Old Market Hall, Blackburn - Original painting by Ross Eccles
Size and Type
51 x 40 cm (20 x 16 inches) - Pen and acrylic on canvas board
About the Artwork
The Old Market Hall in Blackburn, which Ross remembers from his youth, featured a 72 ft high Italianate-style tower, topped by an 18 ft mast holding a large copper ball. At noon each day, this copper ball would rise up the pole and drop an hour later. This was the signal for the firing of Blackburn's "one o'clock gun" which was heard in the town until 1931.
Sadly the famous tower was demolished in 1964 at the insistence of the Borough Council, to make way for a new shopping centre.
Ross says, he has great memories of the Market Hall and outdoor market dating back to WW2, when food was scarce and goods very limited. Ross's father Frank worked in the adjoining Town Hall for 40 years so Ross was able to spend many hours on an office drawing board in his childhood years.
Memories, memories!