Blackpool is a seaside town in north-western England. It is traditionally part of Lancashire, but on April 1, 1998 the town was made into an independent unitary authority.

It is believed to get its name from a long gone drainage channel which ran over a peat bog. The water which ran into the sea at Blackpool was black from the peat and formed a "black pool" in waters of the Irish Sea. (In Gaelic, Black Pool is Dubh Lihn, which in turn became Dublin.)

It is generally believed locally that people originating from Blackpool are called "Sand Grown" or "Sandgrown'uns," but these terms may be applied to natives of any littoral settlement.

The town boundaries are drawn very tightly, and exclude the nearby settlements of Fleetwood, Cleveleys, Thornton, Poulton-le-Fylde and Lytham St Anne's. Blackpool Borough, unlike its neighbours, is almost completely urbanised.