Everything about The River Darwen totally explained
The
River Darwen is a river running through
Darwen and
Blackburn in
Lancashire.
The River was seriously polluted with human and industrial effluent during the
Industrial Revolution, up to the early
1970's. The River often changed colour dramatically as a result of paper and paint mills routinely using river water to flush out dye and paint tanks. This has now ceased and the river is relatively clear with the return of trout and small fish.
Rising in Jack's Key Clough at the confluence of two streams from Bull Hill and Cranberry Moss, the river flows through the town of Darwen, continuing into the suburbs of Blackburn past
Ewood Park. The river passes below the
Leeds and Liverpool Canal at
Ewood Aqueduct and is culverted again at Waterfall and near Griffin Park. It is joined by the
River Blakewater near
Witton Country Park in Blackburn and leaves the mostly urban landscapes of the towns behind, flowing through parklands and valleys. A further tributary, the
River Roddlesworth, joins the Darwen at the bottom of Moulden Brow on the boundary between
Blackburn with Darwen and
Chorley Borough Council (the name
Moulden Brow being associated with
Moulden Water, an alternative name for this stretch of the river). From there, the Darwen flows past
Hoghton Tower through Hoghton Bottoms and Samlesbury Bottoms, finally combining with the
River Ribble at
Walton-le-Dale.
At Walton-le-Dale, the river was the backdrop to the
battle of Preston during the
Second English Civil War, a Parliamentarian victory immortalised in
John Milton's poem "To Cromwell": -
While Darwent Streams with Blood of Scots imbru'd...
In this poem, the river appears to be named "Darwent," giving evidence of its derivation from a
Brythonic dialect form similar to the
Old Welsh derwenyd (
Modern Welsh derwenydd), meaning "valley thick with oaks".
Tributaries
