Blackpool
Population: 142065 people
Blackpool i/ˈblækpuːl/ is a major seaside resort and borough of Lancashire, North West England. The town is a unitary authority area, noted for its political autonomy, independent of Lancashire County Council. It is situated along England's northwest coast located by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, 17.5 miles (28.2 km) northwest of Preston, 27 miles (43 km) north of Liverpool, 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Bolton and 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Manchester. It has an estimated population of 142,100,. falling to 142,065 at the 2011 Census. making it the fourth most populated settlement in the North West behind Manchester, Liverpool and Warrington, and a population density that makes it the fourth most densely populated borough of England and Wales outside Greater London.
Throughout the Middle Ages and Early Modern period, Blackpool was a coastal hamlet in Lancashire's Hundred of Amounderness, and remained such until the mid-18th century when it became fashionable in England to travel to the coast during the summer to bathe in sea water to improve well-being. In 1781, visitors attracted to Blackpool's 7-mile (11 km) sandy beach were able to use a newly built private road, built by Thomas Clifton and Sir Henry Hoghton. Stagecoaches began running to Blackpool from Manchester in the same year, and from Halifax in 1782. In the early 19th century, Henry Banks and his son-in-law John Cocker erected new buildings in Blackpool such that its population grew from less than 500 in 1801 to over 2,500 in 1851. St John's Church in Blackpool was consecrated in 1821.
Blackpool rose to prominence as a major centre of tourism in England when a railway was built in the 1840s connecting it to the industrialised regions of Northern England. The railway made it much easier and cheaper for visitors to reach Blackpool, triggering an influx of settlers, such that in 1876 Blackpool was incorporated as a borough, governed by its own town council and aldermen. In 1881 Blackpool was a booming resort with a population of 14,000 and a promenade complete with piers, fortune-tellers, public houses, trams, donkey rides, fish-and-chip shops and theatres. By 1901 the population of Blackpool was 47,000, by which time its place was cemented as "the archetypal British seaside resort". By 1951 it had grown to 147,000.
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