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Blackburn is a large town in Lancashire, England. It lies to the north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, 8 miles (13 km) east of Preston and 20.9 miles (34 km) north northwest of Manchester. It is beyond the northern border of Greater Manchester. Blackburn is bounded to the south by Darwen, with which it formed the unitary authority of Blackburn with Darwen in 1998; Blackburn is its administrative centre. At the time of the UK census of 2001, Blackburn had a population of 105,085, while the wider borough of Blackburn with Darwen had a population of 140,700. Blackburn had a population of 117,963 at the UK census of 2011, a massive increase since 2001.
[edit] History
[edit] Middle AgesChristianity is believed to have come to Blackburn by the end of the 6th century. The town was important during the Anglo-Saxon era when the Blackburnshire Hundred came into existence as a territorial division of the kingdom of Northumbria. The name of the town appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Blachebourne, a royal manor during the days of Edward the Confessor and William the Conqueror. Archaeological evidence from the demolition of the medieval parish church on the site of the cathedral in 1820 suggests that a church was built during the late 11th or early 12th century. A market cross was also erected nearby in 1101. The manor came into the possession of Henry de Blackburn, who divided it between his two sons. Later, one half was granted to the monks of Stanlow Abbey in Ellesmere Port, Chesire and this moiety was subsequently granted to the monks of Whalley Abbey. During the 12th century, the town's importance declined as Clitheroe became the regional centre. In addition to a settlement in the town centre area, there were several other medieval domiciles nearby. As an ancient parish, before the rise of local civil government, the Church of England clergy of Blackburn were responsible for the churches in 23 surrounding townships and chapelries. There is a list in A Vision of Britain through Time. [edit] Industrial Revolution and textilesTextile manufacturing in Blackburn dates from the mid-13th century, when wool produced locally by farmers was woven in their homes. Flemish weavers who settled in the area in the 14th century developed the industry. By 1650 the town was known for the manufacture of blue and white "Blackburn checks", and "Blackburn greys" became famous not long afterwards. By the first half of the 18th century textile manufacture had become Blackburn's main industry. From the mid-18th to the early 20th century Blackburn evolved from a small market town into "the weaving capital of the world", and its population increased from less than 5,000 to over 130,000. John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles provides a profile of Blackburn in 1887:
From around 1750, cotton textile manufacturing expanded rapidly. Supplied with cotton by merchants, and paid by the piece, cottagers spun cotton into thread and wove it into cloth. The merchants arranged for cloth to be bleached and dyed. (This was the "domestic system" of textile manufacture.) After 1775, spinning mills were built in the town. Early mills were warehouse conversions; the first purpose-built spinning mill was constructed in 1797 and by 1824 there were 24. The number of spindles reached 2.5 million by 1870 and spinning mills were constructed up to that time – 24 since 1850. Spinning declined between 1870 and 1900 as the sector transferred to south Lancashire. In 18th century Blackburn, weaving was primarily undertaken by handloom weavers working from their own cottages. However, as powerlooms were introduced into the mills after 1825, the percentage of handloom weavers began to decline and this occurred more rapidly in areas closer to the town. Handloom weavers continued to make up a sizable portion of the workforce in outlying rural areas. The last handloom shop in Blackburn closed in 1894. Improvements to the power loom in the early 1840s, and the construction of a railway line in 1846, led to greater investment in power looms in Blackburn in the second half of that decade. The railway brought opportunities for expansion of the cotton trade, and in subsequent decades many new mills were constructed: between 1850 and 1870, 68 weaving-only and four combined weaving/spinning mills were built and nine weaving mills were built per decade between 1870 and 1890. Improvements in power loom efficiency meant that weaving, the primary source of wealth and income for handloom weavers, began to transfer from the cottage industry to factories. This led to high rates of unemployment: according to figures published in March 1826, some 60% of all handloom weavers in Blackburn, Rishton, Lower Darwen and Oswaldtwistle were unemployed. High unemployment led to the Lancashire weavers' riots. For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Blackburn#History. [edit] Decline of the cotton industryIn 1890, Blackburn's Chamber of Commerce recognised that the town was over-dependent on the cotton industry. The warning proved prophetic when, in 1904, a slump hit the cotton industry and other industries dependent on it, such as engineering, brewing and building. In 1908, another slump saw 43 mills stop production and a quarter of the town's looms lay idle. Suspension of trade with India during the First World War resulted in the expansion of colonial British India's cotton industry at the expense of Britain's, and the imposition of an 11% import tariff by the colonial British Government led to a dramatic slump in trade in 1921, a situation which worsened in 1922 after the Indian Government raised the tariff to 14%. This caused the number of stopped mills to increase to 47, with 43,000 looms lying idle. Two years into the slump, Foundry and Limbrick Mills became the first to close permanently. Not long afterwards, in 1926, the General Strike saw production suspended at half the town's mills and 12,000 unemployed. There was another slump in 1928, and another strike in 1929 after employers requested a 12% wage cut; 40,000 cotton workers struck for a week and eight mills closed, making 28 closures in six years. By the start of 1930, 50 mills had shut and 21,000 people were unemployed. A financial crisis in 1931 led to 24,000 unemployed, with 1,000 houses and 166 shops lying empty in the town. A total of 26 mills closed down between 1930 and 1934. The industry experienced a short post-war boom between 1948 and 1950, during which sales increased, industry training methods improved and automatic looms were introduced which allowed a single weaver to control 20 to 25 looms. Loom sheds were rebuilt to house new, larger looms. Despite the post-war boom, the cotton industry continued to decline and only 25% of the town's population were employed in textiles by 1951; this figure had stood at 60% up to the beginning of the Great Depression in 1929. Mill closures continued throughout the 1950s as more cloth was imported from India than was exported. By 1960 there were only 30 mills operating in Blackburn. In 1976 there were 2,100 looms in operation in the town, compared with 79,405 in 1907. [edit] Fenniscliff"This area lies to the north and northeast of the Witton Township with the River Darwen forming the boundary from Feniscliffe Bridge, just beyond the point where the River Blakewater enters the River Darwen on its journey from Blackburn. To the south and east lies Mill Hill and Livesey districts and, beyond the area to the west, lies Feniscowles beyond Feniscowles Viaduct." (source: [1]) Redirected here. [edit] Blackburn Ancient ParishAs an ancient parish in the 19th century and before, Blackburn served 23 surrounding townships and chapelries. Many people in these parishes would have had to travel to Blackburn for baptisms, marriages and burials, although a closer "chapelry" might have had a curate who could officiate at a sacrament. The townships were as follows: [edit] Research Tips
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