OUR CAUSE
Lytham Town Trust is a registered charity and we preserve and protect buildings of architectural or historic interest in Lytham for everyone to enjoy. Read on to find out about our work to provide the community with places to thrive.
Who We Are & What We Stand For
As a historic building preservation charity, we own, manage and maintain local properties and spaces of architectural and historic value across Lytham and Ansdell, to ensure they are preserved for public benefit and historical significance.
We’ve been doing this since 1990 when our founders, led by local businessman, Alan Ashton and solicitor, David Coupe, pledged to repurpose part of the former Lytham Baths building fronting Dicconson Terrace and re-establish a set of Assembly Rooms for the local community.
In doing so, they created the Lytham Town Trust and more than 35 years later their mission is at the heart of everything we do.
Their aim then, as it is now, was to save Lytham’s most significant sites from demolition or redevelopment and to retain and repurpose them for the community to use and enjoy.
Our Properties
With your support, we continue to keep some of Lytham’s most precious heritage and recreational spaces open and its history flourishing, including:
1 historic house
2 civic buildings
1 sports club
2 commercial spaces
5 residential properties
78 hectares of parkland
1 wood
Several green spaces.
July 1990
Lytham Town Trust incorporated and registered as a charity with the initial task of managing the newly refurbished Lytham Assembly Rooms.
March 1991
GRE (UK) Ltd, led locally by Barry Fothergill, leases the Assembly Rooms’ first-floor offices for 12 years, securing Lytham Town Trust’s finances
1996
Lytham Hall is put up for sale by Guardian Assurance plc and an appeal to save it for the community is launched by Lytham Town Trust.
March 1997
Lancashire County Council gives approval for Lytham Hall to be used for the solemnisation of marriages.
June 1998
A lease is granted of part of the first floor at The Assembly Rooms to Lytham Yacht Club.
February 2001
Alan Ashton retires as Chairman and is appointed Life President. Stanley Kitt is appointed Chairman.
October 2007
Stanley Kitt retires as Chairman, becomes Company Secretary and Barry Lees is appointed Chairman.
August 2011
The Heritage Lottery Fund award a grant of £2.4m to Heritage Trust for the North West as part of a £5.9m restoration programme.
August 2016
The Heritage Lottery Fund withdraws the balance of funding for the restoration of Lytham Hall after it emerged that the capital works for which the cash was earmarked had not taken place.
February 2019
Alan Ashton, co-founder of Lytham Town Trust and our inaugural Chairman, passes away.
September 2023
A lease is granted of the first-floor offices at The Assembly Rooms to Harrison Drury, solicitors.
TIMELINE
January 1991
Lease of the Assembly Rooms granted to Lytham Town Trust for 125 years by Fylde Borough Council at a nominal rent.
May 1991
The Assembly Rooms are formally opened by the Mayor of Fylde, Councillor Eillen Hall.
December 1996
With a £1m donation from BAe Systems, Lytham Town Trust purchases Lytham Hall and Parkland, aided by Frank Roe CBE. At the same time, Alan Bushell negotiates the purchase of Clifton Estate properties via a Midland Bank loan, later reduced by selling ground rents.
January 1998
A 99-year full repairing lease is granted to a building preservation trust, Heritage Trust for the North West, to enable them to manage the Hall on behalf of Lytham Town Trust.
November 1998
The Friends of Lytham Hall is set up and registered as a charity.
May 2007
Proceeds from land sales fund the £740,000 Lytham Hall Endowment Fund, held in trust by Lytham Town Trust and Heritage Trust for the North West.
October 2009
Barry Lees retires as Chairman and is succeeded by David Gill.
March 2012
A lease granted of the first-floor offices at the Assembly Rooms to Handelsbanken.
January 2019
The former Dicconson Room at The Assembly Rooms is leased to Lancashire County Council for use as Lytham Library.
2023
A new drainage system is installed at Lytham Hall, part funded by a donation of £40,000 from the Lytham Hall Endowment Fund.
July 2024
Funds from LTT reserves and the Lytham Hall Endowment Fund are committed to convert the former Gardener’s Cottage into self-catering accommodation.
Learn about our governance arrangements as a Charitable Trust and how they are designed to support our objectives.
OUR FOUNDERS
OUR CONSTITUTION
Read about some of our founders - Alan Ashton, David Coupe and Frank Rowe - who set up Lytham Town Trust in 1990 to protect and conserve the built heritage of Lytham.
OUR BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Find out about the people who make sure we are delivering on our responsibilities.
OUR PARTNERS
Lytham’s heritage needs careful stewardship. Meet the partners who help us make it possible.
