Secret Sand Land
Secret Sand Land
An independent local history website for Southport
My name is David Walshe and I am a proud Sandgrounder who has been interested in local history since childhood. I have been researching the history of Southport (and what existed before) for many years now and the aim of Secret Sand Land is to present well researched & new material, via blogs, books, walks, talks & podcasts! Plus regular content via both my Twitter/X feed and Facebook page, uncovering previously unknown facts along the way. My debut book, ‘Sandy Tracks’, is a unique collection of local history based poems, illustrations & historical notes. My latest book, Ecclesfield: Southport's Forgotten Suburb is available in local bookshops, as well as direct from myself. Other work has featured in ‘The Lancastrian’ and ‘Who do you think you are?’ magazines. I can also complete house/building histories and also perform talks, of which I currently have three; ‘Marshside & it’s Fog Bell’, ‘A Brief History of High Park’ and 'Southport Street Names'. Please get in touch if this is something you’d be interested in. ***AVAILABLE NOW~ ECCLESFIELD SOUTHPORT'S FORGOTTEN SUBURB email secretsandland@gmail.com or message for more details***
My Story
In 2009 I started work on a family tree project with my Grandfather. When I began to look into my Grandmother’s (Rimmer) line, I started to uncover places within Southport that I had never heard of and that sounded fascinating to me, ‘Dean’s Court’ for example. A book was purchased for me, ‘Southport A History’ by Harry Foster which more than whetted my appetite.
I started to collect books on Southport, as well as maps, directories, pictures, paintings, anything I could get my hands on really! In 2019, after many years of being active on Southport based social media groups and local forums, I started to think about fresh ways of presenting the history of Southport and what existed before. This led to the creation my debut book, 'Sandy Tracks'.
In July 2020, I created the Twitter page, ‘Secret Sand Land’ as I was very impressed by other local history accounts and noticed there wasn’t one covering the whole town of Southport.
This website will feature regular & well researched blogs, whilst also keeping you informed about future publications, some of which I have been working on for a number of years whilst others are more recent and connected to other like minded projects.
(Image below available for purchase from johnrshort@btinternet.com)
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