Packed factory gates, dog night and running for the bus - how Squires Gate in Blackpool has changed

By Barry Band
Charlie Chaplin. Photo: Getty ImagesCharlie Chaplin. Photo: Getty Images
Charlie Chaplin. Photo: Getty Images

There wouldn’t normally be a reason to print a photograph of an empty space!

There’s not much to see. Is that lane going anywhere?

The only clue is the ad, offering a flight for three shillings and sixpence. That’s seventeen pence in today’s coin.

Snowdrifts block the road at Squires Gate, outside Halfway HouseSnowdrifts block the road at Squires Gate, outside Halfway House
Snowdrifts block the road at Squires Gate, outside Halfway House

Yes, you’ve got it. We’re in the Squires Gate area.

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More precisely, it is the junction of Squires Gate Lane, St Annes Road and Amy Johnson Way.

This dusty junction, pictured in the 1930s, must be the centre of the greatest local transformation in the lifetime of our older readers.

Today there are often four lanes of traffic emerging from what was once a narrow lane. Morrison’s is to the right, Halford’s, Dunelm, Argus and other stores are to the left, and straight ahead are the big car showrooms and the Blackpool Business Park.

Leach Lane junction with Squires Gate Lane seen from the Halfway House looking towards St Annes with St Annes Parish Church on the horizon, 1930sLeach Lane junction with Squires Gate Lane seen from the Halfway House looking towards St Annes with St Annes Parish Church on the horizon, 1930s
Leach Lane junction with Squires Gate Lane seen from the Halfway House looking towards St Annes with St Annes Parish Church on the horizon, 1930s

The photo was found in the Gazette’s files after reader Linda Tolson shared her memories of growing up in the Squires Gate area during the 1940s and 50s.

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The caption on the photo confirms the narrow lane as being Leach Lane, which came in a straight line from St Annes across what is now the airport and business park to link with St Annes Road.

“When my parents bought a house on Squires Gate Lane in 1938 it was considered a long way out from Blackpool,” says Linda Tolson MBE, a retIred head teacher of Moor Park School, Bispham, and a stalwart of the Friends of the Grand.

“There was nothing much on St Annes Road beyond Watson’s Road bridge, apart from farm houses and small holdings,” said Linda.

“In those days Squires Gate Lane beyond the Halfway House Hotel was called Stanley Road, a lane leading to Marton Moss.

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The Halfway House dominated the area and it was from one of the top windows that our photograph was taken.

Linda recalled: “Dad told me there was nothing to see from our house bedroom window until the spire of St Annes Parish Church and he could see the buses leaving St Annes Square.”

The development of the airport site began with the building of the Vickers Armstrong aircraft factory in 1940, to make Wellington bombers. Leach Lane was closed off in February, 1940.

“During the war from our front windows we could see the sky lit up as Liverpool was bombed by the Luftwaffe,” said Linda.

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“Sometimes the German bombers jettisoned unused bombs on the way back. A bomb fell on a house at the corner of Lindale and Faringdon Avenues.”

Linda continued: “There was a great community spirit in those days. Few people had cars and the children played out in nearby streets. Parents took turns to walk us to the beach at Starr Gate.

“Some well known people lived in the area in the 1940s. Eric Littler, the Gazette’s municipal reporter, and Mr Williamson, the head teacher at Roseacre School, had houses in Stanley Road. Mrs Henthorne (later Ratcliffe) a director of the Queen’s Hydro, lived in Balham Avenue as did Councillor Gordon Wall, who was the first in the avenue to own a car.

“His daughter, Anne, and myself presented patriotic concerts in her garage, where we sang wartime songs and marched up and down with flags and persuaded younger children to be our audience.

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“On Anne’s birthday Mr Wall usually showed Charlie Chaplin films and cartoons.”

Linda said there were times for youngsters to avoid being out, like when the factory gates opened and the workers streamed out, running for the bus at the Halfway House and on “dog night” when crowds of men went to the greyhound track in Stadium Avenue.

Linda Tolson remembers many of the shopkeepers at the top of St Annes Road, like Lily’s bread shop with a bakehouse in the back garden, Godbolt’s butchers and John’s greengrocers, where she begged for bananas just after the war.

At the chemist’s shop was Mrs Crozier, the mother of Blackpool Tower Company entertainments manager, Kathleen Williams, who lived nearby.

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One thing remembered by those growing up in the 1940s was the regularity of heavy snowfalls and our second big picture, from 1950, is typical.

The old 22 bus has reached the Halfway House stop and is going no further until a gang of council workmen has cleared the way.

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