The Parish Church of St John The first Church of St.John was built on this site in 1821 as a Chapel of Ease to Bispham. It became a Parish Church in 1860 Its third curate was the Rev. William Thornber (1829-45) Blackpool's first historian. His grave, and that of William H. Cocker another Blackpool pioneer and its first Mayor, remain to the east of the present church completed in 1878. The original vicarage, completed in 1829, stood across the street on a site behind the Empress Buildings.