History and Mystery Walking Tour

Explore the past and present, fact and fiction of this special seaside town, with the FREE Cleveleys History and Mystery Walking Tour. Pick up a free leaflet (or download it) and set off to explore!

History and Mystery Walking Tour

In May 2024, the Care for Cleveleys group produced a new walking tour. The annotated map guides you around the town and seafront, stopping off at points of interest. Some can be found today or are echoes of times gone by. Others might be true… or maybe aren’t? Perhaps these are the mysteries of Cleveleys!

Leaflet

Collect your free printed leaflet from the Care for Cleveleys Shop in the town centre (near the bus station). It’s a great welcome to Cleveleys, with all the locations and information that you need to know for a good day out. It’s an A3 broadsheet format, open it out and the full map is inside.

Public Map

There’s also a large-scale version of it, included in the Mythic Coast artwork at the bus station. Photograph it with your phone and save your own digital copy.

Digital Copy

You can also download a copy of the History and Mystery leaflet.

Outdoor Gallery

Have you spotted the outdoor galleries in the town centre? Two allies lead off Cleveleys main high street – one each near M&S and New Look. On the walls of adjoining buildings you can see large photos featuring locations from the History and Mystery Walking Tour.

What’s in this Cleveleys Walking Tour?

These are the interesting places and moments in time that you’ll find in the History & Mystery Trail. Follow the links to find out much more about each one!

1. Legend has it that the lost village of Singleton Thorpe lies under the waves off Rossall School… However research does show that an inundation did happen in the 1500’s.
2. Square concrete blocks at Rossall School are the ‘Tank Traps’ – anti-invasion defences from World War II.
3. In May 2021, the other-worldly seafront cafe became a film set for Andor, a Star Wars series on Disney+.
4. Mary’s Shell, much loved by photographers and part of the Sea Swallow story.
5. Did you know that the art-deco Venue was a Polish airman’s hospital during World War II?
6. Built in 1937 to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of King George V, Jubilee Gardens once had boating and paddling pools, pitch and putt, a miniature railway and typical park facilities. Redeveloped during construction of the promenade in the 2010’s, the current beach works compound will be reinstated.
7. Remember the Bathing Station? Set into the sea wall and a magnet for beach goers in the 1900s.
8. Emerging from the waves, spot the Ogre with glowing red eyes!
9. Marvel at the Ogre’s giant-sized paddle – don’t forget to sit on it and snap a selfie.
10. At the end of Beach Road the Jolly Tars and Beach Pierrots once performed their summer shows. They worked from a small stage on the beach.
11. Thousands of people enjoyed entertainment at the seafront over the years. First with the Follies at The Arena then the funfair delights of Kiddies Corner. This was all before the new sea wall and construction of the Plaza.
12. The much-loved Clock Shelter dates to a much earlier promenade development, cherished and looked after by the community today.
13. A tall and graceful landmark, the Sea Swallow sculpture marks out the promenade.
14. Designed to mimic the ships it remembers, the Shipwreck Memorial lists vessels which have succumbed to the sea.
15. Look through the hole of the Shipwreck Memorial at low tide. You’ll see the remains of the Abana shipwreck, whose bell still hangs in St Andrews Church.
16. The last local shipwreck was the Riverdance Ferry, grounded in January 2008. In a twist of fate at the side of the Abana.
17. The years have brought transformation to Victoria Road. Cleveleys Hotel and Major Nutter’s Bungalow, an early row of cottages and an early Police Station were all between Boots and Nutter Road of today. The wide pavement now at the front of the shops was once the front gardens.
18. Did you know that JL Beans is the oldest shop in Cleveleys? Continuously run by the same family for 90 years!
19. The Queens Theatre site was on the Prom on the Blackpool side of Victoria Road. Originally host of a season show then a music venue of note for a few years in the sixties.
20. The huge Cleveleys Hydro was a popular place to stay. With hydropathic baths, an 18 hole golf course, tennis courts and a resident orchestra.
21. Cleveleys Cottage Exhibition of 1906 was an ambitious competition and three month display. Designed to encourage and display the latest ideas in house design and construction. The 44 houses still stand today around West Drive and Stockdove Way.
22. Ritherham Farm near St Andrews Church was the site of early Cleveleys history. White painted buildings still stand at the now dead-end of Ritherham Avenue – amongst former farm buildings.
23. Founded in 1910, the Grade II listed Neo-gothic style St Andrews Church at Rough Lea Road.
24. Cleveleys remembers its war heroes at Poppy Corner. A Memorial Stone at nearby St Andrews remembers the fallen of World War 1.
25. Mill owners the Horrocks family built The Towers hunting lodge in the late 1890s. In the 1900s TG Lumb moved in – the visionary of Cleveleys – instrumental in the installation of the electric tramway. Lumb worked with Edwin Lutyens to develop the houses which still stand today on Rossall Road (29)
26. Cleveleys Pleasure Beach once occupied what’s now Jubilee Leisure Park and its car park. With its wonderful traditional Helter Skelter, Gallopers and originally the Dipper. Once cleared, in the 1980’s the site staged several large circus shows.
27. Today it’s a car park but do you remember one of the first B&M branches beginning here, in ramshackle garages?
28. Way offshore at low tide you might be lucky enough to spot the 7000+ year old remains of the petrified forest.
29. Lutyens houses at Rossall Road.
30. Victoria Road in the town centre – the main high street
31. Have you spotted the wide, clay like mass the snakes across the beach at low tide? It’s a huge reef, incredibly created by thousands of tiny Sabellaria (or Honeycomb) worms!