Category: Blackburn

Few people in Blackburn realise where they live was once a centre of coal mining.  This was one reason why the Leeds Liverpool Canal was routed this way, connecting these latter large cities with mining towns such as Wigan, Burnley and our own Blackburn.

Due to the Industrial Revolution, coal was needed on a vast scale and this led to most of Blackburn’s mines being worked until their black gold was either exhausted or they became economically unprofitable.  It created a problem of what to do with these empty coal mines.  Some were able to become quarries, providing valuable building material to construct cotton mills and housing for our town’s expanding population.  But with so many redundant mines, various uses of them were put into place, including dumping building spoil and other waste material.  After all, out of sight, into mine.

Sadly during these changing times, many people became victims of this Industrial Revolution.  Death and disease were an occupational hazard, almost as a way of culling Britain’s expanding population when their usefulness had run its course.  Many people came and died in Blackburn.  Those who died of infectious diseases, such as fever, or could not be identified, were laid to rest in these redundant coal mines.  They became known as fever pits.

This seems a convenient solution, but nature is not as simple as that.  These bodies decomposed and returned to earth.  But not everything went back to nature so easily.  Due to these corpses’ reasons for expiring, no scavenging was allowed to be carried out because of a risk of catching and spreading fever and diseases.

Normally gold teeth would have been prised from corpses’ mouths, along with removal of rings, ear rings, chains etc.  This was not allowed in fever pits and gold items passed into the soil along with their hosts.  Gold, unlike other metals, does not corrode and can lay in the ground until it is eventually discovered by treasure hunters or metal detectorists.

One such fever pit was believed to have been in a redundant mine in Blackburn.  It was somewhere near what is now Shadsworth Industrial Estate.  But records have been lost over time pinpointing its exact location.  Local folklore tells of this particular mine being very difficult to work due to Knuzden Brook, which goes on to become the River Blakewater, causing subsidence and making it very dangerous for miners.  This led to its closure even though coal reserves were not totally exhausted.

Unconfirmed reports have been received recently of discoveries of gold in the Knuzden Brook.  This has not only led to an influx of metal detectorists, but gold panners too, although permission needs to be granted before treasure hunting is permitted.  We might find ourselves in a situation where Blackburn could be a new Klondike.  After all, both the Klondike River and Knuzden Brook both begin with the letter K, as in knife.

It would be strange if one form of fever could lead to another – here in Blackburn.  This might create a situation of Fever Pit to Gold Fever.

A recent BBC Countryfile programme featured flax growing in Blackburn and production of linen being spun from this homegrown product.

Unfortunately due to an air of excitement following the success of their project, the makers of this programme failed to discuss what should be done to dispose of clothing replaced by this new linen alternative.  A suggestion has been put forward to use an unusual but organic method of disposing of unusable and spoilt clothing material – feed it to the butterfly of the night – our humble clothing moth.

Adult moths themselves don’t actually feed on your gear; they haven’t got mouthparts.  It’s Junior, i.e. their larvae who does all the munching – they do have this necessary equipment.  They gain nutrients from natural and animal fibres, being particularly attracted to moist and dirty clothes, so should have no difficulty finding plenty of material in lots of households.  They also like dark and undisturbed areas, so what better environment could you find than a wardrobe?

This endless battle between humans and moths has been raging for thousands of years.  Shakespeare tells us that:

‘All the wool that Penelope spun in Ulysses’ absence did but fill Ithaca full of moths’.

So you can imagine what kind of state his clothing was in Ulysses’ wardrobe when he returned home twenty years after fighting this war in Troy and his subsequent trip home, known as the Odyssey.  All for Helen – the face that launched a million moths!

After the Ancient Greeks, it is possible their conquerors and ours too, the Romans, may have brought clothes moths to our shores.  Not everything the Romans did for us was beneficial – although we did end up with a textile industry, which might have helped the situation.  But clothing moths soon got stuck into King Cotton.  This led to a continuing war which continues to this day.  Every form of technology, including chemical and biological warfare has been used to outwit our destructive clothing moth enemies.

There are around 2,500 species of moth found in Britain.  But only two, the common clothes moth (also known as the webbing clothes moth) and the Case-bearing clothes moth, cause damage to fabrics.  Most of us know all about what it’s like to come across moths living in our wardrobes.  There is nothing worse than digging out your best suit for some one-off function only to find big holes in its fabric, thanks to moths having made a meal out of it.

Now we have a chance to utilise these moth’s voracious appetite as a natural way of clothing waste disposal.  It’s about time these little blighters started earning their keep for a change.

Due to pressing financial cutbacks, Blackburn’s proposed new tip has had to be thrown on the scrap heap.

Plans by Blackburn with Darwen Council included shutting down its two existing tips at George Street West in Blackburn and Spring Vale in Darwen.  These would have been replaced by a new £5M household waste recycling plant at Chapels in Darwen.  Unfortunately these plans have had to be temporarily put on ice due to the current cost of living crisis and no money being available.

But an alternative solution may be available.  One of Blackburn’s Corporation Park lakes is ideal to serve as a landfill site for certain types of household rubbish.  The larger of its two lakes, known as the ‘Big Can’, is reputably over 100 feet deep.  It is a damned stream valley and could be drained of its water to become a landfill site.

It is also a damned problem with people walking over its ice when it occasionally freezes over in winter.  Due to the depth of this body of water, anybody falling through its ice would face difficulty being rescued and could easily be drowned.  So filling up the lake with refuse could kill two birds with one stone.  Not only could it help with disposal of rubbish, it would also vastly reduce how deep this lake is in its present state.

Having a shallow lake also creates an option for many opportunities in various leisure pursuits.  Not only rowing, sailing and other boating activities, but curling and skating could take place on those rare occasions when these two lakes freeze over.  Also, having greater use of this lake would deter vandalism in the park and other anti-social behaviour, such as feeding its ducks.

Vehicle access to the larger lake wouldn’t be much of a problem.  It is very close to East Park Road on one side and already has wide footpaths available all around its perimeter, making it also accessible from West Park Road and Preston New Road.  Once the lake had served its function as a landfill site, it could easily be returned to its former self, only nowhere near as deep as it used to be.

What became Corporation Park was an area previously known as Pemberton Clough.  Its two lakes were originally reservoirs, built around 1839 then administered by the Blackburn Water Works Company.  They were known as the Big Can and Little Can because local people would visit them with cans to collect water.

Wouldn’t it be very handy if Corpy Park’s Big Can became Blackburn’s Big Bin.

Blackburn has been deemed a suitable location for carrying out an attempt to try and become the largest earthbound satellite receiver there has ever been.  This is due to its geographical position and natural bowl shape, thanks to it being located in a river valley.

In the past, detractors have joked about how Blackburn would make a really good reservoir and flooding it would do the place a favour.  But it is hoped our town’s geography could be used to try and turn it into an artificial bowl style satellite receiver, using human beings as props in this process.  It would be done by persuading thousands of our townsfolk, along with lots of other enthusiastic out of town volunteers.  They would need to dress themselves up in aluminium foil and congregate together in selected positions around town.  If atmospheric conditions proved to be correct, as astronomers calculate, then signals from outer space could be collected and hopefully new important scientific discoveries made.

On the other side of our planet, China has finished building a 500-metre aperture spherical telescope (FAST), this is Earth’s largest single aperture telescope.  It is about the size of thirty football pitches.  Part of its task is to scan outer space for signs of intelligent alien life, among other functions.  Since operations began in January 2020, 500 new pulsars have been discovered.  China’s Academy of Sciences also claims it has obtained accurate magnetic field strength in molecular cloud, a region of the interstellar medium that seems ready to form stars.

On 14 June 2022, astronomers, working with China’s FAST telescope, reported a possibility of having detected artificial (presumably alien) signals, but cautioned further studies are required to determine if this was some kind of natural radio interference as its source.  To investigate these possible alien signals a much larger satellite receiver would need to be assembled.  But a temporary device could suffice if calculations proved correct.  Therefore, using a mobile satellite and improvising with people clad in foil could possibly pull off this attempt at an extra-terrestrial breakthrough.

Opportunities for Blackburn’s pubs, clubs, catering and hospitality industry would be immense if such a gathering could be organised.  It would also bring fame and fortune to our town if this experiment proved successful.  Can you imagine how the rest of our planet would see us in Blackburn, if we could prove intelligent life had been discovered here?  The possibilities are out of this world.

Unfortunately for us earthlings, any self-respecting passing alien observing thousands of human beings dressing themselves up in aluminium foil and forming themselves into a massive bowl, would probably want to make sure their cloaking device was working correctly.

Controversial plans are in the pipeline to develop a 94 acre site on Blackburn’s outskirts for industrial development.  But a dispute has blown up over whether nuclear waste was dumped under this site when it was a disused coal mine back in the 1950’s.

At the same time another interested party has also expressed a desire to develop this land near Blackburn’s junction 5 of the M65 motorway.  An unnamed fracking company said this land would be ideal for carrying out hydraulic fracturing operations and they are so confident rumours of past nuclear dumping are false, they want to carry out a controlled explosion to demonstrate this site’s safety.

Still reeling from fracking activity being banned in Britain, this fracking firm believes it could help  kick-start their drilling process back into action across Britain.  They rubbished accusations of causing earth tremors not so many miles away from Blackburn, claiming what everybody really saw was freak activity out at sea, probably caused by a mini tsunami.  They say these events happen across the world and are part of nature.

One of the fracking directors said there is nothing to worry about as regards this current disputed site.  People have been watching its surroundings very carefully for donkey’s years due to rumours of alleged nuclear dumping.  Even the slightest hint of any kind of dumping activity would have bound to have been spotted by environmentalists.  There have been no signs of problems with wildlife either.  Nobody has seen any two headed sheep, lop-sided seagulls or owned dogs with learning difficulties.

This director stated fracking would be ideal to take place in what was originally a former coal mine.  After all, wasn’t the hydraulic fracturing process a form of mining?  What could be better for Blackburn than bringing back its mining heritage and one of its old industrial sites.  Plus, being a former colliery, there’s bound to be loads of gas down there, just waiting to be put on tap.

He also said he thought those gigantic wind turbines a few miles away were an eyesore and a blot on the landscape.  Whereas a fracking well would mean a big improvement for the local landscape.  When questioned about previous fracking protests complaining about dangers which had been caused to places around the world, the director said there was no need to worry about accidents, especially with an A&E Department at Royal Blackburn Hospital barely a mile down the road from this proposed site.

Not many people are happy with fracking.  Even less with the idea of hiding nuclear waste underground.  Out of sight is definitely not out of mind.  A very difficult subject, but it’s certainly not ‘boring’.

Following Barbara Castle’s bronze statue recently being erected in Blackburn town centre, speculation has been rife over whether something similar may be put up in memory of her successor.

Barbara Castle served as Labour MP for Blackburn from 1945 until 1979.  During her high profile career as a minister, she was involved in various important campaigns.  These included the Equal Pay Act, bringing in the breathalyser, seatbelts in in all new cars and rejuvenating Britain’s canals through greater leisure usage.

Jack Straw actually served longer as Blackburn’s MP than Barbara Castle.  He also held higher ministerial office than his predecessor, having been both Home and Foreign Secretary under Tony Blair.  But in comparison to ‘Battling Barbara’, it is often remarked how Jack Straw left his role as Blackburn MP without the same amount of affection as his predecessor.

Barbara Castle’s statue seems to have gone down well with a lot of people in Blackburn.  Along with WH Hornby representing Conservatives in the town and WE Gladstone for the Liberals, it could be said all three major parties are now equally represented by statues.  No doubt other political figures also have their admirers who would like to see statues put up in their honour.  But so far there have been no calls for a statue to be erected in honour of Jack Straw.

One of the problems here may be difficulties trying to find anybody prepared to put their hand in their pocket to raise the cost of a statue to Jack Straw.  Many of his former constituents probably feel he was well paid and could easily afford to pay for a memorial from his own finances.

Fortunately, a local farmer believes he might just have an answer to this problem.  He claims to have produced a scarecrow, appropriately called the Man of Straw, which bears an uncanny resemblance to Blackburn’s former MP.  He is prepared to let it go on show in Blackburn town centre once the harvest season is over and it’s done its job, scaring greedy birds away.

A suggestion has been made over where to place this farmer’s Man of Straw scarecrow.  Its temporary home would be on Church Street, outside Blackburn Market’s revolving door.  Here, members of the public and shoppers can be shown how easy it is to gain access to our market, giving them the benefit of spending a bit of cash – no questions asked!

A positive move could be afoot in Blackburn which may bring down electricity costs.  This would entail natural energy being harvested from Electric Eels.  An establishment in Blackburn is being set aside for generating that most valuable resource of them all – electricity.

Electric eels are usually found in South America’s Amazon and Orinoco rivers.  They are not really eels, but belong to a genus called Knifefish, which are related to Catfish.  Other members of this species can also generate natural electricity, but not in such high voltage amounts attributed to Electric Eels.  This creature can generate a charge powerful enough to kill large creatures, including human beings.  In the wild, they have been known to generate up to 860 volts and they can illuminate 40 watt lightbulbs under lab conditions.

Experiments have been carried out on electric eels, with sensors being attached to them, enabling measurement of current created by their impulses.  Other means will be tried to collect electricity from these eels by using pods which save these short bursts of electricity to specially adapted conductors.  This will be done by enticing these predators to attack a receptor which is disguised as their enemy, the Piranha Fish.  It uses an electrical process based on a discharge method created by Dr Frankenstein to give life to one of his patients.

Plans for this eel farm are being kept secret for now.  It is quite ironic how an old factory known as the fuse used to be located somewhere in Blackburn, but its whereabouts are still classified.  There are also plans to build a pipeline to this eel farm from a nearby catering establishment.  This will mean pigswill from here will be able to be pumped into feeder tanks, supplying these captive eels with fresh food.  After all, if one of these creatures can take out an Amazon Capybara, then eating yesterday’s leftover bangers and mash should be quite a treat for them.

One of those annoying problems with keeping eels is them eventually wanting to go back to the Sargasso Sea to breed.  But the fact Electric Eels are not real eels, means we won’t be subject to a state of panic by sightings of eight foot fish clambering over our fields and through Blackburn’s streets in their efforts to jump in our Rivers Blakewater or Darwen, while trying to get back to the Sargasso Sea.  This is because Electric Eels are really Knifefish and a different species altogether.

There has been resistance to this project from environmental groups, including negative comments.  Some bright sparks say farming Electric Eels is a shockingly cruel idea and should be grounded.  But its manager insists he is a down to earth person and really positive about this project.  He says he has live contacts who see many environmental and business rewards being provided for Blackburn, all at the flick of a switch.

Last month was when we had a partial lifting of the lockdown and could drink outside a pub.  This time we could go back inside.

My girlfriend had booked this week off.  But her dress rehearsal for today’s grand opening lasted well into today’s early hours.  So she was left sloshed up in bed when I set off down town at ten o’clock.  This was good timing; rain had been falling since my rising five hours earlier.  Not that rain was going to deter my trip out today.  Getting wet last month didn’t stop me much then.

In Blackburn town centre there looked to be more people about.  My port of call was the Postal Order, quashing daft rumours of it closing down.  It was like time had stopped still in here and this lockdown never really happened.  Usual faces were behind the bar and its usual suspects were also in the pub.  My first pint in here was a Golden Hobgoblin.  Blackburn’s own Doff Cocker was my next one.

It was a nice feeling being sat at a table in the Posty.  Despite images of barcodes and technology on my table and all over the place, I still filled in one of their slips of paper.  This gave my details and was good enough.  On previous visits, last year, my mobile phone was my usual way of entry into this place, although it could be a long wait until my phone picked up Wetherspoon’s WiFi and I figured out how to use their app.  No doubt it would be put into use again on future visits, especially with my allocation of CAMRA tokens arriving with my new membership card.

During April’s outside pub re-opening, the Sun, Charles Napier and Rock Box received visits from me.  After today’s couple in the Posty, it was this latter pub which was visited by me next.  A nice blond pint of Optimum was my first pint back inside the Rock Box.  A really good darker bitter was downed later, called D-Day Dodger, from Wigan’s Martland Brewery.

It was great to be back drinking inside Blackburn’s pubs again.  Even more so during our current autumnal Spring.  This year’s has been like a spring of another kind, one which spews from the ground and is wet.  But like the season, perhaps being allowed back inside pubs again will make us feel this lockdown is finally coming to an end and give us back this sunshine most of us have been longing for.

Like most British towns and cities, Blackburn has a pigeon problem.  They foul buildings and monuments, along with unsuspecting members of the public.  This is even more difficult to put a stop to when these pests can just up and fly away.

After trying all sorts of ideas and failing with them all, a new approach was needed.  There was also a problem of people feeding pigeons and not wanting to see them shot or poisoned.  This has led to an increase in their population, resulting in even more destruction to buildings due to their fouling.

In Germany’s medieval town of Hamelin, there is a legend of this town being overrun by rats several centuries ago.  Its Burgomaster was approached by a mysterious stranger called the Pied Piper, who claimed he could rid this town of rats by playing a pipe and getting them to follow him to their deaths by drowning in a nearby river.  Its city fathers were sceptical, but agreed to pay the piper if he could rid Hamelin of its rat infestation.

The Pied Piper was true to his word.  Sadly, Hamelin’s city fathers were not true to theirs and refused to pay him his agreed fee.  So he played his pipe again.  This time children of the town followed in his wake, never to be seen again.  Therefore, if it can be done with rats and children – why not pigeons?

Feral pigeons, found in our towns and cities, are descended from the Wild Rock Dove, which still exists today and has a homing instinct.  Scientists believe pigeons use their sense of smell, Earth’s magnetic field and infrasound to navigate whilst in flight.  If a way can be found to disrupt a pigeon’s navigation system, we may be able to rid them from our town centre.

One suggestion is to ask Blackburn’s ice cream vans to converge on our town centre and all play their musical sounds simultaneously.  Tom Lehrer’s song ‘Poisoning Pigeons in the Park’ has been suggested.  When these terrified birds fly away, a robot version would be released to fly with them.  This avian decoy would get the real pigeons to follow it by releasing an odour which smells of pizza and kebabs, reminding them of where they like to roost.  Once away from their hometown, this robot pigeon would then become a modern version of the Pied Piper by emitting an infrasound which would disorientate these pigeons in flight.

At the other end of our county is located a men-only club which still doesn’t allow females of the human species.  But it takes a very keen interest in those of a pigeon variety.  Perhaps they can offer their hospitality to our town’s unwanted feathered friends.

Unreleased classified military documents could hold a key to one of Blackburn’s greatest unsolved mysteries.  But this may replace one legendary enigma with an even stranger tale from our past.

As World War II came to an end, German Prisoner of War – Otto Schwarzenbeck – was being transported by train through Blackburn, ironically our English equivalent of his surname.  As this train branched off down the old railway line at Cherry Tree, our German POW saw an opportunity and jumped from his train, landing in thick foliage beside the track.  His escape wasn’t noticed until this train stopped at Chorley.  By then he had rushed across nearby fields and headed for the hills.  In this case, those hills were Witton Park and Billinge Woods.

With World War II nearly over, this left a tricky problem for Britain’s War Office.  Only two prisoners of war, one from each of these global conflicts, had ever managed to escape from Britain and return home to Germany.  Having to admit another had also managed to escape during the latter conflict was not a high priority when there were soon to be victory celebrations.

So a Government ‘D’ Notice was put in place to cover up this incident.  Our POW would be quietly welcomed back into society when it was all over and the coast was clear.  He could then be repatriated to Germany and his escape would be airbrushed from official internment records.

Meanwhile Schwarzenbeck himself, a survival expert, was quite at home living in Blackburn’s woodlands; they reminded him of his beloved Black Forest retreat.  Unfortunately as a fugitive and with little knowledge of English, he didn’t realise World War II ended during his time in hiding, leaving both military and civilian authorities with a problem over how to catch Otto and persuade him to return home.

Their answer was to create a misinformation campaign against him, hoping he would leave under his own auspices.  They would publish false rumours of Otto being a crazed flasher thereby dissuading people from approaching him.  They even created outrageous rumours of alien abductions across the north side of Blackburn.  After all, he was an enemy alien.

It meant we had an opposite situation to what was going on across the pond in Roswell USA.  American authorities were blaming their alien problem on everything under the sun, apart from little green men, whereas the Brits were saying their escaped POW could well be a spaceman after all.

Their problem wouldn’t go away and bizarre rumours of strange extra-terrestrial incidents taking place gripped Blackburn’s population during post-war years.  Fortunately for everybody, relations between Britain and Germany became very cordial and reports of strange goings on in the woodlands of Blackburn eventually faded away

The remaining mystery is what really happened to Otto Schwarzenbeck?  Did he find his way back to Germany?  Or did the unthinkable happen and he was abducted by real aliens?  Perhaps our answer lies within those Ministry of Defence secret classified files.  We could be in for a long wait.