England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Blackburn St Mary the Virgin

The Parish

The parish of Blackburn lies almost centrally within the main portion of Lancashire that is south of Morecambe Bay. Blackburn is located roughly 11 miles east of Preston and 25 miles northwest of Manchester and is one of the premier towns in the county of Lancashire. Blackburn occupies the valley of the River Darwen, a tributary of the Ribble and sits where the A666 road (Manchester through Bolton to Blackburn) crosses the A677 road arriving from Preston. Despite the parish church of St Mary being elevated to cathedral rank in 1926 Blackburn remains a mere town, something that rankles mightily with the local community. Indeed it is as a market town that Blackburn began life, a centre for local exchange and trade and a home for specialist trades that could not be supported in smaller villages. The parish of Blackburn was carved from the enormous parish of Whalley in the 16th century and Blackburn became its head and main centre. Besides the town, itself, there were numerous chapelries given the extent of the area covered and three, Great Harwood, Samlesbury & Walton le Dale, were also registered for marriages and will have their own pages within this project. The small market town that was historic Blackburn had one great advantage, the swift flowing Darwen provided cheap power for the mills which exploited cotton. Prior to the industrial revolution much of this was small-scale cottage industry until the development of steam power created the mills and factories of later years, at one time in excess of 10,000 were employed in this industry alone. Once steam was available, Blackburn's site on top of coal seams, was greatly enhanced as a centre for textile production. The coming, in turn, of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal and railways to Preston, Manchester and the higher settlements of Burnley & Colne lead to dramatic growth in Blackburn's size. From a compact small market town of fewer than 5,000 folk the town expanded until today it covers an area almost circular and 4 miles in diameter. Today the coal mines are closed and the mills have declined but Blackburn is still very much an industrial town albeit with a new multi-cultural aspect as mosques have sprung up to complement the Christian landmarks of the town. Blackburn is drained westwards by the Darwen which meets the Ribble to the southeast of Preston and from there to the nearby Irish Sea. Blackburn has a broad spectrum of height, the centre by the cathedral is sited at 110 metres above the sea whilst away from the immediate valley land rises markedly to suburbs at around 180 metres.  Blackburn parish is an immense area, 14 miles in length and 10 in depth and covering in excess of 48,000 acres, the population off the whole parish rose by more than 10 fold during the period of this transcript, by its end there were over 70,000 parishioners within it. By complete contrast, Blackburn's entry in Domesday Book, it was a holding of Roger of Poitou, mentions only 25 leagues of woodland with no recorded assets other than that tract.

The Church

St Mary's church, the cathedral since 1926, sits almost centrally within the town's main inner ring road. This church, however, is not the venue for most of these marriages as that medieval version sat a little to the north of the present cathedral and has been demolished. The present church began life during the transcript period being built for 6 years from 1820, one speculates where the many marriages of that period actually took place. The present church takes it styling from the Decorated & Perpendicular periods and is restrained in their use even reusing some of the original church's western tower and nave. Work has continues throughout the 20th century - a fire destroyed the original roof and had to be replaced - other work staggered on through funding crises until final completion in 1977, the crowning glory being the concrete corona above the crossing complete with its pinnacles and slender spire. Like most urban churches it is a church to visit on foot after utilising the town's car parks. The church occupies a big space within the commercial centre but the whole northwestern area is consumed by an aggregation of trees, similar the other aspects are often restricted by close commercial properties which, given the large size of the church, do not permit sufficient distance to do it justice.