Season: autumn
This beach is separated from the town by a dune system and a National Trust Reserve, Formby Pinewoods, which has red squirrels and neolithic remains. There’s a large car park behind the dunes, so access is good. It’s an attractive, sandy beach, popular with visitors, walkers and fishermen. There is a designated dog exercise area and Formby beach forms part of the Sefton Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Dave’s preferred morning activity.
What the beach means to Rob, Helen and Michael.
A 9.6 metres high tide at Formby Point.
It is the place where I can sense infinity and the wonder of nature. The colours of the sea make good use of the artist’s palette in soft but vibrant colours and the sea at times seems to mingle into the sky. It is where I go where I am troubled to ground myself, to find calm, or to celebrate good news. The sound of the sea, making its own unique music, both nourishes and sustains me. I need to be near the sea at least once a week and when I had to spend over 3 weeks in hospital in 2016 I felt trapped and I was only helped by finding a seascape on a wall to gaze at. I can walk for miles on the beach and find peace, to appreciate the present moment, and be still, to stop ‘and stare’. Being married to a conchologist means we share a love of the coast; where we are together but separate. He walks slowly methodically checking for razor shell records while I have the whole expanse of a sandy beach to walk along. After a short walk I usually find I am alone, having lost the ‘madding crowd’. Sand is my preference to a rocky beach and among my favourites are Formby beach, Merseyside, and Holkham, Norfolk, discovered in my childhood before the film ‘Shakespeare in love’ popularised it. Cornwall is my spiritual home as it holds so many hidden beaches & creeks, some still to be discovered.
Above all I wonder at the power of the sea, which has the ability to both harm and heal with its wide ranging moods from calm to turbulent stormy.
My dream is to live by the sea, to walk there every day, to dress for the weather. It would be heaven on earth to draw the curtains every morning to greet the sea and see what mood it has wakened to. Then to close the curtains as darkness falls and allow the sea to carry on
its never ending journey. The sea surrounds our world and will exist longer than us. Its power puts our lives into perspective.