We had illuminations before Blackpool

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Simon Thirkill helps to organise the switch-on, in Heckmondwike and says that the West Yorkshire town had electrical lights before Blackpool. The Heckmondwike Herald report from 1876, found by researchers at Kirklees Council and Kirklees Museums, praised the "brilliantly illuminated" town, and told of a torchlight procession held to celebrate the switch-on.