The history presented here is about Blackpool, on the northwest coast of the UK, perhaps inadequately alone referred to as a holiday resort. The history of Blackpool is also much of the history of other places, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. People have come from all parts to settle, to perform in entertainment, work, or make lots of money through property development in the early days. It is the town in which I was born. I am here because of the accumulative complexities of ancestry which include, the displacement of generations through poverty, economic downturns, famine, religious and racial differences, the patriotism of war and its balancing counterpart in the compassion for humanity. And then the local fire brigade within which my parents met during a national and worldwide state of war. It is a town whose history begins with the provision of a concept of a healthy, seaside environment, generally available only to the wealthy at first and then, with the development of the railways, made available to countless thousands. It has continued to provide entertainment at all levels of expression and appreciation and has been a place of refuge and a safe haven, opening up its doors in times of conflict to the bomb destroyed cities of the land and from conflicts abroad. It is a cosmopolitan place, being described as having the least indigenous population in the UK at one time. Many people and events make up the history of any town. Blackpool has a variety of people who have settled here to contribute to its history and this is the story of some of them who are either the indigenous ‘sandgrown uns’ from the town itself or have been associated with the town by settlement and often remaining in the graveyards as representatives of the rich variety of life in the trials, tribulations and tragedies of the progress of humanity.
