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Downshifting (lifestyle)

In social behavior, downshifting is a trend where individuals adopt simpler lives from what critics call the "rat race".

The long-term effect of downshifting can include an escape from what has been described as economic materialism, as well as reduce the "stress and psychological expense that may accompany economic materialism". This new social trend emphasizes finding an improved balance between leisure and work, while also focusing life goals on personal fulfillment, as well as building personal relationships instead of the all-consuming pursuit of economic success.

Downshifting, as a concept, shares characteristics with simple living. However, it is distinguished as an alternative form by its focus on moderate change and concentration on an individual comfort level and a gradual approach to living. In the 1990s, this new form of simple living began appearing in the mainstream media, and has continually grown in popularity among populations living in industrial societies, especially the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia, as well as Russia.

Values and motives
"Down-shifters" refers to people who adopt long-term voluntary simplicity in their lives. A few of the main practices of down-shifters include accepting less money for fewer hours worked, while placing an emphasis on consuming less in order to reduce their ecological footprint. One of the main results of these practices is being able to enjoy more leisure time in the company of others, especially loved ones.

The primary motivations for downshifting are gaining leisure time, escaping from work-and-spend cycle, and removing the clutter of unnecessary possessions. The personal goals of downshifting are simple: To reach a holistic self-understanding and satisfying meaning in life.

Because of its personalized nature and emphasis on many minor changes, rather than complete lifestyle overhaul, downshifting attracts participants from across the socioeconomic spectrum. An intrinsic consequence of downshifting is increased time for non-work-related activities, which, combined with the diverse demographics of downshifters, cultivates higher levels of civic engagement and social interaction.

The scope of participation is limitless, because all members of society—adults, children, businesses, institutions, organizations, and governments—are able to downshift even if many demographic strata do not start "high" enough to "down"-shift.

In practice, down-shifting involves a variety of behavioral and lifestyle changes. The majority of these down-shifts are voluntary choices. Natural life course events, such as the loss of a job, or birth of a child can prompt involuntary down-shifting. There is also a temporal dimension, because a down-shift could be either temporary or permanent.

Work and income
The most common form of down-shifting is work (or income) down-shifting. Down-shifting is fundamentally based on dissatisfaction with the conditions and consequences of the workplace environment. The philosophy of work-to-live replaces the social ideology of live-to-work. Reorienting economic priorities shifts the work–life balance away from the workplace.

Economically, work downshifts are defined in terms of reductions in either actual or potential income, work hours, and spending levels. Following a path of earnings that is lower than the established market path is a downshift in potential earnings in favor of gaining other non-material benefits.

On an individual level, work downshifting is a voluntary reduction in annual income. Downshifters desire meaning in life outside of work and, therefore, will opt to decrease the amount of time spent at work or work hours. Reducing the number of hours of work, consequently, lowers the amount earned. Simply not working overtime or taking a half-day a week for leisure time, are work downshifts.

Career downshifts are another way of downshifting economically and entail lowering previous aspirations of wealth, a promotion or higher social status. Quitting a job to work locally in the community, from home or to start a business are examples of career downshifts. Although more radical, these changes do not mean stopping work altogether.

Many reasons are cited by workers for this choice and usually center on a personal cost–benefit analysis of current working situations and desired extracurricular activities. High stress, pressure from employers to increase productivity, and long commutes can be factors that contribute to the costs of being employed. If the down-shifter wants more non-material benefits like leisure time, a healthy family life, or personal freedom then switching jobs could be a desirable option.

Work down-shifting may also be a key to considerable health benefits as well as a healthy retirement. People are retiring later in life than previous generations. As can be seen by looking at The Health and Retirement Study, done by the Health and Retirement Study Survey Research Center, women can show the long term health benefits of down-shifting their work lives by working part time hours over a long period of years. Men however prove to be more unhealthy if they work part time from middle age till retirement. Men who down-shift their work life to part time hours at the age of 60 to 65 however benefit from continuing to work a part-time job through a semi retirement even over the age of 70. This is an example of how flexible working policies can be a key to being healthy while in retirement.

Spending habits
Another aspect of down-shifting is being a conscious consumer or actively practicing alternative forms of consumption. Proponents of down-shifting point to consumerism as a primary source of stress and dissatisfaction because it creates a society of individualistic consumers who measure both social status and general happiness by an unattainable quantity of material possessions. Instead of buying goods for personal satisfaction, consumption down-shifting, purchasing only the necessities, is a way to focus on quality of life rather than quantity.

This realignment of spending priorities promotes the functional utility of goods over their ability to convey status which is evident in downshifters being generally less brand-conscious. These consumption habits also facilitate the option of working and earning less because annual spending is proportionally lower. Reducing spending is less demanding than more extreme downshifts in other areas, like employment, as it requires only minor lifestyle changes.

Policies that enable downshifting
Unions, business, and governments could implement more flexible working hours, part-time work, and other non-traditional work arrangements that enable people to work less, while still maintaining employment. Small business legislation, reduced filing requirements and reduced tax rates encourage small-scale individual entrepreneurship and therefore help individuals quit their jobs altogether and work for themselves on their own terms.

Environmental consequences
The catch-phrase of International Downshifting Week is "Slow Down and Green Up". Whether intentional or unintentional, generally, the choices and practices of down-shifters nurture environmental health because they reject the fast-paced lifestyle fueled by fossil fuels and adopt more sustainable lifestyles. The latent function of consumption down-shifting is to reduce, to some degree, the carbon footprint of the individual down-shifter. An example is to shift from a corporate suburban rat race lifestyle to a small eco friendly farming lifestyle.

Down-shifting geographically
Downshifting geographically is a relocation to a smaller, rural, or more slow-paced community. This is often a response to the hectic pace of life and stresses in urban areas. It is a significant change but does not bring total removal from mainstream culture.

Sociopolitical implications
Although downshifting is primarily motivated by personal desire and not by a conscious political stance, it does define societal overconsumption as the source of much personal discontent. By redefining life satisfaction in non-material terms, downshifters assume an alternative lifestyle but continue to coexist in a society and political system preoccupied with the economy. In general, downshifters are politically apathetic because mainstream politicians mobilize voters by proposing governmental solutions to periods of financial hardship and economic recessions. This economic rhetoric is meaningless to downshifters who have forgone worrying about money.

In the United States, the UK, and Australia, a significant minority, approximately 20 to 25 percent, of these countries' citizens identify themselves in some respect as downshifters. Downshifting is not an isolated or unusual choice. Politics still centers around consumerism and unrestricted growth, but downshifting values, such as family priorities and workplace regulation, appear in political debates and campaigns.

Like downshifters, the Cultural Creatives is another social movement whose ideology and practices diverge from mainstream consumerism and according to Paul Ray, are followed by at least a quarter of U.S. citizens.

In his book In Praise of Slowness, Carl Honoré relates followers of downshifting and simple living to the global slow movement.

The significant number and diversity of downshifters are a challenge to economic approaches to improving society. The rise in popularity of downshifting and similar, post-materialist ideologies represents unorganized social movements without political aspirations or motivating grievances. This is a result of their grassroots nature and relatively inconspicuous, non-confrontational subcultures.

title: Downshifting (lifestyle)


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Washington Capitol

Washington Capitol may refer to:

 * Washington State Capitol in Olympia, Washington, United States
 * United States Capitol in Washington, District of Columbia, United States
 * Washington Capitols, Basketball Association of America team based in Washington, D.C.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Washington Capitol


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Glenfield

Glenfield may refer to:

 * In Australia
 * Glenfield, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney
 * Glenfield Park, New South Wales, a suburb of Wagga Wagga
 * Glenfield, Western Australia

 * In New Zealand:
 * Glenfield, New Zealand
 * Glenfield (New Zealand electorate), a former parliamentary electorate, 1984–1996

 * In the United Kingdom:
 * Glenfield, Leicestershire
 * Glenfield (company) a valve business

 * In the United States
 * Glenfield Park, New Jersey
 * Glenfield, North Dakota
 * Glenfield, Mississippi, a listed Mississippi Landmark
 * Glenfield, Pennsylvania

title: Glenfield


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Bilston

Bilston is a market town in the City of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, England. It is close to the borders of Sandwell and Walsall. The nearest towns are Darlaston, Wednesbury, and Willenhall. Historically in Staffordshire, three wards of Wolverhampton City Council now cover the town: Bilston East and Bilston North, which almost entirely comprise parts of the historic Borough of Bilston, and Ettingshall, which comprises a part of Bilston and parts of Wolverhampton.

History
Bilston was first referred to in AD 985 as Bilsatena when Wolverhampton was granted to Wulfrun then in 996 as Bilsetnatun in the grant charter of St. Mary's Church (now St. Peter's Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton). It is later mentioned in the Domesday Book as a village called Billestune, being a largely rural area until the 19th century. Bilsetnatun can be interpreted as meaning the settlement (ton) of the folk (saetan) of the ridge (bill).

Situated 2 mi southeast of Wolverhampton, it was extensively developed for factories and coal mining. Many houses were constructed in the Bilston area. Between 1920 and 1966, the council replaced most of the 19th-century terraced houses with rented modern houses and flats on developments like Stowlawn, the Lunt, and Bunker's Hill. By 1964 there were more than 6,000 council houses there.

Bilston Urban District Council was formed under the Local Government Act 1894 covering the ancient parish of Bilston. The urban district was granted a royal charter in 1933, becoming a municipal borough and Alderman Herbert Beach its Mayor.

In 1966 the Borough of Bilston was abolished, with most of its territory incorporated into the County Borough of Wolverhampton (see History of West Midlands), although parts of Bradley in the east of the town were merged into Walsall borough.

Bilston Town Hall, dating from 1872, has now been refurbished and re-opened. It had been derelict for more than a decade after Wolverhampton Council discontinued its use as housing offices, but now operates as a venue for events, conferences, performances and occasions.

Bilston lost its passenger railway station in 1972, although goods trains continued to pass through the site of the station for a further decade. The town's new bus station opened in October 1991, interlinking with the town's West Midlands Metro station, which opened in May 1999.

The huge British Steel Corporation plant to the west of the town centre was closed in 1979, after 199 years of steel production at the site, with the loss of nearly 2,000 jobs. Part of the site was developed as the Sedgemoor Park Housing Estate between 1986 and 1989, and a B&Q superstore opened on another part of the site in December 1993, forming the first phase of a new small retail park and industrial estate which developed over the next decade. The GKN steel plant to the south of the town centre closed in 1989.

Construction of the long-awaited Black Country Route began in the mid 1980s, with the first section being opened in 1986 and the second section in 1988. By 1992, the third phase of the route was complete, although the final phase was not completed until July 1995, by which time Bilston had a direct unbroken dual carriageway link with Dudley, Walsall and the M5 Motorway. The Black Country Spine Road opened at the same time, improving Bilston's road links with West Bromwich and Birmingham.

21st century developments in Bilston include the South Wolverhampton and Bilston Academy and the adjoining Bert Williams Leisure Centre, which form the centrepiece of the town's new Urban Village, which is planned to include an eventual total of more than 1,000 new homes.

St Leonard's Church
Christian worship in Bilston can be traced back to 1090. In 1458, the chapel was replaced by St Leonard's Chantry and a third renovated church was consecrated in 1733. The church seen today dates from a rebuilding of 1825–26 to the designs of Francis Godwin in the manner of John Soane and is the fourth church on the site, though a small amount of older stonework from the C14 or C15 remains visible inside the present tower. It was altered in 1882–83 by prolific church architect Ewan Christian. Ewan Christian altered the aisle windows into single tall, thin openings where there had previously been two. The church contains a font of 1673, probably from the older church. The church is painted stucco inside and out. It is also unusual in having a chamfered square tower, giving it an octagonal appearance, in being surmounted with a cupola, a golden globe with weather vane and a fenced viewing platform.

Industry
From the middle of the 18th century, Bilston became well known for the craft of enamelling. Items produced included decorative containers such as patch-boxes, scent boxes, and bonbonnieres.

With the opening of the Birmingham Canal to the west of the town in 1770, industrial activity in the local area increased, with the first blast furnaces near the canal at Spring Vale being erected by 1780.

Few towns were more dramatically transformed during the Industrial Revolution as Bilston was. In 1800, it was still a largely rural area dependent on farming. By 1900, it was a busy town with numerous factories and coalmines, as well as a large number of houses that had been built to house the workers and their families. The Bilston coal mines were reputedly haunted by an evil spirit, so the miners brought in a local exorcist known as The White Rabbit.

Six new blast furnaces were erected there between 1866 and 1883. Five of these were producing a total of nearly 25,000 tons of steel per year at what was now known as Bilston Steel Works. The first electric powered blast furnaces opened there in 1907, and finally in 1954 the "Elisabeth" blast furnace was erected, creating 275,000 tons of steel per year. However, by the 1970s the steel works had become uneconomic and the Labour government of James Callaghan decided to close it, with closure taking place on 12 April 1979. The iconic "Elisabeth" was demolished on 5 October 1980. Local unemployment, which had been steadily rising for some years, was pushed even higher by the plant's closure. A former railway bridge which connected parts of the steelworks site remains in situ across the canal.

The industry remained prolific during the interwar years, but much of the housing was now sub-standard, and during the 1920s and 1930s, many of the older houses were cleared and replaced by new council houses that featured so many modern conveniences that were previously unknown to their occupants.

People

 * John Wilkinson, "king of the ironmasters", built a blast furnace in Bilston in 1748. He lived and died in Bradley, Staffordshire. His body was returned to his hometown of Clifton in Cumberland.
 * Richard Salter began making the first spring scales in Britain in Bilston in the late 1760s.
 * George T. Morgan, who was an engraver for the Royal Mint until he was invited to work at the U.S. Mint in 1876. He became chief engraver in 1917 and designed the famous Morgan silver dollar.
 * Bilston was the birthplace of the poet Sir Henry Newbolt, his brother barrister, judge and artist Sir Francis Newbolt and Nelson, New Zealand Mayor George Page.
 * Captain George Onions VC, British soldier born in Bilston and awarded the Victoria Cross in August 1918.
 * Hugh Walters, science fiction writer, lived all his life (1910–1993) in Bilston.
 * Bert (The Cat) Williams MBE, goalkeeper in the 1940s and 1950s with Wolverhampton Wanderers (420 appearances) and also with the England squad (31 caps). Born in Bradley, Bilston in 1920 he died in Shifnal in 2014. He has a sports centre in his name in the town.
 * David Daker, born in Bilston in 1935, is an actor. His best-known roles are in television. He played PC Owen Culshaw in Z-Cars, Jarvis in Porridge, Captain Nathan Spiker in 'Dick Turpin and Harry Crawford in Boon''.
 * Sir Bruce Forsyth made his first public stage appearance, billed as "Boy Bruce, the Mighty Atom", aged 14 at the Theatre Royal in 1942.
 * Reg Lewis who scored both goals for Arsenal in their 2–0 victory over Liverpool in the 1950 FA Cup final was born in Bilston.
 * James Fleet, who was born in Bilston in 1952, is an actor. He is most famous for his roles as the bumbling and well-meaning Tom in the 1994 British romantic comedy film Four Weddings and a Funeral, and the dim-witted Hugo Horton in the BBC situation comedy television series The Vicar of Dibley.
 * Don Powell, drummer in the band Slade, was born in Bilston.
 * Steve Woolam (1946-1971), who was born in Bilston, was one of the founder members of the Electric Light Orchestra.

Transport
The original line of the Birmingham Canal (now the BCN Old Main Line) was specifically planned to serve Bilston amongst other towns. The bill for its construction stated that "the Primary and Principal Object of this Undertaking was and is to obtain a Navigation from the Collieries to this Town [ie Birmingham]". The canal opened from Wednesbury to Birmingham on 6 November 1769 and through to Newell on 25 March 1772. Coal from Bilston was reaching Birmingham by May 1770. When the BCN New Main Line was built the Wednesbury section became a loop serving industry and collieries, the southern part of which was subsequently abandoned and filled in. A branch was also built from the Walsall Canal to Bilston, but was closed in 1953.

From 1850 to 1972 there was a railway station in Bilston town centre, but passenger services were then withdrawn and the line via Bilston (from Wolverhampton Low Level to Birmingham Snow Hill) had been almost completely abandoned within a decade. The final stub of the railway, connecting a town centre scrapyard with the South Staffordshire Line at Wednesbury, closed in 1992, only to be re-opened seven years later as the first phase of the West Midlands Metro tram line between Wolverhampton and Birmingham.

The West Midlands Metro serves Bilston with 3 stops, Bilston Central in the Centre, Loxdale & The Crescent. The town was set to be served by 2 new lines by 2024, with trams travelling to Stourbridge & Walsall, however budget constraints have put back the opening date to at least 2025.

There was also a further railway station within the town: Bilston West on the Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line. Due to building encroachment on the track bed, it's impossible to reopen this line.

Another significant development in the Bilston area was the A463 Black Country Route. With more and more cars on the road, the roads around Bilston town centre became increasingly congested as the 20th century progressed. It became so severe that, by the late 1960s, the government had drawn up plans for a new motorway bypassing Bilston (and running from the A4123 near Coseley to Junction 10 of the M6 motorway at Walsall), which was scheduled to be completed by 1976. However, the plans collapsed and Bilston was condemned to increased congestion, for another decade at least. The plans for a new dual carriageway were revived in the early 1980s. This time the planners had decided on a slightly different route, which would run much closer to Bilston town centre. The first phase of the road (to be known as Black County Route) was completed in 1986, though initially running around 1/2 mi east of the A4123. It was extended in 1990 to Oxford Street in Bilston town centre. This expansion resulted in a number of buildings being demolished and some roads having to be re-routed while one road (Market Street) was obliterated. This new road changed the face of Bilston town centre forever. During 1995, the final phase of the Black Country Route between Bilston town centre and Junction 10 of the M6 was completed. This new road has seen a major improvement in the traffic flow around Bilston town centre.

Bilston is served by several bus routes at Bilston Bus Station connecting to Wolverhampton, Willenhall, Wednesfield, New Cross Hospital, Tipton, Dudley and Walsall. In addition surrounding districts such as Ettingshall, The Lunt, Stowlawn, Rocket Pool, Bradley, Moxley and Portobello are also linked. Service 79 (Wolverhampton - West Bromwich) is the only route that does not serve the bus station, instead running along the Wellington Road and Lichfield Street. This is also the most frequent service. Some services are subsidised by Transport for West Midlands.

Services 25, 34, 37, 39, 79, 82 (daytime) and 530 (Sundays) are operated by National Express West Midlands. Services 23, 26A, 57, 80, 82 (evening & Sunday), 223, 224, 229, 303 and 326 are operated by Diamond West Midlands. Services 53 and 530 (daytime) are operated by Banga Bus.

Arts and culture
At the Bilston end of the Black Country Route can be seen the group of wooden statues designed by Robert Koenig and called "Steel Columns." "This sculpture was made from 15 lengths of sweet chestnut which stretch up to 6 metres in height. The male and female figures depicted are based on those found in old Victorian photographs of Bilston. The title Steel Columns is a reference to Bilston's steel making background and the connection the figures had with this history."

Art and craft works of local significance from the eighteenth century are displayed at Bilston Craft Gallery, which also has a temporary exhibition space where local art and crafts are often displayed. The craft gallery also hosts workshops for children and families and where some school trips take place.

The artist William Harold Dudley as born in Bilston; several of his works are in the collection of Wolverhampton Art Gallery.

Bilston Carnival in the 60's travelled along Wellington Road before ending in Hickman Park where there would be Pat Collins' fun fair, horse jumping and an open air stage hosting various entertainment including wrestling and live music bands. The park also had one of the tallest slides for children in any park.

Education
Bilston has 15 primary schools, and two secondary schools – South Wolverhampton and Bilston Academy and Moseley Park School, which was originally Etheridge Secondary Modern (formerly Fraser Street Schools), and Bilston Boys' Grammar School. Manor Primary School, which used to be a secondary school, is sometimes incorrectly believed to be in Bilston, but is actually in Woodcross which is within the Wolverhampton-governed part of Coseley. In 1962 Green Acres Junior school had teachers which included Mr and Mrs. Webb and Mr. Elwell who introduced classical music and elocution lessons to soften Wolverhampton accents. About 8 students went on to Grammar Schools in 1963 including Mr. and Mrs. Webb's son Nicholas; top student Timothy Calloway; and the first coloured student, Pravin Patel, who went on to Bilston Grammar School to be the first coloured student there as well.

Bilston had a Cholera Orphan School which was opened on 3 August 1833 following a severe outbreak during the second cholera pandemic (1829–51) which had left 450 orphans in Bilston after the death of 742 sufferers. The Royal School, Wolverhampton has similar origins.

Crime
In 1862, Bilston was scandalised by the case of David Brandrick, the "Bilston Murderer". The story was heavily covered by all the local papers, but according to a report in the Windsor and Eton Journal, Saturday 11 January 1862, Brandrick was hanged outside Stafford Jail that morning for the murder of John Bagott, a clothier and pawnbroker.

On 30 September 2007, the body of 16-year-old Shane Owoo was recovered from a flooded clay pit near the Lunt estate. Two Wolverhampton men, Christopher Lewis and Marvin Walker, were found guilty of manslaughter on 25 April 2008 and sentenced to five and a half years in prison. The jury at Birmingham Crown Court heard that the pair had frogmarched Owoo to the pool amid allegations that he had stolen a bicycle from one of the defendants. A third man, Tobias Davies, received a 12-month prison sentence for assaulting Owoo, but had not been present when the other two men attacked him and chased him into the pool where he drowned.

On 28 July 2009, 47-year-old Moxley pub landlord Swinder Singh Batth was shot dead in the town centre outside Gavin's Sports Bar. Jasbir Singh Takhar, of Coseley, and Sukwinder Singh Sanghera, of West Bromwich, were jailed for life a year later for the murder; it was established that they had been attempting to shoot someone else. The trial judge recommended minimum terms of 29 and 28 years respectively. Five other people received prison sentences of between 21 months and three years for conspiracy to commit violent disorder in connection with the crime, while a sixth person received a three-and-half-year prison sentence for witness intimidation.

On 21 November 2009, 50-year-old Dudley man Daniel McCalla was shot dead at the town's Tropical Harmony nightclub.

Bilston's districts

 * Bradley
 * Woodcross
 * The Lunt
 * Stowlawn

Parliament
The town had its own parliamentary constituency from 1918 until 1974, which also included nearby Sedgley and Coseley. However, it was then incorporated into Wolverhampton South East, where it has remained since, and under further boundary reorganisation it could be divided into up to four parliamentary seats, with the bulk of the town being divided between two reorganised Wolverhampton seats but smaller parts of the town being absorbed into Dudley and Walsall constituencies. However these plans have been shelved for the time being.

title: Bilston


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There and Back Again (Vertical Horizon album)

There and Back Again was the first album by Vertical Horizon, released independently in 1992, and later re-released in 1999 by RCA Records. At the time, the band consisted solely of Matthew Scannell and Keith Kane, who together did all the writing, singing, and producing for the album, as well as playing all instruments used (mostly acoustic guitar, with little percussion and bass). The name was taken from the subtitle of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Track listing

 * 1) "Trying to Find Purpose" (Scannell) - 3:16
 * 2) "Children's Lullaby" (Kane) - 5:20
 * 3) "Footprints in the Snow" (Scannell) - 3:29
 * 4) "Love's Light" (Kane) - 3:37
 * 5) "The Mountain Song" (Scannell) - 2:51
 * 6) "Prayer for an Innocent Man" (Kane) - 3:34
 * 7) "Lines Upon Your Face" (Scannell) - 5:28
 * 8) "Willingly" (Kane) - 4:46
 * 9) "On the Sea" (Scannell) - 4:47
 * 10) "Liberty" (Kane) - 3:05

Personnel
Vertical Horizon
 * Keith Kane – vocals, acoustic guitars, percussion, production, engineering
 * Matthew Scannell – vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, bass guitars, keyboards, drum programming, production, engineering, cover photography

Additional personnel
 * James Hemingway – digital editing and mastering
 * Katie Symons – art direction
 * Liz Green – art direction
 * Amy Morse – cover photography


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Bishop's Stortford

Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district, in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It is in the London commuter belt, near the border with Essex, just west of the M11 motorway and Stansted Airport, it is 22 miles north-east of Central London and 34 minutes away by rail from Liverpool Street station. The town had an estimated population of 41,088 in 2020. The district of East Hertfordshire, where the town centre is located, has been ranked as the best place to live in the UK by the Halifax Quality of Life annual survey in 2020. The town is commonly known as Stortford by locals.

Toponymy
The origins of the town's name are uncertain. One possibility is that the Saxon settlement derives its name from 'Steorta's ford' or 'tail ford', in the sense of a 'tail', or tongue, of land. The town became known as Bishop's Stortford due to the acquisition in 1060 by the Bishop of London.

The River Stort is named after the town, and not the town after the river. When cartographers visited the town in the 16th century, they reasoned that the town must have been named after the ford in the river and assumed the river was called the Stort.

First settlements: pre-Roman and Roman Stortford
Little is known of Stortford until the Roman era, with the evidence being small archaeological finds. Limited evidence of ancient Mesolithic and Microlithic peoples in the form of flakes, cores and an axe have been found on the Meads and Silverleys respectively. Most Bronze Age evidence is from the neighbouring parish of Thorley to the south as opposed to Stortford proper, but a 3,000 year old socketed spearhead has been found at Haymeads Lane within the town. Evidence of settlement has been found on Dunmow Road dating from the Middle Bronze Age through to Romano-British times. In Bishop's Stortford: A History, Jacqueline Cooper concludes "existing evidence suggests that the Stortford area was settled only sparsely in prehistoric times, and nearby places like Braughing and Little Hallingbury were of more importance."

Stortford was on the line of the Roman road, Stane Street, which ran from St Albans to Colchester via Braughing. Construction started around 50AD on the road. Little evidence from the period survives except for excavations showing a section of the road, evidence of a cremation facility and a burial site. None of the excavations has shown evidence of the Roman fort which likely existed in Stortford. The settlement was probably abandoned in the 5th century after the break-up of the Roman Empire.

Refoundation: post-Roman and medieval Stortford
Following the end of the Roman era, a new Anglo-Saxon settlement grew up on the site.

However, little is known about Stortford until the 1060s with the evidence becoming much stronger after the Norman Conquest. In 1060 when William, Bishop of London, bought Stortford manor and estate for £8, leading to the town's modern name. By 1086, the motte-and-bailey Waytemore Castle had been built as a local strongpoint for the area. It acted as a centre for defence and civil administration for roughly 125 years before it was dismantled but not destroyed by King John in 1211. Rebuilding of the castle started the following year at John's expense, and John stayed the night in the castle in 1216. By the 15th century, the castle had fallen into disrepair, and the Bishop's Court (one of the administrative structures for the area) moved to Hockerill, to the east of the town.

At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 the village had a population of around 120, and grew to around 700 by the 13th century.

In terms of governance, early medieval Stortford was part of the Braughing Hundred, but acquired burgesses and between 1306 and 1336 was taxed as a borough. No charter survives however, and civil authority passed to two local manor courts at the Castle and the Rectory. Stortford briefly sent two members to parliament in the reigns of Edward II and Edward III, with writs being issued to the town in the 1311–1315, 1318, 1320, 1322 and 1340.

Plague and growth: early modern Stortford
At the start of the early modern period in the mid 15th century, Stortford was a primarily agricultural community, but had also acquired a tanning industry. By the 16th century, Stortford had become an important centre of the malting industry. Not only were the local soils well suited for grains, but the fact that the town was just 35 miles to London provided an impetus to its development. The economic draw of the maltings and the town's market supported a large number of inns and public houses by the middle of the 16th century pointing to its prosperity.

Over the following hundred years, Stortford grew markedly. The population of Stortford reached 1,500 by 1660 as a result of a positive net birth rate and migration to the town. This was despite a series of a dozen plagues between the 1560s and 1660s. The town also enjoyed a series of royal visits in the 17th century, with Charles I visiting the town in 1625, 1629 and 1642.

The years following the last of Charles' visits were to prove somewhat turbulent for the town. During the English Civil War Stortford backed the Parliamentarians, with the Manor of Stortford being sequestered from the Bishop of London and sold off for £2,845. It was returned to the Bishop at the Restoration. The Great Plague of 1666–7, and its lasting effects, reduced the population to only around 600 by 1700. The effects of the plague were so severe that the town had to appeal to the Hertfordshire magistrates, who levied a rate on every parish in the county for the relief of Bishop's Stortford, Hoddesdon and Cheshunt.

Despite the demographic impact of the Great Plague, perhaps the turning point in Stortford's fortunes was the creation of the 'Hockerill by-pass' in 1670. King Charles II had in the 1660s been increasingly travelling from London to Newmarket for the races and disliked the noise and congestion of Stortford, with its odorous market, maltings and tanneries. Moreover, the route was not always passable as noted by diarist Samuel Pepys who in made the following entry in his diary on 23 May 1668: ''‘and so to Bishop's Stafford [sic]. The ways mighty full of water so as hardly to be passed’.'' As a result, the road from London to Newmarket was diverted to the east of the centre of Stortford, and instead ran through the outlying settlement of Hockerill. The inns of Hockerill become an important overnight location for stop overs for overnight coaches to East Anglia. Further demands for improved roads led to the creation of the Essex and Hertfordshire Turnpike Trust (later Hockerill Turnpike Trust) in 1744 to repair the road between Harlow Bush Common and Stump Cross in Great Chesterford. Later Acts of Parliament extended the term of the Trust and allowed new road construction. From March 1785 the mail coaches ran from London to Norwich via Stortford. Thus, the improved highways marked the first of the phases of Stortford's growth driven by emergent transport technology.

The second major transport development to provide a significant boost to the town was the construction of the Stort Navigation, which canalised the River Stort, and opened in 1769. The improvements to the navigation of the Stort were driven by the inability of the malting industry to use the Stort for river transport, which caused significant damage to the local roads and handed a competitive advantage to neighbouring malting areas like Ware who were linked to London by the River Lea. The work on the canal undertaken by George Jackson (later Sir George Duckett) had the added benefit of alleviating the flooding risk in the town.

Industrial revolution to World War II
With the roads and Stort navigation providing easy access to London markets, industrialisation came to Stortford. The advent of the Stort Navigation brought new industries to the town, with bargemen, lock-keepers, wharfingers, coal and timber merchants all appearing. The malting industry also saw output significantly increase, with brown malt production doubling between 1788 and 1811. Together with national trends in the brewing industry, the 40 malthouses in Stortford in early 1800s Stortford also helped to stimulate the local brewing trade. At the turn of the 19th century, there were 18 brewers in town which in turn boosted the inn trade. The boom in the town in turn boosted the metal working and bricklaying trades, and also aided the general retail trade. In 1791 there were 30 principal traders according to a contemporary directory.

The vibrancy of the local economy - especially the agricultural trade sector - was demonstrated in 1828 when a consortium of local businessmen built the Bishop's Stortford Corn Exchange, which provided trading accommodation for 65 dealers. By this point, the town directory was listing 200 commercial entries, and 350 by the turn of the century.

The third major transport innovation to have a significant impact upon Stortford was the arrival of the railway in 1842. The line initially ran from London Liverpool Street to Stortford, but by 1845 the line was linked to Norwich. The new rail link brought an almost immediate end to the coaching industry, and the Stort Navigation entered terminal decline. The town, though boomed. Massive new residential estates grew up in the New Town (to the south and west of the historic core) and Hockerill (across the river to the east of the historic core) in the decades following the building of the railway. A Bishop's Stortford–Braintree branch line was built to Braintree to bring goods into Stortford from the surrounding more rural areas, with the first section to Great Dunmow opening in 1864. The single track line struggled to gain traction, and by 1922 had only seven eastbound and six westbound trains per day. The bus service which started between Stortford and Dunmow in 1920 contributed to the demise of the line which closed to passengers in 1952 and freight in 1972. The mid-19th century onwards also saw the rapid growth in public utilities, public services and governance in the town. The first gas street lights were installed in the town in the 1830s, in 1855 the New Cemetery was opened, in the 1870s a sewage farm and an isolation hospital were built, while in 1895 the town's first proper hospital was opened. By 1911, the Encyclopædia Britannica referred to the town as having strong educational pedigree: "The high school, formerly the grammar school, was founded in the time of Elizabeth.... There are a Nonconformist grammar school, a diocesan training college for mistresses, and other educational establishments."

During World War II, Stortford was a reception area for evacuees. This did not, however, mean that Stortford was immune from bombings, with 20 bombs recorded as having been dropped in 1940. Targets included Hockerill Training College where three students were killed on 10 October 1940. The railway station was hit twice during the war and a rocket landed near Farnham Road in the town in 1945.

The modern service-industry town
In the post-war era the town centre underwent changes with the demolition of a multi-storey car park and surrounding area to make way for a new town centre area and city-type apartments and penthouses on the riverside and elsewhere. Jackson Square (a modern shopping complex) was rebuilt and an extension added.

Stortford continued to grow as a commuter town from the second half of the 20th century onwards, spurred by the construction of the M11 motorway and Stansted Airport, as well as rail links to London and Cambridge. This contributed to its rise in population to almost 38,000 at the time of the 2011 census.

Of the seven suburbs of Thorley, Town, Havers, Stortford Fields, Bishop's Park, St Michael's Mead and Snowley the last is a separate ecclesiastical parish east of the River Stort, centred around the old coaching inns, All Saints in Stansted Road and Snowley Parade, bordering Birchanger Woods and Essex. Postwar development has enlarged the town's area further.

Demographic history
The earliest reliable population figure for Stortford was 120 at the publication of the Domesday Book in 1086. Over the successive centuries the population waxed and waned as a result of economic growth and plagues, and generally only rough population estimates exist. By the time of the first nationwide census in 1801 Stortford's population had reached 2,305 spurred by the town's position on the Hockerill Turnpike and the canalisation of the River Stort. Steady growth continued over the coming decades as the railways spurred industrialisation. Population growth averaged 1.12% per annum through to 1911 and the advent of World War I. Inter-war growth averaged 1.54% per annum. Stortford's population exceeded the county town of Hertford in the 1961 census, even though Stortford's average population growth slowed to 1.39% between World War II and 2020. Sources of population growth have been predominantly natural growth and in-migration, but on a number of occasions the boundaries of Bishop's Stortford parish have been expanded. Most recently this occurred in 1992 when some neighbouring parts of Essex were moved into the town and in 2018 when homes were moved into Stortford from neighbouring Thorley Parish. In 2020 Bishop's Stortford was the largest town in East Hertfordshire.

Ethnicity and nationality
At the 2011 census, 93.6% of the population of Stortford described themselves as white, which was lower than the 96.2% recorded in the 2001 census. The number of people describing themselves as having a white background in 2011 was significantly higher than the England aggregate of 85.4%, but slightly lower than the overall East Hertfordshire figure.

The proportion of Bishop's Stortford residents reporting having been born in the United Kingdom was 87.8%, and was only slightly higher than the English average of 86.2%. Stortford recorded a significantly higher proportion of European Union-born residents than either East Hertfordshire or England. The number of UK-born residents in 2011 was down from the 92.4% recorded in 2001.

Housing
The number of occupied dwellings in Bishop's Stortford rose from 13,733 in 2001 to 14,920. In Stortford 3.0% of properties were recorded as empty in 2011, compared with 4.3% across England. Overall, the dominant type of housing are detached and semi-detached housing, although the proportion of flats has grown from 13.0% in 2001 to 17.6% in 2011. The proportion of flats is well below the English average of 22.1% Home ownership is high in Bishop's Stortford at 72.3% of households, which is above both the East Hertfordshire and English averages. The proportion of properties available for social rent has risen from 9.8% in 2001 to 10.1% in 2011.

Government
Stortford has three tiers of local government at parish (town), district, and county level: Bishop's Stortford Town Council, East Hertfordshire District Council, and Hertfordshire County Council.

Historical development
Historically, Stortford was administered by its parish vestry, in the same way as most small towns and rural areas; no borough corporation was established for the town, despite some limited moves in that direction in the fourteenth century. Bishop's Stortford was included in the hundred of Braughing. The Bishop's Stortford Poor Law Union was established in 1835, covering the town and surrounding parishes in both Hertfordshire and Essex.

On 25 October 1866 a public meeting at the town's corn exchange voted to establish a local board, the Bishop's Stortford Local Board. The parish of Bishop's Stortford was declared to be a local government district with effect from 25 December 1866, and the local board held its first meeting at the corn exchange on 23 February 1867. Jones Gifford Nash was chosen as the first chairman of the local board. The Local Board later established offices at 7 North Street.

Under the Local Government Act 1894, the Bishop's Stortford Local Board was replaced by the Bishop's Stortford Urban District Council in 1894. The new council held its first meeting on 5 January 1895. The last chairman of the local board, John Slater, was appointed the first chairman of the urban district council. The council continued to be based at 7 North Street until the First World War. In 1914 the council bought a large old house called Wharf House at 4 The Causeway. The house had been built by George Jackson, who had also built the adjoining Stort Navigation. Wharf House was renamed the Council House, and served as the council's offices until October 1972, when the council moved to purpose-built offices at 1 The Causeway. The Council House was demolished shortly afterwards to make way for the Jackson Square shopping centre.

Bishop's Stortford Urban District Council was granted a coat of arms on 20 August 1952. Bishop's Stortford Urban District was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972, becoming part of East Hertfordshire on 1 April 1974. Bishop's Stortford Town Council was established as a successor parish to the old urban district. The former urban district council's offices at 1 The Causeway were taken over by East Hertfordshire District Council, whilst the new town council was based at the former offices of the Braughing Rural District Council at 2 Hockerill Street. The town council moved to the Old Monastery on Windhill in 1994. East Hertfordshire District Council vacated 1 The Causeway in 2013, having consolidated most of its functions at its main offices in Hertford. The district council set up a smaller Bishop's Stortford office in Charringtons House, adjoining 1 The Causeway. The vacated office at 1 The Causeway was demolished in 2017.

Parliamentary elections
Bishop's Stortford is the largest town within the Hertford and Stortford County Constituency for elections to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The constituency covers Stortford, Hertford, Ware, Sawbridgeworth and the surrounding rural areas.

Electoral wards
For elections to East Herts District Council, Bishop's Stortford has been divided into six wards since the May 2023 local elections wards: All Saints, Central, North, Parsonage, South and Thorley Manor. Bishop's Stortford residents elect 14 of the 50 councillors on East Herts Council. For elections to Bishop's Stortford Town Council, the town is split into nine wards: All Saints, Central, Chantry, Parsonage, Silverleys, South, Thorley Manor North, Thorley Manor South and Waterside.

For elections to Hertfordshire County Council, out of the 78 electoral divisions in total, three divisions cover Bishop's Stortford: Bishop's Stortford East (comprising the areas covered by the All Saints, Parsonage and Chantry Town Council Wards), Bishop's Stortford Rural (the South, Thorley Manor South Town Council Wards together with the Little Hadham and Much Hadham East Herts District Council Wards) and Bishop's Stortford West (the Central, Silverleys, Thorley Manor North and Waterside Town Council Wards).

Sister cities
After 46 years of being twinned with the German town of Friedberg and Villiers-sur-Marne in France, the town council ended links in 2011.

Economy and business
Stortford is a prosperous town. The key drivers of its growth according to the Town Wide Employment Study for Bishop's Stortford are "Stansted Airport, an excellent rail service into central London and good road links via the M11 to London, the M25 northern sub-region and Cambridge. Stortford is well positioned in relation to the UK's most dynamic economies." This study also highlights Stortford's skilled population, as well as the importance of "quality of life" as an important economic asset. In addition to East Hertfordshire topping the Halifax Quality of Life survey in 2020, Stortford has been highlighted as a popular commuter town in articles in The Times, The Evening Standard, and the Metro newspaper London.

Like the UK as a whole, Stortford has a highly service-based economy. In the 2011 census, 84.5% of Stortford residents in employment stated that they worked in a service industry, which was higher than East Hertfordshire (81.2%) and England (81.2%). Of particular note is that 7.9% of local workers are employed in Transportation and Storage which is well above the English average of 5.0%. The most significant employer in this industry is Stansted Airport, which was estimated in 2013 to employ at least 1,000 people who live in Stortford.

Commuters represent a sizeable proportion of the local working age population. The Town Wide Employment Study estimated in 2013 around 3,000 people (round 15% of those in employment) commute from Stortford by rail, with the largest proportion "in all probability" travelling into Central London. This is reflected in Stortford in the 2011 census having a much higher proportion of workers in managerial and professional occupations than the national average, as shown in the table below. Stortford itself has a strong internal economy, with an estimated 16,985 people employed within the town boundaries. There are 329 businesses established in the town centre (as of 2018) represented by the Bishop's Stortford Business Improvement District (BID). There is also a Bishop's Stortford Chamber of Commerce.

Stortford is considered the Principal Town Centre in East Hertfordshire by East Hertfordshire District Council's District Plan, serving as a destination for visitors from beyond the town. There is both an indoor shopping centre, Jackson Square, and a traditional high street running along the axis of South Street, Potter Street and North Street, as well as the adjoining streets. The town has a twice weekly market and a monthly farmers market run by Bishop's Stortford Town Council.

Local media
The Bishop's Stortford Independent newspaper covers Stortford, along with the neighbouring towns of Sawbridgeworth and Stansted Mountfitchet. The newspaper was founded in October 2017 following the closure of the Stortford office of the Herts and Essex Observer newspaper in 2016.

The town is also covered by a number of print magazines including the Bishop's Stortford Flyer, CM23 Connection, Axis Magazine, and The BISH.

Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC London and ITV London. Television signals are received from either the Crystal Palace or the local relay transmitters. BBC East and ITV Anglia can also be received from the Sandy Heath TV transmitter.

Local radio stations are BBC Three Counties Radio and Heart Hertfordshire.

Railway
Bishop's Stortford railway station is a stop on the West Anglia Main Line and was first opened in 1842. There were 2.00 million passenger entries and exits in 2020/21.

The station is served by three routes, all operated by Greater Anglia:
 * A fast Stansted Airport to London Liverpool Street service, stopping only at Tottenham Hale.
 * Cambridge North to Liverpool Street, via Harlow Town, Tottenham Hale and at most intermediate stations.
 * A direct service to Stratford in East London, which calls at most intermediate stations.

Epping tube station on the London Underground Central line is about 10 miles away from Stortford; the line provides a stopping service through Central London to Ealing Broadway in the west.

Roads
The M11 motorway passes to the east of Bishop's Stortford. Junction 8 links the motorway to the town and the M11 carries traffic directly to Cambridge, Harlow and London. As the road passes the town, Bishop's Stortford falls in the M11 corridor for innovation.

The A120 runs east–west along the northern edge of the town. To the west, the A120 meets the A10 at Puckeridge (for Hertford or Royston). To the east, the A120 passes Stansted Airport en route to Braintree, Colchester, the A12 and Harwich.

Other key routes in the town include:

 * A1060 to the Hatfield Heath, the Rodings and Chelmsford
 * A1184 to Sawbridgeworth and Harlow
 * A1250 east–west route through the town centre
 * B1383 to Stansted Mountfitchet and Saffron Walden

Air pollution
East Hertfordshire District Council monitors nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels at Hockerill Junction in the town centre. There are four diffusion tubes around the junction for air quality monitoring. In 2017, three out of four tubes failed to meet the UK National Objective of 40μg/m3 (micrograms per cubic metre):

Air
Stansted Airport is located to the east of the town, with rail and bus links to Stortford; it serves over 200 destinations globally.

Buses
The town is on the Arriva Herts & Essex bus network. Buses 309, 508, 509 and 510 connect the town to Stansted Airport. Buses 508, 509 and 510 all terminate to the south in Harlow.

Central Connect, operated by Vectare, also serve the town. Key routes include the 301 to Saffron Walden, the 351 to Hertford and the 386 to Stevenage, via Letchworth. There are further routes to rural destinations in Hertfordshire and Essex.

Cycling
Stortford is served by the following cycle routes on regional networks and the National Cycle Network:

 * National Cycle Route 11 is an incomplete cycle route which will run through the town centre. Completed sections of the route currently pass through Harlow, Sawbridgeworth, Stansted Mountfitchet and Cambridge. The section between Sawbridgeworth and Stortford is in development but, when completed, the route will provide a direct, non-stop connection from Stortford to the Lea Valley (southbound) and King's Lynn (northbound).

 * National Cycle Route 16 passes just to the northeast of Stortford. The route is segregated from traffic, running non-stop to Great Dunmow. The route continues east on on-road and off-road routes to Braintree and Witham.

 * The Bishop's Stortford Circular Ride is a recreational cycle route on country lanes to the north of the town. The route begins and ends on Northgate End in the town centre; it passes through Patmore Heath, Stocking Pelham, Brent Pelham, Little Hormead, Braughing and Albury.

 * The River Stort towpath is a shared-use path which begins in Stortford. Running parallel to the river, the path links the town directly to Sawbridgeworth and Harlow; it eventually reaches the River Lea towpath towards Hertford, or Tottenham and London's East End. Parts of the towpath carry NCR 11. The route is maintained by the Canal and River Trust.

Landmarks
The historic core of Stortford is covered by a Conservation Area, which roughly aligns with the boundaries of the town in 1874–1894. As of the last formal Appraisal of the Conservation Area in 2014, there were 105 listed buildings in Stortford, including 71 within the Conservation Area. Two of the buildings are Grade 1 listed: Waytemore Castle and St Michael's Church. Grade II* listed buildings include 10 Bridge Street (the Black Lion pub), 30 High Street (the Boar's Head restaurant) and 8–10 High Street. Much of the Conservation Area is also an Area of Archaeological Significance.

Castle mound
Waytemore began as a motte and bailey castle in the time of William the Conqueror. A rectangular great tower was added to the motte in the 12th century. It was improved in the 13th century under King John and a licence for crenellation was granted in the mid-14th century. It lost significance after the Civil War and was used as a prison in the 17th century.

Only earthworks, the large motte, and the foundations of a square tower can now be seen.

Corn Exchange
Bishop's Stortford Corn Exchange is a Greek Revival style building completed in 1828. The use of the building as a corn exchange declined significantly in the wake of the Great Depression of British Agriculture in the late 19th century. It initially became a meeting venue, and is currently used by commercial and leisure businesses.

All Saints' Church
In 1935 All Saints' Church, Hockerill was destroyed by fire, and in 1937 a new church, to a spacious, light, and airy design by the architect Stephen Dykes Bower, was erected in its place. This is a Grade II listed building and the tower dominates the eastern skyline of the town. The church contains a notable rose window designed by Hugh Ray Easton and a two-manual Henry Willis II organ. Concerts are also held there.

Notable people

 * Cecil Rhodes, (1853–1902), the son of the vicar of St Michael's Church, was the founder of the region of Rhodesia (now Zambia and Zimbabwe), and of the De Beers diamond company and the Rhodes Scholarship.
 * Sir Walter Gilbey, 1st Baronet, businessman, wine merchant and philanthropist.
 * Caroline Spelman, Conservative MP and former cabinet minister, was born in Bishop's Stortford and attended the Hertfordshire and Essex High School.
 * Paul Epworth (born 1974), Grammy, BRIT Award and Academy Award (Oscar)-winning record producer.

Education
Stortford schools regularly appear in rankings of the best schools in the country, with Hockerill Anglo-European College, The Hertfordshire and Essex High School, and The Bishop's Stortford High School frequently being top performers in The Sunday Times Schools Guide. Hertfordshire County Council is the education authority for the state schools in Bishop's Stortford, and is responsible for admissions.

All of the state primary schools in Stortford have nurseries attached, while all of the state secondaries have sixth forms. Bishop's Stortford High School and Herts and Essex High School are a single sex boys and girls school, respectively, from years 7–11 but both have mixed-sex sixth forms. There is also an independent school, the Bishop's Stortford College, which covers ages 4 to 18.

There are no further education or higher educational institutions in Stortford. However, nearby educational options include Stansted Airport College, Harlow College, Hertford Regional College, and Cambridge Regional College.

Football
Semi-professional football team Bishop's Stortford F.C. were formed in 1874 and play at Woodside Park in the town; the stadium lies on a county boundary and is in both Hertfordshire and Essex. They are currently members of the National League North, the sixth tier of the English football pyramid. The club have won two national titles: the 1973–74 FA Amateur Cup and the 1980-81 FA Trophy; it is the first club to win both competitions. Bishop's Stortford Community Football Club are one of the largest clubs of their type in the country, with over 80 teams and nearly 1,000 members, as of the 2020–21 season.

Hockey
Bishop's Stortford Hockey Club was formed in 1948 and is based at The Hertfordshire and Essex High School, with a clubhouse and state of the art pitch. They have fourteen senior sides: six men's and eight ladies' playing in the East Hockey Leagues. The Men's 1st XI play in the East Men's Division 1 South and the Ladies' 1st XI play in the Vitality Women's Conference East. – along with a thriving junior section with over 500 members.

The club has a number of current and former international players still involved with coaching or playing, including Rob Clift (gold medallist), Bernie Cotton, Pippa Bull, Vernon Brown and Ronnie Stott, in addition to a number of senior members who still represent their country at Masters level.

Cricket
Bishop's Stortford Cricket Club play their home matches at Cricket Field Lane, which is also a home venue for Hertfordshire County Cricket Club. Thorley Cricket Club play in Bishop's Stortford and, as of 2021, had 40 adult members and over 100 children in their summer coaching programme. Hockerill Cricket Club play at their ground on Beldams Lane which they share with Bishop's Stortford Running Club. BSRC supports road running and cross-country running.

Rugby
Bishop's Stortford Rugby Football Club play in National League 1, the third tier of English rugby. In total, the club has around 700 male players across its Mini, Youth and Senior teams, as well as over 80 female players, as of 2021.

Other Sports
Public sports facilities include the Grange Paddocks swimming pool and gym, a tennis club, a squash club and a golf club. A concrete skateboard park plaza, featuring a back-and-forth run with a quarter-pipe and flat bank either side of several ledges and a rail, is located in the town park. Bishop's Stortford Town Council is investing in the facility to create a broader "teenage recreation space".

South Mill Arts
The South Mill Arts complex (formerly the Rhodes Arts Complex) incorporates a theatre, cinema, dance studio and conference facilities. Situated within the complex, in the house where Cecil Rhodes was born, is the Bishop's Stortford Museum. It has a local history collection, a unique collection relating to Rhodes and the British Empire in Africa, as well as a temporary exhibition gallery.

South Mill Arts is the town's largest live music venue. In the 1960s, the Rhodes Theatre had a string of concerts by now very high-profile musicians, who were then at the start of their careers. Performers included David Bowie, Stevie Wonder and Lulu as well as iconic bands such as The Who, The Animals, The Moody Blues, Small Faces and Wayne Fontana and The Mindbenders.

Other
Located in the town centre is the Complex, Anchor Street Entertainment, a multiplex which contains a health club, bowling alley and a number of food outlets.

The town is home to two amateur dramatics groups, The Water Lane Theatre Group and Bishop's Stortford Musical Theatre Company.

The town is home to various youth organisations and youth groups, including an Army Cadet Force detachment, an Air Training Corps squadron, Scout troops, and a GAP youth group affiliated to the Church of St James the Great in Thorley

Fairs
There is an annual Christmas Fayre in December, with over 100 stalls and family-friendly entertainment. There is also a summer Carnival, involving a procession with over 100 community groups taking part, bands, fairground rides, entertainers and stalls.

Pubs
Being a market town and major coach stop between London and Cambridge, Stortford has many large public houses within the town centre. In 1636 The Star in Bridge Street was run by John Wood. The Inn was acquired by Hawkes and Co. and bought in 1808. In the early 20th century The Star catered for cyclists, providing cycle sheds that attracted people from local villages. John Kynnersley Kirby (1894–1962), painted local scenes and portraits of local characters, painted the interior of The Star for a painting entitled The Slate Club Secretary.

Other public houses included the 15th-century Boars Head, 16th-century Black Lion, and the Curriers Arms was in Market Square from the 1700s until 1904. in the building which until recently was a Zizzi restaurant. Between 1644 and 1810, the Reindeer operated on the present site of the Tourist Information Centre.

Geography
Stortford has grown around the River Stort valley, with the town centre lying about 60 metres above sea level, rising to over 100 metres above sea level on the eastern and western margins of the town.Being in the south-east, the town enjoys a warmer climate than most of Britain and summer temperatures may sometimes reach the mid-30s C/ it is also one of the driest places in the country. Snow is often seen in the winter months because the town is near the east coast, where cold, moist air is brought in from the North Sea and cold fronts from northern Europe. In recent years there has been up to three inches of snow early in the year, which has resulted in minor disruption to transport and caused some schools to close for several days. However, the snow tends not to persist in any noticeable quantity.

Water for the town is supplied by Affinity Water. The water is classed as very hard with over 345 mg/L of minerals and 0.225 mg/L of fluoride.

Climate
Stortford, along with the rest of Britain, has a temperate maritime climate, with cool summers and mild winters. The nearest weather station for which averages and extremes are available is Stansted Airport, about 2+1/2 mi due east of Stortford's town centre. Located at an elevation of over 100 m, the weather station, and parts of Stortford in general are marginally cooler throughout the year than the Cambridgeshire area to the north or the London area to the south. Nonetheless, Stortford is still warmer than the English average.The highest temperature recorded at Stansted was 35.0 C during the August 2003 heatwave. In an average year the hottest day should reach 28.8 C, and 12.3 days will record a temperature of 25.1 C or more. The lowest temperature recorded at Stansted was -14.7 C during December 1981. Notably cold minimum temperatures tend not to occur due to the lack of higher terrain meaning little cold air drainage occurs. The average annual coldest night should fall to -7.6 C, with 47.3 air frosts being recorded in an average year.

Typically, the Stortford area will receive an average of 622 mm of rain during the course of the year. 1 mm or more of rain will be recorded on 114.7 days of the year.

Temperature averages refer to the period 1971–2000, rainfall averages to 1961–1990.

title: Bishop's Stortford


text:
San Rafael High School

San Rafael High School is a public high school located at 150 Third St. in San Rafael, California, United States.

The school is part of the San Rafael City Schools school district. Its official nickname is the Bulldog; however, its athletic teams have been known casually as the Dawgs since the mid-1980s.

The school is located on a 33 acre campus in central San Rafael.

Residents of the high school district may choose either San Rafael High or Terra Linda High School. The high school district includes San Rafael, Santa Venetia, Lucas Valley-Marinwood, and a portion of Larkspur.

History
San Rafael High School opened in 1888. The school's current campus opened in 1924. The school is cited as the 1971 origin of the time and codeword 420 in cannabis culture. Originally "420" served as a code word for "The Waldos", a group of students who would meet in front of the 1940 Benny Bufano statue of Louis Pasteur at 4:20p.m. to smoke marijuana, both near the statue and at other clandestine locations on campus grounds. The "420" moniker was in widespread use on campus during the 1974–1976 timeframe by the school stoner community. As the usage spread, the original connotations of the term "420" faded away.

San Rafael High School served as the setting for the video of the 1984 power ballad "Sister Christian" by Night Ranger.

KSRH is the school's radio station, which is completely operated by students. The station broadcasts with 10 watts of power on 88.1 FM and 107.3 Cable FM. The station takes requests during school hours at (415) 457-KSRH.

Facilities at the school were upgraded with funds from bond measures passed in 1999 and 2002.

Beginning with the 2001–2002 school year, San Rafael High School moved to an A/B rotating block schedule.

In 2006, the school scored 680 on the Academic Performance Index (API), the California Department of Education’s program for measuring school accountability. It also passed all Adequate Yearly Performance (AYP) criteria required by the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001.

In September 2008, the school served as a primary location for the independent feature film The Prankster. School was in session while filming took place and some students and teachers had background roles in the movie. Former principal Judy Colton had a small speaking part with Kurt Fuller, who played Dean Pecarino in the film.

In 2019 construction began on a new two-story building to house the school's administrative offices, a kitchen, general student commons area and classrooms along with support spaces for Madrone High School, a continuation high school on the campus of San Rafael High School.

Notable alumni
Professional baseball Professional football
 * Jerry Goff (1982) - Catcher for the Montreal Expos, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Houston Astros
 * Jesse Foppert (1998) - Pitcher for the San Francisco Giants
 * Will Venable (2001) - Outfielder for the San Diego Padres
 * Ron Snidow (1959) - Defensive tackle for the Washington Redskins and the Cleveland Browns
 * Natu Tuatagaloa (1984) - Defensive end NFL Seattle Seahawks, Cincinnati Bengals, Houston Oilers; elected to the San Rafael City Schools Board of Education in 2001

Stage and screen
 * Edgar Kennedy - actor
 * Dan Totheroh (1914) - Actor, author, playwright, and screenwriter; long-time member of the Mountain Play Association
 * Byron Stewart (1974) - Warren Coolidge on the CBS television series The White Shadow.
 * Phillip R. Ford (1979) - Entertainer and cult film director of the 1991 film Vegas in Space.
 * Whit Johnson (2000) - Co-anchor on Good Morning America

Miscellaneous
 * Harold Haley (1922) - former Marin County Superior Court Judge
 * Eleanor Garatti (1928) - Swimmer, Olympic Gold Medal winner in 1928 and 1932; 1929 world record in the 100-meter freestyle
 * Nikki Tyler (1990) - Adult film actress

title: San Rafael High School


text:
Running on Ice

Running on Ice is the second album by Vertical Horizon, released independently in 1995, and later re-released by RCA. It was produced by John Alagia (John Mayer, Dave Matthews Band), Doug Derryberry and Matt Scannell. Though still technically a duo and acoustic based, Running on Ice featured many guest musicians (most notably Carter Beauford of the Dave Matthews Band on drums), giving the album more of a full band sound. Derryberry also contributed keyboards and vocals. Two of the album's songs ("Wash Away" and "The Man Who Would Be Santa") appeared on the 2nd Aware Compilation.

Track listing

 * 1) "Heart in Hand" (Scannell) - 4:36
 * 2) "Wash Away" (Keith Kane) - 4:30
 * 3) "Fragments" (Scannell) - 3:47
 * 4) "Famous" (Kane/Scannell) - 3:03
 * 5) "The Man Who Would Be Santa" (Scannell) - 4:43
 * 6) "Angel Without Wings" (Kane) - 4:19
 * 7) "Answer Me" (Scannell) - 5:31
 * 8) "Life in the City" (Scannell) - 4:13
 * 9) "Japan" (Kane) - 5:24
 * 10) "Call it Even" (Scannell) - 3:40
 * 11) "Sunrays and Saturdays" (Scannell) - 3:33
 * 12) "Candyman" (Kane) - 4:16
 * 13) "Falling Down" (Kelly Moylan/Scannell) - 4:12
 * 14) "Goodnight My Friend" (Scannell) - 6:33

title: Running on Ice


text:
Bottesford

Bottesford may refer to:
 * Bottesford, Leicestershire, England
 * Bottesford, Lincolnshire, England

title: Bottesford


text:
Nancy Lopez

Nancy Marie Lopez (born January 6, 1957) is an American former professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1977 and won 48 LPGA Tour events, including three major championships.

Amateur career
Lopez won the New Mexico Women's Amateur at age 12 in 1969, and the U.S. Girls' Junior in 1972 and 1974, at ages 15 and 17, respectively. Shortly after graduation from Goddard High School in Roswell, she played in the U.S. Women's Open as an amateur, first in 1974 and again in 1975 where she tied for second.

As a collegiate freshman in 1976, Lopez was named All-American and Female Athlete of the Year for her play at the University of Tulsa. That year she won the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national intercollegiate golf championship and was a member of the U.S. Curtis Cup and World Amateur teams. Lopez left college after her sophomore year and turned pro in 1977, and again was the runner-up at the U.S. Women's Open.

Professional career
During her first full season on the LPGA Tour in 1978, Lopez won nine tournaments, including five consecutive. She appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated in July, won the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average, LPGA Rookie of the Year, LPGA Player of the Year and was named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year. She won another eight times in 1979, and won multiple times in each year from 1980 to 1984, although she played only half-seasons in 1983 and 1984 due to the birth of her first child.

Playing full-time again in 1985, Lopez posted five wins, five seconds, five thirds, won the money title, the scoring title, the Player of the Year Award, and was named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year for a second time. She entered only four events in 1986, when her second daughter was born, but came back with multiple wins in 1987–89 - three times each in 1988 and 1989 - and once again won Player of the Year honors in 1988. Lopez' schedule was curtailed again in the early 1990s when her third daughter was born. In 1992 she won twice. Lopez continued to play short schedules - from 11 to 18 tournaments - through 2002, then in 2003 cut back to just a half dozen or fewer events a year.

Lopez was considered to be one of the greats of women's golf, and she was the game's best player from the late 1970s to late 1980s. She won three majors, and all were at the LPGA Championship, at the same course, in 1978, 1985, and 1989. Lopez never won the U.S. Women's Open, but finished second four times, the last in 1997 when she became the first in the event's history to score under 70 for all four rounds, yet lost to Alison Nicholas. She won the Colgate-Dinah Shore in 1981, two years before it became a major, and was a runner-up three times at the du Maurier Classic in Canada.

Lopez was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1987. She was a member of the United States Solheim Cup team in 1990 and was captain of the team in 2005. Lopez retired from regular tournament play in 2002 and attempted a return in 2007 and 2008. In her return season, she played six tournaments, missed the cut in each, and only broke 80 in three of the 12 rounds. In 2008, she played in three events, with a low score of 76, never making the cut. She was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 2002.

Lopez is the only woman to win LPGA Rookie of the Year, Player of the Year, and the Vare Trophy in the same season (1978). Her company, Nancy Lopez Golf, makes a full line of women's clubs and accessories. She also does occasional television commentary.

Personal life
Lopez was married to Houston sportscaster Tim Melton from 1979 to 1982. Shortly after her divorce, she married Major League All-Star baseball player Ray Knight, then a member of the Houston Astros, in October 1982 in Pelham, Georgia. They were married for 27 years, divorcing in 2009, and have three daughters. While married, Lopez and Knight lived in Georgia in his hometown of Albany. Since 1986, she has hosted the Nancy Lopez Hospice Golf Classic at the Doublegate Country Club to raise money for Albany Community Hospice, returning yearly even after her divorce from Knight in 2009. She currently resides in The Villages, Florida where she hosts an annual golf tournament to benefit the charity AIM (Adventures in Movement), an organization that helps mentally challenged, visually impaired, hearing impaired, physically handicapped and other children and adults with special needs. She has hosted the tournament since 1981 and also serves as a national ambassador with AIM. In 2017, Lopez married for a third time to Ed Russell.

Amateur wins
this list may be incomplete
 * 1969 New Mexico Women's Amateur
 * 1970 New Mexico Women's Amateur
 * 1971 New Mexico Women's Amateur
 * 1972 U.S. Girls' Junior, Women's Western Junior
 * 1973 Women's Western Junior
 * 1974 U.S. Girls' Junior, Women's Western Junior
 * 1975 Mexican Amateur
 * 1976 AIAW National Championship, Women's Western Amateur, Women's Trans National Amateur

LPGA Tour wins (48)
Note: Lopez won the Colgate-Dinah Shore (now known as the Kraft Nabisco Championship) before it became a major championship.

LPGA Tour playoff record (8–7)

LPGA of Japan Tour wins (1)
1Co-sanctioned by the LPGA Tour
 * 1982 (1) Mazda Japan Classic1

Other wins (3)

 * 1979 Portland Ping Team Championship (with Jo Ann Washam)
 * 1980 JCPenney Mixed Team Classic (with Curtis Strange)
 * 1987 Mazda Champions (with Miller Barber)

Results timeline
^ The Women's British Open replaced the du Maurier Classic as an LPGA major in 2001. {{legend|lime|Win}} {{legend|yellow|Top 10}} {{legend|#eeeeee|Did not play}} LA = Low amateur CUT = missed the half=way cut. WD = withdrew "T" = tied

U.S. national team appearances
Amateur
 * Curtis Cup: 1976 (winners)
 * Espirito Santo Trophy: 1976 (winners)

Professional
 * Solheim Cup: 1990 (winners), 2005 (non-playing captain, winners)
 * Handa Cup: 2011 (winners), 2012 (tie, Cup retained), 2013

title: Nancy Lopez


text:
Darwen

Darwen is a market town and civil parish in the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The residents of the town are known as "Darreners". The A666 road passes through Darwen towards Blackburn to the north, Bolton to the south and Pendlebury where it joins the A6, about 18 mi north-west of Manchester. The population of Darwen stood at 28,046 in the 2011 census. The town comprises four wards and has its own town council.

The town stands on the River Darwen, which flows from south to north and is seen in parks in the town centre and next to Sainsbury's located in the town centre.

Toponym
Darwen's name is Celtic in origin. In Sub Roman Britain it was within the Brythonic kingdom of Rheged, a successor to the Brigantes tribal territory. The Brythonic language name for oak is derw and this is etymologically linked to Derewent (1208), an ancient spelling for the River Darwen. Despite the area becoming part of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria by the mid-8th century, its Brythonic name was never supplanted by an Old English place name.

History
The area around Darwen has been inhabited since the early Bronze Age, and the remains of a round barrow from approximately 2000 BCE have been partially restored at the Ashleigh Barrow in Whitehall. The barrow had ten interments, nine of which were Collared Urn burials. As well as human remains, items found at the barrow included a bronze dagger some 7.5 inches in length, a flint thumb scraper, a sub-plano-convex knife and a clay bead. Copies of the Collared Urns may be seen at the Darwen Library.

The Romans once had a force in Lancashire, and a Roman road is visible on the Ordnance Survey map of the area. Medieval Darwen was tiny and little or nothing survives. One of the earliest remaining buildings is a farmhouse at Bury Fold, dated 1675. Whitehall Cottage is thought to be the oldest house in the town, and was mostly built in the 17th and 18th centuries but contains a chimney piece dated 1557.

Like many towns in Lancashire, Darwen was a centre for textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution. Samuel Crompton, inventor of the spinning mule, lived there for part of his life. Rail links and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal arrived in the mid-19th century. The most important textile building in Darwen is India Mill, built by Eccles Shorrock & Company. The company was ruined, however, by the effects of the Lancashire Cotton Famine of the 1860s. Cotton manufacture was an important industry, and by 1907, the Darwen Weavers', Winders' and Warpers' Association had more than 8,000 members in the town.

Much of the town was built between about 1850 and 1900; placenames, date stones in terraces, and the vernacular architecture of cellars, local stone, locally-made brick, pipework and tiles and leaded glass, the last now mostly gone, reflect this. It was one of the first places in the world to have steam trams.

Andrew Carnegie financed a public library here; the town also had an art and technology college and a grammar school.

In 1931, Darwen was visited by Mahatma Gandhi, he had accepted the invitation from Corder Catchpool, Quaker manager of the Spring Vale Garden Village Ltd, to see the effects of India's boycott of cotton goods.

India Mill is now home to many companies, including Brookhouse (producers of aeroplane parts) and Capita Group, which runs TV licensing. Since the 1950s, the textile industry has strongly declined in the region, although many industrial buildings from the period survive, now used for other purposes. India Mill and its chimney have been sold in a £12 million deal.

Among Darwen's other notable industries are Crown Paints, formerly Walpamur Paints, the earliest British paint manufacturer, which named one of its paints 'Darwen Satin Finish'. Crown Wallpaper manufactured wallpaper, Lincrusta and Anaglypta in the town. ICI Acrylics (now called Lucite International) was where acrylic glass (Perspex for windows and signage, and Sani-ware or Lucite used for the manufacture of baths and shower trays) was invented; it is still manufactured in two separate plants within the town. Spitfire canopies and (later) coloured polythene washing-up bowls were first made here. A Heritage Centre opened in 2016

Governance
The municipal borough of Darwen existed for ninety-six years, from 1878. The borough was merged with Blackburn in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. The town became part of the Lancashire non-metropolitan district of Blackburn, which was renamed Blackburn with Darwen in 1997, shortly before it became a unitary authority.

The population of the town declined from 40,000 in the 1911 census to 30,000 in the 1971 census.

Locally, Darwen has been represented by Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors in the main council wards for the town. In the 2008 local elections, the For Darwen Party picked up the majority of the wards in the town to put pressure on Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council for Darwen to have its own council again. In April 2009 Darwen Town Council was formed.

There are five council wards within Darwen out of the 23 in the Borough of Blackburn with Darwen. These are:
 * Earcroft
 * Marsh House
 * Sudell
 * Sunnyhurst
 * Whitehall

Darwen had its own parliamentary constituency until 1983 when it became part of the present Rossendale and Darwen constituency. This seat is currently held by Member of Parliament Jake Berry.

Coat of arms
The coat of arms for Darwen should not be confused with the coat of arms used by the unitary authority of Blackburn with Darwen, which is the coat of arms for Blackburn.

Darwen was granted its coat of arms on 7 August 1878. At the foot of the coat of arms is the town motto in Latin Absque Labore Nihil, which translates as "Nothing without labour". The arms depicts three cotton bolls and the River Darwen which runs through the town. The cotton represents the cotton industry in which the town grew and prospered during the Industrial Revolution and the three bolls to represent the three main areas of Darwen – Over Darwen, Lower Darwen and Hoddlesden. At the helm of the coat of arms is a barred helmet representing nobility, and above it the torse in the town colours of blue and gold. At the crest a man stands shouldering a pickaxe, which refers to the town's motto and also represents the mining industry that was present to the east of the town at that time.

Education
After the passing of the Education Act 1870, many schools were established to serve the ever-growing population. Many were later demolished.

Darwen Aldridge Community Academy opened in September 2008 at the premises of the former Darwen Moorland High School on the outskirts of the town, which had closed in July 2008 to reopen as the academy after the summer holidays. All pupils from Darwen Moorland transferred to the academy. Pupils have subsequently moved down to the new site, into a state-of-the-art £49m academy, with sixth form and modern facilities.

Darwen Vale High School was temporarily moved to the old Moorland site whilst a new build was completed on the original site. The original school façade was incorporated into the new build, and Darwen Vale transferred back to the original site in 2012. However, the move had caused major issues with the management at the school, which led to the head leaving and a new head taking over in 2013. Later in 2013, Ofsted ruled that the school was failing and the government ordered the school's conversion to academy status, sponsored by the Aldridge Foundation, despite teaching staff and parents protesting governmental imposition on the school's management.

In September 2013 Darwen Aldridge Enterprise Studio opened and in 2014 the school moved to its permanent home in the renovated former Model Lodging House on Police Street.

In January 2022 Crosshill School completed a £2million move from Blackburn Central High School to the vacant Sunnyhurst Centre on Salisbury Road, with the move adding extra places at the school, Crosshill is part of the Champion Education Trust.

Location
Darwen is located amid the West Pennine Moors south of Blackburn, it stands within a valley with the River Darwen flowing at its base. The river passes through the town from south to north, subsequently joining the River Ribble, which flows into the Irish Sea between Lytham St Annes and Southport. The A666 road follows the valley through the town centre as part of its route from the Ribble Valley, north of Blackburn, to Bolton and the boundary between Pendlebury and Irlams o' th' Height in Salford. The town's weather conditions made it perfect for cotton weaving and as a result it became one of the largest mill towns in Lancashire.

The Guinness Book of Records records that Darwen had one of the largest flash floods in the United Kingdom, in 1848; 12 people died.

Darwen Jubilee Tower
In 1897 the town council met to deliberate how best to celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. The idea of building the Jubilee Tower, in conjunction with public access to the moors, was put forward. A competition to design the tower was won by Ralph Ellison from the borough engineer's department and on 22 June 1897 work began. On 24 September 1898 the opening ceremony was held, attended by over 3,000 people. Present at the ceremony were Councillor Alexander Carus, Mayor Charles Huntington, the High Sheriff of Lancashire and Lord of the Manor Rev. W.A. Duckworth.

The tower, which is open to the public, overlooks the town from the moors and stands at an altitude of 1,227 ft (374m) and has a height of 85 ft (26m). A spiral staircase leads to the top from where, on a clear day, Blackpool Tower, the Isle of Man, North Wales and the Furness Peninsula can be seen. In November 2010 the dome of the tower was blown off by strong winds. The dome was restored in January 2012.

Darwen Library
Originally situated in the Peel Street, the library was transferred to the new technical school building in 1895.

Today, Darwen Library stands at the corner of Knott Street and School Street to the north of the Circus. It was commissioned by Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish migrant to the USA who made his fortune as a producer of iron and steel. He donated £8,000 in response to a speculative appeal for funds by the Library Committee. The opening took place on 27 May 1908 and was attended by Mayor Councillor G.P. Holde, Councillor Ralph Yates and Carnegie himself. The library has served the town ever since, with the original lecture hall being transformed into the Library Theatre in June 1971. On 27 April 2017 the library and theatre were designated as a Grade II listed building.

Darwen Town Hall
Darwen Town Hall was opened on 11 July 1882 and the clock tower was added in 1899 when Dr. James Ballantyne became mayor. In the 1920s part of the market ground was made into the town's bus station which still remains today. Although local government proceedings were transferred to Blackburn in the 1970s, the council chambers remained in the building, and were used by the magistrates' court from 1983 until 1992. The town hall currently houses offices of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council and the local Neighbourhood Policing Team, and is a venue for meetings of the Darwen Town Council established in 2009. Five shop units opened in 2011.

Parks
Darwen has four parks. Three of the parks in Darwen are on the west of the main road through the town, with paths leading to countryside and to Jubilee Tower. The fourth, and newest park, is Ashton Park, which is on the east side of Bolton Road, just behind the Spinners Arms public house.

Bold Venture Park
Bold Venture Park stands to the west of the town, at the foot of the moors and the path which leads to the Jubilee Tower. The land in which the park lies was bought by Darwen Corporation from Rev. W.A. Duckworth. It was designed by R. W. Smith-Saville, the borough engineer, and opened in 1889.

Sunnyhurst Wood
Sunnyhurst Wood was originally owned by the Brock-Hollinshead family and used for hunting stag. The area was later sold to Eccles Shorrock. To commemorate the coronation of Edward VII the land was turned into a public park on 2 July 1903.

Whitehall Park
Whitehall Park is a 16 acre park in the south of the town. It was opened in 1879 on land acquired from John Adamson.

Transport
Darwen sits in a large valley strung along the A666 road along the valley floor. It is connected to the motorway system at Junction 4 of the M65 at Earcroft, on the town's northern boundary, and considerable traffic passes through the town centre along the A666, causing high levels of air pollution. The local council has recently attempted to address the situation by adding a new road layout to the town centre, with public transport and junction improvements to reduce traffic.

Darwen stands along the Ribble Valley railway line, operated by Northern. Darwen railway station has up to two trains per hour between Blackburn and Rochdale (via Bolton and Manchester); one train per hour continues beyond Blackburn to Clitheroe.

Darwen's bus terminal (Darwen Circus) hosts buses up to every 12 minutes to Blackburn/Accrington on weekdays. There is also a service, every 20 minutes on weekdays and hourly on Sundays, to Bolton and Clitheroe, but the Bolton service terminates at 7:00pm. Both services are operated by Blackburn Bus Company.

In 2008 the "Pennine Reach" scheme, to improve public transport between Darwen, Blackburn and Hyndburn, was proposed by Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen councils, including plans for the addition of bus lanes to the A666. However, it has been controversial, with some residents placing "Say no to Bus Lane, we don't want it" signs in their windows, and the neighbouring district of Hyndburn pulled out of the scheme. The scheme was put on hold in 2010 as local authorities reviewed their spending after their budgets were cut, before being abandoned later in the year due to lack of government funding, and the councils are now looking at other ways to improve public transport.

In 2004 Crown Wallcoverings, previously one of the biggest businesses in the town, closed with the loss of more than 200 jobs. The Crown building was a large redbrick ten-storey building with numerous chimneys. In 2006 the empty building and the 200 foot (60 m) chimney was demolished.

Culture and community
The Darwen News published a Maudley Medley on 9 March 1878:

'Tween two hillsides, both bleak and barren,

Lies lovely little "Dirty Darren"

The locals refer to themselves as Darreners. They are generally resistant to any attempts at submerging the identity of the town within Blackburn. A motorway service area at junction 4 of the M65 motorway lies within the town, and was originally named "Blackburn Services". Following local protests it was renamed "Blackburn with Darwen Services".

The town is the home of the Darwen Library Theatre (an extension to the library), and the TV show Hetty Wainthropp Investigates. Darwen has a few footnotes in entertainment history: its theatre (now demolished) had appearances by Charlie Chaplin, and it featured in the film, There Was a Crooked Man, which starred Norman Wisdom and Alfred Marks.

The Beatles played in Darwen on Friday 25 January 1963, at the Co-operative Hall. They headlined "The Greatest Teenage Dance" which was commissioned by the Darwen Baptist Youth Club. Support acts included the Electones, the Mike Taylor Combo and the Mustangs with Ricky Day.

Religion
The Parish Church of Darwen is St Peter's, a large and active Anglican church consecrated in 1829. Further Anglican Churches in Darwen include St Cuthbert's (consecrated in 1878) serving the north of the town, and St Barnabas' (built 1884) serving the south.

Darwen Methodist Church meets on two sites in the town, at Bright Street and Spring Vale.

The Medina Mosque and Islamic Centre, Darwen's first mosque, is located on Victoria Street.

Faizaan e Jamal e Mustafa, Darwen's second mosque, is located on Railway Road. It was opened in 2018.

Music
Darwen has its own music school, Darwen School of Music (formerly Elite School of Music), situated on Blackburn Road. The school has a majority focus on popular music.

Darwen Live (formerly Darwen Music Live) is a free two-day music festival held each year over the second bank holiday in May. The main stage is built outside the town hall, and other smaller music stages are usually based around the town in pubs and bars. The festival has attracted artists such as Buzzcocks, China Crisis, Toyah and Paul Young, as well as being a showcase for local bands.

Darwen has one of the oldest brass bands in the country. Now named Blackburn and Darwen Band, its roots can be traced back to 1840. Another brass band, Darwen Brass, was formed in 2007 and under MD Steve Hartley has enjoyed many notable competition successes, including 4th section wins throughout the North West. In 2012 Darwen Brass qualified for the National Brass Band Championships, finishing 5th. The band was promoted to the 3rd section from the start of 2013.

Media
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC North West and ITV Granada. Television signals are received from the Winter Hill and the local relay transmitters.

Local radio stations are BBC Radio Lancashire, Heart North West, Smooth North West, Capital Manchester and Lancashire, Greatest Hits Radio Lancashire, and Central Radio North West, a community based station.

The Lancashire Telegraph is the local newspaper that covers the town.

Sport
The town was the home of Darwen Football Club, formed in 1870 and the world's first football club to have paid professional players. The team reached the semi-final of the FA Cup in 1880-81 and played in the Football League at the Barley Bank ground between 1891 and 1899. The club was wound up at the end of the 2008–09 season and replaced almost immediately by A.F.C. Darwen. The new club plays in the First Division North of the North West Counties Football League and is based at the Anchor Ground.

The town has a strong cricketing tradition and Darwen Cricket Club was originally founded in the late 1800s as Darwen Etrurians CC playing at Barley Bank. The current club was constituted in 1911 and since 1920 has been based at Birch Hall Cricket Ground. The club was a founder member of the Northern League in 1951 winning that competition five times before successfully applying to play in the Lancashire League from the 2017 season. This change heralded a golden era for the club and within 5 seasons, it had won every club competition in the county. Twice holders of the Worsley Cup (2017 and 2019), T20 champions in 2021 and LCF Knockout Cup winners in 2018 with the set completed when crowned 2022 Lancashire League champions after defeating Greenmount by 13 runs on 4 September 2022. Past Professionals include David Wiese, George Linde (SA) Keith Semple (WI) and Scott Hookey (AUS). Following a successful debut season, Punit Bisht (IND) has been retained as the club's paid man for 2024 and 2025.

To the north-west of the town lies Darwen Golf Club. The characteristics of the course have changed little since the club was established in 1893. Due to its geographical location within the moors, the course is regarded as a tough test of golfing ability.

Until the sports centre was demolished, Darwen was home to the North West Open Karate tournament, which hosted many national and world champions. Tower Shukokai Karate Club was resident at the sports centre from 1988 and remains active. Tower's instructors, Andy Allwood, 5th Dan and Martyn Skipper 4th Dan, both won this tournament in their respective weight categories (Allwood, heavyweight, in the 1990s and Skipper, lightweight, in 2006 after the tournament had moved to Bury). In 2013 Martyn Skipper won the WUKF European Veterans' title when the European Championships were held in Sheffield.

Notable people

 * Neil Arthur, lead vocalist of 1980s group Blancmange
 * Alan Bolton, Lancashire county cricketer (1939–2003)
 * Brian Booth, Lancashire and Leicestershire county cricketer (1935–2020)
 * Dick Burton, golf's Open champion, 1939 (who went on to hold the Claret Jug for seven years after the Championship was suspended because of the Second World War)
 * Ed Chapman (artist) born at Bull Hill, in Darwen, went to St. Cuthbert's Primary School 1975–81.
 * Margaret Chapman (née Duxbury), illustrator and painter (1940–2000)
 * Samuel Crompton, inventor of the Spinning Mule built and lived at Low Hill House, Bury Fold Lane in Darwen.
 * Alex Davies, cricketer (born 1994)
 * Charles Fletcher-Cooke, MP for Darwen from 1951 – 1983, was responsible for the Suicide Act (1961), which decriminalised the act of suicide in the UK.
 * Edward Harwood, composer (1707–1787)
 * Bryn Haworth, British singer-songwriter and acclaimed slide guitarist and mandolin player was brought up in Darwen (born 1948)
 * Alan Kendall Lead guitarist with the Bee Gees between 1971-1980 and 1987-2001(born 1944)
 * Timothy Marsden (1865–1932), footballer
 * Mark Patterson, Premiership football player for Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers. Born 1965
 * Harold Readett (1910–1990), football player in the 1930s.
 * Fergus Suter, footballer. Joined Darwen FC in 1878 from Partick and is widely regarded as the world's first professional footballer (1857–1916)
 * Kimmie Taylor (born 1989), English fighter with the Kurdish Women's Protection Units
 * Richard Thornber (1866–1911), footballer
 * Sam Wadsworth, England international footballer 1922–26, was captain of the England team and a member of the Huddersfield Town team which won a hat-trick of Football League Championships in 1923–24, 1924–25 and 1925–26.
 * James Watson, award-winning author (born 1936)
 * Doreen Massey, Baroness Massey of Darwen, Peer in the House of Lords, educator, public servant, born 1938.

Twin towns

 * Lamin, Gambia

title: Darwen