Qualla: Blackburn https://qualla.com/blackburn en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:23 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/1/blackburn-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Blackburn https://qualla.com/blackburn Blackburn: Introduction https://qualla.com/blackburn/ Photo credit Beejaypii at English Wikipedia, Public domain. In 1907 there were 79,405 looms running in Blackburn. By 1976 there were 2,100. Almost no other British town can show that arc as starkly: a place that grew from fewer than 5,000 people in 1750 to 130,000 by 1900, that called itself the weaving capital of the world, and then watched the cotton trade leave for India and Lancashire's mill towns leave for nothing for the next six decades. Modern Blackburn, a unitary authority of 154,922 people now sharing its borough with neighbouring Darwen, is what happens when a one-industry town outlives the industry. The motto granted in 1852 to the borough is Arte et Labore. By skill and by labour. Both still apply.

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Image: Beejaypii at English Wikipedia | Public domain

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/1/blackburn-wp/gcw1-blackburn-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Blackburn: Black Burn https://qualla.com/blackburn/ Photo credit Robert Wade, CC BY-SA 2.0. The name probably means what it sounds like. The River Blakewater runs through the centre of town, and an Old English burn means stream; black burn becomes Blackburn. The town shows up as Blacheburne in the Domesday Book of 1086 and as Blakeburneshyre as the name of the wider dis...

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Image: Robert Wade | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/1/blackburn-wp/gcw1-blackburn-black-burn.mp3 0:06 2 full Blackburn: The Weaving Capital https://qualla.com/blackburn/ Photo credit Scooby359, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cotton arrived in Blackburn as a cottage industry, paid by the piece, with handloom weavers working in their own houses. After 1775 spinning mills started to be built; the first purpose-built spinning mill went up in 1797 and by 1824 there were twenty-four. The town's most famous...

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Image: Scooby359 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/1/blackburn-wp/gcw1-blackburn-the-weaving-capital.mp3 0:06 3 full Blackburn: The Long Decline https://qualla.com/blackburn/ Photo credit Beejaypii, Public domain. The warning was prescient. In 1904 the cotton trade slumped and so did engineering, brewing and building. By 1908 another slump idled a quarter of Blackburn's looms. The First World War cut off Indian trade and the Indian government raised tariffs after the war; by 1922 forty-sev...

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Image: Beejaypii | Public domain

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/1/blackburn-wp/gcw1-blackburn-the-long-decline.mp3 0:06 4 full Blackburn: A Town Reinvented https://qualla.com/blackburn/ Photo credit Ronnie Macdonald from Chelmsford, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0. Modern Blackburn is a mixed place. The 2011 census recorded the wider borough of Blackburn with Darwen at 150,030 people, with about 30 per cent of the town's population identifying as something other than white British. A significant Muslim community, largely with roots in the I...

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Image: Ronnie Macdonald from Chelmsford, United Kingdom | CC BY 2.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/1/blackburn-wp/gcw1-blackburn-a-town-reinvented.mp3 0:06 5 full Blackburn: What the Hills See https://qualla.com/blackburn/ Photo credit Geni, CC BY-SA 4.0. Geographically, Blackburn is hill country. The town sits at 401 feet above sea level in a plain ringed by hills. Revidge to the north climbs to 715 feet. Billinge Hill to the west, in Witton Country Park, reaches 804 feet. The Royal Blackburn Hospital stands at 663 feet on the ea...

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Image: Geni | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/1/blackburn-wp/gcw1-blackburn-what-the-hills-see.mp3 0:06 6 full