In 1986, there was a fire at the Rovers Return, which attracted an audience of just under 27 million, and between 1986 and 1989, the story of Rita Fairclough's psychological abuse at the hands of Alan Bradley ( Mark Eden ), and his subsequent death under the wheels of a Blackpool tram, was played out.

Britain abandoned its last tram system, except for Blackpool, by 1962.

This was 1928-built Blackpool tram 48, the same double-deck trolley which OERHS had operated on the Willamette Shore line for a few months in fall 1987.

The Horbury Junction Iron Company site was used to build tram bodies for Blackpool and Sheffield trams.

Otherwise, the Blackpool tramway is the only surviving first-generation urban tram system in the UK and provides a service running along the Blackpool Pleasure Beach using both historic and modern trams.

A Manchester 765 single deck combination car dating from 1914, a Stockport open top tram number 5 which arrived on 25 August 2011 and as of the 22nd January Single deck Blackpool Brush car 623.

* Blackpool & Fleetwood 40: A 1914 Fleetwood tram

* Blackpool 225: A 1934 Blackpool tram

Most of the tram networks, with a few exceptions ( notably Blackpool ) closed before the 1960s.

Following the Government's pledge to a build 25 new tram networks by 2010, a £ 1 billion bid for a Government grant was launched by Blackpool Council and Lancashire County Council in 2002 to expand the tram network to include St Annes to the south and new housing estates in Fleetwood to the north, with a possible further phase to include links to Poulton-Le-Fylde and Thornton.

Flexity 2 ( Blackpool ) | Flexity 2 tram at Tower tram stop

Illuminated trawler tram at Blackpool

Illuminated trawler tram at Blackpool

His exit from this role was famously being knocked down by a Blackpool tram.

Alan famously met his end after being hit and killed by a Blackpool tram while chasing a distressed Rita across the tracks.

15 June 1978: Less than three months after Hartlepool United defender Dave Wiggett was killed in a car crash, another Football League club is plunged into mourning with the death of a player when Blackpool midfielder Alan Groves died of a heart attack aged 29.

In the following year, on 12 November 1943, the crew of a Wellington Bomber ( Z8799 ) from 28 Operational Training Unit, flying from Blackpool to Manchester, were killed when it crashed just to the North of Winter Hill, on Hurst Hill, Anglezarke Moor.

In September 2010 Williams switched on the Blackpool illuminations, stating that it was one of the greatest honours he'd ever achieved.

Although Mighty Blackpool have won the league title fifteen times, the last time they were league champions was in the 2001 season after a dramatic finish to the season saw them finish one point ahead of Old Edwardians.

However Matthews was not impressed when the Blackpool board demanded a £ 3, 500 transfer fee, with one director being so bold as to tell him " You forget.

A final day loss to Blackburn put them in danger of relegation, but results elsewhere meant they narrowly survived in 17th place, one point ahead of relegated Birmingham and Blackpool.

For the 1945 – 46 season, after the war's conclusion, Blackpool spent one season in the Football League North.

Twice Blackpool narrowly missed promotion to Division One, by two points in 1974 and one point in 1977.

The following 1991 – 92 season finished with Blackpool in fourth place, missing out on automatic promotion by one point, which meant another play-offs experience.

The region produced no significant bands in the electric folk movement of the 1970s but can claim one of the most significant figures, as Maddy Prior was brought up in Blackpool.

For example, if one knows that the ICAO code for Heathrow is EGLL, then one can deduce that the airport EGNH is somewhere in the UK ( it is Blackpool International Airport ).

It has been reported that Central station in Blackpool could handle with ease one million people, in and out, in one day.

Prior to the 1997 general election, with polls predicting that the Conservatives had no chance of retaining the Blackpool South seat, Hawkins applied and was selected to contest the newly-created constituency of Surrey Heath, which was predicted to be one of the safest Conservative seats in the country.

He became active in the Liberal Party and contested Blackpool in the 1931 general election as one of a handful of Independent Liberals who rejected the National Government, and the official Liberal support for it, and strongly supported free trade.

Over the next 100 years, Consett became one of the world's most prominent steel-making towns, and the name Consett became synonymous with iron and steel, making the steel for Blackpool Tower and Britain's most famous nuclear submarines.

In August, 1974, a Blackpool fan was stabbed to death at the back of the Spion Kop, Bloomfield Road at Blackpool's home match with Bolton Wanderers It was widely reported as being the first hooligan death at an English football match and together with Manchester United fans behaviour, during their one season in the Second Division that year, it ushered in a dark era of hooliganism in England.

* Most goals ( one final ): 3, Billy Townley ( Blackburn Rovers ) ( 1890 ), James Logan ( Notts County ) ( 1894 ) & Stan Mortensen ( Blackpool ) ( 1953 )

Studley is often noted as having many pubs ( 17 within one square mile, plus numerous restaurants which also serve alcohol ) and it has been suggested that the village has the second-highest number of pubs per head of population ( second only to Blackpool ).

All these feature live performances of the brothers, one filmed at Blackpool, one at Scarborough, one at Darlington, and the other at York.

It is owned by three men originally from Pakistan, there are currently RFCs in Blackpool one owned by each.

A year before Burnham's death in Blackpool, one Henry Williams had rented a house in 80 High Street, with no bath, for himself and his wife Beatrice " Bessie " Munday, whom he married in Weymouth, Dorset in 1910.

The competition is currently sponsored by Northern Rail and, with the final played at Blackpool FC's Bloomfield Road, has grown to become one of rugby league's annual marquee events.

Lytham station, St Annes station and Ansdell & Fairhaven station all lie on the Blackpool South to Preston branch of the Blackpool Branch Lines. Prior to the closure of Blackpool Central in 1964 the Coast Road, as it was known, was the main line into Blackpool.

When Parliament is sitting he commutes to London from his main home in Brighton, while his Blackpool constituency home which is a rented flat above his office in Highfield Road and is his designated second home.

Its main base and headquarters is at Leeds Bradford Airport, with smaller bases at Manchester, Belfast International, Blackpool, Edinburgh, Newcastle, East Midlands and Glasgow.

In addition to the main maintenance base at Norwich Airport ( Air Anglia's former engineering base ), there also used to be a second major maintenance base at Blackpool Airport ( the old BIA engineering base ).

It operated charter as well as scheduled services from its main base at Blackpool International Airport.

The other main railway station in the city is Bradford Interchange, about 10 minutes by foot from Forster Square, from where services operate along the Caldervale Line to Leeds, Halifax, Huddersfield, Manchester Victoria, Blackpool and London Kings Cross.

To the west of the station, Kirkham North Junction is where the suburban branch line to Blackpool South follows the Fylde coast through Lytham, Ansdell and Fairhaven, St Annes on Sea ; the main line to proceeds via Poulton.