DARWEN was hardly a haven of peace and tranquility 150 years ago. It was more of a dump, as described in the poem Dirty Darrun.

Grocer John Holden of Market Street, writing to the Darwen News under the initials 'J H', waxed lyrical: 'Oh how I love thy breezy moors / Irregular streets and stinking sewers.'

A few years earlier historian John Graham had described the town as "consisting of one crooked street set without rule or order, whose inhabitants are among the most filthy and depraved blackguards in Lancashire."

And as the famous India Mill was being built one journalist wrote of 'an absurd little half-village half-town with a roughish population given to excesses in morals and beer.'

He had a point. What Darwen did have in the late 1860s was beer houses, dotted all over town.

In 1869 there were over 100 and from all accounts they were doing a roaring trade.

Until, that is, the stalwarts of the Vigilance Committee of the Darwen Ratepayers Association for the Abatement of Public, Wine and Beer licences, decided that enough was enough.

Within a few weeks the vigilantes built up a formidable array of evidence - and at the next licensing session they persuaded magistrates to refuse 67 licences.

The team had scrutinised the rating and qualification of every applicant; they had gathered evidence as to how the various houses were conducted and they had looked closely at the character of the would-be landlords. Many were found wanting.

Most of the pubs are now long forgotten. The Woodman in Tockholes Road was described as 'the haunt of pigeon flyers, dog fanciers and poachers.'

The Butcher's Arms in High Street was 'a resort of bad characters' while at the Turner's Arms in Bolton Road 'gaming was much practised.'

The Castle Inn, Holden Fold, had a signal to warn gamblers when the police were coming and the Dog and Moor Game in the Sough was frequented by 'men and women of profligate character.'

Cock fighting was permitted at the Travellers Home and at the Collier's Arms, now the site of the Park Inn, 'the landlord was nearly always drunk.'

Another of the ale houses to be closed in the purge was the The Bird-in-Hand, in Duckworth Street, where The Wine Shop now trades.

As well as the scores of pubs there were dozens of club. The Star Club on Old Lane – the large building on the right – was one of them.