The Cafe

By Geoff Cunliffe

_{This apparently humble building is one of great significance, and with a considerable history. It is, for example, the oldest building within what used to be referred to as the Ashton Marine Park. It pre-dates all the boathouses, the former Lake Manager’s house, the tennis & bowls pavilions and even the toilet blocks.}

_{What is more, it wasn’t built specifically as a café but as the Club House for the Fairhaven Golf Club which was formed in 1895 and developed at the same time as the boating lake,- indeed somewhat more speedily it would appear.}

_{But after a massive flood on Thursday 9th October 1896 when the tide broke through the outer stanner bank the golf club decided not to risk a repeat of the flooding, and on 5th. May 1900, the club withdrew from the lake area to a new Club House in St. Paul’s Avenue.}

_{In the short term, the café became a Temperance Café and Social Club for the Preston & Fylde Band of Hope Union. For many years, the café was just that, sharing the ups and downs in the lake’s fortunes, benefiting from the development of the Ashton Marine Park, capitalizing on the extra patronage at times like the Annual Regattas.}

_{Of course there have been other heydays, remembered by other generations. Surprisingly, the period of World War II was a heyday for the lake, which provided welcome relaxation for many of those involved in the conflict, particularly Services Personnel, and the lake was open from dawn to dusk throughout the summer and was an exceedingly busy, and very welcome, recreational facility.}

_{By the 1950s, it had also become Bunty’s Lakeside Café, named, it is believed, after the daughter of the then Manager. It was a good and popular café.}

_{About 1960 and it then passed to the George Jones who so many of us remember. Or at least, it passed to Mrs. Jones for whilst George ran the lake, Mildred ran the café.}

_{The café went from strength to strength, enjoying good patronage from the lake staff and contract holders as well as the visitors.}

_{It was quite common to find the skiers washing up in the kitchen in an evening whilst waiting for the lake to quieten down so that the Albatross could take to the water, and when there was one of the Annual Regattas, it really was a case of all hands to the sandwich bar to prepare as many rounds as possible in readiness for the crowds.}

_{In later life, legislation demanded that, although the café was next to the public toilets, it should have its own internal facility, so a basic provision was provided at the rear, narrowing the external pathway somewhat. Other changes in recent times have seen some slight enlargement of the café at the easterly end, but you would not really know unless you compared photographs.}

_{It is currently run by Richard & Yvonne Chell. They moved from Yorkshire to Lytham St.Annes in 1986. They started by buying The Bouvy Café in Lytham but, after trading for nine years, they wanted a larger business. The slightly neglected Fairhaven Lake café came on the market.}

_{Friends and locals all offered the advice “don’t do it – nobody goes there”, but all the Chells could see was its potential as everybody who has visited the area knows where Fairhaven Lake is. The café was then owned by Bob & Hilda Taylor who had run it for eight years. They had bought it from the Mellors.}

_{After long negotiations with the Taylors, the Chells were finally in business on 27th. May 1998 and on 28th. May the rain started and never stopped! It was the worst summer on record. Up to 27th. May, the weather had been beautiful and they were disappointed that they hadn’t taken over at Easter. They had planned to close the café during the winter to redecorate inside and out but, with the bad summer, they couldn’t afford to do so, so they opened five days a week and decorated on their two days off. Fortunately, they managed financially to break even in the first twelve months.}

_{They made several investments in new catering equipment to improve the quality and service to their customers and now manage to get more time off during the winters, opening at weekends and in school holidays, and they keep investing in the café every year.}

_{They hosted the 2001 Reunion and it was just like old times seeing so many familiar, and not so familiar, faces in the café once again.}

_{But nobody seems to know for certain who Bunty was!}