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CHAPTER XI.
BLACKPOOL.
Blackpool is situated in the township of Layton-with-Warbreck,
and occupies a station on the west
coast, about midway between the estuaries of the
rivers Ribble and Wyre. The watering-place of
to-day with its noble promenade, elegant piers, handsome hotels,
and princely terraces, forms a wonderful and pleasing contrast to
the meagre group of thatched cabins which once reared their
lowly heads near the peaty pool, whose dark waters gave rise
to the name of the town. This pool, which was located at the
south end of Blackpool, is stated to have been half a mile in
breadth, and was due to the accumulation of black, or more
correctly speaking, chocolate-coloured waters,[1] from Marton Mere
and the turf fields composing the swampy region usually designated
the "Moss." It remained until the supplies were cut off by
diverting their currents towards other and more convenient
outlets, when its contents gradually decreased, finally leaving no
trace of their former site beyond a small streamlet, which now
discharges itself with the flows of Spendike into the sea, opposite
the point where the Lytham Road branches from the promenade.
The principal portion of the town stands a little removed from the
edge of a long line of cliffs, whose altitude, trifling at first,
considerably increases as they travel northwards; and from that
broad range of frontage streets and houses in compact masses
- ↑ The following is extracted from a paper, written by Mr. Henry Moon, of Kirkham, about 1783, and refers to this pool:—"The liquid is of a chocolate or liver colour, as all water must be which passes through a peaty soil, so that the place might, with as much propriety, bear the name of Liver-pool, as Black-pool."
