As a city BLACKBURN owes its status to the growth of the textile industry and was a very important center of the Industrial Revolution. James Hargreaves was a weaver in the city and went on to be the inventor of ‘the spinning jenny’ . However, its history goes back much further when a church was established during the reign of Ethelred the Unready (978). Then the Saxons mention its people as being mighty brave as they repulsed Danish invaders. Later, during the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042), the church become dedicated to St. Mary but had also earned the sobriquet of ‘the Inn of the Lord’ . Today the present building was rebuilt in the Georgian style in 1818 and its unique Lantern Tower completed in 1977. It became a cathedral in 1926 and it will honour ST.GEORGE by ringing out on April 23rd with its 10 great bells.
