I’m not sure you can be accused of snobbery if you say that British seaside resorts, especially in the rain-swept North, are past their peak. £15 flights to Ibiza and abundant package deals make it harder than ever to opt for a break in Blackpool or Skegness, especially once you tot up the price of eating or drinking out in the UK. Who in their right mind would splash out more to have a holiday spent anxiously looking at the sky, waiting for the inevitable downpour? Don’t get me wrong, we’ve got plenty of towns by the coast worthy of a visit, Lytham St Annes on Lancashire’s Fylde Coast for example, but they’re never usually larger than village or small town status.
Morecambe is somewhere I’ve always just assumed follows the usual largish seaside resort trend: closed-down shop fronts, building exteriors peeling off, dodgy boozers lined with dodgy bouncers, but my assumption was seriously wide of the mark. I’ve lived in Lancashire my entire life, and never been to Morecambe until my recent trip to watch the football at the town’s Mazuma Mobile Stadium. It’s by no means easy to get to on the train mind, Accrington to Preston, Preston to Lancaster, and then finally Lancaster to Morecambe – and that’s without delays, which let’s face it, are likely to happen.
I was slightly bemused on the journey by Northern's idea of a dryer being an air vent (Image: NQ) My first impression of the place when stepping off was that it looked pretty pleasant, I was anticipat.