Day 2 – Lytham Hall, more bracing sea air and a windmill!

Sat morning greeted me with more sunshine, but it was a lot colder than the previous day and the wind on the seafront was icy. After breakfast, I decided to go and explore the grounds of Lytham Hall. The hall was a short drive away and is a Grade I listed Georgian house. It was designed and built for Thomas Clifton between 1752 and 1764. The house is made of red brick with stone dressings and has had surprisingly little done in the way of alterations over the years - but it has still managed to retain all its splendour. Internally, the hall boasts 17 bedrooms, and is said to be haunted. You can go inside the hall at various times throughout the year and do guided tours. Present costs are £8 for adults and £4 for children.

The hall also has around 80 acres of parkland to wander around, much of which is woodland as well as two large ponds. In the grounds, you can also see numerous nesting boxes and a dovecote. There is a small tearoom and a lovely courtyard with outdoor seating, which would be perfect during the summer months.

After visiting the hall, it was time to see another of Lytham’s famous landmarks: the windmill. The tower mill is a Grade II listed building and situated on Lytham Green. It was designed to grind wheat and oats and built around 1805. When commercial milling ceased in 1921, the mill was acquired by Fylde Borough Council. There is also a museum inside the windmill that explains the history and practice of flour milling.

The seafront at Lytham is slightly different to that of St Annes, as there is no sandy beach and instead marshland lines the seafront – it is where the freshwater of the River Ribble estuary marshlands meets the saltwater of the Irish sea. You can walk all the way along the seafront here down a good promenade path that eventually goes round into St Annes. That walk would have been quite a long way to say the least, so I didn’t manage to go quite that far – although I didn’t do too badly!

After all that sea air and bracing breeze, it was time to find a nice little café in the centre of Lytham to get coffee and something to eat. Lytham centre is quite a good size and there is a good selection of shops, along with some cafes and restaurants. The end of my short break was nicely rounded off in the evening with a short stroll from my hotel back into the centre of St Annes to a lovely, and recommended little Italian restaurant called Allegria, which was spot on!