Originally the right hand side of façade had a flush front door with the roof above extending forwards above it. The door has since been moved to the left hand return and roofline taken back to match the rest of the front.
It is suggested locally that before the Cleveleys Cottage Exhibition was run in 1906, that there was a small scale trial run at the west end of Church Road, Thornton. Kozykot (Cozy Cottage) was allegedly one of them, (see picture postcard below) obviously a success because the full exhibition ran as planned later in Cleveleys 1906.
The 1906 Cleveleys Cottage Exhibition invited architects and builders to show examples of modern housing design, bringing together styles from around the country. It is believed that Edwin Lutyens, the designer of modern Whitehall, London (and he also did some domestic buildings at Rossall Road, Cleveleys, now listed,) had an involvement with the exhibition but did not do any of the designs. The young Edwin Lutyens was involved with T.G. Lumb with designs for a full blown scheme at Rossall Beach, unfortunately all that materialised was what we see today at Way Gate. The exhibition was only the second of its kind in the country and the brainchild of Mr. T.G. Lumb who lived at the shooting lodge that was once in "The Towers" wood in Cleveleys, now the Towers public open space. Mr. Lumb had a vision of the city of the Fylde and played a role in the introduction of the electric tramway, he later became Mayor of Blackpool (1926). The show houses covered West Drive, Stockdove Way, Whiteside Way and Cleveleys Ave, and covered all sorts of styles. Bungalows, semi detached, detached and a few grand detached as well, the most popular being the Dutch Cottage on the corner of West Drive, extremely unusual and won a category award. The range is dominated by white rendered finish above sill level which must have been popular at that time.
The exhibition signalled the growth of urban Cleveleys as a residential and seaside resort. The sales brochures for the houses actually said that the fresh sea air would make you live longer and compared to inland industrial towns it probably would.
Picture Postcard This old picture postcard shows Kozykot around the time of the Cottage Exhibition, the front door has now moved and gates replaced with a wall and hedge. Nook Farmhouse can be seen in the background, this has long since gone and has been redeveloped. Picture Postcard
This old picture postcard shows the exhibition entrance at the west end of West drive, Cleveleys. It ran until October and most of the houses and vacant plots were sold. It was only the second exhibition of its kind in the country, T.G. Lumb got the idea from Letchworth in Hertfordshire. For more about Thomas Gallon Lumb see The Towers.
Whether Kozykot was connected to the exhibition or not, it can be clearly seen that this end Church Road has an interesting collection of house styles which all appeared around the Exhibition year and the O.S. map release in 1912 where they are all present. One of the most interesting being The Nook as seen below.
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