52 Walks in 2010 - Walk 36 - Skegness Seafront, Lincs (24th October 2010)

Todays walk was a bit of a trip down memory lane. A blast from the past. A bit of nostalgia.

When I was a young girl in the 1960s/70s my family spent a week every summer at Skegness.

As we were staying only 5 or 6 miles from 'Skeggy' we decided to go and have a look. I ahve to say I was rather disappointed. It was as if I were somewhere I had never been before. I could remember hardly anything about the town and most fo what I could remember was no longre there.

We walked along the beach. The beach chalet (one of many) that we used to hire each year was no longer there. The dunes had encroached on the beach and I'm told the chalets were demolished some years ago. A new addition though were the wind turbines. I know they are a bit like Marmite - you either love them or hate them, but I find them rather enchanting and mesmorising.

The pier was still standing - well some of it. There has been much damage to the pier over the last 30 years and just a small part of it now remains.

We walked along the open deck being the original victorian part of the pier. The weather by this time was getting a bit bleak. My photos of the pier aren't brilliant - I converted this next one to black and white to try and make it a bit more interesting.

Just past the pier is the Pleasure Beach. A favourite place we used to visit at leats on one evening when I was a child on holiday at Skeggy. Today the place was almost deserted and I was quite pleased with this next dramatic photo of the big wheel.

The town's best known icon is the cheerful and irrepressible 'Jolly Fisherman'. Created in 1908 by artist John Hassall for an advertising poster at the request of the Great Northern Railway Company he is still seen all around Skeggy.

This statue was erected in the Tower Garden in 2008 to mark his 100th birthday.