Author: Ed

Lytham’s Talbot Hotel and its Evolution

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The Talbot Hotel in Lytham was a landmark building built between 1850 and 1870, located on Clifton Street. Originally a popular inn, it later became a shopping complex after significant refurbishment in the 1980s. The building featured a Bath Street entrance that served as an order office and later became a recreation room. Notably, a rare cobble-walled stable located behind the hotel, possibly part of an earlier farm, was also a significant historical feature. © Deeper Blue Marketing & Design Ltd The Talbot Building with retail units as it is in 2025 © Deeper Blue Marketing & Design Ltd The…

Rob Parr Opens Come Cook With Us

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Rob Parr’s healthy eating project, Come Dine With Us at 145 Central Drive in Revoe, Blackpool (one of the UK’s most socially deprived areas) is moving on. He and his team hope to start giving cooking lessons to adults in Revoe to help them transition from ready meals and takeaways to meals with higher nutritional value. There is still plenty of work to do before they can open this Community-run facility, but they are getting closer and closer to opening day. Keep an eye on this post for updates. Rob Parr, Founder in 2025, © Rob Parr Nearly ready to…

Poulton Health & Fitness Centre

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The Poulton Health & Fitness Centre in Poulton-le-Fylde was built in 1974. It was originally part of the Poulton Leisure Centre, which also included dry-side facilities like a 43-station gym and an 8m x 15m exercise studio. The site also features wet-side facilities including a 3-lane 20m pool and a separate spa. The YMCA Poulton is your local leisure centre where everyone is welcome! Their friendly staff will help you with any aspect of your mental and physical fitness journey. They are fully accessible with a ramped entrance, wet and dry disabled changing facilities and pool hoist/graduated steps for easy entrance…

Blackpool Carers Centre Moves Into Beaverbrooks House

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Beaverbrooks House in Blackpool is an iconic building that was gifted to the Blackpool Carers Centre by the Beaverbrooks Charitable Trust. The building, formerly known as Blenheim House on Newton Drive, was initially purchased from Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and renamed in honour of the trust in 2013. This donation, announced during National Carers Week in 2015, marked a significant step in the charity’s growth and allowed them to expand their services. As a result of the partnership with Beaverbrooks, Blackpool Carers won the Lloyds Foundation Regional award for Enterprising Collaboration, North West. One of the top Blackpool…

Alan Ball Starts at Blackpool Football Club at 17

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Alan James Ball MBE (12 May 1945 – 25 April 2007) was an English professional football player and manager. Often regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time, he won the 1966 World Cup with England and played for various clubs, scoring more than 180 league goals in a career spanning 22 years. After retiring as a player, he had a 15-year career as a manager which included spells in the top flight of English football with Portsmouth, Southampton and Manchester City. He was inducted in the English Football Hall of Fame in 2003. Ball started his professional…

Stanley Park’s Gift to Skaters, Skateboarders and BMX Fans

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Skaters, skateboarders and BMX fans turned out in force to celebrate the opening of a 4,000 sq m new skate park in Blackpool in May of 2022. The new facility, packed with stairs, ledges, rails, curbs, quarter pipes as well as a mini ramp to test riders’ skills, was the brainchild of two local skateboarders, Simon Bennet and Big Woody, who founded the Stanley Park Skate Park Development Group to convert a run-down area of Stanley Park into an attraction that will bring people in from across the county. They had the support of Blackpool Council and the Friends of…

St John the Evangelist, The Parish Church of Blackpool

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The parish church of Blackpool Saint John the Evangelist, or St John’s Blackpool, is an Anglican church in Blackpool. It was completed in 1878 and is a Grade II listed building. A church was built on the site in 1821 and was replaced by the current building to accommodate a larger congregation. The church was designed by Garlick, Park and Sykes in the Early English style and has been restored and renovated in 1986 and from 2000 to 2006. St John’s is known as the parish church of Blackpool, and is an active parish church in the Diocese of Blackburn…

The Sacred Heart Becomes Blackpool’s First Roman Catholic Church

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Sacred Heart Church was founded by the Jesuits as the town’s first Roman Catholic church. It was built in 1857 to a design by Edward Welby Pugin. The church was enlarged, to the east, in 1894, to a design by Pugin & Pugin. It was designated as a Grade II* listed building by English Heritage on 20 October 1983. The Grade II* listing is for “particularly important buildings of more than special interest”. Since 2004, it has been served by priests from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lancaster. The parish priest is Canon Robert Dewhurst. The church is constructed of…

Beaverbrooks Base Their Operations in St Annes

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Beaverbrooks, a family-owned jeweller, has a strong presence in Blackpool and the Fylde Coast. It was established in 1919 by three brothers, the Adlestone brothers, Isaac, Harry and Maurice, moved to Belfast to sell fine jewelry and gifts. While the main headquarters are in St Annes, near Blackpool, they have a store in Church Street, Blackpool. Beaverbrooks’ history in the North West of England began with the brothers targeting the area and basing their operations in St Annes in 1946. They’re celebrating 105 years of family heritage. Today, they now have 85 stores nationwide and over 1,200 colleagues. And, Isaac’s…

Tessie O’Shea Returns to Blackpool to Share Bill with The Beatles

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Teresa Mary “Tessie” O’Shea (13 March 1913 – 21 April 1995) was a Welsh entertainer and actress. She was born at 61 Plantagenet Street in Riverside, Cardiff to newspaper wholesaler James Peter O’Shea, who had been a soldier and who was the son of Irish emigrants, and his wife Nellie Theresa Carr. O’Shea was reared in the British music hall tradition and performed on stage as early as age six, billed as “The Wonder of Wales”. When staying at Weston-super-Mare as a child, she got lost and was only discovered when her mother heard her singing the Ernie Mayne hit,…