Thornton Maps ...

Firstly I'd just like to bring to everyones attention that James on the Thornton Cleveleys Forum has thrown up plans that have been submitted for a new Tesco Express store in Thornton. Now where could this be ? ... Thornton Centre ... are they converting an existing shop on Victoria Road somewhere. No. The proposed plans are for the store to go on the carpark at Marsh Mill opposite to Seniors Chippy. You can view the plans here. There is limited parking already at the Mill and they intent to take away even more. I feel an objection coming on!

Andy has very kindly leant me some maps this week that a friend of his owns and I have been copying them like a daemon as I only had them for a short time. Now the problem with the old maps is the size of them and how to copy them. I started off trying to scan them .. so took the lid of my scanner to allow better access and to get to the middle bits but then I had nothing to press the map to the glass so the quality was poor. I tried placing my Beano Album (I'm classy me) on the map but as it was sticking out on all sides I was scared of damaging it. Again no good as my scanner did not like the old paper/canvas and the scans were even poorer.

Time to change tack. The stationers at Fleetwood has an A3 size photocopier so still not big enough but I could photocopy large sections. Even with photocopies in hand I still would have had the problem of how to get the images back onto my pc. I would have had to have celotaped all the sections back together and then cut them into bite-sized pieces to fit on my scanner and it wasn't cheap.

After wracking my brains (it didn't hurt too much) and a prototype made from a takeaway box .. I decided on a frame. I went to the craft shop at Marsh Mill and bought some thick card and cut out a 'picture mount' type thingy. I put this on the map .. took a pic .. and then moved it along to the next section. This gave me the same size each time which would make trying to piece the map back together easier. It still isn't the perfect solution as unless the camera is exactly in the centre and exactly the same distance away each time the picture distorts out of shape but it is the best I can come up with. The quality isn't as good as a scan and some of the 'joins' are a bit out but until I can find someone with a bigger scanner (story of my life) it's the best I can come up with.

So basically all the above has been an excuse for some sections being slightly out of focus and the joins being a bit pants .. but hey where else are you going to see an original 1845/6 map of Thornton. Well on Mario actually .. but mines not got 'Lancashire County Council' written all over it. I will hopefully have it on for Sunday if I can get the blasted thing to not look like a 3 year old has done it :-)

Now I've had en enquiry from somebody who has located a rellie on the 1910 Barrat's directory and is trying to find where the address is. The gentleman in question is Mr J Smethurst with the enviable address of 'Bungalow castles'. I have never come across this on a Thornton map so am thinking it must be Cleveleys as at the time it was still part of Thornton (please insert a smug - "we were here first" here). Does anybody know where this is?

I've also had a request from a gentleman trying to locate a current photograph of Harry Feeney. If anybody can help please can they email me and not post in the comments section please.

Talking about the comments .. here is a quick 'how to' guide to posting .. don't be shy!


Now for the Quiz ...

Where in Thornton Am I ? ... and the answer is














The Sunday School of Fleetwood Rd Methodist Church.

The church is currently up for sale but I am reliably informed that it can only be used for the same/similar use and has to be approved by the church. So no plans for demolision at the moment.

In 1st place .. Peter
In 2nd place .. Mike

I have a feeling there was another correct guess but I've had problems with emails in my ongoing saga with my pc so if I have left you off .. apologies.

A