NEXT Spring will mark 50 years since the first determined attempt to preserve Darwen Tower from the ravages of time.

The tower was saved in the early 70s, but the past few months of inaction because of the Covid pandemic have left the late-Victorian icon in a desperate state once again.

In early 1971 Darwen Town Council had actually considered bricking up the town’s iconic monument, built to mark the fight to free the moors for local folk to roam freely and also Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.

Incoming mayor Dr Bill Lees told fellow councillors he would dearly like to see the tower repaired and returned to its former glory – complete with “glass roof” (the original had been sent flying in a gale nearly 25 years earlier).

He was confident that townspeople would respond to an appeal - and they didn’t let him down.

There was no prouder man in Darwen than Dr Lees when, the following June, the spruced-up tower, complete with its “glass roof,” was opened to public acclaim.

Bill’s widow Joyce recalled: “We had to raise £2,500 in just a few months. It meant a lot of hard work for a lot of people, especially Bill who was so determined, but we just made it. And then we were told that, in fact, we needed £3,000.”

He didn’t bat an eyelid. Anyone who had come through six years of service in the war wasn’t going to let a few quid spoil his dream of giving the tower the sparkle it so richly deserved after more than 70 years of pounding by rain and the sleet, belching smoke from hundreds of chimneys in the valley, moorland fires and ignorant vandals.

Donations to help preserve the tower came from all over the world, recalled Joyce, all with the same message: “We left Darwen many years ago but still think warmly of the old place – and especially the tower!”

Dr Lees never spoke about his war service.

Joyce kindly supplied a bit of background. He had been running a field hospital and, as the Germans advanced, he hopped a lift back from Dunkirk.

Later he was badly wounded by shrapnel from exploding shells while operating in a tent. He just carried on as blood dripped down his back.

Said Joyce: “Bill’s back was badly scarred. God knows how he’d kept going.”

It was the sort of determination that he found when saving Darwen Tower.

Now, once again, the tower is threatened. Like so many things, the appeal to raise money for a renovation project, has been hit by the pandemic.

Local folk have, to date, raised £75,000 for the project. But more is needed. There is a collecting box on a tower display in Darwen Market annexe. Think of brave Bill Lees when you slip in a donation.

Based on a story in the book Darwen and its Characters by Harold Heys (2014).