[Acrylic-bob]

In 1848, when the Railway arrived, Accrington was a small village split into two parts, Old Accrington and New Accrington. There wasn’t a lot to do then; a bit of textile printing, a bit of weaving, a lot of farming and a few support industries. But within fifty years of that date Accrington had grown into a town we can still recognise today; a sprawl of terrace housing and a hive of industry. Fifty years. The average lifespan of a person at that time. How did they manage to do so much in such a short space of time?

In 1928 The borough council was easily able to find the money to publish a lavish history of the borough which was given away free to schoolchildren. In it the borough celebrated the achievements of the fifty years of it’s incorporation and compared and contrasted those achievements with what had gone before, and there was quite a lot of it.
If the borough were to publish a similar history today, I wonder if there would be as much to celebrate. The mills are gone, the coal mines are gone, the foundries are gone, the railway is on it’s last legs and is slated for closure if it doesn’t pick up numbers within the next five years. The canal, once a vital line of supply is abandoned now. The market is a shadow of it’s former self. The housing stock is ageing and falling rapidly into disrepair. The hospital, having lost its surgical, emergency and maternity services, is a now little better than a glorified old folks home. The folk with all the money have voted with their feet and have left Accrington for pastures new. It seems certain that no matter how much the borough council might wish to fund a similar publication, they would not be able to find the money.
There seems little to look forward to in Accrington today save a seemingly endless succession of false dawns, false starts and half-baked and half-realised schemes to kick start the local economy. Fine words and fancy phrases, glossy brochures and photo opportunities, all of which seem to fall at the first hurdle or fail long before they even come within sight of the home stretch.

Where did it all go wrong?

Looking back on the achievements of some of our illustrious townsmen, I am struck by the way that they were able to seize the emerging technologies and forge for themselves, and the town, a bright and prosperous future. I’m sure that Messrs Steiner, Hargreaves and Bullough, et al, would have given their right arms to gain access to the technology that I now use to communicate these thoughts. And yet there seems no one in Accrington willing to emulate these men. The memory of their achievements has now passed into history and, like much else, is forgotten.
It makes me so sad to see the energy and potential of our young people going to waste for the lack of a little inventive leadership and encouragement. I could weep with anger and frustration to see them sitting back, waiting for one sort of handout or another. The council must provide jobs. The council must provide houses. The council must provide entertainment to fill the emptiness of our lives.

There is a better way. The civic minded townsmen and women of the 19th century could manage it. And moreover, they managed it with fewer technological resources at their disposal than we have today. If they could do it then, why can’t we do it now?