With the current conversations and discussion about extending the tram service from Squires Gate to St. Anne’s and then onto Lytham, there is fantastic footage on You Tube of the then brand new electric tram route taken on 28th May back in 1903 You will find this excellent film at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhmo8fEU67s Stills from this brilliant film illustrate this article.
This first rate You Tube video has encouraged a wealth of local comments including:
‘Fantastic footage of my home town Lytham taken in 1903. It’s surprising that little has changed over the years in the town and also in the part of the footage in St. Anne’s Square and its finish in Square Gate in Blackpool. It would be good if a tram service returns to Lytham from Squires Gate.’
‘’Lytham Green hasn’t changed that much it’s still a beautiful place to stroll.’
‘Lytham has always been quite an affluent area and still is today.’
Commenting on how differently people looked and behaved over a century ago is illustrated by comments such as:
‘It’s really interesting how every single person is dressed up, even the children. It’s like going into public was a show of respect for yourself and others. I’ve noticed this respect in public in videos and film from the 1880’s all through the early 1980’s… that seems like about the time common courtesy and respect went out the window. I doubt in 116 years people will look back at this moment in the same way. There is an innocence, in public anyway, that has been lost.’
Another commentator adds this excellent information if you go onto Google Maps at Lytham Sea Front & Select Street View:
‘To view where the camera was go to 53.735626, -2.964551 (copy/paste). The tripod was actually around 100ft to the south of this but you still get a good impression on Street View – it’s fascinating doing a then and now comparison.
Many of the house fronts have had the wrought iron railing fences replaced with hedges. The beach front buildings at 1.45 are gone, replaced by a flag staff.
Ref; 2.04 ; Lytham Pier –
The Pier, which was designed by Eugenius Birch as the first pleasure attraction in Lytham, was opened by Lady Eleanor Cecily Clifton on 17 April 1865. It was 914 feet long and with continuous seating and gas lighting all along its deck. At first there was only a lounge and waiting room at the pier-head, to serve the passengers for the pleasure steamers docking there, but in 1892, at a cost of £12,000, the Pavilion was built half way along the deck.
In 1895 the Pier Company collapsed, but when it re-formed it enlarged the Pavilion in 1901 and converted the bandstand at the pier-head into the Floral Hall.
In 1903, a storm sent two steel-hulled barges away from their mooring and crashing through the pier. These two sand barges were owned by Preston Navigation Company who paid for the £1,400 repair bill, following a court case.
The pier fell into disrepair following a fire in 1928 when the pavilion was burnt out. In 1959, and in spite of a residents’ petition of 2,593 signatures, the Town Council refused to pay the £5,000 needed to save it, and so it was demolished in 1960.’
