Lancashire 4 - Southport/rabbits/a closed caravan park/ a 99 from the seaside but where is the sea?

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Where in the world is Suzy? Oooops - occasionally we lapse back into thinking where our old motorhome might be. We wonder if she is well loved. She has been MOT'd either by the dealer or the new owners who didn't trust our MOT which ran until next February The old girl must have passed enthusiastically. Have they thought about replacing her cam belt? She was certainly due one. They would need some new tyres. Perhaps she is visiting places abroad that we have missed. Perhaps she is at home riding round Scotland on the NC500 - Scotlands supposed answer to Route 66. Or is she still being adventurous?

So where in the world is Gabby? On her way from Preston to our overnight stop at Southport. That genteel seaside resort - a quieter more reserved and relaxed relation to her big and brash relative the seaside town of Blackpool. My first brush with Southport came in the mid to late 60's when my cousin started an apprenticeship as a hairdresser being trained in the shop of Andre Bernard. Who was Andre Bernard I wondered at the time?. Still the thoughts cross my mind 50 years later . Probably Joe Bloggs or John Smith who fancied a French name to attract a clientele of older ladies wearing their twin sets, attending the salon fortnightly for a set, a permanent wave with a blue or purple rinse. The shops of the town were housed beneath a metal walkway reminiscent of Paris. Wide boulevards. Unusual for our country. Upmarket independents selling highclass outfits for their high class customers. I wonder if my cousin actually met Status Quo? I wonder if he would even remember?

My second brush with Southport was in the mid 70's , weddings, trips to a relatives house where we spent a busmans holiday undertaking building work for them. I wondered how the town had changed and prospered.

Our plan was to stop at the Caravan and Camping Club site on the promenade. Driving along the seafront we failed to see the sea and then found that our chosen campsite was closed due to a rally. We ended up on the much more expensive Caravan and Motorhome Club site. Costing a third as much we paid up and pitched up on a pristine large plot amongst other tuggers and motorhomers. Within five minutes of setting up the kettle had boiled and we were enjoying a much needed cuppa with a biscuit to fill the gap.

Our plan was to walk up the town and see just how it had changed over the intervening years. The dunes looked the same although they seemed much higher and green than thirty years ago. We couldn't see the sea. But then you never did. You needed binoculars to see the sea. There was a new large Morrisons supermarket. That wasn't there thirty years ago. The marine lake had been extended and cleaned and filled with white and pink plastic swans. Forlornly waiting for someone to sail in the them. The elderly sat on benches eating ice creams. We joined them eating our 99 as we walked past the Victorian bedding schemes. Beds full of bright coloured orange and yellow French marigolds, pansies of every hue and summer bedding on the point of opening. Very old fashioned and incredibly tasteful. The new bridge had been built connecting the promenade with the town. Music blared out of the pub which was packed with the middle aged and the young with their prams and even younger children. What a different world from the 80's when children were banned from pubs and relegated to beer gardens at the back of pubs or to shabby little rooms.

We approached the town via the back streets which were rather shabby. Empty shops, tat shops, fish and chip shops, pizza houses and yet more empty establishments. What we did see was a huge statue of Queen Victoria, Empress of India. You don't often see these especially not on a Southport back street. In the distance we could see the main street , all elegant and different to this back street. An obelisk marked the towns war memorial. Not your usual war memorial of Christian cross or soldier with child or gun. This one is epic. A peace garden. Something epic on a grand scale. Set in London Square , just off Lord Street opposite the iron canopied shopping arcades it consists of an obelisk flanked by two colonades in the style of Greek Temples. Outside the colonnades are memorial gardens, each containing a Pool of Remembrance and fountains. The memorial was designed by the local architects Grayson and Barnish. . It was unveiled in 1923 by the Earl of Derby. The obelisk is 67 feet 6 inches high standing on a square pedestal and base. We sat on a bench admiring the French chateau style of the town museum and reading the inscription with said " LOOK UPWARD STANDING MUTE. SALUTE" On the south side was the Southport coat of arms and a latin inscription. Further round was the added memorial to the second world war remembering the men and women from the borough who gave their lives for the liberty of the world and the security of the realm. It was sobering in this year 100 years since the end of the Great War to reflect on the words,

We sat a while probably a mistake but in the sun in felt warm and welcoming . The phone rang . It was the Marie Curie team advising us that they were providing three nights care for our terminally ill relative the following week. We headed for the museum. The interesting unusual building was built following a donation of 6K by William Atkinson , a cotton manufacturer from North Yorkshire. A frequent visitor to Southport, he must have loved the town to pay for such an imposing building. Designed by Waddington and Son , it was opened in 1878. The total cost, donated by Atkinson, was £15,000 and in 1923–24 the building was extended by incorporating an adjacent bank on the corner of Eastbank Street, Built in sandstone with a slate roof it was built in a Neoclassical style over three stories .

And then the phone rang again. Did we want to organise our next weeks care as we knew what Marie Curie were providing? . Of course we did , it would get it out of the way. We sat on the stairs and chose the days we required. As we sat we noticed everyone was coming down the stairs. We didn't really take that much notice though as the phone rang again. Did we want some extra sit ins to give us time to ourselves? A nice thought but at that moment we wanted to share our time with Egyptian mummies and Lancashire artifacts. Give us a day and we will come back to you we said as we climbed up to the top floor. We tried the door . Shut tight and locked . The museum had closed ten minutes ago. The mummies would have to wait. Sion was not impressed and told us in no uncertain terms he was reporting us for cruelty to a sheep. He also insisted that he would tell his best friend Woolly Mammoth that we had denied him his mummy. Grumbling to us we walked back out into the sunshine and headed back along the promenade to Gabby.

Southport is a lovely place but it shares the fate other towns. It has its fair share of independent shops, it has its seaside attractions, its Southport Flower show and fireworks but amongst that it has its tat shops and rows upon rows of empty shops.



We had a good break though and Gabby is booked in for her second solar panel, her extra gas bottle and her new BBQ point. Will we ever get Gabby sorted out with everything we need? Probably not - it will take time to get her right . Shunaya Suzuki said that " A garden is never finished" Will Gabby ever be finished ?

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