My dad’s mother was a Mottershead, and he died in 1966. Although my mum is in her 90s and still with us, she only knew bits & pieces of my dad’s mum’s (Mottershead) side of the family history.  We think that Joseph & Elizabeth Motteshead may have bought 14 Crystal Rd (pictured, bottom) after selling their ironmongers shop in Ancoats Manchester.  My grandma Cissy Mottershead was one of their children (she died in 1950s) and she told of waiting at table there when a girl.  We also have a photo on a postcard of the Mottersheads outside ther Manchester shop (top).  They would have been born in 1850s probably.  So, though its not a Blackpool photo  it could be a picture of the later owners of number 14 Crystal Rd!

By Colin Ainsworth

Two amazing photos of Crystal Road, Bloomfield, as it was around the turn of the last century.  The photos were supplied by Colin Ainsworth, whose family (the Mottersheads) used to live at number 14.

Three pics of my dad’s cousin Harold Mottershead, who was lost at sea as a bomber observer/navigator in 1943 on a night search mission he volunteered for. Like so many othes he was young when he died, and had grown up in Marton and attended the local grammar school (my mum says Baines school near Stanley Park?)  

by Colin Ainsworth

My dad’s mother was a Mottershead, and he died in 1966.  Although my mum is in her 90s and still with us she only knew bits & pieces of my dad’s mum’s (Mottershead) side of the family history.  We think that Joseph & Elizabeth Mottershead, who would have been born in the 1850s probably, may have bought 14 Crystal Rd after selling their ironmongers shop in Ancoats Manchester.  My grandma Cissy Mottershead, shown in this picture sitting on her mum’s knee, was one of their children.  She died in 1950s; and she told of waiting at table there when a girl.

By Colin Ainsworth

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Click the link to listen.  Don, an ex-worker at the Transport Depot, remembers the songs that the lads used to sing while they were painting the buses and trams!

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Click the link to listen.  Don, an ex-worker at the Transport Depot, desxcribes the huge, heavy-duty guillotine they used for cutting metal.

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Click the link to listen.  The Bloomfield Talks team, on a visit to the Transport Depot, explore the Rocket, an old illuminated tram which has now been “retired”.

Do you remember the Rocket?  What did you think of it?  Creepy? Brilliant?  Tell us your memories below.