CHAPTER XI

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BLACKPOOL.

Blackpool is situated in the township of Layton-with-Warbreck, and occupies a station on the west coast, about midway between the estuaries of the rivers Ribble and Wyre. The watering-place of to-day with its noble promenade, elegant piers, handsome hotels, and princely terraces, forms a wonderful and pleasing contrast to the meagre group of thatched cabins which once reared their lowly heads near the peaty pool, whose dark waters gave rise to the name of the town. This pool, which was located at the south end of Blackpool, is stated to have been half a mile in breadth, and was due to the accumulation of black, or more correctly speaking, chocolate-coloured waters,[129] from Marton Mere and the turf fields composing the swampy region usually designated the “Moss.” It remained until the supplies were cut off by diverting their currents towards other and more convenient outlets, when its contents gradually decreased, finally leaving no trace of their former site beyond a small streamlet, which now discharges itself with the flows of Spendike into the sea, opposite the point where the Lytham Road branches from the promenade. The principal portion of the town stands a little removed from the edge of a long line of cliffs, whose altitude, trifling at first, considerably increases as they travel northwards; and from that broad range of frontage streets and houses in compact masses run backwards towards the country, covering an annually extending area.

One of the oldest and most interesting relics of antiquity is still preserved in the Fox Hall Hotel, or Vaux Hall, as it is sometimes, but we opine, for reasons stated hereafter, incorrectly written, although its name, site, and long cobble wall are nearly the only mementoes that time and change have failed to remove. It was here in the reign of Charles II. that Edward, the son of the gallant and loyal Sir Thomas Tyldesley who was slain at the battle of Wigan-lane in 1651, having been led to expect a grant of the lands of Layton Hawes, or Heys Side, from the king, after the restoration, in return for his own and his father’s staunch adherence to the royal cause, built a small sequestered residence as a summer retreat for his family. Modest and unpretending as the dimensions appear to have been, no doubt at that time it was regarded as a stately mansion, and looked upon with becoming respect and admiration by the inhabitants of the few clay-built and rush-roofed huts which were scattered around it. The house itself was a three gabled structure with a species of tower, affording an extensive survey over the neighbouring country; there were four or five rooms on each story, and one wing of the building was fitted up and used as a chapel, the officiating priest being most probably the Rev. W. Westby, the “W. W.” of the diary kept by Thomas Tyldesley during the years he resided there. The chapel portion of the old house was at a later period, when the remainder, after experiencing various fortunes, had fallen into decay, converted into a cottage. Over the chief entrance Edward had inscribed the words—“Seris factura Nepotibus,” the motto of an order of Knighthood, called the Royal Oak, which Charles II. contemplated establishing when first he regained his throne, but afterwards for certain reasons[130] altered his mind, as he also appears to have done in regard to the Hawes property, for it never passed into the possession of the Tyldesleys by royal favour, or in any other way. A fox secured by a chain was allowed to ramble for a short distance in front of the doorway, and whether the presence of that animal, together with the use of the Hall as a hunting seat, as well as a summer retreat, originated its name, or its first title was Vaux, and by an easy and simple process of change became altered to Fox, the reader must decide for himself; but after he has perused the following extract from the Tyldesley Diary, in which the priest already mentioned is alluded to as “W. W.”, he will, we venture to think, have little difficulty in concluding that the cognomen Vaux is merely a modern adaptation when applied to this Hall:—

“May 14, 1712.—Left Lanʳ about ffive; pᵈ 3d. ffor a shooe at Thurnham Cocking, having lost one. Thence to Great Singleton to prayers, and ffrom thence to Litham to dinʳ, ffound Mr. Blackborne, of Orford; stayed there 11 at night. Soe to ffox hall. Gave W: W: 1s.”

Edward Tyldesley surrounded the Hall with a high and massive wall of cobble stones, strongly cemented together, as a protection very needful in those times of turmoil and persecution. A large portion of the wall still exists in an almost perfect state of preservation, notwithstanding the fierce gales and boisterous tides that have, at intervals, battered against it for more than two centuries. This, with the additional safeguards that nature had provided by means of the broad sea to the front, a small stream running over swampy, almost impassable, ground to the south, and a pool[131] under its east side, rendered the house a secure asylum for those who were constrained to practise

“The better part of valour,”

and remove themselves for a season from the eyes of the world and their enemies. Over the high gateway at the south end of the enclosure he placed a stone carved with the crest of the Tyldesley family—a pelican feeding its young—encircled by the loyal and patriotic motto—“Tantum valet amor regis et patriæ”: for long the roughly finished piece of carving was visible in the wall of an outbuilding, from which, however, it has recently been removed. Fox Hall was not without its plot of garden ground, a considerable space, being devoted to the useful products, was known as the kitchen garden, whilst another space was devoted to an apiary, and flowers must be supposed to have been an accompanyment of bees. It also boasted a bowling green and an ancient fig tree.

Thomas, the son of Edward Tyldesley, born in 1657, succeeded to the family estates on the death of his father, and later married, as his second wife, Mary, sister and co-heiress, with Elizabeth Colley, of Sir Alexander Rigby, knt., of Layton Hall, High-sheriff of the county of Lancashire in 1691, whose father had erected a monument to the memory of Sir Thomas Tyldesley near the spot where he was slain.

During the year 1690, when the dethroned monarch James II. invaded Ireland in the hope of regaining his crown, Thomas Tyldesley prepared a secret chamber for his reception in the interior of the Hall. The closet or hiding-place was afterwards known as the King’s Cupboard. The Pretender, also, was reported to have been concealed for some time within Fox Hall, and although it is certain that this aspirant to the British throne was never within its friendly walls, still the secret recesses, called “priests’ holes,” with which it appears to have been liberally provided, formed excellent refuges for the clergy and other members of the Romish Church, who on the slightest alarm were enclosed therein, and so secluded from the prying eyes of their hostile countrymen until the danger had passed. These latter incidents did not take place until after the decease of Thomas Tyldesley, who died in 1715, shortly before the outbreak of the rebellion, and was buried at Churchtown, near Garstang. His son Edward, who succeeded him, was arrested for taking part with the rebels, and escaped conviction and punishment only by the mercy or sympathy of the jury, who after returning their verdict of acquittal were severely censured by the presiding judge for their incompetency and disaffection. Edward Tyldesley died in 1725.[132] At what date Fox Hall passed out of the hands of the Tyldesleys, it is impossible to trace, but it is doubtful whether the Edward here named ever resided there, as he is always described as of Myerscough Lodge, another seat of the family. Mary Tyldesley, the widow of his father, whom it will be remembered he married as his second wife, was living there as owner in 1720, and from that circumstance we must infer that the Blackpool house was bequeathed to her by her husband Thomas Tyldesley, and that the other portion only of the estates fell to Edward, the son of his first marriage and his heir. Poverty seems to have overtaken the family with rapid strides; their different lands and residences were either mortgaged or sold, and whether Fox Hall descended to the children of Mary Tyldesley, or returned again into the more direct line, it is certain that not many years after the death of Thomas Tyldesley it had ceased to be one of their possessions.

Thus, the annals of the founders of this solitary mansion carry us back to the period between 1660 and 1685, that is from the restoration to the death of Charles II., but certain entries in the register of Bispham church show that there must have been dwellings and a population, however thinly scattered, on the soil anterior to that period, sometime during the sixteenth century, and it was doubtless the descendants of these people who inhabited the neighbourhood when Edward Tyldesley appeared upon the scene and erected Fox Hall. The primitive structures forming the habitations of these aborigines were built of clay, roughly plastered on to wattles, and thatched with rushes more frequently than straw, the whole fabric being supported on crooks driven into the ground. About the epoch of Thomas Tyldesley drainage and cultivation began to render the aspect of the country more inviting, and fresh families were tempted to come down to the coast and rear their humble abodes under the wing of the great mansion, so that after a while a small hamlet of clustering huts was formed. It is more than probable that the morals and conduct of the dwellers in these huts were influenced in some way or other by the sojourners at the Hall, but whether for good or evil we are unable to say, as the time is now so hopelessly remote and no records of their habits and doings are extant, so that in the absence of any proof to the contrary, it is only fair and charitable to surmise that their lives were as simple as their surroundings.

Whether the Tyldesleys were induced to locate themselves on this spot solely by a prospect of possessing some of the territory around, or were actuated also by a desire to have a retreat far removed from the scenes of disturbance with which the different factions were constantly vexing the land, is a matter of little importance, but to their presence it was due that the natural beauties of Blackpool were brought before the people at an early date. There can be no doubt that the priests and others, who had fled to the Hall as a harbour of refuge, would, on returning to their own districts, circulate glowing and eulogistic accounts of the place they had been visiting—of the glorious beauty of the sea, the endless stretch of level sands, and the bracing purity of the breeze. In such manner a desire would readily be implanted in the bosoms of their auditory to become personally acquainted with the new land, which had created such a deep and favourable impression on the minds of men, whose positions and education warranted the genuineness of their statements and enhanced the value of their opinions. There is one other circumstance worthy to be mentioned as having in all likelihood aided considerably in bringing the place into notice, and that is an annual race meeting, held for long on Layton Hawes. The proximity of the site to the residences of so many families of wealth and distinction, as the Allens of Rossall, the Westbys of Burn Hall, the Rigbys of Layton Hall, the Veales of Whinney Heys, the Heskeths of Mains, the Cliftons of Lytham, and the Tyldesleys of Blackpool, must have rendered the assembly one of no mean importance, and we may picture in our minds the gay and brilliant scene presented each year on the outskirts of the present town, when our ancestors in their antique and many-hued costumes congregated to witness the contests of their favourite steeds, and the level turf echoed to the fleet hoofs of the horses as the varied colours of their riders flashed round the course.

Although these incidents must have greatly tended to give publicity to Blackpool, its early advances towards popularity were dilatory, but this is to be attributed rather to the unsettled state of the times than to a tardy appreciation of its advantages by those who had enjoyed them or heard them described. During the reign of George I., 1714-1727, a mere sprinkling of visitors seems to have been attracted each summer to the hamlet, but a few years later, about 1735, they had become sufficiently numerous to induce one Ethart à Whiteside to prepare a cottage specially for their reception and entertainment. Common report whispers that he was further prompted to the venture by being the fortunate possessor of a wife whose skill in cookery far excelled that of any of her neighbours, but be that as it may, whether he espoused the Welsh maiden because her culinary accomplishments were an additional recommendation to him in the sphere in which he had embarked, or whether the lodging house was a cherished dream only converted into a reality on their discovery after marriage, one thing is certain, his speculation prospered, and at the end of fifty years he retired on what at that era was considered a fortune. The house in which he had laboured for half a century was situated in the fields now occupied by General Street and the neighbouring houses, on the site of what not long ago was a ladies’ school; in appearance, it was a very ordinary cottage with the usual straw thatch, somewhat oblong in form and possessing few attractions to tempt the stranger to prolong his stay, but in spite of all its disadvantages, the fascination of the sea and the novelty of the surroundings filled it with guests summer after summer. This dwelling claims the honour of having been the first ever fitted up and arranged as a lodging house in Blackpool. On the retirement of Whiteside, who a few years afterwards died at Layton, it passed into the hands of a noted aboriginal, called Tom the Cobbler, who appears to have held more ambitious views than his predecessor, and converted the cottage into an inn, or at least embellished its exterior with a rude lettered sign, and procured a license to supply exciseable commodities within. Those who had been accustomed to the scrupulous care and cleanliness of Whiteside and his thrifty wife, must have experienced a considerable shock from the eccentricities of the new proprietor; each day at the dinner hour he entered in working costume amongst the assembled guests, and with grimy fingers produced from the depths of his well rosined apron the allotted portion of bread for each. How this peculiarity was appreciated by his visitors there are no means of ascertaining, but as his dwelling did not develope in the course of years into a modern and commodious hotel like the other licensed houses which sprang up about that time and a little later, we are inclined to fear that some internal mismanagement caused its collapse.

In 1769 the whole hamlet comprised no more than twenty-eight houses, or more correctly speaking hovels, for, with the exception of four that had been raised to the dignity of slate roofs and a small inn on the site of the present Clifton Arms Hotel, they were little if any better. These were scattered widely apart along the beach, and one of them standing on the ground now occupied by the Lane Ends Hotel, and adjoining a small blacksmith’s shed, was a favourite resort of visitors in search of refreshment. Turf stacks fronted almost every door, and the refuse of the household was either carelessly thrown forth or else accumulated in putrifying heaps by the sides of the huts, so that nothing but their isolated situations and the constant currents of pure air from the sea sweeping over and around them could possibly have prevented the outbreak of some infectious and fatal disorder.

Bonny’s Hotel, then known as old Margery’s, and standing in the fields to the south, some distance from the sea, sprang up a little anterior to this time and received its share of patronage; later it was converted into a boys’ school and during recent years has been divided into cottages, etc. The Gynn House, erected northwards near the extremity or apex of a deep and wide fissure in the cliffs, formed another popular haunt during the season; the landlord at that hostel created much amusement by his oddities, and especially by his quaint method of casting up the reckoning on a horse-block in front of the door and speeding the “parting guest” with—“and Sir, remember the servants.” A true and remarkable anecdote is related about the old inn; sometime during the summer of 1833 a sudden and terrific storm burst over the western coast of this island, many vessels were lost and the shore off Blackpool was strewn with the battered fragments of unfortunate ships, which had either foundered in the deep or been dashed to pieces as they lay helplessly stranded on the outlying sandbanks. In the night as the gale raged with its utmost fury, a Scotch sloop was beating off the coast, vainly endeavouring to battle with the hurricane, and driven by the force of wind and wave nearer and nearer to the precipitous cliffs. When all hope had been abandoned and destruction seemed inevitable, some thoughtful person placed a lighted candle in the window of the Gynn House; guided by this faint glimmer, the vessel passed safely up the creek, and the exhausted sailors were rescued from a dreadful death. Next morning a sad and harrowing scene presented itself along the coast; no less than eleven vessels were lying within a short distance of each other, with their torn rigging and shattered spars hanging from their sides; brigs, sloops, and schooners, the short but fearful gale had left little of them beyond their damaged hulls. Nor were these the only victims of the storm, for as the tide receded to its lowest the masts of two others rose above the surface of the water; and during the next few days three large ships drifted past the town in an apparently waterlogged condition.

About that date, 1769, several heaps of mortar and other building materials, lying on the road which separated the front of the village from the edge of the cliffs, showed that more were anxious to follow in the footsteps of Whiteside and his earlier imitators.

Some idea may be formed of the class of people who visited Blackpool at that period from the charges made at Bonny’s Hotel and the Gynn, the two principal inns, for board and lodging; at the latter eightpence per day satisfied the modest demands of the host, while at the former the sum of tenpence was exacted, with a view no doubt of upholding its superior claims to respectability. In drawing our conclusions from these facts we must bear in mind that a shilling in those days represented much greater value than it does at present, so that the charges may not have been really so inadequate as they now appear. The village contained neither shop nor store where the necessaries or luxuries of life, if such things were ever dreamt of by the people, could be purchased, and large quantities of provisions had to be laid in at one time. Occasionally a sudden and unexpected influx of visitors occurred inopportunely, when the larder was low, and as a consequence the hungry guests were forced to wait, temporising with their appetites as best they could, until a journey had been made to Poulton and fresh supplies procured.

Ten years later the hamlet had grown somewhat in size, and the annually increasing numbers who flocked to its shores showed that its popularity was steadily gaining ground. Intercourse with the world beyond their own limited circle seems, however, to have had anything but an elevating or civilising effect upon the inhabitants, for we find amongst them at that time a band of professed atheists, whose blasphemous conduct called forth no rebuke or opposition from the rest, but was quietly tolerated, if not indeed approved. Each fortnight during the summer fairs were held on the Sabbath to provide refreshment and amusement for the visitors, who came in crowds to witness the magnificence of the highest spring tides. These gatherings usually terminated in disgraceful scenes of revelry and debauchery. Smuggling was carried on between the coast opposite the Star-hills and the Isle of Man, but never to a great extent or for any lengthened period. These huge mounds of sand, much more numerous than in our day, formed excellent store-houses for the contraband goods, generally spirits, which were packed in hampers, and so overlaid with fish that their presence was never even suspected. The illicit cargoes were brought across the channel in trading vessels, from which they were landed by means of light open boats, and at once secreted in the manner just indicated, until a suitable opportunity occurred for their removal to one of the neighbouring towns. The success attending these ventures induced the smugglers to construct a sloop of their own, with the intention of prosecuting so profitable a trade on a larger scale, but information of their proceedings having been conveyed by some one to official quarters, a detachment of soldiers was promptly despatched to put an end to the nefarious practices. So thoroughly did these men effect their purpose, that, although no capture is recorded as having taken place, the whole band was dispersed, and from that date no more offences of this character have been known on the coast.

In 1788 the houses of Blackpool had increased to about thirty-five, and these were arranged in an irregular line along the edge of the cliffs; the intervals between the habitations being with few exceptions so wide that this small number stretched out from north to south, over a distance of quite a mile. One group of six was especially remarkable as presenting a more respectable and modern exterior than any of the others, most of which still retained a great deal of their original defective appearances, as though their owners were unwilling or unable to adapt themselves and their abodes to the improved state of things springing up around them. The company during the busiest part of the season amounted to about four hundred persons, and a news-room had been established for their use in the small cottage, before mentioned, on the site of the Lane Ends Hotel, the smith’s shop adjoining having been converted into a coffee-room and kitchen, at which a public dinner was prepared each day during the summer, and served at a dining-room erected across the way. There were now four additional inns in the village, named respectively, Bailey’s, Forshaw’s, Hull’s, and the Yorkshire House. The first of these had sprung up on the cliffs towards the north, and was kept by an ancestor of its present proprietor; the second was the nucleus from which has grown the Clifton Arms Hotel, whilst the third stood on the site of the Royal Hotel. The roads leading to the hamlet were in such an unfinished state that after heavy falls of rain they could be travelled only with the greatest difficulty, and often with considerable danger both to the vehicle and its occupants; so that under these circumstances most people deemed it more prudent and expedient to perform the journey on horseback, some of them in the pillion fashion usual at that era. In an earlier part of this chapter we spoke of the troubled state of the times and the unsettled and harassed condition of the people as being the most probable causes why Blackpool was so long neglected by many who must have been well cognisant of its beauties in the days of the Tyldesleys, and with equal probability may we now conjecture that the dilapidated and frequently unsafe state of the highways had a serious effect in preventing numbers from visiting the place at this period. Regarding the matter from another point of view, we are led to infer that the four hundred composing the company of 1788, were people who, either in search of health or recreation, had willingly undergone the discomforts of a dreary and sometimes hazardous journey in order to make but a brief sojourn by the shores of Blackpool. Here, then, there is evidence of the great estimation in which the place was held at that early date by the dwellers in the inland towns, and of the rapidity with which its good fame was increasing and extending throughout a large section of the county. As may be naturally supposed, the large influxes of visitors and their turn-outs during the height of the season very much overtaxed the accommodation provided for them by the inhabitants, but that difficulty was easily surmounted by turning the horses loose into a field until their services were again required, whilst the surplus health or pleasure-seekers were lodged in barns or any outbuildings sufficiently protected from the weather. The village possessed two bowling greens of diminutive size, one of which occupied the land at the south-west corner of Lytham Street, whilst the other was in connection with the Yorkshire House, afterwards the York Hotel, and since purchased by a company of gentlemen, who razed it to the ground in order to erect more suitable buildings on the site. There was also a theatre, if that will bear the name which during nine months of the year existed under the more modest title of a barn; rows of benches were placed one behind another, and separated into a front and back division, designated respectively pit and gallery. This house is said to have been capable of holding six pounds, the prices of admission being one and two shillings. At that period bathing vans were scarce, the majority of bathers making use of boxes, which were placed for their convenience along the shore, and as the mode in which they secured privacy and a proper separation of the sexes during indulgence in this pastime was both ingenious and entertaining, we will give a brief sketch of their arrangements. At a certain hour each day, varying according to the changes of the tide, a bell was rung when the water had risen almost to its highest. On hearing the signal, the whole of the gentlemen, however agreeably occupied, were compelled, under a penalty of one bottle of wine for each offence, to vacate the shore and betake themselves to their several hotels or apartments, whilst the ladies, after sufficient time had elapsed for any stray member of the sterner sex to get safely and securely housed, emerged singly or in small groups from the different doorways, and, hurrying down to the edge of the sea, quickly threw off their loose bathing robes, and in a moment were sporting amid the waves like a colony of nereids or mermaids. When these had finished their revels and duly retired to their homes, the bell rang a second time, and the males, released from _durance vile_, made their way to the beach, and were not long in following the example of their fair predecessors.

Mr. Hutton, in his small pamphlet descriptive of Blackpool in 1788, says:—“The tables here are well supplied; if I say too well for the price I may please the innkeepers, but not their guests. Shrimps are plentiful; five or six people make it their business to catch them at low water, and produce several gallons a day, which satisfy all but the catchers. They excel in cooking, nor is it surprising, for forty pounds and her maintenance is given to a cook for the season only. Though salt water is brought in plenty to their very doors, yet this is not the case with fresh. The place yields only one spring for family use; and the water is carried by some half a mile, but is well worth carrying, for I thought it the most pleasant I ever tasted.”

The prices at the inns and boarding-houses had risen as the accommodation they offered had improved in quality and increased in extent, so that it was no longer possible to subsist on the daily expenditure of a few pence as in former times. In hotels of the first class 3s. 4d. per day, exclusive of liquors, was the charge for board and lodging; dinner and supper being charged 1s. each to the casual visitor, and tea or breakfast 8d. In those of the second-class and some of the lodging-houses, 2s. 6d. per day covered everything with the exception of tea, coffee, sugar, and liquors; whilst the smaller lodging-houses, generally crowded with visitors who were either willing or compelled to content themselves with the more frugal fare provided, charged only 1s. 6d. per day for each guest.

A promenade, six yards wide, carpeted with grass and separated from the road by white wooden railings, ran along the verge of the sea bank for a distance of two hundred yards, and was ornamented at one end with an alcove, whilst the other terminated abruptly at a rough clayey excavation, afterwards used as a brick croft. “Here,” says the topographer already quoted, “is a full display of beauty and of fashion. Here the eye faithful to its trust, conveys intelligence from the heart of one sex to that of the other; gentle tumults rise in the breast; intercourse opens in tender language; the softer passions are called into action; Hymen approaches, kindles his torch, and cements that union which continues for life. Here may be seen folly flushed with money, shoe-strings, and a phæton and four. Keen envy sparkles in the eye at the display of a new bonnet. The heiress of eighteen trimmed in black, and a hundred thousand pounds, plentifully squanders her looks of disdain, or the stale _Belle_, who has outstood her market, offers her fading charms upon easy terms.”

This parade was extended some years later by means of a bridge thrown from its south extremity over the road leading down to the shore, and on to the cliffs of the opposite side. Riding or walking, for those who were not fortunate enough to possess a horse or equipage, on the sands or promenade, and excursions into the country as far as the “Number 3 Hotel,” where many of the company amused themselves with drinking “fine ale,” were the favourite pastimes during the day, varied, however, with an occasional practice at the butts for bow and arrow shooting, the diurnal bathe, and contests on the bowling greens, to which we have already alluded; in the evening or during unfavourable weather cards and backgammon, or the theatre, were the means with which the visitors beguiled the wearisomeness of the quiet hours. The “Number 3 Hotel” above-mentioned stood behind the present building bearing that name, at the corner of the Layton and Marton roads.

Mr. Hutton relates several somewhat startling instances of the curative properties of the sea at Blackpool; amongst them that of a man, by trade a shoemaker and a resident of Lancaster, who having become, through some unexplained cause, totally blind, visited this watering-place for six weeks, during which he drank large quantities of the marine element, daily bathing his eyes in the same, and at the end of that time had so far recovered his sight that he could readily distinguish objects at a distance of two miles. Another case was that of a gentleman, who, having been seized with a paralytic attack, which deprived him of the use of one side, was ordered by his physician to Bath, but finding, after a fair trial, that he derived no benefit from the combined action of its climate and waters, he determined to travel northwards and make a short sojourn at Blackpool. Whilst there the invalid was daily carried into and out of the sea, and even after this process had been only twice repeated he had lost the violent pains in his joints, recovered his sleep, and in some considerable degree the muscular power of the affected side, but of his further progress there is no account.

The following lines, written by a visitor a few years after the incidents we have just narrated, also show in what great estimation the climate and sea of the village were held as remedial and invigorating agents:—

“Of all the gay places of public resort, At Chatham, or Scarbro’, at Bath, or at Court, There’s none like sweet Blackpool, of which I can boast, So charming the sands, so healthful the coast;— Rheumatics, scorbutics, and scrofulous kind, Hysterics and vapours, disorders of mind, By drinking and bathing you’re made quite anew, As thousands have proved and know to be true.”

At this time Blackpool was not only without a church, but in the whole place there was no room where the inhabitants or visitors were accustomed to assemble together for divine worship, and it was not until 1821 that the sacred edifice of St. John was completed and opened. In 1789 a subscription was started for the purpose of erecting a church, but was soon closed for want of support, barely one hundred pounds having been promised. Some years later a large room at one of the hotels was used as a meeting house on each Sabbath, the officiating ministers being obtained alternately from Bispham and Poulton, and occasionally from amongst the visitors themselves.

In 1799, the poorer inhabitants of Blackpool and its neighbourhood suffered severely, in common with others, from a failure in the grain and potato harvests. They, like most members of the working classes at that date, relied almost entirely upon good and plentiful crops of these important articles of diet, to furnish them with the means of sustenance throughout the year, so that a small yield, raising the prices exorbitantly, became a matter of serious moment to them, and in most instances, meant little less than ruin or starvation. After the cold and inclement approach of winter had banished the last stranger from their midst, the sums demanded for their accustomed provisions soon swallowed up the little these people had saved during the summer, and such occasional trifles as could be earned on the farm lands around whenever extra services were required. Their condition, deplorable from the first, gradually grew worse, until, reduced to the deepest distress, they became dependent for the bare necessaries of existence upon the charity of those whose positions, although seriously affected by the failure, were not placed in such great jeopardy as their own. After this precarious and pitiable state of things had lasted some time without any signs of amelioration, and it seemed difficult, if not impossible, to conjecture how the remaining months were to be provided for until the returning season brought fresh assistance to their homes, an unexpected, and, to them, providential occurrence relieved their sufferings. A large vessel laden with peas was wrecked upon the coast, and the cargo, washing out of the hold, was strewn upon the beach, supplying them with abundance of food until better days shone upon the impoverished village once more.

Reviewing the appearance of Blackpool at the opening of the nineteenth century we find that the whole hamlet was comprised between the Gynn to the north, and the ruins of the once aristocratic mansion of Fox Hall to the south. The houses with the exception of Bonny’s Hotel and a few scattered cottages, had all been erected along the sea bank, the great bulk lying to the south of Forshaw’s Hotel, and amounting to about thirty, whilst the space north of that spot as far as Bailey’s Hotel was only occupied by one or two dwellings of very humble dimensions. These with the Gynn and a few habitations standing south of it on Fumbler’s Hill, made up the number of houses to about forty. A detailed description of the different erections at that epoch is impossible, but we may state generally that those of modern origin, especially the hotels, although unpretending externally, were so arranged and provided that the comforts of the guests were fully insured, and in every way the accommodation they offered was immensely superior to any that could have been obtained thirty years before. The few old buildings that still remained had for the most part undergone considerable alterations, and been rendered more suitable for the purposes to which they were now devoted.

In 1801 the first official census of the inhabitants of the township of Layton-cum-Warbreck, in which Blackpool is situated, was taken, and furnished a total of 473 persons.

At that period many people attracted by the rising reputation of the watering-place were anxious to invest their capital in the purchase of land by its shores, and in the erection of houses adapted for the reception of visitors, but the proprietors of the hotels were the owners of a large portion of the soil, and fearing that the introduction of substantial and commodious apartments would interfere with the patronage of their inns, refused to dispose of any part of their lands, or at least placed such obstacles in the way of the would-be purchasers that bargains were seldom concluded. Had it not been for the energy and foresight displayed by one resident, Mr. H. Banks, who built several cottages and fitted them up with every convenience and requisite for summer dwellings, the prosperity of the village would have received a sudden check and doubtless a serious injury, for the provision made would have fallen far short of the requirements of an ever-increasing throng of visitors, and thus repeated disappointments would in the end have led to disgust and the absence of many when the following seasons rolled round. The probability of such a disastrous result seems at length to have been realised by the landlords themselves, who discovered that the plan to enlarge their own business was not to drive visitors away from the place by limiting the accommodation, but to offer them every inducement to come, and to have a sufficiency of houses ready to receive them when they had arrived. Under this new and more liberal impression greater facilities were offered both to purchasers of land and builders, so that the early error into which they had fallen was rectified before any great amount of harm had been done.

During the summer of 1808 the Preston volunteers were on duty at Blackpool for two weeks, and on the 4th of June celebrated the seventieth birthday of His Majesty George III. with many demonstrations of loyalty and rejoicing.

The small town now boasted five good class hotels, which, in their order from north to south, were named Dickson’s, Forshaw’s, Bank’s, Simpson’s, and the Yorkshire House. Simpson’s, formerly Hull’s, is now the Royal Hotel; Bank’s the Land Ends Hotel, and Dickson’s was the one already mentioned as Bailey’s Hotel. “Adjoining Forshaw’s Hotel,” writes a gentleman who visited Blackpool about that date; “there are two or three houses of genteel appearance, compared with the many small cottages leading thence to the street, which is the principal entrance from Preston. There is a promenade with an arbour at the end of it, and beyond it nearer to Dixon’s Hotel stands a cottage used as a warm bath. Beyond Dixon’s there is a public road where two four-wheeled vehicles can pass each other.” At a later period both the road and cottage alluded to had succumbed to the unchecked power of the advancing sea; and here it will be convenient to mention other and much more serious encroachments made by the same element in the course of years now long gone by. We can scarcely conceive, when gazing on the indolent deep in its placid mood, that at any time it could have been possessed with such a demon of fury and destruction as to swallow up broad fields, acres upon acres, of the foreland of the Fylde, and in its blind anger sweep away whole villages, levelling the house walls and uprooting the very foundations, so that no trace or vestige of their former existence should remain. History, however, points to a hamlet called Waddum Thorp, which once stood off the coast of Lytham, fenced from the sea by a broad area of green pasture-land, now known as the Horse-bank; and in more recent years a long range of star-hills ran southward from opposite the Royal Hotel, protecting a highway, fields, and four or five cottages from the waves, whilst a little further north a boat-house afterwards a shoemaker’s shop, stood in the centre of a grassy plot, all of which have vanished, and their sites are now covered and obliterated by the sand and pebbles of the beach. The several roads, which had been formed at different seasons, leading over the cliffs to Bispham, were sapped away and destroyed so rapidly by the incursions of the tide that one more inland and circuitous was obliged to be made. On the sands, about three miles to the north of Blackpool, and so far distant from the shore that it is only visible when the water has receded to its lowest ebb, stands the famous Penny-stone. Near the spot marked by the huge boulder, tradition affirms that in days of yore there existed a small road-side inn, celebrated far and wide for its strong ale, which was retailed at one penny per pot, and that whilst the thirsty traveller was refreshing himself within, and listening to the gossip of “mine host,” his horse was tethered to an iron ring fixed in this stone. It is stated that documents relating to the ancient hostelry are still preserved, but as the assertion is unsupported by any evidence of its veracity, we are prohibited from accepting it as conclusive proof that the inn owes its reputed existence to something more substantial than the lively imaginations of our ancestors. There is, certainly, one thing which gives some colouring of possibility, or perhaps, out of veneration for the antiquity of the tradition, we may advance a step and say, reasonable probability, to the story, and that is the historic fact, that at no very great distance from the locality there stood a village called Singleton Thorp until 1555, when it was submerged and annihilated by a sudden and fearful irruption of the sea. Several other boulders of various sizes are lying about in the neighbourhood of Penny-stone, bearing the names of Old Mother’s Head, Bear and Staff, Carlin and its Colts, Higher and Lower Jingle, each of which is covered in a greater or less degree with shells, corallines, anemonies, and other treasures of the deep.

In 1811 the census of the persons residing in the township before specified, was again taken, and amounted to 580, showing an increase of 107 in the number of inhabitants during the preceding ten years.

The year 1816 is remarkable as being the first in which public coaches ran regularly between Preston and Blackpool. Previously the chief communication between the village and outlying places had been by means of pack-horses, carts, and private vehicles, with only occasional coaches.

The following description of Blackpool about the year 1816 was furnished by one of its oldest inhabitants, and, although unavoidably entailing some repetition of what has been mentioned before, will, we trust, be interesting in itself, as well as useful in confirming the earlier parts of this history, which have necessarily been compiled from previous writings on the subject, and not from the evidence of living witnesses. The Gynn House formed the most northerly boundary of the village, and, passing from that hostelry in a southerly direction, the next dwelling arrived at was Hill-farm, which still exists, and is at present used as a laundry for the Imperial Hotel. A few gabled cottages stood on the eminence called Fumbler’s Hill, near the site of Carleton Terrace:—

“Old Ned, and Old Nanny, at Fumbler’s hill, Will board you and lodge you e’en just as you will.”[133]

These cottages faced the south, as indeed did all the other dwellings at that time, with the exception of two or three of the hotels and a few of the more recent buildings. Bailey’s, or rather Dickson’s, Hotel was built in blocks of two and three stories, and possessed one bay window. It must be remembered that the stories of that day were much lower than those with which modern improvements have made us familiar. The next hotel was Forshaw’s, similar in its construction, but unadorned with even one bay window; between these two large inns were two or three small thatched cottages. Continuing our survey southwards were Dobson’s Row, consisting of several slated cottages, with a circulating library and billiard room; and the Lane Ends Hotel, containing three bay-windows, built, like the others, in parts of two and three stories each. In Lane Ends Street there was a general shop and lodging house combined, tenanted by a person named Nickson. The Royal, then commonly called the Houndhill Hotel, comes next in order, and a little distance behind it on the rising ground was a small thatched cottage for the reception of visitors. South Beach contained only a few thatched cottages, and on the site of the present Wellington Hotel stood a circular pinfold, built of cobble stone. Considerably west of the present line of frontage, and south of the pinfold, stood two rows of cottages almost on the edge of the shore; the last of these habitations was washed away or pulled down in 1827. Beyond the Yorkshire House and its bowling green was the dilapidated remains of Fox Hall, part of which had been converted into a small farm-cottage, in the occupation of a person named Wignall. Between Fox Hall and the Yorkshire House, but further removed from the beach, was a thatched cottage adjoining a stable, in which Mr. Butcher, of Raikes Hall, kept two or three racehorses, the field now occupied by the Manchester Hotel being used as an exercise ground for them. Chapel Street contained a small farm-house and several cottages, in addition to Bonny’s Hotel, which was situated in a field at the lower end of this lane. In Church Street there were only three or four cottages, two of which, standing at the south-west corner, were slated and used as shops. A few other cottages, whose exact sites could not be recalled with accuracy, were scattered here and there, but the above will furnish the reader with a fairly correct idea of the extent and appearance of Blackpool about the year 1816.

The National Schools, at Raikes Hill, were the first provision made for the education of the young, and were built in 1817, chiefly through the exertions of Mr. Gisborne, then a temporary resident. They consist of two schools, for boys and girls respectively, with a teachers’ home between. The accommodation has since been considerably enlarged and the institution is now under government inspection.

The parish church of St. John, in course of erection in 1820, was built with bricks from a croft situated on the cliffs between Dickson’s Hotel and the promenade. This place of worship, originally an episcopal chapel under Bispham, with a perpetual curacy attached, was consecrated to St. John on July 6th, 1821, by Doctor Law, bishop of Chester. In 1860 a special district was assigned by order of Council to St. John’s, which in that manner became, under Lord Blanford’s Act, the parish church of Blackpool. The district thus cut off from the wide parochial area of Bispham, and constituted a distinct parish for all ecclesiastical purposes, was included between the Spen Dyke to the south and the central line of Talbot road to the north. The cost of the sacred edifice, which consisted, externally, of a plain brick structure, having a low embattled tower with pinnacles at the angles, amounted to £1,072, the whole of which was defrayed by voluntary subscriptions, the following individuals being the principal contributors:—

Mrs. Dickson £100 Mr. Robert Banks 100 ” H. Banks 100 ” John Hornby 100 A Friend 100 Mr. John Forshaw 100 ” Robert Hesketh 50 ” Fielding 50 ” Jonathan Peel 50 10s. ” Bonny 50

The interior of the church, plain and neat, was lighted by small lamps for evening service during the winter, and contained a font which had once belonged to the old Roman Catholic chapel of Singleton; and, a few years later, an organ built by Wren, of Manchester. In 1832 this building was enlarged by drawing out the east end, into which a plain window was inserted. The still increasing popularity of the watering place demanded another enlargement, which took place in 1847; but it was not until 1851 that the present chancel, containing a handsome stained glass memorial window to H. Banks, esq., who died in 1847, was added. The window embraces representations of Christ, the four evangelists, and the infant Jesus, with Joseph and his mother, etc., below which is the following inscription, surmounted by a coat of arms and motto:—“In memoriam Henrii Banks de Blackpool patris, et unius ex hujus Ædis patronis, tres sui liberi hanc fenestram fieri fecerunt.” In 1862 it was thought desirable that further improvements should be made, and an open domed roof of pitch-pine was substituted for the old ceiling; the floors of the pews, previously covered with asphalt, were boarded; new windows of ground glass, and a fresh pulpit and reading desk were added to the church; whilst a substantial iron railing was erected round the yard in place of the cobble wall, which had stood since the opening of the edifice, and in the same year the burial space was increased by including the plot of land lying to the west of the church, and now abutting on the houses of Abingdon Street. Four years later, in 1866, a new and larger tower, furnished with a clock and a peal of eight bells, was completed on the site of the original one, which had been pulled down for this purpose. The interior of the church contains, in addition to the memorial window already alluded to, mural tablets _in memoriam_ of Robert Banks, gent., died May 27th, 1838, aged 76 years,—“Ever mindful of the calls of general duty, he was also a liberal promoter of the erection and endowment of this church, and by will bequeathed the sum of £100, for the perpetual support of the national school”; Edward, the son of Henry and Margaret Banks, died August 8th, 1845, aged 35 years; the Rev. Thomas Banks, “who was for thirty-five years incumbent of Singleton church, and an eminent instructor of youth,” died 1842, aged 73 years.

PERPETUAL CURATES AND VICARS OF ST. JOHN’S.

------------+-------------------+-------------+------------------- Date of | NAME. |On whose |Cause of Vacancy. Institution.| |Presentation.| ------------+-------------------+-------------+------------------- | | | 1821 |James Formby, B.A. |Trustees | 1826 |G. L. Foxton, B.A. |Ditto |Resignation of J. | | | Formby 1829 |Wm. Thornber, B.A. |Ditto |Resignation of G. L. | | | Foxton 1846 |W. T. Preedy, B.A. |Ditto |Resignation of W. | | | Thornber 1853 |Alfred Jenour, M.A.|Ditto |Resignation of W. T. | | | Preedy 1869 |Norman S. Jeffreys,|Ditto | Death of A. Jenour | M.A. | | ------------+-------------------+-------------+---------------------

The present patrons of St. John’s church are the Rev. C. Hesketh, of North Meols; the Vicar of Bispham; J. Talbot Clifton, esq., of Lytham Hall; and the Raikes Hall Park, Gardens, and Aquarium Company.

In 1821 the census returns of the population of Layton-with-Warbreck showed a total of 749 persons. On the 19th of July in that year the coronation of George IV. was celebrated by the inhabitants and visitors of Blackpool “in a manner most grateful to every benevolent heart.” A handsome subscription, we are told by the gentleman whose words have just been quoted and who was present on the occasion, was expended in procuring one day’s festivity for the poor and needy, the aged and the young. About ten in the morning, the children of the township, amounting to one hundred and thirty-nine, assembled at the national school, erected near the church, where they were each presented with a coronation medal. Afterwards they paraded the beach, headed by two musicians, and sang the national anthem at all the principal houses, followed by ringing cheers; returning to the school-house, each child was regaled with a large bun, and spiced ale and coppers were distributed amongst them. When these had been dismissed to their homes, upwards of thirty old people met in the same room, where they sat down to an ample and excellent dinner, at the conclusion of which they each drank the king’s health in a pint of strong ale. The same kind-hearted ladies who had superintended the children in the procession, waited on this venerable company, and had their generosity rewarded by witnessing the amusing spectacle of three old women, upwards of seventy, who had probably danced at the coronation of George III., go through a Scotch reel, which they accomplished in excellent style.

On the 21st of March, 1825, the first stone of a small Independent chapel, situated at the lower end of Chapel Street, and lying on the south extremity of the village, was laid by the Rev. D. T. Carnson, and on the 6th of the ensuing July it was opened for public worship by the Rev. Dr. Raffles.

The summer of 1827 is remarkable as having been an exceptionally prosperous season for Blackpool; vast numbers of carts and other vehicles laden with their living freights arrived from Blackburn, Burnley, Colne, Padiham, and the borders of Yorkshire, and during the month of August so crowded was the place that many were lodged in stables and barns, whilst others sought refuge at Poulton. The following year a fine gravel promenade was tastefully laid out on the sea bank to a considerable distance, occupying a large portion of the site of the old road. A beautiful green turf walk was constructed from the beach to the church, leading through pleasant fields, and furnished at intervals with covered seats. The Albion Hotel was also erected at the north-west corner of Lane Ends Street.

Mr. Whittle, in his publication descriptive, amongst other resorts, of Blackpool in 1830, and entitled “Marina,” says:—“Blackpool is furnished with excellent accommodation, although it is a pity but what there had been some kind of uniformity observed, as all sea-bathing stations ought to have their houses built upon a plan entirely unique. Four assemblies have been known to take place in one week during the bathing season, extending from July to October. In fact the rooms at the hotels are very extensive. Bank’s is the most commodious. The inhabitants seem to have no taste for ornamenting their doorways or windows with trellis work or verandahs, or with jessamines, woodbines, or hollyhocks, similar to those at Southport, and many of the sea-bathing situations in the south. It is not to be wondered at that there are here frequently at the flux of the season, from eight hundred to a thousand visitors. Blackpool has most certainly been honoured since its commencement as a watering-place by persons of distinction and fashion. The hotels and other houses of reception are scattered along the beach with an aspect towards the Irish Sea; and in the rear are the dwellings of the villagers. The cottages on the beach have of late years considerably increased, and they serve, with the hotels in the centre, to give the place, when viewed from the sea, a large and imposing appearance.”

The ball and dining-room at Nickson’s Hotel, (the Clifton Arms,) was of large dimensions, and contained a neat orchestra at one end, whilst the following notice was suspended in a prominent position against the inner wall:—

“The friends of Cuthbert Nickson will please to observe that the senior person at the hotel is entitled to the president’s chair; and the junior to the vice-president’s. Also the ladies to have the preference of the bathing machines.”

Placards, similar in their import to this one, were to be seen in both Dickson’s and Bank’s Hotels.

The new promenade was improved in 1830 by the addition of a wooden hand-rail along its entire length, whilst comfortable seats were placed opposite the hotels of Banks and Nickson. The fairs, to which we have already alluded, continued to be held every second Sunday during the season, but a few years later they were abolished by the action of the more respectable portion of the residents. Letters arrived at half-past eleven in the morning, and were despatched at noon, daily in the summer months, but only three times a week during winter. Mr. Cook, an American, was the originator of the post, which he commenced some time before by having the letters carried to Kirkham three times a week during the season. At that day the arrival of the letter-bag was made known to the anxious public by exposing a board on which was written or painted, “The post is arrived.” This ingenious device proclaimed, on reversing the board, “The post is not yet arrived;” so that by a proper use of the signal the postmaster was enabled to save himself much trouble in answering the frequent inquiries of expectant visitors. Mr. Cook, who is described as having been the “Beau Nash” of Blackpool, died in 1820, and was buried at Bispham. The charges at the best hotels were 6s. per day in private and 5s. in public, with an addition of 1s. each night for a front, or 6d. for a back, bedroom. At Bonny’s the price was 4s. 6d. per day; and at Nickson’s and the Yorkshire House 3s. 6d. per day at the first table, and 2s. 6d. at the second, subject to an additional charge for extra attendance if required.

The census returns of 1831 showed that the population of the township had increased to 943 persons since 1821, when, the reader may be reminded, the total amounted to 749.

In 1835, a Wesleyan chapel, calculated to hold between 250 and 300 persons, was erected and opened in Bank Hey Street. This building, having in the course of time become inadequate for the accommodation of its increasing congregation, was pulled down, and the corner stone of the present edifice laid by W. Heap, esq., of Halifax, on Friday, November 1st., 1861. The chapel, which occupies a site near the old one, was opened for service on the 4th of July, 1862, and is capable of seating 760 persons. The total expenditure for the erection and other incidental expenses connected with it, amounted to £3,500. An organ, built by Mr. E. Wadsworth, of Manchester, at a cost of £320, was obtained in 1872.

During 1836 great improvements were made in the appearance of the town; shops were beautified and increased in number; many of the cottages were rendered more ornamental, whilst others were constructed on modern principles, and on a moderate calculation it may be estimated that two hundred beds were added to the existing accommodation. Sir Benjamin Heywood, bart., of Claremont, purchased an extensive plot of land, now occupied by the Prince of Wales’s Market and Aquarium Buildings, on which he shortly afterwards raised a handsome marine family residence, called West Hey. Numerous and copious springs of fine fresh water were found at a depth of fifteen yards from the surface; until which fortunate discovery, water for drinking purposes had been collected in cisterns dug out of the marl. Public Baths were also erected on the beach adjoining the Lane Ends Hotel.

The following year, 1837, the Victoria Terrace and Promenade, erected at the north-west corner of Victoria Street, were completed. This block of buildings was formed of seven shops, above them being the Promenade, a room thirty-two yards long, which opened through folding windows upon a balcony six feet wide; attached to it were a news-room, library, and billiard table. The Promenade acquired its distinctive title from being first used on the 24th of May, 1837, when the Princess Victoria, the present Queen, attained her legal majority; on that day the principal inhabitants of Blackpool assembled there to celebrate the important event with a sumptuous dinner, and from the subjoined extract, taken from an account of the gathering in a public print, we learn the great estimation in which the saloon was then held:—

“ ... dinner and excellent wine provided by Mr. C. Nickson, to which fifty-two gentlemen sat down, in the splendid Promenade Room newly erected by Doctor Cocker, who was highly extolled for his taste in the architectural design and decorations of the building, which is of the chaste Doric order, and for his spirited liberality in providing the visitors of this celebrated resort with so spacious and magnificent a saloon, where, as in a common centre, they may meet each other and enjoy the social pleasures of a _conversatione_ whenever they please; thus evincing his wish to promote a more friendly intercourse amongst the strangers collected here from all quarters of the kingdom during the summer season—this has hitherto been a _desideratum_ at Blackpool.”

For long afterwards balls and all public meetings were held in this assembly room, which still exists in its original condition, although the other parts of the block, especially the shops, have recently been improved and beautified.

From 1837 to 1840 the progress of the place was steady, but not rapid, as compared with more recent times. In the latter year the opening of the Preston and Wyre Railway to Poulton, initiated a mode of travelling until then unknown in the Fylde district, and by its means Blackpool became nearer in point of time to Preston, Manchester, and many other large towns already possessing railway accommodation, a great accession of company being the immediate result. Omnibuses, coaches, and other carriages met every train at Poulton station, and the four miles of road were scampered over by splendid teams in less than half an hour. Then it was that the jolting, homely vehicles, and the through coaches, which had for long been the dashing wonders of the country roads, were driven off, and a greatly multiplied number of visitors brought into the town daily by the more expeditious route, at a less cost and with greater personal convenience than had been possible in earlier days. More accommodation was soon called for and as readily supplied by the spirited inhabitants, who erected numerous houses at several points, which served, at no distant period, as the nucleus for new streets and terraces. The census of the township in 1841 had risen to 2,168. In 1844 the erection and opening of a Market House, evinced the growing importance and prosperity of the watering-place; this building has lately, since 1872, been enlarged by lateral extension to quite double its original capacity, whilst the extensive unprotected area opposite, used for similar trading purposes and occupied by stalls, has been covered over with a transparent roof. Talbot Road was opened out and the lower end formed into a spacious square, (furnished with an elegant drinking fountain in 1870) by the removal of a house from its centre. These improvements were effected at the sole cost of John Talbot Clifton, esq., of Lytham, the owner of the soil. The Adelphi and Victoria Hotels, which had sprung into being, were altered and enlarged; the former by raising it a story, and the latter by the addition of a commodious dining room, two sitting rooms, and sundry bedrooms. Several spacious residences were finished on South Beach, and a handsome terrace of habitations stretching south from Dickson’s Hotel, was also erected about that time.

In 1845, several houses on a larger scale, including the Talbot Hotel, were built, and great improvements and additions made to many former establishments.

The opening of the branch line from Blackpool to join the main railroad at Poulton, on the 29th of April, 1846, gave another marked impetus to the progress of the town; by its formation direct steam communication was completed with the populous centres of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and many, who had previously been deterred from visiting Blackpool by its comparative inaccessibility, now flocked down to its shores in great numbers; building increased, and dwellings arose, chiefly on the front, and in Church and Victoria Streets.

During the ensuing year the first meeting of the Blackpool Agricultural Society was held on the grounds of a recently built inn, the Manchester Hotel, at South Shore; the attendance was both numerous and respectable, including many of the most influential gentlemen, yeomen, and farmers of the neighbourhood, and several from the remoter localities of the Fylde. Cows, horses, and pigs appear to have been the only stocks to which prizes were awarded. The first Lodge of Freemasons held their initiatory meeting in that year at the Beach Hotel, another house of entertainment which had risen shortly before, on the site of some furnished cottage facing the beach.

A new Independent Chapel was commenced in Victoria Street, to supersede the small one erected in Chapel Street in 1825; the edifice was finished and used for divine service in 1849. Serious differences seem to have arisen a few years later between the pastor of that date, the Rev. J. Noall, and a limited section of his congregation, who were anxious to deprive him of his charge, and even went so far, in 1860, as to publicly read in the chapel, after morning service, a notice convening a meeting for that purpose. This act, being repeated on the ensuing Sabbath, led to retaliation on the part of the partizans of the minister, who, unknown to that gentleman, paraded three figures, intended to represent the three principal opponents to the continuance of his pastorate, suspended from a gibbet, which had been erected in a cart, through the streets of the town, and afterwards gave them up to the flames on the sands. The Rev. J. Noall was shortly afterwards presented with a testimonial of esteem by a number of sympathisers. Schools, in connection with the chapel, were built in 1870.

Two years subsequently, the watering-place had grown, without the fostering care of a public governing body, into a large and prosperous town, boasting a resident population of over two thousand persons, but this very increase and popularity had rendered it impossible for private enterprise to provide the requisite comforts and conveniences for such a mixture of classes as visited it during the summer. Acting under this necessity and for the welfare of the resort a Local Board was formed, composed of gentlemen elected from amongst inhabitants, into whose hands was entrusted the government and regulation of all matters connected with the place. An accession of power was sought in 1853, and on Tuesday, the 14th of June, the Blackpool Improvement Act received the royal assent. The Board originally consisted of nine members, but in 1871 the number was increased to eighteen.

One of the earliest acts of the new commissioners of 1853 was to provide for the proper lighting of the town by the erection of Gas Works, which they accomplished in their first year of office; for some time it had been evident that the season was seriously curtailed by the absence of any illumination along the promenade and thoroughfares during the autumn evenings, but private speculation had for some reason held aloof from so important an undertaking, although the question had been much discussed amongst the inhabitants. Here it may be stated, in order to avoid reverting to the subject again, that in 1863 there were 650 consumers of gas; in 1869, 1270; and in 1875, no less than 2,000; the miles of mains in those years being respectively 5, 7, and 12.

In 1856, the promenade, which had suffered much injury from frequent attacks of the sea, and perhaps from some amount of negligence in not bestowing due attention to its proper maintenance, was put in better order and extended from its northern extremity, opposite Talbot Square, along the front of Albert Terrace as far as Rossall’s, formerly Dickson’s Hotel. Four years later a portion of this walk opposite Central Beach was asphalted and sprinkled over with fine white spar. The Infant School-house in Bank Hey Street, was opened in 1856.

The Roman Catholic Church, situated in Talbot Road, was erected in 1857, from the design of Edwin W. Pugin, Esq., and at the sole expense of Miss M. Tempest, sister to Sir Charles Tempest, Bart., of Broughton Hall, Yorkshire. It is in the Gothic style, the exterior being built with Yorkshire flag in narrow courses, hammer dressed and tuck pointed. The church comprises a chancel, north and south transepts, two sacristies, confessionals, nave, aisles, south porch, and central western tower. The chancel, which is separated from the nave and transepts by a richly decorated and moulded arch, contains four side windows in addition to a large one at the east end. The nave is divided into five bays of fifteen feet each, with massive arches ornamented with deeply cut mouldings. The tower is of great solidity, and rises to a height of one hundred and twenty-four feet. Almost the whole of the windows are filled with richly stained glass; and the altar within the chancel is beautified with elaborately carved groups, designed by J. H. Powell, of Birmingham, of the “Agony in the Garden,” and the “Last Supper;” whilst that in the lady chapel is adorned, from the pencil of the same artist, with illustrations of the “Assumption of the Virgin,” and the “Annunciation,” all of which are exquisitely carved by Lane. This church is dedicated to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and was the first one ever erected in Blackpool for members of the Roman Catholic Faith, service having been previously celebrated in a room in Talbot Road. In 1866 an excellent peal of cast steel bells was added to the tower; and ten years afterwards a magnificent organ was opened in the main building. Attached to the church, and within the same enclosure, were placed day and Sunday schools, as well as a residence for the officiating priests. The cost of this magnificent pile, without the internal decorations, amounted to £5,500.

The foundation stone of the Union Baptist Chapel, in Abingdon Street, was laid on the 9th of April, 1860, and on Good Friday in the following year it was opened for divine worship by the Rev. Dr. Raffles. The main building, 80 feet long by 49 feet wide, is of brick, and finished with moulded and polished stone dressings in the Grecian style of architecture. The principal or west front is surmounted by a bold cornice and pediment, and contains the two chief entrances, which are approached by a long range of steps and a spacious landing. The interior is fitted with substantial open pews of red pine in the body, and similar seats are placed in the two end galleries, the whole being capable of providing accommodation for about 650 persons. The communion floor, under a portion of which is the Baptistry, is enclosed with an ornamental balustrade. The edifice is well supplied with light through plain circular-headed windows. A Sunday school was added in 1874, and an organ also purchased during that year. From 1858 to the completion of the chapel the Baptists worshipped in the room formerly used by the Roman Catholics in Talbot Road.

In 1861, the progress and improvement of the town was well shown by three events which occurred at that date—the first sod of the Lytham and Blackpool coast line was cut at Lytham Park, on the 4th of September; a large Market Hall, raised on South Beach, by Mr. W. Read, for the sale of useful and fancy articles was completed; and the original Christ Church was opened on Sunday the 23rd of June, by the Rev. C. H. Wainwright, M.A. This church, which stood until the erection of the present one, was built of iron by Mr. Hemming, of London, at a cost of £1,000, which was advanced by eight gentlemen, who were subsequently reimbursed by contributions from the public and collections from the congregation at various times.

The population of Layton-with-Warbreck in 1861 amounted to 3,907 persons, of which number Blackpool contributed 3,506.

The passenger traffic on the Blackpool and Lytham Railway commenced on the 6th of April, 1862, and between that date and the 30th of June over 35,000 persons had taken advantage of the line and been conveyed between the two watering-places. In 1862 a handsome Police Station and Court-House sprang into being in Abingdon street, including residences, lock-ups, offices, magistrates’ room, etc.

The streets of Blackpool no longer presented the meagre and broken lines of earlier days, but were in most instances well filled on each side with compact blocks of houses. In December, 1861, a few of the townpeople assembled at the Clifton Arms Hotel to consider the advisability of erecting a pier, to extend westward from the promenade opposite Talbot square; and on the 22nd of January, 1862, the memorandum of association was signed with a capital of £12,000, being immediately registered. Plans were examined on the 10th of February, and the design of E. Birch, esq., C.E., selected, that gentleman being also appointed engineer. In April, the tender of Messrs. Laidlaw, of Glasgow, to construct the pier for £11,540 was accepted; and a grant of the foreshore required for the undertaking having been obtained from the Duchy of Lancaster for £120, and £7 paid to the Crown for the portion beyond low-water mark, the first pile of the North Pier was screwed into the marl on the 27th of June, 1862, by Captain Francis Preston, the chairman of the company. A violent storm in the ensuing October damaged the works to some extent, and induced the company to raise the deck of the pier three feet above the altitude originally proposed, at an expense of £2,000. On the 21st of May, 1863, the pier was formally opened by Captain Preston, the auspicious event being celebrated by general rejoicings throughout the town and a procession of the different schools and friendly societies. The dimensions of the erection at that date were:—Approach, 80 feet long; abutment, 120 feet long and 45 feet wide; main portion, 1,070 feet long and 28 feet wide; and the head, 135 feet long and 55 feet wide, giving a total length of 1,405 feet available as a promenade. The entire superstructure was placed upon clusters of iron piles, fixed vertically into the ground by means of screws, those at the abutment and main body being wholly of cast, and those at the head partly of cast and partly of wrought iron. The largest of the cast-iron columns measured 12 inches in diameter, and 1⅓ inch in thickness, each column being filled in with concrete. The piles were arranged in clusters at intervals of 60 feet, and firmly secured together longitudinally, transversely, and diagonally, by rods and braces. The main girders, of the sort known as plated, were rivetted on the clusters in lengths of 70 feet, and formed parapets, presenting a pleasing appearance and constituting a most efficient wind guard to the pier. The tops of the girders were turned to useful account by converting them into a continuous line of seats. Next to the chief girders were fixed transverse wrought iron girders, upon the top of which the planking of the deck was laid, being arranged in longitudinal and transverse layers, so that no open spaces were left to admit the passage of wind or spray. The head of the pier, rectangular in form, was raised 50 feet above low-water mark, and leading from it to ample landing stages below, was a flight of steps 10 feet wide. The limits of the pier shore-wards were defined by ornamental iron gates with lamps, immediately inside which were the toll houses. Upon the main portion of the pier were erected several ornamental shelter and refreshment houses of an octagonal shape, and standing on side projections. Another ornamental shelter house of much larger dimensions was placed, within a few months, on the head. Lamps were provided along the entire length of the pier. In 1867 the directors determined to erect an iron extension or jetty, and in less than two years the work was accomplished at a cost of £6,000. During the month of May, 1869, a tender for the formation of the present entrance for £2,700 was accepted, and the agreement promptly carried out by Messrs. Laidlaw, of Glasgow. In October, 1874, the company arranged with the same contractors to enlarge the pierhead by putting out two wings, from the designs of E. Birch, esq., C.E., at an expenditure of £14,000. On the north wing it is intended to build a pavilion, 130 feet long by 90 feet wide, in an eastern style of architecture, and estimated to hold 1,200 persons seated. The edifice, around which there will be a promenade, is to be supplied with an orchestra, refreshment rooms, etc., and used as a concert room and fashionable marine lounge. The south wing, which is about 130 feet long, contains a bandstand, capable of holding 30 performers, at the further end, and on the east and west side two other buildings 62 feet by 27 feet each, the former being designed for the purposes of a restaurant, and the latter for the sale of fancy goods and other commodities. The unoccupied space, nearly 100 feet by 80 feet, will be provided with seats in the centre, the remainder serving as a promenade. The contract for the foregoing erections was let in 1875, to Messrs. Robert Neill and Sons, of Manchester, for nearly £12,000. In 1863, the capital of the company was raised to £15,000; in 1864, to £20,000; in 1865, to £25,000; in 1874, to £40,000; and in 1875, to £50,000.

About the period when the North Pier was constructed, and for years previously, the visitors to Blackpool could certainly complain of no lack of ordinary amusements during their brief residence by the sea. Horses, donkeys, and vehicles were ever in readiness to administer to their entertainment, either by conveying them for short drives to explore such objects of interest as the country afforded, or translating them for the day to the seaport of Fleetwood, or the neighbouring resort of Lytham. Bathing machines abounded on the sands, and during suitable states of the tide were busily engaged in affording ready access to the briny element to numbers, who were anxious to experience the invigorating effects of a bath in Neptune’s domain. In the evenings theatrical representations were frequently held, since 1861, in the spacious room of Read’s Market. The Crystal Palace, formerly the Victoria Promenade, was also devoted to similar purposes, having long been diverted from the use for which it was first intended. The Number 3 Hotel, under its old name, but in a more modern building than that described by Mr. Hutton at the close of last century, still flourished, and proved equally attractive, not so much, however, on account of its “fine ale” as the wealth of strawberries and floral beauties adorning its gardens. Carleton Terrace was built in 1863; and on the 10th of March in that year the marriage of the Prince of Wales and the Princess Alexandra of Denmark, was celebrated with many manifestations of loyalty and joy. Flags, banners, and ensigns were suspended from the windows of almost every house, whilst sports of various kinds were held on the sands during the morning, after which the school children, belonging to the different denominations, and a body of Oddfellows, amounting in all to 900 persons, assembled in Talbot Square, and sang the national anthem, previous to forming a procession and parading the streets of the town. Subsequently the children were regaled with tea, buns, etc. The Preston Banking Company established a branch at Blackpool during 1863; and in the month of January a party of gentlemen purchased the whole of the land lying between the site of Carleton terrace and the Gynn, for the purpose of laying it out in building plots and promenades, the main feature to be a large central hotel standing in its own grounds. The contracts were let by the company in October, 1863, for embanking, sewering, and forming the necessary roads and promenades on their estate, and shortly afterwards an agreement was entered into for preparing the foundation of the hotel, the work in both instances being promptly commenced. The magnitude of the scheme far exceeded that of any undertaking which had ever yet been attempted in Blackpool, but undisturbed by the speculative character of their venture the proprietors carried the enterprise through its various phases with a liberal and vigorous hand, succeeding in the course of time in creating an acquisition of incalculable beauty and benefit to the town. The Imperial Hotel has its station on the highest point of the land, now called Claremont Park, and is a palatial edifice, surrounded by elegant lawns and walks, walled off from the park outside. In 1876 an extensive enlargement, consisting of a south wing, containing 39 bedrooms and 6 sitting-rooms, was made to the establishment. The cliffs fronting the estate, formerly rugged and uneven, were sloped and pitched to form a protection from the inroads of the tide, whilst a broad marine promenade was made along the whole length of the park, about a mile, and fenced with an iron railing on its open aspect. The main promenade of the town was continued round the west side of the park as far as the Gynn, but on a lower level than the walk just indicated. Shrubs were planted and toll houses, with gates, fixed at the entrances to the estate, all of which was enclosed with railings. The splendid residences denominated Stanley Villas, Wilton Parade, Imperial Terrace, and Lansdowne Crescent were not dilatory in rearing their several heads in a locality so congenial to their aristocratic proclivities, the foundations of the last being prepared in 1864.

In 1864 the Lane Ends Hotel was levelled to the ground, and the present handsome structure, in the Italian style of architecture, raised on the site, being re-opened again two years later. The foundation stone of the United Methodist Free Church was laid in Adelaide Street on the 30th of March, in the year specified, by James Sidebottom, esq., of Manchester, service being held in the building in the course of a few months; whilst the newly-arrived lifeboat was launched, and the first supply of the Fylde Waterworks Company passed through their pipes to Blackpool on the 20th of July. The station of the lifeboat, named the “Robert William,” is situated near the beach at South Shore, close to the Manchester Hotel; and here we may mention that this boat, under the skilful and intrepid management of its crew and coxswain, has been instrumental on several occasions in affording aid in time of shipwreck. Amongst these instances may be noted the rescue of a crew of fourteen persons belonging to the barque “Susan L. Campbell,” wrecked on Salthouse Bank on the 11th April, 1867, assistance being rendered also to the barque “A. L. Routh”; and the rescue of the crew of the schooner “Glyde,” stranded on the South Beach on the same eventful morning. The annual expense incurred in the support of this valuable institution is defrayed by voluntary contributions.

The unflagging efforts of the inhabitants to promote the comfort of their visitors in matters of household convenience and accommodation, and to render their sojourns by the shore productive of pleasurable, as well as healthful, sensations, were manifestly well appreciated by those for whose benefit they were intended. The daily crowds parading the recently-erected pier were satisfactory evidence of the high estimation in which that elegant addition to the attractions of the place was held, whilst the thronged thoroughfares during the heat of summer bore witness to the growing affection which Blackpool was gaining for itself in the hearts of the million. Active exertions were necessary on the part of the builders to keep pace with the ever-increasing demand for more extended residential provision, houses being scarcely completed before the eager tenants had established themselves in their new domiciles. The greater portion of the Clifton Arms Hotel was pulled down in the autumn of 1865, and rebuilt on an enlarged and improved scale, being finished and ready for occupation in the ensuing spring. On the 20th of June, 1865, the first members of the Blackpool Volunteer Artillery Corps, amounting to about 60 men, took the oath customary on enrolment, and at the same meeting appointed their officers. Ten years later a commodious drill-shed was erected for their use.

In 1866 the temporary iron church, to which allusion has been made in a late page, was superseded by the existing substantial one in Queen Street, bearing the name of its predecessor. The edifice was opened for divine service on Thursday, the 3rd of May, by the Rev. E. B. Chalmers, M.A., of Salford, but was not consecrated until 1870. The architecture is an early and simple style of decorated Gothic, with thick walls and prominently projecting buttresses. The east and west ends are lighted respectively by four and five-light traceried windows and lancets. The steeple, which is well buttressed, has in its upper stage a belfry for six bells, and is surmounted by a vane. Until recent additions were made, the church contained sittings for 1,000 persons. The building originally comprised a broad nave, with a central aisle and two side passages giving access to the seats, all of which were open benches with sloping backs; north and south transepts with galleries, lighted by bay windows; a spacious chancel, with north and south aisles, the former being fitted up as a vestry, and the latter used as the organ-chamber; a spacious porch at the west end, with a wide double door; a west gallery extending over the porch, and approached by a staircase along the basement of the tower; and a baptistry covered with a separate hipped roof. The alterations just alluded to were carried out in 1874, and consisted of the erection of north and south aisles to the nave, providing accommodation for about 300 more worshippers. The district assigned to Christ Church in 1872 was converted into a parish in 1874, and the title of vicar given to the incumbent. The Rev. C. H. Wainwright, M.A., to whose exertions the new structure mainly owes its existence, was the first incumbent, and is the present vicar. The schools connected with the church are situated in Queen Street, and were built in 1872.

During the year 1866 the Lancaster Banking Company and the Manchester and County Banking Company each opened a branch in Blackpool, and like the Preston Bank, previously referred to, now transact business daily.

In July, 1867, the Prince of Wales Arcade on Central Beach was finished and opened, comprising a block of building, with extensive market accommodation, assembly rooms, etc., erected on the site between the Beach and Royal Hotels in an imposing and ornamental style of architecture; and on the 19th of December, the corner stone of the Temperance Hall in Coronation Street was laid by the Rev. R. Crook, and in the following July the erection was completed and opened. The temperance movement had been commenced in Blackpool four years anterior to that date, when a Band of Hope in connection with the United Methodist Free Church was formed, and the number of its members increased so rapidly in the intervening time that it was considered advisable to build the present Hall for their meetings, and for those of others who were interested in the same cause.

The marked success which had attended the construction of the North Pier induced a company of gentlemen to erect a similar one, running seaward from the margin of the promenade at the south of Blackpool. The first pile was screwed in July, 1867, and on the 30th of May, 1868, the South Pier and Jetty were thrown open to the public without any inaugural ceremony. It is built of wrought iron and timber, and has the following dimensions:—Total length 1,518 feet, the main promenade being 1,118 feet, and the lower promenade or jetty 400 feet; the entrance is on an abutment 60 feet wide, where there are gates, toll-houses, waiting and retiring-rooms; the pier head is rectangular in form, and composed of strong timber, containing an area of 8,120 superficial feet. The chief promenade is furnished with seats on each side throughout its whole length, together with twelve recesses, on which are shops for the sale of fancy articles and refreshments. On the head of the pier are placed two large waiting and refreshment rooms, as well as a commodious shelter and wind guard. At the extremity of the jetty is a beacon and light as required by the authorities at Trinity House.

In 1868 a magnificent pile of buildings, erected in Talbot Square, and called the Arcade and Assembly Rooms, was completed. This structure contains a basement and arcade of very elegant shops, a restaurant, refreshment and billiard rooms, together with a handsome and spacious saloon, surrounded within by a gallery, and furnished with a neat stage for theatrical representations and other entertainments. Several sleeping apartments were added in 1874, and a certain section of the edifice arranged as a private hotel.

The promenade had always been esteemed so much the property of the house and land owners on the front of the beach that to them was delegated the onerous duty of maintaining in repair such portions of the hulking as ran before each of their possessions, the walk itself being kept in order and supported by subscriptions amongst the visitors and residents generally. Under this arrangement although the embankment was ensured from being carried away by the waves, there was no certainty that its upper surface would invariably present that neat and finished appearance so necessary to the success of a marine promenade. Voluntary contributions are in most instances but a precarious support on which to rely exclusively, and at Blackpool their unfortunate characteristic was prominently exemplified, more particularly during the earlier years of the watering-place, when visitors, whom the summer had drawn to the coast, too frequently discovered their favourite lounge in a state far from attractive to the pedestrian. Recently there had been comparatively little cause for complaint as to the condition in which each opening season found the promenade, but it was felt on all sides that the day had arrived when a new and much more extensive walk should be laid out, and that the responsibility of maintaining both it and the fence in proper order should devolve upon the town, from the funds, or rather borrowing powers, of which it was proposed to carry out the undertaking. In 1865 a special act of parliament had been obtained with this object by the Local Board of Health, at a cost of £2,159, by which permission to borrow up to £30,000 was granted, but no active steps were then taken, and three years later a supplemental act was procured to borrow up to an amount which, when added to the amount already in hand under the former act, would not exceed altogether two years’ assessable value, the whole to be repaid within a period of fifty years from the date of receiving the loan. There were other difficulties to encounter, notwithstanding that the Board had the power of compulsory purchased granted, in the buying of land to prosecute the purpose of the act. These were ultimately overcome by arbitration in cases where disputes had arisen. A supplemental act in 1867 allowed the board to amend and curtail several clauses in the original act, the first of which was to abridge the dimensions of the proposed work, the second to empower the levying of rates according to the act of 1865 on the completion of each section of the undertaking, and the third to extend the time for the compulsory purchase of land from three to five years. According to the act the commissioners gained a right to collect tolls for the usage of the promenade from all persons not assessed or liable to be assessed by any rate leviable by the Local Board of Health, with the exception of those crossing to the piers. This power, it may be stated, was not intended to be, and never has been, put in force. The promenade proposed to be made would reach from Carleton Terrace to the further end of South Shore, a distance of about two miles; and the work was divided into three sections, the first of which, begun in 1868, was let to Mr. Robert Carlisle, contractor, for £16,043, and extended from South Shore to the Fox Hall Hotel. The storm which occurred on January 31st, 1869, washed away 350 yards of the newly-constructed sea fence and carriage-drive, with about 16,000 cubic yards of embankment, and about 6,000 square yards of pitching. Another storm which took place on the 28th of February, added considerably to the damage just stated, by tearing down a length of 250 yards, which was entirely completed, so that the total injury inflicted by the waves during the gale represented 600 lineal yards of sea fence, carriage-drive, and promenade, comprising 21,000 cubic yards of embankment, all of which had to be replaced from the shore at a considerable expense, in addition to 9,500 square yards of pitching, etc., connected therewith. No. 2 section, running from the Fox Hall Hotel to the New Inn, was contracted for by a Manchester gentleman at £3,964, but in consequence of his not being able to carry out the work, it was re-let, and Mr. Chatburn succeeded him on the increased terms of £4,942. No. 3 section, stretching from the New Inn to the southern extremity of Carleton Terrace, was also constructed by Mr. Robert Carlisle, at a cost of £10,356. The whole of the ironwork was supplied by Mr. Clayton, of Preston, and necessitated an expenditure of £3,275. The sea fence consists of a sloping breastwork, pitched with stones on a thick bed of clay puddle, the interstices between the stones having been filled in with asphalt or cement concrete. The slope is curvilinear, and one in four on an average. Next to the breast is the promenade and carriage-drive. The promenade is seven yards wide, and has an even surface of asphalting, being separated from the carriage-drive by a line of side stones. In order to obtain space between the houses and the sea for the promenade and carriage-drive, a part of the shore was regained by an embankment along South Shore, and along the northern district by an iron viaduct, which projects considerably over the sea fence, and encircles the marine aspect of Bailey’s Hotel. The floor of the viaduct is formed with patent buckled plates, filled in with concrete, and finished with asphalt. The plates are fixed to rolled joists, and supported on neat cast-iron columns, screwed down into the solid. The west front of the promenade is guarded by an iron railing, and furnished at intervals with seats of the same material, situated on the embankment to the south, and on projecting ledges of the viaduct along the northern length. The carriage-drive, twelve yards wide, runs parallel with the promenade throughout the entire extent, and is formed of shingle, clay, and macadam. It has a footway along the frontages of the adjoining property, the whole being well drained and lighted with gas. The complete structure was finished and formally opened to the public on Easter Monday, 18th of April, 1870, by Colonel Wilson-Patten, M.P., the present Lord Winmarleigh. The town was profusely decorated with bunting of every hue; triumphal arches of evergreens and ensigns spanned many of the thoroughfares, notably Talbot Road and along the front; whilst an immense procession, consisting of the Artillery Volunteers, Yeomanry in uniform, trades with their emblems, friendly societies, schools, etc., headed by a band, and comprising in its ranks no less than twelve mayors from important towns of Lancashire, conducted Colonel Wilson-Patten to that portion of the promenade opposite Talbot Square, where the ceremony of declaring the walk accessible for public traffic was gone through. During the evening the watering-place was illuminated, and the eventful day closed with a large ball, held in honour of the occasion.

The wisdom of the authorities in having Blackpool provided with a marine promenade and a frontage unrivalled by any on the coasts of England was soon evinced by the increase in the stream of visitors poured into the place during the summer months. Fresh houses for their accommodation were being rapidly erected in many parts of the town, and everywhere there were ample evidences that prosperity was dealing liberally with the town. The wooden railings, which heretofore had been deemed sufficiently ornamental fences for the residences facing the sea, were removed, and elegant iron ones substituted, apportioning to each habitation its own plot of sward or garden. The proprietor of Bailey’s Hotel hastened to follow the example which had been set by those who were interested in the Clifton Arms and Lane Ends Hotels, and commenced a series of levellings and rebuildings, under the superintendence and according to the designs of Messrs. Speakman and Charlesworth, architects, of Manchester, which extended over several years, and have now rendered the hotel one of the most imposing and handsome edifices in the watering-place. Further alterations, consisting in the erection of shops on a vacant piece of land lying on the north side of the hotel, in the same style of architecture, and continuous with it, were carried out in 1876.

In 1871 a project was launched for purchasing Raikes Hall with the estate belonging thereto, situated on the east aspect of Blackpool, and converting the latter into a park and pleasure gardens. In that year a company was formed, entitled the Raikes Hall Park, Gardens, and Aquarium Company, and the land obtained without delay. Vigorous operations were at once commenced to render the grounds of the old mansion suitable for the purposes held in view, whilst the building itself speedily underwent sundry alterations and additions in its transformation into a refreshment house on a large scale. A spacious terrace, walks, promenades, and flower beds were laid out, and an extensive conservatory constructed with all haste, and in the summer after gaining possession of the estate, the works had so far progressed that the public were admitted at a small charge per head. Since that date a dancing platform has been put down, an immense pavillion erected, and many other changes effected in the wide enclosure. Pyrotechnic displays, acrobatic performances, etc., are held in the gardens, which comprise about 40 statute acres, during the season, whilst agricultural shows and other meetings occasionally take place within its boundaries. An extensive lake was formed in 1875, and an excellent race-course marked out. Raikes Hall has a brief history of its own, and was erected about the middle of the eighteenth century by a Mr. Butcher, who resided there. Tradition affirms that this gentleman sprang suddenly into an ample fortune from a station of obscurity and poverty, giving rise to a supposition that he had appropriated to his own uses a large mass of wealth asserted to have been lost at that time in a vessel wrecked on the coast. It is probable, however, that the foregoing is merely an idle tale, utterly unworthy of credence. Mr. Butcher, who was succeeded by his son, died in 1769, at the ripe age of 80, and was interred in Bispham churchyard, the following words being inscribed on his tombstone:—

“His pleasure was to give or lend, He always stood a poor man’s friend.”

The mansion and estate were purchased by William Hornby, esq., of Kirkham, shortly before his death in 1824, and by him bequeathed to his brother John Hornby, esq., of Blackburn, who married Alice Kendall, a widow, and the daughter of Daniel Backhouse, esq., of Liverpool. Daniel Hornby, esq., the eldest son of that union, inherited the property on the decease of his father in 1841, and took up his abode at the Hall until the early part of 1860, when he left the neighbourhood. Raikes Hall then became the seat of a Roman Catholic Convent School, which continued in possession for several years, until the new and handsome edifice standing on a rising ground in Little Layton was erected and ready for its reception. Shortly after the removal of the school the land and residence were purchased by the company above named, and their aspects began to undergo the changes already indicated. The census returns of the township collected in 1871, furnished a total of 7,902 persons, all of whom, with the exception of an insignificant proportion, were resident in Blackpool.

In consequence of a letter from the Secretary of State, giving notice that the burial ground in connection with St. John’s Church must be closed after the 31st of December, 1871, the responsibility of providing a suitable place for interments was thrown upon the authorities, and the members of the Local Board of Health formed themselves into a Burial Board, their first meeting being held on the 20th of June in the year just specified. A committee was appointed, and in the ensuing August purchased for £1,759 an eligible site of 8½ acres, lying by the side of the New Road, into which the entrance gates of the cemetery now open. The plans for the requisite erections were prepared by Messrs. Garlick, Park, and Sykes, architects, of Preston, and the work of preparing the ground commenced in October, the contract for the chapels and lodge being let in December. As such a brief interval had to elapse before the order for closing the churchyard would be put in force, the Board applied, successfully, for permission to keep it open six months longer. The cemetery, however, progressed so tardily that it was necessary to renew the application on two future occasions, and the churchyard continued in use until the 31st of May, 1873. Five acres of the land were laid out from plans supplied by Mr. Gorst, surveyor to the board, and were divided into nine sections, four of which were apportioned to the Church of England, three to the Nonconformists, and two to the Roman Catholics. The cemetery was enclosed from the highway by stone palisadings and boundary walls, having massive iron railings. The approach to the grounds is through a spacious entrance, with a double iron gate in the centre, and a single gate on either side, hung to stone pillars. Inside the gate is the lodge, built of stone and comprising a residence for the keeper, offices, etc. The mortuary chapels, which are all of stone, have an elegant appearance, that of the Church of England being stationed in the middle, with the Nonconformists’ and Roman Catholics’ edifices lying respectively west and east of it. The style of the buildings is Gothic of the first pointed period. The roofs are open-timbered, high-pitched, and covered with Welsh slates in bands of different colours, being also crested with tiles. Entrance to the chapels is gained by a porch, and there is a vestry attached to each. The floors are laid with plain tiles of various tints. Evergreens, shrubs, and forest trees have been planted on the borders of the grounds, whilst the walks are wide and well cared for. The Nonconformists were the first to take possession of their portion, which was dedicated to its solemn uses by a service held on the 7th of February, 1873, exactly one week after which an interment took place, being the earliest not only in their land but in the whole ground. On the 2nd of August in the same year the Right Rev. Dr. Fraser, bishop of Manchester, consecrated the division set apart for the Church of England, which had been licensed for burials in the previous May. The Roman Catholics deferred their ceremonial until the month of June, 1874,

## acting under license during the interval.

On the 26th of August, 1872, the Blackpool Sea Water Company was registered under the limited liability act, with a capital of £10,000, in shares of £10 each, for the purpose of supplying water from the deep, together with the requisite appliances for conducting it to the houses and elsewhere, to the inhabitants of Blackpool; and rather more than two years later a main of pipes had been laid along the front from the Merchants’ College in South Shore as far as their steam pumping works in Upper Braithwaite Street.

In 1874 the watering-place had developed so rapidly during past years that the members of the Local Board of Health felt that the powers appertaining to a body of that description were no longer adequate to the proper government of the town, and a public meeting to ascertain the opinion of the ratepayers on the subject of incorporation was called on Tuesday, the 6th of November, 1874. After considerable discussion, it was proposed by the Rev. N. S. Jeffreys: “That a petition be drawn up and signed by the chairman on behalf of the meeting, praying that a Charter of Incorporation be granted for the town of Blackpool, and that the same be forwarded to the proper authorities; and that the necessary steps be taken to obtain such Charter.” The proposition was adopted without a dissentient; and at the ensuing assembly of the Local Board of Health on Tuesday, the 10th of November, a similar motion was brought forward by W. H. Cocker, esq., J.P., with an equally successful result. The prayers were forwarded to the appropriate official quarters in London, and on the 26th of May, 1875, Major Donnelly, R.E., the commissioner appointed by Her Majesty’s Privy Council, attended at the Board-room to hold an inquiry as to whether the importance and necessities of the place warranted a favourable answer to the request. In the course of the examination, it was stated, amongst other things, that the rateable value of the proposed borough was in 1863, £17,489; 1866, £35,175; 1869, £45,755; 1872, £55,653; 1874, £63,848; and in 1875, £73,035. Also that the town contained three churches, seven chapels, three rooms used for religious services, two markets under the Local Board, other markets owned by private individuals, four public sea-water baths, three banks, an aquarium, public gardens, etc. On the 16th of the following July information was officially conveyed to W. M. Charnley, esq., the law-clerk of the board, that the lords of the Privy Council had determined to accede to the prayer of the town, and that the borough should consist of six wards, with one alderman and three councillors for each. A draft of the scheme of incorporation was prepared by the law-clerk, and forwarded to London. On the 22nd January, 1876, the charter, having passed through the necessary forms, obtained the royal assent, being received by W. M. Charnley, esq., two days later. The document, after quoting several acts of parliament, proceeds to “grant and declare that the inhabitants of the town of Blackpool and their successors, shall be for ever hereafter one body politic and corporate in deed, fact, and name, and that the said body corporate shall be called the Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses of the Borough of Blackpool, who shall have and exercise all the acts, powers, authorities, immunities, and privileges which are now held and exercised by the bodies corporate of the several boroughs” similarly created. Further, the deed “grants and declares that the said Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses and their successors shall and may for ever hereafter use a common seal to serve them in transacting their business, and also have armorial bearings and devices, which shall be duly entered and enrolled in the Herald’s College;” also shall they have power “to purchase, take, and acquire such lands, tenements, and heriditaments, whatsoever, situate, lying, and being within the borough, as shall be necessary for the site of the buildings and premises required for the official purposes of the corporation.” The Council was ordained to consist of “a Mayor, six Aldermen, and eighteen Councillors, to be respectively elected at such times and places, and in such manner” as those of other boroughs existing under the same acts, in common with which they “shall have, exercise, and enjoy all the powers, immunities, and privileges, and be subject to the same duties, penalties, liabilities, and disqualifications” appertaining to such positions. The first election of councillors was directed to be held on the eleventh day of April, 1876, followed by another on the 1st of November, at which latter date one-third part of the councillors should go out of office each year, and the vacant seats be refilled as specified; the councillors to retire in the November, 1876, being those who had obtained the smallest number of votes, and in November, 1877, those with the next smallest number of votes. The first aldermen of the borough “shall be elected and assigned to their respective wards on the 19th day of April, 1876, and the councillors immediately afterwards shall appoint who shall be the aldermen to go out of office upon the 9th day of November ensuing,” and in subsequent years those so retiring to be aldermen who have retained their seats for the longest period without re-election. The first mayor of the borough “shall be elected from and out of the aldermen and councillors of the said borough, on the 19th day of April, 1876,” the earliest appointment of auditors and assessors being made on the 19th day of the following month. The subjoined extent and names of the wards are also taken from the charter:—

CLAREMONT WARD.

“Commencing at the Sea beyond the Gynn, at the junction of the old existing township boundary, thence running inland along the same boundary across the fields, across Knowle-road, behind Warbrick and Mill Inn, across Poulton-road to the centre of the Dyke at Little Layton, thence along the Dyke to the centre of Little Layton Bridge, thence westward along and including the north side of Little Layton-road, north side of New-road, north side of Talbot-road, to Station-road, thence along and including the east side of Station-road to Queen-street, thence along and including the north side of Queen-street, Queen’s-square, across the Promenade to the sea.

TALBOT WARD.

“Commencing at the Sea opposite the centre of Queen’s-square, thence along and including the south side of Queen’s-square, south side of Queen-street to Station-road, thence running along and including the west side of Station-road to Talbot-road, thence along and including the south side of the upper portion of Talbot-road, south side of New-road, the south side of Little Layton-road to the centre of Little Layton Bridge, thence along the Dyke to the old township boundary, thence south-east by the township boundary to the centre of Dykes-lane, thence westward along and including the north side of Dykes-lane, the north side of Layton-road, the north side of Raikes-road, the north side of Raikes Hill, the north side of Church-street to Abingdon-street, thence along and including the east side of Abingdon-street to Birley-street, thence along and including the north side of Birley-street, the north side of West-street, across the Promenade to the Sea.

BANK HEY WARD.

“Commencing at the Sea opposite the centre of West-street, thence along and including the south side of West-street, the south side of Birley-street to Abingdon-street, thence along and including the west side of Abingdon-street to Church-street, thence along and including the south side of Church-street to Lower King-street, thence along and including the west side of Lower King-street to Adelaide-street, thence along and including the north side of Adelaide-street, the north side of Adelaide-place, across the Promenade to the Sea.

BRUNSWICK WARD.

“Commencing at the Sea opposite the centre of Adelaide-place, thence along and including the south side of Adelaide-place, the south side of Adelaide-street to Lower King-street, thence along and including the east side of Lower King-street to Church-street, thence along and including the south side of Church-street, the south side of Raikes Hill, the south side of Raikes-road, the south side of Layton-road, the south side of Dykes-lane to the existing township boundary, thence along the same boundary beyond the Whinney Heys, around the Belle Vue Gardens, southward of Raikes Hall Gardens to the centre of Revoe-road, thence along and including the north side of Revoe-road, the north side of Chapel-street, across the Promenade to the Sea.

FOXHALL WARD.

“Commencing at the Sea opposite to the end of Chapel-street, thence along and including the south side of Chapel-street, the south side of Revoe-road to the existing township boundary, thence south-westerly, and thence south-easterly along the same boundary to the centre of Cow Gap-lane, thence west along and including the north side of Cow Gap-lane to Lytham-road, thence along and including the east side of Lytham-road to Alexandra-road, thence along and including the north side of Alexandra-road, across the Promenade to the Sea.

WATERLOO WARD.

“Commencing at the Sea opposite the centre of Alexandra-road, thence along and including the south side of Alexandra-road to Lytham-road, thence along and including the west side of Lytham-road to Cow Gap-lane, thence eastward, along and including the south side of Cow Gap-lane to the existing township boundary, thence south-easterly, along the same boundary on the easterly side of Hawes Side-road, the north side of Layton-lane, across the Blackpool and Lytham Railway to the Sea at Star Hills.”

The election of councillors took place at the date specified in the charter, under the superintendence of Mr. William Porter, of Fleetwood and Blackpool, who had been nominated by the authorities of the town as returning officer. On the 19th of April the gentlemen elected assembled in the old board-room and appointed aldermen and a mayor from amongst themselves, the vacancies thus created being supplied by another appeal to the burgesses of those wards whose representatives had been elevated to the aldermanic bench. The first completed town council of Blackpool consisted of—

Alderman William Henry Cocker (the mayor) Bank Hey Ward. ” Thomas McNaughtan, M.D. Claremont ” ” Thomas Lambert Masheter Talbot ” ” John Hardman Foxhall ” ” Francis Parnell Waterloo ” ” J. E. B. Cocker Brunswick ” Councillor John Braithwaite ⎫ ” William Bailey ⎬ Claremont ” ” Leslie Jones, M.D. ⎭ ” T. Challinor ⎫ ” R. Marshall ⎬ Talbot ” ” John Fisher ⎭ ” John Coulson ⎫ ” George Ormrod ⎬ Bank Hey ” ” Henry Fisher ⎭ ” George Bonny ⎫ ” Robert Mather ⎬ Brunswick ” ” John William Mycock ⎭ ” James Blundell Fisher ⎫ ” Alfred Anderson ⎬ Foxhall ” ” Robert Bickerstaffe, jun. ⎭ ” Francis Parnell ⎫ ” Richard Gorst ⎬ Waterloo ” ” Lawrence Hall ⎭ William Mawdsley Charnley, esq., solicitor, town-clerk.

From the time when the subject of incorporation was first beginning to dawn upon the inhabitants as something to which the rapid extension and growing importance of their town was tending with no tardy pace, up to the present year of 1876, buildings have increased at a rate unparalleled in any former period of Blackpool’s history. No longer solitary erections, or even small groups, but whole streets have been added to the expanding area of the place, consisting of handsome and spacious edifices, of, indeed, notwithstanding their being situated to the rear, exteriors which would, not many years ago, have been deemed highly ornamental to the beach itself. In 1874 the south section of the noble market-hall, on Hygiene Terrace, was being arranged and fitted up with roomy tanks to form an aquarium on a fairly large scale by W. H. Cocker, Esq., J.P., who had recently acquired the proprietorship of the entire pile. The open space in front of the building was fenced in, and furnished with three tanks for seals, and other novel features to render it attractive and pleasing. The walls of the interior were adorned with landscapes in the spacious saloon, where the main tank, divided into numerous compartments, each being supplied with a variety of fish differing from its neighbours, occupies a central position. Subsidiary tanks, filled with curious specimens of animated nature from the “vasty deep,” stand in the entrance hall and recesses. The aquarium was opened to the public on the 17th of May, in the ensuing year.

On the 22nd of May, 1875, the foundation stone of a Primitive Methodist chapel was laid in Chapel Street by Mr. J. Fairhurst, of Wigan. Heretofore the members of that sect had met for religious purposes in a mission room located in Foxhall Road. The earliest service in the new chapel was conducted by the resident minister, the Rev. E. Newsome, on Sunday, the 29th of the following August. The Unitarians have a chapel in Bank Street, which was formally opened by the Rev. J. R. Smith, of Hyde, also in August, 1875. During the same month a number of influential gentlemen purchased the estate of Bank Hey from W. H. Cocker, esq., J.P., for £23,000, with the intention of converting it into Winter Gardens. Possession was gained, according to agreement, on the 1st of October. The design of the company is to place on the land a concert room, promenades, conservatories, and other accessories calculated to convert the estate into a pleasant lounge, especially desirous during inclement days.

Although South Shore is now intimately connected and associated with Blackpool as one town, there was a period, and not a very remote one, when it flourished as a separate and distinct hamlet, widely divided from its more imposing neighbour. The first house of South Shore was erected in 1819 by Mr. Thomas Moore, who speedily added about ten more to the solitary edifice. The growth of the village in earlier years was not characterised by any great rapidity, and in 1830 the whole of the buildings comprised no more than a thin row of respectable cottages overlooking the sea, with a lawn or promenade in front. In 1836 a church was built, partly by subscription and partly from Queen Anne’s Bounty, and dedicated to the Holy Trinity. Twenty-two years afterwards, owing to the development of South Shore through the number of regular visitants who preferred the quietude of its beach to the greater animation which prevailed at Blackpool, the building was enlarged by the erection of transepts and a new chancel, alterations which supplied further sitting room for about 380 worshippers. The church is of brick, and contains a handsome stained-glass east window, representing the baptism of Christ by St. John the Baptist, another ornamental window being inserted in the south wall. The mural tablets are in memory of William Wilkinson, “who for twenty-five years was an indefatigable teacher in the Sunday Schools of Marton and South Shore,—he served his country in the battles of Talavera, Busaco, Albuera, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nive, Nivelle, and Toulouse,” died 11th September, 1853, aged 66 years; and of James Metcalf, “curate of South Shore, who departed this life July 24th, 1875, aged 42 years, and was interred at the Parish Church of Bolton-le-Sands.” The font is of grey stone, massive and carved. The first organ obtained by the congregation was purchased in 1847. In 1872 a tasteful lectern was forwarded to the church by the Rev. J. B. Wakefield, to whom it had been presented by his parishioners, as a token of esteem, about the close of his ministry amongst them in 1870. The burial ground encircling the church of Holy Trinity contains no monuments of special interest, if we except a stone pedestal, surmounted by a broken column, erected by public subscription to the memories of three fishermen, drowned off Cross-slack, whilst following their avocation on the 11th of October, 1860.

PERPETUAL CURATES AND VICARS OF HOLY TRINITY.

------------+------------------+------------------+----------------- Date of | NAME. | On whose |Cause of Vacancy. Institution.| | Presentation. | ------------+------------------+------------------+----------------- 1837 |G. F. Greene, M.A.|J. Talbot Clifton,| | | esq. | 1841 |John Edwards |Ditto |Resignation of | | | G. F. Greene 1845 |C. K. Dean |Ditto |Resignation of | | | J. Edwards 1848 |T. B. Banner, M.A.|Ditto |Resignation of | | | C. K. Dean 1853 |J. B. Wakefield |Ditto |Resignation of | | | T. B. Banner 1870 |J. Ford Simmons, |Ditto |Resignation of | M.A. | | J. B. Wakefield ------------+------------------+------------------+-----------------

There is now an ecclesiastical parochial district attached to the church, of which the incumbent is the vicar.

On Thursday, the 24th of March, 1869, the corner stone of a Wesleyan chapel in Rawcliffe Street, built at the sole expense of Francis Parnell, esq., of South Shore, who subsequently added the schools, was laid by Mrs. Parnell, wife of the donor. For four or five years the members of this denomination had met on the Sabbath in a small room in Bolton Street, originally designed for a coach-house, and the necessity for more suitable and extended accommodation through growing numbers had of late pressed urgently upon the limited and not over wealthy assembly, so that the generous offer of their townsman was gratefully appreciated. The structure is in the Gothic style of architecture, about fifty feet in length and forty feet in width, with brick walls and stone facings, and will contain upwards of three hundred persons. Service was first held in the new place of worship, styled the Ebenezer Wesleyan Chapel, on Thursday, the 2nd of September, 1869, the officiating minister being the Rev. W. H. Taylor, of Manchester. The room in Bolton Street was subsequently converted into a Temperance Hall, and remained in that capacity until the 30th of March, 1873, when it was appropriated as a meeting-house by the Baptist sect. The progress of South Shore has not until the last two or three years been marked by that wonderful rapidity which has already been noticed whilst delineating the prosperous career of Blackpool. Nevertheless a steadily-increasing patronage was always extended to the milder climate of the village under consideration, from its earliest existence. Terraces of pretty and commodious residences arose at intervals along the marine frontage, whilst elegant villas have been erected both opposite the sea and nearer to the Lytham Road. Building is at present (1876) being pushed forward with great

## activity, houses springing up in endless succession along the sides of

thoroughfares but recently mapped out.

[Illustration]

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