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, with the aim of Secret Sand Land being to present well researched & new material, via blogs, books, walks, talks & podcasts! Plus regular content via my facebook, YouTube, X and Instagram pages- uncovering previously unknown facts along the way. To date, I have self-published two books; ‘Sandy Tracks’, a unique collection of local history based poems, illustrations & historical notes, with a second edition still available, (published in 2024), and my second book, 'Ecclesfield: Southport's Forgotten Suburb', (paperback sold out in 2023, digital 2025
version is now available here ECCLESFIELD).
Both of these books are in The Atkinson Library, Crosby Library & The British Library. To get a feel for my writing & research, please refer to the blog section of this website. I have also had articles published in ‘The Lancastrian’ and ‘Who do you think you are?’ magazines. I am available to give a variety of local history talks and I also lead guided walks in Southport. These are all advertised in advance via my social media pages. If you're interested in the history of your property, I can also carry out Building Histories. Please get in touch on secretsandland@gmail.com if you or your group would like to know more about any of the above services.
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.
Through publishing my written work via blogs and also in book form, I have self established myself as a local historian for Southport, giving regular public & private group walks & talks, whilst developing Secret Sand Land as a 'go-to' space for the local history.
©David Walshe 2026
As featured on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Merseyside
