Welcome to dating in Blackburn - Victorian style!
This remarkable photo dates to 1886 and shows the ‘Sunday promenade’ on Preston New Road when scores of young people would take a walk in their Sunday best, out to impress the opposite sex.
The paper reported that hundreds of young people assembling on Preston New Road had long been a problem leading to a police crackdown.
“Now, young Blackburn, finding out that a repetition of the scenes which have been witnessed on this road will not be tolerated,”said a report, “is looking for pastures new and the good people of Revidge Road are threatened with the rowdy patronage of this unruly element.”
Several youth found themselves in court and were fined five shillings for creating a disturbance after the evidence of ‘plain clothes men’ showed they ‘were conducting themselves in a most unseemly manner’.
“It was also stated,” said the report, “that the girls were making use of the most filthy language and one might question ‘What are things coming to?’ for these girls were respectably dressed and moreover, admitted to being Sunday school scholars!”
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