Category: Blackburn

Blackburn town centre management have been inundated with complaints about rats being seen feeding on discarded takeaway food.

This is particularly the case around Darwen Street.  Having a high number of takeaways and the River Blakewater flowing through the thoroughfare doesn’t help matters.  This river, which gave Blackburn its name, has always been a haven for rats and they can often be seen scuttling around its banks.

One solution to this problem could be an introduction of stoats and weasels to the town centre.  Both are woodland creatures, but are also known to inhabit urban areas too, just like foxes and badgers.

Stoats are voracious killers and known to attack and kill rats.  They are curious animals and will investigate squeaking noises, especially if they sound like a rat or rabbit in distress.  It is supposed to be possible to attract them by standing still and sucking hard on the back of your hand.

Stoats are much bigger than weasels.  In fact a weasel can put its head through a wedding ring, whereas a stoat cannot.  Stoats also have a bushy black tip to their tail and in certain parts of the country, their fur turns white in winter, apart from this black bit at their tail end.  In this state, stoats are known as ermine.  So they are stoatally different and weaselly identified.

Unfortunately for stoats, this ermine fur is used by British and European royalty and aristocracy in their robes, so they are highly prized in the fur industry.  In Ireland they are protected.  Unsurprisingly, in Britain they are not.

Another predator which would make mincemeat of Blackburn’s rat population is the Eurasian Lynx.  There have been calls by the Lynx UK Trust for re-introducing this pointy-eared feline back to Britain.  They feed on rats and are also natural predators of deer, whose spiralling population through lack of predators, is starting to become a problem.  Lynx used to be native to Britain – like wolves and bears.  Sadly for the Lynx, the last one was hunted to extinction over a thousand years ago.  So we owe them one.

The old saying ‘One man’s loss is another man’s gain’, could apply to Blackburn and the Orkney Islands.  It seems these islands, at the northern tip of Scotland, want to eradicate their entire stoat population to protect native birdlife.  There may be a handy solution here – why not send them down Blackburn where they can solve our rat problem, maybe take out the odd pigeon too.  This could be a case of killing two birds with one stoat.

Blackburn town centre’s oldest building, the former parish church of St John the Evangelist, was devastated by a fire in April.

It was home to a gallery, studio, cinema, theatre workshops and various local community groups.  These were all thriving, along with the Bureau – Centre for the Arts.  Four years of hard work went into getting this fine project up and running.  Thankfully, those people behind the Bureau are not the kind who give up without a fight and are continuing with this good work they have been doing, since setting up the centre, in other locations.  They are now based in the former Waterloo pub.

St John’s has a lot of affection from my point of view.  When Rovers were Premier League Champions, I was unemployed and enrolled on a scheme in here.  Blackburn’s Ethnic Minorities Development Association published a newspaper called Aawaz.  And this is where I learned all about desktop publishing.  It was also the place were my first book was typed out from my spidery longhand hieroglyphics and transcribed into a format for publishing.  A year later my book was published and on the shelves.

My book was never going to be everybody’s cup of tea, but it is just one example of how this building has encouraged and developed creativity and culture in our town.  All sorts of projects and activities have been started up and assisted in what became the Bureau of Blackburn.

Sadly, this fire has put the building out of action for now, but it raises questions over what future does St John’s church have after this terrible inferno?  From looking at the structure, its outer walls look intact, though its interior remains a burnt out shell.  Perhaps this building could be repaired and rebuilt and then brought back into use one day.  Blackburn may not be Paris and St John’s may not be Notre Dame.  But it is still our town centre’s oldest building and up to the fire, was serving our people like it had done since the 18^th century.

Many Blackburn people have been helped in some way by this building.  Whether it be through religious comfort and counselling or by calling into the Citizen’s Advice Bureau and Council for Voluntary Services, which were both based there for many years.  It would be nice to think this building may one day re-open and continue to serve the people of Blackburn once again, for many more years to come.

Blackburn based manufacturer, Zimpli Kids, recently hit the headlines for making a success out of slime.  They proved the slippy slope doesn’t always have to lead to failure.

The story of slime starts in the early 20th Century. That’s when the science of synthetic polymers was starting to be explored and amazing discoveries were being made. In the 1920s, scientists laid the groundwork for today’s polymers. A new molecular model of polymers was made suggesting they were formed in long, twisted, chain-like molecules. These models were confirmed later by two scientists using x-rays to study natural rubber (which is also a polymer). It was after this time that development of synthetic polymer and plastic materials really began to take off.

Various companies and corporations have developed and made polymer-based products, like slime, for many years. Early versions of modelling clay using polymers were sold.  In 1943, James Wright, was attempting to create a synthetic rubber polymer to help the US war effort during the second world war. He was unable to achieve certain properties he was looking for and put his creation on the shelf thinking it was a failure. A few years later, a salesman for the Dow Corning Corporation was using this ‘failure’ to entertain friends. One guest was intrigued with it and realized that it had potential as a new toy. After being advertised on the Howdy Doody Show in 1957, Silly Putty^® became a national toy phenomenon! In December 1968, it went to the Moon on Apollo 8. During the 1980s and into the 90s, various slime-based toys and were introduced by several manufacturers. The slime used was produced from polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), guar gum, and even milk.

Zimpli Kids operates from Blackburn’s Greenbank Business Park in what is now likely to be affectionately nicknamed the Slime Factory.  It makes its goo from powder, which it exports all around the world.  But unlike some of its overseas competitors, Zimpli Kids manufacturing process does not create an end product which results in poisonous or harmful materials which can be dangerous to children.  Their own website has a page dedicated to their product safety and testing certification.

As the old Northern saying states:  ‘Where there’s Muck, there’s Brass’.  It will be nice if we can say in in our town:  ‘Where there’s Gunge, there’s Gold’.  Thanks to Zimpli Kids, perhaps one day Blackburn could become the Slime capital of Britain.

Blackburn could be selected as the manufacturing base for producing sex dolls, making it become part of the growing adult entertainment industry.

This follows news that some people are prepared to pay more than £10k for one of these prototype models. Now a local surgical appliance factory is trying to win a contract to produce ‘Iris’ the female adult doll.  Her name pays homage to when this town had its own glass eye factory.  This came about due to high numbers of accidents in cotton mills, particularly in Blackburn.  It was founded by a retired teacher.  He found it a way of gaining pupils in more ways than one.

The boss of a local surgical appliance factory said an idea came to him when he walked around his factory store rooms and found loads of spare prosthetic body parts.  This gave him an idea where he could put together these spare parts to create his own prototype adult doll.

Our manager wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of this controversial subject and ongoing negotiations with third parties.  But he was prepared to discuss practicalities in some detail.

“It used to embarrass me when I tried to pull a bird and she asked me what I did for a living. Telling her I made false body parts didn’t quite go down as well as saying I was a test pilot or played for Rovers.

“Some of these girls used to ask me if it was just false arms and legs I sold.  They seemed to be more interested in other parts we didn’t sell.  What irritated me most was when they asked me if any of my own body parts were false and did I take my work home with me?

“And so most of my weekends were well named.  They ended up with me going home early and watching telly on my own.  My time was spent dreaming about women rather than sleeping with them.  I might as well have had a doll of my own.  At least I could give my prototype a thoroughly good testing.”

For the record, his only false parts are his teeth.  But all this embarrassment may have proved to be a blessing in disguise for our unnamed manager.

Today’s adult entertainment industry is proving to be very lucrative.  Although meeting precision targets is proving to be a lot harder than ever before.  Demand for female and male doll’s spare parts is also rising all the time, along with the up and coming finished products.

Potential Threat formed in the very early 1980’s and used to practice in my favourite pub then – the Balaclava on Watford Street.

Bill Beattie was landlord of the Bala at the time.  He had half a dozen kids, including son Gary, who used to be a DJ and had lived in the squats of Amsterdam.  Gary had a great collection of music, some of it on his dad’s pub jukebox, with some outstanding Punk Rock.  This helped bring into the pub a lot of Blackburn’s spiky-haired and leather jacketed punk fans.

Amongst these Balaclava punks was a burgeoning group called Potential Threat.  They were a friendly bunch and let me and other punk rock fans in the pub watch them practice their incredibly fast music.  They had been through a few line-up changes already when I came across them back then.  They were Les on bass, who everybody who went boozing in Blackburn town centre seemed to know.  Woody, their drummer, was a big Rovers fan, who I used to bump into at matches.  Then there was Fos on lead guitar and girlfriend at the time, Pauline, their vocalist.  She is still fronting the group over 35 years later.

Strangely enough, this group’s first vocalist, Carl Rigby, went on to become a lecturer at Blackburn College.  I know this because he taught me Communication Studies in the early 90’s and helped me pass my only ‘A’ Level at this subject.

Like most groups, Potential Thread changed their members over the years and had dormant periods, but never actually split up.  Guitarist Andy Cowan was having a beer in the Napier one Friday afternoon.  I remarked upon Potential Threat being emblazoned across his jacket and we got talking about the group.  Andy said he had been a member of the band for over thirty years.  Along with Andy and Pauline, they currently comprise of Mick on bass and Ersy on drums.

Over the years the group has written their own material and toured with groups such as long-time Anarcho-Punks – Conflict – who, like Potential Threat, are still going to this day.  In 2014 they started rehearsing again and a year later played their first gig in over thirty years.  Unfortunately bad luck continued to blight the band, with Pauline suffering an attack of pneumonia and having to go in hospital at the end of last year.  Hopefully a new year brings new hope and Potential Threat will be back and showing everyone their own punk potential.

After recently spending some time in the Royal Blackburn Hospital, I couldn’t help but notice some of the characters who turn up at their Accident & Emergency Department.

Even before entering the hospital I was forced to wait a few minutes.  Unbelievably, this was due to a thoughtless visitor blocking one of the ambulance bays by parking his car there!  Luckily, the sheepish driver was quickly found and parked his vehicle somewhere else.

Sadly, ambulances having to wait in queues at RBH isn’t unusual.  This is down to the sheer weight of numbers of people requiring the service.  Over 600 patients were seen in one 24 hour period at Blackburn’s A&E recently.  In my case, it meant a six hour wait in a bed on the corridor before my ward was able to accept me.

My bed was parked right next to the reception desk.  It was a hive of activity and as busy as I’d heard.   One bloke had a couple of coppers with him, as well as his girlfriend.  They took him to the toilet a few yards from me where he spent ages inside, to such a point where these police officers were considering breaking the door down in case he’d injured himself.

For some reason, the police disappeared later, leaving the bloke and his girlfriend to go on walks around A&E while he whinged about having to wait to be seen.  He looked as if he was high on drugs when he came in, or drunk as a skunk.  At least he was quiet later, unlike a noisy teenager who was brought in.  She kept shouting and screaming for help, despite having family and friends with her and yapping with them in between her shrieks.

It was clear many people attending A&E were under the influence of drugs and alcohol.  There were also large numbers of people there who had problems which didn’t really merit assistance from A&E.  Examples included minor falls, upset stomachs, scalds and even midge bites.

Perhaps Blackburn A&E’s biggest problem is the run-down of hospital services in other neighbouring towns.  These include those at Accrington Victoria and Burnley.  Even the situation at Chorley is having a knock-on effect on our Trust.  But maybe people should think twice before heading for A&E with minor ailments.  Thankfully, the staff coped with the situation in their usual professional way – the one we all take for granted.

Just over a year ago, my monthly blog was about our derelict Cotton Exchange and a call for something to be done about bringing it back into use.

We’re talking about one of Blackburn’s few historical and aesthetically pleasing buildings here. It was slowly heading for inevitable destruction. Many of its windows are broken, leading to pigeons and other wildlife already taking up residence in the building. No doubt rough sleepers will have found their way inside too. This could lead to fires, flooding and more destruction to the building.

But amidst all these dark clouds hanging over our old cinema, sunshine is peeping through those broken windows. Re:Source Blackburn is a charity who come from a Christian background. They bought the building last September, thanks to a loan, various donations and a grant from the council. Further funding is also being looked at.

Re:Source plans include turning the building into a business centre, with boardroom, conference and restaurant facilities. A Creativity Centre is also being considered. This could put on exhibitions, host concerts and even take the building back to one of its former uses by showing films. They expect to spend around £5M on renovations and refurbishments.

My article in January 2015 was written out of frustration over the state of our old Cotton Exchange. Little did I know plans were afoot to purchase it and bring it back to its former glory. But highlighting the issue on my website may have got some people talking about it and keeping the issue alive.

What I found out after publishing my article a year ago was how much popular feeling the old Cotton Exchange still engenders in Blackburn and beyond. Whether it was happy days in front of the silver screen, or just the sheer admiration of this beautiful structure, many of us remember having good times there.

Even in today’s present dilapidated state, many fellow Blackburners would love to see the building restored and become the hub of activity it was in days gone by. Hopefully those hopes look like they could come to fruition in the next few years.

What the Dickens: Blackburn’s old Cotton Exchange?

There seem to be a lot of places where you can buy a meal in and around Blackburn Mall these days. Some sell good quality food, but the fast food outlets are also there.

They always seem to want to shove another culture on us, mainly the American way of life we see right across the broadcast media. They advertise themselves with cardboard cut-outs and star-spangled signs. Their unfortunate staff often have to wear baseball caps with a hole at the back where pony tails can be tucked through. These staff also have to say banal things to you like: ‘You got it’, or ‘Have a nice day’. What these fast food places don’t want you to know is how bad the American way of life can be for some people’s health.

I used to work in Blackburn town centre for the local council. My colleagues and I used to be continuously blitzed with interfering lifestyle propaganda. Posters were emblazoned on walls, even in the toilets, telling us to give up smoking, give up drinking at certain times, walk to work and even go on organised walks at dinnertime.

But we never received any emails or leaflets telling us to stop eating junk food. So it was all right to put at risk the jobs of workers in the brewery and nearby pubs and clubs by giving up drinking, even in moderation. But those fast food eateries and takeaways were never discouraged.

Sadly, nobody can deny Blackburn is one of the most deprived towns in the country. And this makes it a good example of where more of these fast food places seem to be opening up. No doubt our council is grateful to these new tenants taking up valuable space in our shopping Mall and people do have the right to be treated like adults and eat what they want – unless they are children of course. Here it seems to be open season on dragging them in by any means possible, with billions of pounds and dollars of advertising budgets. You don’t have to look so far to see what good value this advertising has yielded.

But our local politicians’ Westminster colleagues on the Parliamentary Health Select Committee are calling for fast food outlets to be banned from hospitals. They are also calling on local councils to get powers to limit the proliferation of fast food outlets in certain areas. Looks like their pleas may have fallen on deaf ears in Blackburn.

For the record, my favourite place for a good wholesome meal is underneath the Mall, in the Market and it’s called The Carvery. Amongst other nice food, they make a really good beef stew and dumplings and sell tasty fruit pies.

Recently released Ministry of Defence files reveal surprising information about the role Daisyfield Mill played during the Second World War.

Daisyfield Mill’s part in Hitler’s downfall

It appears the former Granada TV studio and base of LE Training – codenamed ‘Plantation’ – was used as a secret torpedo manufacturing plant. This was under its guise as a flour mill.

The decision to manufacture torpedoes in Blackburn came about for a number of reasons. Seaports such as Liverpool and Glasgow were far too dangerous places to base munitions factories, due to heavy German bombing. Blackburn remained relatively free of air attacks throughout the duration of hostilities. Even the building of a dummy ROF, near the real plant, hardly tempted Germany’s Luftwaffe.

Daisyfield Mill was chosen due to its ideal location in between the railway and Leeds-Liverpool canal. Materials would be delivered here by train and then finished torpedoes would be floated down the canal to Liverpool, disguised as barges.

Due to the top secret nature of activities in the mill, very few signs remain of the role ‘Operation Plantation’ played in this country’s defence and subsequent victory. There are four stone pillars at the entrances to the mill. These are reputed to be four torpedoes encased in concrete which went missing during the war.

But the sharp-eyed historian only has to cross the canal to find tell-tale signs of what really happened in those troubled times. Woolwich Street, appropriately named, can still be found. But Ordnance Street and Artillery Street are well hidden – like the wartime secrets of Daisyfield Mill.