Bring me sunshine

Okay, Morecambe's old appellation of Bradford-by-the-Sea wasn't meant to be taken literally. The resort got that name when great Bradford mills like Listers and Illingworths used to charter steam trains to give their workforces a day out on the Midland Railway to the Lancashire seaside. And since then Morecambe has been the retirement place of choice for generations of Bradfordians.

But it has always been outshone by Blackpool – even the annual illuminations were discontinued long ago – and in the last couple of decades the resort has become the sort of place writers visit to pen the obituary of the English seaside. You know, "The tide went out at Morecambe and never came back in". Once upon a time, one of Bradford's regular endorsements was "Full Monty". This stamp meant that the contents of a South American bale shipped from Montevideo to the mills had been checked and found to be correct. So how nice it was to go to Morecambe on an absolute peach of a day and do the Full Monty of sands, promenade, shops and attractions. Verdict? The place is shockingly under-rated. The view across the bay's tidal sands to the Cumbrian fells is enough to make it one of the most beautifully situated resorts in the UK.

Another of Morecambe's virtues is that it's now so unfashionable with the Kiss Me Quick multitudes that they wouldn't be seen dead drunk there.

This gives the place a more relaxed ambience, perfect for young families and anyone who wants a day on the coast without the experience of feeling they were somewhere between a football match and a walk round Soho.

There's plenty not to like, which is true of every resort, and you probably wouldn't want to spend a fortnight there la Alan Bennett's childhood holidays. But for a day trip – the huge number of car parks in the town tells you this is the staple of Morecambe's trade – it has many virtues. If Blackpool is the drinking person's resort, then perhaps Morecambe is being rebranded as the thinking person's. Take a look at Morecambe Promenade, the Edwardian railway station which used to so excite millions of arriving Yorkshire people. Today's trains use a new station while the old one has been restored to its 1907 glory and morphed into the Platform Arts Centre, a venue for jazz, blues, rock, folk and classical music. Billboards outside suggest that Mr Aker Bilk is no stranger on this shore. Further along Marine Road is the astonishing Old Pier Book Shop, a cavernous chaos of second-hand books arranged in an order that makes little sense to anyone but the proprietor, Tony Vettesse, who is able instantly to find any book you request. Not bad considering his stock is now way past 60,000. If

you want to lose all track of time, this is the place.

Somewhere else to blur time is Morecambe's architectural jewel, the stunningly restored art deco Midland Hotel. Strolling into the spacious lobby for afternoon tea is like crossing into the 1930s. And further along the promenade is a similarly delightfully retro experience, the Brucciani ice-cream parlour, where the Knickerbocker Glory has reigned supreme since 1893.

No seaside main drag is complete without a fortune teller, and since the 1970s Morecambe has had Gypsy Sarah, who read my palm for a tenner, found lots of exciting things in its future and threw in for free some great tittle-tattle about celebrities whose palms she'd read.

One of them was not Eric Morecambe, which was a shame. He was born in the town and once voted the funniest man of the 20th century. His statue by Barnsley sculptor, Graham Ibbeson, has become the local icon, capturing the comedian in his idiosyncratic dance routine. "Bring me sunshine," the famous signature of Morecambe and Wise, would make a fitting catchphrase for a reborn holiday resort like Morecambe.

Since most people arrive by car, it would be a shame not to use it and explore the wider reaches of Morecambe Bay. For the ultimate experience, it's worth driving up the coast to Arnside and setting off over the sands in the company of Cedric Robinson MBE, better known locally as Ced the Sandman, holder of the ancient office of Queen's Guide to the Sands.

He leads the crossings each Saturday and Sunday and after a three-hour walk you get the train back to Arnside from Kent Bank. Away from Morecambe and its bay is Carnforth Railway Station, where steam train buffs come to wallow in nostalgia and film buffs pay homage to that great 1940s tear-jerker, Brief Encounter. On screen, the first tears were famously jerked by a speck of grit lodged in the eye of Celia Johnson and removed by dashing Trevor "I'm a doctor" Howard, thus launching a love story acted out mostly on Platform 1 and the refreshment room of somewhere called Milford Junction. Noel Coward, the writer, intended the station to be somewhere in leafy Kent but the risk of Luftwaffe raids and the demands of wartime black-out restrictions meant that the filming location was moved north to gritty Carnforth. The station still looks pretty much as it was then, and you can almost hear Howard uttering lines like: "I love you, I love you, you love me too. It's no use pretending it hasn't happened because it has." There's a room full of memorabilia from the film, a mini cinema where Brief Encounter plays on an infinite loop, and in a classic example of life imitating art, the refreshment room is an authentic reproduction of the one specially created for the film at Denham studios in Buckinghamshire. Expect to find couples staring longingly at each other over the cups of loose-leaf tea. And here's a piece of film trivia. The solemn-voiced station announcer in the film is, in fact, Noel Coward himself.

As dear old Eric Morecambe would have said: "Not a lot of people know that."

FACT FILE

The Midland Hotel, Marine Road West, Morecambe. See http://elh.co.uk/hotels/midland or call 01524 424000.

www.visitlancashire.com

Morecambe Tourist Information Centre: 01524 582808, www.lancaster.gov.uk/ and the box office is on 01524 582803.

Cedric Robinson's guided walks Saturday and Sundays, details 01539 532165 or Morecambe TIC above.

The Old Pier Book Shop, 287 Marine Road Central, Morecambe. Tel. 01524 409360.

P Brucciani Ice Cream Parlour is at 217 Marine Road West, Morecambe. Tel. 01524 421386.

Carnforth Station on the A6 between Lancaster and Kendal, one mile from junction 35 of the M6. www.carnforthstation.co.uk