Tag Archives: lancashire

Sesquicentennial Anniversary – Layton Cemetery, Talbot Road

We are 150 years old! This month marks the first interment at Layton Cemetery, Talbot Rd, Blackpool. On the 14th February 1873 John Slater, a gardener at Bailey’s Hotel on the promenade (later to become the Metropole Hotel) was laid to rest in the grounds surrounding Blackpool’s first sanatorium, as the graveyard situated at BlackpoolContinue reading “Sesquicentennial Anniversary – Layton Cemetery, Talbot Road”

St Leonard Churchyard

Lancashire folklore delights us with the following tale … on the 12th August 1560, Dr John Dee, minister at Manchester and later astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I, attempted to raise the dead near Preston. Along with convicted fraudster Edward Kelley, the two entered the churchyard of St Leonard’s Church, Walton le Dale, to perform theContinue reading “St Leonard Churchyard”

Murder of a Blackburn Babe

Sweet little June Anne Devaney was just one month short of her fourth birthday. The child had been hospitalised at Queens Park Hospital, Blackburn, due to a bout of pneumonia, but after ten days confinement was on the mend and due to head home the following morning. Heartbreakingly, she was never to return. In theContinue reading “Murder of a Blackburn Babe”

Layton’s Links to the Bloodiest Battle

The Battle of the Somme, where more than a million soldiers were killed in four months of machine gun warfare. Numerous British battalions were entering battle for the first time, and General Sir Henry Rawlinson issued an order that infantry troops were to advance at a walking pace in evenly spaced lines. Although many experiencedContinue reading “Layton’s Links to the Bloodiest Battle”

Return to Churchtown, Lancashire

Probably my favorite churchyard, situated around the north and south sides of St. Helen)s church, containing several sandstone headstones that have received a Grade II designation from English Heritage. They date mostly from the 18th century.There is a sundial that dates from 1757 & within the church there is the chamfered shaft of a sandstoneContinue reading “Return to Churchtown, Lancashire”

Seaside Suicide

As dawn broke on the bitterly cold morning of Tuesday 16th December, 1930, two drowned bodies were discovered washed up on the beach, at South Shore, Blackpool, Lancashire. The couple were later to be identified as James Smith (aged 68) and Lily Lavinia Francis Ferris (52 years old.) James Smith was known locally as aContinue reading “Seaside Suicide”

Unsolved Murder of an Undergraduate

A quarter of a century has passed since twenty year old student Janet Murgatroyd, from Penwortham, Lancs, was barbarically killed and her battered, naked body was discovered floating along the River Ribble. Janet had taken a part time position as a clerk with Lancashire Police to supplement her income as she studied at The UniversityContinue reading “Unsolved Murder of an Undergraduate”

Death of a Demimondaine

On the Eve of All Hallows’, 1951 a young Blackpool woman became the victim of a treacherously cruel act. Blackpool has had its fair share of notorious women and by the early 50s sisters ‘Madge & Mary’ were well known to the local constabulary. They were working girls, demimondaines paid for their services. Of MaryContinue reading “Death of a Demimondaine”