Blackpool History, Mystery, Heritage and Hauntings

A stunning grade 2 listed building that I had the honor of being shown round by a late family friend 'Phil Lewis'    - Little snippets of a time long gone and how a synagogue and faith join together. Blackpool United Hebrew Congregation was founded in about 1907 with the merger of Blackpool Hebrew Congregation which had been founded in 1898. The Blackpool New Orthodox Hebrew Congregation was founded in 1905. The synagogue was originally located in Springfield Road, North Shore. The current synagogue in Leamington Road was consecrated in 1916. The synagogue closed in May 2012, as the community numbers had fallen below a viable congregation. The last service, conducted by Cantor Steven Robins LRCM, was held on 13 May 2012 accompanied by the Shabbaton Choir. The synagogue was packed for the occasion with many former members and children and grandchildren of congregants from previous years attending. The sermon was given by Rabbi Arnold Saunders of Mancheste...

The Orient Building is the former Custom House and was also once a trawler net factory and a magistrates court as well as a Jobcentre ! ( Brian remembers signing on here ...)  Over the years alas this beautiful building has now been very much vandalised and is deemed to be unsafe - below you can see some of the architecture that has been lost.. However !!!!! ( from fleetwood news ! ) Interior work has been underway at the red brick building, on the corner of Station Road and Copse Road, since late summer and will see it transformed it into accommodation for 30 students from Fleetwood Nautical Campus. And the first signs of the work can now be seen, with new windows in place instead of the unsightly boards which have been an unwelcome feature of the town for so long. Property developer Andrew Hayhurst, who waited six years for planning permission to convert the building into accommodation, was given the green light for the work back in February last year. Mr Hayhur...

I loved this club *The Tache* and spent many a happy and slightly tipsy evening in here ! Spent a fair few months taking photographs of the area while it was being knocked down - This one from 2012.   Now here is a sight that we won't be seeing much longer as now ( March 2016 ) we only have the 3 tower blocks left - with the rest going in May. Blackpool Bus Station ( taken 2012 ) -Blackpool Transport was founded in 1885 by the town council. The tramway opened on 29 September 1885 using a conduit system to operate the trams using electricity. However, due to difficulties with this method of operation, 550V overhead wiring was installed over the tracks in 1899 to replace the conduit system. In the 1920s, the first bus services were added to transport operations in Blackpool. Its original cream and green exterior displayed coloured panels depicting progress in transport. The building was reclad in the 1960s when the tiles were considered to be in an unsafe conditi...

Well this is my Town ! - Lots of images from  the years gone by and just think - the *bandages* are nearly gone !

What does Easter mean to most people ?    For me a very long weekend watching bad/good telly ( carry on films - even thou I do have them all on dvd ) Big dinners and lots of chocolate ( unless of course your better half is diabetic ! ) What ever you end up doing have a great Bank Holiday weekend :O)

I like a good church and to be honest a cathedral ( but we don't have one near me ! ) Lets take a trip with all the lovely church's that we have in the area ... In this journey ...we have St Michael's - Weeton St Michael's Church is an Anglican church in the village of Weeton . It is an active parish church in the Diocese of Blackburn. Built in 1843 ( land granted by the 13th Earl of Derby )  and enlarged in 1846. It has been designated a Grade II listed building by English Heritage.  St Michael's is constructed in the early english style, of red brick with stone dressings. The roof is slate . At the west end of the building there is a bellcote with a miniature spire . The plan consists of a nave and a chancel. To the north of the nave is a porch at the main entrance, and to the south of the chancel is a vestry. There are coupled lancet windows, and a triple lancet window in the west wall. Internally, the roof's timber structure includes st...

Information taken from the Church website .... Images in this post taken over the last few years - note this is the 2nd version of St Paul's church.  Worship at Marton began in 1760 when Rev. Mr Gibson of Lytham came to the Charity School (Baines Endowed) to perform divine worship every alternate Sunday afternoon. Prior to this and every other Sunday the villagers of Marton had to walk to Poulton, well nigh impossible in winter due to the marshy conditions.It was another 40 years before Marton got it’s own church, a plain brick built church dedicated to St Paul opened in 1800. It was 1892 almost a hundred years later before a fee of £2.2s was paid for the separation from St Chad’s. (The vicar at St Chad’s is still the patron of St Paul’s.) In 1897 it was decided to erect a new church in "preference to repairing and restoring the old one", and on 22 January 1908 the first sod was cut. The consecration took place on 28th May 1909 but due to lack of funds ...

October 2013 ! I do love it when social media works in the right direction - I was lucky enough to be one of the few that live in the area and visit the reservoir before it was consigned to history - I was not disappointed. Built in 1884 to provide water storage for Leyland The brick-vaulted Clayton reservoir, decommissioned 21 years ago, is under land in Back Lane, Clayton-le-Woods. Campaigners have not been able to raise money to preserve the reservoir and had failed in applications for it to be made a listed building. When the underground reservoir was built, a new 14 mile pipeline was laid to Wheelton and a connection was taken from the Thirlmere Aqueduct. In 1883, a special ceremony was held to lay the foundation stone and there was little above ground to show that it even existed. The reservoir originally used a steam pump to lift water from a large diameter well, approximately 25 meters deep, and pumped it into the reservoir where it then fed drinking water to L...

Thurnham is a civil parish in Lancashire, England. It is situated on the south side of the River Lune estuary in the City of Lancaster, and contains the villages of Conder Green, Glasson Dock, Lower Thurnham and Upper Thurnham. The Parish was founded in 1785 with Fr James Foster as Parish Priest. Previously the district was served by travelling priests who usually stayed with the Dalton Family at Thurnham Hall. The first named of these priests was a Rev. North who lived at the end of the sixteenth century. However, the most famous was a Rev. James Swarbrick who was well known as "The Riding Priest". He was arrested in 1715 and taken to Lancaster Castle where he was condemned as a priest. A few days before he was due to be executed the old man died in prison in 1716, possibly as the result of torture. The Dalton Family lived mostly away from Thurnham. In their absences the district was visited occasionally by priests from various places. While the thre...

Way back in the mists of time I asked my parents - 'Can I have a dog' , naturally I ended up with tropical fish.... In April of 2009 I decided on a whim over Easter I would buy a puppy - as you do. I bought Christo from Blackburn for the princely sum of £50 ( best money ever spent ) Then began the adventures and trips around the Fylde coast as the years progressed. I took this a a few years ago near the 'Abana' wreck and of course Christo sneaked in shot - little did I know later on Dad ( David Gregson ) had sent this the BBC weather, which was used ! Christo ( and many more people ) loved going round the grounds at Lytham Hall - as anyone knows when you try and get a really good shot of your pet, they move, lick the camera ....  Ahh the delights of finding hair in your shoe, best black dress, to be honest through the house, car ...!  Christo was a big softie - in her head she still thought she was a puppy and would try and climb into your lap - ...

On one of my facebook groups I posted the below image - many hours later and clues a member did indeed guess where this was.  Old bridge road is in Marton ( google map it ) Just in case your thinking ok what is the road above , its Yeadon way , which in former times was the train track towards Central train station.  Having lived in Marton as a child , spent time around this area, just sat watching the world go by, I remember before Booths was built and the housing estate, horses were kept in the nearby field.  Through the tunnel if you continue to walk , you will come out at 'rough heys lane' From the gazette some rather interesting information about the houses in the area ! - http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/local/the-station-that-moved-1-402420 Marton green landscape - lets hope it stays that way .... New houses being built near the tunnel - who knows in years to come someone may ask me do you have a photograph of... !