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11 November 2007:
23rd October - 18 November 2007
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30 January 2006:
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Windmill Land
Charles Allen Clarke was born in Parrott Street Bolton, in 1863 and worked as a child (half-timer) in a cotton mill before winning a scolarship which enabled him to become a student, pupil teacher aged 13. His love affair with windmills started from his first glimpse of one at Treales near Preston, from a train carriage window, on a cheap day trip for poor children, organised by a mission in Bolton. There were at one time over 40 windmills, watermills and post (peg) mills in the Fylde and Over Wyre.
Allen Clarke coined the nickname, 'Windmill Land,' for the Fylde and Wyre and was inspired to write the books 'Windmill Land' & 'More Windmill Land.,' which describes how many windmills were working and the characters he met on his rambles.
He eventually came to live in Blackpool and worked as a journalist on the Blackpool Echo and the Blackpool Gazette & Herald as well as the Bolton Evening News.
He died in 1935 at his home 17, St Ives Avenue Blackpool and is buried in Little Marton Cemetry Blackpool with his wife Eliza.
His first wife Lavinia (who died tragically as a young bride and childless) is buried in Bolton, his children Lavinia, baby May and his first son Frank Allen who was drowned in a clay pit aged seven, are interred with her as Allen and Eliza thought of her as their spirit mother.
His other children Franklin, Charles, Edward (Teddy) and Dorothy are buried in Blackpool and abroad.