THERE can’t be many houses in East Lancashire with such a rich history as Bank House in Blackburn believed to be the oldest house in the borough. Some buildings might boast a plaque to mark a former occupant or significant event but this Grade II listed building off Dukes Brow actually has two. Dating to Jacobean times, where the historic house stands was the spot of one of an important events during the English Civil War. Sir Gilbert Hoghton whose ancestral home was at Hoghton Tower, led his royalist forces against the Parliamentarian army which had taken Blackburn. On Christmas Day, 1642 he tried - and failed - to overcome the republican army by turning his cannon on to the town below.