Blackburn is situated in the county of Lancashire to the north of the West Pennine Moors. Although the city of Preston, the administrative town of the county, is located around 14.8 km (9.2 miles) to the west, Blackburn is the largest municipality in what is known as East Lancashire. The town is bounded on other sides by smaller towns, including Accrington to the east and Darwen to the south, with which Blackburn comprises the Blackburn with Darwen unitary authority. Around 4 km (2.5 miles) to the north of the town centre is Wilpshire and the small village of Langho, just within the boundary of the Ribble Valley. A number of even smaller localities are sometimes considered extended suburbs of Blackburn, including Rishton to the east, Great Harwood to the north east and Mellor to the north west. Rishton, Great Harwood and Accrington are part of the local government district of Hyndburn. 17 km (10 miles) further to the east lies the town of Burnley.

Blackburn town centre:

Blackburn is served by a newly redeveloped train station located in the town centre next to the bus station and served by Northern Rail. The nearest train station on the West Coast Main Line is Preston. Blackburn has three junctions with the M65 motorway. The town is less than an hour’s drive from Manchester and Blackpool and just over an hour away from Liverpool, Leeds and Chester.

Blackburn Cathedral :

Located in the midst of the East Lancashire Hills, some areas of the town are characterised by steep slopes. The town centre is located in a depression surrounded by a number of hills. The area of Revidge to the north can be reached via a steep climb up Montague Street and Dukes Brow to reach a peak of 218 metres above sea level. To the west, the wooded Billinge Hill in Witton Country Park is 245 metres, while Royal Blackburn Hospital in the east has a vantage point of 202 metres.[23] These figures can be considered in the context of other hills and mountains in Lancashire, including Great Hill (456 metres), Winter Hill (456 metres), Pendle Hill (557 metres) and Green Hill (628 metres).

The River Blakewater, which gives its names to the town, flows down from the moors above Guide and then through the areas of Whitebirk, Little Harwood, Cob Wall and Brookhouse to the town centre. The river was culverted during the industrial revolution and runs underground in the town centre, under Ainsworth Street and between Blackburn Cathedral and Blackburn Bus Station. On the western side of the town centre the Blakewater continues under Whalley Banks and through the Redlam area before joining the River Darwen outside Witton Country Park and continuing on to join the River Ribble at Walton-le-Dale.

The geology of the Blackburn area yields numerous resources which underpinned its development as a centre of manufacturing during the industrial revolution. Mineable coal seams have been utilised since the mid-late 16th century.[24] The coal measures in the area lie on a bed of millstone grit, which has been quarried in the past for millstones and, along with local limestone deposits, used as a construction material for roads and buildings. In addition, there were deposits of iron ore in the Furness and Ulverston districts.[25] The Blackburn area was subjected to glaciation during the Pleistocene ice age, and the sandstone-and-shale bedrock is overlain in much of the area by glacial deposits called till (which is also called “boulder clay”) of varying thickness up to several tens of feet. Glacial outwash (sand and gravel) also occur in small patches, including along Grimshaw Brook.

Coat of Arms :

The coat of arms of the former Blackburn Borough Council has many distinctive emblems. The arms displays Argent a Fesse wavy Sable between three Bees volant proper on a Chief Vert a Bugle stringed Argent between two Fusils Or. On the crest, a Wreath of the Colours a Shuttle Or thereon a Dove wings elevated Argent and holding in the beak the Thread of the Shuttle reflexed over the back and an Olive Branch proper. The latin motto of the town is ‘Arte et Labore’, correctly translated as ‘by art and by labour’ but often translated as ‘by skill and hardwork’.

The motto, granted on 14 February 1852 to the former Borough of Blackburn, is poignant as Blackburn, once a small town, had risen to importance through the energy and enterprise of her spinners and manufacturers, combined with the skill and labour of her operatives. The Borough of Blackburn was formed by the amalgamation of the County Borough of Blackburn, the Borough of Darwen, part of the Turton Urban District and the parishes of Yate and Pickup Bank, Eccleshill, Livesey, Pleasington and Tockholes from the Blackburn Rural District. Other notable features include:

Three bees in flight. The bee is an emblem of skill, perseverance and industry. “B” also stands for Blackburn; and further, as the Peel family sprang from this neighbourhood and bears a bee in flight on its shield, the idea naturally suggests itself that Sir Robert Peel had adopted the Blackburn bee.
The shield is silver or white, and thus emblematical of calico, the product of the Blackburn bees during the industrial revolution.
The broad wavy black line represents the Black Brook (the River Blakewater) on the banks of which the town is built.
The silver bugle horn was the crest of the first Mayor of Blackburn, William Henry Hornby. It is also an emblem of strength.
The gold lozenges, or fusils (diamond shaped), are the heraldic emblems of spinning, derived from the Latin “fusus” or “fusilium”, meaning a spindle, and they refer to the invention of the spinning jenny in 1764 by James Hargreaves, a native of the district. They also denote the connection of Joseph Feilden with Blackburn, as Lord of the Manor, as he bore lozenges on his shield.
The background of green is there to remind us of the time when Blackburn was one of the royal forests in the time of Edward the Confessor.
The shuttle is the emblem of weaving, the trade which has contributed more than any other to the prosperity of the town.
The dove taking wing with an olive branch in her beak (the emblem of peace) attached to the thread of the shuttle, represents the beneficial results emanating from the art of weaving.