St Nicholas, Marton

Not to be confused with West Marton, which is on the A59 road.
Marton is firmly in the middle of rural Blackpool. St Nicholas is maybe 300 to 400 yards from what we locals call the back road between Lytham and Blackpool. School Road is the road that runs between the junction of Common Edge Road and eventually Preston New Road and the M55. It can get extremely busy in the morning. I occasionally go down School Lane.
The original school was on Division lane a parallel road approximately 800 yards due south. There is more to be found on the school's excellent website here. I suspect I will update the photos in time.

The front of the school viewed from School road
heading inland from Common Edge road.
The porch is a main entrance.
The memorial can be seen clearly on the left

The Memorial

Close up of the memorial.
Its sits perfectly between the two windows

ST nicholas Church is attached to the school by a glass faced corridor
The school road side of the school faces due south!

View from the inland end of the school.
All these photos have been taken from the road

 This is the inscription;

THIS

TABLET WAS ERECTED

BY SUBSCRIPTION BY THE INHABITANTS

OF MARTON

TO THE PERPETUAL MEMORY OF

THOSE BRAVE MEN FROM THIS PARISH

WHO FELL IN THE EUROPEAN WAR

1914-1918

HERBERT ASHWORTH

WILLIAM ATKINSON

RALPH BARROW

FRED BOLTON

JAMES BLAYLOCK

WILLIAM BLAYLOCK

THOMAS BOARDMAN

JOHN BRAITHWAITE

THOMAS BRAITHWAITE

WILLIAM BRAITHWAITE

ROBERT BROCKBANK

LOUIS BUCKLEY

JOHN CARDWELL

HENRY CROSS

EDWARDS BAYNES DIXON

JAMES DUGDALE D.C.M. M.M.

WILLIAM H. FITZGERALD

THOMAS HILL

ARTHUR HOBSON

GEARGE W HILTON

WILLIAM KIRKHAM

EDWARD LEEMING

RALPH PARKINSON

ERNEST PEARSON

FRANK RICHARDSON

GEAORGE RAWCLIFFE

RICHARD ROSSALL

EDWARD SANDERSON

THOMAS H. SANDERSON

ROBERT SANDERSON

JOHN SINGLETON

WILLIAM SWARBRICK

RICHARD TOWNSEND

ARTHUR VASEY

PERCY WARREN

JOHN WHITESIDE

WILLIAM WHITESIDE

ARTHUR WHITELEY

The school as a memorial site is quite unusual though. It is the only school in the area that has the memorial actually outside and connected to the church. Definately a vibrant and thriving school. The memorial has recently been refurbished by "Ted Edwards" Stonemason. tHERE SEEMS TO BE A SISTER MEMORIAL NEARBY ALSO REFURBISHED BY THE SAME MAN. Although the description on the UKNIWM site suggests that it is in a wooden surround. The photographs suggest a sandstone surround around a granite face.

Further information can be found here.

ST NICHOLAS SCHOOL

UKNIWM Ref: 10553

The A59 Memorial at West Marton

Driving from Preston towards Yorkshire, suddenly a stone cross appears on the left. It is now partly hidden behind a stand of trees that will not have been there when the memorial was erected. As you drive the other way on this quite busy but twisty road the memorial appears over a rise! The memorial has aged, Lichen has taken over parts of the stone. This is quite a tall memorial and looks quite imperious. The villiage of West Marton, not to be confused with Marton in Blackpool is very small. Erecting this stone must have required a benefactor.
There is very little extra information at the United Kingdom War Memorial website. These are my images. The reference is

WEST MARTON

UKNIWM Ref: 29721

Looking towards Lancashire

 This is the inscription on the base of the cross:

"REMEMBER THOSE WHO DIED FOR THEIR 

KING AND COUNTRY

1914 - 1919

R.I.P.

 William Bailey

Joseph Bryan Bushby

Wilfred Dixon

Arthur Frazer

Charles Lickiss

 Atholl Murray MacGregor MC

Alan Charles Richmond Rate

Edward Ogilvie Turnbull

James Varley

 This is a newer inscription and has just two names on it:

1939 1945

Henry Riley Wor??e - there might even be a "d" at the end

John McCleary

This is a good memorial made out of quality sandstone. The inscriptions seem to be really quite shallow compared to other memorials. They are quite hard to decipher with the moss and lichen that is growing on them.
There is an excellent link to the history of the soldiers who are inscribed on the memorial here.
Believe it or not. 3 hours later we passed the same spot and the local authority were mowing the grass and giving it a general tidy up.

St Pauls Church, Marton, Blackpool.

It was a Saturday morning, I had gone to have the tyres changed on the car and I decided that I could do the walk down Preston New Road, visit the memorial and head back. However Blackpool away from the seafront is just like any suburban town and has a wealth of history just waiting to found. I went down Preston Old road instead, took photos in Marton Burial Ground, unusually there does not seem to be a church "looking after" it , found a boundary marker that I didn't know existed, took photos of the "Boars Head", and the hall opposite. There are some older cottages there too - they also ended up in the memory card too. Turned onto Whitegate drive at the "Saddle" pub, which is the longest permanently licensed pub in Blackpool. There is a shot up Preston Old Road from here.

The inscription

St Pauls Memorial

John Picken Dixon

The Outside of the Church

The inside of the church

The church is set back from the road and there is a pleasant clump of trees in front of the church. The memorial is set in front of the grass and is on the corner of a side road and Whitegate Drive. I walked around the church, there are some quite unusual features. The bell tower is set very low. There are no gravestones to be found. There is a tasteful foundation stone set in the church wall commemorating the founder of the church, John Picken Dixon. A biography is found here. The biography states that some members of the family are buried in the crypt at the church. The founder and his family have had a very illustrious career as an industrialist as well as having a huge influence in Blackpool and in particular, Marton.  It is quite a large size and is made of fine red brick, very much a traditional build - It is quite a modern church, but the surprises lie within. No pews - Apparently there was quite a bit of resistance from some members of the congregation. Looks good though! There were some ladies setting up for a Saturday coffee morning, on remarking there was very little in the way of ornamentation she showed me through the offices.

Cookson Memorial

Cookson Memorial

Metal Plaque inside Church

The memorial plaques to the first incumbent and his family. All three plaques are dedicated to the Cookson family whose origins clearly hark back to South Lakeland. A church definitely worth a visit! There is the compete list of the names on the memorial here as well as some more pictures of the church