The Township of St Annes on Sea in the County of -- Lancashire --

St Annes on Sea

	St Annes Pier Photograph supplied by and © of Brian Young

St Annes-on-Sea (also known as St Annes-on-the-Sea or St Annes) was a 19th century planned town, officially founded on 31 March 1875 when the cornerstone of the St. Anne's Hotel was laid. The town was mostly laid out according to a plan drawn up by businessman Elijah Hargreaves, who saw the economic benefits of attracting large numbers of visitors from the mill towns to the east. It retains much of its original character today, and is fighting hard to become a stylish town to rival Lytham, its near neighbour. It is a traditional quiet Victorian / Edwardian seaside resort with up-market hotels, a sandy beach, donkeys, a small pier and ice cream stalls. Sand dunes fringe the beach, and the town has an excellent, but little-known sand dune nature reserve and very good floral displays.

St Annes is the original home of Premium Bonds and their prize-selecting computer ERNIE, which were situated on a site between Shepherd Road and Heyhouses Lane. Premium Bonds operated from there for more than 40 years and then moved to Blackpool.

The shopping area declined towards the end of the 20th century and was redeveloped in an attempt to attract more retailers and shoppers. As part of this project a restaurant quarter centred around Wood Street was established. Work has also begun on a £2m restoration project in Ashton Gardens, a park situated near the town centre. As this is where many of the activities for St Annes Carnival are held, the 2009 carnival has been cancelled and the current carnival queen will continue with her duties for another year.

The beach to the north of St Annes Pier was an internationally-renowned sand yachting location for many years, but sand yachting has been suspended since 2002, when a visitor to the beach died after being hit by a sand yacht. St Annes beach also hosts a number of kite flying events each year. In 2006, kite enthusiasts raised concerns about the future of these activities following a decision by Fylde Borough Council in 2006 to ban the flying of kites with two or more lines anywhere in the Fylde. Following representations from kite fliers and completion of a risk assessment, the council rescinded the ban on condition that kite fliers remain at least 50m from the sand dunes.

A memorial statue of a lifeboatman looking out to sea was placed on the promenade at St Annes after the Mexico Disaster of 1886. The original lifeboat station was established in 1881 but closed in 1925 due to silting of the channel (a secondary channel of the Ribble that ran past the pier). A lifeboat continued to operate from Lytham, but the main channel of the River Ribble also became silted up, so the lifeboat was moved to a new all-weather RNLI base a few hundred metres south of St Annes pier which opened in 2000.

St Annes' Library and Information Service is situated just outside of the town centre in an Edwardian, Carnegie-funded building.

There is some confusion, even among residents of the town, about whether the correct name is "St Annes" or "St Anne's". Although the name may originally have borne an apostrophe, it appears to have been dropped from the name by many of the residents of the town and has long been absent from many official publications, such as the local newspaper, the Lytham St Annes Express In addition, the Parish church of St Annes is known as St Annes Parish Church[13] and the local secondary school is known as Lytham St. Annes High Technology College. As such this has widely become accepted as the spelling of the town's name, although as in the case of the school, some still use St. Anne's rather than St Annes.

On 23 October, 2008 a bronze statue by sculptor Graham Ibbeson of the late comedian Les Dawson, who lived in the town, was unveiled by Dawson's widow and daughter in the ornamental gardens next to St Annes Pier.The late comedian George Formby, Jr. also lived in the town.

	St Annes on Sea Photograph supplied by and © of Brian Young

	St Annes on Sea Photograph supplied by and © of Brian Young