I’m a sandgrown’un, I go way back. When I was little we lived in Bonney St, which is opposite the sands, so obviously that’s where most of my time was spent
When you’re busy in the summer there’s a buzz and – on the beach, in the sea, chasing donkeys... barefoot it’s more positive. I prefer it in the winter though.
in a pair of knickers! Well, it didn’t matter – I was small...
There isn’t another Blackpool. There’s nothing quite like Blackpool elsewhere. You can draw parallels that have certain similarities, but there’s nothing quite like this place. It does get under your skin. Be aware that if you come you may not leave again and be aware that if you come you may not be able to resist becoming involved with us, because it is that type of town it is.
Years ago in its heyday, the guest houses and hotels, they’d stick you in with anybody, wouldn’t they, in a bedroom. If there was one person in a bedroom in a double bed they’d stick another two in there with them, whether you knew them or not. They used to SOS for rooms, in the Season, on the radio.
Favourite Thing. Dream Scheme Youth Club, 2008
St. Chad’s Headland, 2009
I used to love Blackpool because of, when the children were little, I was always on the sands. It didn’t cost us anything – we’d just buy packed lunches, or pies, and sit on the sands all day, and the sea was clear then, and there was no bother of any infection or anything... and then it went off, didn’t it, the sea? but now it’s got a clean bill of health again, from the Europeans.
I suppose that we were fortunate in the respect that we could come to Blackpool during the war – not many civilians did. Of an evening my mother used to take me into the Tower, and there was all nationalities in there. It was absolutely solid, it was overflowing. There’d be Poles, Dutch, they were all in there. And the evenings went just like that – you didn’t realise the time, it just flew by.
These streets hold my childhood, your childhood. Revoe is the living heart of the town, even though it’s a dump.
Tram Depot, 1960s BELOW AND OPPOSITE: Tram Depot, 2008
Tram Depot, 2008 Tram Depot, 2008
D: I’ve never driven a tram, but I know how to do it. F: Well I would imagine so. D: I get them in the cab (on the Transport Depot Tour) and there’s a master key to start with. I keep that in my hand. And I say ‘Right, as the key goes round there you turn that and everything’s live and you can do this and do that. I explain what it does. It’s like on a ratchet thing and it goes round, round. The further round you put them, the faster the tram will go. F: Ah. D: and if you want to stop they whip it all the way back and it becomes a brake, an electric brake – it cuts the motor off. Then we have a hand brake. In the past there wasn’t a bus I hadn’t driven and when they brought buses into the body shop (it’s altered now – it used to have two big double doors), I had to bring the buses in, backwards. F: Oh, back them in. D: I could do it. The other guy was ‘Oh, no.’ See I was authorised to do it, I was insured to do it. But trams, no, no no. You see, in the body shop there’s no electrical power. They bring a tram into the depot and put it on a line which comes round towards the shop, but then it’s pushed by a big recovery wagon. They’ve got this humongous thing. It’s ugly, but it does the job, you know. So that’s why I never learned driving trams. No point.
Installing Illuminations, 1970s Illuminations Depot, 1980s
OPPOSITE:
And Purdies Pies on the other corner Oh! Pies! Yes! I always used to have one of them pies when I come out of the Lido. After swimming in Lido, in there and have a pie with some gravy on. Or some of the soup. No, I didn’t have the soup. Well, you were right, actually. I think it was about thruppence or something like that. You used to get a cob of bread and this soup. I’m sure it was leftovers. It could have been anything, but you’d come out of the Lido, swimming, as a little lad that was brilliant. Used to go to Purdies, bowl of soup, cob of bread. You were still wet through.
Illuminations Depot, 2008
Press Night. Illuminations Depot, 1980s
Illuminations Depot, 2008
Illuminations Depot, 1980s Retirement Party. Illuminations Depot, 1981
F: You know, like, the ‘Lumis and Transport, they’ve never really been together as one, have they. D: No. F: We used to come to your place to use the big guillotine... D: That’s right, yeh. F: ...for cutting the metal. We used to come over there, as you probably know. D: Well I came down there to be taught how to fibreglass and I think they’re all gone now, the people that I knew. F: Would it have been a father and son team? D: I can’t remember.
Favourite Thing. Dream Scheme Youth Club, 2008
People think it’s magic when they come here on holiday, but it’s not. It’s the single hardest town in this country to make a living in. People are coming in and out on the tide every day, and they have no anchor here. The sandgrown’uns, we’re isolated, outnumbered – it’s a bit like you’re a second-class citizen.
Blackpool F.C. Supporters’ Club Committee, c.1965
It was 1941 or ’42 at the Palladium, the picture palace at that time, before it started you could walk through, they used to show you with a torch. When I went in it was dark and they showed me to my seat in the middle of the row. When the lights went up I was the only girl (‘cause I was a girl then). It was a sea of men. All at front of me and at side of me, anywhere I could see were all different forces. I was so embarrassed about it because they were all joking and laughing with me saying ‘Ask her if she wants an ice cream.’ Or ‘Does she want a drink?’ or ‘Get her phone number.’, you know. As far as the holiday-makers and things like that, it’s changed. It used to be family and now it’s like, the stag nights and hen nights.
It’s not very nice. I think there’s a lot of tat on the front, although it’s a beautiful prom, what they’re doing, everything’s nice, but it’s a shame that it’s gone like it has. I think it wants cleaning up. We had a better standard of living in Australia. It was like taking ten steps down. We had a beautiful house, we had a luxury caravan, we had a swimming pool. We came back here and, you know, the house we got here was really run down. We couldn’t get a mortgage so we had to buy one. It was like a run down little cottage that we bought. I was thinking it’d just be a stepping-stone for us, and I’m still in it. I remember I couldn’t even wash clothes. I had a great big pot, and I’d
seen my mum boiling things, so I put underwear in this great big pot and I was stirring it with the whatsaname knife. I put soap powder in and I had a bread knife (this is the truth this), and I was stirring it with bread knife. It must have been on about an hour or something. I thought they must be done now, with the bubbling and that, and they were all in shreds. I couldn’t wash and I couldn’t cook. One interesting point, from 1941. I worked in the office at Vickers Armstrongs’. We were making Wellington bombers. It was Squires’ Gate, where – what’s there now? – near Morrisons, near the airport. After the War, I worked as a Comptometer operator at Nut Brown’s. It was before they had what everybody uses now, computers.
It was a way of working out wages and invoices that came in. Instead of having to do it in your head, there was a machine where it was all done by decimals. It was from America originally. Did they start the computers? They probably did. Oh, well, I don’t know as I like one better than the other, but it’s just that when you’re born in a place, you always have memories and fondness for that particular place. I can wander round Preston and not bother about anything, but even though I’ve lived all this time in Blackpool, there’s still a lot of places I don’t really know where I’m going, and I’ll think, “Where am I...?”
ALL IMAGES:
Waterloo Road, 1940s
Grandma Harriet. Bagot Street, c.1940
TOP:
Railway View, 1961 V.E. Day party. Bagot Street, 1945
BOTTOM :
At Sunday School we had about eighty children, and a Church Parade with uniforms. We used to put a hundred children on parade, every fourth Sunday. But now we’re lucky if we get twelve at Sunday School, and we only get that because grandparents fetch them.
Peter Gartside. Henry Street, 1930
Genealogy research notebook. Revoe, 2008
Favourite Thing. Dream Scheme Youth Club, 2008
Netball Team. Revoe, 1960s
Lytham Road, 2008 Crystal Road, c.1900
Central Drive, west side, 2008
...so I thought I’ll speak to the first person I see this morning on the way to school. So there was this girl, and she had kids just like me, so I said to her ‘Good morning!’ and she burst out crying and I thought
‘Oh, oh, what have I done?!’ and funny enough she’d moved here and was living on Westmorland, and nobody had spoken to her either, and I was the first person that’d spoken to her, and she’d lived here six months.
Ibbison Court, 2008
You must remember, like, as a teenager myself, we was experiencing the beginning of the Teddy Boy era. The Rock and Roll. Now I can remember when they showed the film with Bill Haley, ‘Rock Around The Clock’ and it was at The Ritz and on the promenade here, they were actually dancing on the roofs and the bonnets of the cars. So nothing’s changed too much. They rioted in The Ritz.
This was a funny thing as well, we used to get the ice cream (I don’t know where we got it), but it was in blocks like that. We had a great big knife and we had to cut it up into six and it was half a crown for a block – no it wasn’t, it was six pence, sorry, six pence in old money. It was sold for six pence, so we got five six pences out of a block. So we sold those.
Sisters. Railway View, 1961
Favourite Thing. Dream Scheme Youth Club, 2008
TOP:
Waterloo Road, c.1935 Unknown, c.1935
BOTTOM :
Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee Parade. Promenade, 1887
There was none of your under-age drinking. You wouldn’t have had a chance of getting in. So you’ve got a mass of visitors, locals, gangs there was, gangs. I laugh when I think of Ibbison Street and that. There was big Georgie Walker and his friend from Central. They used to sort of rule the Gardens, in a way. I remember them well, and Billy Smith. At Revoe, Billy Smith was, like, cock of the school. I don’t know if the Headmaster sussed it, they had a boxing match, Billy Walker and Billy Smith, and Walker won because he was a big solid guy. He’s died. You know how he died? He was driving a tip-up over at the Pleasure Beach that went over on top of him.
D: When we first got married, I worked at the theatres, and Tessie O’Shea was on. I would never have though,... you know, but she was a smashing woman, she really was. She was really good. F: She was a singer, wasn’t she? D: A singer and a comedienne, and she was a landlady at the Bloomfield. F: Now then... D: Now don’t expect dates, but it must have been between 1955 and 60. F: Do you ever remember a landlord and landlady, Mr and Mrs Rollo, Irish people? F: I’ve heard the name. F: Well my mum used to work for them at the Bloomfield as a cleaner in the 60’s and I’m wondering if it was after Tessie. You know, what you’ve just said about Tessie there, and I’ve told you a little bit about the people I knew – what a sad thing when you see that pub now, ‘cause you know as well as I do for the football fans it was one of the main pubs... D: Before the Number One got organised. F: Yeah, yeah, they all used to go in the Bloomfield and now when you see it all boarded up it’s a sign of the times, you know.
We remember the 007, but there were other, different clubs as well. He had the 008 in Topping Street. Was that the old Water place. The 007 was the old Water Club. Brian London was the main man at that time, for night clubs. He had one in Victoria Street and the old Liberal Club for kids, for youngsters. That’s right, because you know one of them, it was on three levels, wasn’t it, if I remember. That was the Liberal Club. He was the man that really brought clubs to Blackpool. Nightclubs with a disco in. Am I right in saying that the Water Club is now the Number One Club. They moved from there to the Number One Club. But it was the old Fylde Water Board employees club and it was in Water Street because the old Water Board headquarters was there. Then when they redeveloped that area it moved to Bloomfield Road and became the Number One. They didn’t used to mess about then, in the Winter Gardens. What they used to do is smack you one, take you in the back and throw you down the steps. If you got in and out of the Alpine Bar without a smack you were pretty lucky. That was one of the main places on a Saturday night, for picking up or fighting. Or you could do both. They had some hard bouncers. There was a balcony round. Come out the Ballroom, There was the Indian Lounge. Alpine Bar was down a few little steps and you were in. It’s the first and the last time I saw tshhh – bottles. That was unusual – it was usually fists. It wasn’t bottles or knives, was it, not in those days. I went back to my coffee... You’d rarely see any fights in the Tower – they took it outside on the prom. You were thrown outside. There were a lot of big drinkers then. This town used to be heaving. You had the Tower to go to, the Palace, but most of you, as teenagers, when you could drink, was the Winter Gardens, at the Alpine.
...lots of stars came into that chip shop, oh and I worked in the Polish Club. That was the night that the Head Chef’s wife tried to shoot him with a gun because he was having an affair with the Head Barmaid, and the Chief Constable was in that night! Oh it was fun!
OPPISITE TOP:
Laycock’s Butchers. Central Drive, 1900 Sea Wall maintenance gang, c.1903
BOTTOM :
Moss Family. Ibbison Street, 1880s
South Shore Wednesday Football Team, 1900
Climbing Wall. George Bancroft Park, 2008
Travelodge. BloomďŹ eld Road, 2008
Market forces, South Shore, Blackpool, 2008. Inside the church hall it was a hive of activity with all manner of things taking place. Tables and chairs were being noisily arranged to accommodate the expected inrush of invited guests, along with those visitors, who may have wandered in from the streets, courtesy of the several large banners advertising the event and which were hanging from high on the exterior brickwork of the church halls facade. Placing my crockery carefully to the ground, I began to settle in, when suddenly I was awoken from my reverie. “Where`s t` bloody market.” a woman’s very loud, and raucous voice demanded. Quickly I realised that it was me to whom she was talking! “Pardon love.” I stuttered, “What did you say?” “Have you got cloth ears or are you stupid?” she demanded, “I said where`s t` bloody market.” and pointing at the by now fully revved up break dancers, she demanded to know “ What the `ell is going on `ere?” and again aggressively pointing at the cavorting group of, teenagers, she shouted: “Who the `ell are these head-bangers?” Now feeling obliged to pour oil on the increasingly troubled waters I found myself saying. “Never mind
St. Cuthbert’s Church Hall. Lytham Road, 2008
love, I am not exactly sure what you mean by asking about a market, so why don’t you please calm down, take a seat, and I will get you a nice cup of tea and a biscuit.” to which she less than graciously replied in an even louder voice, “Stuff your tea and biscuits, I came here for t` market – where the devil is it?” Thankfully the last I saw of this latter day reincarnation of Boadicea were her coat tails flying in the wind as she left at the speed of light, whilst hauling her laden shopping trolley-cum-chariot, horizontally and threateningly through the crowd. As she reached the young dancers she screamed at them through the iron fence “ You are bloody headbangers the lot of you!” I have no idea who this lady was, nor, for obvious reasons do I have any desire to do so ever again. Well not today anyway! Postscript. It wasn’t until sometime later when relating this rather bemusing episode to a lady librarian at the Revoe branch library, that I was informed that in fact there is usually a flea-market held in the church hall each Saturday. We live and learn eh – so now I know where t’ market is!
Favourite Thing. Dream Scheme Youth Club, 2008
OPPOSITE TOP:
Blackpool Football Club Stadium construction. Bloomfield Road, 2008 BOTTOM :
Site of the old Scratching Shed Stand, Blackpool Football Club, 2008
When the football matches were on, they used to come on motorbikes and put them in the gardens of the houses further down. But they’d charge them – I don’t know how much they charged them – you know, there were quite a few down Bloomfield Road. On match days you could see all these bikes and motorbikes on the front paths and they’d charge them for doing it.
The come to pick our green bag up every Thursday morning. It was a firm called Emprise, they did papers and bottles but now it’s just back to papers. And they were situated down at the new Solaris Centre, you know where the glitter ball is, that place there, where the café is. But it’s all changed now and we’ve bought bins, but it was cardboard and bottles and then the glass bottles and the tins, but it’s changing again now and it’s going from Emprise to Tower recycling. But now, we can’t put as much in we have a third bin for the plastic bottles, so we’re just learning what goes in each.
These wonderful tangerine braces were a gift to me from my dear grand-daughter Francesca, who is a regular attender in our executive Cyril Robinson box. She sent for them on the internet so that her grandpa could look like the tangerine and white equivalent of Gordon Gecko. I am proud to wear these braces alongside my tangerine jacket and my tangerine-striped scarf, so I do hope that I do make some impression when I walk to our family box.
Blackpool South Station, 2008
In fact it was in 1969 that we bought a small boarding house in Bairstow Street. Thirteen bedrooms. No en-suites. No hot water. Just a little sink with cold water only in each of the bedrooms. We advertised in our brochure that we had hand-washing facilities in every bedroom and we didn’t mention that that was just cold water. So when the guests arrived they received a jug of hot water delivered to their bedroom with a bowl each morning, and that comprised their stay with us. And I must tell you, that although that was forty years ago, they were delighted to pay eight or nine shillings for that holiday in the old, then thriving boarding house centre of Blackpool. We bought a building that was then called the Greeley Holiday Flats, which was on the corner of Foxhall Square and the Promenade, having sold the little boarding house in Bairstow Street. Also we sold a similar boarding house in Yorkshire Street and a small block of tiny holiday flats which we’d created over a bookies store in Foxhall Road. We banded that money together and bought the block of holiday flats. I traded those just for, only a year, and we were fortunate to secure from Blackpool magistrates the first Promenade nightclub license with a pay-at-the-door facility. That had never been granted before on Blackpool on the Promenade. I then sold the property with the benefit of that planning consent to a good friend of mine, Mr. Brian London and his partner, and they, I fact developed a basement nightclub from the property as well as operating the holiday flats...
This town is totally about money.
Round here they were nearly all little boarding houses in St. Helier’s. When I was a little girl and we used to come to Blackpool, you used to buy your own food and the landlady used to cook your meals. She probably had a few different families and she had to cook different meals. You brought your own rations or you brought your Ration Book and the landlady did your shopping for you. She was only supposed to feed you with what she bought with your coupons. If you brought your own food you were given a shelf.
I remember coming up on the train on day trips and the train used to stop near the station and you’d see all these bloody kids on the slag heaps, begging, and you used to throw ha’pennies out to them to catch. And if they missed a bit, they’d go scratching in the soil for it. And they used to come running with barrows to the train station or the buses to take your luggage to the boarding houses. They used to run like hell and if you weren’t careful, you’d lose them.
Blackpool Central Station, 1920s
Computer flight simulation over the Illuminations. 2008
Manchester to Calgary FlyGlobespan, GSM952B Shortly after takeoff, air traffic control inform us to contact Manchester Control which is the next air traffic control centre that we will track our progress. So the contact is made: “Manchester Control, good evening Globespan 952B with you on a special ops departure via FIWUD climbing 6000ft” “Globespan 952B, good evening continue your special ops departure climb and maintain 6000ft expect clearance for descent shortly” “Continue special ops departure, climb and maintain 6000ft and I will expect the clearance for descent shortly, Globespan 952B” As the aircraft climbs above 4000ft it is time to raise the flaps to the ‘up’ position so the lever is brought up
as the aircraft climbs higher, until the flaps display shows ‘up’. The flight is progressing nicely now and the aircraft has now reached 6000ft and is heading over Liverpool with the clearance to descend to 4000ft, just received. So down goes the aircraft. I dial in 4000ft into the altitude selector on the MCP and the aircraft descends slowly. As the aircraft heads over Liverpool, a turn to the right Is made towards the Fylde coast and the photographer begins preparations for some photos of the Blackpool Illuminations. The speed of the aircraft allows us to cover distances very quickly and we are soon flying just slightly westerly of Blackpool. Unfortunately the photos taken by the photographer were not fantastic but the spot plane, yes the spot plane, managed this shot above.
Notebook of Revoe memories, 2008
Another time, in winter, I was off Park Road, went in this house to take the lady’s order; and when I came out, me business had gone! Oh hell... so I ran round the streets, came across some guy and I said “Hey, have you seen a horse and cart go by?” He said “Yeah”, he said, it’s going up there, heading towards Park Road!” Hell fire! Park Road’s a busy road. So I chase along, asking people if they’d seen him, and they all said yes – the bugger was going home! It was cold, it was miserable, he’d had enough, I’d had enough... so off he went. Never think that animals have got no brains – he was doing great! He missed all the traffic. But I caught him before he got home, and gave him a good talking to... his ears went forward and he stands there and listens with great attention, you know...thinking “the silly old bugger”...
Family album pictures, 1940s
Favourite Thing. Dream Scheme Youth Club, 2008
Home on Leave. Pleasure Beach, 1943
Arnold... from the icecream family was my mate. There was only 2 months between us and we used to play together
When it got bad, that’s when the Communists took over. That’s when as kids...throw bricks at it got bad. That were around about the late sixties, early seventies. each other... well, there They worked their way up to the top. was no television, you
know... Arnold finished up sawing his wife in half. He had a stage show.
Additional captions. Page: 02, 03 – Map used by Simon Grennan, including supposed outline of Bloomfield Ward described by Blackpool Council statistics office. 2006. 07 – Page from the family album of Noreen and Steve Westhead. Crystal Road, 2008. 08 – The Dream Scheme Youth Club runs out of the former Revoe School on Queen Victoria Road. 12, 13 – The new St Chad’s headland comprises a combined sea wall and recreation spaces centred on the junction of Crystal Road and the Promenade, completed in 2008. 16, 17 and 18 – Late 19th century Blackpool implemented the first successful electric street tramway in the whole of Britain. Today, it is still the longest running tramway in the country. Future plans include several new routes and a larger 21st century fleet of trams. 20-24 – Blackpool’s early Illuminations or “lights” came under the direct control of the Council’s Gasworks at Revoe; then the Tramways Department took over. Eventually they became the responsibility of a new department specifically set up for the task. The Illuminations Department moved from Rigby Road in 2008 in order to make way for University accommodation. 32 – The former Palladium Cinema, Waterloo Road. Several theatres and picture houses were established in the area, including Blackpool’s first purpose-built cinema, the Royal Pavilion on Rigby Road. This building, circa 1909, has had a very up-and-down existence and gone through several name changes and changes of use. It is still an entertainment venue, and is said to be haunted! Other now vanished cinemas in the area included the Waterloo, the Palladium, the Ritz and the King Edward. By a strange twist of fate Rigby Road is now home to the resort’s latest cinema, the Odeon. 34, 35 – Promenade or ‘walking’ photographs are a well-known feature of the area, suggesting the presence of inexpensive street photography studios catering to visitors and locals alike throughout the first half of the 20th century. 36, 37 – Photographs from Steve and Noreen Westhead’s family album. 1940s – 1960s. 39 – Peter, aged three years and living near the Football Ground. Prior to the coming of the railway, a majority of the area was agricultural, though that soon gave way to brick making, construction, light industry, tourism, and the densely populated urban sprawl of Revoe, Foxhall, Bloomfield and the South Shore. Because of this the area has long been very cosmopolitan, with a large resident population swelled by a large transient population. Many Italian families, usually ice cream makers, settled in the area, as did Scots, Irish, Welsh, Poles and Jewish people. The first Mosque in the town was in Rigby Road whilst the first Chinese Restaurant was in Dale Street, Foxhall, possibly as early as 1922. 40, 41 – Notebook pages following a Bloomfield family from address to address, from the Census 1841-1901. 46, 47 – The site on the corner of Central Drive and Princess Street, now occupied by Discount Cards, was the site of Laycock’s Butchers (see page 63). 48, 49 – Revoe was always part of the manor of Great Marton until being absorbed into Blackpool in the latter part of the 19th century. South Shore was also not originally a part of Blackpool, but merely an area containing several hamlets, until its larger neighbour swallowed it up. Blackpool itself started out as two small villages that were just parts of the vast manor of Layton-withWarbreck. 52, 53 – Lifeboat men lived and worked in the Revoe and Foxhall areas in particular. Old families such as Bickerstaffe, Cragg and Rimmer were all from fishing stock. Perhaps the two most famous of this hardy clan were Old Bob and Young Bob Bickerstaffe. Old Bob was the first coxswain of the first lifeboat – shadowed by his nephew Young Bob, who was born almost on the beach opposite today’s Central Pier. The town has had three official lifeboat houses, the first being on Lytham Road at Foxhall; the second on the promenade by the Central Pier and the latest state-of-the-art boathouse is also on the promenade just a hundred yards away. 54-58 – Working men’s clubs and pubs abounded throughout the area. Many such as the Philharmonic still thrive, whilst the future of the most famous of them all, the Central Club, hangs in the balance. This building has seen many changes, and for several years it was the base for the C&S brewing company. John Smith’s brewery also existed on Ibbison Street. During WW2 the building was used to house Italian prisoners of war. It is now demolished, but was situated just up the road from the George Pub at the corner of Central Drive. The George is at least the second alehouse on the site, the first being the very old Revoe Inn. There have been several dance halls in the area: Mac’s on Bethesda Road was a haven for postwar teenagers, and The Mecca of Northern Soul fame was built in the mid ‘sixties and demolished in 2009.
Bloomfield Talks was a year-long oral history project commissioned by Blackpool Council. The project ran between July 2008 and February 2009. ‘Bloomfield Talks’ focused on the experiences of people who have connections with the Bloomfield, Foxhall, Revoe and near South Shore area of Blackpool. Blackpool is Britain’s premier coastal resort, with a long history of leisure and entertainment, particularly for working people and their families, stretching back to the nineteenth century. The Bloomfield, Foxhall, Revoe and near South Shore area of town is a rich mix of houses, churches, hotels, trades and Old Blackpool, incorporating the site of the original Blackpool village, the nineteenth century ‘main street’, the town section of the internationally famous Golden Mile, Blackpool Football Club, the town’s Tram and Bus Depots, the Mecca club that gave birth to Northern Soul and the Illumination Depot, where Blackpool’s annual light displays were designed and made until 2009. At the heart of ‘Bloomfield Talks’ was a team of local volunteers brought together specifically for the project. Ranging in age from the late teens to the late seventies, the volunteers engaged other local people in conversations and activities focusing on their daily lives in the area. The volunteers documented these exchanges with writing, pictures and audio recording, creating a new archive of records about ordinary people’s lives. This archive is available online at
www.bloomfieldtalks.org to browse, search
and to continue to add your experience of the area online.
In February 2009, the volunteers edited and published the new archive as a book, launched at a celebratory event in Bloomfield and given away as a gift to the five thousand households in the area. The original material has been lodged with Blackpool Libraries and the North West Sound Archive.
‘Bloomfield Talks’ was developed, facilitated and managed by Simon Grennan and Vik. Simon Grennan is part of international artist team Grennan & Sperandio, who have been making artwork in collaboration with others since 1990. Vik is an English artist inspired by history and memory. She is interested in participatory,
Contact Simon at
collaborative art, with people who don’t necessarily call
simon.grennan@zen.co.uk and
themselves artists.
Chris at sperandio@gmail.com
Grateful thanks to the volunteers, who made everything possible: Yannick Dixon, Michael Edwards, Oliver Heaton, Vikki Hughes, Frank Murray, Terry Regan, Don Snape and Noreen and Steve Westhead.
Grennan & Sperandio are online at www.kartoonkings.com ISBN: 978-0-9551142-8-1
All material is copyright ©
Thanks to all those who kindly contributed to Bloomfield Talks:
the authors and owners.
The Worshipful the Mayor Councillor Mary Smith, Councillor
Every reasonable effort has
Doreen Holt, Sarah Kirby, Iain Gurvin, Kevin Egan and Margaret
been made to contact people
Hall, The Dream Scheme volunteers and children, Betty
who appear in archive images
Aspinal and the Primetimers, Shirley McArton, The Reverend
unrecorded.
Michael Ward, Colette Halstead, Canon Richard Cartmel, Sam Wilkinson, Anne Carragher, Stuart Dunne, Pat Naylor, Karen Gillet, Scot Munday, Jenni Ellis, Linda Markey, Benjamin Wilson,
View much more material online at:
Neil Winkley, Stephen Whitenstall and Eric Doddemead.
www.bloomfieldtalks.org
Thanks also to all those who made the production of this book possible: Carolyn Primett, Laura Rodgers and Heather Morrow.
Bloomfield Talks team. St Peter’s Church Hall, Lytham Road. 2009