytham are the residential districts of Ansdell & Fairhaven which lie between Lytham and St.Annes - you know when you've arrived as there is the Byzantine-style "White Church". Ansdell is on the inland side of Clifton Drive and Fairhaven is on the seaward side.

ANSDELL

Across the road from the White Church is a high pebble wall and behind it is "Starr Hills". This was built in the 1860s when the area was sand dunes planted with starr grass; it was a holiday home for the Liverpool-born artist Richard Ansdell R.A. (it is now a nursing home).

The local shops are on both sides of the railway bridge on Woodlands Road. On the corner of Kingsway is an antiques shop and nearby is Kingsway Auction Rooms - interesting on a viewing day.

From the crest of the railway bridge there are views over the Royal Lytham & St.Annes Golf Course. Ansdell was developed as a residential district from the 1890s onwards and still retains its Victorian/Edwardian character.

FAIRHAVEN

Fairhaven is a residential district on the seaward side of Clifton Drive. Roughly half lies in Lytham, starting at the White Church, and the other half in St.Annes, ending at Fairhaven Road. The area was a range of enormous sand dunes until the 1890s when the Fairhaven Estate Company was formed to level the dunes, form streets, and sell building plots to builders.

Although Fairhaven is mostly residential, a popular tourist attraction is Fairhaven Lake (Click here for recent pictures of the lake) which has the RSPB Ribble Discovery Centre, ducks, geese, swans etc., cafe, boating, gardens & walks, bowling, basketball, tennis, crazy golf and children's playground.

The lake was created in the 1890s by enclosing two large banks of shingle (pebbles) which now form the promenade road and sea wall. 

The original plan was to extend the lake and gardens along the coast to St.Annes but this proved too expensive and so the dunes north of the lake have remained untouched (see below).

The 'beach' at Fairhaven is muddy and unpleasant but there are some large sand dunes which offer good views both seawards & inland. The nearest good beach is a couple of miles away at St.Annes.

View from the top of the sand dunes opposite King Edward VII School, just beyond Fairhaven Lake.

St.Paul's Avenue runs inland, alongside King Edward VII School (1908); this was the old boundary between Lytham and St.Annes until the two towns joined to create the Borough of Lytham St.Annes in 1922. The adjoining Queen Mary School for Girls (1930) has been redeveloped as luxury apartments and the girls have moved in with the boys next door!

 The Promenade road was completed in 1925 and facing it are a number of large houses, mostly built in the 1930s. Beryldene is a private residence and was home to the Irish tenor, Joseph Locke; he sold it to George Formby in 1953. For more details click here. 

Most of the dunes beyond Denford Avenue were levelled in the early 1990s after a large pipe was laid underneath and this is now a greensward. Continuing along the promenade, there is Lightburne Avenue, so-named because Lytham Lighthouse once stood on a high sand dune at the corner of the promenade.

Take a detour into Derbe Road, then turn left into Alexandria Drive and you might be forgiven for thinking that you've stepped back in time. Here there are several shops, built in the 1890s, with remarkably well-preserved, shopfronts.

At the end of Alexandria Drive is Fairhaven Road; this is the end of the district of Fairhaven. Turning back onto the promenade there is the convenient Beach Terrace Cafe and the start of South Promenade, St.Annes.

The no.7 bus runs along Clifton Drive and the no.11 bus from St.Annes Square; both operate between Blackpool, St.Annes & Lytham.

In the summer months there might be a vintage bus service along the promenade Sundays only; check the Classic Bus website for details.

Excellent video of Lytham by Huckleberry Films of Accrington.