Darwen Heritage Centre

Darwen Heritage Centre COMMUNITY | HERITAGE | ARTS Doctor James T Ballantyne later owned Holker House when he became Mayor in 1898. It was used as office space until 2015.

In the1870s Dr George Hindle built Holker House on Railway Road to the design of George Wightman of Darwen, He named it after Holker House, which comes from the family home of the Hindles in Hoddlesden which was built in 1591. To celebrate his Mayoral term, he presented the town with our town hall clock which still lets us know the time today. Subsequently it became the Divisional Education Office for Darwen Division until 1974, when it became the Area Education Architects' Office. From 1985 until 2005 it was used by Blackburn College. Unfortunately, it was abandoned by the College and allowed to fall into disrepair until acquired in late 2007 by Steven Milligan who meticulously renovated the building. In February 2016 The Livesey Foundation charity bought the house with intensions to make it available to the people of Darwen for a variety of community projects. Our intention is to make it available to the town for a variety of community purposes such as Charity/social meetings and events, exhibitions, venue for councilors, tourist information and much more. But most importantly it will become home to The Darwen Heritage Centre where we will be able to display to the world the history, culture, past and present of our amazing town! Holker House will be not-for-profit and will become a major attraction and community focal point for the town. If you would like to contribute to this exciting project, please contact us……..

Tonight's photo is the street where Charging Thunder lived when he worked at Place's Pipe Works. He later moved to Bell...
14/09/2026

Tonight's photo is the street where Charging Thunder lived when he worked at Place's Pipe Works. He later moved to Bellevue to work with the elephants. Do you know how an indigenous American Indian came to live in Darwen?

Last night's child was in Back Astley Street and the houses were joined back to back with Astley Street. Across the bac...
13/09/2026

Last night's child was in Back Astley Street and the houses were joined back to back with Astley Street. Across the back were the toilets. So tonight, where are these children playing? Love the car.

Where was tonight's street in Darwen? What are the buildings on the right of the photo? And what was surprising about ...
12/09/2026

Where was tonight's street in Darwen? What are the buildings on the right of the photo? And what was surprising about the houses on this street?

Notice the old street lamp on the left of this photo. I love these old photos which show what the streets of Darwen use...
11/09/2026

Notice the old street lamp on the left of this photo. I love these old photos which show what the streets of Darwen used to look like. Can you name that street?

For those of you who missed last night's talk at the Darwen Heritage Centre you also missed this which was used after th...
10/09/2026

For those of you who missed last night's talk at the Darwen Heritage Centre you also missed this which was used after the talk to give folks a ride up to the Cemetery and back after the talk. Lots of photos and history on view, thanks to Phil Calvey and Carl Turner. Thanks to the Darwen Transport Group for bringing along Number 39.

Tomorrow night sees the first talk of the Autumn series at the Darwen Heritage Centre. We look forward to meeting as ma...
08/09/2026

Tomorrow night sees the first talk of the Autumn series at the Darwen Heritage Centre. We look forward to meeting as many of you as possible at the talk. A century of Darwen Corporation Transport.

Name that Darwen street. Love the curved front of these properties - it makes such a difference not having the 90 degre...
07/09/2026

Name that Darwen street. Love the curved front of these properties - it makes such a difference not having the 90 degree corner. What do you think?

Old Darwen photos allow us to see what changes have taken place. Not always for the better! Would you say that this ha...
03/09/2026

Old Darwen photos allow us to see what changes have taken place. Not always for the better! Would you say that this has changed for the better or worse? Can you say what year would be the latest that this photo could have been taken?

Here is another photo of the same troop of Darwen Home Guard with a few more soldiers included. Does anyone out there r...
02/09/2026

Here is another photo of the same troop of Darwen Home Guard with a few more soldiers included. Does anyone out there recognise any of the people in this photo? Do let us know if you do.

Here's another troop of the Home Guard in Everton Street in Darwen during WW2. Can you add any names to this one?
01/09/2026

Here's another troop of the Home Guard in Everton Street in Darwen during WW2. Can you add any names to this one?

Address

Railway Road
Darwen
BB32RG

Opening Hours

Wednesday 10am - 3pm
Friday 10am - 3pm
Saturday 10am - 3pm

Telephone

01254433140

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Darwen Heritage Centre posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Darwen Heritage Centre:

Shortcuts

Share