MUNICIPAL LIFE OF BLACKPOOL 85 



XV. 



MUNICIPAL LIFE OF BLACKPOOL 



BY 



D. L. HARBOTTLE, LL.B., Town Clerk. 



BLACKPOOL was in its origin a small hamlet on the Lancashire coast inhabited 

 mainly by fishermen. The earliest record of ' de Poole,' or ' de Blackpoole,' 

 is contained in the Parish Church registers of the neighbouring villages of 

 Bispham and Poulton-le-Fylde between 1592 and 1602. In the reign of King 

 Charles II., one Edward Tyldesley (son of Sir Thomas Tyldesley, killed in 

 the battle at Wigan Lane, 1651) erected a hunting lodge here known as Fox 

 Hall, near the sea shore, and not far from the present Foxhall Hotel. His name 

 is also remembered by an important terrace of houses known as Tyldesley 

 Terrace, a road named Tyldesley Road, and by Tyldesley Ward — a part of the 

 borough for electoral purposes. 



This summer residence of the Tyldesleys was a small three-gabled building 

 with a look-out tower, and over its main entrance was the Latin motto : 

 ' Seris Factura nepotibus ' (' As thou sowest so shall thy children reap '), the 

 headstone of the south gateway bearing a sculptured pelican feeding her young. 

 It was built somewhere between 1655 and 1665, and towards the end of the 

 seventeenth century the hunting lodge was extended into a large country seat. 

 Gradually a village grew up around the country mansion, and in time visitors 

 were attracted to the locality by the recuperative properties of the sea breezes, 

 the expansive sands and the excellent bathing facilities. 



Blackpool obtained its name, as many other towns and hamlets, from its 

 natural surroundings. Its ancient site was on the banks of an old pool, the 

 waters of which were of a dark black colour and peaty nature. About the 

 year 1851, the small village of Blackpool (then known as Layton-with- 

 Warbreck) had grown to an appreciable extent. The population, according to 

 the census of 1851, was 2,564. 



On the 23rd October, 1 85 1 , Layton-with-Warbreck was constituted a Local 

 Government District by order of the Local Government Board, and a Local 

 Board of Health was elected. The popular name of the township for many 

 years had been ' Blackpool,' and in 1868 the name of the Local Board was 

 altered, and the Board continued under the title of the Blackpool Local Board 

 of Health. It became the Burial Board under the Burial Act, 1857, by virtue 

 of an Order in Council dated 16th May, 1871. On the 21st January, 1876, a 

 Charter of Incorporation was granted by Her late Majesty Queen Victoria. 

 At that date the population was approximately 10,000, and the rateable value 

 £76,838. To-day, in the Diamond Jubilee of its history as a municipal 

 borough, the resident population approximates 125,000, and the rateable value 

 is £1 ,530,769. These figures indicate to some extent the striking development 

 of the town during the past 60 years. 



