the estate in an editorial following the celebrations: The park would soon be host to another massive gathering. When eleven brass bands gathered on the upper terrace of the park in 1861 more than 50,000 people gathered to listen. Cost The full cost to the borough as reported in the Blackburn Weekly Times on 24 October 1857 are as follows. All figures are in pounds, shillings and pence. The Times went on to report that "This sum will have to be repaid in 40 years, i.e. one fortieth part in each year, with interest. The average cost, therefore, to the town for that period will be upwards of £500 per annum, or one penny in the pound on the present assessment. This may well be regarded as a triumph of social economy". 19th century The blockade of trade goods, supplies, and arms (including cotton shipments) from the Confederacy by the Union during the American Civil War brought about a severe depression in the region's textile industry known as the Lancashire Cotton Famine. From 1863 to 1864 construction of the Broad Walk, adjoining paths leading to the upper slopes, a carriage drive to the summit and general improvements to the surrounding scarped terrain were undertaken as a public works to provide employment for hundreds of cotton operatives during this depression. The paths were paved with stones from the quarries on the upper slopes. Over sixty years later in 1936 the Blackburn Times reported that "crowds of young men and maidens would walk four or five abreast, promenading from end to end between 3 o'clock and 4.30". In 1867 the land of the Red Rake Farm on Revidge Road was purchased by the Council with the aim of adding it to the enclosure of the park at some future date. The land cost £1,200, and was intended for sporting use including tennis courts and bowling greens. The park's tennis courts are situated on this land to this day. The statue of Flora, the Roman Goddess of flowers and spring was presented in 1871 by T. H. Fairhurst. The statue was the work of Thomas Allen of Liverpool who moved to the town in 1870 and created a number of other works in the area, including honeycombed facing stones on the Old Bank in Higher Church Street and the carving on the side of the old YMCA building near Sudell Cross (now the