It All Began on the Dance Floor - Sepia Saturday

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt photograph show a couple dancing.  There could only be one post from me, that I first published in my early days of blogging - my father’s story of how he met my mother on the dance floor of Blackpool, Lancashire, the seaside Mecca of ballroom dancing in the UK, plus some additional photographs.    

 

 My mother (Kathleen Danon) was born in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, a few miles from the north west seaside resort of Blackpool. Mum  and her sister, Edith,  often went dancing in the Winter Gardens Ballroom and in Blackpool Tower Ballroom.

 

Mum in the 1930s

 

 Dad , John Weston, moved to Blackpool in 1936 through his work as a Commercial Traveller.    Here is his account, written in his "Early Memories"  of how he met my mother.

 

 

"One Saturday night I was in the Winter Gardens when I saw a young lady sitting on a settee. She got up and we said "Hello". I tried to find her again in the evening without success, even going to the exit door to watch people leave."  

 

 The Winter Gardens was a major entertainment complex, with theatre, ballroom,  bars etc.  The Empress Ballroom was built in 1896 and with  a floor area of 12,500 square feet (1,160 sq. metres),was one of the largest in the world.  

 

 

Winter Gardens entrance

 

Dad's account continued:  

 

"Two weeks later I was at the Tower Ballroom and who should come along but two ladies - and you have guessed that was your Mum and Aunt. Mum stopped to say "Hello" and we started talking and had a good chat. I asked if she would come to the cinema the next night and offered to come for her and take her home. She agreed. I thought it was rather brave of her to come with me when we had only just met to talk together.   The date was 13th October 1936 and we married 18th April 1938." 

 

 The Ballroom is one of the truly iconic venues of the 19th century with its beautifully decorated ceilings, sparkling chandeliers, ornate balconies  and a stunning sprung dance floor, where you can dance to music played on the famous Wurlitzer organ. 

 

 

 

 

Blackpool Tower was opened in 1894, built   to a height of 518 feet - facts that were drummed into us at school. 

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From that dance floor meeting - Engagement in 1937

This is  the earliest photograph I have of my parents together, taken by the river at Kirby Lonsdale in Cumbria where they got engaged in 1937.  My mother looks very elegant, but how on earth did she negotiate those stepping stones?   

 

Kirby Lonsdale  on the edge of the Lake District is a fascinating small town  with   a mix of  18th-century buildings and stone cottages huddled around quaint cobbled courtyards and narrow alleyways with names such as Salt Pie Lane and Jingling Lane.  The town is noted for the its three span Devil's Bridge, first built across the River Lune c.1370. You catch a glimpse of it here. 

 

Marriage  on 18th April 1938.

 

My parents John Weston and Kathleen (Kay) Danson, 
on their wedding day 18th April 1938

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the only photograph I have of my four grandparents - William Danson & Alice English on the left  and Albert Weston & Mary Barbara Matthews on the right - Taken in the front garden of my grandparents house, fter my parent's wedding in 1938 - with my mother in her going-away outfit. 

 

 

                                                                  

 

My father setting off for war with my mother right, and my aunt left. 

Family Life -  Two plus Two

 

My parents with my brother and myself, c. 1952

 

 

 

 A lovely  photograph of  my parents  in the back garden of our Edinburgh home -ready to go to  my graduation from university in 1965. 

 

 

Dad and I, taken 1965, shortly before I left to work in the USA for a year. 

Mum and I, 1971 

 

 

A Proud Father and a Proud Daughter , July 1971.

 

 In Retirement 

 

In the 1980s

 

In the 1990s

Dad with his granddaughter, late 1990s

Mum  and Dad on their Diamond (60th)  Wedding Anniversary -18th April  1998 with the telegram from  Queen Elizabeth.  Mum sadly died a year later and Dad in 2003, leaving me with many happy memories. 

 

I just wish I had a picture of them on the dance  floor! 

 

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Sepia Saturday gives an opportunity for genealogy bloggers   to share their family history and memories through photographs

 

 

 Click HERE to see  ancestors of other bloggers enjoying themselves.