School summer holidays start this week.

madness going abroad in july/august.too hot, costs alot more and the weather this year is no different to being at home.

Pity is, a lot of our seaside towns are so run down now. In the NW, Souhport, Blackpool, Morecambe are not like they once were.

went to southport last summer. the beach appeared to be just marshland now

Marine protected rights for the birds other wild life and plants.

Our parents used to take us to the beach back in the 1950s, could take your car on the beach and drive from Southport to Ainsdale and park anywhere you wanted for free.

Took my own children in the 80s, small charge then.

Move on 40 years and you cannot go on. No one has been allowed on the Pier for 4 years for H&S reasons.

In general the place is run down and a disgrace. The fun fair and zoo went decades ago. Still a bit of a mini fair ground but it is not up to much.

Lord Street was once the be all and end all. Not half the stores and shops selling quality goods. Mostly tat and junk food outlets now.

Sad to see. We travel up the coast to Lytham now to shop or have a nice day out. It is the last place on the Lancashire coast with a bit of class left.

i took my car onto the beach there early 80's. the sea was miles out, drove right up to the waters edge and got stuck.in came the tide.the car was actually bobbing up n down for a while. guy turned up with a tow truck, pulled off the bumper bar ! eventually got it out, got as far as ormskirk on the way back home and it ground to a halt. towed it back home down the motorway next day, got £30 scrap for it. the guy with the tow truck cost me £20. happy days !

Hillman Imp?

Happy times. Even when you got to the sea you could walk out as far as you wanted and it would only go up to your knees.

Used to take our greyhounds there about 6am and gallop them on the sands, safe as houses and no one for miles. McCain was training is horses up at Ainsdale around the same time.

Sefton Council would be having fits if that happened now.

because the sand was compacted you could walk all the to southport along it (was worth the effort then), just keep away from the dunes which are very hard work. we did it a few times as kids during the summer months. about 15 miles

Hugo-Hackenbush

Hillman Imp?

Fiat 127 Special

Southport, New Brighton and West Kirby were our go to places in the Summer holidays. Couldn't afford to go abroad so it was just days out. Getting the ferry to New Brighton from the Pier Head was a great experience for a kid alone.

better not to be on your own

we used to holiday in new brighton. hard to believe given how filthy the murkey was then. no wonder im deformed

some of the photos are insane

if the tower, britains tallest building at the time had survived it might have saved the gaff

Kids were made of harder stuff in them days, from memory there was an indoor and outdoor fair at NB.

Used to get the steam train at Rufford station, change at Ormskirk on to the electric line to Liverpool Central, tram to ferry to Pier Head and sail across the Mersey to to New Brighton, exiting day out for a 7yo in 1959. An ice cream and a stick of rock if we behaved. Rhyl or Llandodo was our weeks holiday away. Our old van even got us to Tenby one year. Good times indeed.

My Dad only got the two wakes weeks in July and that was his lot for a year.

Llandodo is now extinct.

Imagine they started here 3 weeks ago