Our Chairman’s book “Making Shore” by Sara Allerton has been so succesful another 1000 are to be made available. The book is now in most Libaries and is worth reading. We are expecting MGM to be contacting him soon!!!!
Why is it that some people talk in hushed tones about the Albatross speed boat?
Perhaps it is simply because it was a true icon of water sport fifty years ago.
At a time when people were beginning to appreciate relatively fast speedboats and the new craze of water skiing was beginning to spread, the Albatross was the right product at the right time. It was a speedboat designed for water skiing, racing and fun. It was reasonably affordable (it cost about £600, the same as a Mini at the time), had beautiful looks, good performance, the convenience of a proven, inboard engine when outboards were notoriously fickle, and it was readily available.
The product caught on immediately. They were exported to France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Holland, Germany, Greece, the USA and the Middle East – and probably elsewhere. Famous owners included Prince Philip,- presented to him as a tender for the Royal Yacht – Prince Rainier of Monaco, Aristotle Onassis, Brigitte Bardot, George Formby, Sir Bernand & Lady Docker, actor Jon Pertwee, the Rothschilds and the Prince of Greece.
Where did the story begin? By the end of 1950, an aluminium prototype 2-seater speedboat had been built by a couple of former Fleet Air Arm Pilots, the Honourable Peter Hives, son of Rolls-Royce chairman Lord Hives, and Archie Peace, who had set up a boatbuilding concern near Great Yarmouth in Norfolk.
At first, they used the Ford 93A 1172cc side valve engine, quickly moving on to the Ford Anglia 100E when it became available, with a few special modifications.
Although they were capable of achieving about 33mph, inevitably more speed and more power were demanded and 1100, 1300 and eventually 1500 Ford Cortina engines were used to power the popular two-seaters from the late 1950s onwards.
4-seaters were built as well and there were also limited editions, such as the Alpine, with a twin-carburetter Sunbeam Rapier Rootes engine and capable of achieving 40mph. Then some were fitted with a Coventry Climax engine with 82bhp output, the power unit for the early Lotus Elite car, and it is also rumoured that some had a Shorrocks blower although they may have been retro-fitted.
Another legendary name associated with Albatross is that of Ray Wright. He had joined in 1954 as a draughtsman.
Unfortunately Archie Peace contracted multiple sclerosis at the age of 40; he gave up Albatross Marine which closed down in 1966. His last ventures were a Mk.V to be built in GRP, and an 18ft design to be powered by a 4·2litre Jaguar engine. The latter never got beyond the drawing board.
Ray Wright had already left the firm and started anew with fellow employee Neville Colman. They had seen that the writing was on the wall – Peace wouldn’t let go – so they started building the Delta in 1963. It was an improvement on the Mk.II two-seater Albatross and slightly bigger. They produced them until about 1969 and then went over to GRP.
Possibly as many as 1,200 Albatrosses were built, about 800 were two-seaters (600 of them Mk.Is) and 400 four-seaters. The Gold dust boat is the Climax because only 164 were built as both 2- and 4-seaters.
By Geoff Cunliffe
Although we use the name Fairhaven Lake today, it hasn’t always been known as that.
In 1926, Lord Ashton of Lancaster, the man who made a fortune out of linoleum, bought the lake and its surrounding park from the Fairhaven Estate Company for £34,000 and then presented it to the Lytham St.Annes Corporation.
Lord Ashton also gave the park known as Ashton Gardens to the people of the Borough in 1914. Apparently he was showing how grateful he was for all the pleasure the resort had given him.
From then on, what we now know as Fairhaven Lake became known as the Ashton Marine Park. It was a name which lasted until well into the 1960s at least, and some boat tickets of the day carried that name as well as that of Fairhaven Lake.
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!
By Geoff Cunliffe
When Thomas Riley built Fairhaven Lake in the 1890s, he also built a golf course alongside it. That was the Fairhaven Golf Club, and it was indeed the start of the club which still exists today behind the Hall Park Estate and the Fylde Rugby Club.
The club house was what is now the lake café. The golf course started by running up the inland side of the lake; there were no tennis courts or bowling greens, nor was there the hedge which now separates the present sporting facilities from the lake itself. It ran as far as St.Paul’s Avenue, dog-legged across the top end of the lake, continued up the seaward side of the lake and stretched as far as The Bungalow at Cartmell Road before returning to the present café.
But this Utopian lifestyle was short-lived because on Thursday 9th October 1896, the tide broke through the outer stanner bank at the St.Paul’s Avenue end, flooding all the low lying land adjoining the lake including the Club House and much of the golf links. As the ‘Blackpool Times’ reported:
“One of the strangest effects of the storm and tempest of last week was the inundation of a large tract of land at the new growing watering-place of Fairhaven. The fury of the big waves, dashing with much persistence on the new sea wall running along a portion of the front, was such that the wall gave way for some distance along, and in a moment there was a vast rushing of waters across the long strip of low-lying land comprising the golf links of the Fairhaven Golf Club. The onrush of the waters, with such unexpected suddenness and with such impetuous force, took by surprise some members who were in the club house, and the stewardess, Mrs. Davenport. They were quickly surrounded by the rushing waters, and as the depth of the water was rapidly increasing they had no alternative but to wade ashore. Furniture was fetched from the house in boats, and deposited upon the shore of the now huge newly-formed lake, for the whole area of the links right away to The Bungalow was submerged, and the strong sou’ wester lashed the water into great waves. It was impossible to empty lockers in the Clubhouse and the red coats and golf clubs of members were rendered useless by their contact with the salt water. Quickly the water rose as the tide rushed in, until the waves actually reached the eaves of the Club-house, washing to and fro as though they would tear the building from its foundations.”
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.
That replacement Club House also still exists; it was converted into a pair of houses numbered 1 & 3 St.Paul’s Avenue when the Golf Club moved to its present course in 1924.
By Geoff Cunliffe
The idea of having boat rallies and Regattas on Fairhaven Lake is not new.
We have found an advertisement, albeit a rather tatty one, for the eighth regatta and that is dated 1907, making the first one 1900.
It lists activities of the sort that would not be out of place in a general fun Regatta today – swimming and rowing races, a water Derby on a wooden horse, a mop tilting tournament and a laughable water sketch (their description), all culminating in a grand firework display by Brocks of Crystal Palace.
It would also appear that the Band of the Lancashire Royal Garrison Volunteers attended, by kind permission of Colonel Foster.
Admission was six old pence or one shilling, five new pence, for a reserved seat in the stand.
The early regattas were organised by the Fairhaven Sailing Club up to the outbreak of World War II in 1939. A 1939 programme has an advertisement for the Clifton Arms in Lytham, which offered a week’s inclusive accommodation for four guineas, and the nearby Fairhaven Hotel offered lunch at 3/6d, tea at 1/6d and Dinner for 5/-. It is thought that those charges had not increased for the eleven years since 1928!
Annual Regattas re-commenced after World War II and the Lancashire Hydroplane Racing Club from Carr Mill near St.Helens contributed to the evening’s entertainment with hydroplanes tearing round the lake in a melee which few understood but which many enjoyed! At this time, water skiing was introduced and, with the passing of the
years, more ambitious tricks were learnt and a more sophisticated ski shows were planned.
The shows also produced their eccentrics – there was Bill Red-Jones with his “driverless” boat (which, in reality, was controlled by skier Bill himself with then state-of-the-art electronics). There was an Autogyro – a sort of unpowered helicopter which was pulled by a speed boat. That made its rotor turn giving the contraption lift. Then there were the boats which were borrowed for the shows to enable more skiers to perform at once: these included the Dowty Turbocraft which Jack Nuttall lent and which was driven over the ski ramp on one. Then there was the Higgins, a huge, lumbering, wooden-built speedboat belonging to Colin Hargreave, which was brought down primarily to tow five skiers at once for a pyramid. It had a cockpit like an American car (it was itself an American craft) and although not particularly fast, it would do the same speed with many skiers behind it.
Annual regattas continued until the mid 1960s, and a last, special one was held in 1972 as part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations for the joining of the towns of St.Annes and Lytham to form the Borough of Lytham St.Annes.
By Geoff Cunliffe
When “My Fair Lady” was launched by the Mayoress of Lytham St.Annes, Mrs Travis Carter, on 19th July 1959, it was a grand affair. It took place on a summer Saturday at lunchtime, and, on a glorious day, the landing stage around the yacht area was filled with civic dignitaries and miscellaneous invited guests. As the sun shone, the ceremony was recorded for posterity, including the part when the new boat, having been launched, was skilfully guided back to the stage by Lyn Jones who had hidden in it during the ceremony and who presented the Mayoress with some flowers “With the complements of the Manager and Staff”.
Cine film taken on the day, shot from an accompanying Albatross, shows that the Mayor and Councillors then enjoyed a trip round the lake in the new launch, in beautiful sunshine, piloted by Taffy (Trevor Parry). It is understood that the only problem which became apparent was that the exhaust was a little too low on the transom and it bubbled a bit.
Anyone who has piloted “My Fair Lady” around the lake, or used her for towing the ski ramp, spraying orthodichlorobenzene on the weed or carrying photographers to various sites, will remember her as a fine craft.
The council had authorised manager George Jones to build “a suitable craft to replace the existing launch at an estimated cost of £700, provision for this expenditure to be made in the estimates for 1958-59 and 1959-60”. She was designed by the lake manager George Jones, built and completely fitted out by all the lake staff.
The previous launch, “Fairhaven”, was a vessel which had been built at Allison’s Boat Yard at Freckleton in the latter half of the 1920s. Although past her sell-by date by the mid 1950s, she was still a lady of character. She was powered by a Kelvin petrol engine (woe betide anyone who put the motor boat 2-stroke fuel into her) which you hand started, having slid the top and left hand side of the engine cover forward, and you were shown the way to hold the starting handle so you didn’t break your thumb in case she kicked back. The engine was very quiet. The throttle was a small, brass screw arrangement which you wound – clockwise to open, anticlockwise to close. But most intriguing of all was the reversing mechanism. The drive to the propeller did not pass through a gearbox which would have enabled the screw to reverse. Instead, steering was by what was called a bucket tiller which was controlled by a large, brass wheel which you wound many revolutions (sometimes frantically) to alter the direction of the drive. This brass wheel changed the orientation of what were, in effect, two quarter spheres, located behind the propeller. When they were closed together, presenting a sort of closed bucket effect to the water leaving the prop and forcing the thrust from the propeller back under the keel to give a reversing effect; when the two quarter spheres were “opened” and were at 90° to the propeller, they presented a clear path to the thrust from the propeller, giving a forwards drive effect.
It all sounds very mysterious and complicated, as it was until the penny dropped with you, but it was a system, which worked and did so reasonably well. Memories fade, but it is thought there must have been somewhere between six and ten complete revolutions of the brass wheel to totally change direction of the thrust. There was an indicator plate, by the throttle, which showed the orientation of the buckets. Its pointer was missing and you usually had to push a matchstick into the thing so you could see what it was trying to tell you! One secret, which can now be told, is that one contract holder who drove this launch (and now doesn’t live locally), perfected the technique of swinging her round in the narrow, baths area at the top of the lake. It was only possibly due to the steering effects which could be obtained by familiarity with the bucket tiller system.
The two launches were very different to drive. “Fairhaven” was near silent, but it had to be swung by hand, leaked quite a bit and needed some a distance to stop. “My Fair Lady” was always quite noisy, thanks to its 8hp Stuart Turner diesel, but she would stop quickly and generally was easy to pilot. You landed both differently – with “Fairhaven”, you pointed the bow at the stage and somebody looped the front painter over the mooring post. You then could swing the stern in then heave the boarding gangway over the edge of the vessel. With “My Fair Lady”, you had to berth her side on, which required a little more skill, especially in rough weather.
But that is all water under the bridge. “My Fair Lady” became unserviceable and was in need of more repair than the present lake staff could undertake. The decision was taken to replace her, and the council allocated a sum of money to purchase a replacement.
That replacement duly arrived and was launched this spring. There have been many comments that for £33,000, the alleged cost of the new launch, it should have been possibly to buy something that looks less like an aluminium ex-army landing craft! Anyway, on the 15th. March, the Mayor of Fylde, Councillor Patricia Fieldhouse, arrived at 1pm to name her “Jubilee”. The day served as a reminder to those of us who had forgotten just how cold it can be at Fairhaven Lake. The third launch brings the third type of motive power with it for this vessel, made by Thanetcraft of Teddington, is propelled by an electric motor powered by rechargeable batteries.
What a contrast to the launching of “My Fair Lady”. This naming took place on an out-of-season Friday afternoon and the ceremony was somewhat drawn out because the flash of one of the two photographers wouldn’t function (would you have flashed in that temperature!!!). There were virtually no on-lookers – just a few councillors and half a dozen of the old gang who had quickly rung round each other having spotted some minor reference to the ceremony at the bottom of an inside page of the local paper. Oh yes, the Mayor tried to launch some golden balloons as well but that didn’t go too well either due to the high wind! How things have changed at Fairhaven Lake!
The tailpiece to this article is sad. The bell and brass plate have been missing for some years and it has to be reported that “My Fair Lady” was cut up and scrapped in the top shed where she had been so proudly built over forty years previously! Remember the gleaming engine cover, lovingly fabricated out of some surplus desks in the Borough Surveyor’s Department in the Town Hall. A desperately sad end indeed.
By Geoff Cunliffe
(The annual regattas went on and all sorts of funny things happened)
In 1936, Lytham St.Annes Corporation stopped running its trams. They had the problem of getting rid of them so their bodies were taken to Fairhaven Lake and they were set up as a castle with girders and Hessian prior to them being set alight as part of the spectacular firework and bonfire display for the 1936 Regatta.
It was an extremely hot September afternoon but, to be sure these trams went up as the grand finale of the firework display, the Highways Department pumped petrol on to them all afternoon and you could see flammable vapours fuming off continuously.
Eight o’clock; the regatta was on, a flotilla of decorated boats had come past and the announcement was made that the Mayor will now set fire to the castle. The Mayor stepped forward with a flaming torch to start the fire and there was a tremendous explosion. The Mayor emerged from hospital five weeks later although the rest of the civic dignitaries who were further away were merely blown flat on their backs!
Everybody who had taken part in the carnival, in their full kit, jumped into the dinghies and paddled across from the landing stage to try to help. The girders in the former tram bodies were white hot with the heat whilst rockets were showering down everywhere. Next thing, there were ambulances screaming down the car park.
The blaze itself was a sensation, and my witness tells me that everyone else thoroughly enjoyed it!
By Geoff Cunliffe
