Blackburn - A Town and Its People

Christopher John Ball was born and raised in Blackburn - a large English town within the County of Lancashire and one of the first industrialised towns in the world. Like many towns in Lancashire Blackburn's initial prosperity was due to the cotton industry - James Hargreaves, inventor of the Spinning Jenny, was a weaver in Blackburn. Blackburn became a boom town and earned the title 'weaving capital of the world.' This position was challenged in the 1930's due to the far cheaper cotton that was being imported from India and the town had to look to other industries to survive and reinvent itself. Whilst it would be hard to find many people still employed within the cotton industry today - any visitor to the town would still find many relics from its rich past. The most obvious example would have to be the Leeds and Liverpool canal. A few of the surviving mills that line sections of this historic canal have been restored as working ' heritage ' museums. It is also still possible to witness the crew of barges, now only used for pleasure, using the locks as they navigate this well preserved waterway.

The photographic images included within this section formed part of a touring exhibition, funded by both 'The North West Arts Council' and 'Blackburn Borough Council', entitled 'Blackburn a Town and Its People'

The photographs were produced between 1983 and 1985 and it was Christopher's intention that the finished piece be an intimate, personal interpretation of life within the town of his birth and a chronicle of the effects that the political climate, of that time, had upon it. Subject matter included Blackburn's rich ethnic communities, the local economy, the miners strike, privatisation, the flooding of 1985, unemployment and employment, recreation and entertainment, local and national politics, the landscape and attempts at urban regeneration, the effects and failures of Thatcherism etc.

The finished project was first shown, in 1985, at The Lewis Textile Museum in Blackburn, England, the exhibition being opened by the Government Minister, and Blackburn's constituency M.P., Jack Straw before touring various venues within the UK.

'Blackburn a Town and its People' is due to be published as a book in 2010.

Archival Fine Art Prints Can Be Purchased By Clicking The Button.