BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



BLACKBURN 



BLACKBURN 



LITTLE HARWOOD 



RAMSGREAVE 



SALESBURY 



CLAYTON-LE-DALE 



MELLOR 



WITTON 



PLEASINGTON 



BLACKBURN 



OVER DARWEN 



LOWER DARWEN 



ECCLESHILL 



YATE AND PICKUP BANK (Ex.-Parochial) 



TOCKHOLES 



LIVESEY 



WALTON-LE-DALE 



CUERDALE 



SAMLESBURY 



BALDERSTON 



OSBALDESTON 



BILLINGTON 



WILPSHIRE 



DINCKLEY 



GREAT HARWOOD 



RISHTON 



The parish of Blackburn occupies a central position 

 in the county. The River Darwen, anciently named 

 Derwent, rises on Darwen Moor, at the southern 

 border, and, flowing through the south-western part 

 of the parish, joins the Ribble a short distance below 

 Walton Bridge. A tributary called Knuzden Brook, 

 rising on Oswaldtwistle Moor, and in its lower course 

 known as the River Blackwater, which gave name to 

 Blackburn, flows through that town to join the 

 Darwen at FinnisclifFe Bridge in Witton Park. At 

 the head of the River Darwen and its tributary 

 Hoddlesden Brook are the highest elevations in the 

 parish. White HiU on Darwen Moor, rising 1,320 ft., 

 and Hoddlesden Moss 1,087 ft-> above mean sea level. 

 From these hills the land falls towards the River Ribble, 

 which forms the north-western boundary of the 

 parish. The Yoredale Rocks occur in the centre of 

 the parish, the New Red Sandstone or Trias and the 

 Permian in the valley of the Ribble ; elsewhere the 

 subsoil consists of the Millstone Grit and the Coal 

 Measures. The parish contains 48,281 acres,' with a 

 population in 1901 of 235,702 persons, chiefly en- 

 gaged in the cotton-spinning and weaving industries. 

 The early history of the parish is not marked by any 

 great events. The presence of the Romans is shown 

 by the station at Walton-le-Dale," and the battle of 

 Whalley in 798 may have taken place at Langho.' 

 The great hoard of coins found at Cuerdale may point 

 to another battle in the neighbourhood about 930.* 

 Before the Conquest Blackburn was a royal manor 

 and gave its name to the hundred, but this headship 

 was lost afterwards, the Norman lord of the district 

 fixing his seat at Clitheroe. Blackburn then seems 

 to have become a retired agricultural community. 

 Edward II passed through it on 12 October 1323 on 

 his way from Yorkshire to Liverpool.' The Wars of 

 the Roses led to the forfeiture of Balderstone in 1487, 

 and ' lusty lads ' from Blackburn fought at Flodden in 

 1513, according to the old ballad. 



The suppression of the minor monasteries appears 



to have been resented in Blackburn, just as elsewhere 

 in the north,' but there were no leaders, and, apart 

 from the suppression of Whalley, which involved con- 

 siderable changes in the tenure of land in the parish, 

 no one seems to have suffered, though the vicar was 

 under suspicion. How a population so disposed had 

 a century later become quite Puritan in tone is a 

 matter which deserves some attention. There was 

 no disposition towards religious alterations before the 

 Reformation,' and in the time of Elizabeth the parish 

 had numerous recusants' ; still, even then there was 

 little open refusal to conform outwardly to the new 

 services, though the vicar of Blackburn in 1559 was 

 quickly deprived of his benefice. The local gentry 

 in many cases remained attached to the old religion, 

 but the imprisonments and fines incurred by Sir John 

 Southworth in the persecution of the latter part of 

 Elizabeth's reign seem to have deterred others from 

 open opposition. The mass of the people were pro- 

 bably neglected altogether, the new vicar of Blackburn 

 resigning, after a tenure of eighteen years, on the 

 ground, as is supposed, of his inefficiency.' By that 

 time new conditions were effective. A fresh genera- 

 tion, knowing little of Roman Catholicism except 

 that it was proscribed by law, had grown up ; 

 the Archbishop of Canterbury appointed a pastor who 

 showed himself a sturdy Puritan,'" and the mission- 

 ary priests who then began to appear from the col- 

 leges at Douay and Rome had to minister in secret 

 where they found friends willing to risk the enter- 

 taining of them," and the best they could do was to 

 encourage those who remained faithful. 



This seems the explanation of the change. The 

 old, to a great extent, died away under the repression 

 of the law ; and the new, encouraged by the State 

 and fostered by a zealous vicar, grew into strength. 

 Passing by minor incidents recorded " — the visits of 

 Camden the antiquary,'^ the witchcraft trials of 1612 

 involving the Southworth family,'* the working of an 

 alum mine at Pleasington," and visitations of the 



'Ordnance Surv. 1848; but 48,259 

 acres, of which 730 are inland water, 

 according to Census Rep, 1 901. 



^ Watkin, Roman Lanes, 202-5. 



•* Abram, Blackburn, 27. 



* Ibid. 30. 



* Cal. Pat. 1321-4, p. 343, &c. 

 « L. and P. Hen. nil, xii (l), 7. 



7 None of the earlier Protestants of 

 distinction came from it, but a missionary 

 priest, the Ven. William Thomson alias 

 Blackburn, executed by Elizabeth, was a 

 native. He was born probably about 

 1560, educated at Rheims and sent to 

 England, After labouring a short time 

 in the mission he was captured and 



executed for his priesthood at Tyburn, 

 20 Apr. 1586. The cause of his beatifica- 

 tion was allowed to be introduced at 

 Rome in 1886 ; Pollen, Acts of Martyrs, 

 379 ; Stanton, Menology, 171. His con- 

 temporary Edward Osbaldeston of Osbal- 

 deston suffered similarly at York in 

 1594. 



8 Abram, Blackburn, 7853 list of 1576 

 is printed, the principal being Sir John 

 Southworth of Samlesbury and John 

 Talbot of Salesbury. 



^ See the account of the parish church. 



^^ Robert Bolton, the Puritan divine, 

 born 1572, may have been one of his 

 disciples. 



1^ Two are named in a list of 1586 ; 

 Abram, op. cit. 82. 



In I 591 it was reported that no house 

 in the county was worse than that of Mr. 

 Yates, the schoolmaster of Blackburn, his 

 wife, daughter and maid being recusants ; 

 Cal. S. P. Dom. 1591-4, p. 150. 



12 In 1587 there was a dearth of corn ; 

 ibid. 1581-90, p. 407. 



'* His second visit was in 1603 ; Brit. 

 (ed. 1695), 750. He found little to 

 interest him, and just mentions Black- 

 burn (a market town) and Walton-le- 

 Dale as standing on the Darwen ; ibid. 

 752. 



'* Abram, op. cit. 88. ^^ Ibid. 96. 



