Pleasure Beach Postcards

1836 -1910 Gypsy Life on South Shore

Originally located close to Uncle Tom's Cabin on North Shore, the gypsies were forced to move because of increasing cliff erosion. By 1885, their main encampment had been established in the sandhills next to the Star Inn. The Boswell family had lived on this site since 1836. Sarah Boswell and her husband Ned brought up nine children here and one of their offspring, Trafalgar Boswell, had fourteen children born on the sands. The availability of fresh spring water at Harrowside made this an attractive site.

By the turn of the century the developing fairground also provided work for the gypsies. The tourists of the day favoured the traditional gypsy art of fortune telling. Gipsy Sarah Boswell who lived to a great age and is buried in Blackpool Cemetery, was reputed to possess "second sight". Apart from the Boswells, other principal families were the Lees, Youngs, Greys, Smiths, Franklins and the Herons. This card shows the gypsy camp, a combination of caravans and tents made of wattle hurdles covered with blankets, with the Star Inn in the distance. By 1910 the camp had gone, the gypsies being driven out by increasingly prosperous South Shore residents and the developing Pleasure Beach. At one time this part of South Shore was home to 300 to 400 gypsies.