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Helen Barthelemy

  Helen Barthelemy SUMMER ROMANCE… On Friday 27 July July 1962 , 21 year old Helen Barthelemy met 25 year old Friend Taylor.  Being young  a  friendship sprang up.  They spent time at the Pleasure Beach and in the evening they had drinks at the Huntsman and  they went to the sandhills at Squires Gate where Mr Taylor took off his coat and jacket and they lay down.     This is the Huntsman where…

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Lawrence Leach and Gypsy Ned. 1865.

Lawrence Leach and Gypsy Ned. 1865.

Thanks to Robert Leach for this early picture of Lytham Road and the Dunes.  The actions described happened in this area.  In 1865 the Dunes was the site of John Pearson’s coffee house.   What do the following words have in common?  Chav, cash, pal, lollipop.  The answer is that they are all derived from Romany.  Gypsies have contributed to the culture of Blackpool.  Landaus, fortune-tellers,…

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Robert and Elizabeth Shaw. 1905.

Robert and Elizabeth Shaw. 1905.

On Wednesday, 3 May 1905 at 1.15 am the bodies of a man and a woman were  were found off Watson Road (at that time it was called Watson’s Lane)  near to Watson Road Bridge.  They were lying on their backs foot to foot eyes open  as if looking at the sky.  Their hats were  placed together.  They had been shot through the mouth with a revolver.  The revolver was near by. Robert Rushton Shaw was 27…

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Stephen Akinmurele

Stephen Akinmurele One of the UK’s most prolific serial killers worked in Blackpool.  I may have seen him although I don’t recall. Blackpool residents who are old enough may recall Rumours.  You had to be a member.  It had three main attractions.  One was that because of restricted membership it was a peaceful town-centre venue.  Second was that it was very tightly watched by security staff.  And…

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poems

SHOPLIFTING IN POUNDLAND Once a man from Security chased me down and gave me 50p. Poundland’s good for shoplifting but it doesn’t have the glamour of Oceans 11. Clooney probably wouldn’t hack Poundland’s computer system to heist dried mealworms. shoplifting in Poundland and afterwards long slow walk past  vaping shops betting shops tatoo shops  massage parlours newsagents the special addict door…

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George Joseph Smith: a bride too far

George Joseph Smith: a bride too far

When Alice Met George On Wednesday 10 December 1913 as darkness was falling a newly- wed couple knocked at the door of a boarding house at 16, Regent Road, Blackpool. They were answered by Mrs Crossley the landlady. Alice the bride was big and bonny and independent minded. She supported the suffragette movement and had qualified as a nurse in spite of coming from a comfortable background. The…

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Blackpool: mad solicitors, neo-Nazis and the Israeli Secret Service

Blackpool: Osborne Road shootings and bombings... it's like Eastenders

  Osborne Road does not look like the haunt of demented solicitors or the target of an anti-Nazi bombing.    A busy wide road linking Lytham Road with the Promenade it  is a road of hotels and boarding houses.  Towards the Promenade it is impressive.   It dates from a time when South Shore was a separate town from Blackpool and its impressive church and the fine buildings on Bond Street reflect a…

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THE MOST CROOKED TOWN IN BRITAIN? BLACKPOOL IN ITS GOLDEN AGE: 1940-1970’s The years after the War were a fglorious time for Blackpool.  Blackpool was the most crooked town in Britain.  Blackpool’s  post-war days were years of endemic surreal  comic dishonesty.  Dishonesty became the norm.  The material comes from Rupert Croft-Cooke’s “Smiling damn’d villain,” and from the Gerald Mars’…

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James Hanratty, John Lennon and the Stevonia Fish and Chip Shop

James Hanratty, John Lennon and the Stevonia Fish and Chip Shop

1961     James Hanratty 1961   James Hanratty The Murder of Michael Gregsten and the rape and shooting of Valerie Storr began a train of events that were to involve John Lennon and Yoko Ono, the reporter Paul Foot and the Stevonia Fish and Chip Shop on Blackpool’s Central Drive. Michael Gregsten (36) and Valerie Storr (23) were having an affair. On the 22 August 1962 at 9.30pm they were in a…

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Madge Leadbetter: prostitution in Blackpool

Madge Leadbetter: prostitution in Blackpool

  Prostitution was a major activity in  Blackpool. Single men came to Blackpool with money in their pockets.  During and after the war servicemen and civil servants outnumbered women. The hubs of prostitution were the railway stations.  Most people who  came to Blackpool passed through those funnels.  The areas associated with prostitution are  same as they were in the ninteenth century…  around…

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From the Blackpool Elk to Lady Gaga: the long history of the Horned God

From the Blackpool Elk to Lady Gaga: the long history of the Horned God

SATANISM IN CLEVELEYS i set off on a walk round Cleveleys. Then I saw the following on a campervan.  And it set me thinking.  Actually what did set me thinking was that in the next house there was another car which also had a similar image.  But I can’t find the photo. Is Cleveleys a hotbed of Satanism? Probably not.  The figure is a representation of the Horned God.  In this context it signifies…

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Mr Martin O’Callaghan

I’m mostly into all things Blackpool especially crime.

But I deviate.  And how.