IN LOOKBACK this week we travel through the decades for a picture special on Ainsdale, when cobbles and dirt roads were a common feature in the village.
Gleneagles Drive resident Colin Hare is an avid postcard collector and he brought these images of the thoroughfares, meeting points and squares in to share with readers.
One popular spot for locals to while away the hours was the Lido Cafe.
The building was converted into Ainsdale Discovery Centre in 1999, but this photograph shows the cafe in full swing, and must have been taken after its 1930 construction.
Certainly there seemed to be no shortage of customers young and old, as children clamber over seats and adults appear locked in conversation.
The grand homes in several of the images belie the quality of the road surfaces and all of them seem to operate as dirt tracks, except the cobbled square advertising traders’ wares and populated by a small group of youngsters.
This shot shows Station Road, looking from the Railway Hotel, an establishment that played an important role in the founding of Ainsdale Cricket Club.
In 1911, the landlord donated the Liverpool Road ground to the people of Ainsdale for “sporting purposes only” and the club continues strongly today, having recently gained the English Cricket Board and Sport England Clubmark Accreditation award.
Another image of Station Road marks one of three thoroughfares in close proximity today.
The first is Shore Road which seems to be little more than a sandy path beaten through the undergrowth, shown here as a horse and cart heads away from the camera, and a couple walk towards the lens.
The next two streets featured have had identity crises since these pictures were taken.
The wide sweeping stretch claiming to be Lancaster Road is now known as Leamington Road.
And not far away from that spot is the street this postcard calls Preston Road but, despite maintaining its Lancastrian theme, it has become the Burnley Road we know today.
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