List of Swallow Sidecar related Locations in Blackpool

Blackpool Promenade and Tower

The main Swallow Sidecar sites in Blackpool at 23 and 24 King Edward Avenue, Bloomfield Road and Cocker Street are covered in some detail on this website.

This list contains many of the other locations and a few businesses which had links in one way or another to people who were involved with the Swallow Sidecar Company while in Blackpool from 1922 to 1928.

• Arnold House later Arnold School
  • William Lyons moved from Poulton-le-Fylde Grammar School to Arnold House (School) on 13 April 1914, staying until July 1917 aged 16
• Back Woodfield Road
  • Extra factory space was rented around the corner from Bloomfield Road
    as the factory filled up
• Bank Hey Street
  • William Lyons Senior setup and ran his music shop – Lyons’ Music and Pianoforte Warehouse
  • Alice Fenton worked for the Lyons until Minnie Lyons suggested she should go and work for her son at Bloomfield Road
• Bispham Road
  • Following their honeymoon William and Greta Lyons moved from 24 King Edward Avenue to a small flat and then to a bungalow called ‘Westbourne’ in Bispham Road
  • William and Emily Walmsley moved to Bispham Road from Handley Road calling their new house Swallowdene
• Blackpool Gazette
  • Harry Teather worked as a compositor for the Blackpool Gazette and saw the advert for a job at Swallow Sidecars while he was setting the type
  • Connie Dickson (who later married Harry Teather) saw the advert in the Situations Vacant column in the Blackpool Gazette for a job as office junior at Swallow Sidecars
• Blackpool Grammar School
  • Arthur Whittaker studied at the grammar school, leaving to take up an apprenticeship at the Imperial Garage before going on to join Swallow Sidecars
• Blackpool Pleasure Beach
  • For a while in 1927, Brown & Mallalieu exhibited a Morris Cowley Swallow as a prize, in a glass case, at the Pleasure Beach
• Bloomfield Road, Number 5
  • The site of the first Swallow Sidecars factory from 1922 to 1926 in the building owned by Mr Outhwaite
  • Now (2022) The Armfield Club
• Brown & Mallalieu – The Metropole Garage
  • Where William Lyons learnt the sales side of the motor business before setting up Swallow Sidecars
  • Brown & Mallalieu became the Blackpool dealer for Swallow
• Burlingham Coach Builders
  • Some of the workers who didn’t make the move from Cocker Street down to Coventry found coach building jobs at Burlingham – in Bloomfield Road and Bond Street
  • Burlingham was taken over by Duple in 1960
• Clevedon Street, Number not known 
  • Home to Lyndon Smith who joined the the company at Cocker Street, aged 15, paid 5 shillings (25p) per week
• Cocker Street, Number 41 and corner of Exchange Street
  • Home to Swallow Sidecars and Coach Building Company from 1926 to 1928
  • Previously used by Josiah Street and then Jackson Brothers
  • Now William Lyons House
• Cross Street, Number 12
  • Home to Harry Teather (son) and father Henry and mother Isabel who ran a butchers shop
• Hawes Side Lane
  • Home to Alice and Nancy Fenton until they moved down to Coventry at the end of 1928
• Holly Road – Number not known
  • Home to Greta Brown’s family
• Imperial Garage, Dickson Road
  • Arthur Whittaker started an apprenticeship at Imperial Garage after leaving Blackpool Grammar School, before moving on to Swallow Sidecars
• Ismail Company
  • Tea and coffee retailer/wholesaler occupying the Cocker Street site in the 1970s and 1980s
• John Street and corner of Moon Avenue
  • Extra factory space rented as the Bloomfield Road factory filled up
  • Store completed sidecars and fit to customer’s motorbikes
• King Edward Avenue
  • Number 23 – Home to Thomas Walmsley, his wife and his son William and where William started building sidecars in his garage
    • Now (2020) The Berwick B&B
  • Number 24 – Home to William and Minnie Lyons and their son William, who bought a sidecar from Walmsley opposite, and then together formed the Swallow Sidecar Company
    • Now (2020) King Edward Holiday Flats
• Metropole Garage
  • Site of Brown and Mallalieu car dealership where William Lyons was employed as a salesman
  • Following the launch of the Austin Swallow, Brown and Mallalieu added Swallow cars to their dealership
• Newton Drive, Red Cottage
  • Red Cottage was home to William Lyons Senior and Minnie and their two children Carol and William before moving to 24 King Edward Avenue
• Northlands High School
  • Greta Brown was a teacher at the school for a number of years
• Oxford Road, Number 26
  • William and Mary Lyons lived at 26 Oxford Road according to the 1901 census with their daughter Carol
• Palatine Central School
  • Alice Fenton took the ‘commercial’ rather than the domestic course giving her the necessary shorthand and typing skills to take up the job working for William Lyons at Bloomfield Road
• Poulton-le-Fylde Grammar School
  • William Lyons attended the Grammar School – gaining the engineering book prize, before moving onto Arnold House
• St John’s Church of England School
  • Greta Brown’s grandfather was headmaster at St John’s and when he died, Greta’s own father Albert Brown took over as headmaster, making the move from Cuddington, Oxfordshire
• St Stephen on the Cliffs
  • William Lyons and Greta Brown married on 15 September 1924 – the church was still under construction at the time so the wedding was in the consecrated part of the church hall
• Stanley Park
  • William and Minnie Lyons had lived in Newton Drive, with their daughter Carol and son William adjacent to the open parkland that became Stanley Park.
  • Stanley Park was officially opened on 2 October 1926 so was a very new feature of the Blackpool landscape when the Swallow Coachbuilding Company photographed their Austin and Morris Swallow cars outside the new gates – normally with Alice Fenton in the driving seat
• Talbot Road
  • Arthur Whittaker lived in a terraced house with his parents, on Blackpool Promenade, the front door steps being approached from Talbot Road
• Talbot Road Train Station
  • Austin Seven chassis were delivered to the Talbot Road Station and stored in the station yard until they were collected and towed to Cocker Street
  • Now Blackpool North Station
• Talbot Square
  • Location of Williams Deacon’s Bank who loaned the partners their initial £1,000, and provided banking services, including a very important overdraft facility, while the company was based in Blackpool
• Tichenor and Brown
  • When Swallow moved to Coventry, Thomas Walmsley let Cocker Street to road haulage firm Tichenor and Brown
• The Armfield Club
  • Club run by Blackpool FC Supporters Club on the Bloomfield Road site since October 2020
• Winter Gardens
  • Alice Fenton and Connie Dickson used to go dancing at the Winter Gardens after work and on Saturday nights
  • Spanish Room – used by Swallow employees for a meal on a ‘Back to Blackpool’ trip from Coventry in 1934

Author: Tony Merrygold

© Text and Images – Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust (except where stated)

Sources and Further Reading:

• Blackpool Gazette Archives

• Whyte, Andrew, Jaguar: The Definitive History of a Great British Car (Patrick Stephens Limited, 1990)

• Porter, Philip and Skilleter, Paul, Sir William Lyons: The Official Biography (Haynes Publishing, 2001)