Looking Back: Before the Morecambe Polo Tower arrived

Bill Liver, from Overton, was a general foreman for Harbour and General who constructed the base for the minty tower and also worked on station and bases for cable cars that went across the promenade.

The 76-year-old was in charge of the excavation process which involved piling into the ground to form the circle and then filling the opening with concrete.

The team worked into the night on the day the concrete went into the base of the tower, which was placed more than 100m deep into the ground.

There was also a time capsule buried underneath the tower, said Mr Liver.

“The time capsule is a milk churn which went in when we were about halfway up with the concrete, it is fastened to the reinforcing,” he said.

“In the time capsule, I think a copy of the Visitor went in.”

The tower then went into the hole, pinned down with bolts.

Several months later, once the tower was complete, there was an extravagant ceremony where Johann Traver, a stunt rider, drove a motorbike on a wire with a trapeze artist dangling beneath him.

Jeremy Gomm, former editor of The Visitor, was also pictured dangling underneath Johann.

The wire, 150ft up in the air, went from the former railway station, The Platform, to the top of the tower.

Geoffrey Thompson, boss of Frontierland, Glen Cooper, the then news editor of the Visitor, and the Lord Mayor were some of the VIPs taken up to the viewing area.

More in next week’s Looking Back on the time capsule and the Polo Tower ceremony.