Grade II
Date listed : 27 SEP 1984
Date of last amendment : 27 SEP 1984
SD 729 151
Bridge across railway cutting for Blackburn, Darwen and Bolton Railway, 1847-8. Resident Engineer, Terence Flanagan. Rock-faced and ashlared gritstone. Medieval style: 4-centred arch with piers to the walls at the west end carried above the parapet in ashlar as rectangular machicolated turrets, that on the south side with a viewing deck approached by steps protected by a stepped parapet. Ashlar parapets, stepped above the centre of the arch, are pierced by cross-shaped arrow slits, terminate with polygonal pseudo- turrets to the outer faces, and each has another pseudo-turret corbelled on the outer face with its machicolated cap resting on the coping. This bridge is the more elaborate of a pair of bridges built under the terms of agreement with James Kay of Turton Tower (q.v.) who was a director of the Blackburn, Darwen and Bolton Railway Company.
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Grade II
Date listed : 27 SEP 1984
Date of last amendment : 27 SEP 1984
SD 729 153
Bridge across railway cutting for Blackburn, Darwen and Bolton Railway, 1847-8. Resident Engineer, Terence Flanagan. Rock-faced gritstone with ashlar ornament. Medieval style: 4-centred arch, bands, sloped deck and parapets, and at the west end corbelled cylindrical machicolated turrets rising through the parapet. This bridge is the less elaborate of a pair of bridges built under the terms of agreement with James Kay of Turton Tower (q.v.) who was a director of the Blackburn, Darwen and Bolton Railway Company.
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Grade II
Date listed: 19th April 1974
Date of last amendment: 19th April 1974
SD 6828 SE 3/10
First quarter of C19. Stone, old flag roof with cornice, single storey, curved at each end. Stone-mullioned windows and double sashes. Rear to street has 3 2-light stone-mullioned windows and a square loading bay. British Waterways Office, No 50 (Canal House), Bank Cottage, warehouses and capstan form a good group of canal architecture.
Grade II
Date listed: 19th April 1974
Date of last amendment: 19th April 1974
SD 62 NE 5/24
Preston New Road, Church of St. Silas. 1894 by Paley and Austin. Stone church in Decorated style, large and wide, with aisles. South porch. West tower with pierced battlements and octagonal stair turret. An octagonal turret with spire on south-east end of chancel. Some late Morris glass.
Grade II
Date listed: 19th April 1974
Date of last amendment: 19th April 1974
SD 62 NE 5/51
Probably mid Cl9. Centre rectangular house, gabled, with clock in pediment, otherwise all glass and iron, richly ornamented with arches, pierced spandrels, columns etc. Centre louvred chimney. At right angles are flanking lower wings with curved ends, iron cresting, and glazed lean-to verandah. Good example of Victorian conservatory style.
Grade II
Date listed: 19th April 1974
Date of last amendment: 19th April 1974
SD 62 NE 5/50
Corporation Park entrance gateway and flanking lodges (at south entrance). 1855. Stone, triumphal arch style, freely adapted. Centre tall round arch with fine mouldings, flanked by 2 tiers of smaller round arches and the whole crovmed by rich cornice and pediment ornamented with shield of arms, date, scrolls and with bird finial. Ground floor is rusticated, the upper part ashlar. Small lodge at each side with round-arched windows in pairs.
10/03/1871 - 22/11/1937
As the local populace of Darwen goes about its daily round today, hardly a soul gives a second glance at the monument now a familiar sight on the highest peak of this northern landscape. Alone and proud, it dominates the skyline, reminding passers by of its twofold purpose, commemorating an historic Royal event of long ago, and also of a victory gained by Darwen people through combined effort and determination.
Begun June 22, 1897, completed September 22, 1898, Victoria Tower, or Darwen Tower as it is also known, was the result of much discussion among Darwen townsfolk and City Fathers of the day, to produce a memorial fit for the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. A Jubilee Committee was formed to plan the memorials design and construction. The winning design being The Tower, won by architect Mr David Ellison
Also jubilant at the success of the Battle for the Moors, were those who had won victory through the courts for the right of local townsfolk to have access to the many paths which exist on Darwen Moor, and not be hindered by landowners who would bar their way. They felt that The Tower should represent this victory as well.
In the year 1897, Edmund Baron, (also known as Edward) was no doubt well known among his peers, the craftsmen who fashioned stone to specification by architects and engineers of the day. The Jubilee Committee had been charged with using only tradesmen and materials of local origin, this being an all Darwen affair. Mr R. J. Whalley was the local builder with whom Edmund Baron was employed.
Born March 10, 1871, son of Alice and Thomas Baron, stonemason, Edmund Barons future seems well assured. Like all young children of his day, he attended school in Over Darwen, and at the age of 22 married Mary Haslam, daughter of Jonah Haslam, also a stonemason, in Blackburn, 1894.
The first of Edmund Barons four children, Samuel Baron, was born at 5 Maria Street Over Darwen, in 1895. A sister Alice was born 1898, the year in which The Tower was completed. Betsy was born 1899, and Ellen in1903.
On the day of The Tower opening, the local press reported as follows: Mr R. J. Whalley, who as everyone can see, has carried out the construction in a satisfactory manner and has particularly pleased the committee and their architect by the loyal and careful manner in which the details and specifications have been followed. We might also congratulate Mr Edward Baron who has acted as manager for Mr. Whalley, and who has taken a deep personal interest in The Tower.
It is this deep personal interest that even today still reflects the skill and dedication of the craftsmen whose handiwork stands witness in their absence. But history’s page is soon to record a change of direction for Edmund Baron.
The final ceremony on the day, was the Jubilee Committees procuring for Mr Duckworth a handsome key to open The Tower with, reported as follows. œIt is silver gilt, and bears the following inscriptions:
On the one side, an engraving of the Darwen Area, surrounded by ribbons inscribed:-
Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. Darwen Celebrations, 1897. And on the other side the entwining ribbons are inscribed, The Tower erected in commemoration on Darwen Moor, opened by the Rev. W.A. Duckworth, M.A., Lord of the Manor Sept. 24th 1898.
Following the excitement of the Jubilee Celebrations, and the new found freedom by townsfolk to wander the moors at will, life soon settled back to normal.
On the far horizon were rumblings of a different kind.
The fortunes of many Darwen townsfolk were changing as world economics began to affect the pockets of those who could employ labour. The demand for skilled stonemasons was in decline as money dried up and lifelong commitment to a trade suddenly had little value. Because people had to eat, there was little choice but to take what was available, and so we find Edmund Baron, formerly stonemason manager on Victoria Tower, now Edmund Baron, Tramway Inspector.
The Darwen Tramway Corporation was a very popular method of transport and a fairly recent innovation at the time, so it was to provide a steady income for the greater part of his later life during the 1900s right into the 1920s.
While a Tramway Inspector, he was to experience two periods of grief. The first was while living at 507 Bolton Road, in 1916, where he received an intimation that his eldest child and only son, Samuel, had been killed in action.
Samuel Baron at the age of 21, Acting Sergeant with 16th Btn., Kings Royal Rifle Corps while leading an attack after his Sergeant had fallen, was shot by a snipers bullet at the Somme, France, November 6th 1916.
The second was during 1918 with the death of his wife of 24 years, Mary Baron (nee Haslam), of prolonged influenza and acute bronchitis during an epidemic of that year.
It was in April of 1920 while still a Tramway Inspector that Edmund married Hetty Bury. Altering course again, he became Clerk of works. Such was the untiring endeavour of this man, he and his new wife purchased and ran a business with the assistance of his three girls, at 349 Preston Old Road, Cherry Tree until he retired, when the business was passed on to his daughter and son -in- law, Ellen and Arnold Nuttall. In recent times that same business finally closed its doors in year 2000.
While living in retirement and enjoying his garden at 1 Valeway Avenue, Cleveleys, Edmund Baron passed away on November 22nd, 1937. There would be few men who can lay claim to a prominent public monument such as The Tower, for a lasting memorial resulting from their own handiwork.
By Norman J. Bury
Grateful thanks to Mrs Margaret HILL (nee BLACKWELL) of Blackburn, granddaughter of Edmund BARON, for providing documents and assistance, details and photographs, and also her kind permission to publish the above.
Hetty Bury is great aunt to the author: Norman J. Bury, Melbourne, Australia.
Thanks also go to:
'Darwen News'
'THE TOWER 1897-1997' by Alan Duckworth
'Bread Basket' shop photograph by Frederick Devine
Many thanks to Norman from the Cotton Town project for letting us use his text.
Grade II
Date listed: 18th February 1992
Date of last amendment: 18th February 1992
SD 6726
Nova Scotia, Ewood Aqueduct. Canal aqueduct over public road. Probably earlier C19. Coursed rock-faced sandstone. Straight tunnel with concave abutments to the embankment forming semi-circular approaches on both sides. Battered and concave facades, each having a semi-circular arch with a keystone and radiating masonry up to the band, rectangular pilasters, a plain band, plain frieze and moulded cornice, and a parapet with flat coping. Ramped concave abutments, all continued in similar masonry for approx. one third of their length, ending with simple pilasters, and then continued in smaller coursed squared masonry; with flat copings. Forms a group with Hollin Bridge (q.v.) to the east; and the west end of a linear group of canal structures centred on Nova Scotia Wharf, Lock No.52 (q.v.) forming the east end of this group.
Grade II
Date listed: 19th April 1974
Date of last amendment: 19th April 1974
SD 6827 NW 2/4
Railings, piers, lampholders and statue at east end of Cathedral churchyard.
Cast iron railings bordering the churchyard, punctuated by square stone piers with iron lamp-holders. Centre portion opens out to a curved stone balustrading around a standing statue of Queen Victoria on a tall plinth, 1905 by b Mackennal Railings, Piers, Lampholders and Statue, Cathedral Gateway, Nos 20, 28, 30 and 36, Church Street and Cathedral Church of St Mary form a group.
Grade II
Date listed: 19th April 1974
Date of last amendment: 19th April 1974
SD 6828 SW 4/9
Includes No 2 Fleming Square. Corner of Church Street, opposite the Cathedral. Massive C19 block, almost square on plan, with high base, heavy quoins, heavy cornice on modillions, and balustraded parapet. 3 windows to Darwen Street, 2 to Church Street, all round-arched and linked to one another, with Composite columns and enriched ornament. The angle is cut out, forming a square entrance, with iron entrance gates set in a round arch across the angle.
