A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



in Sarah Llvcscy's charity. This lady left i^ioo 

 for binding poor children of Blackburn, Livesey and 

 Pleasington to be apprentices. This form of charity 

 having become useless, the income i£zS) is, under a 

 scheme made in 1S87, devoted to providing ' Livesey 

 exhibitions' tenable at higher-grade schools. Miss 

 Nancy Derbyshire in 1893 founded six almshouses, 

 building them and providing an income of about 

 j^zzo. There are twelve inmates, to be chosen from 

 poor or infirm persons residing within 7 miles. An 

 allowance of 4J. or 6s. a week is made to each ; any 

 surplus income is spent on out-pensions. The persons 

 chosen are usually aged widows. 



In 1826 the township of Blackburn had various 

 benefactions for the poor invested in the purchase 

 of estates called Lang House in Yate Bank and South- 

 worth Green Farm in Mellor ; the gross income was 

 £6^, out of which a distribution of money and 

 blankets was made to the poor on New Year's Day. 

 The vicar and two others were the trustees, and the 

 estates were called the Poor's Lands. There was also 

 a girls' charity school, founded by William Leyland 

 in 1763. There were no endowments for Little 

 Harwood, Ramsgreave, Witton and Clayton-lc-Dalc. 

 At Pleasington there was a school ; the township now 

 shares in the Livesey exhibitions and has a small 

 addition.il school endowment. At Salesbury Lady 

 Bulkeley in 1823 left £500 for the poor; under a 

 scheme of 1876 one moiety of the income (over j^l 5 

 in all) was to be given in scholarships for poor children 

 and the other moiety in various forms of relief, but 

 most of the money continued to be given in money 

 doles. At Mellor ys. 6J. is given yearly to two aged 

 widows, apparently from a gift by Thomas Gucit in 

 1830. Miss Nancy Hargreaves left j^ 1 ,000 for the 

 poor; the interest (£jl 10s.) is distributed by the 

 vicar and churchwardens in money as occasion re- 

 quires. There is an endowment for the Wesleyan 

 chapel. 



The charities belonging to the other townships are 

 described under the several chapelries. 



BLACKBURN 



Blackeburne, Dom. Bk. ; Blakeburn, 11 87 to xvi 

 cent. ; Blackborne, 1608. The local pronunciation 

 is Blakeburn. 



The borough of Blackburn is situated on hilly 

 ground rising from the valley of the River Darwen, 

 which flows through the south-western suburbs, and 

 from both banks of the tributary Blackwater, the 

 ancient ' blake burn ' which gave name to the town- 

 ship. On the north-west the town extends almost 

 to the summit of Revidge, an eminence 750 ft. above 

 the ordnance datum, and extends in the opposite 

 direction nearly to Whinney Edge, where the eleva- 

 tion is 664 ft. The lowest level, about 320 ft., is 

 reached by the banks of the River Darwen on the 

 south-west.' 



The northern part of the original township lies 

 upon the Millstone Grit, the remainder — from the top 

 of Revidge southward — on the Coal Measures. The 

 agricultural land is almost entirely confined to the 



northern part of the township, and is devoted to dairy 

 produce. The agricultural returns of 1905 give 

 arable land 6 acres, permanent grass 1,416 acres, 

 woods and plantations 44 acres. 



Seven main roads lead to the neighbouring towns 

 of Preston, Chorley, Darwen, Haslingden, Accring- 

 ton, Rishton and Whalley. The Lancashire and 

 Yorkshire Railway Company's main line from Liver- 

 pool and Preston to Accrington and Burnley, con- 

 necting with their Yorkshire system, and the Bolton 

 and Hellifield branch of the same company, pass 

 through the town, with a large station in a central 

 position near the church. The Leeds and Liverpool 

 Canal also traverses the town, from north-east to 

 south-west, at a level of about 420 ft. The corpora- 

 tion of Blackburn own and work a system of tram- 

 ways, opened in 1887-8, arranged in four sections, 

 having a total length of nearly 14 miles, and worked 

 entirely by electricity. Another tramway, about 

 5 miles in length, opened in 1881, connects the 

 borough with the neighbouring town of Darwen. 



Among the more prominent buildings is the Ex- 

 change Hall, erected in 1864 and enlarged in 1897 ; 

 it includes a large exchange room and an assembly 

 room. The post office was built in 1907, to replace 

 one which was opened in 1880.' The Theatre 

 Rnyal and Opera House, originally built in 181 8, was 

 reconstructed on the old site in 1886; the New 

 Palace Theatre dates from 1899. There are numerous 

 political clubs, a Literary club, and an institute of the 

 Incorporated Law Society. A savings bank was 

 founded in 1831. Statues of the late Queen Victoria 

 and W. E. Gladstone have been erected in the 

 town. 



A Chamber of Commerce was incorporated for 

 Blackburn and district in 1887. 



In the town are the headquarters of the 3rd 

 Lancashire Royal Garrison Artillery (Volunteers) and 

 the 1st Volunteer Battalion East Lancashire Regi- 

 ment. Under the Territorial system the latter has 

 become the 4th Battalion of the East Lancashire 

 Regiment and the former the ist East Lancashire 

 Brigade Royal Field Artillery. 



The first newspaper was the Mai/, in 1793.^ 

 There are three weekly newspapers, the Advertiser, 

 Times, and Telegraph ; an evening paper, the 'Northern 

 Daily Telegraph, is also issued. 



There were two ancient crosses — in the market- 

 place and near White Birk ; a spring was called All 

 Hallows' Spring.^ 



Mr. John Morley, on being raised to the peerage 

 in 1908, commemorated his native place in his title 

 Viscount Morley of Blackburn. 



The worthies of the town include Robert Bolton, a 

 Puritan divine, born there in 1572. He was edu- 

 cated at Oxford, and became rector of Broughton, 

 Northants, in 16 lo. He died there in 1 631, having 

 a high reputation as a scholar and divine, being par- 

 ticularly 'famous for relieving afflicted consciences.'' 

 John Bailey of Blackburn, 1644-97, was a Noncon- 

 formist divine of note. After imprisonment at Lan- 

 caster, about 1670, he went to Ireland, from which 

 further persecution drove him in 1683 to New 



^ These elevations arc within the 

 ancient township. 



" Information of the postmaster. For 

 the old postal arrangements see Abram, 

 Blackburn ChardCUrs, 125-32, 



^ Abram, Blackburn, +12 ; it ceased in 

 1832. It had the first printing press 

 known in the town, but there was 

 another in 1797 ; Local GUan, Lanci, and 

 Ches. i, 27. 



244 



* Land, and Chei, Antiq, Soe, xvii, 8, 

 10, II. 



> Diet. Nat. Biog. ; Abram, op. cit. 

 262-6 (with portrait and list of works); 

 N. anJQ. (Ser. 5), r, 81. 



