THERE can’t be many houses in East Lancashire with such a rich history as Bank House in Blackburn believed to be the oldest house in the borough.
Some buildings might boast a plaque to mark a former occupant or significant event but this Grade II listed building off Dukes Brow actually has two.
Dating to Jacobean times, where the historic house stands was the spot of one of an important events during the English Civil War.
Sir Gilbert Hoghton whose ancestral home was at Hoghton Tower, led his royalist forces against the Parliamentarian army which had taken Blackburn. On Christmas Day, 1642 he tried - and failed - to overcome the republican army by turning his cannon on to the town below.
In 1992, Sir Bernard de Hoghton, Sir Gilbert’s descendant, unveiled a blue plaque on behalf of English Heritage, to mark the occasion.
A number of prominent figures have lived at Bank House including surgeon James Barlow one of the pioneers of caesarian births. He lived at Bank House in the early 1800s.
A more recent occupant was John Noel Nichols who was born in Bank House in 1883. He went on to create the secret formula for a new cordial tonic - Vimto. This non-alcoholic drink soon caught on and by 1930 Vimto was being sold in 30 countries around the world.
John Noel Nicols died in 1966 and in 2014 his grandson - also John Nichols - unveiled a plaque at Bank House commemorating his grandfather’s time there.
Another famous ‘resident’ was the Spewing laddie - a fountain in the garden of a young boy
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