Where first did the first black pool rock originate?
The first BLACKPOOL ROCK originated not in Balckpool, but on the other side of the Pennines in Dewsbury, Yorks. Lettered rock of the kind now associated with Blackpool was first produced by a former miner from Burnley called Ben Bullock who had moved to Dewsbury in 1868 and started selling boiled sweets in the market there. In 1876 he established his own sweet making firm with a partner called Slater. Among the first products manufactured by the Slater & Bullock Co. was the prototype lettered rock with the words Whoa Emma running through it as a tribute to a popular music hall song of the day. This was sold at the markets in Dewsbury, Heckmondwike and elsewhere in the West Riding and the novelty was an immediate success.
A little later Ben Bullock took a holiday in Blackpool, staying at the home of his friend John Pilling of Talbot Street Post Office. The samples of rock Bullock brought with him attracted the attention of local merchants and a consignment of several hundredweight was made up with the name BLACKPOOL running through it and dispatched to the holiday resort Slater and Bullock found themselves inundated with orders from other seaside resorts all over Britain and subsequently from Malta, Australia, India and even the Sudan.
