Catalogue description Records of Blackpool Labour Party

Records of the Blackpool ILP, as well as the records of hard, local, borough, constituency and divisional Labour Parties in Blackpool.

Blackpool Labour Party, Lancashire

Please note that the records listed in this catalogue are closed to public inspection for 30 years.

The following files are closed to the public:

DDX 2100/2/6

DDX 2100/2/8

DDX 2100/2/10

DDX 2100/2/12-13

DDX 2100/3/4

DDX 2100/3/8-17

DDX 2100/4/1-2

DDX 2100/4/7

DDX 2100/5/2

deposited by

Blackpool Labour Party

per Cllr Mrs P Carrington of Blackpool

9 May 1996

(acc 8007)

• Blackpool, Lancashire

Blackpool Parliamentary Borough was established in 1918 and in 1945 was divided into two. Blackpool North was sub-divided into Alexandra (1945-48); Anchorsholme (1964-); Bank Hey; Bispham; Brunswick; Claremont; Foxhall (1945-64); Layton; Talbot; Tyldesley (1945-48); and Warbreck wards; and Blackpool South into Alexandra (1948-); Clifton (1964-); Foxhall (1964-); Marton; Squires Gate (1964-); Stanley; Tyldesley (1964-); Victoria; and Waterloo.

The organisation of the Blackpool Labour Party reflected this structure. Blackpool Local Labour Party became Blackpool Borough Labour Party in 1946 and at the same time the Blackpool Divisional Labour Party was divided into north and south divisions corresponding to the new Blackpool North and South constituencies.

The records deposited as accession 8007 were kept by Percy Hall, a key figure in the Labour and Trades Union movements in Blackpool, until his death in 1996. Cllr Pat Carrington has kindly supplied the following biographical notes about him:

Percy was born in Windermere, son of a village postmaster who was one of the few working men to become an Urban District Councillor for Labour. He moved to Blackpool with his wife in 1933 to a teaching post at Marton Moss CE school. He moved to Highfield School before the war and returned there after war-time service in the RAEC. He became Head of Stanley Primary School where he remained until his retirement in 1974.

Throughout his life Percy was active in both the Labour and Trades Union movements. He was the official historian of Blackpool Trades Union Council and a WEA lecturer in local history. He held all the offices in Blackpool Labour Party and in 1981 was elected a county Councillor, becoming Chairman of the County Council in 1986. He was a magistrate, and honorary Freeman of the Borough and stood 3 times for parliament in Blackpool South Constituency.

He was a man of exceptional integrity and honesty. while he was teaching in a CE school his daughter was born, being a committed free thinker he refused, in spite of great pressure, to have her baptised and was removed from his post in the school.

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