Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/342

 was a general shop and lodging house combined, tenanted by a person named Nickson. The Royal, then commonly called the Houndhill Hotel, comes next in order, and a little distance behind it on the rising ground was a small thatched cottage for the reception of visitors. South Beach contained only a few thatched cottages, and on the site of the present Wellington Hotel stood a circular pinfold, built of cobble stone. Considerably west of the present line of frontage, and south of the pinfold, stood two rows of cottages almost on the edge of the shore; the last of these habitations was washed away or pulled down in 1827. Beyond the Yorkshire House and its bowling green was the dilapidated remains of Fox Hall, part of which had been converted into a small farm-cottage, in the occupation of a person named Wignall. Between Fox Hall and the Yorkshire House, but further removed from the beach, was a thatched cottage adjoining a stable, in which Mr. Butcher, of Raikes Hall, kept two or three racehorses, the field now occupied by the Manchester Hotel being used as an exercise ground for them. Chapel Street contained a small farm-house and several cottages, in addition to Bonny's Hotel, which was situated in a field at the lower end of this lane. In Church Street there were only three or four cottages, two of which, standing at the south-west corner, were slated and used as shops. A few other cottages, whose exact sites could not be recalled with accuracy, were scattered here and there, but the above will furnish the reader with a fairly correct idea of the extent and appearance of Blackpool about the year 1816.

The National Schools, at Raikes Hill, were the first provision made for the education of the young, and were built in 1817, chiefly through the exertions of Mr. Gisborne, then a temporary resident. They consist of two schools, for boys and girls respectively, with a teachers' home between. The accommodation has since been considerably enlarged and the institution is now under government inspection.

The parish church of St. John, in course of erection in 1820, was built with bricks from a croft situated on the cliffs between Dickson's Hotel and the promenade. This place of worship, originally an episcopal chapel under Bispham, with a perpetual curacy attached, was consecrated to St. John on July 6th, 1821, by Doctor Law, bishop of Chester. In 1860 a special district was