Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Southport shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Southport offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Southport at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Southport? Wrong! If the Southport is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Southport then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Southport? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Southport and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Southport wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Southport then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Southport site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Southport, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Southport, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

{{infobox UK place||country = England|latitude= 53.6454|longitude= -3.0083|official_name= Southport|population = 99,456 (United Kingdom Census 2001)|metropolitan_borough= Sefton|constituency_westminster= [Southport (UK Parliament constituency)|post_town= PRESTON|postcode_district = PR8 & PR9|postcode_area= PR|dial_code= 01704|os_grid_reference= SD333170|map_type=Merseyside-->

Southport is a seaside resort on the Irish sea within the Sefton borough of Merseyside, England. It is to the north of Liverpool, and west-southwest of Preston.

Historic counties of England part of Lancashire,like its neighbours Liverpool and Manchester, Southport has many tourist attractions including Southport Pier, the second longest pleasure pier in Great Britain. A restoration project worth over Pound stirling7m has been contributed to aid the modernisation of the pier, with improved access, lighting and a pier train. Southport also has a Fairground which was originally opened in 1912 but after clusure in 2006, it has now been re-opened as New Pleasurelandas a 100 million GBP project by it's new owners Dreamstorm.

Southport has a population of around 100,000 people UK ward statistics on Nomis UK National Statistics - taking the 7 wards in the Southport area: Dukes, Meols, Ainsdale, Birkdale, Kew, Norwood, Cambridge with approximately 40% of the population over 55 years old and around 55% defined as NRS social grade.

History Southport, in its present form, was founded by William Sutton Southport (The Mad Duke) in 1792. However, there have been settlements in the area for much longer than that: the northern part of the town around St Cuthbert's Church (in the part of the parish of North Meols now known as Churchtown, Sefton), was mentioned in the Domesday Book, and some areas of the town have names of Viking origin.

Southport grew quickly in the 19th century as it gained a reputation for being a more refined seaside resort than its neighbour-up-the-coast Blackpool. Southport is a busy and friendly resort, with a number of activities for children, although its permanent funfair, Pleasureland Southport closed in late 2006 (see below).

Southport's suburbs are built around, and still named after, the old villages of the area. From North to South, the districts are: Crossens, Marshside, Sefton, Churchtown, Sefton, Blowick, Birkdale, Hillside, Ainsdale, and Woodvale, Merseyside; home to RAF Woodvale . The town of Formby is south of Southport, with Hightown, Sefton and Liverpool further southward, along the A565.

Napoleon III of France lived in exile on Lord Street, the main thoroughfare of Southport, between 1846 and 1848, before returning to France, where he became President of France and subsequently List of French monarchs. During his reign, he caused much of the medieval centre of Paris to be replaced with broad tree lined boulevards, covered walkways and arcades, just like Lord Street. On the strength of this coincidence, it has been suggested that the redevelopment may have been inspired by memories of Southport's town centre .

On the night of the 9th December, 1886, the worst Southport and St Anne's lifeboats disaster in the history of the UK occurred off the shores of Southport. A cargo ship called the Mexico was on its way to South America when it found itself in difficulty. Lifeboats from Lytham, St. Anne’s and Southport set off in order to try and rescue those aboard the vessel. The crews battled against storm force winds as they rowed towards the casualty. The entire crew from the St. Anne’s boat was lost and all but two of the Southport crew were too. 28 lifeboatmen lost their lives on that night and left many widows, and fatherless children. A memorial was erected in Duke Street Cemetery and a permanent exhibition can be seen in the Museum of the Botanic Gardens in Churchtown, Southport. on Marine Lake

In 1925, the RNLI abandoned the station at Southport and left the town with no lifeboat.

However in the late 1980s, after a series of unfortunate tragedies, local families from Southport started to raise funds and eventually bought a new lifeboatfor the town stationed at the old RNLI lifeboat house. The lifeboat is 100% independent from the RNLI so receives no money from them at all. Instead it relies completely on donations by the public.

Governance and politics Politically, Southport is a stronghold of the Liberal Democrats (UK) with the Conservative Party (UK) also strong in some areas. John Pugh is Southport (UK Parliament constituency)'s current Member of Parliament

Southport lies within the Historic counties of England of Lancashire, and was incorporated as municipal borough in 1866. It became a county borough independent of the administrative counties of England of Lancashire in 1915, having reached the minimum 50,000 population (the 1911 census gave a figure of 51,643). The Birkdale urban district, including the parishes of Birkdale and Ainsdale was added to Southport in 1912.Under the 1971 Local Government White Paper, presented in February 1971, Southport would have lost its county borough status, becoming a non-metropolitan district within Lancashire. Rather than accept this fate and lose its separate education and social services departments, Southport Corporation lobbied for inclusion in the nearby planned metropolitan county of Merseyside, to join with Bootle and other units to form a district with the 250,000 required population. It was duly included in the metropolitan borough of Sefton

This decision has been regretted by some of the population. A recurring local political issue has been the cross-party movement campaigning for Southport to leave Sefton and form its own unitary authority, perhaps adjoined to the neighbouring West Lancashire authority. Support for this has been seen amongst Liberal Democrat (UK) councillors and within the Southport Conservative Party (UK) , .

In 1980, a Private Member's Bill proposed restoring Southport to Lancashire, and renaming the residue of Sefton to the Metropolitan Borough of Bootle. The Local Government Boundary Commission for England conducted a review of the area in 1987, which attracted 10,000 messages, of which "70% were pro forma". In 1990 the LGBC made suggestions that Southport, Ainsdale and Birkdale should be made a district of Lancashire: the final recommendations in 1991 "concluded that public opinion was more evenly divided than initially thought", and also that eastward transport links with Lancashire were poor compared to those southward to the Liverpool area.The government again directed the Local Government Commission for England (1992) to make a review in December 1996 (after it had finished the work on the 1990s UK local government reform), commencing in January 1997. This review was constrained by the legal inability of the commission to recommend that the current Sefton-West Lancashire border be altered. In a MORI poll conducted at the behest of the LGCE, 65% of Southport residents supported the campaign, compared to 37% in the borough as a whole. Local MPs Matthew Banks and Ronnie Fearn (MPs for Southport at various times) supported making Southport a unitary authority, with Banks wishing to see it tied to Lancashire ceremonial counties of England, but Fearn wishing to see it remain, as a separate borough, in Merseyside.

The commission noted that Southport would have a relatively low population for a unitary authority, even including Formby (89,300 or 114,700), and that it was worried about the viability of a south Sefton authority without Southport, and therefore recommended the status quo be kept. However, the commission suggested the use of area committees for the various parts of the borough and also that Southport could become a civil parish.Final Recommendations on the Future Local Government of Sefton, Local Government Commission for England, November 1997 Another request made in 2004 was turned down, the Electoral Commission (United Kingdom) must request such a review).

In 2002, a local independent party calling themselves the Southport Party was established, with policy of "Southport out of Sefton". Three council seats were won in the 2002 local elections, but the following election there were no gains and a drop in the number of votes for the party. They hold no seats and their candidates left to join the UKIP, Conservative and BNP.

To date, there have been no further moves to change Sefton's boundaries, but the Boundary Commission indicated in 2004 that a future review is possible: "whether or not structural change takes place in accordance with our recommendations, the boundaries between or within Sefton and West Lancashire could be reviewed at a later stage to address these long-standing boundary concerns."

Economy Tourism still plays a large part of the economic make-up of Southport but its reputation of being a nice place to live brings in wealthy families commuting to Liverpool, Preston, Manchester and further afield. Its location, reputation and range of expensive houses also brings in a variety of footballers from local teams.

As a seaside resort, its main attractions are the miles of sandy beaches and recently restored seafront, a Victorian pier (the first pier built purely for pleasure in Britain), six golf courses and the wide boulevard, Lord Street, in the town centre. The town also has the Southport Theatre and Southport Theatre.

Southport also hosts varied events including an annual air show and Southport Flower Show, an open air classical music concert concluded with a fireworks display, a jazz festival, and the turning on of the pleasant town centre Christmas lights. On July 12th every year, there is an Orangemen's march, which is one of the busiest days of the year. Southport hosts the annual musical fireworks championships, and The Open Championship at the Royal Birkdale Golf Club course. It is also home to the "Southport Weekender" , an annual dance event that takes place at the Pontins resort in the town.

Media The town's media consists of 2 rival newspaper groups, and 2 radio stations. The independently owned 'Champion' newspaper is a free weekly paper and Trinity Mirror's 'Sefton & West Lancs Media Mix' titles The Mid-week Visiter and Friday paper The Southport Visiter are free and paid-for respectively.

The town also falls within the circulation areas of three regional newspapers; The Liverpool Echo, The Liverpool Daily Post and The Lancashire Evening Post.

The town's commercial radio station Dune FM is owned by The Local Radio Company. There is also a new local station, Southport Community Radio 87.7fm that is currently undergoing trial period to gain a full time license. In addition, there are four other local radio stations that transmit to Southport: BBC Radio Merseyside, Radio City 96.7, Juice FM, and 97.4 Rock FM.

Southport is situated within the television regions of BBC North West and ITV Granada Television.

Landmarks One of Southport's main attractions for many years was Pleasureland (fairground), a fairground established in 1912. It was owned by the Thompson Family, and was closed in September 2006. A replacement fairground on the same site provisionally named 'New Pleasureland'http://www.newpleasureland.co.uk opened in July 2007 http://www.southportreporter.com/302/. An earlier permanent funfair, Peter Pan's Playground, closed in the 1980s and is now the site of part of the Ocean Plaza shopping development.



The Model Railway Village is situated in Kings Gardens opposite the Royal Clifton Hotel and near the Marine Lake Bridge. The Model Railway Village opened in May 1996 and was created by Ray and Jean Jones. The Jones family still run the attraction today. The Model Railway Village season extends from April to the end of October. However due to popular demand the season has extended into weekend openings during November, February and March, weather permitting.

Other major attractions in Southport include Splash World , an indoor water park situated on the back of the Dunes swimming pool which opened in June 2007.

Meols Hall, a manor house, home of the Hesketh family is open to the public from the 14th of August - 14th of September from 2pm - 5pm. Set in its own expansive grounds, it boasts a history back to the Domesday Book and is full of interesting pictures and furniture.

The Power Station home of the town's own Radio station 107.9 Dune fm on the edge of Victoria Park, which itself is home to The Southport Flower Show

Transport Road ]

Due to its position by the coast, Southport is a settlement] and as such can only be approached in a limited number of directions by road.

The main roads entering Southport are:

There is no direct connection to the motorway from Southport; the nearest connections are:

An east-west bypass for the A570 at Ormskirk is planned to relieve congestion on Southport's main access route to the motorway network, although the effectiveness of the proposals are still under debate.

Several areas within Southport town centre have recently undergone major road redevelopment; the largest scheme was the construction of the Marine Way Bridge (opened May 2004), which connects the Lord Street shopping district with the new seafront developments. The 150 foot high structure is thought to have cost in the region of £5m.

Also one of the main shopping areas in the town, Chapel Street has undergone a pedestrianisation scheme to be similar to parts of Liverpool city centre.

Aviation Southport is also home to Birkdale Sands, a sand runway located on one of Southport's beaches. For many years this was used for pleasure flights using one of the last De Havilland De_Havilland_Fox_Moth aeroplanes flying in the UK.

Rail Southport has a Southport railway station with a frequent service of electric trains to Liverpool and a regular service to Wigan, Bolton, Greater Manchester, Manchester and Rochdale.

The Liverpool line was originally built by the Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway in 1848. It was followed on 9 April 1855 by the Manchester and Southport Railway with a line to Manchester via Wigan.

Formerly, Southport was also served by two further railway lines:





In July 1897 both the West Lancashire and the Liverpool, Southport and Preston Junction Railways were absorbed into the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&Y). The L&Y had a large terminus at Southport Chapel Street and could see no sense in operating two termini at very close proximity. On 1.5.1901 the L&Y completed a remodeling of the approach lines to Central to allow trains to divert onto the Manchester to Southport line and into Southport Chapel Street Station. Southport Central was closed to passengers and it became a goods depot eventually amalgamating with Chapel Street depot. It survived intact well into the 1970s.

Sports Southport is somewhat lesser known for its sporting prowess, but being surrounded by other North-West cities this is understandable. The eastern side of town towards Blowick and Kew is home to the "Sandgrounders" - Southport FC, a club with a long football league history and occasional FA Cup giantkillers, they play at Haig Avenue and currently find themselves in the Blue Square North League. There is also a league for local amateur football teams.Southport is also home to a rugby union club, Southport RUFC , who play at the Recreational Ground on Waterloo Road, Hillside.

Southport is also home to one of the largest junior football clubs in the north-west, boasting both a boys and girls sections, aswell as male and female. THe youngest boys team are Under 7's, with the girls being Under 9's. The club has been the foundations for many professional footballers, including Dominic Matteo, Shaun Teale and Paul Dalgleish.

The junior section of Southport RUFC are known as the Southport Sharks and have sides that range from 7 years old upwards. They also play on the same grounds, and train every Sunday 10am-12pm.

]

However, the town is probably best known for golf; the Royal Birkdale Golf Club situated in the dunes to the south of the town is one of the venues on The Open Championship rotation and has hosted two Ryder Cups. Nearby Southport and Ainsdale Golf Club is also a two time Ryder Cup venue and Hillside Golf Club hosts many major events as well as being a final open qualifying course. Many smaller links courses also surround the town.

Southport's location by the coast also lends itself to some more specialised sporting activities - Ainsdale Beach south of the town is popular for kite sports, including kite-surfing. The Marine Lake lies nestled between the town centre and the sea and is used for a variety of water-sports including water-skiing, sailing and rowing. The lake is home to the West Lancs Yacht Club and Southport Sailing Club, both of which organise dinghy racing. The annual Southport 24 Hour Race, organised by the West Lancs Yacht Club, is an endurance race of national standing, with an average turnout of 60 to 80 boats. In 2006, the event marked its 40th anniversary. 24-hour yacht race (video)

The flat and scenic route alongside the beach is very popular with cyclists, and is the start of the Trans Pennine Trail, a National Cycle Network running across the north of the country to Selby in North Yorkshire, through Kingston upon Hull and on to Hornsea on the east coast.

Scouting The scouting district of Southport has always been an active one, currently there are approximately 700 members in the Southport area. The current groups in the district include:

1st Ainsdale with Beaver, Cub and Scout sections11th Kew with Beaver and Cub sections14th St. James's with Beaver, Cub and Scout sections17th St. Patrick's with Beaver and Cub sections19th Emmanual with Beaver, Cub and Scout sections23rd Lord Street West with Beaver and Cub sections35th Leyland Road Methodist Sea Scout group with Cub and Scout sections48th St. Peter's Air Scout Group with Beaver, Cub, Scout and Explorer sections55th Birkdale United Reform Church with Beaver, Cub and Scout sections58th Holy Family Sea Scout group with Beaver, Cub and scout sections61st Holy Trinity with Beaver and Cub sections62nd St. Cuthbert's with Beaver, Cub and Scout sections71st St. Teresa's with just ScoutsWaterside Lodge Explorers

Southport scouts engage in several different town events such as the carnival and have also started to do a bi-annual Scout and Guide Gang Show. The recent one was such a success that they have decided to continue with the tradition after a 4 year hiatus.

The Southport District Scout Headquarters is Waterside Lodge which is situated next to the Marine Lake. The scouts in this district and many nearby scout districts use Waterside for activities such as canoeing, kayaking, sailing, Bell Boating and Dragon Boating and various land activities.

Notable people

References

External links

{{infobox UK place||country = England|latitude= 53.6454|longitude= -3.0083|official_name= Southport|population = 99,456 (United Kingdom Census 2001)|metropolitan_borough= Sefton|constituency_westminster= [Southport (UK Parliament constituency)|post_town= PRESTON|postcode_district = PR8 & PR9|postcode_area= PR|dial_code= 01704|os_grid_reference= SD333170|map_type=Merseyside-->

Southport is a seaside resort on the Irish sea within the Sefton borough of Merseyside, England. It is to the north of Liverpool, and west-southwest of Preston.

Historic counties of England part of Lancashire,like its neighbours Liverpool and Manchester, Southport has many tourist attractions including Southport Pier, the second longest pleasure pier in Great Britain. A restoration project worth over Pound stirling7m has been contributed to aid the modernisation of the pier, with improved access, lighting and a pier train. Southport also has a Fairground which was originally opened in 1912 but after clusure in 2006, it has now been re-opened as New Pleasurelandas a 100 million GBP project by it's new owners Dreamstorm.

Southport has a population of around 100,000 people UK ward statistics on Nomis UK National Statistics - taking the 7 wards in the Southport area: Dukes, Meols, Ainsdale, Birkdale, Kew, Norwood, Cambridge with approximately 40% of the population over 55 years old and around 55% defined as NRS social grade.

History Southport, in its present form, was founded by William Sutton Southport (The Mad Duke) in 1792. However, there have been settlements in the area for much longer than that: the northern part of the town around St Cuthbert's Church (in the part of the parish of North Meols now known as Churchtown, Sefton), was mentioned in the Domesday Book, and some areas of the town have names of Viking origin.

Southport grew quickly in the 19th century as it gained a reputation for being a more refined seaside resort than its neighbour-up-the-coast Blackpool. Southport is a busy and friendly resort, with a number of activities for children, although its permanent funfair, Pleasureland Southport closed in late 2006 (see below).

Southport's suburbs are built around, and still named after, the old villages of the area. From North to South, the districts are: Crossens, Marshside, Sefton, Churchtown, Sefton, Blowick, Birkdale, Hillside, Ainsdale, and Woodvale, Merseyside; home to RAF Woodvale . The town of Formby is south of Southport, with Hightown, Sefton and Liverpool further southward, along the A565.

Napoleon III of France lived in exile on Lord Street, the main thoroughfare of Southport, between 1846 and 1848, before returning to France, where he became President of France and subsequently List of French monarchs. During his reign, he caused much of the medieval centre of Paris to be replaced with broad tree lined boulevards, covered walkways and arcades, just like Lord Street. On the strength of this coincidence, it has been suggested that the redevelopment may have been inspired by memories of Southport's town centre .

On the night of the 9th December, 1886, the worst Southport and St Anne's lifeboats disaster in the history of the UK occurred off the shores of Southport. A cargo ship called the Mexico was on its way to South America when it found itself in difficulty. Lifeboats from Lytham, St. Anne’s and Southport set off in order to try and rescue those aboard the vessel. The crews battled against storm force winds as they rowed towards the casualty. The entire crew from the St. Anne’s boat was lost and all but two of the Southport crew were too. 28 lifeboatmen lost their lives on that night and left many widows, and fatherless children. A memorial was erected in Duke Street Cemetery and a permanent exhibition can be seen in the Museum of the Botanic Gardens in Churchtown, Southport. on Marine Lake

In 1925, the RNLI abandoned the station at Southport and left the town with no lifeboat.

However in the late 1980s, after a series of unfortunate tragedies, local families from Southport started to raise funds and eventually bought a new lifeboatfor the town stationed at the old RNLI lifeboat house. The lifeboat is 100% independent from the RNLI so receives no money from them at all. Instead it relies completely on donations by the public.

Governance and politics Politically, Southport is a stronghold of the Liberal Democrats (UK) with the Conservative Party (UK) also strong in some areas. John Pugh is Southport (UK Parliament constituency)'s current Member of Parliament

Southport lies within the Historic counties of England of Lancashire, and was incorporated as municipal borough in 1866. It became a county borough independent of the administrative counties of England of Lancashire in 1915, having reached the minimum 50,000 population (the 1911 census gave a figure of 51,643). The Birkdale urban district, including the parishes of Birkdale and Ainsdale was added to Southport in 1912.Under the 1971 Local Government White Paper, presented in February 1971, Southport would have lost its county borough status, becoming a non-metropolitan district within Lancashire. Rather than accept this fate and lose its separate education and social services departments, Southport Corporation lobbied for inclusion in the nearby planned metropolitan county of Merseyside, to join with Bootle and other units to form a district with the 250,000 required population. It was duly included in the metropolitan borough of Sefton

This decision has been regretted by some of the population. A recurring local political issue has been the cross-party movement campaigning for Southport to leave Sefton and form its own unitary authority, perhaps adjoined to the neighbouring West Lancashire authority. Support for this has been seen amongst Liberal Democrat (UK) councillors and within the Southport Conservative Party (UK) , .

In 1980, a Private Member's Bill proposed restoring Southport to Lancashire, and renaming the residue of Sefton to the Metropolitan Borough of Bootle. The Local Government Boundary Commission for England conducted a review of the area in 1987, which attracted 10,000 messages, of which "70% were pro forma". In 1990 the LGBC made suggestions that Southport, Ainsdale and Birkdale should be made a district of Lancashire: the final recommendations in 1991 "concluded that public opinion was more evenly divided than initially thought", and also that eastward transport links with Lancashire were poor compared to those southward to the Liverpool area.The government again directed the Local Government Commission for England (1992) to make a review in December 1996 (after it had finished the work on the 1990s UK local government reform), commencing in January 1997. This review was constrained by the legal inability of the commission to recommend that the current Sefton-West Lancashire border be altered. In a MORI poll conducted at the behest of the LGCE, 65% of Southport residents supported the campaign, compared to 37% in the borough as a whole. Local MPs Matthew Banks and Ronnie Fearn (MPs for Southport at various times) supported making Southport a unitary authority, with Banks wishing to see it tied to Lancashire ceremonial counties of England, but Fearn wishing to see it remain, as a separate borough, in Merseyside.

The commission noted that Southport would have a relatively low population for a unitary authority, even including Formby (89,300 or 114,700), and that it was worried about the viability of a south Sefton authority without Southport, and therefore recommended the status quo be kept. However, the commission suggested the use of area committees for the various parts of the borough and also that Southport could become a civil parish.Final Recommendations on the Future Local Government of Sefton, Local Government Commission for England, November 1997 Another request made in 2004 was turned down, the Electoral Commission (United Kingdom) must request such a review).

In 2002, a local independent party calling themselves the Southport Party was established, with policy of "Southport out of Sefton". Three council seats were won in the 2002 local elections, but the following election there were no gains and a drop in the number of votes for the party. They hold no seats and their candidates left to join the UKIP, Conservative and BNP.

To date, there have been no further moves to change Sefton's boundaries, but the Boundary Commission indicated in 2004 that a future review is possible: "whether or not structural change takes place in accordance with our recommendations, the boundaries between or within Sefton and West Lancashire could be reviewed at a later stage to address these long-standing boundary concerns."

Economy Tourism still plays a large part of the economic make-up of Southport but its reputation of being a nice place to live brings in wealthy families commuting to Liverpool, Preston, Manchester and further afield. Its location, reputation and range of expensive houses also brings in a variety of footballers from local teams.

As a seaside resort, its main attractions are the miles of sandy beaches and recently restored seafront, a Victorian pier (the first pier built purely for pleasure in Britain), six golf courses and the wide boulevard, Lord Street, in the town centre. The town also has the Southport Theatre and Southport Theatre.

Southport also hosts varied events including an annual air show and Southport Flower Show, an open air classical music concert concluded with a fireworks display, a jazz festival, and the turning on of the pleasant town centre Christmas lights. On July 12th every year, there is an Orangemen's march, which is one of the busiest days of the year. Southport hosts the annual musical fireworks championships, and The Open Championship at the Royal Birkdale Golf Club course. It is also home to the "Southport Weekender" , an annual dance event that takes place at the Pontins resort in the town.

Media The town's media consists of 2 rival newspaper groups, and 2 radio stations. The independently owned 'Champion' newspaper is a free weekly paper and Trinity Mirror's 'Sefton & West Lancs Media Mix' titles The Mid-week Visiter and Friday paper The Southport Visiter are free and paid-for respectively.

The town also falls within the circulation areas of three regional newspapers; The Liverpool Echo, The Liverpool Daily Post and The Lancashire Evening Post.

The town's commercial radio station Dune FM is owned by The Local Radio Company. There is also a new local station, Southport Community Radio 87.7fm that is currently undergoing trial period to gain a full time license. In addition, there are four other local radio stations that transmit to Southport: BBC Radio Merseyside, Radio City 96.7, Juice FM, and 97.4 Rock FM.

Southport is situated within the television regions of BBC North West and ITV Granada Television.

Landmarks One of Southport's main attractions for many years was Pleasureland (fairground), a fairground established in 1912. It was owned by the Thompson Family, and was closed in September 2006. A replacement fairground on the same site provisionally named 'New Pleasureland'http://www.newpleasureland.co.uk opened in July 2007 http://www.southportreporter.com/302/. An earlier permanent funfair, Peter Pan's Playground, closed in the 1980s and is now the site of part of the Ocean Plaza shopping development.



The Model Railway Village is situated in Kings Gardens opposite the Royal Clifton Hotel and near the Marine Lake Bridge. The Model Railway Village opened in May 1996 and was created by Ray and Jean Jones. The Jones family still run the attraction today. The Model Railway Village season extends from April to the end of October. However due to popular demand the season has extended into weekend openings during November, February and March, weather permitting.

Other major attractions in Southport include Splash World , an indoor water park situated on the back of the Dunes swimming pool which opened in June 2007.

Meols Hall, a manor house, home of the Hesketh family is open to the public from the 14th of August - 14th of September from 2pm - 5pm. Set in its own expansive grounds, it boasts a history back to the Domesday Book and is full of interesting pictures and furniture.

The Power Station home of the town's own Radio station 107.9 Dune fm on the edge of Victoria Park, which itself is home to The Southport Flower Show

Transport Road ]

Due to its position by the coast, Southport is a settlement] and as such can only be approached in a limited number of directions by road.

The main roads entering Southport are:

There is no direct connection to the motorway from Southport; the nearest connections are:

An east-west bypass for the A570 at Ormskirk is planned to relieve congestion on Southport's main access route to the motorway network, although the effectiveness of the proposals are still under debate.

Several areas within Southport town centre have recently undergone major road redevelopment; the largest scheme was the construction of the Marine Way Bridge (opened May 2004), which connects the Lord Street shopping district with the new seafront developments. The 150 foot high structure is thought to have cost in the region of £5m.

Also one of the main shopping areas in the town, Chapel Street has undergone a pedestrianisation scheme to be similar to parts of Liverpool city centre.

Aviation Southport is also home to Birkdale Sands, a sand runway located on one of Southport's beaches. For many years this was used for pleasure flights using one of the last De Havilland De_Havilland_Fox_Moth aeroplanes flying in the UK.

Rail Southport has a Southport railway station with a frequent service of electric trains to Liverpool and a regular service to Wigan, Bolton, Greater Manchester, Manchester and Rochdale.

The Liverpool line was originally built by the Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway in 1848. It was followed on 9 April 1855 by the Manchester and Southport Railway with a line to Manchester via Wigan.

Formerly, Southport was also served by two further railway lines:





In July 1897 both the West Lancashire and the Liverpool, Southport and Preston Junction Railways were absorbed into the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&Y). The L&Y had a large terminus at Southport Chapel Street and could see no sense in operating two termini at very close proximity. On 1.5.1901 the L&Y completed a remodeling of the approach lines to Central to allow trains to divert onto the Manchester to Southport line and into Southport Chapel Street Station. Southport Central was closed to passengers and it became a goods depot eventually amalgamating with Chapel Street depot. It survived intact well into the 1970s.

Sports Southport is somewhat lesser known for its sporting prowess, but being surrounded by other North-West cities this is understandable. The eastern side of town towards Blowick and Kew is home to the "Sandgrounders" - Southport FC, a club with a long football league history and occasional FA Cup giantkillers, they play at Haig Avenue and currently find themselves in the Blue Square North League. There is also a league for local amateur football teams.Southport is also home to a rugby union club, Southport RUFC , who play at the Recreational Ground on Waterloo Road, Hillside.

Southport is also home to one of the largest junior football clubs in the north-west, boasting both a boys and girls sections, aswell as male and female. THe youngest boys team are Under 7's, with the girls being Under 9's. The club has been the foundations for many professional footballers, including Dominic Matteo, Shaun Teale and Paul Dalgleish.

The junior section of Southport RUFC are known as the Southport Sharks and have sides that range from 7 years old upwards. They also play on the same grounds, and train every Sunday 10am-12pm.

]

However, the town is probably best known for golf; the Royal Birkdale Golf Club situated in the dunes to the south of the town is one of the venues on The Open Championship rotation and has hosted two Ryder Cups. Nearby Southport and Ainsdale Golf Club is also a two time Ryder Cup venue and Hillside Golf Club hosts many major events as well as being a final open qualifying course. Many smaller links courses also surround the town.

Southport's location by the coast also lends itself to some more specialised sporting activities - Ainsdale Beach south of the town is popular for kite sports, including kite-surfing. The Marine Lake lies nestled between the town centre and the sea and is used for a variety of water-sports including water-skiing, sailing and rowing. The lake is home to the West Lancs Yacht Club and Southport Sailing Club, both of which organise dinghy racing. The annual Southport 24 Hour Race, organised by the West Lancs Yacht Club, is an endurance race of national standing, with an average turnout of 60 to 80 boats. In 2006, the event marked its 40th anniversary. 24-hour yacht race (video)

The flat and scenic route alongside the beach is very popular with cyclists, and is the start of the Trans Pennine Trail, a National Cycle Network running across the north of the country to Selby in North Yorkshire, through Kingston upon Hull and on to Hornsea on the east coast.

Scouting The scouting district of Southport has always been an active one, currently there are approximately 700 members in the Southport area. The current groups in the district include:

1st Ainsdale with Beaver, Cub and Scout sections11th Kew with Beaver and Cub sections14th St. James's with Beaver, Cub and Scout sections17th St. Patrick's with Beaver and Cub sections19th Emmanual with Beaver, Cub and Scout sections23rd Lord Street West with Beaver and Cub sections35th Leyland Road Methodist Sea Scout group with Cub and Scout sections48th St. Peter's Air Scout Group with Beaver, Cub, Scout and Explorer sections55th Birkdale United Reform Church with Beaver, Cub and Scout sections58th Holy Family Sea Scout group with Beaver, Cub and scout sections61st Holy Trinity with Beaver and Cub sections62nd St. Cuthbert's with Beaver, Cub and Scout sections71st St. Teresa's with just ScoutsWaterside Lodge Explorers

Southport scouts engage in several different town events such as the carnival and have also started to do a bi-annual Scout and Guide Gang Show. The recent one was such a success that they have decided to continue with the tradition after a 4 year hiatus.

The Southport District Scout Headquarters is Waterside Lodge which is situated next to the Marine Lake. The scouts in this district and many nearby scout districts use Waterside for activities such as canoeing, kayaking, sailing, Bell Boating and Dragon Boating and various land activities.

Notable people

References

External links



Welcome to Southport - England's Classic Resort - Visit Southport
Official tourist and visitor site. Includes information on accommodation, conference facilities, eating out, upcoming events, nightlife, birdwatching, and wheelchair access.

Southport Weekender
Annual dance party in Southport. History, venue information, photos, and message board.

FNF Southport Branch
FNF Southport Branch ... National Telephone Helpline - 0870 760 7496. This site is best viewed in Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Welcome to Southport College - Further Education in the north west of ...
Official site contains information about the further education college, its courses and facilities for students.

BBC - Weather Centre - 5 Day Forecast in Celsius for Southport, United ...
The BBC Weather five day forecast for your selected town or city, showing the temperature in Celsius.

Welcome to Southport RUFC

Southport and Mersey Reporter Lates News Divert
Southport Reporter UK Local Newspapers - Owned and run by PCBT Photography, Southpoprt Reporter is an Online Regional Newspaper and supplying Mersey Reporter and Liverpool Reporter

Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust - Home
Trust comprising of three hospitals. Includes travel directions, hospital stories for children, waiting time lists, and information about their business plan.

Southport's No 1 Website
Directories covering local businesses, shops, services, eating out, pubs/clubs/bars, culture, charities and websites. Also includes news, chat, free classified advertising, recent ...

Visit Southport, North West England Classic Resort, Accommodation ...
Southport,North West of England Classic Resort accommodation booking service,hotels, bed and breakfast, self catering, buy tickets for events and attractions, England's Golfing ...

 

Southport



 
Copyright © 2008 Hintcenter.com - All rights reserved.
Home | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy
All Trademarks belong to their repective owners. Many aspects of this page are used under
commercial commons license from Yahoo!