Darwen

Darwen is a market town and civil parish in the Blackburn with Darwen borough of Lancashire, England. The residents of the town are known as "Darreners". The town lies on the River Darwen, which flows from south to north and is seen in parks in the town centre. The A666 road passes through Darwen towards Blackburn to the north, Bolton to the south and Pendlebury, where it joins the A6, about north-west of Manchester. The population of Darwen stood at 28,046 in the 2011 census. It comprises four wards and has its own town council.

Toponymy Darwen's name is Celtic in origin. In Sub Roman Britain, it was within the Brythonic kingdom of Rheged, a successor to the Brigantes tribal territory. The Brythonic language name for oak is derw and this is etymologically linked to Derewent (1208), an ancient spelling for the river Darwen. Despite the area becoming part of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria by the mid-eighth century, its Brythonic name was never supplanted by an Old English place name.

History

The area around Darwen has been inhabited since the early Bronze Age and the remains of a round barrow from approximately 2000 BCE have been partially restored at the Ashleigh Barrow in Whitehall. The barrow had ten interments, nine of which were Collared Urn burials; as well as human remains, items found at the barrow included a bronze dagger some in length, a flint thumb scraper, a sub-plano-convex knife and a clay bead. Copies of the Collared Urns may be seen at the Darwen Library.

The Romans once had a force in Lancashire and a Roman road is visible on the Ordnance Survey map of the area; medieval Darwen was tiny and little or nothing survives. One of the earliest remaining buildings is a farmhouse at Bury Fold, dated 1675. Whitehall Cottage is thought to be the oldest house in the town and was built mostly in the 17th and 18th centuries, but contains a chimney piece dated 1557.

Like many towns in Lancashire, Darwen was a centre for textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution. Samuel Crompton, inventor of the spinning mule, lived there for part of his life. The railway and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal arrived in the mid-19th century. The most important textile building in Darwen is India Mill, built by Eccles Shorrock & Company. The company was ruined, however, by the effects of the Lancashire Cotton Famine of the 1860s. Cotton manufacture was an important industry and the Darwen Weavers', Winders' and Warpers' Association had more than 8,000 members in the town by 1907.

In the early 1840s. Eccles Shorrock created a large mill lodge (industrial reservoir) in what is now the lower part of Bold Venture Park, by constructing a dam where Inverness Road now runs across the valley cut by Bold Venture Brook. In 1848, during a night of heavy thunder storms and torrential rain, water rushed down from the moors and the dam failed catastrophically. The water level dropped by almost instantly and a wall of water swept down into the town centre, causing considerable damage and drowning several people who slept in cellars under shops and houses in the Market Street area.

Much of the town was built between about 1850 and 1900. Many clues reflect this: placenames, date stones in terraces, the vernacular architecture of cellars, local stone, locally-made brick, pipework, tiles and leaded glass. It was one of the first places in the world to have steam trams.

Andrew Carnegie financed a public library here; the town also had an art and technology college, and a grammar school. In 1931, Darwen was visited by Mahatma Gandhi, he had accepted the invitation from Corder Catchpool, Quaker manager of the Spring Vale Garden Village Ltd, to see the effects of India's boycott of cotton goods.Hughes, William R: Indomitable Friend, the Life of Corder Catchpool 1883-1952; p.60

India Mill is now home to many companies, including Brookhouse (producers of aeroplane parts) and Capita Group, which runs TV licensing. Since the 1950s, the textile industry has strongly declined in the region, although many industrial buildings from the period survive, now used for other purposes. India Mill and its chimney were sold in a £12 million deal.

Among Darwen's other notable employers include: Crown Paints, formerly Walpamur Paints, the earliest British paint manufacturer, which named one of its paints Darwen Satin Finish Crown Wallpaper manufactured wallpaper, Lincrusta and Anaglypta in the town. In 2004, Crown Wallcoverings, previously one of the biggest businesses in the town, closed with the loss of more than 200 jobs. ICI Acrylics (now called Lucite International) was where acrylic glass (Perspex for windows and signage, and Sani-ware or Lucite used for the manufacture of baths and shower trays) was invented; it is still manufactured in two separate plants within the town Spitfire canopies and (later) coloured polythene washing-up bowls were first made here. A heritage centre opened in 2016

Governance The municipal borough of Darwen was created in 1878; it was merged with Blackburn in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. The town became part of the Lancashire non-metropolitan district of Blackburn, which was renamed Blackburn with Darwen in 1997, shortly before it became a unitary authority.

The population of the town declined from 40,000 in the 1911 census to 30,000 in the 1971 census.

Locally, Darwen has been represented by Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors in the main council wards for the town. In the 2008 local elections, the For Darwen Party picked up the majority of the wards in the town to put pressure on Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council for Darwen to have its own council again. In April 2009, Darwen Town Council was formed.

There are five council wards within Darwen, out of the 23 in the Borough of Blackburn with Darwen; these are: Earcroft Marsh House Sudell Sunnyhurst Whitehall.

The Darwen parliamentary constituency existed until 1983, when it became part of the present Rossendale and Darwen constituency. This seat is currently held by Andy MacNae MP.

Coat of arms

Darwen has its own coat of arms, which was granted on 7 August 1878; this is different from that of the unitary authority of Blackburn with Darwen, which uses the coat of arms for Blackburn. At the foot of the coat of arms is the town motto in Latin, Absque Labore Nihil, which translates as "Nothing without labour". The arms depicts three cotton bolls and the River Darwen which runs through the town. The cotton represents the cotton industry in which the town grew and prospered during the Industrial Revolution and the three bolls to represent the three main areas of Darwen: Over Darwen, Lower Darwen and Hoddlesden. At the helm of the coat of arms is a barred helmet representing nobility and, above it, is the torse in the town colours of blue and gold. At the crest, a man stands shouldering a pickaxe, which refers to the town's motto and also represents the mining industry that was present to the east of the town at that time.

Education

After the passing of the Education Act 1870, many schools were established to serve the ever-growing population (many were later demolished): Darwen Aldridge Community Academy opened in September 2008 at the premises of the former Darwen Moorland High School on the outskirts of the town, which had closed in July 2008 to reopen as the academy after the summer holidays. All pupils from Darwen Moorland transferred to the academy. Pupils have subsequently moved down to the new site, into a state-of-the-art £49 million academy, with sixth form and modern facilities. Darwen Vale High School was temporarily moved to the old Moorland site, whilst a new build was completed on the original site. The original school façade was incorporated into the new build and Darwen Vale was transferred back to the original site in 2012. However, the move had caused major issues with the management at the school, which led to the head leaving and a new head taking over in 2013. Later in 2013, Ofsted ruled that the school was failing and the government ordered the school's conversion to academy status, sponsored by the Aldridge Foundation, despite teaching staff and parents protesting governmental imposition on the school's management. In September 2013. Darwen Aldridge Enterprise Studio opened and the school moved to its permanent home in 2014 in the renovated former Model Lodging House on Police Street. In January 2022, Crosshill School completed a £2 million move from Blackburn Central High School to the vacant Sunnyhurst Centre on Salisbury Road, with the move adding extra places at the school. It is part of the Champion Education Trust.

Geography

Location Darwen is located amid the West Pennine Moors south of Blackburn; it stands within a valley with the river Darwen flowing at its base. The river passes through the town from south to north, subsequently joining the River Ribble, which flows into the Irish Sea between Lytham St Annes and Southport. The A666 road follows the valley through the town centre as part of its route from the Ribble Valley, north of Blackburn, to Bolton and the boundary between Pendlebury and Irlams o' th' Height in Salford. The town's weather conditions made it perfect for cotton weaving and, as a result, it became one of the largest mill towns in Lancashire.

The Guinness Book of Records records that Darwen had one of the largest flash floods in the United Kingdom, in 1848; 12 people died.

Landmarks Darwen Jubilee Tower

In 1897, the town council met to deliberate how best to celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. The idea of building the Jubilee Tower was put forward, in conjunction with public access to the moors. A competition to design the tower was won by Ralph Ellison from the borough engineer's department and work began on 22 June 1897. On 24 September 1898. the opening ceremony was attended by over 3,000 people. Present at the ceremony were Councillor Alexander Carus, Mayor Charles Huntington, the High Sheriff of Lancashire and Lord of the manor Rev. W.A. Duckworth.

The tower, which is open to the public, overlooks the town from the moors; it stands at an altitude of and has a height of . A spiral staircase leads to the top from where, on a clear day, Blackpool Tower, the Isle of Man, North Wales and the Furness Peninsula can be seen. In November 2010, the dome of the tower was blown off by strong winds; it was restored in January 2012.

Darwen Library

Originally situated in the Peel Street, the library was transferred to the new technical school building in 1895.

Today, Darwen Library stands at the corner of Knott Street and School Street, to the north of the Circus. It was commissioned by Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish migrant to the USA, who made his fortune as a producer of iron and steel. He donated £8,000 in response to a speculative appeal for funds by the Library Committee. The opening took place on 27 May 1908 and was attended by Mayor Councillor G.P. Holde, Councillor Ralph Yates and Carnegie himself. The library has served the town ever since, with the original lecture hall being transformed into the Library Theatre in June 1971. On 27 April 2017, the library and theatre were designated as a Grade II listed building.

Darwen Town Hall

Darwen Town Hall was opened on 11 July 1882 and the clock tower was added in 1899, when Dr. James Ballantyne became mayor. In the 1920s, part of the market ground was made into the town's bus station which remains today. Although local government proceedings were transferred to Blackburn in the 1970s, the council chambers remained in the building; they were used by the magistrates' court from 1983 until 1992. The town hall currently houses offices of Blackburn with Darwen borough council and the local Neighbourhood Policing Team, and is a venue for meetings of the Darwen Town Council. Five shop units opened in 2011.

Parks