AN electronic exhibition charting 200 years of Blackburn history has been launched.

The Cotton Town Project website was officially unveiled at a ceremony at Blackburn Central Library last night.

The website features photographs detailing all aspects of life in Blackburn and Darwen from the birth of the textile industry to modern times.

Thousands of images for the exhibition were donated by the Lancashire Evening Telegraph from its photographic archive.

Before the First World War, Blackburn was Cotton Town; cotton goods woven in Blackburn were worn all over the world.

Blackburn provided the cloth for the dhoti, the garment that clothed the vast population of India.

King Cotton ruled in Darwen too and its India Mill was one of the most impressive mill buildings in the country.

The project has been made available with the help of £200,000 of financial support from the government's New Opportunities Fund.

Susan Law, head of library services for Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "We have examined all aspects of the history of the borough, from the early textile industry based in hand-loom weavers' cottages up to the decline of the cotton industry and the re-invention of Blackburn and Darwen in more recent times.

"The industrialisation and automation of local mills, local inventors, cotton magnates, war years and even tram trips to Darwen and Accrington are also included. The project highlights the changes that occurred within the workforce over 200 years and the impact this had on our families."

Organisers are hoping the exhibition will become a valuable learning resource for people.

Mrs Law added: "The project provides a historical overview of the communities of Blackburn with Darwen and provides a historically rich core base of digitised information, which will form the platform for further developments of extended learning resources.

"These resources will continually evolve to integrate with local and national learning and community initiatives."

Up until now, items have been catalogued or indexed and then filed away until someone asked for them or discovered them on the shelves. Now they can be scanned and made available on the internet (www.cottontown.org) where they can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week anywhere in the world.

The web format allows links to be created to take someone from a brief summary of a topic to a weightier article, or a book, or even to another website.