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Darwen is a market town and civil parish in the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The residents of the town are known as "Darreners". The A666 road passes through Darwen towards Blackburn to the north, Bolton to the south and Pendlebury where it joins the A6, about north-west of Manchester. The population of Darwen stood at 28,046 in the 2011 census. The town comprises four wards and has its own town council.
The town stands on the River Darwen, which flows from south to north and is seen in parks in the town centre and next to Sainsbury's located in the town centre.
The Roman Britain once had a force in Lancashire, and a Roman road is visible on the Ordnance Survey map of the area. Medieval Darwen was tiny and little or nothing survives. One of the earliest remaining buildings is a farmhouse at Bury Fold, dated 1675. Whitehall Cottage is thought to be the oldest house in the town, and was mostly built in the 17th and 18th centuries but contains a chimney piece dated 1557.
Like many towns in Lancashire, Darwen was a centre for textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution. Samuel Crompton, inventor of the spinning mule, lived there for part of his life. Rail links and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal arrived in the mid-19th century. The most important textile building in Darwen is India Mill, built by Eccles Shorrock & Company. The company was ruined, however, by the effects of the Lancashire Cotton Famine of the 1860s. Cotton manufacture was an important industry, and by 1907, the Darwen Weavers', Winders' and Warpers' Association had more than 8,000 members in the town.
In the early 1840s Eccles Shorrock created a large mill lodge (industrial reservoir) in what is now the lower part of Bold Venture Park by constructing a dam where Inverness Road now runs across the valley cut by Bold Venture Brook. In 1848, during a night of heavy thunder storms and torrential rain, water rushed down from the moors and the dam failed catastrophically. The water level dropped by 40ft almost instantly, and a wall of water swept down into the town centre, doing considerable damage and drowning a number of poor people who slept in cellars under shops and houses in the Market Street area.
Much of the town was built between about 1850 and 1900; placenames, date stones in terraces, and the vernacular architecture of cellars, local stone, locally made brick, pipework and tiles and leaded glass, the last now mostly gone, reflect this. It was one of the first places in the world to have steam trams.
Andrew Carnegie financed a Darwen Library here; the town also had an art and technology college and a grammar school.
In 1931, Darwen was visited by Mahatma Gandhi, he had accepted the invitation from Corder Catchpool, Quaker manager of the Spring Vale Garden Village Ltd, to see the effects of India's boycott of cotton goods.Hughes, William R: Indomitable Friend, the Life of Corder Catchpool 1883-1952; p.60
India Mill is now home to many companies, including Brookhouse (producers of aeroplane parts) and Capita Group, which runs TV licensing. Since the 1950s, the textile industry has strongly declined in the region, although many industrial buildings from the period survive, now used for other purposes. India Mill and its chimney have been sold in a £12 million deal.
Among Darwen's other notable industries are Crown Paints, formerly Walpamur Paints, the earliest British paint manufacturer, which named one of its paints 'Darwen Satin Finish'. Crown Wallpaper manufactured wallpaper, Lincrusta and Anaglypta in the town. ICI Acrylics (now called Lucite International) was where acrylic glass (Perspex for windows and signage, and Sani-ware or Lucite used for the manufacture of baths and shower trays) was invented; it is still manufactured in two separate plants within the town. Spitfire canopies and (later) coloured polythene washing-up bowls were first made here. A Heritage Centre opened in 2016
The population of the town declined from 40,000 in the 1911 census to 30,000 in the 1971 census.
Locally, Darwen has been represented by Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors in the main council wards for the town. In the 2008 local elections, the For Darwen Party picked up the majority of the wards in the town to put pressure on Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council for Darwen to have its own council again. In April 2009 Darwen Town Council was formed.
There are five council wards within Darwen out of the 23 in the Borough of Blackburn with Darwen. These are:
Darwen had its own parliamentary constituency until 1983 when it became part of the present Rossendale and Darwen constituency. This seat is currently held by Member of Parliament Andy MacNae.
Darwen was granted its coat of arms on 7 August 1878. At the foot of the coat of arms is the town motto in Latin Absque Labore Nihil, which translates as "Nothing without labour". The arms depicts three cotton bolls and the River Darwen which runs through the town. The cotton represents the Cotton mill in which the town grew and prospered during the Industrial Revolution and the three bolls to represent the three main areas of Darwen – Over Darwen, Lower Darwen and Hoddlesden. At the helm of the coat of arms is a barred helmet representing nobility, and above it the torse in the town colours of blue and gold. At the crest a man stands shouldering a pickaxe, which refers to the town's motto and also represents the mining industry that was present to the east of the town at that time.
Darwen Aldridge Community Academy opened in September 2008 at the premises of the former Darwen Moorland High School on the outskirts of the town, which had closed in July 2008 to reopen as the academy after the summer holidays. All pupils from Darwen Moorland transferred to the academy. Pupils have subsequently moved down to the new site, into a state-of-the-art £49m academy, with sixth form and modern facilities.
Darwen Vale High School was temporarily moved to the old Moorland site whilst a new build was completed on the original site. The original school façade was incorporated into the new build, and Darwen Vale transferred back to the original site in 2012. However, the move had caused major issues with the management at the school, which led to the head leaving and a new head taking over in 2013. Later in 2013, Ofsted ruled that the school was failing and the government ordered the school's conversion to academy status, sponsored by the Aldridge Foundation, despite teaching staff and parents protesting governmental imposition on the school's management.
In September 2013 Darwen Aldridge Enterprise Studio opened and in 2014 the school moved to its permanent home in the renovated former Model Lodging House on Police Street.
In January 2022 Crosshill School completed a £2million move from Blackburn Central High School to the vacant Sunnyhurst Centre on Salisbury Road, with the move adding extra places at the school, Crosshill is part of the Champion Education Trust.
The Guinness Book of Records records that Darwen had one of the largest in the United Kingdom, in 1848; 12 people died. See 'History' above.
The tower, which is open to the public, overlooks the town from the Moorland and stands at an altitude of 1,227 ft (374m) and has a height of 85 ft (26m). A spiral staircase leads to the top from where, on a clear day, Blackpool Tower, the Isle of Man, North Wales and the Furness Peninsula can be seen. In November 2010 the dome of the tower was blown off by strong winds. The dome was restored in January 2012.
Today, Darwen Library stands at the corner of Knott Street and School Street to the north of the Circus. It was commissioned by Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish migrant to the USA who made his fortune as a producer of iron and steel. He donated £8,000 in response to a speculative appeal for funds by the Library Committee. The opening took place on 27 May 1908 and was attended by Mayor Councillor G.P. Holde, Councillor Ralph Yates and Carnegie himself. The library has served the town ever since, with the original lecture hall being transformed into the Library Theatre in June 1971. On 27 April 2017 the library and theatre were designated as a Grade II listed building.
Darwen stands along the Ribble Valley railway line, operated by Northern. Darwen railway station has up to two trains per hour between Blackburn and Rochdale (via Bolton and Manchester); one train per hour continues beyond Blackburn to Clitheroe.
Darwen's bus terminal (Darwen Circus) hosts buses up to every 12 minutes to Blackburn/Accrington on weekdays. There is also a service, every 20 minutes on weekdays and hourly on Sundays, to Bolton and Clitheroe, but the Bolton service terminates at 7:00pm. Both services are operated by Blackburn Bus Company.
In 2008 the "Pennine Reach" scheme, to improve public transport between Darwen, Blackburn and Hyndburn, was proposed by Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen councils, including plans for the addition of to the A666. However, it has been controversial, with some residents placing "Say no to Bus Lane, we don't want it" signs in their windows, and the neighbouring district of Hyndburn pulled out of the scheme. The scheme was put on hold in 2010 as local authorities reviewed their spending after their budgets were cut, before being abandoned later in the year due to lack of government funding, and the councils are now looking at other ways to improve public transport.
In 2004 Crown Wallcoverings, previously one of the biggest businesses in the town, closed with the loss of more than 200 jobs. The Crown building was a large redbrick ten-storey building with numerous chimneys. In 2006 the empty building and the 200 foot (60 m) chimney was demolished.
'Tween two hillsides, both bleak and barren,
Lies lovely little "Dirty Darren"
The locals refer to themselves as Darreners. They are generally resistant to any attempts at submerging the identity of the town within Blackburn. A motorway service area at junction 4 of the M65 motorway lies within the town, and was originally named "Blackburn Services". Following local protests it was renamed "Blackburn with Darwen Services".
The town is the home of the Darwen Library Theatre (an extension to the library), and the TV show Hetty Wainthropp Investigates. Darwen has a few footnotes in entertainment history: its theatre (now demolished) had appearances by Charlie Chaplin, and it featured in the film, There Was a Crooked Man, which starred Norman Wisdom and Alfred Marks.
The Beatles played in Darwen on Friday 25 January 1963, at the Co-operative Hall. They headlined "The Greatest Teenage Dance" which was commissioned by the Darwen Baptist Youth Club. Support acts included the Electones, the Mike Taylor Combo and the Mustangs with Ricky Day.
Darwen Methodist Church meets on two sites in the town, at Bright Street and Spring Vale.
The Medina Mosque and Islamic Centre, Darwen's first mosque, is located on Victoria Street.
Faizaan e Jamal e Mustafa, Darwen's second mosque, is located on Railway Road. It was opened in 2018.
Darwen Live (formerly Darwen Music Live) is a free two-day music festival held each year over the second bank holiday in May. The main stage is built outside the town hall, and other smaller music stages are usually based around the town in pubs and bars. The festival has attracted artists such as Buzzcocks, China Crisis, Toyah, The Hoosiers, The Undertones, and Paul Young, as well as being a showcase for local bands. It currently holds the title of "the biggest free music festival in the UK" by attendance, with its crowd of roughly 35,000-40,000 in 2024 even leading to the claim that it could be the largest in Europe.
Record label Sunbird Records (no connection to the Sunbird Records) and an associated venue/recording studio of the same name are based in Darwen, established by locals Steven Lindley and Ian Almond. Following the label's closure in 2013, the venue was opened in the town centre in 2016 by Steven's son Jonathan Lindley to "provide a performance space, recording studio and record label all under one roof", "investigate whether post-subcultural discourse factors in the design of an independent record label", "drive to launch new alternative music and culture" and has been described as "built by local musicians for musicians", catering to both local bands and DJ's sets. The brand has additionally included a podcast for local artists, and academic research that can be found on the Sunbird website. The venue is notable for being saved from closure in 2023, during a campaign which was supported by Ed Sheeran and Music Venue Trust, and for being one of the remaining UK music venues to have doubled up as a record label during its run.
Two labels associated with the donk genre of music, Bad Records and Bncy Music, are based in Darwen. The group Bad Behaviour (DJ Greenie and Bon Lee), founders of Bad, are also known for appearing on major labels such as Ministry of Sound. Bncy Music is associated with the local YouTube channel and podcast series Flexxed TV.
Darwen has one of the oldest in the country. Now named Blackburn and Darwen Band, its roots can be traced back to 1840. Another brass band, Darwen Brass, was formed in 2007 and under MD Steve Hartley has enjoyed many notable competition successes, including 4th section wins throughout the North West. In 2012 Darwen Brass qualified for the National Brass Band Championships, finishing 5th. The band was promoted to the 3rd section from the start of 2013.
Local radio stations are BBC Radio Lancashire, Heart North West, Smooth North West, Capital Manchester and Lancashire, Greatest Hits Radio Lancashire, and Central Radio North West, a community based station.
The Lancashire Telegraph is the local newspaper that covers the town.
The town has a strong cricketing tradition and Darwen Cricket Club was originally founded in the late 1800s as Darwen Etrurians CC playing at Barley Bank. The current club was constituted in 1911 and since 1920 has been based at Birch Hall Cricket Ground. The club was a founder member of the Northern League in 1951 winning that competition five times before successfully applying to play in the Lancashire League from the 2017 season. This change heralded a golden era for the club and within 5 seasons, it had won every club competition in the county. Twice holders of the Worsley Cup (2017 and 2019), T20 champions in 2021 and LCF Knockout Cup winners in 2018 with the set completed when crowned 2022 Lancashire League champions after defeating Greenmount by 13 runs on 4 September 2022. Past Professionals include David Wiese, George Linde (SA) Keith Semple (WI) and Scott Hookey (AUS). Sangeeth Cooray will be the clubs first Sri Lankan professional in 2026.
To the north-west of the town lies Darwen Golf Club. The characteristics of the course have changed little since the club was established in 1893. Due to its geographical location within the moors, the course is regarded as a tough test of golfing ability.
Until the sports centre was demolished, Darwen was home to the North West Open Karate tournament, which hosted many national and world champions. Tower Shukokai Karate Club was resident at the sports centre from 1988 and remains active. Tower's instructors, Andy Allwood, 5th Dan and Martyn Skipper 4th Dan, both won this tournament in their respective weight categories (Allwood, heavyweight, in the 1990s and Skipper, lightweight, in 2006 after the tournament had moved to Bury). In 2013 Martyn Skipper won the WUKF European Veterans' title when the European Championships were held in Sheffield.
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