Darwen

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Darwen
Darwen shown within Lancashire
OS grid reference	SD695225
Unitary authority	Blackburn with Darwen
Ceremonial county	Lancashire
Region	North West
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	DARWEN
Postcode district	BB3
Dialling code	01254
Police	Lancashire
Fire	Lancashire
Ambulance	North West
European Parliament	North West England
UK Parliament	Rossendale and Darwen
List of places: UK • England • Lancashire

Coordinates: 53°41′53″N 2°27′40″W / 53.698, -2.461

Darwen is a market town in Lancashire, England extending onto the West Pennine Moors. Along with its northerly neighbour Blackburn, it is part of the Blackburn with Darwen Borough, which has been a unitary authority since 1998. The town is spread along the route of the A666 road, with Blackburn to the north, and Bolton to the south.

[edit] History

The area Darwen currently occupies has been inhabited since the early Bronze Age and the remains of a barrow from approximately 2000 BC have been partially restored at the Ashleigh Barrow^[1] in Whitehall. Artefacts including a bronze dagger and urns containing human ashes were found and a small number of the less important finds are now on display at Darwen Library Theatre. The Romans once had a force in Lancashire and a Roman road is visible on the Ordnance Survey map of the area. Mediaeval Darwen was tiny; little or nothing survives. One of the earliest remaining buildings is dated 1675.

Like many towns in Lancashire, Darwen was a centre for the production of textiles during the Industrial Revolution. Samuel Crompton, inventor of the spinning mule, lived here for part of his life.^[2] Rail links and the Leeds-Liverpool Canal arrived in about the mid-19th century. The most important textile building in Darwen is India Mill which was built by Eccles Shorrock & Company but the company was ruined by the effects of the Lancashire Cotton Famine of the 1860s. Darwen played a considerable part in the Industrial Revolution and it has been suggested that this part of North West England should be designated a World Heritage Site.^[who?]

Much of the town was built between about 1850 and 1900; place-names, date stones in terraces, and the vernacular architecture of cellars, local stone, locally-made brick, pipework and tiles and leaded glass (the last now mostly gone) reflect this. It was one of the first places in the world to have steam trams. The arrangement of town hall, market, public transport, eating/hotel facilities, and pre-suburban mixed size vernacular housing with local variations with topography, is very characteristic of northern England. The year 1900 perhaps represents the peak of Victorian optimism in the area. At that time, the working classes were much more identifiable as masses than at present. Orwell for example, described the sound of clogs on cobblestones of the large number of female millworkers. The rise of the Labour Party from about 1900 coincided with a decline in the Liberal Party, which followed the Manchester School in economics, increasingly seen as permitting unjustified exploitation. However on balance Darwen voted Conservative until the administrative rearrangements in the early 1970s.

Gandhi at Darwen, September 26, 1931 with Mirabehn (Madeleine Slade).

Andrew Carnegie financed a public library here; the town also had an art and technology college and a grammar school. In common with many northern nonconformist towns there are many chapels of assorted denominations, which flourished until the psychological blows of the First World War. As with Brittany in France, Lancashire men seem to have been hard done by in wars - being pushed disproportionately into the front line.

One of Darwen's biggest claims to fame is that it hosted a visit from Mahatma Gandhi in 1931. He had accepted the invitation from Corder Catchpool, owner of the Greenfield Mill, to come and see the effects of India's boycott of cotton goods. The unemployed cotton mill workers greeted the man with great affection despite it being his fault they were out of work in the first place.

India Mill is now home to many companies including Brookhouse (producers of aeroplane parts) and Capita Group who runs TV licensing. Since the 1950s, the textile industry has strongly declined in the region, although many of the factories and other industrial buildings from the period survive and are now used for other purposes. India Mill and its famous chimney have been sold in a £12 million deal. Among Darwen's other famous industries are included Crown Paints, formerly Walpamur Paints, the earliest British paint manufacturer who actually named one of their paints 'Darwen Satin Finish'. Crown Wallpapers who invented wallpaper as we know it by being the first manufacturer of continuous rolls and also invented and made 'Anaglypta' in the town. ICI Plastics where acrylic glass (Perspex - now called lucite) was invented and is still manufactured. Spitfire canopies and (later) coloured polythene washing-up bowls were first made here. Britain's leading patent-holder of electric kettles is a Darwen resident.

[edit] Governance

Darwen was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1878. The population of the town declined from 40,000 in the 1911 census to 30,000 in the 1971 census.^[3] 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.

In Lancashire dialect, the name Darwen is pronounced Darren, and the locals refer to themselves as Darreners. They are generally resistant to any attempts at submerging the identity of the town within Blackburn.^[4] Junction 4 of the M65 motorway lies within the town and the services here were originally named "Blackburn Services". Following local protests^[5] they have been renamed "Blackburn with Darwen Services".

[edit] Geography and name

The River Darwen passes through the town, subsequently joining the River Ribble, one of the longest rivers in North West England. Most authorities trace the name 'Darwen' to the Brythonic derw "oak"^[6][7], which is supported by the older name Derewent, though it has been claimed^[who?] that the name Darwen stems from Dwrgwyn, from the Old Welsh dwr or "water" and gwyn Brythonic for "white" or "clear". Thus the name may mean "clear water".

The Guinness Book of Records mentions that Darwen had one of the largest flash floods in the UK.

[edit] Landmarks

Darwen 'Jubilee' Tower

Overlooking the town from the moors to the west is Darwen Tower (officially 'Jubilee Tower'). Built in celebration of both Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 and of the successful campaign the same year by the people of Darwen for free public access to Darwen Moors, it stands at an altitude of 1225 feet and is 86 feet tall.

[edit] Transport

Darwen is on Junction 4 of the M65 motorway, and so takes a lot of passing traffic. Much of the heavy traffic passes through the town itself along the A666 causing an air pollution issue which the local council have recently attempted to address adding a new one way road system to the town centre. Darwen is on the Ribble Valley Line, operated by Northern Rail, for trains and its stop is Darwen railway station where you can catch one train an hour between Clitheroe and Manchester (via Bolton). Darwen's bus terminal (Darwen Circus) has recently been improved and regular services head to Blackburn, a limited service also heads to Bolton and Clitheroe but the Bolton service terminates at 7:00pm.

[edit] Culture

The town is also the home of Darwen Football Club, the Darwen Library Theatre (an extension to the library), and the TV show Hetty Wainthropp Investigates. It also has a large non-indigenous community including many Italians.

Darwen has a few footnotes in entertainment history: its theatre (now demolished) had appearances by Charlie Chaplin, and it featured in a film by Norman Wisdom. George Formby's wife was from Darwen.

Darwen also has a cricket club, Darwen Cricket Club which is currently based at Birch Hall Cricket Ground.

The town also has its own independent newspaper which is called The Darrener. The Darrener can be bought from most shops in the town.

[edit] Politics

Darwen is currently served by Labour Member of Parliament Janet Anderson who also represents Rossendale.

Locally, Darwen has been represented by Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors in the main council wards for the town. However, in the 2008 local elections, the "For Darwen" Party picked up the majority of the wards in the town to put pressure on neighbouring Blackburn, for Darwen to have its own independent council

[edit] Music

Darwen annually holds a music festival called Darwen Live (formally Darwen Music Live). This event is staged outside the town hall over the second bank holiday in May (main stage). Other smaller music stages are usually based around the town in pubs and bars, such as Marigold's etc.

The town's local radio station is 107 The Bee which is based in Derwent Court just off the motorway services. 107 The Bee broadcasts to Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn and the Ribble Valley.

Popular local venues in the town include:-

- Roxy Nightclub

- Marrigold's

- Bar Java

- George (The Circus)

- Black Horse pub (serves locally brewed ales)

[edit] Notable people

• Margaret Chapman, an illustrator and painter
• Bryn Haworth, British rock/gospel musician and singer-songwriter
• John Harwood, Mayor of Accrington 1912-1915; raised the Accrington Pals (11 Battalion East Lancashire Regiment)
• The Potter family who among other things made paper in Darwen, were related to Beatrix Potter
• Neil Arthur, lead vocalist of 1980s group Blancmange
• James Watson (author)‎, award-winning author

[edit] Photo gallery

Darwen countryside

Darwen countryside

[edit] References