Blackbury

Blackbury is a fictional English town, created by Terry Pratchett and featured in "The Bromeliad" and the "Johnny Maxwell" books.

Its exact location is unclear, but it seems to be in South-West England, probably the somewhere in the downlands. A real Blackbury Castle exists in Devon, which might or might not be relevant. In the television adaptation of "Johnny and the Bomb" Blackbury is near Manchester. It could be somewhere in Central England, as mention of a fictional news team from "Mid-Midlands News" is made. In addition it is mentioned as being too far from London for any real interest in its heritage sites, like the cemetery.

Blackbury is an almost unnaturally ordinary British town. Like most towns, it is centred on a High Street which was once full of little shops but is now a pedestrian precinct, containing benches designed to be uncomfortable, so that people don't sit on them and make the place untidy, and flower beds which sport a bright and varied selection of crisp packets. Near the precinct is the Neil Armstrong Shopping Mall, site of the Arnco Super Saverstore and noted for its Christmas display of Dolls of All Nations. It is also famous in computer circles as the site of J&J Software, where the first reports of something odd happening to the computer game "Only You Can Save Mankind" originated.

Also in the High Street is the Arnco Leisure Centre, which was built on the site of the old Arnold Bros. Department Store, the foundation of the Arnco Group. Older residents who worked at Arnold Bros. recall odd things happening on occasion, facetiously attributed to "gnomes" living under the floorboards. Some former workers jokingly suggest this might also explain the lorry that was stolen the night before the demolition.

On Cemetery Road is Blackbury Cemetery, which achieved brief fame during the public protests when the municipal authority attempted to sell it to United Amalgamated Conglomerated Holdings. It is noted for the number of internees who might have been famous, but weren't. Opposite the cemetery is the U.A.C.H. building, on the site of the old Blackbury Rubber Boot Company factory.

Past the Methodist chapel at the end of the High Street is the former site of Paradise Street and the Blackbury Preserves pickle factory. Both were destroyed in the "Blackbury Blitz" of World War II, when the factory was mistaken for the goods yard at the nearby town of Slate. Thanks to an amazing turn of speed by Tom Maxwell, one of the soldiers on Blackdown, there were no fatalities.

People in the town centre are advised to listen out for Mrs. Tachyon, a bag lady who has been in the town for over seventy years, and has appeared sixty throughout them. If they fail to get out of her way, she will run them over with her shopping trolley full of mysterious bags.

Beyond the town centre is the Joshua N'Clement Block, a fourteen-storey tower block built in 1965 and named after a famous revolutionary leader and, as it turned out, embezzler. It is crowded, poorly maintained and known for gangs.

Blackbury appears decidedly unremarkable. But it depends on how you look at it.