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  • From our own Correspondent

BOATWAVE BILL

Margaret Williamson  
​17 January 2022


Riding our local cycle route along the seafront (14 traffic-free miles between Blackpool and Fleetwood) on a bracing January morning, we took a break at the Fleetwood Ferry café, a favourite for coffee or fish & chips with a good view of the Wyre estuary.

Here we chanced on Fleetwood artist Boatwave Bill (William Todd) displaying his artworks on the promenade. Well-known in local art circles for his paintings of Fleetwood and the Knott End ferry, as well as beautiful portraits of sea birds, some framed with driftwood, Bill also runs voluntary painting classes in the library. More of his work is featured in the new Knott End Arts & Crafts shop across the river, next to the ferry slip.

​We had a long and interesting talk with Bill, whose pen-name derives from a habit of surfing the ferry boat waves in his younger days. His pictures include the last over-Wyre steamer, the Wyresdale, which tragically exploded in 1957 killing the boiler engineer and two others. A smaller ferry still runs, but not on steam! Margaret preferred the bird portraits and chose a monochrome painting of Sanderlings for the bedroom wall. These small waders are regularly seen on the Wyre estuary, as they migrate south from their Arctic breeding grounds to winter on warmer shores.
Picture
                     ​Sanderling by Boatwave Bill
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