Accrington, in the County of
Lancashire, is a small former
mill town in the industrial north-west of
England. Its name is thought to be a corruption of 'acorn-ring-town', although the old oak woods that once encircled the town have long-since gone, victims of the
Industrial Revolution. Since the redrawing of the political boundaries in
1974, the town has formed part of the Borough of
Hyndburn — a merging of Accrington together with the smaller 'satellite' towns of
Oswaldtwistle,
Church,
Clayton-le-Moors,
Great Harwood and
Rishton, into one political 'seat'.
The 2001 census gave the population of Accrington town proper as 35,203. The figure for the built-up area ("Accrington Urban Area") was 71,224, up 1.1% from 70,442 in 1991. For comparison purposes that is approximately the same size as Aylesbury, Carlisle, Guildford or Scunthorpe urban areas.
The town is linked to
Burnley and
Blackburn by railway and by the
M65 motorway. There was once a rail link south to
Manchester via
Haslingden and
Bury, but this was closed in the 1960s as part of cuts following the
Beeching Report. The trackbed is now mostly covered by the
A56 dual carriageway road, which provides a link to the
M66 motorway.
There is a sizeable shopping area and precinct in Accrington, with a selection of major chain stores such as
Marks and Spencer and
Boots.
For many decades, the textile industry was the central activity of the town.
Mills and
dye works provided work for the inhabitants, but often in very difficult conditions. There was regular conflict with employers, most famously in the 1842 'Plug riots' where a general strike spread from town to town, as thousands of strikers walked over the hills from one town to another to persuade people to join the strike. The strike joined up with the
Chartist movement, but was not successful in its aims.
That's a basic outline. For more info on history and industry, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accrington