THE history of public transport in Blackburn, telling the story of the horse omnibus, steam and electric trams and then their corporation and private company bus successors, has taken Duncan Holden on a long journey.

Beginning his research about 40 years ago — and on-going still — Duncan has collated a wealth of information and a large gallery of photographs and, rather than put it in book form, he has created a detailed and more flexible website which you will find at www.olivegreenand ivory.co.uk.

It’s still not, however, complete and he has appealed to anyone with any images of trams and buses, particularly from the pre-1974 era, that does not appear in his gallery, to come forward.

There is also one specific event that he is particularly keen to find a photograph for – the opening of the electric tramway in 1899.

Capturing the moment on camera seems to have been a Victorian tradition in the rest of the country, but does not seem to have happened in Blackburn.

“There might be a photo hidden in some attic or cellar of this historic event and if anyone knows of one I ask them to get in touch,” he said.

Another section Duncan would like to expand is his Tramway Memories, and he would like to hear from anyone with stories about riding the trams on their way to school or visits, be they purely reminiscences or amusing tales.

Public transport began in a humble way in Blackburn, in 1870, when a system of horse omnibuses was inaugurated by a private company.

By the early 1880s, single deck horse buses ran from the Golden Lion, in Church Street, to Accrington, Intack, the cemetery, Moorgate, and Oswaldtwistle, from the Red Lion in Northgate to Mellor and the Waterloo Inn to Ribchester.

Trams were introduced in 1881 and continued through two world wars, with the arrival of the first electric tram just before the turn of the century, causing much excitement in town.

After night time trials along Preston New Road, the vehicles finally made an appearance out of the Simmons Street depot on February 1 and drew a large crowd as the first service travelled from Sudell Cross to Billinge and back.

Trams were finally totally replaced by buses in 1949 —although the two had been running in tandem for 20 years.

The last tramway traffic returns were issued in March, 1950, for the Intack and Darwen sections, showing the vehicles had run 113,806 miles, carried 2,268,216 passengers and brought in revenue of £311,915 13s 1d.