This was an escape from Manchester to the Merseyside coast.
Formby isn’t your usual jolly seaside resort, but a haven of tall sand dunes, gnarled pine trees and a broad stretch of beach.
Wind turbines stand tall out to sea and the mighty city of Liverpool is in view.
It’s a place to clamber, walk and inhale the bracing air – not to mention capture in photographs.
Take an English seaside town on a holiday weekend. The gods are smiling and the sun is shining. In fact, it’s blazing hot. Broadstairs on the Kent coast has all the traditional elements – commanding Victorian buildings, sandy bays filled with deck chairs and windbreaks, a plethora of beach huts. Throw in a fish and chip lunch at a pub, an ice-cream sundae at an old-fashioned cafe and a touch of sunburn, and you have a day of memories. It was the same for the throngs who joined us that day, bringing so many people into this pen portrait of British life by the sea.
