John Eddleston - Photographer

                                                                                                                                                             
In 1963, a young Blackburnian and keen photographer by the name of John Eddleston, had bought himself a new camera which he was going to take with him on a forthcoming trip to Europe. He decided to familiarise himself with his purchase by traipsing around the town (mainly the centre) taking shots of a Blackburn that would soon disappear in the planned, phased redevelopment. He took hundreds of photos and has left us with a very important archive of that period of Blackburn's history.

In the late 1990's, most of John's photos were published in two small books, which were sold locally and the proceeds used to buy equipment for The Stroke Rehabilitation Ward at Queens Park Hospital (Royal Blackburn as it is now). Quite a few people were instrumental in the publication of these books, Peter Street, Ray Hull, Simon Allen, the printer John Brown and no doubt others too. My personal thanks to them all.

Over the last few years, I have seen John Eddleston's photos crop up on Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Youtube and other web-sites and rarely, if ever, is the man given a mention. Not only do they fail to mention the photographer, but often, their reproductions of his work are bad, indeed sometimes awful scans that add insult to injury (please see the example below). Here, by giving him his own category, I hope to rectify that.

Over time I will upload all of his published images. They will be in pretty random order, but I will tag them by location, so if you just want to see some photos of a particular street / road, click on the appropriate one in the 'LABELS' list.  If you would just like to view JE's photos, then click on his name in the same list.

Lark Hill and the junction of Regent St - 1963

The same image as it appeared on a Facebook group and hand on heart, I did nothing but download it from that group. As mentioned above, an insult to the photographer.

Courtesy of John Eddleston

Royal Vist - King George V - 10th July 1913

A royal visit to Blackburn.

King George V and his entourage were here on 10th July 1913 to lay the foundation stone of the public halls, now better known to us as King George's Hall. Here the cavalcade can be seen crossing the Boulevard in the direction of the Railway Station.

It would be October 1921 before the halls were finally opened, the main delay being the Great War of 1914 - 1918.

Sadly I would estimate that a proportion of the people in this crowd, especially the men, would not have survived to see the completion of the halls. Although many would do and as with future generations of Blackburn folk, they would in later decades have attended ceremonies, dances, concerts, pantomimes, plays and a variety of other performances, functions and events held there.

Courtesy of the CP Collection

Mellor Brook - The Bridge Inn

The Bridge Inn at Mellor, with a nice advertisement painted on the gable for Whewell's High Class Ales & Special Nourishing Stout.

Thomas Whewell's Victoria Brewery was on Adelaide St (Montague St area) in Blackburn.

Courtesy of the CP collection

Whewell's Victoria Brewery 1963 - John Eddleston

Looking towards the Preston New Rd area in the distance, from the bottom of Montague St, with the tower of Thomas Whewell's Brewery dominating the scene. This photo dates to 1962 /1963, when this area was being redeveloped.

Thomas Whewell bought the brewery in 1874 and introduced the tower system of brewing to the site. His limited company was sold to Nuttall's (Lion Brewery) in 1925 and production ceased. The buildings had various uses from then until they were demolished in the early 1960's.

PHOTO COURTESY OF J. EDDLESTON

INFORMATION COURTESY OF M. ROTHWELL. 

King William Street (Looking south) - 1963

 

Looking south along King William Street from the corner of Exchange Street.

It looks like people have always sat on the benches in that vicinity, mainly pedestrianised now of course. I've sat there on sunny afternoons myself over the decades, just watching the world go by and chatting to friends.

Fantastic old lamps along the front of the old Town Hall.

Photo courtesy of John Eddleston

Mellor Church Cricket Club - 1929

As you can see from the text, this is the Mellor Church Cricket Team in 1929.

It's a photo from an old book I used to have from that year. Sadly I can't remember the title or the author, so this one will have to go uncredited until I can find out :-)

Higher Eanam - 1963

Looking along Higher Eanam towards the town centre, with the pitched gable of the Victoria Cinema dominant. 

In the far distance, we can see the brewery tower of the Swan Brewery (owned by Dutton's by the time this photo was taken) at Lark Hill.

Courtesy of John Eddleston

Below, looking along the same stretch of Higher Eanam, but in the opposite direction, from Higher Barn St, with The Globe pub in the centre of the photo.
Image courtesy of Cottontown.org.

Richmond Terrace looking towards Sudell Cross / Limbrick -- 1963

 

Looking along Richmond Terrace, towards Sudell Cross, from just below Victoria St, with the boundary wall of St John's Church to the right of the photo and the white tiled gable of the Library/Museum building in the middle distance.

To the left, just off this image, is where there was at one time (1950's - mid 60's?) a clinic, which I think was a pre-fabricated type of building and the doorway visible in the photo, just to the left of the traffic light pole was possibly where the dentist was (or was the entrance to the dentist around the corner, on Victoria St itself?)

Photo courtesy of John Eddleston

Darwen St looking into King William St - 1963

 

Looking along Darwen St and into King William St, with the junction of Church St to the right and Higher Church St to the left. The Old Bank, pretty central in this photograph, dominates the scene and just in the centre of the crossroads, you can see the policeman in his white coat, directing the traffic.

The building on the other corner of Higher Church St was originally the Prince of Wales Hotel, but by the time this photo was taken in 1963, it had long been an outlet of Burton's (gents outfitters).

Photo courtesy of John Eddleston

SPAMMERS

THIS POST IS FOR THE RIDICULOUS SPAMMERS WHO INUNDATE ME WITH GOBBLEDEGOOK COMMENTS, HOPING THEIR LINKS ARE GOING TO BE PUBLISHED/APPROVED. YOU HAVE NO CHANCE ON THIS BLOG. YOUR COMMENTS ARE MARKED AS SPAM AND THEN DELETED, SO YOU ARE WASTING YOUR TIME, YOU MUPPETS.