Bathing Station on Cleveleys Beach

If you’ve known the area for a few years you probably remember the old promenade at Cleveleys. But did you know about the Bathing Station on the beach?

Do you remember a flat faced part to the sea wall? It was approximately between the old Pizza Hut and the end of Beach Road. It had big doors in it, leading to the beach. Before the promenade rebuild, the fishing club used it to store their tractors to tow their boats out to sea.

Our friends from the Thornton Cleveleys Past Facebook Group help us to explore the original purpose of those doors. They were part of the former Cleveleys Bathing Station.

The Bathing Station on Cleveleys Beach

The doors of Cleveleys Bathing Station were the door to a summer world of beach time fun and sunbathing. Inside were toilets, changing rooms and a shower. The lifeguard was based there and you could hire a deck chair.

Glass bricks were set into the top of the wall to let light into the changing rooms. Glass bricks were also in the roof of the building – which of course was the floor of the promenade above.

Many of you remember the old diving board. It’s often discussed on Facebook. Hundreds of teenagers enjoyed it every summer – in the days before health and safety! The wooden structure was covered in barnacles, which many of you got scraped with. You probably still have the battle scars to prove it!

The above photo from the 1930’s is the original beach slide. It was a moveable structure, taken inside during winter and bad weather. It was replaced with a permanent version some years later.

Glyn Jenkins Writes about the Bathing Station on Cleveleys Beach

Glyn contacted us to tell his story about his glorious 1960’s summers –

“I was a Beach Patrolman at Cleveleys for each of the summers 1960-1963 in my summer vacation from Manchester University. My brother David was there from 1960-1962. We are the twin sons of the Revd R.L. Jenkins who was minister of the then Cleveleys Congregational Church, Rossall Rd, (now the United Reformed Church).

“As you could image I have quite a few memories and stories from that period. At this point may I just confirm that the station was in use everyday for most of the summer. I was only able to be employed by Thornton Cleveleys UDC from mid June to September.

“When I came with my brother in 1959, we gradually took over from a long serving beach patrolman called Billy Mills. Billy was immensely fit for his age and reluctant to retire. He swam huge distances in the sea, most days when it was fit. He’d go parallel to the coast from Rossall to Anchorsholme. He knew the effects of the tides and the movement of the sandbanks and the eccentricities of holiday makers.

“We had a phrase that folk left their brains behind on the televisions (if they had one – TV not brain!!). Folk came down in their local Wakes weeks each year. Then expected to put their deckchairs on the same bit of sand as the previous year!

Charlie the Guillemot

“One year we adopted a guillemot whom we called “Charlie”. He was marooned, exhausted on the beach, and we took him in and revived him. After that sort of attention he didn’t want to leave us. We had immense difficulty in getting him to swim away at the end of the season. On a flat tide, Billy and I took him out in the rowing boat. Bill jumped in and took the bird some distance away and urged him to go. The bird eventually complied but gave Bill a peck on the behind – his way of saying thank-you.

“Our role as beach patrolmen also included emptying pennies from the loos on the promenade on a Monday/Tuesday morning. Then helping to take them to the bank in a big leather bag strapped to the Superintendents bike. This was quite a task after a rare warm bank-holiday!

“We also had a first aid post as part of the bathing station. There were many minor accidents, as well as a few major ones. (Jubilee Gardens also had a dangerous slide).

“Selling deckchairs and paying the refund was part of the job of all the staff. There was always fun when a sudden storm came on and we were inundated by the chairs. No one could get the knack of folding them up properly! We had one in the hut which said Rhyl UDC – it had made quite a trip!

And the most satisfying part of the job? I would say carrying grandmas off the sandbank after the water had gone all the way round them! (We let it get to a depth of three feet and then blew the whistle!)”

More memories of the Bathing Station on Cleveleys Beach

Roy Midgely also got in touch to share his earlier memories. And an argument about exactly where the bathing station was –

“I’m now in my early 80’s and have lived all my life in Wakefield. During the latter part of the War and soon after I spent my summer holidays with my Aunt in Cleveleys. She had a boarding house there.

“In the August of 1947 there was a heat wave. “The Gazette & Herald” ran an article on how people were keeping cool which included a picture of the Bathing Station.

“This photo was taken by the newspaper photographer, but it’s not the one actually produced in the newspaper. I happen to be one of the youngsters in the foreground of the picture.

Where was the Bathing Station located?

“My cousin is 12 years younger than me and has lived in Cleveleys all her life. We are having a friendly argument as to precisely where the Beach Station was located.

“I claim that it was immediately to the right of a straight line drawn from the top of Beach Road. In fact, I claim that the house seen in the top right of the picture was actually on Beach Road! (Not the building actually on the promenade.) My cousin thinks the location was a little nearer to Rossall than that.

“I’m convinced that I am right. Do you have anything in your archives which shows the actual location? In which case we could bring this friendly banter to a conclusion?  If you do I would be most grateful to receive it.”

Footnote

I thought that we’d answered Roy’s question about the location of the Bathing Station. After sending him the link to this article he replied to prove himself wrong!

“Thank you so much for the link to your article on Cleveleys’ Bathing Station” he wrote. “I found it most interesting”. In our email to Roy we’d said “I think you‘re right, it was at the end of Beach Road ish.”

Roy went on to add “The “ish” in your email actually proves me wrong! I was very precise about the start of the bathing area being immediately at the top of Beach Road. But my cousin insisted it was a little more towards Rossall.

“I eventually found this rather poor picture of the Cleveleys Pleasure Beach area where the bathing station is visible.  So is Beach Road. Unfortunately for me, it can be seen that it is certainly to the right of the Bathing Station. I shouldn’t argue with ladies. Especially a Cleveleys local when I live 100 miles away!”

And this is roughly the same area today. With the sea wall completely rebuilt in the familiar stepped design.

What you Said about the Bathing Station on Cleveleys Beach

Regular reader John Wallwork also sent in an email. He remembered the Bathing Station being opposite to where the Jubilee is now. Although looking at Roy’s photo (above) it’s further south, more across from the Pizza Hut.

We also shared this article on Thornton Cleveleys Past and asked for your memories and comments. Here’s what you said:

Michael Mallon says “I remember spending half the summer on and around that diving board, late 60’s early 70’s. I went home cut to pieces by the barnacles all over it”. The barnacles feature heavily in your memories of the diving board. Anne Bowen commented about them too!

Our well known pebble beach at Cleveleys also gets a mention. Alan Penn said “As a young lad I hated walking across that part from the prom to sand without sandals. The pebbles jolly well hurt my feet. I thought with the pounding of the sea the pebbles would have converted to sand by now. It would seem not.”

The ‘Good Old Days’

In the ‘good old days’ it was somewhere that many of you learned to swim. John Hicks said “I used the diving board many times in my youth. I even learned to swim there”. While Kathie Bellas  added “It was the only place we were allowed to go and swim because there were lifeguards. Even back then (1940’s/50’s) the red flags flew if it was too dangerous due to high tides etc. Brings back many memories for me…”

Sylvia Harrison added “I lived on that Beach with the diving board from 1954. My nan, Betty Taylor, worked in the bathing station. Serving hot and cold drinks, she was a treasure to all us kids. I especially remember the hot Bovril we had on cool days with the sea freezing. It never stopped us swimming though and the beach was always packed.”

Remember the Boat Trips?

Andy Ball also told us about a long forgotten boat service. It would be a popular thing today – if it could get past ‘Health and Safety’! He says “When I was a taxi driver I used to pick up a customer from Thornton called Jim. He moved here as a young boy with his parents in the 50s.

“His parents bought or set up a cafe in the bathing station, so Jim spent his summer holidays there. He told me many times that the local boatmen used to run short boat trips. To see the ruins of Singleton Thorpe!”

Last word goes to Alan Penn. He says “Roy Midgley’s picture of the bathing station area may give lead to another discussion. About my favourite holiday spot – the Cleveleys Pleasure Beach. It’s in the background of the photo – I first visited in 1946.”

Indeed it does Alan. That’s a subject for another day!

And to finish this page off, enjoy a stroll along the beach as it is today. The bathing station area is around 15:20 –

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Anything to Add?

Do you have any memories or comments about the bathing station on Cleveleys beach?

You can add them to this article using the comments facility below. If you’ve got any photos to add please email them to jane@theRabbitPatch.co.uk and they’ll be added to the page. Full credit will be given for all photos.

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