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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".

Politics

For general election results, see Blackburn (UK Parliament constituency).

Blackburn is administered by Blackburn with Darwen unitary authority. Blackburn council and its successor have been controlled by the Labour Party since 1945. Blackburn sends one MP to Westminster, the 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.

In 2005, allegations of vote-rigging and corruption began to grow around the Labour controlled council. A local councillor, Muhammed Hussain, was jailed for rigging an election by stealing postal vote ballots. Straw was challenged in the 2005 general election by his former employee and British ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray. Murray stood for election in the seat of Blackburn on a platform of opposition to the war in Iraq and electoral corruption. The anti-war vote was split, however, and Jack Straw was returned with a comfortable majority of over 8,000.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Blackburn along with Liverpool from 31 March to 1 April 2006. The visit reciprocated a trip made by Blackburn MP Jack Straw to Rice's home state of Alabama when he was UK Foreign Secretary. The visit was part of a wider tour of European capitals. Rice's itinary included Pleckgate School, Ewood Park football stadium and the Town Hall in Blackburn. 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 turned out in support of the visit. 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.

Blackburn Rovers

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 and FA Cup on several occasions.

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.

History

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." *

Areas

Blackburn consists of a number of areas:

  • Cherry Tree
  • Feniscowles
  • Witton
  • Mill Hill
  • Ewood
  • Fernhurst
  • Audley
  • Witton
  • Shadsworth
  • Higher Croft
  • Queen's Park
  • Shear Brow
  • Brookhouse
  • Bastwell
  • Roe Lee
  • Pleckgate
  • Bank Hey
  • Sunnybower
  • Brownhill
  • Revidge
  • Lammack
  • Beardwood
  • Billinge
  • Wensley Fold
  • Bank Top
  • Griffin
  • Nova Scotia

Features

Education

Colleges

Secondary Schools

Coat of Arms

The coat of arms show in the picture here, has many distinctive emblems, these are described below:

  • 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.

Commerce

The Mall is the main shopping centre in Blackburn with over 130 shops and 400 further outlets close by Tourism in Blackburn with Darwen: Shopping, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, 8 November 2005, retrieved 2 May 2006.. Blackburn Market is a market close to the Mall. A retail park with recent developments is near the town centre.

Famous Blackburnians

The following people were born or brought up in Blackburn:

The arts

Sports

Business

Science

Politics

References

Books about Blackburn

External links

Shopping

Towns in Lancashire | Blackburn | West Pennine Moors

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Blackburn".

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