Easter has a special meaning for many people. But as well as being an important time for churches across East Lancashire it also used to mean the arrival of Blackburn’s annual fair.

Lancashire Telegraph: Crowds at the Blackburn Easter fair, 1952

These photos from the archive show what a massive event it was in the Fifties and Sixties when thousands of people would head into the town centre to enjoy a variety of spectacular rides and stalls.

The fair traditionally set up on Blackburn’s market square next to the old market hall. This was on King William Street on a site currently occupied by the Mall shopping centre.

The fair was certainly an impressive affair with a ferris wheel, carousels and a whole host of sideshows and stalls.

Lancashire Telegraph: The big wheel and some of the rides next to the old Blackburn market hall in 1956. Note Burton’s in the background

Setting up the fair would take several days and saw the town centre effectively invaded by a fleet of brightly painted trucks and lorries carrying all the equipment.

Many of the showmen brought their own caravans with land off Richmond Terrace being on the places they would used during their stay in the town.