BLACKBURN, I think, has thrown away enough of its heritage already without it losing more by agreeing to the call by clergy and town centre traders for the name of historical Church Street to be scrapped.
The fact that the street has got a new look does not diminish its long associations with past -- and in particular with the nearby church of St Mary the Virgin, whose origins go back to Saxon times.
The street's controversial face-lift and the sudden fancy for it to be called Cathedral Street, in recognition of St Mary's relatively recent (in historical terms) elevation in 1926 to cathedral status, would hardly excuse centuries of tradition being ditched.
But a more down-to-earth reason for caution is advanced by Councillor Andy Kay, Blackburn with Darwen's regeneration supremo -- the expense and whether the council would be liable for the costs incurred by Church Street businesses for changing their stationery and so on.
Hmmm! That is, indeed a thought. And did it, I wonder, strike whoever set about changing the names of the roads on the town's Shadsworth Business Park for no evident reason other than whimsy and nostalgia for old and existing Blackburn breweries after which former Sett End Road and Edge Nook Road have been arbitrarily named?
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