Morning All

What a cracking weekend, so far, and I’ve been privileged to see 4 ‘local’ hares; far too quick, however, for a photograph!

A reminder of some up-and-coming dates:

• April 20th. Steve Proctor, presentation entitled “Talk to Me”.
• April 23rd The first Events Cup outing to Skippool Creek – see below
• April 27th. Software editing session; please bring along some, preferably RAW, images to process. Bracketing?
• May 4th George Franks, presentation on ‘Flash Photography’
• May 11th AGM
• May 14th Coffee morning
• May 18th Presentation Evening; places still available.

Details

Arrive at 7.00pm for the meal at 7.15pm

Menu: Ham, Turkey and vegetarian quiches; Green salad, tomato salad, eggs, coleslaw and hot potatoes.

Desserts: Choice of Meringue Pavlova – Raspberry, Coffee Renoir or Fresh Fruit Salad; all with pouring cream.

Quiz and a raffle; any raffle prizes to donate? Most welcome!

Garstang mayor will be joining us and has promised to ‘do’ the presentations.

All for the princely sum of just £12 per member. If you wish to bring a guest that will be great.

Please book your tickets either via the usual email address or speak to Freda, Mike or Lewis at the next meeting on Wednesday. All reservations will be on a first come first booked basis ‘cos the Arts Centre will only hold so many.

Deadline will be the 1st May ‘cos we will have to notify the caterers.

By the way, no washing up – all sorted! Also, bring your own drinks.

Please support your club and come along

Comedy Pet Photo Awards are now open at www.comedypetphoto.com

Overview, in case you are interested.

They are donating £30,000 to 3 small animal welfare charities, one for cats, one for dogs and one for all rescue animals.

Entry is via the website, for both images and videos. Closing date is 1st July 2022

The winning photo entry receives £2000 cash, plus a trophy and they get to choose a charity to donate £5000. The winning video entry receives £1000 cash and all category winners will receive a fabulous goodie bag!

There are 7 categories – Dog, Cat, Horse, All Other Animals, Pets who look like someone famous or owners, Video and Junior (16 or under)

Entry fee – £1.95 for 1 entry, £5 for 5 and £10 for 15 entries.

Sorry, but the Zoom invite for Wednesday will follow in a later email

Skippool Creek

I would strongly recommend wellies!

History

For hundreds of years Skippool Creek was a major trading port, along with Wardleys Creek at the other side of the river Wyre. It was in constant use by sea going vessels from the end of the Medieval period, well before the 1600’s.

Goods arrived here from all around the world. Traders plied their goods further inland at Poulton, with goods unloaded at Skippool.

It had been the location of a small port for Poulton for centuries. But in 1590 it began to grow. Brothers William and James Blackburne, along with William Jenkinson – all from Thistleton – began landing their trade goods of flax and tallow from Russia.

Round the World Trade

Once a bustling port, ships arriving from as far away as Russia, Barbados and North America would unload their cargoes. Timber came from across the Atlantic, sugar and tobacco from the Americas and tallow from Russia. Flax arrived here, imported from Ireland and the Baltic. Stone was imported from the Lake District, along with other cargos of imported wine, rum, sugar, cotton and tobacco.

1806-08 records show limestone and oats being imported from Ulverston, and coal which arrived via Preston. By return, salt and locally made cheese was exported to other coastal ports via Skippool. Regular markets were being held in nearby Poulton by the 18th century.

After Marton Moss was drained from 1731, the river inlet at Skippool was widened and deepened. With the banks strengthened it provided better wharfage.

Tides Times and Depth

Skippool Creek
Tides	Times	Depth
High tide	04.57	7.4m
Low tide	11.20	1.8m
High tide	17.41	7.0m
Low tide	23.54	2.4m

Sun rise: 05.52

Sun set: 20.29

The nearest postcode to Skippool Creek to use with Satnav is FY5 5LF – which is Wyre Road.

Turn off the A585 at the River Wyre pub at Skippool Road, and head as if to Thornton.

Not very many yards along the road, turn right onto Wyre Road, before you reach the Thornton Lodge pub. Be careful, it’s very narrow at the beginning.

Wyre Road follows the creeks and widens out slightly.

There is a free car park a little further along where you can leave your car to explore on foot. The car park can hold about 20 cars.

I will probably be going there for mid-morning so I suggest that if you are there, we could socialise and have a sandwich get together in the car park.

That’s all folks!

Mike and Lewis