Blackpool International for Lancashire and the Lake District

1909-1919-1929

  • Squires Gate hosts the first official aviation meeting 18-23rd October 1909
  • 200,000 spectators consume 500 cases of champagne, 36,000 bottles of beer and 1,000 hams
  • Frenchman Henri Farman sets the first official British flight record of 47 miles
  • By 1911 Squires Gate becomes a racecourse - the first race was the £1,000 Coronation Gold Cup
  • WW1 breaks out and the land is used for the King's Lancashire Military Convalescent home
  • In 1919 the A.V. Roe Company offers pleasure flights from South Shore for five shillings
  • An Air Pageant is staged again at Squires Gate in 1928 with 73 aircraft from the RAF