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LancashireAI

AI automation in Blackburn and Darwen.

Blackburn with Darwen had 5,705 businesses in 2026, and 87.6% of them employ fewer than ten people.⁠Source [1] The borough had about 72,000 employee jobs in 2024. Health and social work made up 23.6% of them, against 14.2% across Great Britain. Manufacturing made up 13.9%, almost double the British share of 7.3%.⁠Source [1]

We cover all 75 towns and villages in the district. Most of what we build is delivered remotely, so the practical question is not how far you are from us. It is whether we understand the way your trade actually works. We will come out if it helps.

Get a quote Call 01772 485 348

Written by Sami (Sam) Swain. Local facts checked 9 October 2026.

What is happening in Blackburn with Darwen

Where the work is

  • A Skills and Cyber Campus is planned on the former Blackburn Market site on Brown Street. It won planning permission in September 2024 with £20 million of government funding, and was then expected to open in 2027.⁠Source [2]
  • £60 million of public investment has been secured for its first phase. It includes up to 100,000 sq ft of office and teaching space and a cyber business centre of up to 15,000 sq ft, within a £250 million investment plan for Blackburn town centre.⁠Source [3]
  • Barnfield was named preferred developer in October 2025 for 246,000 sq ft of industrial space off Issa Way. A planning application was expected in 2026 and the first units could be ready in 2028. £1.3 million from the land sale goes towards junction 5 of the M65.⁠Source [4]
  • EG On The Move, which has its headquarters in Blackburn, completed the purchase of 260 fuel retail sites in France in August 2026.⁠Source [5]

Darwen

  • In May 2025 the council leader said Darwen's Town Deal had turned £25 million of government money into £100 million of investment, with council and private contributions.⁠Source [6]
  • The Town Deal helped aerospace firm Brookhouse into a new headquarters on Balle Street, close to India Mill.⁠Source [6]
  • In July 2026 a report to the council's Executive Board set out plans for the Darwen Town Board to move £2.8 million into town centre regeneration, after Sheffield University could not go ahead with a planned additive manufacturing accelerator. Design work with Barnfield Construction was being finalised, with work on site expected in the following months.⁠Source [7]

Support for businesses

Skills, cyber and innovation

  • The Lancashire Growth Plan places the Blackburn campus in the North West Cyber Corridor, close to the Samlesbury Enterprise Zone.⁠Source [11]
  • Blackburn College was part of a successful bid in 2026 for a learning space focused on defence innovation.⁠Source [5]

Getting around

  • The council's Pennine Gateways project targets three main routes into the borough, at junctions 4, 5 and 6 of the M65.⁠Source [12]

Industries that matter in Blackburn with Darwen

These sectors employ a bigger share of people here than they do across Great Britain, so they are where automation usually earns its keep first.

Manufacturing and engineering

Manufacturing is 13.9% of employee jobs against 7.3% in Great Britain.⁠Source [1]

AI for manufacturing

Care providers

Health and social work is 23.6% of employee jobs against 14.2% in Great Britain.⁠Source [1]

AI for care

Looking for AI training for your team? Read about AI training and consulting. Half a day with your team, working on your actual jobs, so the tools get used after we leave rather than quietly abandoned.

Help across Lancashire

  • Boost is Lancashire's business growth hub. Its Business Support Helpdesk on 0800 488 0057 is open to every Lancashire business and to anyone planning to start one. Growth Lancashire runs the helpdesk on Boost's behalf.⁠Source [10]
  • Made Smarter North West helps small and medium manufacturing and engineering firms adopt digital technology. Firms with 249 staff or fewer and a turnover under £36 million, or a balance sheet under £18 million, can apply. It offers up to 50% match funding to a maximum of £20,000 for equipment and specialist advice, a leadership programme and funded digital internships worth up to £4,035. Boost is one of its delivery partners.⁠Source [9]Source [13] Read our Made Smarter North West guide
  • The Lancashire Combined County Authority's Growth Plan, published in October 2025, names digital and artificial intelligence as one of five priority sectors for the county.⁠Source [11]Source [14]

Grants and funded training that are open now are on our funding page.

Main towns in Blackburn with Darwen

Blackburn

Town, population 117,963, BB1

Former "weaving capital of the world". Main employers now include Thwaites Brewery, Blackburn College, the Royal Blackburn Hospital and The Mall shopping centre.

Darwen

Town, population 28,046, BB3

Home of Crown Paints (formerly Walpamur), aerospace parts maker Brookhouse and Capita, plus the redeveloped India Mill business centre.

Livesey

Civil parish, population 6,202, BB2

Suburban parish covering Feniscowles and most of Cherry Tree. A short-lived coal mining venture near Livesey Hall ran 1854 to 1859.

Mill Hill

Suburb, population 5,950, BB2

Grew in the 19th century on Blackburn's textile expansion. Now Victorian terraces and later housing with local shopping parades.

Villages and smaller places we also cover

These are covered on the same terms. They are listed here rather than given a page each, because a page that only restates the district page helps nobody.

Audley

Bank Fold

Bank Hey

Bank Top

Bastwell

Beardwood

Belmont

Around 20 small firms occupy the converted former bleach works, including engineering, architectural ironwork, decorative glass and vehicle restoration businesses.

Belthorn

Moorland village of old weavers' cottages, divided between Blackburn with Darwen and Hyndburn.

Blackamoor

Stands where the B6231 crosses the ancient Manchester to Ribchester road, south of Blackburn.

Blacksnape

Upland hamlet above Darwen towards Hoddlesden, gateway to the Darwen moorland quarry landscape

Brookhouse

Brownhill

Cadshaw

Farming hamlet on the A666 between Darwen and Bolton.

Chapels

Residential district on the eastern side of Darwen served by the borough bus network, adjoining Hoddlesden Road

Chapeltown

Stone terraced cottage village that was the historic administrative centre of the old Turton Urban District.

Cherry Tree

Residential suburb with its own station on the East Lancashire line, mostly within Livesey parish.

Daisyfield

Earcroft

One of Darwen's five council wards.

Eccleshill

Parish containing Shaws of Darwen, the fireclay sink and architectural terracotta works that was Darwen's largest employer in the 1920s.

Edgworth

Former textile and farming village now driven by walking tourism, pubs and B&Bs, with reservoirs on its doorstep.

Entwistle

Reservoir hamlet with a station on the Blackburn to Bolton line, popular with walkers and anglers.

Ewood

Home of Ewood Park, Blackburn Rovers' stadium.

Feniscliffe

Feniscowles

Home to the Sappi Blackburn paper mill, built in 1875 as the Star Paper Mill. The rival Sun Paper Mill closed in 1992.

Four Lane Ends

Griffin

Grimshaw

One of the three hamlets of Eccleshill parish, on the route of the former Hoddlesden Branch railway.

Grimshaw Park

Guide

Industrial and office development followed the M65 extension in 1997. Also has a micro-brewery and sports club.

Higher Audley

Higher Croft

Hoddlesden

Weaving and coal mining village. Vernon Carus ran a healthcare products mill here until 2003, and it is now largely commuter housing.

Hollin Bank

Hollins Grove

Intack

Knuzden Brook

Lammack

Little Harwood

Mixed housing, industrial units and open land at Blackburn's northern edge. Birthplace of steel magnate and Rovers benefactor Jack Walker.

Longshaw

Lower Darwen

Sits at junction 4 of the M65. The former ROF Blackburn munitions site is now housing, alongside roadside hotel and pub trade.

Marsh House

One of Darwen's five council wards.

Moorgate

North Turton

Rural West Pennine Moors parish created in 1974, covering Edgworth, Chapeltown, Belmont, Entwistle and Quarlton.

Over Darwen

Historic name for the upper part of Darwen township.

Pickup Bank

Moorland hamlet whose Grade II listed former Sunday school chapel survives.

Pleasington

Rural parish with Pleasington Priory, one of only two Grade I listed buildings in the borough, plus a nature reserve and its own railway station.

Pleckgate

Quarlton

Former township whose 19th century economy rested on collieries and the Quarlton Vale calico print works.

Queen's Park

Revidge

Roe Lee

Round Barn

Small moorland hamlet listed by North Turton parish alongside Entwistle and Quarlton. Agricultural and reservoir catchment land.

Royshaw Hill

Ryal Fold

Hamlet within Tockholes civil parish, main visitor entrance to Roddlesworth Woods and the Darwen Tower walk

Shadsworth

Large post-war council estate that gives its name to the Shadsworth with Whitebirk ward.

Sough

Spring Vale

Darwen district built around the Spring Vale paper and wallpaper mills, close to the West Pennine Moors edge

Sudell

One of Darwen's five council wards.

Sunnybower

Sunnyhurst

Darwen council ward on the wooded western side of the town.

Tockholes

Moorland farming parish. The Silk Hall Fold cottages were built in the 17th century for silk weavers.

Turton Bottoms

Hamlet in North Turton civil parish on Bradshaw Brook. Former textile bleaching and spinning site, Bolton post town but Blackburn with Darwen administration.

Waterside

Site of the Shaws of Darwen factory, opened 1908, making fireclay sinks and architectural terracotta.

Wensley Fold

Whalley Range

Whinny Heights

Whitebirk

Industrial and retail district with Greenbank Business Park, a cluster of main-dealer car showrooms, and the Peel Centre retail park on the former power station site.

Whitehall

One of Darwen's five council wards.

Whittlestone Head

Hamlet in North Turton parish on the edge of the West Pennine Moors above Entwistle reservoir

Witton

Older terraced streets beside Witton Country Park on the River Darwen.

Yate and Pickup Bank

Moorland parish containing the hamlets of Bank Fold and Pickup Bank plus part of Belthorn village.

Working in Blackburn with Darwen? Let us look at your week.

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Sources

We opened and read every source below on 9 October 2026. If one has changed since, the source is right and this page is out of date, so please tell us.

  1. 1. ONS via Nomis, Labour market profile, Blackburn with Darwen (BRES 2024 employee jobs, UK Business Counts 2026).
  2. 2. Lancashire Business View, Multi million pound new Skills and Cyber Campus plan approved, 20 September 2024.
  3. 3. Invest in Lancashire, Blackburn Cyber Skills and Education Campus and Innovation Quarter.
  4. 4. Lancashire Business View, Preferred developer named for strategic site, 13 October 2025.
  5. 5. Boost, Lancashire County Council, Lancashire Growth Hub Pulse, August 2026, August 2026.
  6. 6. The Shuttle, Blackburn with Darwen Council news, Work starts on Revolution Park, 19 May 2025.
  7. 7. The Shuttle, Blackburn with Darwen Council news, Darwen town centre transformation to benefit from additional £5m of funding, 2 July 2026.
  8. 8. Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, Business support and advice.
  9. 9. Made Smarter, Made Smarter Adoption, North West.
  10. 10. Boost, Lancashire County Council, Business Support Helpdesk.
  11. 11. Lancashire Combined County Authority, Lancashire Growth Plan, sector priority 3, digital and AI, October 2025.
  12. 12. Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, Transport infrastructure growth deal.
  13. 13. Made Smarter, Made Smarter Adoption, in my region.
  14. 14. Lancashire Combined County Authority, Lancashire Growth Plan maps over £20bn investment opportunity, 10 October 2025.