Everything about Darwen totally explained
Darwen is a
market town in
Lancashire,
England extending onto the
West Pennine Moors. Along with its northerly neighbour
Blackburn, it's 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.
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 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. 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.
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.
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.
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. 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. Junction 4 of the
M65 motorway lies within the town and the
services here were originally named "Blackburn Services". Following local protests they've been renamed "Blackburn with Darwen Services".
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", which is supported by the older name Derewent, though it has been claimed 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.
Landmarks
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.
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.
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 it's own independent newspaper which is called
The Darrener. The Darrener can be bought from most shops in the town.
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
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)
Notable people
Photo gallery
Image:Darwen-Countryside.jpg#file|Darwen countryside
Image:Darwen-Countryside-2.jpg#file|Darwen countryside
Further Information
Get more info on 'Darwen'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://darwen.totallyexplained.com">Darwen Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
