HISTORIAN Steve Chapples, of Burnley, is giving a series of talks during October.

Tomorrow he will begin a weekly series recounting Murders in Lancashire and Yorkshire, dating from 1824 to the 1930s.

These will be held at Colne Road Community Centre, from 2pm to 4pm. The cost is £2 a session.

He will share tales with his audience, such as the Worsthorne massacre in 1937, when 20-year-old cowman John Blackburn killed three people at Saville Green Farm, off Gorple Road, before turning the shotgun on himself.

Bent on revenge after being sacked by farmer Foulds Wilkinson, he first shot the man who had got his job, Joe Scriven, who was also a neighbour of his in Heap Street.

Then he turned the gun on Mr Wilkinson’s father-in-law, 73-year-old William Pickup, and then his 18-year-old daughter Jane, when they ran into the farmyard after hearing the shot.

Mr Wilkinson returned from his milk round to find the bodies, and immediately turned his van round and headed for the police station.

At the coroner’s inquest, the jury took just 15 minutes to bring in a verdict of wilful murder and ‘felo-de-se’ against Blackburn.

All four bodies were buried on Saturday, February 6.

Jane and Mr Pickup’s joint funerals were held at Colne Road Methodist Chapel, Trawden, while Joe Scriven’s funeral took place at Worsthorne Church Blackburn’s funeral was half-an-hour later at the village’s Methodist graveyard, at the top of Hall Street.

On Tuesday, October 16, Steve will also open a series of talks on the Pendle Witches, 400 years after their trial, and execution.

They will be held at Branch Road Community Centre, from 1pm to 2pm, and entry is free.