I had an enquiry this week that took me back to something I last wrote about fourteen years ago so I thought I'd revisit it as it's definitely a forgotten corner.
Over twenty years ago I found myself in a gambling casino at Squire's Gate just South of Blackpool. (Don't ask me how I got there, it's the only time in my life I have visited such a place!) Despite the fact I am not a gambler I decided to enter into the spirit, invested £1 in chips and had a go on a one armed bandit. I won £20, decided that was all right, cashed my chips in and finished up in front of the house. To pass the time while my companions invested their spare cash I watched what was going on at the tables. Two things caught my attention. The first was that many of the players were Chinese and learned later that they were restaurant and fish and chip shop proprietors. Gambling is very common evidently with their race. The second thing was that paper money was vanishing down a slot on the roulette table as if it was going out of fashion and that many of the players were elderly ladies with blue rinses. Intrigued, I made enquiries of one of my friends who was an habitué of these places. He told me that what I was looking at was old textile money. The ladies were the widows of manufacturers who had retired to the Fylde Coast, many to Southport and St Anne’s and they were regulars. He also said that this explained why, after Oxford Street in London and The Rows at Chester, Lord Street in Southport was reckoned amongst the most expensive shopping venues in Britain. I stored this interesting information at the back of my head and later did a bit of digging.
I have to admit here that I know nothing about inherited wealth because like many of you I come from a family that has always lived hand to mouth. The only things I have ever inherited are debts and obligations! The more I looked into the subject, the more I realised that some wealth never goes away, it can persist down the generations and there are people alive today who still live on the income from money made long ago. I suppose I'd always known that this was the basis of aristocratic wealth but rather than go back to the Conquest I looked at money made in industry, particularly textiles. It turned out to be a very fertile field of research and I learned some fascinating things.
While I was ferreting about I heard a rumour about a very famous organ being installed in Bracewell Hall in the 19th century and when I dug into that I found a perfect example of old money in Barlick. So there you have the back story for what I shall be writing about next week! Sorry to be such a tease.....
A table like this can eat money!
