Blackpool Corporation Tramways



Owner Blackpool Corporation
Opened 12th September 1885 (electrical conduit)
Operator (lessee) Blackpool Electric Tramways Co
Took over (operation) 11th September 1892 (Blackpool Corporation) - following expiry of the company's lease
Taken over (operation) 11th July 1896 (Blackpool, St Anne's and Lytham Tramway Co) - 1.25 miles of corporation-owned track from Station Rd Terminus in Blackpool to Squires Gate
Taken over (operation) 29th September 1898 (Blackpool and Fleetwood Tramroad Company) - 1 mile of newly built, corporation-owned track from Gynn Square to Talbot Rd Station
First corporation operated overhead service 21st June 1899
Last conduit service Late June 1899
End of lease 26th July 1917 - Lytham Rd South line, though company cars continued to run along the line under a through-running agreement
Took over 1st January 1920 (Blackpool and Fleetwood Tramroad Company)
Name changed 1929 (to Blackpool Corporation Transport)
Length 20.97 miles
Gauge 4ft 8½ins

Button description (Pattern 1) Title (‘CORPORATION TRAMWAYS’) within a raised rim, surrounding the municipal arms (a shield bearing a seagull in flight on a background of waves, beneath a fleur-de-lys, thunderbolt and lion) with a tower and windmill crest, all above the motto: ‘PROGRESS’
Materials known Black horn; gilt
Button Line reference [None]

Button description (Pattern 2) Title (‘BLACKPOOL CORPORATION TRAMWAYS’) within a raised rim, surrounding the municipal arms (a shield bearing a seagull in flight on a background of waves, beneath a fleur-de-lys, thunderbolt and lion) with a tower and windmill crest, all above the motto: ‘PROGRESS’
Materials known Nickel; brass; chrome
Button Line reference [113/10]

Button description (Pattern 3) Title (‘BLACKPOOL CORPORATION TRANSPORT’) within a raised rim, surrounding the municipal arms (a shield bearing a seagull in flight on a background of waves, beneath a fleur-de-lys, thunderbolt and lion) with a tower and windmill crest, and mantling, all above the motto: ‘PROGRESS’
Materials known Chrome
Button Line reference [None]


Comment All the buttons depicted use the official municipal arms granted in 1899; however, given that cap badges with the pre-1899 'unofficial' arms have survived (see link), it seems likely that buttons bearing the 'unofficial' arms were also used. Documentary evidence indicates that gilt buttons were used on Great War conductress uniforms, very probably the Pattern 1 button. It is unclear what the black horn Pattern 1 buttons were used for, but possibly for senior staff overcoats as they have only survived in very small numbers.

As the department was renamed in 1929, at some point uniforms would have been ordered with the Pattern 3 buttons; this did not, however, occur immediately as chrome Pattern 2 buttons exist that could only have been manufactured after the wide-spread introduction of chromium plating in the early 1930s.