Sea Wall Build – 2007

We still call the stepped sea defences at Cleveleys the ‘new’ promenade – it helps to identify it from neighbouring Rossall Beach! Like most big projects, it was built in phases. Beginning in the north near The Venue, working south to Wyre’s boundary with Blackpool at Princes Way. Take a look back to the sea wall build 2007. Can you remember what it was like? Have you got any photos to add?

Before Cleveleys Sea Wall Build

Here on the Fylde Coast of Britain, from Fleetwood to Lytham there’s a ‘hold the line’ strategy for our sea defences. Go back 100+ years and you’ll see there’s a long history of man-made revetments and seawalls. These hard defences have stopped the sea from encroaching onto the land.

And if you look back through the records you’ll see that most were built or strengthened after flood events. There were serious flood events along this coast in 1927, 1953 and 1977. In 2013 there was a 1-in-200 year storm. Way back in the mists of time, in the 1500s a huge inundation even washed villages away. Imagine that happening today – it would be catastrophic.

Plans and Consultation

Large civil engineering schemes are always built in response to the demonstration of need. In the case of sea defences, the cost of the works is weighed against the potential losses should flooding (or erosion) occur. The Environment Agency usually funds sea defence works. One of the first steps is for a local authority to submit a business case, asking for the funding. This will include a wide range of information including artists impressions, costs and much more.

Here’s the artists impression of the new sea wall at Cleveleys, created to show people how it would look when completed. There was a copy of it on display in the information cabin at the seafront. Below it a plan of the area. And it does look like this!

The Old Beach Huts

If you’ve been coming to Cleveleys for a long time, you’ll probably also remember the old beach huts. They were round-about where the Pizza Hut is now, at Jubilee Leisure Park.

Jubilee Leisure Park was also part of the 2007 sea wall project. After clearing the land what’s now the Vue Cinema and JD Gym, plus the Jubilee, Pizza Hut and car park were built.

Cleveleys Sea Wall Build – 2007

Birse Coastal built the multi-award winning Cleveleys promenade. Later taken over by Balfour Beatty, they also completed the Rossall Coastal Defence Scheme. In fact many of the same staff and contractors were involved in both projects.

This kind of project always needs a works compound for storage of equipment and materials. The former tennis courts at Jubilee Gardens became a works site for the first time. Then, some time later, it was a compound by DONG Energy when they put the cable in for the windfarm. Next it was made into a multi-use car park. The Wyre Beach Management Scheme is once again using the car park for site office space.

Works began first at the northern end of the scheme, opposite The Venue. There was a popular weather monitoring Argus camera stationed on the roof of The Venue, which was publicly available online at the time. This photo is from back then –

You might also remember there was previously a dropped section to the sea wall here, with a bit of an outbuild into the beach. The footpath south followed a downwards slope outside The Venue, with benches set into alcoves in the sea wall. It looked lovely in the sunshine but the sea frequently came over leaving the path covered in pebbles.  Take a look at old photos of Cleveleys here.

Pre-Cast and In-Situ

If you’re familiar with Cleveleys promenade – or Star Wars – you might recognise the next piece of sea wall under construction! It’s the individual curvy bits of wall against the shower unit, near to the children’s splash pad at the cafe. Designed to deflect any waves which climb the steps, these pieces of wall achieved fame when they were used in a scene in the Andor Star Wars series. You may have seen the often replicated scenes from the Disney+ series.

The wall is built using a mixture of pre-made, pre-cast units and concrete cast in-situ. In the next photo the metal rams are holding precast pieces in place while the reinforced concrete floor is cast and sets around them.

It feels like the distinctive ‘flying saucer’ shaped shelters have been there forever. Here’s one of them at the north end of the scheme during construction. These shelters aren’t just somewhere to sit (and hide from the rain). They also mark the access points to the promenade.

Lots of Concrete…

A substantial amount of the Cleveleys scheme is built with concrete cast on site. Did you know there’s well over a metre in thickness of concrete underneath the stepped revetments alone? The wall’s designed to still be effective even if the entire thickness of the steps were to be worn away by the sea!

The precast step units were made off-site by a company called SLP Precast. A batching plant was specially set up to make units for Cleveleys and Blackpool sea walls. Dramatically reducing transport costs, it was sited at nearby Hillhouse, just down the road at Thornton.

…and Lots of Steel

Long steel sheet piles are driven vertically into the beach, to form what’s called the ‘toe’ of the defences. That’s the bit at the beach end of the job. The toe stops the whole sea wall from slipping into the sea, or the sea from undermining the wall. On the left of the next photo there’s a pile of bent pieces of metal. They’re steel piles which will be driven into the beach.

The familiar curved headlands are also formed using steel sheet piles as the outline of the shape. They’re the foundation of the wall which hold everything in place. The rocks in the next photo were temporarily used to stop the sea from knocking the piles out of place before the concrete is poured. They’re not part of the construction.

The next photo looks through the gates of the construction site, along what’s now our familiar, lovely promenade. It’s amazing that civil engineers can make such finished order from what looks like complete chaos!

Dancing Diggers

Diggers on the beach were a very familiar site during the works. Most of the seafront was boarded off during the work, and for a considerable amount of time. Construction work carried on behind the fence, come rain or shine.

Other related pages:

If you’ve found this interesting, there are some other pages which you might enjoy having a look at.

• Building the sea wall after a collapse in 1947
• Cleveleys Arena and Children’s Corner
• Cleveleys promenade today

If you’ve got any photos from the construction of the sea defences in Cleveleys in 2007 please get in touch. Just email jane@theRabbitPatch.co.uk Full credit given, of course.