Hello, Can anyone tell me the history of Blackpool? I ask this because I was looking for an address in the 1901 census. By the way, I found the address and it says "empty": does this mean that there was no-one at home that night or does it mean empty as in permanently unoccupied and vacant? I then decided to look for the same address (Clifton Avenue, Blackpool) in the 1891 census. Whereas the 1901 census has forty-odd districts for Blackpool, each with forty or more pages, in 1891 the whole town of Blackpool is covered in sixteen pages in one district! Does this mean Blackpool was a small town until the 1900s at which point it underwent massive expansion? Thanks, Stephen.

Hello Stephen I do not know the answer to an empty property, I wish I knew, as I have this problem in my tree. Blackpool did kind of explode, but this is only the name Blackpool. The districts had various names, Layton, Warbreck, Bispham, etc. These are still districts now, but come under the large umbrella of the name Blackpool. I hope some of this makes sense to you. Olive in Blackpool

Hi Stephen You wrote: >Can anyone tell me the history of Blackpool? > Have you taken a look at GENUKI? From <http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/LAN/Blackpool/> - "Blackpool is a relatively new town which grew up with the fashion to go to the seaside, and take the waters. It's parish church, St.John, was built in 1820. The town of Blackpool was built in the area that was previously the townships of Layton with Warbreck and Bispham with Norbreck in the parish of Bispham, and the township of Marton in the parish of Poulton le Fylde." > >I ask this because I was looking for an address in the 1901 >census. By the way, I found the address and it says "empty": does this >mean that there was no-one at home that night or does it mean empty >as in permanently unoccupied and vacant? > Could mean lots of things. Depends upon the enumerator. Could be that the house was empty for the night, or vacant and waiting for new renters to move in, or empty and awaiting demolition. Or maybe someone was at home and hiding from the enumerator. <g> >I then decided to look for the same address (Clifton Avenue, >Blackpool) in the 1891 census. Whereas the 1901 census has forty-odd >districts for Blackpool, each with forty or more pages, in 1891 the >whole town of Blackpool is covered in sixteen pages in one district! > >Does this mean Blackpool was a small town until the 1900s at which >point it underwent massive expansion? > That's pretty much it. See GENUKI. Also try Googling for Blackpool + history and you should find quite a bit of information, including a page written by our own Olive at http://www.btinternet.com/~stephen.yarwood/Blackpool_history.htm. There are also posts about the development of Blackpool in this list's archives (see links on the list's information page at <http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/ENG/ENG-LAN-FYLDE.html>) Lynne