Tag Archives: boer war

Darwen in Victorian Times – Desperation, Poverty, and Family Resilience

The late 1870’s are the most desperate of times for the Atherton family. Central Darwen either side of the main road is home to hundreds who slave day after day, hour after hour in the dark satanic mills of East Lancashire. Water Street and the area around it is the home of the Athertons until a breakout from the area in the 20th Century. In our cossetted lives it is difficult, impossible really, to fully comprehend what these people went through in those times.