The River Darwen is a river running through Darwen and Blackburn in Lancashire. It joins the River Blakewater near Witton Country Park in Blackburn. Darwen was known by the ancient British Celts as Dwrgwyn from dwr meaning "water" and gwyn meaning "white" or "clear". The Anglo-Saxons knew the river as the "clear water where the oaks grow" from the Celtic Derva or "oaks." Today residents of Darwen also know the river as "Clearwater." There is also a new housing estate called "Clearwater village" in Darwen in hommage to the town's Celtic heritage. Location within the British Isles Arms of the former Darwen Borough Council Darwen (from either the Cumbric dor or Old Welsh dwr and Brythonic gwyn , or from Brythonic derva (Darren in Lancashire dialect) is a small market town of the West Pennine Moors in Lancashire, in the North West region... Location within the British Isles Blackburn is a town in Lancashire, England (2001 census population 105,085: source ONS). ... Lancashire is a county in the North of England, bounded to the west by the Irish Sea. ... The River Blakewater is a river running through Lancashire, giving its name to the town of Blackburn. ... Witton Country Park is a 480 acre (1. ...
It is joined by the River Blakewater near Witton Country Park in Blackburn and leaves the mostly urban landscapes of the towns behind, flowing through parklands and valleys.
A further tributary, the River Roddlesworth, joins the Darwen at the bottom of Moulden Brow on the boundary between Blackburn with Darwen and Chorley Borough Council (the name Moulden Brow being associated with Moulden Water, an alternative name for this stretch of the river).
At Walton-le-Dale, the river was the backdrop to the battle of Preston during the Second English Civil War, a Parliamentarian victory immortalised in John Milton's poem "To Cromwell": -
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