BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



There is ,i mission room at Holden Fold. 



The second church was Holy Trinity, built in 

 1829 by a parliamentary grant ; a parish was assigned 

 to it in 1842,*^ and the vicar of Blackburn presents to 

 the vicarage. There is a mission room. St. Paul's, 

 Hoddlesden, was opened^* in 1863, and St. John 

 the Evangelist's, Turncroft, in 18648*; the Bishop 

 of Manchester collates to these. In connexion with 

 St. John's are three mission rooms — St. Barnabas' 

 (1884), St. Aidan's (1890) and Grime Hills. To 

 St. Cuthbert's, iSyS,^* and St. George's, 1903, the 

 Bishop of Manchester collates likewise. 



Methodism took root in Darwen about 1785. 

 The Wesleyans opened a room in 1788 and built a 

 chapel in Back Lane in 1 791. This was replaced 

 by Centenary Chapel, now schools, in 1839, and in 

 1 866 Wesley Chapel in Railway Road was opened.*' 

 The Wesleyans have now three other chapels, in 

 Bolton Road, Blackburn Road (l 891-1904) and 

 Hoddlesden. The Primitive Methodists appeared in 

 1825 and built a chapel in 1 83 2 ; this was replaced 

 by a larger one in 1875,*' and a second has been 

 added. The Wesleyan Association, afterwards merged 

 m the Methodist Free Church, built a place of 

 worship in 1838 *' ; another was built in 1906. 



The power of the Nonconformists in the place is 

 shown by their seizure of the chapel in 1687.^" 

 Though ejected they procured a meeting-house of 

 their own, and used it from the grant of toleration 

 in 1688. The first minister was Charles Sagar, 

 educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, and 

 master in the grammar school at Blackburn from 

 1656 to 1665, when he was deprived for noncon- 

 formity under the Five Mile Act. He went on 

 preaching, and in 1683 was imprisoned at Lancaster. 

 He died in 1698.'^ The chapel was called 'a 

 Presbyterian meeting-house' in 1 7 14. In 1 719 a 

 permanent place was built, known as the Lower 

 Chapel ; it eventually became dangerous owing to 

 mines, and was partly rebuilt in 1853 and remains in 

 the hands of the Congregationalists. A division in 

 the congregation in 1736 led to the erection of a new 

 chapel, called Yates's, from its minister ; it was closed 

 about 1750, the congregation rejoining that of Lower 

 Chapel.'^ Another secession took place in 1792, 

 owing to a dispute over the choice of a minister ; a 

 chapel was built in Pole Lane, and a secession from 

 it in 1808 led to another chapel, the Refuge ; these 

 congregations united in 1822 and rebuilt the latter 

 chapel, calling it Ebenezer. This becoming too 

 small, Belgrave Meeting-house was built on an adjacent 

 piece of land in 1847.'' When Lower Chapel 

 became dangerous in 1852, a large part of the con- 

 gregation built a new chapel in Duckworth Street, 

 and it was opened in 1853.^* Bolton Road Church 

 (1892-3) originated in Astley Street School 

 about 1840, but was not formally separated from 

 Belgrave till 1883.^' HoUins Grove Church began 



BLACKBURN 



in 1876."^ There is another chapel at Hoddlesden 

 (1900) "'' and a mission room at Highfield. 



A Baptist church was formed in 1858, and a 

 chapel was erected in i862.''8 The Salvation Army 

 has a barracks. 



No Roman Catholics were known in this chapelry 

 in the 1 8 th century."" Mass was said at the Black 

 Horse Inn from about 1850,""' and a school-chapel, 

 that of St. William, was opened in i 856 ; the present 

 church of St. Joseph succeeded it in 1884. Thcrj 

 is a convent of Sisters of the Holy Cross and Passion. 

 Mrs. Mary Smolley in 1 794 gave 

 CHARITIES a rent-charge of j^ I i/. for an annual 

 gift of linen cloth to the poor. This 

 was void in law, but the money has always been paid 

 out of White Hall estate, and is distributed in tickets 

 for food and other articles. The more recent endow- 

 ments in Over and Nether Darwen noticed in the 

 charity report are chiefly for schools and churches. 

 William Balle Huntington in 1897 provided an 

 endowment for winter lectures in science or literature, 

 and there arc a Jubilee Nursing Fund and a Nurses' 

 Home. 



LOWER DARWEN 



Derewent, 1227, xiii-xiv cent. ; Netherderwent, 

 1335 ; Netherderwend, I 332, 1339 ; Netherderwynd, 

 xv-xvi cent. ; Nether Derwyn, Darwine, xvi-xvii 

 cent. ; Lower Darwen, xix cent. 



This like the adjoining township of Over Darwen 

 takes its name from the River Darwen, which flows 

 through it. Lower Darwen formerly contained an 

 area of 2,666 acres, now reduced to 655 acres by 

 the inclusion under the Blackburn Improvement Act, 

 1879, of the central and northern part of the town- 

 ship in the municipal borough of Blackburn, which 

 part was added to the civil parish of Blackburn under 

 the Blackburn Corporation Act, 1892, and now forms 

 an integral part of the county and parliamentary 

 borough. The reduced portion was added to the 

 Over Darwen municipal borough in 1879 and incor- 

 porated in the civil parish of Darwen in 1892. The 

 population is included in that of the boroughs of 

 Blackburn and Darwen. 



The ancient township extended from the banks of 

 the River Darwen over the moorland heights which 

 inclose the valley to the east and west. Eastward the 

 ground rises to an elevation of 850 ft. above the 

 ordnance datum near Belthorn on Yate Bank ; west- 

 ward a height of 750 ft. is reached on Bank o' th' Hey, 

 now Bank Hey ; and where the boundary of the 

 township skirts Winter Hill in Tockholes the eleva- 

 tion exceeds 775 ft. On this side the township is 

 divided from Over Darwen by Earnsdale Brook, which 

 falls into the River Darwen where Dobhole Bridge 

 formerly stood. The geological formation consists of 

 the Coal Measures, but on the western side of the 



^ Lund. Gaa. 20 Sept. 1 842. 



*• For district, ibid. 15 Sept. 1863. 



8* Ibid. 7 Feb. 1865. 



8" Ibid. 30 Jan. 1874. 



^ Abratn, op. cit. 526. 



s^Ibid. 527. 



8» Ibid. 



'" Ibid. 518 i Nightingale, Land. Non- 

 ««/; ii, 238-60. In 1672 the house of 

 William and Henry Bury in Over Darwen 

 was licensed as a Presbyterian meeting- 



place ; Cal. S. P. Dam. 1672, p. 578. In 

 the royal licence of 1687 the denomina- 

 tion was * Congregational.' 



'1 Abram, loc. cit. 



S2 Nightingale, op, cit. ii, 264-6. 



" Ibid. 267-77. 



3* Ibid. 261-4. 



=■' Ibid. 277. The Astley Street build- 

 ing was acquired by the Wesleyans in 

 1870. 



'6 Ibid. 278 ; the building had been 



275 



used by the United Free Methodists from 

 1870. 



^' Ibid. 283 ; services were begun about 

 1832, and a school, afterwards used as a 

 chapel, was built in 1835. 



'* Abram, op. cit. 527. 



" There were thirteen ' Papists ' in 

 Tockholes in 1767 j Tram. Hist. Soc. 

 (new ser.), xviii, 216. 



i"" J. G. Shaw, Darwen and its People, 

 pt. ii, 84. 



