Blacko
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Blacko is a village and civil parish ( ) in the Pendle district of Lancashire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 595.
The village is on the old turnpike road to Gisburn (A682). The village enjoys magnificent views towards Boulsworth Hill to the south east, the former cotton town of Nelson, about two miles to the south and Pendle Hill to the west.
Overlooking the village is Stansfield Tower (also known as Blacko Tower), which was built around 1890. A local grocer, Jonathan Stansfield, built this circular rough stone tower to provide himself with a view over Ribblesdale from the top, but the height fell somewhat short. A Bronze Age axe, believed to be 3,500 years old, was found near the tower in 1952 by a local man.
Blacko is set on a hill overlooking Pendle Water and in 2002 was the winner of the Lancashire Best Kept Village competition. Blacko was runner-up in the competition in 2005, being beaten by the village of Wrea Green.
Blacko was the childhood home of Lancashire comedian Jimmy Clitheroe (1921-73), famous for his BBC radio series The Clitheroe Kid, who lived in the village from 1922 to 1935. Jimmy went to school in Blacko and appeared in many amateur concert party entertainments in the village's Methodist Chapel, before turning professional in 1936.
In the 1930s it was also the home of the comedian Tommy Trafford, who played many summer seasons in the Lancashire seaside resort of Southport in the 1960s and '70s, so many in fact that he was affectionately known in Lancashire as 'Mister Southport'.
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