Artwork to celebrate first Western movie filmed in Blackburn

A Western movie, which was shot in Blackburn and believed to be the first, is to be celebrated with artwork.

Kidnapping By Indians was filmed in 1899 in Lancashire by pioneering movie makers Mitchell and Kenyon.

The artwork will feature 40 arrows embedded into the end of a terraced house where the film was made.

A short film clip was found in a shop basement in Northgate in 1994. Artist Jamie Holman helped uncover the links between the film clip and Blackburn.

He has now submitted the planning application with artist group Uncultured Creatives for the artwork which will be 19ft (5.7m) off the ground.

Kidnapping by Indians follows the plot of a young girl who is rescued after being captured

Mr Holman said: "We are proud to commemorate that the world's first Western was made here in Blackburn town centre."

He added: "It's an extraordinary story that I am proud to tell on behalf of Mitchell and Kenyon."

Kidnapping by Indians follows the plot of a young girl being kidnapped by native Americans before being rescued in a gunfight.

It was shot in fields close to Blackburn with local mill workers also used in the silent black and while film as well as local actors.

The pewter arrows have so far taken six months to make

Blackburn with Darwen Council's leader Phil Riley told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "This was the starting point of what would become a key Hollywood genre."

He added the artwork will be "a lasting feature and a real talking point in the town".

Most film critics had cited Edwin S Porter's 1903 The Great Train Robbery, based on a real raid by outlaw Butch Cassidy, as the first Western before the Blackburn discovery.

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