Perhaps the most delightful outcome of the Victorian era was the seaside holiday. From the sedate seaside watering place to the hustle and bustle of the larger resorts, each was overfilled with an array of delights such as piers, pleasure palaces, grand hotels and impressive promenades. One area probably towers above all as the epitome of the Victorian seaside the resorts of the Lancashire coast. From the leafy and genteel pleasures of Lytham St Anne's and Southport to the fishing port of Fleetwood, or the bustle of breezy Blackpool and Morecambe, every conceivable entertainment device was available. But one aspect of these resort's development has been long neglected the pleasure steamers that conveyed happy passengers to and from the Lancashire coast resorts from the 1840s until the mid-twentieth century. From the first Fleetwood steamers to the Waverley and Balmoral of today, the history of the myriad pleasure steamers that once served the Lancashire Coast is told here for the first time.
