Blackpool nostalgia in 1983: Red phone boxes, sea wall and a cake for the Iron Lady

Tory blue birthday cake is top honour

An Ansdell baker prepared a premier birthday treat for Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Mr Horace North, of Lantern Bakery, Woodlands Road, created a massive 56lb fruit cake to be presented to her on her birthday which was later on in the week, October 13.

The two feet by 18 inch cake, bedecked with flowers and lettering in Tory blue was ordered by First Leisure Corporation, owners of Blackpool’s Winter Gardens complex.

Mr North had only two days to start and finish the mammoth gift, after returning home from holiday in Majorca just a few days before the big task.

“I was still designing the cake by the poolside,” he admitted.

After 10 hours of hard graft, true-blue Mr North was nervously awaiting the presentation to the Prime Minister.

“I’m very honours to be asked to make a cake for the prime Minister ,” said Mr North.

- I just hope she likes it.”

But he admitted, however, that he wouldn’t be so enthusiastic about creating the birthday treat for the new Labour leader Neil Kinnock. Nostalgia 1982Plaque unveiling for Fleetwood sea wall

Fleetwood celebrated the completion of the £3.4m sea defence improvements when agricultural minister Michael Jopling unveiled a plaque.

For residents, the improvements meant assurance that they would be safe from a recurrence of the 1977 flood disaster when a vast area of the North Fylde coast was flooded and people’s possessions and property were devastated.

It was 4.15pm on Friday November 11 that Fleetwood’s coastguard looked in astonishment at his wind speed recorder. The gale had gusted to over hurricane force at 82 miles per hour.

Locals attuned to the ways of the weather sensed that disaster could be around the corner.

Winds had built up a massive tidal surge. That coupled with exceptionally high tides meant that at 10.15pm millions of gallons of water started to come over the sea wall with high tide still 50 minutes away. The unveiling ceremony was a time of great satisfaction for those at the council who had pressed the scheme forward. The bill was met by the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food as well as loans by the council.

Rural phone boxes given reprieve

Two phone kiosks in rural Wyre, which were threatened with the axe by British Telecom, were given a reprieve.

The kiosks in Eagland Hill near Pilling and in Winmarleigh were given a stay of execution until the Telecommunications Bill, which made provision for rural services, became law.

The campaign to save the kiosks was launched by Pilling Parish Council and taken up by Wyre Council and the area’s MP Elaine Kellett-Bowman.

Parish councillor John Danson said: “We are very pleased with the news because it would have been premature to get rid of the kiosks before the Bill was passed. The phone boxes were a vital rural service and amenity, he said, adding that the parish council was grateful for the help given by Wyre and the MP.

Mystery of loud explosion at sea left coastguards baffled

Coastguards and rescue services were mystified by a loud explosion, accompanied by smoke in the gale-swept River Ribble.

Lytham lifeboat made an abortive three and a half hour search in mountainous seas and HM Coastguard combed the beach, but found nothing.

The rescue services went into action after several people, including a traffic policeman, reported hearing a loud explosion and seeing a puff of smoke in the vicinity of Peet’s Light in the Ribble.

At one stage, lifeboatmen spotted something on their radar but when they went to investigate they found nothing.

They used white parachute flares to illuminate the area. Oil rigs off Blackpool were contacted but they had not seen anything.

Coastguards searched the waterline for any wreckage.

“It is a mystery,” said Lytham lifeboat secretary John Ogden.

“If a gas bottle on a boat had exploded, wreckage would have drifted ashore on the incoming tide.

“Another theory was that had in one of the channel perches (illuminated markers) had exploded, but they were all still illuminated.

Someone said it could have been wildfowler shooting, but that would not account for the smoke.”

HM Coastguard Mike Jones said it was a ‘mystery of the sea’.

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