Anybody know the history of the ferry "Duke of Lancaster" which is concreted in the bank of Dee estuary?
Answers:
The Duke of Lancaster was built for the British Transport Comission in 1955.
In 1956 she took up service on the Heysham to Belfast service which she served untill 1975 where she was transferred onto the Holyhead to Dun Loghaire service.
In 1978 she was laid up in Holyhead, and the next year when British Rail became Sealink, she also changed hands to Sealink, and a few months later she was moved to Barrow to lay up there instead.
That same year she was sold to Empirewise Ltd in Liverpool and arrived in Mostyn (actually Llanerch-y-Mor) on the 10th August 1979. She was immediately "Concreted" in to her new home.
Her intended use as a static leisure centre and market was relatively short-lived - she was known as 'The Fun Ship' and it was possible to visit the engine room and bridge as well as the market. Plans for a 300-room hotel never appear to have got further than the preliminary planning stage however, and it was not long before the ship closed for business.
She still lies there to this day.
The Duke of Lancaster, also known as Mostyn's Fun Ship, has long been left in a dry dock on the Dee Estuary at Mostyn, near Holywell. According to local historians, it was a former Heysham to Belfast car ferry which operated in the 1950-60s, and later ran cruises before becoming an amusement arcade and bar at its present location before being closed
Duke of Lancaster,and her sister ship Duke of Argyll were owned
by British Rail ferries and ran from Heysham to Belfast.
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