Bispham, Blackpool Totally Explained

Everything about Bispham Blackpool totally explained

Bispham is a village roughly one-and-a-half miles north of Blackpool town centre on the Fylde coast in the county of Lancashire, England.

Geography and administration

The village is part of the borough of Blackpool. To the south of Bispham is North Shore and Layton, to the east is Carleton and to the north is Norbreck and Thornton Cleveleys and to the west, the Irish sea. The area is mostly urban. Bispham is currently in the Blackpool North and Fleetwood parliamentary constituency. However at the next general election it'll be part of the newly created Blackpool North and Cleveleys constituency. The village is also in the North West England European parliament constituency. Bispham has three electoral wards, Bispham, Greenlands and Ingthorpe.

Village history

A 12,000 year old animal skeleton (the Carleton Elk) found with barbed arrowheads near Blackpool Sixth Form College in 1970 provided the first evidence of humans living on the Fylde as far back as the Palaeolithic era. The Fylde was also home to a British tribe, the Setantii (the "dwellers in the water") a sub-tribe of the Brigantes, who from about AD80 were controlled by Romans from their fort at Dowbridge, Kirkham. During the Roman occupation the area was covered by oak forests and bog land.
Bispham, known until 1910 as Bispham-with-Norbreck, It is featured in the Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Biscopham'.(meaning Bishop's estate or Bishop's house) Many of the settlements and villages on The Fylde were Anglo-Saxon settlements. Some though were 9th and 10th century Viking place names. The Vikings and Anglo-Saxons seem to have co-existed peacefully with some Anglo-Saxon and Viking place names later being joined together—such as Bispham-with-Norbreck. Bispham having the Anglo-Saxon place name ham and Norbreck having the Viking place name, breck. Bispham-with-Norbreck comprised three hamlets—Great (or Greater) Bispham, Little Bispham and Norbreck, with Anchorsholme (then Angersholme) part of Norbreck. Although the three hamlets were originally part of the Lordship of Amounderness, they were later divided with the moiety of Little Bispham and Norbreck being given to Shrewsbury Abbey and Great Bispham to the Lord of Warrington.
It was in Bispham that the first mention of "Blackpool" appeared, found in the Register of Bispham Parish Church in 1602 with the christening record of a child born on 22nd September to a couple who lived "on the bank of the Black Pool". In 1883 the area known as Bispham Hawes, which was at the south end of Layton, was detached from Bispham and added to Layton. The population of Bispham-with-Norbreck in 1901 was 985. Greenlands, St Anne has an active healing ministry. Keajra Kadampa Buddhist Centre, a residential Buddhist centre and a member of the New Kadampa Tradition is located on Holmfield Road.

Education

The village has several schools, including

Primary Schools
Bispham Endowed Church of England Primary School, located on Bispham Road. The original school was housed in what is now the home of the local Sea Cadets near to Devonshore Road roundabout. The school is connected to Bispham Parish Church, and the first school was founded in 1659. In 2007 the school was listed in the top 100 most improved schools in England.
Langdale Independent Preparatory School
Moor Park Primary School, located on Moor Park Avenue in the Moor Park area of Bispham.
Saint Bernadette's Catholic Primary School
Westcliff Primary School

Secondary Schools

Bispham High School Arts College

Montgomery High School

Colleges

Blackpool and The Fylde College the large main college campus of the college is located on Ashfield Road, Bispham.

Local attractions and ameneties

The village has a few attractions, with the tram station and the highest cliffs on the both the Fylde coast and the North West Coast. There are a number of hotels and guest houses mostly around the seaward end of Red Bank Road and on Queens Promenade. The Red Lion pub also houses a Premier Travel Inn.
   Bispham has five of the fourteen Lancashire County Council designated Biological Heritage Sites (BHS) located in Blackpool, including Kincraig Lake Ecological Reserve which is located on Kincraig Road, with Kincraig lake and a wild fowl population, from which Kincraig Primary School takes its school crest.
    Bispham Rock Gardens is at the top of Knowle Hill on Devonshire Road and runs downhill toward the back of Bispham High School, with views from the top toward Pendle Hill, Beacon Fell and the Bowland fells. Moor Park runs adjoining Moor Park Avenue and Bispham Road. The park contains a children's playground, parkland, a (disused) bowling green and Moor Park Swimming Pool which is located in the northwest corner of the park. It has a 25 metre pool and a teaching pool. The Friends of Moor Park group was set up in January 2007 with the aim of restoring the park to its former glory including work on the footpaths through the park and the possibility of re-opening the disused bowling green as well as work on the children's playground. Other parks in Bispham include Cavendish Road Recreation Ground which has tennis courts, football and basketball areas and a bowling green, which has a Friends group—Friends of Cavendish Road Recreation Ground. In November 2007 with both funding and planning obtained, work started at Cavendish Road Recreation Ground on a new Kiddies playground, aimed at children under seven years old. and East Pines Park. Red Bank Bowling Green is located next to Sainsburies and is owned by the adjoining Bispham Conservative Club. The green was originally a garden belonging to the house which is now the Conservative Club.
   Bispham library was opened on 5 May 1938. Trinity - the hospice in the Fylde is a sepcialist palliative care service for adults and children located on Low Moor Road. Public houses in Bispham include the Old England, the Red Lion, the Bispham Hotel and the Squirrel Hotel. There are also two wine bars, Oscars in the village and Maddisons on Red Bank Road.
   Admiral Point on Queens Promenade is a luxury housing development in a Grade II listed building. It was originally The Miners Convalescent Home and was built by Bradshaw Gass & Hope between 1925 and 1927. It was opened by the Prince of Wales on 28 June, 1927. The home, which for many years was empty was redeveloped into luxury homes by housebuilders Persimmon Homes and is now known as Admiral Point, with 47 apartments, together with 112 apartments and homes around the grounds, with two new six storey apartment blocks built flanking the main building, and housing behind it. In February 2006 it was revealed that sales of apartments in, what the company described as "the jewel in the crown" at Admiral Point had helped Persimmon Homes to record profits, such was the popularity of the new properties in the Grade II listed building. In October 2005 it was revealed that several high profile footballers, including former Premiership player Robbie Fowler as well as Jonathan Macken, Mads Timm and former player Lee Sharpe had bought apartments at Admiral Point. On 27 July 2007 Blackpool Council announced that the sports car production would begin within a matter of weeks, initially at part of the former TVR factory; with the company eventually moving to a purpose built factory which had already been leased from the council by William Riley. Bispham Technology Park is a growing, modern, Office and Retail Park which is due to be expanded further in 2008 with the creation of Kincraig Business Park on a three acre site within the park together with an environmental project with green space area to protect wildlife including a pond. On 11 January 2008, local MP, Joan Humble cut the first sod at a ceremony at the new Kincraig Business Park with the first of forty plots being created at the new park having already been taken even before building work started. Layton railway station was originally named Bispham railway station. Both Bispham and Norbreck are separate ares of Blackpool. Although the two do come together annually for the Bispham and Norbreck Gala held in July of each year with a procession that winds through both Bispham and Norbreck starting and finishing at Bispham Gala fields, an open space which is owned by Blackpool Council with football pitches, a community centre, secure grazing area and with part of the land sublet to Blackpool Rugby union football club and a Golf Driving range. In 2007 local residents called for a covenant to be placed on the Gala fields to safeguard the land to be used for future galas.

Blackpool Illuminations

Red Bank Road is at the Northern end of the world-famous Blackpool Illuminations. The area at Bispham Cliffs contains the famous tableaux displays, where there's a pathway for holidaymakers and locals to view the tableaux close up. The first animated tableaux were erected in 1932 running along the cliffs from North Shore to Bispham, and the Illuminations were extended to its current length running from Starr Gate to Red Bank Road at Bispham. Some of the tableaux have sound and visual content that can only be viewed and heard by walking by them. The tableaux also includes mixed media in the various large tableaux displays. The displays at the cliffs from North Shore to Bispham contain forty large tableaux holding more than 5,000 square metres in surface area. There is a pedestrian walkway running the length of the tableaux displays which are set back from the Promenade beyond the tramway. Blackpool Tramway runs along the entire length of the Illuminations and there are over one million lamps in the display. In 2007 the Egyptian tableau which includes Egyptian sarcophagus, which eerily opens to reveal a mummified secret, returned after an overhaul. Also at Bispham on the clifftop was a new BBC Portal video screen. In January 2008 new plans were revealed to erect two new all year round, triumphal arches at either end of the Illuminations, "selling the Blackpool message".

Blackpool Tramway

Blackpool tramway runs along the length of the sea front at Bispham. In 1920 Blackpool Corporation took over the Blackpool & Fleetwood Tramroad Company gaining a further eight miles of track, and also three further depots including the Bispham Tram Depot on Red Bank Road, until it closed in 1966. Built in 1898, Bispham Tram Depot had room to house 36 trams on six tracks, after being extended in 1914 by the Blackpool and Fleetwood Tramway Company. A substation was built to the side of depot. The depot was used to receive pantograph cars in 1928 and Brush cars in 1940. The depot closed on 27 October 1963 but used as a store, Alpic Cash & Carry until the mid 1970s Former Emmerdale actress, Hayley Tamaddon was a pupil at Montgomery High School. Coronation Street actress, Violet Carson, OBE lived in Bispham until her death in 1983. She is buried at Bispham Parish Church. Former Brookside and The Royle Family actor, Ricky Tomlinson, was born in Bispham on 26 September 1939. English film-maker, Alan Entwistle was born in Bispham on 4 July 1961.

Sport

North Shore Golf Club is located at the edge of Bispham with most of the golf course in Bispham. The course is a links type course. Phoenix Golf Driving Range is based on Fleetwood Road. Blackpool Rugby Union Football club are based in Bispham. Blackpool Junior football Federation are based at Bispham Gala Fields.

Local Associations, Clubs & Societies

Bispham Community Association

Bispham Conservative Club

BJFF—Bispham Junior Football Federation

Bispham Photographic Society

Blackpool Rangers Junior Football Club

St.Bernadette's Players

—Local Bispham Amateur Dramatics SocietyFurther Information

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