MARRIED WITH GROWN UPS
  • Home
  • Features & Snippets
    • Features >
      • Special Guests
    • Snippets
    • Out and About >
      • Travels >
        • North Coast 500 August 2016
        • North Coast 500 - view from the passenger seat
  • The Design Den
    • Gallery & Design >
      • Personal Posters
      • Something Old Something New
  • CONTACT

Life and other stuff

There is a Light That never Goes out..

27/4/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
For those of us who live up north, Blackpool will have been an integral part of your childhood. Visits to the Pleasure Beach (still one of the best funfairs in the country), walks down the piers- all three of them, picnics on the sands (award winning sands – Blackpool South has been awarded a Blue Flag for the past three years – the only beach in the North West to achieve this, whilst Blackpool North and Blackpool Central beaches both hold Seaside Awards), donkey rides on the beach, candyfloss, a trip up the Tower and of course the obligatory stick of Blackpool Rock, still made and mostly eaten in the resort.  And, if all that wasn’t enough, every year the seaside season was extended with the ‘switch on’ of the illuminations. 
 
For those who lived within easy travelling distance of the resort the ‘lights’ were something to look forward to every year when Blackpool was (and still is) transformed into a vision of twinkling lights and animated tableaux. Pick your brothers up with your Mum and Dad after school, drive through the lights and share a bag of chips; Sunday School coach trips through the lights then share a bag of chips; Dad parks up at the North Pier and takes Mum, you and your sister for a walk through the lights and then share a bag of chips! 
 
We followed our northern family traditions and spent many a happy evening at the ‘lights’ with the kids -sometimes joining the queue of cars, sometimes walking; taking the kids in their pyjamas and slippers (just in case it ended up a late night!) and almost always ending with a bag of chips in the car on the way home.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Here we are many years later (many, many years!) and imagine our delight when quite by accident we discovered Blackpool Council ran heritage visits to the Lightwork’s workshop – home of the illuminations. A chance to tour the place where the actual lights are designed, created, repaired and looked after and all for just £8 a ticket!
 
With absolutely no preconceptions of the visit at all (but a great deal of excitement!) we arrived at the Lightworks on a stormy Saturday in April – cameras in hand as always, unsure of how much we would see or be able to photograph.
 
A brief, but very detailed, introduction to the history and heritage of the lights was the first of many surprises that day.
 
Who knew that Blackpool was probably the first place to install electric street lights, ‘artificial sunshine’ as they were known, when back in 1879 8 arc lamps were installed on the prom? Its easy to imagine what a big event this must have been bringing in almost 100,000 visitors from across the country to visit the seaside resort.
 
The early days of the illuminations began in May 1912 with a royal visit by Princess Louise to open the new prom. The prom was decorated with over 10,000 bulbs and once again bought in many thousands of visitors. The event was so popular the council decided to repeat it the following September and so the ‘lights’ were born. Apart from two breaks during the two Wars the illuminations have extended Blackpool’s tourist season for 6-8 weeks each year ever since.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Surprise number 2 was the actual size of the displays. Standing adjacent to one it is hard to imagine how they stay up particularly during months of the year which can bring some stormy weather across the sea!
 
Guided round the Lightworks by a very knowledgeable couple of volunteers, we followed the process from design to storage; visiting areas of the workshop where cutting, designing, painting and much more take place. We saw the 100-year-old drill still in use, boxes and boxes of parts and lamps (don't ever call them bulbs!), tableaux beginning to take form, old signs, lights in various stages of renovations and lots and lots of lamps (not bulbs!). There was time to try out the actual handle used to switch on the lights (six degrees of separation time – lets work out how many celebrity hands we followed….), marvel at the size of the building and its contents, venture into dark corners to see long forgotten light displays and finally as the tour approached its end wander up and down the aisles between hundreds of displays currently resident in the workshop.  
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
There was great excitement and gasps of oohs and aahs as everyone spotted familiar characters – a rush to the Tardis and the Daleks, SpongeBob hiding in a dark corner. Alice in Wonderland, Noddy and whatever we call ‘Big Ears’ now, pirates, ghosts, motorcyclists. Some standing up some lying down. I’m not going to lie here it was wonderful! 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
We visited as a family of five ‘grown ups’ and had the most magical afternoon. There was something so exciting and special about being in and around the illuminations; designs you remembered (looking very different to the last time you saw them!), characters you love (in very unusual settings!) and a general feeling amongst you and your fellow visitors of  excitement, happiness and almost disbelief at your surroundings. The guides were friendly, interesting and fun with a wealth of fascinating stories which kept us all entertained. We found out so much – the Walt Disney connection, rumours of Hitler’s interest in Blackpool, the history, the cost and much more. I don’t think we have ever seen a better use of £8 with our ticket providing us with such a wonderful couple of hours.
Picture
Picture
Picture
So, did we manage to get any photos? Did we have to furtively sneak the cameras/phones out to try and capture all that we were seeing? In the tradition of saving the best until last, I am delighted to tell you that photography was encouraged and what a place to take your camera! Though at certain times of the year, especially when new designs are being built, some areas may have photographic limitations. I could have stayed there all day and still not had enough time to capture everything I could see. As the tour was relatively small and the building was so big you had space and time and opportunity after opportunity to take the most amazing photographs. I genuinely think without a doubt that this was the best photo afternoon I have ever had and by the look on the faces of all our fellow tour-ees (is that even a word?!) I think they would agree.
 
By now you can probably guess we cannot recommend this tour highly enough and the best part is there are four more this year (2019) for you to book on. Visit  www.heritageblackpool.co.uk for all the details. You won’t be disappointed!

“Oh, there is a light that never goes out
There is a light that never goes out….”
There is a Light That Never Goes Out - The Smiths
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Life and other
    ​stuff
    ....

    Places our boots have taken us to and what we did when we got there as well as some other stuff.

    Archives

    July 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016

    Categories

    All
    Architecture
    Bee In The City
    Bees
    Bikes
    Birmingham
    Blue Skies
    Bridges
    Bridgewater Hall
    Buckingham Palace
    Bury
    Canals
    Cathedral
    Celebrations
    Christmas
    Cities
    City
    Classical Music
    Coffee
    Comic Con
    Concerts
    Crafts
    Days Out
    Doughnuts
    Elnup Woods
    Family
    Food
    Hacienda Classical
    Halle
    Harpist
    Hobbies
    Home Life
    Ice Cream
    Jazz
    Lancashire
    Liverpool
    Local
    London
    Manchester
    Manchester-baroque
    Manchester-camerata
    Manchester Jazz Festival
    Manchester Ship Canal
    Mesnes Park
    Motorways
    Music
    Nature
    New Year
    Orchestra
    Parbold
    Park
    Performers
    Photography
    Racing
    Restaurants
    Road Trip
    Salford
    Scotland
    Sculpture Trail
    Shevington
    Standish
    Steam Train
    Summer
    Theatre
    Theme Parks
    Tourism
    Trafford
    Trains
    Transport
    Travel
    United Kingdom
    Urban
    Victoria Station
    Visits
    Walking
    Walks
    Wanderlust
    Wigan
    Wildlife
    Woodland
    Worthington Lakes

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Features & Snippets
    • Features >
      • Special Guests
    • Snippets
    • Out and About >
      • Travels >
        • North Coast 500 August 2016
        • North Coast 500 - view from the passenger seat
  • The Design Den
    • Gallery & Design >
      • Personal Posters
      • Something Old Something New
  • CONTACT