WITH regards the new bridge, although the other names shortlisted are certainly notable names in the history of Blackburn, one name that appears to have been overlooked is that of the Harrison family.
Why not call the new bridge The Harrison Bridge as a tribute to the Harrison family, who through their benevolence contributed significantly to the town of Blackburn.
Not least of all the Harrison Institute and the Harrison Gymnasium, which were both unceremoniously demolished a couple of years ago.
While people were (quite rightly) up in arms over the closure of the Lewis Textile Museum, hardly anyone, as far as I'm aware, seemed to bat an eyelid at the demise of the Institute and Gymnasium.
The Harrison fortune was built from their iron foundry. Where was their foundry? It was situated at Nova Scotia, where the bridge is also located.
The bridge is, in the main, a metal (the Harrisons' bread and butter) structure, so quite apt.
Growing up, I always called the old bridge the Iron Bridge, it isn't beyond the realms of the imagination, to think that those old panels and the thousands of rivets in the old bridge might have been made at the Harrison foundry.
At least one of the Harrisons, Joseph, was at one time Alderman for the St Peter's ward. The road which the bridge will serve is by all accounts going to run right across St Peter's graveyard and the old war!
The Harrison's money contributed to many worthy causes, the building of the Infirmary and the Technical school (now the Victoria Centre of Blackburn College) are just two that spring to mind.
The Hollin Bridge Street Recreational Ground, still in use today, was another gift. As mentioned at the top, they also gave us the Institute and the gym.
Thousands of Blackburnians over the decades must have made use of those facilities. Graham Chadwick, in a local history book, ends his article on the Harrison family by stating: The Harrisons were fortunate in being in the right place at the right moment of history but they were real people that you might see in the street not absentee capitalists removing themselves and their money to balmy tax havens.
Their memories are colleges, hospitals, playing fields. As their motto has it, they gave "not rashly nor with fear" - now that the institute and the gym have vanished from the landscape of Blackburn, would it not be fitting to name the new bridge after them?
COLIN PRITT, Blackburn.
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