Blackburn

: This article is about Blackburn in Lancashire, England. For other uses of the name, see Blackburn (disambiguation).

Coat of arms

The coat of arms show in the picture here, has many distinctive emblems, these are described below:

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• Three bees in flight. The bee is an emblem of skill, perseverance and industry. “B” also stands for Blackburn; and further, as the Peel family sprang from this neighbourhood and bears a bee in flight on its shield, the idea naturally suggests itself that Sir Robert Peel had adopted the Blackburn bee.
• The shield is silver or white, and thus emblematical of calico, the product of the Blackburn bees during the industrial revolution.
• The broad wavy black line represents the Black Brook (the River Blakewater) on the banks of which the town is built.
• The silver bugle horn was the crest of the first Mayor of Blackburn, William Henry Hornby. It is also an emblem of strength.
• The gold lozenges, or fusils (diamond shaped), are the heraldic emblems of spinning, derived from the Latin “fusus” or “fusilium,” meaning a spindle, and they refer to the invention of the “Spinning Jenny” in 1864 by James Hargreaves, a native of the district. They also denote the connection of Joseph Feilden with Blackburn, as Lord of the Manor, as he bore lozenges on his shield.
• The background of green is there to remind us of the time when Blackburn was one of the royal forests in the time of Edward the Confessor.
• The shuttle is the emblem of weaving, the trade which has contributed more than any other to the prosperity of the town.
• The dove taking wing with an olive branch in her beak (the emblem of peace) attached to the thread of the shuttle, represents the beneficial results emanating from the art of weaving.