24 March 2016

Allen Clarke and Cornelius Bagot, Blackpool, Lancashire


'ALLEN CLARKE MEMORIAL WINDMILL
THIS WINDMILL WAS GIVEN IN 1937 BY
CORNELIUS BAGOT
OF BLACKPOOL
TO BE MAINTAINED AS A MEMORIAL TO
ALLEN CLARKE
AUTHOR, JOURNALIST & LANCASHIRE DIALECT
STORY WRITER WHO WAS BORN IN BOLTON IN 1963
& DIED IN BLACKPOOL IN 1935 AUTHOR OF 'WINDMILL
LAND' 'WINDMILL LAND STORIES' MOORLANDS AND
MEMORIES' - FOUNDER OF THE LANCASHIRE AUTHORS
ASSOCIATION AND THE BLACKPOOL RAMBLER CLUB'


'Blackpool Council
Built in 1838 on the site of an earlier windmill
by millwright Richard Blezard for Nancy, widow
of John Whalley. Originally one of seven windmills
in the area, it is the last remaining within the boundary
of Blackpool Borough. The design is typical for the Flyde
Coast, other surviving examples being Lytham St Anne's
to the south and Thornton to the north. The mill ceased
operating in 1928 and was given to the town by
Cornelius Bagot, as a memorial to his friend,
local author Allen Clarke (1863–1935).'


'BLACKPOOL CIVIC TRUST
HERITAGE TRAIL
251
WHITEGATE DRIVE
BUILT 1900
The home of
CORNELIUS BAGOT
1924 – 1940
He gifted
LITTLE MARTON MILL
(GRADE II LISTED)
Together with 315 sq yards of land on 30th October 1937
in trust as a perpetual memory to local author
ALLEN CLARKE
Cornelius Bagot was knocked down by a taxi near
this house on his 60th birthday 9th August 1940
During the W.W.2 Blackout.'

There's even a photo of Little Marton windmill in the Layton Rakes pub in the centre of town, which mentions both Allen Clarke (who often wrote under the pseudonym Teddy Ashton) and Cornelius Brown. Unfortunately Blackpool Council hasn't paid anything like the respect to Allen Clarke's grave as it has to his mill: we were unable to locate it in Marton Cemetery because, as an email from his granddaughter Shirley Matthews informed me, it still lies in pieces after being vandalised some time ago.

My other post on Allen Clarke:
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Paul Salveson: Lancashire's Romantic Radical: The Life and Writings of Allen Clarke / Teddy Ashton (2009)

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