BLACKBURN, a large manufacturing town and municipal borough of England, situated on a stream called, in Domesday Rook, the Blackeburn, but now only known as “The Brook,” in the north-eastern division of the county of Lancaster, 209 miles from London by railway, 15 E. of Preston, and 30 N.N.W. of Manchester. Besides its numerous churches and chapels, the public buildings of Blackburn comprise a large town-hall, finished in 1856, a market-house, an exchange, built in 1865, a county court (1863), public baths (1864), and, outside the town, an infirmary (1862). A public park of about 50 acres was opened in 1857. Since about 1865 a variety of extensive and important improvements have been effected in the general condition of the town, which is now well paved and lighted, has an elaborate system of drainage, and receives an abundant supply of water. Previous to that date the so-called streets were, over a large area, almost useless for purposes of traffic. The staple trade of Blackburn has long been the manufacture of cotton, for the development of which a great deal was done by some natives of the town, such as Peel and Hargreaves, in the last century. The subordinate branches include woollen factories, engineering works, iron foundries, and breweries. In 1871 there were employed in the cotton factories 14,220 men and 17,075 women, of twenty years of age and upwards; the engineering works gave employment to 356 men, and the iron manufacture to 794. Coal, and lime, and building stone are abundant in the neighbouring district, which is, however, very far from fertile. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal passes the town, which has also extensive railway communication. Blackburn is a place of some antiquity, and its parish church of St Mary’s (for the most part taken down in ...