36–38 Wood Street, Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, FY8 1QR
Now a well-known seaside resort, Lytham’s origin as a fishing village is recalled in the name of this Wetherspoon pub.
Prints and text about The Trawl Boat Inn.
The text reads: The name of this Wetherspoon freehouse recalls the time when Lytham depended on fishing and boat building. It also preserves the memory of an earlier Trawl Boat Inn, which flourished at Heyhouses until the 1880s.
The safety of fishermen was largely in their own hands. ‘Charlie’s Mast’, originally a cart shaft with a light on top, and later transformed into a flagpole, was set up by Charlie Townsend in the early 1800s as a guide to mariners.
Later, a stone lighthouse was built on Lytham beach, but collapsed in a storm in 1863. A wooden successor stood until 1901 on a West End sand dune, a site now on Lightburne Avenue, which was named after it.
The fishermen also served as lifeboat men. The Lifeboat Monument commemorates the crews of the St Annes and Southport lifeboats who were drowned saving the sailors on board the German barque Mexico in 1886. The Lytham crew retuned safely.
External photograph of the building – main entrance.
If you have information on the history of this pub, then we’d like you to share it with us. Please e-mail all information to: pubhistories@jdwetherspoon.co.uk