The Mount, Fleetwood// Discover Wyre Trails
Project: Engagement and Digital consultuant for the creation of Finding Fleetwood Heritage Trails (now Discover Wyre Trails)
Client: Wyre Council
Partners: TGAC, Mark Woods, Four Door Productions
EXPLORE: www.discoverwyretrails.co.uk
Start
Discover Wyre Trails began as an ambitious brief from Wyre Council, forming part of the national Historic High Streets Heritage Action Zone (HAZ) programme, funded by Historic England. The project set out to revitalise Fleetwood’s town centre by reconnecting people with their local places through new layers of storytelling, co-creation, and innovative digital experiences.
Fleetwood, Cleveleys, and Garstang were chosen as the focus — places rich in social, industrial, and natural heritage, yet facing the challenges of economic and social change. Our goal was to involve local people directly in shaping how their stories would be told, celebrating the unique character of these communities while using technology in accessible, playful, and meaningful ways.
The vision was to develop a series of themed trails — covering history and heritage, nature and climate, health and wellbeing, art, and festive experiences — blending physical exploration with multimedia and augmented reality (AR), helping people rediscover their towns through fresh eyes.
It all began with an idea: how could a place’s stories connect people, spark curiosity, and support community pride?
It evolved into a collaborative, scalable and replicable process for transforming the area’s rich social, industrial, and natural heritage stories into an evolving collection of accessible, interactive, and inspiring trails, delivered in TGA’s rich media platform, Ci, to engage visitors, celebrate local identity, and promote health and wellbeing through participation and co-creation with local people and organisations.
Model Boat, Fleetwood MuseumJourney
Over 18 months, we worked closely with a wide range of local organisations and groups, including Fleetwood Museum, Market, Artist Studios and Library, memory groups, Men’s Shed, and Blackpool Sixth Form College, local MP Cat Smith, and many more.
Together, we co-created memory postcards, multimedia trails, animated stories, AR experiences, and interactive projects that told local stories in new, playful ways.
Projects included:
Arts-based storytelling and object histories, giving new voices to Fleetwood’s statues and landmarks.
A Snakes & Ladders-style interactive game mat with QR-linked rich media content, brought to community events.
A ‘How to Become a Producer’ supper school for sixth form students, where they explored storytelling, archival research, community engagement, and media production, creating their own trail, ‘Fleetwood: Through Our Eyes’.
An AR Festive Trail following an original story about Santa visiting Fleetwood and losing his guiding stars, with mini-games helping families track them down.
An expanded programme at Cleveleys, creating an AR art trail linked to local sculptures and a co-created storybook.
In Garstang, a community-made heritage trail developed with the local history group and regional craft makers.
Destination
Through the Discover Wyre Trails project, we successfully delivered a meaningful, and community-rooted programme of physical-digital heritage experiences. It demonstrated how sensitive, creative community engagement combined with flexible, accessible technologies can amplify local voices, democratise storytelling, and create positive, grassroots counter-narratives without overcomplicating or excluding audiences.
The experiences invited residents and visitors to explore Fleetwood, Cleveleys, and Garstang in new ways creating important opportunities for social connection and creative expression.
Beyond public engagement, the project built valuable skills and confidence among participants, from students learning digital production to older residents sharing and preserving personal and community memories.
It leaves a flexible, replicable framework for place-based digital storytelling, with the potential to scale to other high streets and communities — combining heritage, technology, and local collaboration to support social and economic regeneration.
