Melling Church and Ainsdale Beach

So, for the next week we will not cruise far by boat but instead have the opportunity to explore the local area - or even a bit further away. This time the stop is not enforced by floods but rather by the limitations of the Ribble Crossing.

Melling Church

It had taken us a little time and debate last night, coupled with a couple of late phone calls, to sort out a church service for this morning. There were three within close distance of the canal each having its own web site. However, this was a fifth Sunday: almost unique in large organisations, churches often have a schedule that requires people to know which Sunday in the month it is. They often advertise a regular pattern for four Sundays in a month but the occasional fifth sometimes gets overlooked!

In the end we opted to go to the village church near to where we had moored overnight. Melling is a small village just outside the urban boundary. The service was at 10 am and in the form of Morning Prayer, based on the format in Common Worship. The team vicar explained to us that they are more traditional than two of the four churches in the team but not as formal as the main church in Maghull. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that although they see it as traditional, their liturgy would have been unrecognised only 15 years ago.

It was a pleasant and relaxed atmosphere with around 35 people, mostly those with more years than others! afterwards we were made especially welcome and Mike was even given a special tour of the west gallery!

There has been a church on this site for many centuries but the present building owes much to a structure from the 1830's, rebuilt and extended some forty years later after it had been neglected for a while. The present church was completely redecorated inside last year.

One of the stained glass windows had been given in memory of a husband who had died in the Hillsborough disaster over 20 years ago.

After coffee and biscuits we set off to walk back to the boat and almost immediately embarked on the long cruise of the day: just under a mile taking all of twenty minutes! All that we needed to do was to move up to Maghull where the car had been left alongside the canal.

We had lunch and then used the car to explore a little of the nearby coast. We headed first to Formby Point but were somewhat underwhelmed by the demand for £4.50 to park the car, whether all day or just for half an hour! We turned around and then went on to the National Trust car park a mile up the coast. £5!

Birkdale Beach - looking north

We continued to the coast road towards Southport and turned down the road to Ainsdale beach, next to Pontins. The highwayman here also demanded £5 so we decided that this must be the going rate in the part of the world (a sign on the main road warned of a lack of car parking in the main town centre, diverting drivers to a park and ride)

For the next two hours we walked along the beach - a huge, flat sandy area with the sea only just visible out in the distance! Apart from the sand, and above the beach seemingly endless dunes, the only immediate interest was in counting the millions of razor shells which are strewn across the beach.

Occasionally we saw what we presumed to be the remains of stranded jellyfish, between 200 and 350 mm across. At least they were in no condition to sting!

Southport Pier

Blackpool in the distance!

Southport pier and the amusement attractions gradually came into sight and in the very hazy distance we could just make out Blackpool tower and the roller coaster.

On the beach itself there were few landmarks - a large log and the stark outline of a long dead shrub were so unusual that they could be seen a long way off.

After almost an hour we looked for a way across the dunes to the coastal road but eventually concluded that it was perhaps to boggy so we returned the way we came, this time straight into the wind (which had not heard the weather forecast so failed to abate at all!)

Still we did see some different jellyfish remains this time - these were rather smaller, perhaps only 150 mm across but with four distinctive shapes in the centre.

Sand blowing and Mersey-bound ship

The wind was also blowing sand along the surface of the beach. A photo cannot capture the sense of the movement, almost like waves which were particularly striking when walking towards the wind. However, rather like a rainbow, the more you walk towards them, the more they seem to move away into the distance and cannot be seen at one's feet.

After two hours of fresh air we were ready to be tempted by the ice cream van we had seen when we arrived but alas it had already packed up and gone home! Nothing for it but to drive back to the boat and prepare our usual Sunday roast. At least we have Gary Dutton's lamb to look forward to!

1 mile - 0 locks