Ancient Wonders Cruise

We're back now, did you miss us? It's been a rare old busy time of late. I've been approaching the deadline for the book on Blackpool and we had a holiday booked which meant I had to buckle down and get it finished before we could go off enjoying ourselves!

I'm glad to say the book, a look at the Blackpool of the Victorians and Edwardians through their postcards, compared with modern views of Blackpool taken by yours truly from as close to the original viewpoint as I could manage has been written and photographed and packaged off to the publishers. More news as and when, but the book to be called "Blackpool: Then and Now" and written by John D Burke (to differentiate myself from the chap who wrote so many excellent TV and film scripts and spin-off books) is due to be in the shops for Christmas. Let me be the first to wish you a merry one...!

So with the book contents finished I could settle back to enjoy the holiday - a cruise on the Thomson Celebration starting in Marmaris, Turkey and taking in Istanbul, Lesbos, Kusadasi, Piraes for Athens, Mykonos and back to Marmaris again. The tour was called Ancient Wonders, hopefully not in honour of us, but describing the places we were to see...

And to make it even more special, our friends Tomas and Maris were aboard, performing as 2Intense in the Horizons bar above the bridge of the ship. We've kept in touch with them since we first met on the ship a few years ago and had been eagerly anticipating meeting up with them again.

The flights to Dalaman and transfer to the ship were negotiated without any mishap and we spent our first full day at sea, getting used to a life revolving around food and drink... bliss...

On 23 May we arrived in Istanbul, a rather overcast but warm Istanbul.

At one side of the ship the Bosphorus was a source of entertainment as the many small tour boats and ferries dodge around some very large cruise ships and cargo ships.

Some were rocking about quite merrily, making us exchange early morning glances as we had booked a tour along the river on one of these small craft! We decided to prepare for it and headed into the self-service restaurant for fruit followed by bacon, eggs, beans, croissants, washed down by a couple of mugs of coffee.

The view from the other side of the ship was of the more modern city. So, here we were in a crowded street with passengers from three other cruise ships coming out the same port authority door and waiting for excursion coaches. Our coach arrived to take us across the river to our excursion boat.

On the river the cormorants are gathering to watch our antics so keep tuned and the next entry will tell the tale of the river cruise. No whitewash...

Return to Ancient Wonders Cruise index

Witton Park 2012

Last Sunday saw us back in the courtyard at Witton Park in Blackburn for their annual fun day in conjunction with Myerscough College. The event included a collection of classic cars, some of which made me come over all nostalgic!

I worked out it was our 7th year at Witton! We first went to that same event to play in 2006.

And 2012 was a stand-out year. The weather was excellent - all sunshine and not a spot of rain. The chairs laid out for the audience were filled all day long - they were full when we got there with people waiting for us to arrive! We had a great day and unleashed a sprinkling of new songs into the mix including one of David's current favourites - Elvis's "You Gave Me a Mountain".

Our thanks go to Witton Park, Blackburn Council, Myerscough College, Miss Franny and Miss Jeannie our faithful roadies and minders, and of course all those wonderful people in the audience!

Photos courtesy of Jeannie Lancaster

Abingdon St Market Refurbishment Reveals a Bit of History

In town yesterday to take a few more photos for the forthcoming Blackpool book. It was a bit of a mixed day with ten minutes bright sunshine then ten minutes torrential downpour followed by ten minutes bright sunshine followed by...

The market on Abingdon Street, seen above in November 2011, has been going through the throes of refurbishment for a while. There has been scaffolding and workmen and it is starting to emerge, cleaner and back to its mock Tudor black and white excellence.

A new front at ground floor level will see new windows installed and new doors leading into the market which is well used by locals as well as visitors.

Currently it still looks a bit chaotic, though the market remains open to shoppers. However I noticed that the cladding around the entrance has been removed in preparation for the new frontage and a long-lost sign has appeared.

Built in 1862, the building was originally the town's Police Station. Apparently cells still exist in the basement. It had space for horses and vehicles by way of a large entrance and following the end of its life as the Police Station, operated as a motor garage for a period (see below) before becoming a market in 1928.

Return to Curiosities: Buildings and Infrastructure Index Page

Return to Blackpool Town Index Page

Introducing The Bombadier Flexity2

After five long years of work on Blackpool's tramway system, it is getting back to working order with the introduction of the new Bombadier Flexity2 trams.

They are sleek, they are fast, they are quiet. Not all those necessarily being desirable on a crowded Promenade, but I'm sure they will come into their own on the fenced tracks towards Fleetwood.

They are now becoming a familiar sight on Blackpool's system, though the full fleet has yet to be delivered. Eventually there will be 16 of the Flexity 2 trams based at Blackpool.

To see them to their best advantage you need to choose your spot wisely. They can be well camouflaged!

There was a lot made of a derailment at Fleetwood on the first day of operation. This was caused by sand blown from dunes on the beach. "Did they not know sand could blow?" cried the critics. Yes I expect they did. How long does it take to fill a track groove of around an inch deep I wonder? Five minutes? Ten? Not a lot anyway. It would be pretty stupid to have the trams drive at walking pace so someone with a broom could keep an eye on the track.

The problem at Fleetwood is that the dunes should never have been allowed to develop in the first place at that spot. They are a modern natural development. The authorities not having done anything to stop them coming into being, conservationists now claim they "teem" with wildlife and cannot be removed. The alternative would be an unsightly wall blocking the view of the beach to keep sand from being blown across the tracks - I suspect no one wants that either.

Despite many concerns about modern trams not being a tourist draw, a number of the heritage trams will be seen out on the tracks, operating between the Pleasure Beach and Bispham.

Return to Blackpool Tram and Bus Index Page

An Afternoon Gig

Yesterday we played at the award-winning Elgin Hotel, Blackpool for an after lunch event for British Gas Pensioners.

This was our second event for the organisation and we hope they enjoyed it as much as we did. I rather think that they did from the comments we received!

And no surprises that the hotel wins awards because the food was excellent and every time we have played there, the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff has been top notch.

Our next public performance will be at Blackburn's Witton Park on Sunday afternoon, 13 May 2012 - come and meet us and say hello between songs!

Book Publishing

Just to bring you up to date on a couple of projects.

I'm currently involved in putting together a book about Blackpool. Commissioned by a publishing company it will be a collection of old postcards with modern views taken from as near the same viewpoint as I can get.

There are several old postcard views of Blackpool on the pages of this blog but these will be ones that I haven't published before and hopefully a good many may not have been seen since they were sent through the post some hundred years ago!

There's no end of old postcards available of Blackpool two of which are shown below. These will not be in the book...

I love these old photos with a certain amount of artistic licence! This is a daylight shot as can be easily seen from the shadows of the railings etc. The festoons of lights on the upper Promenade are if in scale, around the size of footballs...

But here's the same photo with a bit more paint...

There just weren't enough light bulbs on that other one so the company artist has added a few more strings, some flag poles to dangle them from and for good measure a string of them around the grassed area where in reality they would have been broken within ten minutes or so...! I'm indebted to Chris Wynne of Shrewsbury for the kind loan of many postcards from his collection.

The book will contain around 90 photographs in 45 pairs and will probably be published somewhere in time for Christmas. Keep looking in for more news.

The other project is another book - this time a novel. I wrote this in the late 70s and early 80s but had put it on the back burner to be something of a retirement project.

However with ebooks bringing publishing within reach of everyone I've dusted it off and tightened up a few bits. The book is a fantasy take on the King Arthur and Merlin legends, the older of which contain much by way of elves and enchantments and lots to get the teeth into! Arthur in this book is a little removed from most people's idea of who Arthur was or may have been! It will be called King and King To Be.

I'm currrently waiting for cover art to be completed and then it will make an appearance, at first, for the Kindle and then hopefully... who knows?

As there have been a few literary John Burke authors - one writes history titles and another wrote film and TV scripts and adaptations amongst other genres, I shall have to adopt pen names. Non-fiction under the name John D. Burke and fiction as J.D. Burke.

Wish me luck!

Blackpool Houndshill Adelaide Street Entrance

A while ago I had a comment on one of my 1982 photos on Flickr.

It was taken in July 1982, at a time when the Houndshill shopping centre - I can't remember anyone calling it a "mall" then - was fairly new. This was the "rear" entrance, with the main entrance on Victoria Street.

Someone asked what shop occupied the Goldbergs site in 2012, so I went down yesterday to take a photo from the same viewpoint.

There has been considerable change. More than is immediately apparent.

The people approaching the doors of the centre in 1982 could instead have turned right and walked down a side street that would have brought them to the Argos store on Albert Road. There was an exit from the Houndshill multi-storey car park that utilised this road.

Because the road was narrow and heavily used by pedestrians, cars leaving the car park posed a risk and the exit was closed and the front of the shopping centre extended forward to block access to and from the side street.

Just inside the entrance now on the right hand side is a Costa coffee outlet and, behind that, the whole interior of the mall has been extended south to lead down into the new Debenhams store.

Return to Blackpool Town Index Page

Birthday Gig

On Saturday night we were playing a private booking for a birthday party in Thornton - a gig close to home for a change!

The birthday girl was very keen to secure our services and both she and the rest of the party-goers were enthusuastic in their applause during the night and their praise at the end of it.

We enjoyed ourselves too, giving Elvis's Burning Love its first public airing.

To book Creeping Bentgrass for your own party, event or club, email bispham2@hotmail.com or telephone on 01253 301324

On The Tram Tracks, May 1984

A few recently scanned tram photos from May 1984.

We'll start off with the spectacular 1904 Blackpool Dreadnought tram. Originally built when the trams were still powered by a conduit slot between the rails, these huge trams took large numbers of visitors up and down the Promenade with the entire end of the tram used as an entrance.

Balloon 720 heads up Lytham Road towards the sheds at the end of its shift.

1984 was the run-up to the tramway centenary in 1985. A number of trams were on loan to Blackpool being tested on the Blackpool tracks in 1984. Blackpool had also recently restored their 1953 Coronation tram, seen here in front of the landmark honeycombed front of Lewis's store.

A peek into the tramsheds on Rigby Road. On the left is a Glasgow tramcar with the Bolton tram behind it.

Return to Blackpool Tram and Bus Index Page

Billy Fury Weekend

Cor - and there it was, gone...! Another totally brilliant Billy Fury weekend.

We set up our gear at Sunley and ran through a couple of numbers. We had only gone on to warm up, but then the room filled and despite several offers to allow others up, the audience kept us working for an hour or so - slave drivers or what?!? We threw a bit of Abba and Take That into the proceedings in an attempt to get them to eject us but no...

Then one by one the other artists came to show us how it should be done and what a fabulous night! Phil Jennings told us over and over and over again my friend... A chap called Hetherington spun round three times in a quiet corner and in a flash returned as Johnny Storme. The feeling and emotion coming through Johnny's music never fail to move me - magical. Alan Wilcox made a very impressive debut. We had a great spot from Dean and Jane singing together, shiveringly good!

Johnny Storme

There were no bad performances of course. Dave Jay, Paul Wilcox, and the Grand Master Rob Dee, who asked if we'd finish the night.... What?!? You want us to go back on?!? Reluctantly we drag ourselves back up to the microphone. It may have looked as though we couldn't wait...

Anyway we are always immensely grateful for the reception we get from the Billy crowd - no matter what provocation we give, no one has ever thrown anything... A brilliant, even BILLYant, night full of friendship and good fun. Apologies to any singers I've missed, we loved you all.

Saturday. Sunley do a purty good breakfast! Then we dragged ouselves into Northampton so the girls could look round the shops and David and I went up and down the mall on the ground floor and then on the upper floor and then gave up and went to sit in a Costa with a bucket of coffee each and waited for the Misses Franny and Jeannie to come in laden with bags.

Then the main event of the weekend - Sunnyside. It is the pub where Billy Fury played his last gig before his untimely passing in 1983.

Dave Jay got the ball rolling with a cracking set and the time just flew by. Steve reprised his Secret Agent Man from Friday night - what a cracking song! We went and did our spot - Somebody Else's Girl, I Can Hear Music, The Young Ones (for Moya!), Tulsa, The Single Girl, Love Hurts, Lost Without You and You've Lost That Loving Feeling. Then the long hook came out from stage left and we were dragged off...

Thanks to all those who asked when we were going back on - no that was just the Friday night...! Gluttons for punishment some folks... Great to meet up again with a few day trippers - Snowy (all that hair and at such an advanced age - has the man no feelings for the follicly challenged?), Russ Dee came in his white coat - and left with it still white - I'm sure I couldn't have managed that... Laura and Emily, gorgeous as ever and a great great set, Roger Sea, Rob Dee... it's just such a wonderful event.

Rob Dee

Again a series of excellent performances, culminating in Johnny Red's tribute to Billy and all of us up to sing HTP and then it was all over. We packed up the gear, headed back to the Sunley and opened a bottle of bubbly in David and Miss Jeannie's room before Miss Franny and I slunk quietly back down to our room tripping up, banging against doors, giggling and setting fire alarms off etc... Hey rock and roll! Songs from our set available as videos at YouTube

Hall i' th' Wood

September 1983 and on one of our forays out to take photos of old and curious things we come across the half-timbered Tudor hall known as Hall i' th' Wood.

It can be described as 16th or 15th century - mostly the Tudor half-timbered part of the hall is from the early 1500s, making it 16th century, but some parts have been described as going back to 1483 or 1487 which would make it 15th century. You'd have thought the builders could have left a blue placque ready prepared wouldn't you?

I always think non-Lancashire folk have a weird idea of how the abbreviated form of the word "the" should be pronounced. There is no t sound in the phrase "going in t'shed". Instead the word "in" would end a little abruptly. The t sound is formed at the back of the throat rather than just behind the teeth. It's called a glottal stop.

Here it may be acceptable to say "thwood" but equally acceptable to say "Hall i' Wood with the throat closing slightly after the "i".

It was here at Hall i' th' Wood that Samuel Crompton invented the Spinning Mule that was used in countless Lancashire cotton mills. It allowed cotton thread to be produced in a quantity unheard of at the time. Large mill mules would have 1320 spindles and a mill might contain 60 such machines, each tended by just one man and two boys.

Return to Curiosities: Buildings and Infrastructure Index Page

Zoo Rhyme

The zebra are watching with interest
Cloaked in their black and white stripes

The parrots are excited and chatting
"I think there'll be trouble, oh cripes!"

The camels are watching but placid
Too much excitement can make their humps sag

And the cause of all this kerfuffle?
The lion's missus is having a nag...

Lighting Up Blackpool

I've reached the last quarter of 1983 in my scanning now. The famous Illuminations start every year on the Friday following August Bank Holiday Monday and end on the first Sunday in November.

One September night saw me down on the Promenade by the Pleasure Beach. A highlight of the Illuminations was always seeing illuminated trams going up and down the Promenade. There were more of them on the tracks in those days than there are now.

The Hovertram in 1983 carried advertisements for Oystons Estate Agents, but was far better known for its previous sponsor and still referred to as the "Shell" hovertram. It is seen here passing the amusements arcade by the northern entrance to the Pleasure Beach.

For several years during the 1980s lasers were used to create startling rods of light that swung across the sky from the piers and the Tower top. They were green in colour and could be seen quite spectacularly from the approach to Blackpool along the M55 motorway if you were driving in at night.

The Pleasure Beach Casino building has never been a casino. It was a name carried over from the building's predecessor, which likewise was more about restaurants and bars than gambling. The art deco circular building housed the White Tower Restaurant and for a while a grotto-style ride through which you travelled in a large suspended seat.

Balloon tram 708 stops to let passengers disembark. From the background you could be forgiven for thinking that this was taken along the Bispham cliffs, but at this time there were still a limited number of large tableaux on the Promenade south of the Pleasure Beach.

Return to Blackpool Illuminations Index Page

Whalley Abbey, Lancashire

August 1983. This time we are in Whalley to visit the remains of the abbey that once thrived here.

It was a Cistercian Abbey dating from the end of the 13th century. It was in 1296 that the monks of Stanlow Abbey on the River Mersey moved here. The Stanlow Abbey had been hit by floods and fires and a tower brought down by gales.

Whalley's abbey has an impressive gatehouse, said to be one of the most haunted buildings in England. The abbey church is not in quite as good condition, just foundations can be seen poking through the grass that has been cultivated where the floor of the church once was. There are more substantial remains of the other abbey buildings.

The building of the church and abbey took place from 1296 to 1440. Permission was granted in 1339 for a crenellated surrounding wall to be built around the grounds.

In 1537 it was closed as part of Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries. The last Abbot, John Paslew, was executed for High Treason, due to his activities in the Pilgrimage of Grace when the North of England rose up against the King's (or more properly Thomas Cromwell's) reforms. In addition the Northerners were angry at the way Queen Catherine of Aragon had been set aside and whilst few may have mourned the beheading of Queen Anne Boleyn on trumped up charges, the exectution of his second queen did Henry no favours with his northern subjects.

The lands of the Abbey were eventually bought back by the Diocese of Manchester in 1923, passing to the Diocese of Blackburn in 1926 and it was used as a centre for religious education there. More recently it has been used as a conference centre.

The monks' washing trough - ooh... luxury!

The octagonal chapter house stood here and there are still some of the original medieval floor tiles in situ.

Return to English Churches and Cathedrals Index

Knaresborough Pencil Sketch

I don't know why I don't do more of these. This is a sketch I did with coloured pencils at home in 1993 from a photograph taken ten years earlier.

It shows people enjoying the River Nidd at Knaresborough in Yorkshire, just down from the famous bridge in the background.

Normally sketching is just something I do on holiday. But it's a bit more personal than a photograph somehow.

A large version can be viewed at my Flickr account.

Hodder Bridge and the Crossing of an Army

August 1983 saw me dashing about the Lancashire countryside, avidly snapping away at anything that was falling down, had already fallen down, or had a story to tell.

At the time I had a series, John Burke's Curious Lancashire running every now and then in the bi-monthly magazine Lancashire Magazine.

This is the River Hodder, a tributary of the Ribble. The bridge has obviously seen better days but fits all of my criteria in that parts of it have fallen down, the rest of it looks (though I'm not sure it is) in imminent danger of falling down, and it most certainly has a story to tell.

Across this bridge marched an army. Not just any old army, but an army on their way to a battle. Not just any old battle, but a battle that would change the course of English history.

The army was led by Oliver Cromwell, a name that even today can divide the country. On that day in 1648 his men were on their way to Preston, where they would win a huge victory upon which hung the fate of the Civil War. Following the battle the Royalist cause collapsed. The Parliamentarians called for the King to be brought to trial and six months later he was beheaded at Westminster on such a low block that he was forced to lie prone on his stomach in humiliation.

Return to Curiosities: Bridges Index

On The Buses

I have never described myself, or even thought of myself as a bus enthusiast. But a few photos went through the scanner recently of a commercial vehicle rally in Blackpool from 1983.

These used to take place every year along the Middle Walk - and still may do these days for all I know. Though the last event I noticed seemed to have lots of modern buses and a drivers' competition and seemed by far more about today's bus companies than about nostalgia and older vehicles.

The above bus, NTF 466, is a 1952 Daimler CVG6 (someone will know what that means...) in the livery of Lancaster City Council. At the time and for a considerable number of years we used to see it regularly on the roads of the Fylde and Wyre districts as it was available for hire.

DGS 625 is a 1951 Leyland Tiger PS1 in the livery of Lonsdale Coaches and with a totally weird angled window across the corner of the half-cab...

Although these photos were taken almost 30 years ago and the vehicles were already over 30 years old themselves at that time, I had no problems at all in finding out the details about them, thanks to lots of interest in bus preservation. Simply by putting the registration number into Google, I found not only all these details but lots more besides.

Whilst I found scores of photos of these vehicles, some from the same event as here, I have to admit I don't get all that excited about knowing the chassis number...

But for the die-hards, here's a shot of a double decker with the bonnet up! NLE 882 is an AEC Regent III from around 1953, fleet No. RT 3775 with London Transport.

These were the real London double deckers and instantly recogniseable. Two at least achieved fame on the silver screen - one being driven to Athens by Cliff Richard in the film Summer Holiday and one being driven under a low bridge by Roger Moore in the James Bond film, Live and Let Die. I know who I'd rather drove me out of the two...

They are made of sterner stuff than the James Bond film would have you believe. Roger Moore, in his book about the filming of his first Bond film, recalls they had already cut the top and put it on runners so that it would immediately zip to the back of the bus and drop off, allowing the lower deck to drive on!

Return to Blackpool Attractions Index Page