Darwen, ENG - Postcode - BB3 0PE

Description of Darwen

Located in the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England, Darwen is a market town and civil parish. "Darreners" are the locals. About 18 miles (29 km) north-west of Manchester, the A666 connects the town of Darwen to Blackburn and Bolton to the north and Pendlebury and the A6 to the south. In 2011, Darwen was home to 28,046 people. The town has its own town government and is divided into five different wards.

The river that gives the town its name, the Darwen, flows from south to north and is only visible on the outskirts of town due to its underground course in the downtown area.

A Celtic name, Darwen has a rich history. It was located in the Brythonic kingdom of Rheged, the political successor of the Brigantes' domain in pre-Roman Britain. Oak, or derw in Brythonic, is a word with roots in an old form of the name for the River Darwen, Derewent (1208). Although the region was incorporated into the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria by the 8th century, its Brythonic name was never replaced by an Old English place name.

History of Darwen

Ashleigh Barrow in Whitehall is the partially restored remnants of a circular barrow dating to circa 2000 BCE, indicating that people had been living in the Darwen area at least since the early Bronze Age. There were ten burials in the barrow, and nine of them were Collared Urns. A bronze dagger measuring about 7.5 inches, a flint thumb scraper, a sub-plano-convex knife, and a clay bead were among the artifacts unearthed from the barrow. As per point number four, the Darwen Library has copies of the Collared Urns available for perusal.

According to the Ordnance Survey, a Roman road may be seen in Lancashire, where the Romans previously had a significant military presence. Due to its small size, very little from medieval Darwen has survived. The farmhouse at Bury Fold, which was built in 1675, is one of the earliest surviving structures. Whitehall Cottage, which was primarily constructed in the 17th and 18th centuries but retains a chimney piece from 1557, is widely regarded as the oldest residence in the town. 

Darwen, like many other Lancashire towns, thrived as a textile manufacturing hub throughout the Industrial Revolution. For a while in his life, it was home to Samuel Crompton, creator of the spinning mule. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the railroads didn't come until the middle of the nineteenth century. Eccles Shorrock & Company's India Mill is the most notable textile structure in Darwen. However, the impact of the Lancashire Cotton Famine of the 1860s destroyed the business. In 1907, there were more than 8,000 residents of Darwen who were members of the Darwen Weavers', Winders', and Warpers' Association, a group that represented the town's cotton manufacturing business.

The majority of the town was constructed between 1850 and 1900, as evidenced by its street names, terrace date stones, and vernacular architecture of cellars, local stone, locally made brick, pipework, tiles, and leaded glass, all of which have now been mostly eradicated. The city was an early adopter of steam trams.

To observe the effects of India's boycott of cotton goods, Mahatma Gandhi came to Darwen in 1931 at the request of Corder Catchpool, Quaker manager of the Spring Vale Garden Village Ltd.

Several businesses, such as the aircraft-parts manufacturer Brookhouse and the television-licensing firm Capita Group, have set up shop at India Mill as of late Although the textile industry has drastically decreased in the area since the 1950s, many of the era's industrial buildings have survived and are now used for other uses. The sale of India Mill and its chimney totaled £12 million. 

Crown Paints, previously Walpamur Paints, the earliest British paint factory, calls one of its paints "Darwen Satin Finish," making it still another important industry in the town. Lincrusta and Anaglypta wallpaper were all made by Crown Wallpaper there. Acrylic glass, including Perspex for windows and signage and Sani-ware or Lucite used in the production of bathtubs and shower trays, was invented by ICI Acrylics (now named Lucite International) and is currently produced at two sites in the city. It was here that production of Spitfire canopies and colored polythene washing-up bowls began.