Cleveleys Hydro

Nothing more than a memory by the mid 1900’s, Cleveleys Hydro is now a ghost of the areas past. Anyone old enough might remember the huge hotel with all the latest facilities. The rest of us just have old photos to look at!

Eryngo Lodge

It all started out with Eryngo Lodge, built on the promenade south of Cleveleys by John Swainson, a merchant from Aigburth. He named the house after the Sea Holly which grew in the nearby dunes (Latin name Ibex Eringo).

Doctor John Cocker bought Eryngo for his son in 1868. This is an extract from Ralph Smedley’s book Thornton Cleveleys in old picture postcards ‘Just south of Cleveleys was Eryngo Lodge, owned by John Cocker, brother of Blackpool’s first Mayor, and in the adjoining parkland, largely in Cleveleys, were deer, llama and exotic birds’. Imagine!

Shortly afterwards, in 1879, it was auctioned again. Finally a Mr Sykes bought it in 1886 and advertising itself as a hotel in 1899.

Eryngo Lodge opened as Cleveleys Hydro in 1900, after Sykes added a deer park in the grounds. That’s why the tramline turns inland there to run through central Cleveleys – it was unable to cross the lodge’s land or that of the nearby Anchorsholme Hall.

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The New Cleveleys Hydro

You’d have once found Cleveleys Hydro situated on what’s now the north corner of Anchorsholme Lane and the Promenade. Like the Norbreck Hydro it had tennis courts at the rear and an 18 hole golf course.

It boasted heated bedrooms, an electric lift, various pools, a large billiard room with 5 tables, a games room, a ballroom and hotel orchestra. It had a Palm Court, an 18 hole putting green, 9 tennis courts and its own 9 hole golf course. There was also a hotel garage with a mechanic and parking for 100 cars!

The hotel even owned a Rolls-Royce and chauffeur, to collect guests from the nearby Burn Naze railway station.

Many thanks to our friend Andy Ball from the Thornton Cleveleys Past Facebook group for this amazing brochure from Cleveleys Hydro. How grand it must have been, back in the day!

Cleveleys Hydro closed in 1939 – apart from the Moorish Lounge on the ground floor. During the war it had a reprieve when it became a military convalescent home. By the 1950’s/60’s this once palatial place had become derelict.

Once demolished, the houses of Huntingdon Rd, Alconbury Place, Chatteris Place and Buckden Close replaced it, and part of Anchorsholme Park.

Cleveleys Hydro Golf Club

Cleveleys Hydro Golf Club opened in 1900. Up to World War 1 it was a 9-hole course with the longest hole at 385 yards. The club played a competition for an antique copper cigarette box made from Nelson’s Flagship Foudroyant. The inscription read “Second Gold Sweepstake, Cleveleys Hydro”.

In 1918 the Hydro Company bought Anchorsholme Hall and farm. They duly extended their own golf course to fill the land released by the purchase. By the early 1920s it had 18 holes and a clubhouse, located between the shore, Anchorsholme Lane West, Victoria Road and Fleetwood Road. The course was even used to graze sheep during WW2!

But the growth of North Shore Golf Club heralded the demise of Cleveleys Hydro Golf Club. It lasted until the 1950s but eventually it was flattened for housing.

MANY THANKS to Nick Moore and his fascinating History of Blackpool for some of the historical information used in this page. You can read it here

Some Other Fylde Coast Hydro Hotels

South Shore Hydropathic Hotel opened in 1892, replaced in 1897/8 with the Queen’s Hydro Hotel. Now known as the Queen’s Hotel.

The Norbreck began life in 1869 as Norbreck Villa, with a name change to Norbreck Hall Hydro in 1905.

In 1867 The Imperial Hotel was built at Blackpool North Shore. Then in 1901 a name change saw it become the Imperial Hydropathic Hotel Company. At this point, the Turkish and Roman baths were built in the basement of the south wing.

Southdown Hydropathic Hotel in St Annes was built in 1896 for the Misses Whitehead. This was just one of the buildings constructed under the chairmanship of William Porritt of the St Annes on Sea Land and Building Company. On 31 March 1926 it became the Town Hall.

Under the ownership of Jas W Grew, the Trafalgar Hydropathic Establishment was on South Promenade featuring “sea water and other baths”.

The Matlock Hydropathic and Boarding House was at 37 Station Road. It offered Russian, Turkish and German baths, owned and run by Mr & Mrs Bramald, late of Matlock.

North Shore’s Derby Baths also offered Hydropathic treatments.

You might also be interested in…

• The history of Cleveleys
• Old photos of the area
• Cleveleys seafront and beach
• Anchorsholme Park
• Anchorsholme Seafront