A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



B'dcrable quantities are printed here ; otheri are sent to London. 

 The fieldi around are whitened with the materials which are 

 bleached on them ; the thread, which mult be ranked with 

 them, if brought from Ireland. The streets are irregular ; but 

 some good houses, the effect of wealth, begin to appear here 

 and there in several places. . . . The ground about the town is 

 very barren, and much of it sandy ; coal is found in plenty in 

 the south end of the parish, and in several parts much stone 

 SLjte, which is used for a cover for the houses.^** 



The town grew rapidly and about 1793 contained 

 the parish church and its chapel of ease and five 

 places of worship for different persuasions of Dissenters. 

 There was also a poor-house. The market was on 

 Monday, but the chief supply of provisions was from 

 Preston. ' Shelled groats ' were bought by the towns- 

 people about Michaelmas, ground to meal, and stowed 

 in arks, where they were trodden down hard while 

 new and warm to serve for the year's bread, which 

 was chiefly oat cakes. There were an annual fair on 

 May Day and a fortnightly cattle f.iir. Darwen, to 

 the south, was a populous district manufacturing a 

 large quaniity of cotton goods. ^' The extension of 

 trade led to a growth of buildings, facilitated by the 

 leasing of the vicar's glebe,^'-' and to the improvement 

 of the roads, which went on rapidly from 1789 to 

 I Sz 5 *' ; the Leeds and Liverpool Canal re.iched this 

 place I S 10-1^1. ■•* The fir^t r.iihv.i), that from 

 Blackburn to Preston, u.ii opened in 1S46.*' 



The introduction of m.ichlnery led to the usual 

 disturbances. H.irgreaves, the inventor, was born not 

 far from Blackburn, .ind several of his 'jennies' were 

 wrecked in a riot of 176s.'"' The Radical agitation 

 of a century ago strongly affected Blackburn, and 

 some of the local leaders were tried In 1820 for 

 having taken part in a great meeting near Burnley.*' 

 In 1826 there was a loom-breaking riot,'* and 'plug- 

 drawing' marked 1842.''' The severe cotton famine 

 of 1S62-3, due to the Civil War in the United 

 States, caused great distress in the district, and it Is 

 stated that in the town alone 30,000 persons were 

 dependent on charity at the end of 1862.'* 



Under the Reform Act Blackburn became a 

 Parliamentary borough, returning two members. 

 The boundaries have been enlarged. The remainder 

 of the parish is chiefly In the Darwen division of the 

 county ; a small part on the ea^t is in the Accrlngton 

 division. 



The parish church of ST. M^R7' 

 CHURCH THE I'JRGIS " stands on rising 

 ground in the centre of the town close 

 to the railway station. Since the covering in of the 

 River Blackwatcr on the south side and the formation 

 of a boulevard on the east the appearance of the 

 churchyard, which is now grass- covered and planted 

 with tree-, has been much improved. It was tormerly 

 bare and neglected. The church is a modern Gothic 

 stone-built structure, erected at the beginning of the 

 19th century, the foundation stone having been laid 

 in 1820 and the consecration having taken place in 

 1826. The architect was John Palmer," and con- 

 sidering the period at which it was built the design, 

 which follows more or less the st)le of the 14th 

 century, is not without merit. The building stands 

 on the site of the old grammar school. The former 

 church, which stood more to the north," seems to 

 have been a building originally of the 14th century, 

 but much altered and renovated in the 16th."' 

 A drawing from the south-east made by the Rev. 

 S. J. Allen a few yc.irs before the demolition of the 

 structure shows it to have consisted of a long chancel 

 with north and south chapels, nave with south (and 

 presumably north) aisle, south porch and west tower. 

 The roofs of the chancel and nave had overhanging 

 eaves, and the clearstory windows (six to the chancel 

 and seven to the nave) were square-headed and of 

 two lights. The east window was of four lights with 

 tracery under a pointed head. The tower had an 

 embattled parapet and short spire, and the walls 

 of the chapel south of the chancel, known as the 

 Walmesley chapel," were also embattled. The 

 north chapel belonged to the family of Osbaldeston 

 of Osbaldeston, and was used as a private oratory and 

 mortuary. A list of the principal monuments in 

 these two chapels has been preserved.'" The church 

 probably took the place in the 14th century of a still 

 older building, some of the materials of which were 

 used in its erection ; fragments of them, described as 

 ' portions of arcuated stones with dog-tooth ornaments, 

 the remains of a doorway, and sculptured Norman 

 capitals,' were brought to light in 182c when the 

 fabric was demolished." Whilst the new church was 

 building a portion of the east end of the old church 

 was left standing and used for baptisms, marriages 



«> Pennant, Tour rt A/s:.; M .-, 65-7. 

 rhe congregation ol the parish chirch 

 consisted of about 2,oco. The a.um 

 mines were not then worked. 



*' .-^ikin, Cour.ny round Mjnch, 270-3, 



*^ .-^bram, op. cit. 298. 



"Ibid. 25-. A list of bills 1--6-9- 

 is given ; ibid. 241. 



" Ibid. 2+5 jthesectionfrom Blackburn 

 to Wigan was the last to be constructed. 



" Ibid. 244 ; the l.nc was extended 

 from Blackburn to Accrington in 1^4;^. 

 Another railway, from Blackburn to 

 Darwen and Bolton, was opened in 

 1S47-S, and was extended to Clitheroe 

 and Yorkshire. A line from Blackburn 

 to Chorley was opened in 1869. 



" Ibid. 205. There was another dis- 

 turbance in 1779 ; ibid. 217, 



*' Abram, BU(kburn Characters^ 19. 



" Ibid. Blackburn, 233. It was a 

 time of acute distress, and some relief 

 work was provided by cutting a road 

 through the rock on the summit of 

 Rcvidge Hill. 



" Baincs, Iji.-,. (ed. 18-0), ii, 79. 



^ Abram, op. cit. 2^6. 



*' Adam son of Gilbert de Salesbury 

 early in the i 3th century gave a rood of 

 land by Hcaiey Spring in Salesbury t» 

 God and the Blessed Mary of Blackburn 

 for the souls of his ancestors ; Towneley 

 MS. RR, no. 297. 



John dc Blackburn again in 1321 left 

 4 lb. of wax a year for two torches to be 

 lighted at the high altar of St. Mary of 

 Blackburn at the time of the Elevation ; 

 ii'halley Couch, iv, 1 168. 



Peter Chorley of London In 1464 left 

 6j. %d. to the church of the Blessed Mary 

 of Blackburn : Kuerden MSS. iv, C loA. 



^ Palmer v^-as also architect for various 

 restorations at Manchester Cathedral (then 

 Collegiate Chjrch) in the early years of 

 the last century. As a Gothicist he was 

 in advance of his time. 



'^ ' The site of the old church was but 

 a few paces in the rear of the houses on 

 the south side of Church Street' ; Abram, 

 Hisl. of Blackburn, 302. 



^ 'The church of the time of Edward 

 III had become impaired with age in the 



reign of Henry VIII, when by the over- 

 turn of the monastery to which it waa 

 attached it passed under new authority, 

 and shortly after that change, about i 540, 

 the upper portion of the church walls and 

 the roof were extensively renovated. The 

 nave and chancel were covered with 

 handsome roofs of timber with transverse 

 beams and panelled compartments and 

 the tracery and moulded heads of some of 

 the windows were replaced. With these 

 new features the main structure of the 

 former church was retained and lasted 

 until the final demolition of the ancient 

 fabric ; ' Abram, op. cit. 301. 



^* Ibid. 305. Originally the chantry of 

 Our Lady. 



^ Ibid. 308-10. Pennant {Tour from 

 Do'wmng t-j Aliton Moor, 66-7) in 177J 

 mentions the monuments in the Osbalde- 

 ston chapel. There were two brasses, 

 one to Sir Edward Osbaldeston, * a 

 charitable, courteous and valiant knight,' 

 died 1636, and another to a member of 

 the same family, died 1689. 



'•"^ Abram, op. cit. 301. 



