Matlock House, 300, Clifton Drive,
St.Annes-on-the-Sea. This was one of the first buildings to be
erected in St.Annes and the first seat of local government for the new town. From
1878 until 1894 it housed the office
of the St.Annes-on-the-Sea Local Board of Health in the
front room; this was the small town equivalent of a Town Hall. The rest of the
building was let as apartments for visitors.
At the rear of the
building was a saddle room, loft and stables as many visitors arrived by
carriage with coachmen.
In the 1880s there were few buildings in the town. Looking
inland from the first floor windows, across the Fylde, five working windmills could
be seen.
Until the 1890s, the only buildings on this side of Clifton
Drive South were:
Kilgrimol School (now the District Club),
Wesleyan Chapel (by present church)
Norton & Brentwood (next to Public
offices)
Matlock House (Until recently a doctors surgery)
Spring Bank (Lloyds TSB Bank)
The rest of the road was sand dunes.
For a brief period at the turn of the century Matlock
House was used a private school. In 1903-04 the two buildings were constructed
on the adjoining plot to the left.
For nearly 100 years the ground floor of Matlock
House was a doctors surgery. Doctors there over the years include Dr.Blair
J.P. (1920s); Dr.Worsley (1960s-80s); Dr Greenwood (1960s-1990s) & more
recently, Dr Moorhouse. The 'Clifton Drive Surgery' closed in October 2009
when it moved to the new St. Annes Health Centre, in Durham Avenue.
Externally, the building is almost in its original state, as is
the door and tiled entrance porch; internally, there are many original
features.
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