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

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Click the link to listen.  Local writer and historian Terry Regan talks about how the Bickerstaffes, one of the families that shaped Blackpool’s tourist trade, first started in business.  They decided to buy some land from the local squire, and built a boatyard on it.

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Click to listen.  Mike Edwards interviews local businessman and self-made millionaire Max Smith, about how he started his career in the late 1960s, and how different it was to run a bed-and-breakfast 40 years ago.

He also tells how he was the first ever to get a licence for a pay-at-the-door nightclub on the Promenade!

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Click to listen.  Local businessman Max Smith talks to Mike Edwards about the tourist trade in Foxhall and Bloomfield, and what the future might hold.

Max suggests a couple of possible changes that could be made.  What do you think of these ideas?  Have your say by adding a comment below.

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Click to listen.  Ex-Mayor, Edmund Wynne, talks about the entertainers that used to come to Blackpool; and how holidays in Blackpool have changed over the years, from family holidays to stag and hen parties.

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Click to listen - Ex-Mayor Edmund Wynne remembers how controversy erupted when it was suggested that visitors from Glasgow caused trouble in Blackpool when they visited.  Edmund, as the Mayor, made a public statement to say this was untrue, and that Glaswegians were always welcome in Blackpool.

Personal recollection of family Bed and Breakfast in Foxhall.