This walk starts at Fleetwood Museum Fleetwood Museum was built as a Customs House, to keep records of people and goods entering Fleetwood from the Ferry. If it weren’t for the Ferry and the Railway, Fleetwood wouldn’t exist. This was a rabbit warren and no one was living here it was an empty piece of Land from Rossall Hall which was at the site of the now Rossall School. At times in history, Fleetwood was not only a peninsula but it was also an island as the Wyre used to split and reach the sea near Rossall itself, but dreading and the seawall changed that permanently.
At various points people would arrive here from Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland, Barrow in Furness and on. When Decimus Burton designed and built the town the ferry started here and the Railway ended here. You would leave Euston Station in London and arrive at the North Euston in Fleetwood, a hub for the North. The customs house was the first building finished in the new town that still survives to this day. Today it is the Museum though in the past as well as a Customs House it has also been Fleetwood Town Hall and the Council was based here before Wyre Council existed.
Behind us is the big blue ABP building built in 1975 as part of the bridge used for the RoRo Ferry port to the Isle of Man and Ireland until the RoRo Ferry closed in 2010 as the port needed a lot of work and the entire channel dredging. The RoRo ferry now travels from Heysham port which we can see further around the prom.
Please draw either the big blue RoRo ferry bridge or the museum, before we continue.
As we move around we quickly get to the ferry cafe, and the shops there. In between the shops and the RNLI building is the ferry boat to Knott End, many different boats have served as the ferry here, many were old fishing boats, where you would have to climb up and over the hull of the boat to embark each end. The boat that does the crossing now is the Wyre Rose a purpose-built ferry that sails when the tide is in.
If the tide is in and you can afford it, take the ferry and sit on the other side and sketch Fleetwood as LS Lowry did, his favourite place to go on holiday was Knott End and many sketches of Fleetwood exist. If not sketch the ferry from by the railings, sketch the view towards Knott End.
Near the Ferry, there is a building that says “ICES” on the roof. This was once part of the Custom’s House and was their Watch Post to watch boats coming into port.
If you want to see more go onto the beach near the ferry look northeast and you can see a big blocky building which is Heysham Power Station, Heysham ferry is hidden behind there but you can still see the RoRo Ferries crossing the bay. The Ferry from Heysham goes to the Isle of Man. To get a ferry to Belfast you now need to go to Liverpool or Holyhead to go to Dublin.