The Holiday Association
Of Lytham St Annes

The 141st British Open Golf Championship 2012 will be held at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club in Lancashire between 19th-22nd July 2012. An expected 250,000 spectators will be visiting for the duration of the 2012 Championship.

The club was founded in 1886 and was the site of the first British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship in 1893 and the Centenary Championship in 1993 won by Catriona Lambert, now Catriona Matthew. Sixteen years later she won the Women's British Open at Lytham in 2009. It is one of the premier links courses in the world, host to ten Open Championships, two Ryder Cups and numerous other major tournaments.

Royal Lytham is a true links course, set upon links land but set back from the current day shoreline, separated by housing, roads, and a rail line. However, the proximity is such that the wind from the sea still comes into play. There are 206 bunkers on the course, an average of over 11 per hole. The course is also unique as it is the only course on the Open Championship rota that starts with a par 3 hole.

Most of the hotels and bed and breakfast establishments listed on this site are less than 1 mile from the course with many being within walking distance. All offer the best accommodation for visitors to the golf British open 2012.

Lytham was founded in about 600 AD. For many centuries the economy of Lytham was dependent on fishing and shrimping.

Lytham's tree-lined streets are flanked by small shops, of which many are still family businesses. The town is nicknamed "Leafy Lytham" because of the large number of mature trees along many of the town's streets.

Notable Lytham landmarks include the Green, a strip of grass running between the shore and the main road; the recently restored Windmill and Old Lifeboat House Museum are to be found here. The Green overlooks the estuary of the River Ribble.

The centre of Lytham contains many notable buildings including Lytham public library, railway station, market hall and "The County" and "The Ship and Royal" public houses. Some of the oldest buildings are found in Henry Street and Dicconson Terrace. Henry Street is also the location of the Taps public house, which is the most popuar real ale establishments on the Fylde and which has won an award every year since 1991.

The playhouse, Lowther Pavilion regularly hosts shows, plays, recitals and musicals along with various exhibitions and concerts throughout the year.

Until the middle of the 20th century the Clifton family was the leading family in Lytham and two of the town's main thoroughfares are named in their honour. Their estate on the outskirts of Lytham and Ansdell originally occupied a huge area. Lytham Hall, the family seat, remained in the family's ownership until 1979, after which ownership passed to a number of corporate bodies. The grounds of the Hall are occasionally opened to the public for open-air concerts and plays. Several of the ornate gates to the estate and much of the distinctive pebble-dashed boundary wall survive.

St Anne's-on-the-Sea (also known as St Annes-on-Sea or St Annes) was a 19th-century planned town, officially founded on 31 March 1875 when the cornerstone of the St Anne's Hotel was laid. It retains much of its original character today, and is fighting hard to become a stylish town to rival Lytham, its nearby neighbour. It is a traditional quiet Victorian / Edwardian seaside resort with up-market hotels, a sandy beach, donkeys, a small pier and ice cream stalls. Sand dunes fringe the beach and the town has an excellent, but little-known sand dune nature reserve and very good floral displays.

The shopping area was recently redeveloped. As part of this project a restaurant quarter was established, centred around Wood Street.

The beach to the north of St Anne's Pier is an internationally renowned sand yachting location. St Annes Beach also hosts a number of kite flying events each year. The bathing beach has once again been awarded a national Quality Coast Award by ENCAMS for 2011 in recognition of it being exceptionally clean and safe.

A memorial statue of a lifeboatman looking out to sea was placed on the promenade at St Annes after the Mexico Disaster of 1886. The original lifeboat station was established in 1881. The new all-weather RNLI base a few hundred metres south of St Annes pier opened in 2000.

St Annes' Library and Information Service is situated just outside of the town centre in an Edwardian, Carnegie-funded building.

3 October 2008 a bronze statue by sculptor Graham Ibbeson of the late comedian Les Dawson, who lived in the town, was unveiled by Dawson's widow and daughter in the ornamental gardens next to St Annes Pier. The late comedian George Formby, Jr. also lived in the town

Ansdell is a small village between Lytham and St Annes, on the landward side of the railway line.

It has its own railway station (shared with Fairhaven), the "Ansdell Institute" club and a public library. It is famous because of Richard Ansdell RA, an artist who lived in the area and painted a large number of oils depicting hunting scenes. In fact, Ansdell enjoys the distinction of being the only place in England to be named after an artist.

Ansdell hosts the largest school in Lancashire, Lytham St. Annes High Technology College, with over 2000 students. Ansdell also encompasses the southern end of Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club. Ansdell is also the home of Fylde Rugby Club, established in May 1920. Fylde RFC has reared many eminent players, notably Malcolm Phillips who earned 25 England caps, and Bill Beaumont who earned 34 caps before retiring in 1982.

Fairhaven Fairhaven is the district between Lytham and St Annes on the coastal side of the railway line. It is named after Thomas Fair, an early resident of Lytham St Annes. Its main claim to fame is an artificial lake, known as Fairhaven Lake or more formally as the Ashton Marine Park, which is an important wildfowl habitat.

Its other famous landmark is the Fairhaven United Reformed Church, which is of unusual design, being built in Byzantine style and faced with glazed white tiles, and commonly known as the White Church. Fairhaven also contains King Edward VII and Queen Mary School.

The sands and tidal mudflats of the area (the mouth of the River Ribble) are an important feeding area for wintering waders and the RSPB operate a visitor centre from Fairhaven Lake to provide information and guided walks