REV RON GREENALL: Holidays in the real Coronation Street of Blackpool

It is a long time since I had sugar soap applied to scuffed knees, but it always worked in moving the grit and impurities from the wounds.
Rev reflections january 8 2018 - Parkinsons pills, spacehopper, Turner's coal horses, Bilsborrow Sunday School 30 years ago, Blackpool Central Pier 1870s, Blackpool Opera House 1947, GKER model trainRev reflections january 8 2018 - Parkinsons pills, spacehopper, Turner's coal horses, Bilsborrow Sunday School 30 years ago, Blackpool Central Pier 1870s, Blackpool Opera House 1947, GKER model train
Rev reflections january 8 2018 - Parkinsons pills, spacehopper, Turner's coal horses, Bilsborrow Sunday School 30 years ago, Blackpool Central Pier 1870s, Blackpool Opera House 1947, GKER model train
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Click here for more on the history of Parkinsons of Burnley

Basically it was a mixture of soap shavings mixed with white sugar, but the wonderful patent medicine firm of Parkinsons of Burnley had a much more professional product as they did many other medicines we relied on before the NHS came into being.

The show card I use for my first picture has a date of 1918 on it so is just 100 years old. Sienna was also one of their products which was very effective.

Rev reflections january 8 2018 - Parkinsons pills, spacehopper, Turner's coal horses, Bilsborrow Sunday School 30 years ago, Blackpool Central Pier 1870s, Blackpool Opera House 1947, GKER model trainRev reflections january 8 2018 - Parkinsons pills, spacehopper, Turner's coal horses, Bilsborrow Sunday School 30 years ago, Blackpool Central Pier 1870s, Blackpool Opera House 1947, GKER model train
Rev reflections january 8 2018 - Parkinsons pills, spacehopper, Turner's coal horses, Bilsborrow Sunday School 30 years ago, Blackpool Central Pier 1870s, Blackpool Opera House 1947, GKER model train
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I also remember well the paraffin lamp on our outside loo to stop it freezing up.

Vic and eucalyptus, elastoplasts, cotton wool and various bandages were vital items in our medicine cupboard, but Parkinsons of Burnley products dominated it.

Do you recall the object – the spacehopper – in my second picture?

It did replace some of the lethal box carts we made which were often lacking in brake power.

Rev reflections january 8 2018 - Parkinsons pills, spacehopper, Turner's coal horses, Bilsborrow Sunday School 30 years ago, Blackpool Central Pier 1870s, Blackpool Opera House 1947, GKER model trainRev reflections january 8 2018 - Parkinsons pills, spacehopper, Turner's coal horses, Bilsborrow Sunday School 30 years ago, Blackpool Central Pier 1870s, Blackpool Opera House 1947, GKER model train
Rev reflections january 8 2018 - Parkinsons pills, spacehopper, Turner's coal horses, Bilsborrow Sunday School 30 years ago, Blackpool Central Pier 1870s, Blackpool Opera House 1947, GKER model train
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Going down big boys’ hill by Hawkins Lodge in Preston, we often collided with the work gates of Cartmel and Barlow, not knowing their major joinery product was coffins!

As well as patent medicines, the other thing you vitally needed was fuel for your open fire, the only source of heat and cooking for many of us then.

Our coal was delivered by horse and cart from the firm another of my pictures brings back memories of.

Pilling peat and briquette blocks eked out the coal ration…

Rev reflections january 8 2018 - Parkinsons pills, spacehopper, Turner's coal horses, Bilsborrow Sunday School 30 years ago, Blackpool Central Pier 1870s, Blackpool Opera House 1947, GKER model trainRev reflections january 8 2018 - Parkinsons pills, spacehopper, Turner's coal horses, Bilsborrow Sunday School 30 years ago, Blackpool Central Pier 1870s, Blackpool Opera House 1947, GKER model train
Rev reflections january 8 2018 - Parkinsons pills, spacehopper, Turner's coal horses, Bilsborrow Sunday School 30 years ago, Blackpool Central Pier 1870s, Blackpool Opera House 1947, GKER model train

My next picture comes from a Bilsborrow resident who says it was of a Sunday School party more than 40 years ago.

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Do you have pictures and stories of such events you can share with our readers?

Now to a couple of Blackpool photographs.

The nostalgic reason I use them is that from 1944 to 1956, our family holiday week was always spent at a boarding house in Coronation Street Blackpool run by Mrs Hubbard and her daughter Mrs Lamb.

Rev reflections january 8 2018 - Parkinsons pills, spacehopper, Turner's coal horses, Bilsborrow Sunday School 30 years ago, Blackpool Central Pier 1870s, Blackpool Opera House 1947, GKER model trainRev reflections january 8 2018 - Parkinsons pills, spacehopper, Turner's coal horses, Bilsborrow Sunday School 30 years ago, Blackpool Central Pier 1870s, Blackpool Opera House 1947, GKER model train
Rev reflections january 8 2018 - Parkinsons pills, spacehopper, Turner's coal horses, Bilsborrow Sunday School 30 years ago, Blackpool Central Pier 1870s, Blackpool Opera House 1947, GKER model train

We always went over by bus in this week in January each year to confirm our booking and pay the deposit of one pound. A week’s full board including three full meals was just six pounds for an adult and three pounds five shillings for Under-15s.

No wonder we had to confirm our annual booking six months in advance!

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Now to my other pictures. The first is of the horse drawn bathing changing wagons in 1895, and the second of the opera house in 1947. Note the fashions and shows of the time.

My last picture today is a true replica of an engine that ran on the Garstang and Knott End Railway.

I used this model on show at the Flower and Patronal Festival at St Helen’s Churchtown, Garstang.

For 10 years I ran scale model layouts around the Lady Chapel area there.

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