Category: Morecambe

Zoo Cafe & Half Moon Bay

It was great to see one of our local cafes included in the Guardian’s list of best seaside cafes last week. Half Moon Bay Cafe, located on the shore by Morecambe Bay in Heysham is a genuine treat in a local beauty spot. I have many fond memories of enjoying a hot bacon butty and a coffee, taking in the sea air and the views of Morecambe Bay and the Lake District hills beyond, while the driving rain lashed against the sides of the cafe.

Zoo Cafe, 2009
Half Moon Bay Cafe, 2019

The cafe now occupies a permanent structure on the site of the original Half Moon Bay Cafe which closed in the seventies, but it started out in a small trailer called the Zoo Cafe in 2008.

Back then, the wife and I would take a weekend stroll along the grassy pathways that crisscross the area from Heysham Head and drop down on to the beach, occasionally buying a couple of coffees if we had enough time or loose change, but the habitual stroll soon became the weekly compulsory fried breakfast at the beach, and the strolling petered out.

Half Moon Bay

Half Moon Bay is beautiful, and we’re very lucky to have places like this on our door step, free to use by the whole community, and there’s something for everyone.

Dogs bring their humans here for their daily exercise.

Have you seen my human? About five foot, green coat and carrying a red ball. Answers to “Woof…”

There’s the clean sandy beach.

Wild grasses. A haven for bees, butterflies and crickets.

There’s art. This one is called ‘Ship’ by Anna Gillespie.

There are both types of beach here, gravelly, and sandy, and the bedrock is exposed at low tide leaving behind rock pools, abundant with marine life, to explore.

More pebbles than there are stars in the sky.

If you like collecting beach glass, and who doesn’t, there are many fine specimens to discover. Some of the stones are perfectly triangular.

Glass Collage
Fossilized Toblerone and Chocolate Button (Pre-Cadbrian period)
Beach Ceramics

You can park your glutes on one of the many benches, plant a deckchair on the sand, or even cast a line out to sea and catch yourself some supper.

The Other View

Half Moon Bay has an alternative view. We all enjoy Television and frozen Yorkshire Puddings, and for that we need power. And Britain, being an Island, is also dependent on its ports. The ports and power stations have to go somewhere, and Half Moon Bay is one of those places.

High tide in summer
Low tide in winter

How many English villages can boast not just one thermonuclear power station, but two? The plans for Heysham 3, one of a new generation of nuclear power stations seem to be on hold for now, but nuclear isn’t the only way to generate electricity. We’ve also got a wind farm, a solar farm, and offshore gas comes ashore here. There’s a domestic waste incineration plant in the pipeline, and if the Bay Bridge ever happens, with its tidal energy schemes, this is where it will be. Talk about Northern Powerhouse!

Next to the power station is the port. A passenger ferry sails daily to the Isle of Man, and a freight only service runs to Ireland.

Sitting on the dock of the bay…

For thrill seekers, there’s opportunity to be blown to bits.

Free parking is available across from the cafe, but it can be unreliable at certain times of the year. Heysham is affected by roving boulders that sometime come to rest across the car park entrance and block access for vehicles, though the stay is short lived and the boulders eventually move on.

With so much to see and do here, its definitely worth a visit.

Links

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2019/jul/08/20-best-uk-seaside-cafes-restaurant-seafood-beach-shacks

https://www.lancasterguardian.co.uk/lifestyle/nationally-recognised-heysham-cafe-owner-says-he-only-came-to-windsurf-and-sell-a-few-sausages-1-9871841

https://www.heart.co.uk/northlancs/news/local/half-moon-bay-to-host-ship-sculpture/

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Hogwarts Train – Hest Bank 31/10/2015

It was a Saturday like any other, except that it was Halloween . For lunch we’d decided to pick up a drive thru MacDonald’s on the way home and stop off at Hest Bank shore to eat while enjoying the views and the fresh sea air. No sooner had we finished our lunhes and prepared to set off for home, I heard the distinct sound of steam engine clatter. It sounds a bit like a military helicopter at full clink and I didn’t want to miss a photo opportunity.

I grabbed my phone and leaped out of the car in time to see the train coming to halt right behind us.

It stopped, blocking the level crossing, and our only way out.

The Hogwarts Train

After a while it became obvious that the train wasn’t going anywhere, so we wandered down to the crossing gates to get a closer look.

The train was empty, but the tables were set for a meal. This is the train that is used in the Harry Potter movies, the coaches at least. They are based at Carnforth, just a mile or two up the track from here.

From the foot bridge

There was no sign of why the train had stopped here, there is no signal or station, unless this was a SPAD (Signal Passed At Danger) incident, but there was nothing in the news about it. I must admit to enjoying the sight and sound and smell of steam locomotives, and to see two of them together, on the mainline, was a rare treat, and well worth being trapped by the barrier for the thirty odd minutes.

Eventually though, the train did leave. Google composited my pictures in to a short movie. Thanks Google.

The Train Now Departing…Hogwarts Express…Choo choo!!!

An unexpected treat on a grey autumn day. Lovely.

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Melon Twisted at the Shore

It was one of those mornings today. Hectic and stressful, but the boys got to school on time, the wife got to work on time, and I now had the car, and the morning to myself. I could go home, wash up, sort the laundry, and then try to fit in some writing before the errands that I had to do. Or, I could go to the shore and take in some sea air, listen to the sounds of sea meeting land, and enjoy the reassuringly predictable sounds of the trains passing at speed. I chose option 2, and at 9 am on a week day morning, the place should be deserted, except for the odd dog walker here and there.

I was wrong. So wrong that I couldn’t even find somewhere to park. There is always somewhere to park here, but not today. The place was full of white vans and big cars. A production crew for the TV series The Bay. I didn’t see any actual filming happening, but there were lighting rigs set up and lots of filmy-crew type people wandering around.

I did manage to park the car in the space of last resort, at the very end of the track, where the thorns grow over the ruts in the unmetalled road, but even then, there were film crew wandering around. They stopped doing what they doing while I got out of the car and wandered around the gravelly beach looking for beach glass. I didn’t find any and sensed that I wasn’t welcome there. Instead, I would go to another beauty spot, Half Moon Bay.

  • Power Station Venting Steam in the Distance

As is usually the case, when I decided to leave, the barriers came down.

  • Ghost Train in the Machine
  • Northbound Class 88 pulling a container train.

Once I got to Heysham, I could see that the power station was indeed venting steam. If I didn’t have complete faith I could be quite worried, but I’m not.

  • Power station venting

That faith was shaken a little a few weeks ago when we heard a loud banging noise in the night, coming from the direction of the docks/power station. It turned out to be an unplanned shut down at about 11 pm on 15th August. It was heard for miles around, and to me it sounded like a steam train at speed.

There is a new sculpture by the shore at Half Moon Bay, with information about the bird life to be found here.

I wandered around for a bit, but the morning was getting on. I hadn’t had breakfast yet and there was a steak slice in the fridge begging for ninety seconds in the microwave. I didn’t get my soulful wander by the waves, but I did see the film crew, and I am looking forward to seeing the series on screen. Maybe I’ll try again tomorrow.

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