John Burke's a-Musings

Blackpool made an early investment into powered flight. As early as 1909 they held an Air Pageant at Squires Gate following a suggestion by...

Sunday 15th January 2012. We had to set off for home around lunch time so there wasn't a great deal of time to go wandering. We dec...

Ooh see! A new Children's History of Lancashire popped through my letterbox from Amazon today. What am I doing buying children...

14 January 2012. We were in London with friends David and Jeannie and it had been decided that the ladies would go shopping, whilst David a...

This last weekend we had a couple of nights in London with David and Jeannie. On the Friday night we ate in the Mermaid's Tale on L...

The weekend before last included a nice family occasion as our granddaughter was christened at the church where her parents were married fou...

April 1983. We risked the tidal road over the salt marsh to Sunderland Point. It is a long disused port in Lancashire, at the mouth of the...

Finally we get to see the new Promenade in its entirety this year after all the work on the sea defences. The final section up past the Tow...

" You're going to laugh at me now... " said a cheerful, if slightly dripping, Miss Franny as she stepped in out of the rain on...

" We're not eating up fast enough! " " Wha...? " I spluttered, unwrapping my umpteenth choccy of the night. ...

More photos from 1983, this time we've moved into the month of May of that year and have taken a trip up the coast to the village of Hey...

Amongst all the revelry of Christmas, which mainly involves wondering what to say to break the awkward silences, I managed to scan a few mor...

More domestic strife... Last night just before tea time, I was sitting in the living room trying to make sensible conversation with my mothe...

All is not well. Miss Franny left for work this morning before 8:00am. Her last words to me were: " Do you know what you're doin...

In April 1983 we went out over the River Wyre to have a look for a curiosity I had wanted to find for some time. On the Out Rawcliffe roa...

Last night we played at Croxteth Hall in Liverpool for a Silver Wedding and Revewal of Vows party. To all extents and purposes it was a wed...

So we were just having a rare rehearsal to remind ourselves of a few new songs we had stuffed into the repertoire... Not the most polished s...

Just over the river, north of Lancaster is a road to a couple of small villages. Middleton and Overton are reached by a tidal road, that fl...

Once again going back to 1983 and a couple of curiosities from the Fylde countryside. This is the old village pump at Wrea Green. Hard to...

An unexpected treat today. We went down into Blackpool to meet up with David and Jeannie for breakfast at Quilligan's . Sean provided ...