Happy birthday Visit Fylde Coast! It doesn’t seem five minutes since we were getting ready to celebrate our tenth year of publishing, back in January 2020.
Then, of course, the Covid 19 pandemic turned life upside down and our 10th anniversary became a minor detail!
But in many ways the pandemic converged with our big milestone to shape and form Visit Fylde Coast (VFC) for the future. We’re believers in fate – everything has a reason… Join us for a look back in time, and see how we’ve grown!
On this page –
10 Years + Covid = A Bright Future!
This time last year we were cooking on gas. Our reader stats, reach and engagement were soaring. We’d got big plans for what we were going to do next.
Like everyone else the world over, we were upset by the onset of the pandemic. Worried about our business that we’ve worked and fought hard for. Honestly? We spent a month grumping about and feeling sorry for ourselves!
But self-pity doesn’t pay bills and we’re an optimistic bunch anyway. So, left foot forward, we set about finding ways to change and cope.
Branching into Video
Little did we know, but the Covid-19 pandemic was to provide us with an opportunity. Not only to find different ways to earn a living from VFC, but a whole new string to our bow. Yes, we were to become YouTubers!
It started out as a way to bring the seaside to you. That’s still the reason for it, but we’re evolving and improving the way that we do it. Now, we publish a new daily video featuring something interesting about this area. Plus our Sunday ‘Vlog with a View’ – not forgetting ‘Brew at 2’. How could we forget that – half an hour of live chat, comedy and all kinds of topics.
We’ve kept you entertained, amused and informed, sharing all kinds of interesting things from Fleetwood to Lytham. If necessity is the mother of invention, then Covid is the father of diversification!
And the future?
Coronavirus is going to take some time to reach a natural conclusion. I think we’ve all accepted that. But we’re optimistic about 2021.
There’s (another) new iteration of the websites on the way which paves the way for new features. There’s going to be more ways for you to take part. We’ll continue to build a platform to share and celebrate everything that’s great about this place. Come along for the ride!
2020 = Ten Years!
A Lightbulb Moment…
Visit Fylde Coast was originally the brainchild of me, your editor Jane Littlewood, known by everyone as Jane Rabbit. And it came from unlikely origins – one of those lightbulb moments followed by a project in the Christmas holidays. There’s more about how it began further down this page.
I was watching the TV, tucked up in bed one cold night in December and saw a holiday advert. I think it was for Scotland, either that or Wales, one or the other! It made me think that we should be celebrating our lovely town of Cleveleys – back then it was a closely guarded secret.
The next day I said to the other Rabbits, ‘I’ve had an idea’. Now everyone who knows me knows that those few words usually spell trouble!
But they obviously agreed, because we decided to use our collective talents to make a website about our adopted hometown.
Happy Birthday Visit Fylde Coast – when you were born…
The new promenade was just about finished, and we loved it here. We wanted to share it and show it off. The website was a hit from the beginning, popular both with people who live on the Fylde Coast and visit.
At the end of January 2010, Visit Cleveleys was launched. We started the weekly enews and launched a Facebook page, and you loved it!
This looks like it was the first video we uploaded in March 2010, of a busker playing in Cleveleys. The quality is awful!
[arve url=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/Pw9vy_PWWIA” title=”Busker in Cleveleys in 2010″ description=”Busker in Cleveleys in 2010″ /]
This is one of the first enewsletters that we sent out…
The next site we did was Visit Poulton a little while later in early 2011.
By this time it was becoming apparent that we were onto something. So we started developing the rest of the Visit Fylde Coast range, to create the full set of linked sites, covering the whole of the Fylde Coast.
At 4am one April morning, the work was finished. With the flick of a switch, the first versions of the full Visit Fylde Coast range are launched.
Rolling out Visit Fylde Coast
We’ve been independently publishing for a long time. It’s a huge achievement – so many others have been and gone in that time. But bear in mind that the internet itself isn’t that old. So 10 years also covers a sea change (pardon the pun) in the way that digital content is published.
Here at The Rabbit Patch we’ve spent hours and hours and hours developing our product. We’ve had different versions, styles and incarnations, each change aiming to give you, our readers, a better experience. It’s never, ever going to be finished. It’s a labour of love.
So many of you have enjoyed our real-life view of the world. Visit Fylde Coast is published with professionalism, but it’s real, honest and authentic. Not a disinfected view of the area.
We could have expanded and hurtled into a local version of internet greatness, but we knew that would lose the integrity of what we’ve created and you love. So we’ve stuck to our principles and kept our business small – which of course doesn’t restrict what we can actually do (and are going to do next…)
Happy Birthday Visit Fylde Coast
The labour’s have paid off and by 2020 we reached an audience of about 4.5 million people. That’s amazing, especially when you think we’ve done that all by ourselves. We haven’t been supported by anyone or any external organisations, it’s all been just us. I don’t think most people realise that.
We’ve researched and written all of the content. Photographs taken in their thousands. In fact I’ve got about 52,000 Fylde Coast photos on my computer alone – plus all the ones that Daddy Rabbit has taken with his ‘proper’ camera. A network has been built, contacts made, press releases received and shared.
Along with what you see front of house there’s all the housekeeping. Changing styles and designs (just a few of them are above) and new website releases. Editing, checking, correcting, improving. Search engine optimisation and the technical work required to keep everything running. Looking after the servers alone is a big job and going mobile in itself was a challenge.
Visit Fylde Coast is far from perfect and there’s a LOT that we still want to do and plan to do. But we’re getting there!
Celebrating the Fylde Coast
Not to be content with publishing thousands of pages of content, events and more, we’ve taken our activities offline too.
You might have picked one of our many leaflets up over the years. Many tens of thousands of them have been distributed, pointing people in the direction of the websites. You’ll usually find the latest version in the leaflet racks at Houndshill Shopping Centre.
Our network of contacts also includes journalists, editors and researchers. We’ve shared photos, information and videos with magazines, newspapers and TV production companies. It’s enabled us to promote local events and places far and wide. For example we’ve secured coverage for events in Coast Magazine a number of times.
Celebrating the Community
Not to be content with showcasing the area, what’s here, its history and funny little quirks (parched peas anyone?) we’ve also had our sleeves rolled up and done a lot of volunteering too.
We’re all active members of the Rossall Beach Residents & Community Group which I also Chair. The rest of the Rabbits help out with all those ‘ideas’, and the community work which I’m involved with. Not forgetting Care for Cleveleys either.
There’s a huge voluntary community here on the Fylde, doing all kinds of great things, many of which just slip under the radar but are so important to their own areas and members. Visit Fylde Coast celebrates them too, giving them a bit of the spotlight. We’ve spent time hunting out the tiny groups with a handful of members and no money. They make the area where they live and work better, or life better for the people they serve.
It’s Not Over Yet!
It’s been a continuous process of evolution to develop the Visit Fylde Coast of today, and the journey is far from over yet. Looking ahead we want Visit Fylde Coast to be the place for everyone to celebrate this amazing place.
New features and functions are always being developed. All designed to give you a virtual place where you can share your love of the Fylde.
I popped up here all those years ago and just love living here. For me, there’s always a thrill to be had from living at the seaside. We’ve uncovered hidden stories and raised money for projects in Cleveleys. But most of all we’ve shared the company of our readers and enjoyed being part of an online community which loves the Fylde Coast. It’s such a thrill to receive your emails, stories and photos – keep them coming!
Celebrating 10 Years!
Throughout the year we’ll be doing lots of new things including launching new online features and running some great competitions. Here’s what we’ve already done…
10 Years Press Release
We kicked off the year with a press release to celebrate the achievement of making it to the ten year milestone.
NEW – Video Diary
In February 2020 we launched the first of our new features, the new Video Diary.
We go out and about most weeks, visiting most of the Fylde Coast from time to time. So we thought you might enjoy short clips of what we see on our travels. They’re all collated in one handy playlist on the Visit Fylde Coast YouTube channel.
NEW Competitions
This was the first of our competitions in February 2020. To WIN a bundle of goodies from Seaside Emporium, our very own online Gallery. Now expired – watch out for others!
Happy Birthday Visit Fylde Coast – when you were one!
Here at The Rabbit Patch we were celebrating twice. With the anniversary of the launch of the full set of Visit Fylde Coast websites in April, while the business itself looked forward to being twenty years old in August.
Visit Cleveleys was the first website of the seven websites to be born from a spark of imagination in the winter of 2010, and had actually been online close to two and a half years. Here’s the article from the time…
An itch
Initially an ‘itch we wanted to scratch’ there was no thought when it was a single website of what it might become or what the future would hold for The Rabbit Patch. Our ethos has always been that the Fylde Coast is a fabulous place that we love as our adopted home, and we want everyone else to see what we love about it and enjoy it as much as we do – whether they live here or visit.
Jane, whose idea this all was in the first place says “There are so many great things about the Fylde that I couldn’t even begin to mention here, and I just get such a thrill from living here and being involved in all the fantastic things that happen through the year. It’s like being transported back to the holidays of your childhood even when you’re working and living your mundane life and I want other people to feel that thrill which hopefully they will do through the Visit Fylde Coast websites”.
Working night shifts
It was 17th April 2012 when the current suite of seven interlinked websites was launched – at 4am in the morning as husband and web developer Kevin remembers only too well. Kevin says “We came to the conclusion that we just needed to get it online and working because if you set your sights out to create a perfect website before you launch it you would never get anywhere, so you have to draw a line somewhere and mine was at 4am.
“Fortunately, 20 years of working shifts in computing for HSBC taught me how to work into the night!” The last twelve months have seen a stream of non-stop improvements to make the Visit Fylde Coast websites a go-to resource for anyone who has an interest in the area – and the features certainly don’t stop here with much more planned for the future.
A labour of love
The last twelve months have hurtled past at a frightening speed. But we’ve all enjoyed being involved in what’s become a passion and a labour of love. Dad Derek travels up and down the Fylde taking photographs to use in the never ending page and marketing designs which he creates. It’s a far cry from the years he spent in charge of HND Visual Communications at Sheffield College.
Mum Chrissie is the resident blogger (and author of Chrissie’s Blog) and says “We’re grateful in these challenging times to still be here to celebrate our twentieth birthday because many others didn’t manage to continue trading. For me, I finally feel like I have got a clue what they’re talking about. I only learnt how to use a computer twelve months ago. Now I produce a soap-opera style blog about what it’s like to live at the coast and in our madhouse.”
Last word goes to Chrissie. She says “I never in my wildest dreams thought that I’d ever live at the coast. Now that I do I wouldn’t want it any other way and just feel so lucky to be here and involved in this great adventure. Who knows where it will take us next!”
While you’re here…
Have a look at the homepage of the Visit Fylde Coast website for more of the latest updates.
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