The opening of the branch line from Blackpool to join the main railroad at Poulton, on the 29th of April, 1846, gave another marked impetus to the progress of the town; by its formation direct steam communication was completed with the populous centres of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and many, who had previously been deterred from visiting Blackpool by its comparative inaccessibility, now flocked down to its shores in great numbers; building increased, and dwellings arose, chiefly on the front, and in Church and Victoria Streets. During the ensuing year the first meeting of the Blackpool Agricultural Society was held on the grounds of a recently built inn, the Manchester Hotel, at South Shore; the attendance was both numerous and respectable, including many of the most influential gentlemen, yeomen, and farmers of the neighbourhood, and several from the remoter localities of the Fylde. Cows, horses, and pigs appear to have been the only stocks to which prizes were awarded. The first Lodge of Freemasons held their initiatory meeting in that year at the Beach Hotel, another house of entertainment which had risen shortly before, on the site of some furnished cottage facing the beach. A new Independent Chapel was commenced in Victoria Street, to supersede the small one erected in Chapel Street in 1825; the edifice was finished and used for divine service in 1849. Serious differences seem to have arisen a few years later between the pastor of that date, the Rev. J. Noall, and a limited section of his congregation, who were anxious to deprive him of his charge, and even went so far, in 1860, as to publicly read in the chapel, after morning service, a notice convening a meeting for that purpose. This act, being repeated on the ensuing Sabbath, led to retaliation on the part of the partizans of the minister, who, unknown to that gentleman, paraded three figures, intended to represent the three principal opponents to the continuance of his pastorate, suspended from a gibbet, which had been erected in a cart, through the streets of the town, and afterwards gave them up to the flames on the sands. The Rev. J. Noall was shortly afterwards presented with a testimonial of esteem by a number of sympathisers. Schools, in connection with the chapel, were built in 1870.