Tucked away between Grange Road/Meols Drive and Dee Lane in West Kirby is a small but picturesque oasis of trees, shrubs and formal gardens.

Locals like to sit on the benches during their lunch breaks, or they might bring children here for a picnic when the wind racing over the beach is too wild. The beach is just down the road, barely two minutes' walk away.

West Kirby is a small Georgian seaside town yet has a surprisingly wide choice of places to eat, from quaint tea shops to stylish coffee bars and quality restaurants.  There's a large supermarket by the sea-front plus independent shops on Grange Road, Dee Lane, The Crescent and Banks Road. 

As with many towns, traffic can be a problem especially at weekends during the peak tourist season.  Sandlea Park offers a sheltered get-away from this, and tourists tend to waltz right past it as the entrance on Dee Lane, which leads straight to the beach, is easily overlooked.

The row of black and white buildings at one side of the park used to be the local library. That is now located in The Concourse, next to the station, where you will also find the swimming pool, sports centre, youth club, medical centre and One Stop Shop.

The buildings in Sandlea Park are now private homes, and overlook the formal gardens.

I first visited West Kirby decades ago.  I was living in St Helens at the time, in a Victorian terraced house with a leaky skylight, a ghost and dry rot, so it was nice to get away from all that for a while.

I instantly took to the place.  The energy felt right.  The place felt strangely familiar.  It felt like home.  And these-days it is home, but back then I couldn't explain my reaction even to myself.  

Anyway, on that first visit Sandlea Park was where I shared a bag of chips with two local squirrels and a robin.  From there, I found the sea. 

You can't really miss the sea - just follow the increasing mounds of sand down the narrow road until the beach stretches out before and either side of you.  The Wirral peninsula boasts something like twenty-five miles of the cleanest beaches in Europe. 

Many of my stories are set locally, and so it might be fair to say that on the beach and here, in Sandlea Park, are where the ideas behind those stories began to form.