Description
Limestone pillars, conical tops with tip stones, adjacent low walls with roughly embattled tops. The pillars mark either side of the entrances but are partially covered by ivy. History
These pillars mark the original entrances to the Towers at Linden Close, Holmefield Avenue and Wardle Drive. Apart from the two ponds inside the Towers they are the only survivors of the shooting lodge estate by the same name, later to become Highfield College, unfortunately the building was demolished around 1970.
The Towers as a building is very significant in the history of Thornton Cleveleys. In the eighteen hundreds before the area started to move from agriculture to residential, thanks to the I.C.I. site in Thornton and the success of Cleveleys as a seaside resort, the Towers was H.Q. for the wealthy and the surrounding area its playground.
The Holmefield Avenue entrance road was originally longer and extended west into Stockdove Wood (now developed) before emerging near North Drive and another sweeping in from the south east side near Christ Church. The other local woods Beech Wood (now houses near Masefield Avenue) were shooting grounds for residents and visitors at the Towers. Picture courtesy of Ralph Smedley Originally the home of the Horrocks family, it was later bought by Mr. T.G. Lumb (Thomas Gallon Lumb), an engineer and architect. He was the visionary of Cleveleys, without his input it may have been a different place and he saw the Fylde coast as a city of the Fylde from Lytham to Fleetwood. He was instrumental in the installation of the electric tramway from Blackpool to Fleetwood, as proven in America he saw that if the lines were laid, the developments would then grow around them. He later became Mayor of Blackpool, 1928 – 1929 and in March 1950 he was made an honorary Freeman of the Borough of Blackpool.
T.G. Lumb was determined to put Cleveleys on the map and believed there was a future for the Fylde coast if only it could be developed, most of the coastline at that time consisted of sandhills. Along with the help of young architect Edwin Lutyens he came up with a grand housing scheme at Rossall Beach but only a handful of houses were ever completed, these are at Way Gate.
He instigated the 1906 Cleveleys Cottage Exhibition, inspired by what he had seen in Letchworth Garden City, and was a friend of world famous architect Edwin Lutyens, later Sir Edwin, with whom he worked with designs for the exhibition and houses at Rossall Beach. He was probably involved in the design of other houses on Rossall Road and in the exhibition, evidence is scarce, but the style is there to be seen. The famous T.G. Lumb went on to live at a number of local addresses including Beach Croft at Rossall Beach and Merlewood, Meadows Avenue, later home of Doctor Williamson.
Picture courtesy of Fat Phil The Towers shooting lodge later became a private school until demolition around 1970. Following demolition and site clearing the place became a public open space under its original name of the Towers. In the late seventies there were large wooden signs but these have since gone.
1912 Ordnance survey map showing the position of the buildings on the site.
Lumb’s interest in architecture resulted in at least one house in Cleveleys that his architectural practice designed. "Seacot", situated in the Cleveleys Park area was a plot during the Cottage Exhibition but was not entered as a contender.
|