Click on a link to the right
(more content to be added during October)

Click here for the Fairhaven Golf Club Website
(Opens in a new page)

FAIRHAVEN GOLF CLUB

Fairhaven, which is situated between Lytham and St.Annes, was the creation of Fleetwood contractor, Thomas Riley. He started developing the area in 1892, and from 1895, his work was carried on by the Fairhaven Estate Company. The project involved turning the 264 acres of sand dune that lay on the seaward side of Clifton Drive into a middle-class residential district, and, forming Fairhaven Lake.

In 1895, Fairhaven Golf Club was formed. The links were on the slopes Of the lake and alongside the Double Stanner - a huge ridge of shingle. Rooms in the Clifton Arms Hotel, Lytham, served as the first clubhouse until a bungalow for that purpose was constructed by the lake.

Less than 18 months after the club was formed disaster struck when the combination of a high tide and strong gales caused the sea wall to collapse, inundating the lake, golf links and clubhouse. This was only a temporary setback though. The club was soon back on its feet and in 1900 moved into a new clubhouse in St.Paul’s Avenue.

The golf links were, in the early 1900s, on the seaward side of Clifton Drive. After the construction of King Edward VII School, additional land was leased on the other side of the Drive. Because the club had no security of tenure it was faced with the constant task of remodelling the course every time new houses were erected. Cessation of building during the 1914-18 war gave the club a reprieve, but in the 1920s the club had to search for a new site.

The club was fortunate in being able to secure a site within Lytham Hall Park, near the ancestral home of the Clifton family. This, the present course, opened in 1924 and the clubhouse opened the following year.

"A History of Fairhaven Golf Club," written by Alan Chamberlain was published in 1995.