Blackburn, a town situated in Lancashire, England, is an industrial and minster town. Blackburn was first recorded in the Domesday Book by the name of Blacheborne in the year 1086. It was known for its textile mills and before that, its textiles which created textiles since the 13th century.

In the 14th century, the influx of Finnish immigrants poured into England, spurred on by King Edward III and his marriage to Philippa of Hainault. Shortly after that wave of migration, skilled cloth weavers from Flanders were given permission to settle in the country's textile towns. Blackburn was among those textile towns. Those Flemish weavers who settled in Blackburn spearheaded the development of the woolen cottage industry.

During the 16th century, Blackburn was a small market town.

Beginning in the 1750s, cotton textile manufacturing began to burgeon., In 1775, spinning mills began to spring up. Warehouses were converted to mills. Around this time, weaving was also profitable, though weaving was done by handloom weavers who worked from home.

By 1824, there were 24 spinning mills in Blackburn. Power looms were installed in the mills after 1825. Spinning began to decline in 1870, and the last handloom shop in Blackburn was shuttered in 1894.

The Industrial Revolution ushered in change and growth of the cotton industry, causing the population of Blackburn to mushroom, and suddenly the town found itself important for its industry. The heretofore small engineering industry in Blackburn began a slow growth during this time. With the population growth came amenities such as men who paved and swept the streets of town, gas street lights and modern sewers. The railway came through Blackburn in 1846, cutting travel into fractions of what trips had been prior to this. The post office began using the railways almost immediately and mail got to its destination quickly and more efficiently.

In the late 1800s, most of those employed by the textile mills were women and children due to the fact that wages were much cheaper with that population. But the outbreak of World War I in 1914 interrupted the production of textiles in Blackburn. Before the end of the war in 1918, the decline was steep, but the industry managed to hang on, even if only barely.

In 1926, the Church of St. Mary became a cathedral and Blackburn became a diocese. By the 1930s, unemployment was rampant in Blackburn, and one. by one, many of the mills closed their doors forever.

During World War II, while much of England was being destroyed by various blitzes and bombings, Blackburn did not suffer any serious bomb damage, however, their cotton industry continued to slide. Although large numbers of immigrants moved in from Pakistan and India, the settler numbers did not outweigh the numbers of people leaving.

In the middle of the 20th century, Blackburn's textile industry resumed its decline, and shortly after that decline began, other northern, post-industrial towns did the same. The engineering industry began expanding in the 1960s and 1970s.

The 2001 census recorded the population of Blackburn as 105,085, and in 2011, it had gone up to 117,963.

Categories

Recommended Resources

Search for Blackburn on Google or Bing