Drive and Stroll, with Ron Freethy - this week, the heart of Blackburn

FOLLOWING last week's tour of Colne several readers have written to me saying that all East Lancashire towns have got an "ancient heart."

As the old song days "You've Got To Have Heart" and so this week I'm going to explore Blackburn and next week I'll explore Burnley.

There was a church in Saxon times and there is a mention of its existence in the Domesday survey of 1086.

Many historians believe, and there is evidence for this theory, that Pope Gregory I had churches created at Chipping, Ribchester and Blackburn around the year AD 596, a very early date indeed.

Henry de Blackburne was both Lord of the Manor and the lay-rector in 1160 but several generations later it was under the control of the Abbots of Whalley.

When the abbeys were dissolved in 1537, Blackburn church living which included the right to levy rates (called tythes) passed into the hands of Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The old church stood just a little to the North of the present cathedral. By 1818 Blackburn was making brass from cotton and the church was showing signs of falling down. It was decided to begin afresh and the new church was consecrated by the Bishop of Chester in 1826. Blackburn still did not have a Cathedral and therefore no bishop. For some reason the tower of the old church with its peal of bells was allowed to stand and these called the faithful to worship until 1870.

In November 1926, Blackburn was large enough to warrant having a bishop, but the building from which he had to administer 256 parishes was "nobbut a church."

It needed a Cathedral and by October 1938 this was opened, although additions and embellishments continue right up to the present day.

Colne's old grammar school still stands next to the church, as does Burnley's ancient place of learning, although they do not now serve their original function.

Blackburn's Grammar School may well have been the most impressive of the lot but this alas has gone.

Its history, however, lives on. The old school may have functioned as early as 1321 as a Chantry school which meant that the master in charge was a Catholic priest.

When Henry suppressed the old religion a learning vacuum was created. Henry's daughter, Elizabeth, realised this and in 1567 a Charter was granted to establish the Free Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth. This still exists today and its famous reputation goes from strength to strength.

Not all of Blackburn's history celebrates peace and learning. There were times of civil strife. A walk from the Cathedral and on to Darwen Street will reveal blue plaques.

These tell the story of the year 1826 when a rampaging mob of 10,000 wielding sledgehammers battered new power looms into pieces in a forlorn effort to save the handloom industry.

Dandy Walk recalls the dandies, who literally did "pull the plug" draining the boilers at the mills operating power looms.

The dandies, who owned the handlooms, often walked the streets with a £5 note in their hatbands just to prove they had brass.

With the coming of the power looms they had to work for a master instead of being self-employed.

Blackburn's example of marking historic sites with blue plaques enables people, especially on a quiet Sunday morning, to walk through the history of the town.

When the church bells peal, think back in time to Elizabeth's Grammar School, Archbishop Cranmer and the monks who once owned the church.

Go right back to AD 596 and think of the men who first brought Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons of Blackburn.

There is no doubt about it, Blackburn does indeed have a grand old heart.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.