Historical Notes – National Trust, Formby.

Posted by Cliff Birchall on October 8, 2007 3:54 PM

By Dave Wilkinson.

MOST of the land and foreshore between Wicks Lane and Pinfold Lane originally formed part of the Ince Blundell Estate. Metal arrow-topped boundary markers once marked the boundary of the estate. Into each side of the top arrow was cast a large letter “B”. Although these boundary markers were well rusted many could still, in the late 1960s, still be found in situ.

Apart from Fisherman’s Path, Victoria Road and car park, Blundell Avenue and the foreshore, the estate was regarded as private property. Barbed-wire fences adjoined the roads and paths and pole mounted large enamelled “PRIVATE” signs (white lettering on black) were very much in evidence.

The Estate Office was in Birkdale. Two full time manual estate staff were employed. These were the Chief Ranger, Arthur Brown and one Ranger, Dan Postlethwaite.

Dan Postlethwaite was actually seasonal. From recollection he worked from just before Easter until the end of October. He was wholly employed in collecting the parking toll (as I recall, one shilling for a car) and was based in a small hut at the Victoria Road entrance. Dan lived locally in Formby, having lived here since the end of the war. He travelled to and from work each day by bicycle.

As an aside, at the end of the season the corrugated roofed “hut” was carefully loaded on to a flat bed lorry and taken to Arthur Brown’s cottage where it remained until the following year when the process was reversed. It had no floor as such and its entire “furniture” consisted of a long bench and an old table for the cash. When we finished for the day the door was simply bolted on the outside (not locked) and I can never recall it being the subject of damage or theft. There was no telephone or other form of communication nor was there any toilet facilities for staff or public.

Arthur Brown worked full time all year round and lived with his wife in a tied estate cottage (Golf Cottage) that was situated on the shore side of the Liverpool-Southport railway line just north of Fisherman’s Path. He was a gamekeeper/forester by profession and began working for the Ince Blundell Estate just after the Second World War. Although he had a car, he, too, travelled to work each day using his bike. The only time he would use his car for work was if he needed to make an “out of hour’s” visit or in an emergency.

At the weekend during the summer the Ince Blundell Estate employed several part-time Rangers’ (of which I was one). Essentially, the job entailed collecting the car-park toll and patrolling the estate to prevent fires, camping and trespassing on the private areas of the estate. No vehicles were provided and all this was done on foot or (more often) bicycle. The area was immense and encompassed that currently owned by the National Trust and English Nature combined. We wore a broad white armband on which was embroidered the word “RANGER” in black letters and had an authority card signed by the Estate Agent.

In 1965 (I think from memory) Ince Blundell Estate sold a very large parcel of land to the Nature Conservancy Council. This is what is currently Ainsdale Sand Dues National Nature Reserve. They retained ownership of the remainder of their Formby land.

Despite this sale, the staffing situation did not change. The Nature Conservancy wanted to purchase Golf Cottage as accommodation for its newly appointed Head Warden. However, the Estate refused and Arthur Brown continued to live there.

In 1967 nearly all of the remainder of the Ince Blundell Estate at Formby was sold to the National Trust under its Enterprise Neptune scheme. I say nearly all. Sir Maxwell Entwhistle (a lawyer and an extremely wealthy gentleman) owned a large house on the north side of Victoria Road. His boundary abutted the Estate just to the north of where the NT’s entrance building is currently situated. Sir Maxwell was concerned that the public, once the land was transferred to the NT, would encroach upon the grounds of his house. He quickly negotiated the purchase of a “buffer” piece of land along his boundary so as to keep the public at bay! I think that the house has since been demolished and now forms a small private housing estate. I assume the “buffer” land was subsequently acquired by the NT.

With the acquisition of the land, the NT also “took over” Arthur Brown and Dan Postlethwaite. Their respective roles did not change to any great degree. Arthur became the Trust’s first Head Warden at Formby and Dan became a Warden on a year round basis, the car-park toll being taken all year apart, I seem to recall, from Christmas Day and Boxing Day. I continued to work at weekends, now summer and winter being paid £2.10s for the two days and extra for any bank holiday. This was cash in hand and I was paid out of the car-park takings, signing a receipt to that effect.

The Trust appointed an individual entitled “The Local Administrator”. This gentleman was Mr.George Neil. He was a retired local Bank Manager. His was I believe a “part time” appointment. George lived in Lonsdale Road, Formby, and the car-park takings had to be delivered to his home each evening, which he would “bank” the following working day. If we had been particularly busy and the cash was a large amount (by the standards of those days) two of us would (before the acquisition of a vehicle) cycle to his house and deliver the money.

We were never invited inside and the “handover” took place on the back doorstep. Aside from the cash aspect of the job, George issued permits for bird ringing and any other “permissions”. Although only holding a “part time” position, he was Arthur’s line manager. There were no first names between them. It was “Mr. Neil” and “Mr. Brown”. The area office was initially at Ambleside in the Lake District although this later transferred to Attingham Park in Shropshire.

Some time after the Trust began operations at Formby, the Head Warden, Arthur Brown was provided with a short wheel-based Landrover. It was “second-hand” and had been originally in use with the NT in the Lake District. Some other basic equipment was provided, a chain saw, wheelbarrow, axes, spades etc. Nothing particularly “high tec.”

The accommodation did not improve or indeed change. All the equipment (such as it was) was kept at Golf Cottage and brought to work by Arthur each day, as required.

In accordance with NT policy, volunteer wardens began to be appointed. Those whose names I can remember were Stephen Minion, Arthur Tate, Tom Gaffney and Paul Percival. Interestingly none lived locally and all travelled from Liverpool two or three times each week. In those days a green armband, badge and bye-law authority card were issued.

In direct contrast with that of today, there was never (in my time) any active policy of conservation or education of the public at Formby. The “style” of wardening was quite authoritarian. This was I suspect, a throwback to Arthur Brown’s Ince Blundell days when the estate was “private”. Arthur carried a weighted stick and made sure that all the wardens followed his habit.

He stood no nonsense and I saw him use his stick to good effect on more than one occasion. I know that he had been on the receiving end of one or two beatings in his Ince Blundell days and I think it was a case of making sure that he always had the upper hand. They were different times. No radios or mobile ‘phones and you could often be many miles from the nearest telephone or any other form of assistance.

He thought nothing of “bundling” half a dozen young lads in the back of the Landrover and taking them to Formby Police Station if he thought that they had caused damage or had stolen something. I can recall being with him in Blundell Avenue one Saturday morning. We had received a complaint of a number of Army Cadets camping on NT land to the south of Blundell Avenue. They were allowed to do this as a portion of the land was (at that time) leased to the MOD as a training area. However, Arthur’s informant had told him that they were deliberately “barking” a number of young trees.

On our arrival there were several tents in situ plus a number of badly-damaged young trees. Although there were two adult instructors present, no one would “own up” to causing the damage. Arthur told them to pack up their tents and quit the land. The instructors refused saying that they had permission from the MoD. Arthur was very annoyed and started to pull down the tents, instructing me to do likewise.

While we were doing this we noticed that a fair quantity of new wood (planks, timber etc) was stacked nearby. Also inside one of the tents were various tools (electric drills etc). At the time the nearby Harington Barracks housing estate was in the course of completion and it was fairly obvious that the wood and tools had been stolen from there. Without further ado the two instructors and six cadets (by the point of his stick) were locked in the back of the Landrover by Arthur and delivered to the Police Station post haste, while I was left guarding the booty! We did not telephone the police in those days (no telephone) we took the problem directly to them.

Despite National Trust ownership, the barbed wire fences and signs remained in place for many years. The philosophy seemed to be that if the public were kept to the well-trodden paths and roads there would be less likelihood of fires, damage and other unauthorised acts. The end result would be less work for Arthur and his wardens. Not only that, the asparagus growers (mainly the Aindow brothers) were quite influential and were anxious to ensure that public access what kept to a minimum.

I can’t remember the actual date; I think it was a couple of years after the NT had taken over. I know that it was wintertime and that there was thick fog and had been a heavy fall of snow. On that morning Arthur was in the Landrover with his wife. They had been into Formby for some shopping and were returning to Golf Cottage. Arthur had stopped the vehicle on the Montague Road side of the unmanned level crossing at Fisherman’s Path. He alighted and opened the level crossing gates, climbed back into the driver’s seat and began to drive across. Alas, the thick fog and heavy snow must have drowned the sound and obscured sight of an approaching Southport to Liverpool train. Arthur was midway across at the time and the train struck the Land Rover square and side on. They were both fatally injured. One died at the scene and the other a short time after arrival at Southport Infirmary. He had driven over the crossing on what must have been thousands of occasions. I went to his funeral that I think was at St. Luke’s Church and where he and his wife are buried in the churchyard.

Arthur’s death was a great shock locally. He was very well known. Although a very small “wiry” man, he was a larger than life character who continually wore as part of his garb a battered brown trilby. He always had on (winter and summer or so it seems) Wellington boots. In warm weather he would remove his jacket and work in shirt sleeves (always kept his tie and hat on) and also his waistcoat, which was another constant article of apparel. I can only recall seeing him bare-headed on a couple of occasions and that was when the branch of a tree had the audacity to knock his hat off. Quick as a flash he would recover it from the ground and back on it would go.

In inclement weather his favoured garment was a long fawn raincoat with the front flapping open and the collar turned up. Of course, he always had with him a weighted stick. He was always quite aloof and ever so slightly aggressive. I was a bit scared of him. That said I quickly realised that it was all a bit of a “front”. At heart he was a very kind and considerate man who cared very much for the pinewoods and sandhills that were so much a part of his life. He very rarely expressed any emotion but when he laughed they could hear him in Southport.

Arthur’s replacement, the second Head Warden at Formby, was Bill Mawdsley. Bill had previously been an estate worker at Formby Hall. Rather unusually, Bill did not drive and in consequence of this the Trust did not replace the Landrover. It was back to “shanks pony” or the trusty bike. This also meant a return to doing the evening cash run by bike, with (on occasion) the appropriate bike escort to George Neil’s house.

Bill Mawdsley did not occupy Arthur’s Golf Cottage. Bill was a single man who lived with his elderly parents in Formby. This posed something of a problem in that we needed to find some suitable place to store the meagre stock of equipment. Bill and I building a wooden storage hut just at the back of the squirrel reserve solved this. We surrounded it with a barbed wire stockade and although this would probably be regarded as being unsustainable today, as with the car parking hut, no one touched it from a theft or damage point of view whilst I worked there.

On the subject of the squirrel reserve, if I look back I think that probably Bill Mawdsley was its creator. It was he who wired off the area adjacent to the entrance at Victoria Road. The wire fence adjacent to the road itself had been there since Ince Blundell days. He erected a fence from the main road stretching into the woodland to dissuade curious walkers from wandering into the area, which had by that time become well established by squirrels. In addition to the fence he put up two or three signs that were visible from Victoria Road reading “Squirrel Reserve”.

In the early 1970s Dan Postlethwaite was thinking of retiring. He was not in good health and looked about 85, although he was obviously much younger. George Neil asked me if I would be interested in a full time job in the event that Dan chose to leave.

I was about 16 years old at the time was working as an office junior. Although I discussed the matter with my parents I decided against it. The pay was not too good and there were no career prospects as such. Looking back, I would have been surprised if the NT would have considered employing someone as young as I was at that time. Having said that, I can’t imagine George making the tentative offer without discussing the matter with the NT Land Agent who was a gent by the name of Acland.

I carried on working part time for the NT for a further year or so and then joined the Liverpool & Bootle Constabulary. In 1986 I moved to Kent on promotion to Inspector and retired about two years ago after a total of 35 years service. On August 20th 2007, I returned to Formby to live. After being here a week or so I saw in the Formby Times the item relating to the 40th anniversary of the NT purchasing their Formby property. What a coincidence. The wheel has turned full circle!

After leaving the NT, I later learned that Bill Mawdsley died of stomach cancer whilst still in post with the Trust. That was the last snippet of information that came my way before I lost all contact.

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