Post by Mitch on Jul 12, 2005 12:00:46 GMT
Michele, our moderator par excellente has gone to Blackpool with the kids this week - lucky devils.
Here's a piece I wrote ages ago on Blackpool which I love. I like Morecambe too, and New Brighton with it's 'ham & eggs' strip!
The History of Blackpool and Lancashire's Seaside Resorts
It was the railways that made such a huge impact initially on the seaside resorts of Lancashire. Rail cut both costs and time taken to get to seaside resorts, thus bringing seaside holidays within the reach of more people. Out with the 'Bathing Sunday' artisans, and in with huge numbers of working class visitors every weekend to Blackpool, Morecambe and other Lancashire's seaside spots. The toffs were more inclined to Lytham and Southport!
It was really after 1870 that it became the working class custom to take your holidays particularly in Blackpool, but also in Morecambe but to a lesser extent. From the 1870s working class people from the cotton towns began to pour into Blackpool during holiday periods, but also for day trips and weekends. By the First World War, the number of visitors to Blackpool in high season mushroomed to approximately 4 million. It continued to grow, as did Morecambe but nearby Lytham and Southport went the snotty route and resisted working class visitors.
The 'Bathing Sunday' tradition rapidly developed into annual migrations of cotton town communities to the seaside, particularly Blackpool, during Wakes Weeks - factory shutdowns. People saved in neighbourhood holiday fund schemes for their wakes weeks at the seaside. High season by the 1890s was the summer months between Burnley fair at the beginning of July and Oldham wakes in early September.
The 1890s really marked the beginnings of Blackpool's growth as popular amusement/entertainment on a massive scale. In this period Blackpool Tower was built, a Gigantic Wheel was opened in 1896, the pleasure palace Alhambra opened adjacent to the Tower, and Blackpool's Pleasure Beach at the South Prom end began to evolve from what had been a bunch of sand dunes and fortune tellers looking for business to cutting edge rides like the 'Sir Hiram Maxim Captive Flying Machine'.
Theatres, music halls, waxworks, a sandy beach which came right up to the prom at high tide, piers, familiar and friendly terraced architecture, an atmosphere of 'letting loose' and playing hard, where attractions were big but somehow friendly in a resort primarily run by landladies. Working class visitors poured in.
_________________________
"No matter where I go, London, Paris, Mexico. Anywhere on Earth, they know my place of birth. I met a girl from London when she sat on Blackpool Pier, She said she could tell, I'm a Lad from Lancashire. She said, Are you a nudist? So I blushed and said, No fear. I'm covered up like a Lad from Lancashire". ;D
(George Formby)
Here's a piece I wrote ages ago on Blackpool which I love. I like Morecambe too, and New Brighton with it's 'ham & eggs' strip!
The History of Blackpool and Lancashire's Seaside Resorts
It was the railways that made such a huge impact initially on the seaside resorts of Lancashire. Rail cut both costs and time taken to get to seaside resorts, thus bringing seaside holidays within the reach of more people. Out with the 'Bathing Sunday' artisans, and in with huge numbers of working class visitors every weekend to Blackpool, Morecambe and other Lancashire's seaside spots. The toffs were more inclined to Lytham and Southport!
It was really after 1870 that it became the working class custom to take your holidays particularly in Blackpool, but also in Morecambe but to a lesser extent. From the 1870s working class people from the cotton towns began to pour into Blackpool during holiday periods, but also for day trips and weekends. By the First World War, the number of visitors to Blackpool in high season mushroomed to approximately 4 million. It continued to grow, as did Morecambe but nearby Lytham and Southport went the snotty route and resisted working class visitors.
The 'Bathing Sunday' tradition rapidly developed into annual migrations of cotton town communities to the seaside, particularly Blackpool, during Wakes Weeks - factory shutdowns. People saved in neighbourhood holiday fund schemes for their wakes weeks at the seaside. High season by the 1890s was the summer months between Burnley fair at the beginning of July and Oldham wakes in early September.
The 1890s really marked the beginnings of Blackpool's growth as popular amusement/entertainment on a massive scale. In this period Blackpool Tower was built, a Gigantic Wheel was opened in 1896, the pleasure palace Alhambra opened adjacent to the Tower, and Blackpool's Pleasure Beach at the South Prom end began to evolve from what had been a bunch of sand dunes and fortune tellers looking for business to cutting edge rides like the 'Sir Hiram Maxim Captive Flying Machine'.
Theatres, music halls, waxworks, a sandy beach which came right up to the prom at high tide, piers, familiar and friendly terraced architecture, an atmosphere of 'letting loose' and playing hard, where attractions were big but somehow friendly in a resort primarily run by landladies. Working class visitors poured in.
_________________________
"No matter where I go, London, Paris, Mexico. Anywhere on Earth, they know my place of birth. I met a girl from London when she sat on Blackpool Pier, She said she could tell, I'm a Lad from Lancashire. She said, Are you a nudist? So I blushed and said, No fear. I'm covered up like a Lad from Lancashire". ;D
(George Formby)
