Good morning/afternoon/evening and thankyou for visiting my site today as I’ll be sharing my visit to Southport, with a detour to Formby Beach/Forest on the way South to Liverpool.
So it’s Wednesday 2nd November 2022, the weather has turned cold recently so I went prepared with some extra layers and my winter hat. It was also pretty windy on this day. To start my journey I had to return to Burnley Manchester Road to purchase my Lancashire Day Ranger, which was valid after 9am and covered my journey from Burnley – Preston – Wigan – Southport – 8 New Stations – Liverpool – Preston – Burnley. When I arrived at the station I went into the ticket office to find the member of staff sitting behind the screen with a broken ticket machine visible through the glass. Apparently it was faulty so I was unable to buy a ticket! Fortunately the staff on the train were understanding (it’s a penalty fare station) and they issued their first Day Ranger ticket to me.
Fast forward to Preston, followed by Wigan North Western and a not-too-long wait at Wigan Wallgate for the Southport service. It felt colder here and I noticed the station is really in need of some upgrading. Getting off the train at Southport I was amazed at how lovely the terminus station really is, I have been there in the past but only for work so I didn’t pay any attention to my surroundings back then. The town centre itself is also quite nice – has all the basics in various stores and is actually quite scenic with plenty of trees around the main high street. Venturing out towards the coast, Southport offers the attraction of having the second longest Pier in Britain (Wikipedia says 1108 metres) which is certainly worth a walk out to the end and back. If visibility allows you can also faintly see Blackpool Tower in the distance. Another point of interest would be the Marine Lake which is a beautiful area separating the town centre from the coast.
Back to the trains and with Merseyrail offering 15 minute services towards Liverpool and Hunts Cross, I was able to quickly tick off 4 more stations before taking a detour from Freshfield. Birkdale, Hillside and Ainsdale were the first on my list to visit. There wasn’t a lot to say about these stations with the standard two platforms. I noticed an interesting footpath somewhere between Ainsdale and Freshfield so I may have to return one day for a walk. Once I arrived at Freshfield it was time to wander off and explore, I headed in the direction of the Coastal Path (signposts were really helpful here) where I eventually came to the entrance of the Red Squirrel Reserve near Formby Beach.
I can’t think of any words to describe how lovely the woodland was. It definitely had the feeling of being away from civilisation (if you ignore the human-made fencing). I spent maybe an hour walking amongst the trees as well as going out to the sand dunes near the coast. There are a lot of really nice views in this area especially if the weather is nicer. Unfortunately I had a cold wind to battle against and once I was away from any kind of shelter the rain came down with a brutal vengeance and within minutes I was completely soaked. So I made a run back to the woods to obtain some kind of natural shelter and waited for the rain to calm before continuing my journey back to Formby Station to tick off as many stations as I could on my way back to Liverpool. Hightown, Hall Road and Blundellsands & Crosby were the last stations of the day as I had ran out of time for my return home. I didn’t get to see much of these stations as the rain had returned once again and so I spent a majority of my time waiting in the waiting rooms at each station. Not the greatest end to what had been a really enjoyable day out exploring the Merseyside coast.
Now I’m back on my final (or so I thought) Merseyrail train for the day, heading to Liverpool Central from Blundellsands & Crosby. This presents me with a challenge – my arrival into Liverpool Central would give me 12 minutes to get on the train at Lime Street. So what do I do? Make a mad dash through a city I’m not really familiar with and hope to get there in time? Not this time, I received some advice and information that suggested I get off at Moorfields – I made a run down to the Wirral Line platform to get another train to Lime Street, which saved me a lot of time! I also enjoyed the time wandering through the underground-style tunnels before re-emerging on the main concourse of Liverpool Lime Street with around 10 minutes to find my train back to Preston.
Overall it was a really good day, I did everything I wanted to, saw some places I haven’t seen before, ticked off a few more stations and made some plans for future return trips to the area. I also met some great new people online whilst sharing my travels on social media throughout the day.
Thanks again for taking the time to read my latest post. Until next time!