The New International Encyclopædia/Darwen

DAR'WEN. A town of Lancashire, England, situated amid moorland hills, 3½ miles south of Blackburn and 18 miles northwest of Manchester (Map: England, D 3). It owes its importance to a trade with India and China in calicoes, for which it employs a large number of spindles and looms. The ‘India Mill,’ one of the finest in the country, covers an area of 31,000 square feet. The town also contains paper-staining works, paper-manufactories, calico-printing establishments, works for the manufacture of fire-bricks, tiles, and sanitary tubes, iron and brass founding, bleaching, machine and reed making. Coal-mines and stone-quarries also find employment for a considerable number of the inhabitants. It has numerous places of worship, large and commodious schools for elementary education, and a coöperative public hall. The municipality is enterprising and owns gas, water, electric-lighting supply, tramways, slaughter-houses, markets, public baths, free library, technical school, cemetery, artisans' dwellings, and lodging-house, and a modern system of sewage disposal for fertilizing purposes. The place was known as Over Darwen from the reign of Henry II., and with several hamlets was incorporated in 1878 as the municipal borough of Darwen. Population, in 1851, 11,702; in 1891, 34,192; in 1901, 38,200. Consult Shaw, History of Darwen (London, 1891).