Samuel and Mary ran a boarding house at, 62 Reads Avenue, Blackpool, Lancashire.
Blackpool rose to prominence as a major center of tourism in the Victorian era when a railway link was constructed in the 1840s, connecting it to the industrialised regions of the north. By 1881 Blackpool had become a booming resort with a population of around 14,000. Blackpool boasted a promenade, complete with piers, fortune-tellers, public houses, trams, donkey rides and theatres. By 1901 the population of Blackpool was 47,000, by which time its place was recognised as “the archetypal British seaside resort”.
Moving down to the Midlands in 1927, they ran ‘The Pleck Stores’ in Sidemoor (Bromsgrove). Their most famous client was Sir Edward Elgar who collected groceries from them. He would drive down Crabtree Lane in a pony and trap, from Grafton House where he used to stay. Read more…