Wood Street Mission was founded in 1869 by Methodist minister Alfred Alsop to relieve poverty among children and families in Manchester and Salford. For generations it provided food, clothing, shelter and toys, becoming a trusted institution in the industrial North.
In the 1920s, its work took a new turn with the creation of a holiday home at Squires Gate in Blackpool. Opened in 1922, the site gave over 1,000 children each summer the chance of a week by the sea. With seven acres of playing fields and a swimming pool, it offered freedoms unavailable in the city. Many annual reports highlight that children were entertained on these holidays at the Blackpool Pleasure Beach, the Tower Circus, the Ice Palace and the South Pier.
The holiday home ran until 1963, when it was replaced by Birchfield Lodge in Derbyshire. Even so, links with the resort remained strong, with Blackpool day trips organised during the 1980s in partnership with local companies. For many Manchester and Salford children, the town became their first memory of the seaside, a symbol of escape and delight.
Though its later decades shifted focus back to clothing, bedding, school uniforms and seasonal gifts, the years in Blackpool stood out as one of the charity’s most cherished chapters — a period when thousands of children felt the thrill of sand, sea and spectacle through the generosity of Wood Street Mission.
Images by © Blackpool Postcards
