: ''This article is about Blackburn in Lancashire, England. For other uses of the name, see
Blackburn (disambiguation) .''
is a town in borough, which has a population of
140,200 . It was a key centre for the
Textile industry during
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 of Blackburn Rovers, which is called "4,000 Holes".
is
Member Of Parliament for Blackburn.]]
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
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.
and
Jack Straw in February 2005.]]
U.S. Secretary Of State Condoleezza Rice visited Blackburn along with
Liverpool from
31 March to
1 April 2006 . The visit reciprocates a trip by
UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw , who is the member of parliament for Blackburn, to Rice's home state of
Alabama . The visit is 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.
See Also: 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 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 .
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."
{Link without Title}
of
Cotton Mill workers in
1920 in Cowell Street in the Nab Lane area.]]
sits in the middle of the town centre]]
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 Forest s 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.
The Mall is the main is a
Market close to the Mall. A
Retail Park with recent developments is near the town centre.
The following people were born or brought up in Blackburn:
- Fashion designer spent most of his childhood in Blackburn, moving there after being born in Morecambe in 1961 . He attended the local private school for boys (QEGS - see above) {Link without Title} .
- Film maker , director of 24 Hour Party People , was born in Blackburn, and also attended QEGS.
- Actor , famous for playing antiques dealer Lovejoy in the BBC drama series of the same name, and Al Swearengen in the U.S. television series Deadwood , was born in Blackburn on 29 September 1942 {Link without Title} .
- , one of the greatest British film character actresses of the Forties and Fifties, was born in Blackburn on 23 February 1892 . She found a new audience on television in the Sixties with the hugely successful comedy-drama ''Mrs Thursday''.
- Actor was born in Blackburn on 6 February 1956 . He gave his voice to the character of Christopher Robin in the 1968 Disney film version of Winnie The Pooh and went on to portray Jason Walton in the TV series '' The Waltons '' from 1972 to 1981 .
- Musician, singer and composer was born in Blackburn on 1 March 1946 . A gifted organist, Ashton came to fame with his trio Ashton, Gardner & Dyke , best known for their 1971 smash hit "Resurrection Shuffle". He also played on sessions with Jon Lord of Deep Purple and with Jerry Lee Lewis .
- Writer was born in Blackburn, setting many of her novels in Lancashire . Her annual sales in Britain total nearly one million copies.
- Actor was born in Blackburn in 1967 and is most famous for co-writing and co-starring in BBC television comedy series '' The League Of Gentlemen ''. He has variously been involved in theatre production, performance and direction, and is a founder member of 606 Theatre .
- , official photographer for the 1953 ascent of Mount Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay , was born in Blackburn.
- Broadcaster was born in the town on 5 September 1934 . He will probably be best remembered for an edition of his chatshow in which he was physically assaulted by the black American singer, Grace Jones .
- , writer and television Script Editor , was born in Blackburn on 27 May 1922 .
- , 1973 ISBN 0140037217
- Press, 1993 ISBN 1853310476
- ISBN 0349115214
- William Woodruff , "Beyond Nab End", Abacus, 2003 ISBN 0349116229
- David Allin , "Blackburn Since 1900" ISBN 0948946180
- Press, 1992 ISBN 1853310212
- Jim Halsall , "Blackburn in Times Gone By" ISBN 1872895395
- Matthew Cole , "Blackburn's Shops at the Turn of the Century" ISBN 187289528X
- M. Baggoley, "Blackburn in Old Photographs", Sutton Publishing, 1996 ISBN 0750912626
