an increase of 107 in the number of inhabitants during the preceding ten years.
The year 1816 is remarkable as being the first in which public coaches ran regularly between Preston and Blackpool. Previously the chief communication between the village and outlying places had been by means of pack-horses, carts, and private vehicles, with only occasional coaches.
The following description of Blackpool about the year 1816 was furnished by one of its oldest inhabitants, and, although unavoidably entailing some repitition of what has been mentioned before, will, we trust, be interesting in itself, as well as useful in confirming the earlier parts of this history, which have necessarily been compiled from previous writings on the subject, and not from the evidence of living witnesses. The Gynn House formed the most northerly boundary of the village, and, passing from that hostelry in a southerly direction, the next dwelling arrived at was Hill-farm, which still exists, and is at present used as a laundry for the Imperial Hotel. A few gabled cottages stood on the eminence called Fumbler's Hill, near the site of Carleton Terrace:—
"Old Ned, and Old Nanny, at Fumbler's hill,
Will board you and lodge you e'en just as you will."[1]
These cottages faced the south, as indeed did all the other dwellings at that time, with the exception of two or three of the hotels and a few of the more recent buildings. Bailey's, or rather Dickson's, Hotel was built in blocks of two and three stories, and possessed one bay window. It must be remembered that the stories of that day were much lower than those with which modern improvements have made us familiar. The next hotel was Forshaw's, similar in its construction, but unadorned with even one bay window; between these two large inns were two or three small thatched cottages. Continuing our survey southwards were Dobson's Row, consisting of several slated cottages, with a circulating library and billiard room; and the Lane Ends Hotel, containing three bay-windows, built, like the others, in parts of two and three stories each. In Lane Ends Street there
- ↑ A couplet extracted from some lines descriptive of Blackpool and its
accommodation, etc., in 1790, written by a visitor about that date.
