| Blackpool is a holiday resort on the Lancashire | | | | constructed in Blackpool itself enabling visitors to |
| coast in the North West of England. Attracting | | | | come directly into the resort. It was now fairly |
| some ten million visitors a year, the town is the | | | | cheap and easy to get to Blackpool and people |
| most popular coastal resort in Europe. Historically, | | | | began arriving in ever increasing and unexpected |
| Blackpool owes much of its success to its | | | | numbers. They came not only from Lancashire |
| proximity to the industrial towns of Lancashire | | | | but from all over the North of England. In 1863 |
| with their large urban populations. Lancashire, and | | | | another railway station was built in the centre of |
| in particular Manchester, was the centre of the | | | | Blackpool to help cope with the thousands of |
| industrial revolution which took place in Britain | | | | people who wanted to get to the resort. |
| during the nineteenth century. At this time | | | | The huge numbers of people now coming to |
| Manchester was an extremely important | | | | Blackpool provided the impetus for local business |
| manufacturing city; it was the focal point of the | | | | people and the municipal authorities to improve |
| cotton trade being surrounded by mill towns such | | | | recreational facilities. In the next forty years |
| as Bolton, Bury, Rochdale, and Oldham with their | | | | Blackpool was transformed. Three piers were |
| spinning and weaving industries. Hundreds of | | | | opened; Blackpool Tower was constructed, the |
| thousands of people flocked from the countryside | | | | Winter Gardens and Opera House were built, the |
| and from further afield such as Ireland to work in | | | | Blackpool Illuminations began, the development of |
| these factories and mills, and the population of | | | | the Golden Mile was initiated, and ambitious plans |
| Manchester and the nearby mill towns expanded | | | | were put in place to create a large amusement |
| rapidly. These developments took place around | | | | park - which would eventually become Blackpool |
| fifty or so miles from Blackpool - if only people | | | | Pleasure Beach, now the most popular holiday |
| could get there. | | | | attraction in Britain. |
| For hundreds of years, Blackpool was little more | | | | The infrastructure of the town was vastly |
| than a quiet seaside village. It was hard to reach | | | | improved. A gasworks was built with gas street |
| being surrounded by bogs and forests. It wasn't | | | | lighting, a water company was formed and a |
| until 1781 that the first road was built into the | | | | piped water supply was provided, electric street |
| town, which enabled people to arrive by | | | | lighting was introduced, and work began on the |
| stagecoach. Even then the resort wasn't easily | | | | tramway system. Some idea of the impact of |
| accessible because the journey was | | | | tourism on the resort can be gauged from the |
| uncomfortable and time consuming: it could take a | | | | fact that in the late nineteenth century Blackpool |
| whole day to travel from Manchester and two | | | | could accommodate around a quarter of a million |
| days from Yorkshire. It should be noted as well | | | | visitors - over seven times the permanent |
| that there was very little in terms of recreational | | | | population of 35,000 people. The success |
| facilities for visitors in Blackpool at this time. There | | | | continued into the following century, with visitors |
| was a short narrow grass promenade, a theatre, | | | | staying in ever increasing numbers. At its peak, |
| a bowling green and an area for archery. The | | | | Blackpool was receiving around 19 million holiday |
| main attraction was the sea shore: people walked | | | | makers a year - nearly half the population of |
| or rode along the sands and swam in the sea. | | | | England. Photographs of Blackpool in the period |
| They even drank the seawater which apparently | | | | after the Second World War vividly illustrate the |
| was a highly fashionable activity in those days. | | | | popularity of the resort, showing the entire length |
| What really changed everything was the arrival of | | | | of the Promenade and beach crowded with |
| railway in the Blackpool area. In 1840 a railway | | | | people |
| was constructed with the original objective of | | | | In the early 1960's Blackpool went into decline, as |
| transporting passengers to Fleetwood a town | | | | did all British holiday resorts. Just as cheap rail |
| lying to the North of Blackpool. Sir Peter Hesketh, | | | | travel brought the crowds to Blackpool in its |
| the founder of Fleetwood proposed to build a | | | | heyday so cheap air flights took them to the |
| seaport and holiday resort on his land there. The | | | | sunny beaches of the Mediterranean coast and |
| development of Fleetwood never came to full | | | | their more dependable weather. However decline |
| fruition, however, and the railway ran into financial | | | | is a relative concept. Blackpool still attracts around |
| difficulties. It was only rescued by passengers | | | | ten million people every year and many |
| from the Lancashire mill towns, many of whom | | | | supposedly flourishing resorts would consider |
| went on from Poulton station to Blackpool | | | | themselves fortunate to have such large numbers |
| travelling by horse drawn forms of transport such | | | | of visitors. |
| as wagons. In 1846 a railway station was | | | | |