WHERE in Blackburn could you buy your weekly tobacco supply and get a fresh hair cut, R.Worden Tobacconist of course.

Stood outside his shop at No.5 Salford, which stood in the middle of the separate short length of the road that lay between Penny Street and Salford Bridge, Mr Worden was known to double up as a hairdresser as well as selling tobacco products to customers on the way into town.

The barber's pole showed Mr Worden was not only a connoisseur of tobacco, but knew his way round a cut-throat razor blade.

When this picture was taken, believed to be around 1881-82, he also owned a shop across the road at No.2 Salford.

Next door, to the left, are the shuttered premises of provision dealer James Stanley, who lived not far away in Mount Street, a spot now buried beneath the Morrisons supermarket car park.

Further down the street, also shuttered and covered with tattered posters, is a building which may possibly be the pre 1882 Bay Horse Hotel awaiting demolition.

Next door to Mr Worden's shop on the right was the three-storey Mason's Arms whose landlady in 1881 was Agnes Carr.

The area has drastically changed in the past 137 years or so, with all those buildings being demolished making way for the old Blackburn market and the new bus station.