TODAY’S photograph from the Lancashire Telegraph archives shows the Brownhill area of Blackburn.

It was the arrival in the 1920s of the arterial road - creating a by-pass route to the north of Blackburn for traffic to and from Preston - that transformed Brownhill into a major junction.

With the road scheme came large-scale housing development - the Corporation building more than 300 council houses at Brownhill and around newly-created Roe Lee Park nearby, some of which are seen lining the dual-carriageway Brownhill Drive at the right of the picture.

The tram shelter at the bottom of Brownhill Drive also contained a telephone kiosk.

St Gabriel’s Church in the background (right) opened in 1933.and replaced the original St Gabriel’s Church, which was situated on Pearl Street.

St Gabriel’s is somewhat of a famous Blackburn landmark due to a ‘light-up’ red cross it had on its building, which was installed in 1964 and could be seen as far away as Clayton-le-Moors.

But the 15ft wooden cross was taken down in 2009 after it was condemned on the grounds that it is no longer safe.

In the centre of Brownhill, today, is the junction of the A666 Whalley New Road and A6119 Blackburn Ring Road.