Blackburn

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Blackburn
Statistics
Population:	105,085
Ordnance Survey
OS grid reference:	SD685277
Administration
District:	Blackburn with Darwen
Region:	North West England
Constituent country:	England
Sovereign state:	United Kingdom
Other
Ceremonial county:	Lancashire
Historic county:	Lancashire
Services
Police force:	Lancashire
Fire and rescue:	{{{Fire}}}
Ambulance:	North West
Post office and telephone
Post town:	BLACKBURN
Postal district:	BB1 - BB2
Dialling code:	01254
Politics
UK Parliament:	Blackburn
European Parliament:	North West England

This article is about Blackburn in Lancashire, England. For other uses of the name, see Blackburn (disambiguation).

Blackburn is a town in Lancashire, England. It is the main part of the Blackburn with Darwen borough, which has a population of 140,200. It was a key centre for the textile industry during the Industrial Revolution and is popularly known as the home of Blackburn Rovers Football Club. Blackburn is situated to the north of the West Pennine Moors.

Blackburn is known to fans of The Beatles as the town featured in the song "A Day in the Life". An article in the Daily Mail about a plan to fill potholes in the town caught John Lennon's eye as he was writing the song, giving birth to the lyric: "I read the news today. Oh, boy. 4,000 holes in Blackburn Lancashire". This lends itself to the title of the unofficial fanzine of Blackburn Rovers, which is called "4,000 Holes".

[edit] Demographics

According to the UK Government's 2001 census, Blackburn has a population of 105,085.^[1] According to the same statistics, some of which include the small town of Darwen to the south, the town is 77.9% White British (national average for England and Wales 91.3%) with significant Indian (10.7%) and Pakistani (8.7%) ethnic minorities.^[2] 9.6% of the population was born outside the European Union. In terms of religion, 63.3% of residents are christian (national average 71.7%), 19.4% muslim (national average 3.0%) with 16.6% no religion or not stated. This gives the town the third highest proportion of muslims in England and Wales and the highest outside London.

55.1% of the town are in employment, with 4.1% unemployed and 1.2% long term unemployed. This compares unfavourably with respective national averages of 60.6%, 3.4% and 1.0%. 8.7% of residents are looking after a home and/or family, the fifth highest for any borough in England and Wales. Average houselhold size is 2.54 people, the 9th highest in England and Wales. The town is slightly below the national averages on health indicators. Just over one in five (20.3%) of the population say they have a "limiting long term illness" compares with a national average of 18.2%. Over one in ten (11.1%) describe their general health as "not good" compared with an average of 9.2%.

[edit] Geography

[edit] Location and transport links

Blackburn is situated in the county of Lancashire to the north of the West Pennine Moors. Although the city of Preston, the administrative town of the county, is located around 14.8km (9.2 miles) to the west, Blackburn is the largest municipality in what is known as East Lancashire. The town is bounded on other sides by smaller towns, including Accrington to the east and Darwen to the south, with which Blackburn comprises the Blackburn with Darwen unitary authority. Around 4km (2.5 miles) to the north of the town centre is Wilpshire, including the small village of Langho, just within the boundary of the Ribble Valley. A number of even smaller localities are sometimes considered extended suburbs of Blackburn, including Rishton to the east, Great Harwood to the north east and Mellor to the north west. Rishton, Great Harwood and Accrington are part of the local government district of Hyndburn. 17km (10 miles) further to the east lies the town of Burnleyref>Map of Blackburn and surrounding region, Google Maps; RecPath used for distances.</ref>

Blackburn is served by a newly redeveloped train station located in the town centre next to the bus station and served by Northern Rail. The nearest train station on the West Coast Main Line is Preston. Blackburn is located at junction 4 of the M65 motorway. The town is less than an hour's drive from Manchester and Blackpool and just over an hour away from Liverpool, Leeds and Chester.^[3]

[edit] Geology and terrain

Sketch of coal mining equipment on Coalpit Moor, formerly known as Blackburn Moor, from 1846.

Located in the midst of the East Lancashire Hills, some areas of the town are characterised by steep slopes. The town centre is located in a depression surrounded by a number of hills. The area of Revidge to the north can be reached via a steep climb up Montague Street and Dukes Brow to reach a peak of 218 metres above sea level. To the west, the wooded Billinge Hill in Witton Country Park is 245 metres, while Queens Park Hospital in the east has a vantage point of 202 metres.^[4] These figures can be considered in the context of other hills and mountains in Lancashire, including Great Hill (456 metres), Winter Hill (456 metres), Pendle Hill (557 metres) and Green Hill (628 metres).

The River Blakewater, which gives its names to the town, flows down from the moors above Guide and then through the areas of Whitebirk, Little Harwood, Cob Wall and Brookhouse to the town centre. The river was culverted during the industrial revolution and runs underground in the town centre, under Ainsworth Street and between Blackburn Cathedral and Blackburn Bus Station. On the western side of the town centre the Blakewater continues under Whalley Banks and through the Redlam area before joining the River Darwen outside Witton Country Park and continuing on to join the River Ribble at Walton-le-Dale.

The geology of the Blackburn area yields numerous resources which underpinned its development as a centre of manufacturing during the industrial revolution. Mineable coal seams have been utilised since the mid-late 16th century.^[5] The coal measures in the area lie on a bed of millstone grit, which has been quarried in the past for millstones and, along with local limestone deposits, used as a construction material for roads and buildings. In addition, there were deposits of iron ore in the Furness and Ulverston districts.^[6] The Blackburn area was subjected to glaciation during the Pleistocene ice age, and the sandstone-and-shale bedrock is overlain in much of the area by glacial deposits called till (which is also called "boulder clay") of varying thickness up to several tens of feet. Glacial outwash (sand and gravel) also occur in small patches, including along Grimshaw Brook.^{[7] [8] [9]}

[edit] Areas

Blackburn consists of a number of areas:

[edit] Politics

For general election results, see Blackburn (UK Parliament constituency) (1955-); Blackburn East (UK Parliament constituency) and Blackburn West (UK Parliament constituency) (1950-1955); Blackburn (historic UK Parliament constituency) (1832-1950)

Blackburn is administered by Blackburn with Darwen unitary authority, which encompasses Blackburn and the small town of Darwen to the south. Blackburn council and its successor have been controlled by the Labour Party since 1945. The town sends one MP to Westminster, the current Leader of the House of Commons and former Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw. Previous MPs for Blackburn include former Labour cabinet minister Barbara Castle, who represented the town in Westminster from 1945 to 1979.

The historic constituency of Blackburn sent two MPs to Westminster, was created for the 1832 general election and abolished in 1950. It was replaced for one parliamentary term by two new single-member constituencies, Blackburn East and Blackburn West, before being replaced at the next general election when the two were merged into the modern day constituency, returning a single MP.

Allegations of vote-rigging and corruption have dogged the Labour controlled council in recent years. In April 2005, local councillor Muhammed Hussain was jailed for three years for rigging the 2002 town hall election by stealing at least 230 postal vote ballots in his ward. Straw was challenged in the 2005 general election by a former Foreign Office subordinate, the ex-British ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray. Murray stood for election in Blackburn on a platform of opposition to the war in Iraq and electoral corruption. Murray described the constituency as a "Labour rotten borough" and said of the build up to the election, "I've been approached by several people in the Asian community who are under huge pressure from Labour activists to apply for a postal vote rather than a ballot vote and then hand their postal vote over to the Labour party." Over 50% more people used postal votes in the 2005 general election in Blackburn than in 2001.^[10] The anti-Straw vote was split, however, and the incumbent was returned with a comfortable majority of over 8,000.

Around 20% of the Blackburn's population come from ethnic minorities and in recent years the town has witnessed a resurgence in the fortunes of far-right political parties in local elections. The council currently has two members for the England First party, Mark Cotterill for Meadowhead ward and Michael Johnson for Ferhnurst.^[11] Members of the British National Party (BNP) have previously won a council seat in the town in November 2002 following elections in May which saw three of their colleagues elected in nearby Burnley. The BNP's Robin Evans secured a 16-vote majority in Mill Hill ward with two recounts following a campaign utilising pub meetings and leafleting.^[12] The incumbent Liberal Democrats were pushed into third place behind Labour. Although plans had been blocked by the time of the poll, proposals to convert a nursing home in the ward into a centre for asylum seekers were seen as a key election issue.^[13] Developments in Burnley and Blackburn were regarded as something of a renaissance for the far right in British politics, no such councillors had been elected in the UK since victories in Tower Hamlets nearly ten years before.^[14]

Condoleezza Rice and Jack Straw in February 2006.

Commenting on the elections, Blackburn MP Jack Straw said: "It is very sad. We had the far right in Blackburn 26 years ago when they won two seats in Shadsworth. But there the whole community decided they wouldn't have it. You can never say they won't put candidates in Blackburn but we will work hard on community relations."^[15] Blackburn had two council members from the National Front in the 1970s. Although many towns in North West England suffered race riots in the summer of 2001, the streets of Blackburn remained quiet.

The town was the subject of international media interest in 2006 when U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited the Blackburn and Liverpool from 31 March to 1 April during a tour of European capitals. The visit reciprocated a trip made by Jack Straw to Rice's home state of Alabama when he was UK Foreign Secretary. Rice's itinary included Pleckgate School, Ewood Park football stadium and the Town Hall in Blackburn while in Liverpool she attended a classical music concert. Rice's visit was met with protests from anti-war and human rights campaigners, although many local residents expressed support of the visit.^{[citation needed]} The committee at Masjid Al Hidayah Mosque on Millham Street, Blackburn, in conjunction with Muslim scholars from the region, withdrew an invitation to Ms Rice to visit the mosque due to safety issues.^{[citation needed]}

In October 2006, comments made by Jack Straw angered some in the Muslim community. Writing in the Lancashire Telegraph, the MP said that Muslim women who wear full veils make "better, positive relations" between communities more difficult and that failing to show the mouth and nose was "a visible statement of separation and of difference."^[16]

[edit] Blackburn Rovers

Main article: Blackburn Rovers F.C.

The Premier League Football side Blackburn Rovers is based at the Ewood Park stadium. The club has done much to raise the profile of the town, winning the Premier League in 1995 and the League Cup in 2002. The club was established in 1875, and in 1888 became a founder member of The Football League. In 1890 Rovers moved to its permanent home at Ewood Park. Until the formation of the Premier League in 1992, the majority of Blackburn Rovers' success was pre-1930 when they won the league twice and FA Cup six times.

In the early 1990s Jack Walker, a local boy and life-long supporter who made millions in the steel industry, invested heavily in the club. He lured former Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish as manager and a number of shrewd player purchases followed, most notably Alan Shearer. This lifted the club back into the first division, just before it became the F.A. Premier League — making Blackburn one of only a handful of clubs to be founders of both the Football League and the Premier League. After finishing runners-up to Manchester United in 1993/1994, Rovers won the championship the following year. A slump followed in the late 1990s, with relegation to League Division One. In 2001, the team secured promotion back into the Premier League, and in 2002 won the League Cup.

[edit] History

The ancient parish of Blackburn covered numerous township and chapelries aside from Blackburn itself.

[edit] Meaning of place-name

Blackburn means 'dark-coloured burn ('stream') from Old English blæc "black" and stream "stream", recorded as Blacheburne in 1128.

Workers producing shuttles for the textile industry, circa 1920. Rowland Baguley and Company, based on Addison Street, produced a wide range of shuttles for the home textile industry and for export before it closed in the early 1930s.

In 1887, John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles described Blackburn like this:

"Blackburn. parl. and mun. bor., par. and township, NE. Lancashire, 9 miles E. of Preston and 210 miles NW. of London by rail -- par., 48,281 ac., pop. 161,617; township, 3681 ac., pop. 91,958; bor., 6974 ac., pop. 104,014; 4 Banks, 2 newspapers. Market-days, Wednesday and Saturday. It is one of the chief seats of cotton manufacture, besides producing calico, muslin, &c., there being over 140 mills at work. There are also factories for making cotton machinery and steam-engines. B. has been associated with many improvements in the mfr. of cotton, among which was the invention (1767) of the "spinning jenny" which was invented in nearby Oswaldtwistle by James Hargreaves, who died in 1770. There are several fine churches and public buildings. A Corporation Park (50 ac. in area) is on the outskirts of the town. Several lines of railway converge here, and pass through one principal station belonging to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Ry. Co. B. returns 2 members to Parliament." [1]

Strike of cotton mill workers in 1920 in Cowell Street in the Nab Lane area.

[edit] Features

Blackburn Cathedral sits in the middle of the town centre

• Corporation Park
• Witton Country Park
• Blackburn Cathedral
• Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
• Lewis Textile Museum
• Blackburn railway station features a 24ft mural by Stephen Charnock, which depicts eight famous faces associated with the town, including Mahatma Gandhi, who visited nearby Darwen in 1931.
• Ewood Park football stadium
• Blackburn Arena, home of the Blackburn Hawks ice hockey team
• Thwaites brewery has produced cask ale in Blackburn for nearly 200 years
• A section of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal runs through the town
• The River Blakewater, which gives its names to the town, merges with the River Darwen before joining the River Ribble.
• Thwaites Empire Theatre
• Masjid E Tauheedul Islam, the Central Mosque of Blackburn is currently being re-built and is expected to be ready in late 2007.
• Radio Lancashire has its studios on Darwen Street in the town centre.

[edit] Education

[edit] Primary Schools

• Salesbury CE Primary School

[edit] Secondary Schools

• Al-Islah Schools (independent)
• Beardwood High School was formerly known as Billinge High School, changing its name to Beardwood in the late 80's.
• Blakewater College, formerly Queen's Park Technology College
• Jamiatul-Ilm Wal-Huda UK School (independent)
• Our Lady & St John Catholic Arts College
• Pleckgate High School
• Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School (QEGS) (independent, with 6th form)
• St Bede's Roman Catholic High School
• St Wilfrid's CofE High School and Technology College (with 6th form)
• Tauheedul-Islam Girls' High School (independent)
• Westholme school (independent, with 6th form)
• Windsmoor House School (independent)
• Witton Park Business and Enterprise College

[edit] Colleges

• Blackburn College
• St Mary's VI Form College
• Saint Wilfrid's VI Form College

[edit] Coat of Arms

Arms of the former Blackburn Borough Council

The Blackburn coat of arms has many distinctive emblems. The arms displays Argent a Fesse wavy Sable between three Bees volant proper on a Chief Vert a Bugle stringed Argent between two Fusils Or. On the crest, a Wreath of the Colours a Shuttle Or thereon a Dove wings elevated Argent and holding in the beak the Thread of the Shuttle reflexed over the back and an Olive Branch proper. The latin motto of the town is 'Arte et Labore', correctly translated as 'by art and by labour' but often translated as 'by skill and hardwork'. The motto, granted on 14 February 1852 to the former Borough of Blackburn, is poignant as Blackburn, once a small town, had risen to importance through the energy and enterprise of her spinners and manufacturers, combined with the skill and labour of her operatives. The Borough of Blackburn was formed by the amalgamation of the County Borough of Blackburn, the Borough of Darwen, part of the Turton Urban District and the parishes of Yate and Pickup Bank, Eccleshill, Livesey, Pleasington and Tockholes from the Blackburn Rural District. Other notable features include:

• Three bees in flight. The bee is an emblem of skill, perseverance and industry. "B" also stands for Blackburn; and further, as the Peel family sprang from this neighbourhood and bears a bee in flight on its shield, the idea naturally suggests itself that Sir Robert Peel had adopted the Blackburn bee.
• The shield is silver or white, and thus emblematical of calico, the product of the Blackburn bees during the industrial revolution.
• The broad wavy black line represents the Black Brook (the River Blakewater) on the banks of which the town is built.
• The silver bugle horn was the crest of the first Mayor of Blackburn, William Henry Hornby. It is also an emblem of strength.
• The gold lozenges, or fusils (diamond shaped), are the heraldic emblems of spinning, derived from the Latin "fusus" or "fusilium", meaning a spindle, and they refer to the invention of the spinning jenny in 1764 by James Hargreaves, a native of the district. They also denote the connection of Joseph Feilden with Blackburn, as Lord of the Manor, as he bore lozenges on his shield.
• The background of green is there to remind us of the time when Blackburn was one of the royal forests in the time of Edward the Confessor.
• The shuttle is the emblem of weaving, the trade which has contributed more than any other to the prosperity of the town.
• The dove taking wing with an olive branch in her beak (the emblem of peace) attached to the thread of the shuttle, represents the beneficial results emanating from the art of weaving.

[edit] Commerce

The Mall is the main shopping centre in Blackburn with over 130 shops and 400 further outlets close by ^[17]. Blackburn Market is a market close to the Mall. A retail park with recent developments is near the town centre.

This section is a stub. You can help by expanding it.

[edit] People from Blackburn

The following people were born or brought up in Blackburn:

[edit] The arts

• Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon, pioneer cinematographers in the 1900s, were born here. Much of their film output still survives, see Mitchell and Kenyon.
• Fashion designer Wayne Hemingway spent most of his childhood in Blackburn, moving there after being born in Morecambe in 1961. He attended Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn. ^[18]
• Film maker Michael Winterbottom was born in Blackburn, and also attended QEGS. ^[19]
• Actor Ian McShane was born in Blackburn on 29 September 1942 [2].
• Kathleen Harrison, one of the greatest British film character actresses of the Forties and Fifties, was born in Blackburn on 23 February 1892. ^[20]
• Jason Kay of Jamiroquai, after being born in Manchester on December 30, 1969; moved to Blackburn before his singing career took off.
• Actor Jon Walmsley was born in Blackburn on 6 February 1956. ^{[citation needed]}
• Musician, singer and composer Tony Ashton was born in Blackburn on 1 March 1946. ^{[citation needed]}
• Writer Josephine Cox was born in Blackburn, setting many of her novels in Lancashire. ^{[citation needed]}
• Actor Steve Pemberton was born in Blackburn in 1967. ^[21]
• Alfred Gregory, official photographer for the 1953 ascent of Mount Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, was born in Blackburn.^{[citation needed]}
• Broadcaster Russell Harty was born in the town on 5 September 1934.^{[citation needed]}
• Wilfred Greatorex, writer and television script editor, was born in Blackburn on 27 May 1922.^{[citation needed]}
• Kathleen Ferrier, Opera Diva and gay icon, born Blackburn 1912, died London 1953
• Actor Michael Billington, star of UFO, was born in Blackburn
• Music composer Barry Gray famous for the Thunderbirds march was born in Blackburn.[3]
• Alfred Wainwright, author of the Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells, was born in the town. There is a plaque commemorating this fact at his former house on Audley Range.

[edit] Sports

• Four times World Superbike Championship winner Carl Fogarty was born in Blackburn on 1 July 1966. ^[22]
• Bill Fox, chairman of Blackburn Rovers and president of the Football League until his death in 1991, was born in Blackburn on 6 January 1928.^{[citation needed]}
• Blackburn Rovers captain Ronnie Clayton was capped 35 times as an England international.^[23]
• Rock climber John Sumner was born in Blackburn on 13 March 1936. Sumner was the pre-eminent exploratory climber in his chosen domain of mid-Wales, climbing cutting-edge routes on the remote crags and cliff-faces south of Snowdonia starting in the mid-1950s.^[24]
• England Rugby union player Will Greenwood was born in Blackburn on 20 October 1972.^{[citation needed]}
• The 1985 World Professional Snooker Champion Dennis Taylor moved to Blackburn from Northern Ireland in 1966 at the age of 17. ^[25]
• Keith Duckworth, motor racing engine designer. He designed the Cosworth DFV, which revolutionised Formula One in the 1960s. (1933-2005)^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Business

• The industrialist Jack Walker was born in the town on 19 May 1929. The steel magnate ploughed his fortune into his beloved Blackburn Rovers, leading to their Premier League title success in 1995.

[edit] Science

• Mathematician David Fowler was a leading authority on the history of mathematics in ancient Greece. Born in Blackburn on 28 April 1937, Fowler studied at the Russell School, near Morecambe Bay and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.^[26]
• Arthur Maitland was a pioneering figure in laser physics research. At the University of St Andrews, he very quickly established a group working on gas lasers, recognising that the gas-discharge laser had enormous potential for practical use. He was born in Blackburn on 7 December 1928.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Politics

• John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn, OM, PC (1838 - 1923), Liberal statesman, writer and newspaper editor
• Former Foreign Secretary and Leader of the Commons Jack Straw is MP for Blackburn.

[edit] References

[edit] Books about Blackburn

• W. A. Abram (1877). A History of Blackburn Town & Parish. ISBN 0-9484-9410-7.
• David Allin. Blackburn Since 1900. ISBN 0-948946-18-0.
• M. Baggoley (1996). Blackburn in Old Photographs. Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-7509-1262-6.
• Derek Beattie (1992). Blackburn: The Development of a Lancashire Cotton Town. Keele University Press. ISBN 1-85331-021-2.
• Matthew Cole. Blackburn's Shops at the Turn of the Century. ISBN 1-872895-28-X.
• Jim Halsall. Blackburn in Times Gone By. ISBN 1-872895-39-5.
• Geo. C. Miller. Blackburn: the Evolution of a Cotton Town. ISBN 0-9484-9418-2.
• Jeremy Seabrook (1973). City Close-up: Blackburn. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-003721-7.
• William Woodruff (1993). Billy Boy: The Story of a Lancashire Weaver's Son. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 1-85331-047-6.
• William Woodruff (2002). The Road to Nab End: A Lancashire Childhood. Abacus. ISBN 0-349-11521-4.

[edit] External links

• Blackburn with Darwen council site
• Blackburn with Darwen Community Websites Free websites for community groups in Blackburn with Darwen.
• BlackburnWorld : Community portal provided as a free service by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council
• Blackburn Business Net Portal for Blackburn with Darwen businesses provided as a free service by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council
• Lancashire Telegraph The daily newspaper based in Blackburn.
• Blackburn Citizen The local weekly newspaper.
• Audit Commission Blackburn with Darwen page, government reports
• Cotton Town, a website telling the story of the rapid social and economic changes that occurred as Blackburn and Darwen began to expand in line with the United Kingdom textile industry.
• Images Of Blackburn A photographic look at Blackburn, Lancashire.
• In and around Blackburn Various photographs from around Blackburn.
• Jeremy Seabrook, "No one asked Blackburn's people what they wanted", The Guardian, 30 December 2002 (Argues that the far right is feeding on the dislocation of the industrial north )