The Morecambe Bay Podcast

One of the more unusual features in the diary of events taking place around Morecambe Bay returns over the festive period. The annual Dip in Morecambe Bay in aid of St John's Hospice will take place on New Year's Day morning. Hundreds of hardy souls - many wearing fancy dress - will take part in the event which brings in much needed support for the charity, enabling it to continue the work carried...

The memories of Storm Arwen are still strong around Morecambe Bay. The first bad storm of the winter brought down powerlines cutting off homes and leaving communities without power for days. The disruption caused by the storm, which unusually blew in from the north, affected many all around the Bay. You don’t have to travel far to see evidence of the destruction caused. Trees that had stood proud...

Charlie Overett is a true 'sand grown'un'. He grew up living opposite the Central Pier in Morecambe, close to where the town's fishing fleet would land their catches. And it was here that at the tender age of 13 that he and his mates would use borrowed rowing boats to escort cross-Bay swimmers back to Morecambe from Grange. This taste of Morecambe maritime life set him on a career that was to take...

Get outside, learn and connect with nature: that's the key to overcoming the impact the pandemic has had on some sections of the community around Morecambe Bay. The Bay: A Blueprint for Recovery is a new group created with support from the People's Postcode Lottery to bring together a host of organisations. From Fleetwood to Walney Island, with help from Lancashire and Cumbria Wildlife Trusts, the...

Morecambe's Winter Gardens is one of those structures that oozes atmosphere. It's a beautiful building which once played host to the likes of George Formby, Gracie Fields, Vera Lynn, the Who and the Rolling Stones. Working hard to raise the money needed to prevent the ravages of time taking hold are a small dedicated band of volunteers. This week they had some good news - the building was awarded...

Stunning artwork produced by a man inspired by Morecambe Bay is on show in Lancaster's City Museum. Titled ‘Reginald Aspinwall: a troubled landscape’, it focuses on a celebrated landscape painter who lived and worked in Lancaster from 1870 until his death in 1921. He painted many local scenes including Heysham beach, Sunderland Point and the fishermen of Morecambe Bay. But, as the title suggests,...

Chas Jacobs has become familiar as an artist whose distinct work has helped spread the appeal of Morecambe Bay. From working in industry he's made painting a career and for 18 years has been passing on his skills and enthusiasm to a whole new generation, a number of whom are now artists in their own right. And his appeal is global with work in demand from ex pats living around the world. For this...

It's certainly different and it really made me think: a dance performance in a woodland that's bordered by a by pass, a housing estate and within a stones throw of a wind farm. Underlie is part of the Entangled arts festival which is on from Sept 18th-26th. Heysham Moss is an area I know well. I grew up living close by and the dance portrays the history of the area, no mean feat given there's a ca...

Walney Island is fast becoming a mecca for visitors. They're making the most of the brilliant beaches, ample food available nearby and maybe even enjoying the views of the Bay. But these visitors aren't human. The seal colony there is thriving and a new arrival, a seal pup born just a few weeks ago, is the latest arrival. Georgia de Jong Cleyndert is the Marine Conservation Officer for the North W...

How often have you thought 'I must write that book...'? How hard is it? And what does it feel like when a publisher finally says 'yes'?  Sarah Dodd's debut novel has just been published and it's loosely based on the Bay.  Keeper of Secrets is set in the village of Littendale, a fictionalised version of Silverdale and the book, about a child's encounter with a lynx, was heavily inspired b...

With magnificent views over a wide sweep of Morecambe Bay, the lido at Grange over Sands was a popular spot with swimmers and sun worshippers for decades. Built in 1932 the art deco structure is the only surviving seaside lido in the north west and one of only 4 in England. In 1993 it closed and fell into disrepair becoming blot on the Bay. In recent months efforts to reopen it have taken a step f...

It's billed as a project that will inspire 'wonder and a connection with the natural world.' The Eden Project North could also bring 400 jobs and help attract millions of pounds of investment to Morecambe. The development could open in 2024. With Lancaster City Council agreeing to a plan to transfer seafront land which was once the site of the Bubbles fun pool to the project (subject to planning p...

Do you remember Frontierland? The theme park may be long gone and the hoardings that surround it have become a longstanding feature but they are now becoming an attraction in their own right. The reason? A group of artists have used the blue boards as an unlikely canvas to display an amazing array of artwork.

This weekend's edition of the podcast features someone who has spent nearly two decades trying to help people living in one community around Morecambe Bay. As local journalist Mike Whalley explained earlier in this series, the West End of Morecambe has undergone major changes from the heyday of tourism in the town in the 1950s and 60s to the era when former boarding houses were converted into flat...

The National Trust is a major custodian of a variety of land all around Morecambe Bay, from the rocky cliffs at Heysham Head to the sandy expanse of Sandscale Haws and numerous sites in between. One of those is Eaves Wood, an amazingly diverse landscape near Silverdale, where a new route for walkers has just been opened up. If you're a fan of wildlife it's on the flight path to the nearby RSPB res...

Sound transports us: it might be one reason why you’re listening to this podcast. A group of artists around Morecambe Bay have worked to create a live stream of the sound of a part of the Bay. The southernmost tip of Walney Island is inaccessible and a mecca for wildlife. Now, thanks to the work of Full of Noises, listeners can eavesdrop on nature in this remote part of the Bay. It’s part of an in...

#VolunteersWeek podcast It began as a way of beating the boredom of lockdown and has now grown into a thriving community group. Linda Denby got fed up with seeing rubbish during her daily exercise and began picking it up. Others followed her lead and the Carnforth Wombles were launched. Supported by Carnforth Town Council they recently collected their 1,000th bag of rubbish. Now other neighbourhoo...

A good journalist knows that contacts and curiosity are vital. As reporter, news editor and then editor of the Morecambe Visitor, Mike Whalley has been proudly part of the area since the heady days of the 1950s and 60s. The town may have changed but the skills needed to find and tell stories have not. Even in retirement Mike continues to write for the paper. As editor Mike was at the helm when a h...

Few can know as much about Morecambe as Mike Whalley. As a trainee reporter at the Morecambe Visitor in the 1950s he was catapulted into life in a resort that was enjoying a growing reputation as the place to come.  With a lengthy and varied list of venues to enjoy, Morecambe in the 50s and 60s boomed and attracted thousands of visitors from industrial Lancashire and West Yorkshire. As a repo...

As well as tourists, Morecambe has attracted its fair share of film makers over the years. From celebrated producers like Mitchell and Kenyon to visitors coming to the town today, the view, the people and the attractions there have been preserved for posterity. This Bank Holiday weekend there's a chance to see some of them at the Winter Gardens which also has featured many times in pictures over t...

Despite a severe motorbike accident, contracting swine flu and meningitis twice, Darryl Potter makes the most of living by the Bay.  A wheelchair user, he's only recently begun taking pictures and sharing them on social media. His tongue in cheek choice of name for his Instagram account maybe offers an insight into his positive outlook on life.  Known as 'Bay Clicky Roller' on a very wet...

Despite a severe motorbike accident, contracting swine flu and meningitis twice, Darryl Potter makes the most of living by the Bay.  A wheelchair user, he's only recently begun taking pictures and sharing them on social media. His tongue in cheek choice of name for his Instagram account maybe offers an insight into his positive outlook on life. Hear more from 'Bay Clicky Roller' in this weekend's...

It was to become an event that attracted millions of viewers, enjoy its fair share of scandal as well as inject glamour into a post-war Lancashire seaside resort. Miss Great Britain began in 1945 as the National Bathing Beauty Contest, a joint venture between The Sunday Dispatch newspaper, Morecambe Corporation and Eric Morley's Mecca Entertainment Group with heats taking place at the Super S...

Imagine growing up without electricity, in a place where all water came from a well and where your neighbour helped feed your family. For Iris Birks, these are some of her vivid recollections growing up on Sunderland Point, the spit of land jutting out into Morecambe Bay south of Heysham. Her prowess with a boat at a young age, and the fact she has never learned to swim, are just some of the highl...

Entertainment has long been a part of the appeal of Morecambe. The area once boasted an array of theatres, cinemas and entertainment venues to rival other resorts. Jenny Reeves is Morecambe’s dance artist in residence and uses performance to tell the Bay’s history to a brand new audience: