Beaching Around in a Post-Mid-Covid Post-Viking Formby

If you are a millionaire on Merseyside, you are most likely to live in Formby. If you are of a lower income living in the area, most likely Formby beach is where you head off for the summer swim. This old Viking settlement has a lot to offer for a one day trip. And you can rub shoulders with some big bucks.

The little town is more of a rural character, sitting on its own, surrounded by nothing but miles of arable land and the coast to the west. 

Formby famous sand dunes are ever changing, the coastline is on an ongoing threat from the sea erosion. The high tides wash away tons of sand each year. There are different attempts to prevent this. At some parts of the Sefton coast a rubble is put to withhold the erosion, residents are encouraged to donate Christmas trees to be planted by the dunes. And some point, we are advised not to climb.

Formby Beach was the location of the first lifeboat station in the UK, established around 1776. The last launch took place in 1916; the foundations of station buildings can be seen on the beach to this day. To honour this, the local Wetherspoons pub in the town is named 'The Lifeboat'. Today, coastal guards are driving along the beach to check on safety.

After climbing and descending from the dunes (it takes some effort), the beach of pleasurable magnitude appears. If you want to take a swim in the Irish Sea, you sometimes have to wait for the high tide. For kids, there are pools with warm water, plenty of them to splash around and about.

Apparently, the erosion of the beach is revealing layers of Mesolithic and Neolithic sediments, often containing the footprints of humans and animals who walked here thousands of years ago. To discover such footprints would be quite exciting, so there is another reason to visit - to step into ancestors footsteps. 

Leading to Formby beach is a vast area of forests, mostly pine, natural and man-made. The trees exposed to strong coastal winds adopt peculiar shapes. The nature reserve begins at the junction of Larkhill Lane and Victoria Road. There is a  unpaved pathway to the beach, through the woodlands. 

The whole of the coastline is managed as a Special Area of Conservation and as a site of Specific Scientific Interest. There is a reserve for the endangered species of red squirrels. Natterjack toads are often heard during the night in spring and summer, the sound described locally as the 'Bootle Organ', whatever it means. Formby is only one of a few sites in England where they will breed.

If you are into asparagus, you may take the asparagus trail organised by National Trust. Not very exciting but if you have spare time, it is an enjoyable walk. 

The long entrance path to the beach starts at the “Millionaires Row”, where the most expensive and exclusive houses on Victoria Road have been built. No wonder they are properly gated. It is a nuisance for the Formby residents to have regular raids of noisy beach-goers every summer.

There are famous names who live or lived here, mostly connected to football: Steven Gerrard, Mike Newell, Howard Kendall, Wayne Rooney, Phil Neal, Brendan Rodgers, Jurgen Klopp, Jordan Henderson,  Adam Lallana, Divock Origi, Raheem Sterling.

The main shopping area is known locally as 'The Village', near the Waitrose superstore. To be honest, there is hardly anything interesting here. An array of shops and coffee houses. Hardly any Viking reminiscence, which is a pity.

The Vikings came to the Lancashire coast in around the year 960 from Ireland which they have already occupied. There is still a local hearsay that the invaders failed the first time on the coast of Formby, so they sailed up the River Alt. They attacked from the rear, apparently from the exact point of where the Dangus Lane, on the east side of the village, is. It is sometimes called Danesgate, as in the Nordic languages.