The Landladies of Morecambe is a fascinating series of new videos launched by Historic England and Morecambe Heritage.
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00:00There was one incident, and they set the bedroom on fire.
00:11I'm Colette, I'm the landlady of the Berkeley in Morecambe.
00:16I've been here 14 years.
00:19Morecambe in the heyday was full of B&Bs.
00:23You had Miss World, you had the fairground, you had the swimming baths.
00:28So that was the heyday for Morecambe.
00:33So this is the four-poster room.
00:36It probably is the best room to sit in and people watch.
00:41We always go out our way to try and help people.
00:44You never know what you're going into in a room.
00:47So you could walk into red wine all over the carpet.
00:51It is hard work.
00:53It can be 24-7 because you're never shut off.
00:59I'm Robita, nice to meet you.
01:01Nice to meet you.
01:02Carry on through.
01:09Cheers, everybody.
01:10Yes.
01:11A nice to meet you all.
01:14Why do people choose to become a landlady?
01:19I don't know.
01:22I don't know.
01:25I don't know.
01:29My name's Robbie Taylor and I'm the daughter of a Morecambe landlady, Hazel Booth.
01:35She had two boarding houses when I was seven.
01:39We were doing sort of general jobs, serving people tea and things like that.
01:45We had our own accommodation downstairs in the basement.
01:50In those days in Morecambe, there was always a risk of flooding.
01:53So in the winter, we slept upstairs.
01:57What's Morecambe like?
01:58Describe it.
02:00I think Morecambe's got a lot to offer.
02:02Yeah.
02:03Like, there's live entertainment every weekend.
02:06Through season, there's something on most weekends.
02:09I think the view is fantastic.
02:11Yeah, it is.
02:12It's why I'm still living here.
02:13Yeah.
02:14We've had a few Australians in and they've said,
02:16we might live in Australia and we've got the heat, but we haven't got this.
02:19Strolling along there and looking across.
02:21Yeah.
02:22My name's Marilyn Blackburn and I had the Melrose House B&B on Sefton Road.
02:30And it was a great place to be because it was just two minutes walk to the promenade.
02:35Some of the customers were more difficult to please.
02:41There was one incident and there was a bit of an argument going on one night
02:48and they set the bedroom on fire.
02:51Caused an awful lot of damage, really.
02:53They'd thrown things out of the window.
02:55Now, I'd not had anything like that before.
02:58I mean, I'd had sort of, like, students in and they were really well behaved.
03:04So it did cause a bit of a problem, that.
03:06Other than that, I loved every minute.
03:09Can you give us your best telephone voice?
03:13Depends what I'm doing.
03:14I don't think I've got one.
03:17Why are you looking at me?
03:18No, well, just...
03:21My mum had a very strong Lancashire accent.
03:24Right.
03:25So if she said book, it would be book.
03:28And Luke, hello, Avondale House, Mrs Boo speaking.
03:32How can I help you?
03:38Why were B&B's so popular?
03:41Before Victorian Day, she didn't get a week off.
03:43No.
03:44So it was only when they started having a week off that they were able to go there.
03:48But they didn't have much money.
03:50Like Mum, a lot of the people that came were working class people.
03:53Quite often, you were getting there,
03:55and actually the standard of food you were getting in your B&B
03:58was often better than you were eating at home.
04:01And if you got...
04:02A lot of people had lung problems as well from the mills where Mum was.
04:05And so when you were coming here,
04:07they were recommending that you went for a walk on the promenade
04:11so that you could breathe easier.
04:13And the thing being that you'd come on holiday
04:15and you'd go back and you'd tell your neighbour or your auntie or whatever
04:20and say, oh, we've had a really, really good time.
04:23You want to go.
04:24So it was like a lot of word of mouth as well.
04:26Yes, it was.
04:27We still get that now.
04:28Yeah.
04:29You know, people have a bin.
04:30And then they arrive and they go, oh, so-and-so stayed.
04:34And they go, oh, yeah, they were their neighbours.
04:36They told us to come.
04:37Aw.
04:38So it's still...
04:39It still goes on, yeah.
04:40A lot of it, it still goes on.
04:42That's nice.
04:43Which is quite nice.
04:44Why are Morecambe landladies important to capture
04:47as part of working-class history?
04:50A lot of people that do it now wouldn't consider themselves,
04:55certainly in other areas,
04:57wouldn't always have come from a working-class background.
04:59No.
05:00But for a lot of the landladies of yesteryear,
05:03they were either doing a working-class job
05:05or before they started to do that,
05:08history is changing as time's going on.
05:11And it's important, I think, to capture that move
05:14from whatever they were doing in the working-class years
05:17to what they moved on to do.
05:22Ladies, what's the future of Morecambe landladies?
05:27I don't know.
05:28That's a difficult one, isn't it?
05:30Yes, because times are changing yet again
05:33because you've got Airbnbs coming in.
05:35Yeah.
05:36I know, I've heard about those till recently.
05:38It's not a meet-and-greet kind of thing.
05:40No.
05:41Like we do.
05:42No.
05:43The big difference is then, from the olden days,
05:46people were happier with what they got, with their lots.
05:49Yeah.
05:50And whereas now their expectations continue to raise.
05:53Yeah.
05:54It must be a nightmare.
05:55Yeah.
05:56And I think that's why B&Bs are popular,
05:58because the food is made to order.
06:02Yeah.
06:03It's not like these big hotels where they're in these...
06:06It's prepared.
06:07It's prepared and it's been there a couple of hours
06:09but you go down, your egg's hard.
06:11Yeah.
06:15Well, this'll be landladies in ten years' time.
06:18Sometimes it's cheaper to go abroad.
06:20Mm.
06:21I think there will.
06:22Yeah.
06:23I think there's still a place for them.
06:24Things like the Eden Project,
06:25there might be more things for people to come,
06:28but there'll probably be shorter breaks.
06:30People still like that personal touch, don't they,
06:33with you and chat to you.
06:35Yeah.
06:36So, there might be a new name for us.
06:40But I think we'll carry on going.
06:42Yeah, I hope so.
06:43I do too.
06:44I do.
06:45I do too.
06:52You come on holiday to make memories
06:54and, you know, to be with your family, don't you?
06:56Yeah.
06:57And that won't change.
07:01I still think you'll find the little B&Bs
07:03still going in your background.
07:05There's a place in the market, should we say, for them.
07:08There is.