Larkholme Grasslands

The Rossall Coastal Defence Scheme and Larkholme Grasslands opened in June 2018. It’s function is to prevent flooding, but it’s also an amazing public facility for Fleetwood. The grasslands is a natural landscape, filled with flowers and wildlife.

Take a look around this magnificent piece of civil engineering and the lovely Larkholme Grasslands in this video –

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This vlog, made in 2023, is from a series featuring the Wyre Beach Management Scheme. This piece of work is strengthening the beach between the Rossall Coastal Defence Scheme and the boundary with Blackpool at Kingsway.

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The Rossall Coastal Defence Scheme

The Rossall Coastal Defence Scheme includes 2km of new sea defences (just over a mile) between Westway and Fleetwood Golf Course.

It took four years to construct, at a cost of £64m and opened on 1 June 2018. The new design protects 7,500 properties from the risk of flooding. It includes new revetments, seawall, promenade and rear wall. Plus works to the grassed lagoon area (now known as Larkholme Grasslands) and floodwater channel on the landward side.

You can’t overestimate how much of a battering this section of coastline gets from the waves and wind. Together they pick up the shingle and pebbles and hurl them at the sea wall with incredible force. This frequently damaged the old concrete sea wall. That’s why rock is used in the lower tidal area, because it’s much harder-wearing than concrete.

Read more: about the Rossall Seawall & Coastal Defence Scheme

An Amazing Public Space

The design disperses the energy of the waves as they crash against the shore, and withstands the constant battering. The wide walkway and split level upper promenade is a pleasant environment linking the coastline between Cleveleys and Fleetwood. It’s an amazing public open space for people to enjoy.

Beyond the wall is the overflow channel which runs along Larkholme Grasslands. It’s purpose is to collect any spray and overtopping that makes it over the wall.

Reshaping Larkholme Grasslands

Where once was a plain grassy strip (and dog toilet!) there’s now a 1.5km ecology park. The landward side of the Rossall Coastal Defence Scheme, between West Way and Fairway, is known as Larkholme Grasslands. This is how it looked before work began.

Biological Heritage Site

The name might be fairly recent but the valuable coastal grassland has been a Biological Heritage Site (BHS) for a long time. Believe it or not, even before rebuilding, the grassy area was home to many special plants, insects and animals.

BHS are wildlife sites of county-wide importance, because of the rare species of flora and fauna which grow there. Rebuilding the seawall created an opportunity to improve this important habitat. And so environmental design experts at Lancashire County Council were drafted in to work up a landscape plan.

Public Consultation

This section of coastline is a totally different landscape to the nearby promenade in the centre of Cleveleys. It’s more natural, almost a wild place, ideal for solitude, walking and watching the wildlife.

Beach users and residents were consulted about how they would like to see the design of the new sea defences take shape. They were asked what pastimes the area and beach was used for and these characteristics are reflected in its design. The results of a full public consultation in early 2010 were also taken into account. That’s why there’s no lighting and commercialisation.

Consultation with the angling community led to the original full rock revetment being changed. The design was adapted to reduce the width of rock and create the lower level berm. New access points are also incorporated in the new design. There are slades, ramps, an increased number of steps and access from the upper and lower promenades. Lancashire County Council designers unveiled their draft plans for an ecology zone in January 2015. It’s designed to meet the needs of the local community and stakeholders

Restoring the native plantlife

With construction of the Rossall Coastal Defence Scheme completed and all the heavy civil engineering out of the way, works to create Larkholme Grasslands could begin.

Rarer plants were translocated away from the site before construction of the sea defences began to prevent damage. A number of seed collections were made and the seeds grown offsite on mats. With them planted on site afterwards, the same plant life was returned to the grasslands. And lot of original turf was also lifted and stored before work began. Laying it down again afterwards retained a lot of the original flora of the site.

With earthworks completed, turfing, seeding and planting followed.

This landscaping work is the finishing touch to the fantastic new promenade. It’s a much more attractive environment for those living behind the sea defences. The ecology park makes the most of the area’s natural features, while meeting the feedback from prior consultation with the public. It celebrates the plants and insects that make the grasslands special. There’s even a herpetarium – creating a natural home for the reptiles which call the grasslands home.

Artworks at Larkholme Grasslands

You’ll also find new artworks at Rossall Coastal Defence Scheme, in the grasslands between West Way and Chatsworth Avenue. Seating, pathways and bridges also make the whole area more accessible and enjoyable.

Artist Stephen Broadbent, who also designed the Mythic Coast artworks at Cleveleys, created the specially designed sculptures. The waymarkers bring to life the diverse range of marine species that give the area its Biological Heritage Site status.

Look out for the colourful stainless steel grassland beacons – they’re way-finders, connecting paths to the promenade and marking pedestrian access points. Their design celebrates local wildlife and plants.

Home to a ‘meandering swale’

With all the ground level raised and contoured, the old grey seawall (the ‘Berlin Wall’) has now disappeared for an attractive and user-friendly landscape. The new rear wall is still as high as the old one (actually it’s about 30cm higher). But now that less of it is visible it’s much more attractive.

The old concrete overflow channel (below) is now a ‘meandering swale’ with natural ponds along the way. The whole point of the channel is that it collects any overflow water from the sea – and rainwater from the sky!

You can visit Larkholme Grasslands in our videos. This video picks the walk up to carry on to the Chatsworth end near the golf course –

Enjoyed this video? Why don’t you subscribe to the Visit Fylde Coast YouTube channel, for loads more great content!

Other related pages –

• Tank Traps at Rossall School
• The Rossall Hoard of Roman Coins
• Look at Rossall Coastal Defence Scheme
• Rossall Point Seafront
• Have you seen Rossall Tower?
• Fleetwood Beach Landmarks

What Larkholme Grasslands Looked Like Before Construction Works

How quickly you forget! Take a look at Visit Fleetwood’s own collection of photos dating back before these works. These were all taken in 2009.