Blackburn

1868 - The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland

• "BLACKBURN, a parish, municipal and parliamentary borough, and important seat of manufacture, in the hundred of Blackburn, in the county palatine of Lancaster, 23 miles to the N.W. of Manchester, and 209 miles from London by road, or 177¾ miles by the North-Western railway. It may also be approached viâ the Great Northern and Midland railways. It is a station on the western division of the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway, a branch of which also runs from Blackburn to Clitheroe. By the Leeds and Liverpool canal, which passes near the town, communication is opened with the principal rivers of the country, and the eastern and western seas. The parish, which is of great extent, being about 14 miles in length and 10 miles in breadth, is situated on the river Derwent, and comprises the chapelries of Balderston, Bamber Bridge, Over Darwen, Lower Darwen, Feniscowles, Great Harwood, Langho, Mellor, Salesbury, Samlesbury, Tockholes, Walton-le-Dale, and Witton, and the townships of Blackburn, Billington, Clayton-le-Dale, Cuerdale, Dinkley, Eccleshill, Little Harwood, Livesey, Osbaldeston, Pleasington, Ramsgrave, Rishton, and Wilpshire. The surrounding country, forming anciently the district called Blackburnshire, which included the present hundred of Blackburn, is for the most part barren, and remained till recently uncultivated. A ridge of high ground runs through the parish in a direction from north-east to north-west, extending from Whalley to Billinge Hill, at which point it has an elevation of about 630 feet. That part of the parish which lies on the north-west side of the hills, sloping to the river Ribble, has the best soil and most agreeable scenery. Clay soils predominate, and rest chiefly on sandstone. Coal is obtained in abundance, and some limestone. A mine of alumstone, which was formerly worked, has long been neglected. The staple business of Blackburn is the cotton manufacture, which has long been established there. In the 17th century the "Blackburn checks," a united fabric of linen and cotton, were well esteemed; and subsequently the manufacture of "Blackburn greys," a cloth not bleached before printing, flourished here. The number of hand-loom weavers is comparatively small, and they are employed mostly in the cheap muslin manufacture.

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• "WENSLEY-FOLD, a township in the parish of Blackburn, county Lancaster, 2 miles N. of Blackburn. It is bounded on the S. by the river Derwent."

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