Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/337

 visitors were accustomed to assemble together for divine worship, and it was not until 1821 that the sacred edifice of St. John was completed and opened. In 1789 a subscription was started for the purpose of erecting a church, but was soon closed for want of support, barely one hundred pounds having been promised. Some years later a large room at one of the hotels was used as a meeting house on each Sabbath, the officiating ministers being obtained alternately from Bispham and Poulton, and occasionally from amongst the visitors themselves.

In 1799, the poorer inhabitants of Blackpool and its neighbourhood suffered severely, in common with others, from a failure in the grain and potato harvests. They, like most members of the working classes at that date, relied almost entirely upon good and plentiful crops of these important articles of diet, to furnish them with the means of sustenance throughout the year, so that a small yield, raising the prices exorbitantly, became a matter of serious moment to them, and in most instances, meant little less than ruin or starvation. After the cold and inclement approach of winter had banished the last stranger from their midst, the sums demanded for their accustomed provisions soon swallowed up the little these people had saved during the summer, and such occasional trifles as could be earned on the farm lands around whenever extra services were required. Their condition, deplorable from the first, gradually grew worse, until, reduced to the deepest distress, they became dependent for the bare necessaries of existence upon the charity of those whose positions, although seriously affected by the failure, were not placed in such great jeopardy as their own. After this precarious and pitiable state of things had lasted some time without any signs of amelioration, and it seemed difficult, if not impossible, to conjecture how the remaining months were to be provided for until the returning season brought fresh assistance to their homes, an unexpected, and, to them, providential occurrence relieved their sufferings. A large vessel laden with peas was wrecked upon the coast, and the cargo, washing out of the hold, was strewn upon the beach, supplying them with abundance of food until better days shone upon the impoverished village once more.

Reviewing the appearance of Blackpool at the opening of the nineteenth century we find that the whole hamlet was comprised