WE turn the clock back more than 40 years, to look at the big changes that were taking place to Darwen market.

For the cranes and bulldozers were hard at work in 1974, constructing a new three day market, which opened the following year and had room for 66 traders.

The outside market was temporarily accommodated in the car park, while building work continued and here you can see the rows of green painted wooden cabins, which Darreners of a certain age will remember, and from where stallholders sold their selection of produce.

It was the same year as local government reorganisation, when Darwen were joined with Blackburn as one borough, but the new building had been programmed some time before, to offer Darwen's shoppers more modern shopping facilities under cover.

The first purpose built market at Over Darwen as it was known until the council was incorporated in 1878, was the Greenway Market, which was built by Eccles Shorrock with private capital in the 1840s.

It wasn't until 1882, after the town's incorporation, that the first municipal market hall, for newly-named Darwen, was opened; the building included offices for council staff, after plans to build a new Victorian town hall as well were shelved.