Witton, Lancashire, England

WITTONThe ancient township adjoins the town of Blackburn on the east and is divided from it for some distance by the River Blackwater, a tributary of the River Darwen, over which the township extended and included the district now called Griffin. To the south the boundary passed over the River Darwen, extending as far as the limits of Livesey. From these waters on the south and east and from Arley Brook on the north the land rises some 450 ft. to 500 ft. up the slopes of Billinge Hill to an elevation at the summit of 807 ft. above the ordnance datum, from which in clear weather views may be obtained of Ingleborough and Penyghent in Yorkshire, Black Coombe in Cumberland, the mountains on the coast of North Wales and the Isle of Man. On the south-eastern slope the subsoil consists of the Coal Measures; on the opposite slope of the Millstone Grit. The area of the township is 700 acres, of which 125 acres have been added to the municipal borough and civil parish of Blackburn by the Blackburn Borough Extension Act, 1877, and the Blackburn Corporation Act, 1901. By the Blackburn Corporation Act, 1892, and the Act of 1901 the portions of this township added to the borough were included in the civil parish of Blackburn, (fn. 1) and this township reduced to its present area of 575 acres. (fn. 2) The population of the reduced township in 1901 numbered 237 persons.About the end of the 18th century more than half of the ancient township was inclosed to form Witton Park. The portion of the township now included in the borough of Blackburn has become very populous; of the remainder more than threefourths consists of meadow and pasture, and nearly one-fourth of woodland (fn. 3) scattered over Witton Park and Billinge Hill. There are a number of large cotton mills at Griffin in the ancient township, but none within the modern area. Witton Stocks, now within the borough of Blackburn, was the site of the town stocks which existed until some time after 1860. The high road from Blackburn to Preston passing through Walton-le-Dale intersects the south-eastern part of the township. Cherry Tree station on the Liverpool, Blackburn and Accrington line of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company serves the central part of the township, and Mill Hill station on the same line the Griffin district; both are in the adjoining township of Livesey.The name Griffin applied to that part of Witton lying between Redlam and the River Darwen was derived from a public-house named the 'Griffin's Head' which stood on the high road close to the south-eastern boundary of the township.