Formby Civic Society is a registered Charity (No. 516789)

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This has been an important part of the Society's interests and activities since it first started over 50 years ago. During the winter months we arrange a regular series of meetings on historical themes. These include opportunities for members to present short accounts of any personal projects or interests.

We also welcome non-members for a small charge and try to advertise details of our meetings as widely as possible. The Society is a member of the Lancashire Federation of Local History and also the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. The Society has been working on the history of Formby since it was established in the 1950s. During that time it has built up a considerable archive consisting of maps, photographs and documents together with a useful local history library. Much of this archive has been 'digitised' and some is accessible from our website. We hope to increase this in line with the national digital 'Access 2 Archives' scheme.

Using these resources past and present members have written and published some important historical studies. These include 'Viking Village'. (Edith Kelly, 1973) and 'Britain's First Life Boat Station', (B and R. Yorke, 1982). Other publications include 'Formby & Freshfield through Time' (published by Amberley Publishing, 2009), ‘Formby, Freshfield and Altcar' (in the Images of England Series, published by Tempus in 1999, and a 'Town-Trail' type leaflet, 'Discovering Formby’. At present in cooperation with Sefton Coast Partnership we are participating in the creation of a number of Heritage Trails in and around the Ravenmeols Dunes. These are currently being developed as interactive maps on our site - please click here to view them

Our resources are often used by local students and are available to all bona fide researchers, but particularly our members. Offers of practical help in our work with research and archive management are very welcome.

We get quite a number of enquiries on local history via e-mail from all over the world and try to assist with these when information is available.

To view our resources please click here