55-625: Helmshore ( / h ɛ l m ˈ ʃ ɔːr / ) is a village in the Rossendale Valley , Lancashire , England, south of Haslingden between the A56 and the B6235, 16 miles (26 km) north of Manchester . The population at the 2011 census was 5,805. The housing in Helmshore is mixed, with some two-up, two-down terraces, top-and-bottom houses and a few surviving back-to-back cottages. Between
110-581: A Hargreaves Spinning Jenny . It also houses a museum and bookshop selling, among other things, books on local textile history. In 1856 Joseph Porritt established Sunnybank Mill, an enormous mill that once housed the world's largest spinning mules. The other main Helmshore mill dynasty were the Whittakers, one of whose mills makes up part of the Textile Museum. Every year, an athletics race takes place in Helmshore – The Musbury Tor Mile. The race
165-571: A 179m-long German military Zeppelin airship flew over Helmshore on a bombing mission. It was probably following the railway, attempting to inflict damage on the transport system. One bomb dropped near Clod Lane, Haslingden , where there was a gun cotton factory. Ewood Bridge station was destroyed by bombs and, after passing over Helmshore, the Zeppelin flew on to Holcombe where it did further damage. The biggest poultry supplier in Britain during
220-537: A drink. The road was believed to be a pilgrims' route to Whalley Abbey , but more recently it has been identified as a drove road. The well was likely to have been a resting place on this route. There was an annual Robin Hood festival celebrated in Bury until 1810. The route today is a popular recreation site for walkers and cyclists, and is the way from the valley to the cairn of Ellen Strange. Deep into Alden Valley, on
275-527: A ghost train whose whistle has been heard in the Snig Hole area. There's another railway story, relating to a murder in a trackside hut on the disused line between Helmshore and Ramsbottom , close to Irwell Vale . The railway that ran through Helmshore was closed in 1966 as part of the Beeching Axe , but relics of the old railway routes remain in and around the village. The Helmshore viaduct, close to
330-460: A house for himself, sufficiently distant from his own mills and the associated poverty. Porritt bought up most of the farmhouses in the valley, making his family the largest landowner. The Porritts were great tree-planters and planted most of the wooded areas seen today in the lower valley. Later, in the early 1900s, it was remodelled and extended by the Porritt family. From 1949 until 1982 it housed
385-489: A live shell. According to the West Pennine Way guide, American GIs set up camp on the flat top of Musbury Tor to practise paratroop drops and field exercises in the area with live ammunition before D-Day. In December 2019 work started at Alden Ratchers, the high moorland at the head of Alden valley. This work continued until April 2020. The area is blanket bog that was formed over 6,000 years, and this has led to
440-422: A peat layer of up to three metres deep. Over the past century, much of this bog has been badly damaged, mostly by attempts to drain the land believing it would improve grazing. The effect of the drainage has caused a number of environmental problems. The land is no longer as suitable for breeding moorland birds and it has increased the likelihood of flooding downstream, which has become an increasing problem affecting
495-438: A woollen fulling mill powered by two water wheels; later replaced by the one still in existence (now part of the museum). One of the next generation of the family, William Turner (1793-1852) added a larger wool carding and spinning mill, which was steam-powered, in the 1820s. Its chimney is still standing on the opposite hill-side. After a fire in the 1860s the mill was rebuilt, and was later sold to Lawrence Whitaker and his sons in
550-665: Is a small valley on the eastern edge of the West Pennine Moors , west of Helmshore in Rossendale, Lancashire , England. In the 14th century it was part of the Earl of Lincoln's hunting park. By 1840 it was home to about twenty farms, largely involved in cattle rearing, although most inhabitants were also involved with the production of textiles, which quickly developed during the Industrial Revolution into
605-452: Is described as 'Queen Isabel's park of Musbury', and fines were being applied for trespass to, among others, the rector of Bury . Stretches of the ditch enclosure are clearly visible at Grane and Alden valleys, and deer are still occasionally seen in the area. There are several current placenames identifying the Park. One of the main early tracks that passed through Helmshore was a route from
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#1732791397976660-521: Is disputed. Nevertheless, the parcel of land including the Alden section of the old game park was rented to Adam Haworth in 1527. His estate centred on Great House. The first Great House was built at the same time as the Deer Park was laid out. A date stone from a second Great House is built into the nearby farm building with the date 1600 and the initials RHAH (probably Ralph and Alice Haworth, who owned
715-435: Is now managed by Lancashire County Council Museums Service and details the changes made in textile technology over the last three hundred years through the use of interactive displays. Mill ponds, weirs, sluice gates and an aqueduct are also part of the museum as well as a 19th-century working waterwheel, fulling stocks and other machinery associated with the finishing of woollen cloth, an original Arkwright water frame , and
770-508: Is on Beetle Hill that overlooks the Valley, south of Alden Farm. It can reached by following the track to Robin Hood's Well and continuing onto the moorland. In 1304–05 Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln , nominated a large area of land from Grane to Alden Valley as a deer park . There's some uncertainty about the exact size of the park as there are no contemporary records, but it appears to have been between 900 and 1100 acres. A huge ditch
825-554: Is some evidence of human habitation in the area during the Neolithic period: stone implements found on Bull Hill and in the Musbury valley, and the stones at Thirteen Stone Hill near Grane , and there are a relatively complex network of both local and long-distance old tracks crossing the area. The village is dominated by the spectacular flat-topped Musbury Tor , once the centre of the medieval hunting park, or Forest. Either side of
880-406: Is still the base of a wall of one of the mill buildings in the woods close by, and a large cutting into the hillside. These are some of the only remnants of the mill to survive. On Stake Lane, the moor road south from Dowry Head, is a well associated with the legend of Robin Hood . Legend has it that a depression in a stone above a spring there was where Robin Hood put his foot while stopping for
935-422: Is told of the murder of a young woman by her lover on the footpath to Edgworth above and to the south of Alden Valley. Above Robin Hood's Well, the site is marked by an old cairn, and a stone carved by Rossendale-based artist Don McKinlay was erected by Horse and Bamboo Theatre at a special performance in 1978. The story was also commemorated by a Victorian ballad written by John Fawcett Skelton. The memorial
990-474: The spring line . Christopher Cronkshaw did this and built Cronkshawfold Farm in 1631. Top o' th' Rake was built immediately afterwards, at the site of the present Alden Farm. In the early 19th century the last of the Alden valley farms was built at Spring Bank, on the south-facing slopes of the valley. These farms had access to Holcombe Moor, which enabled them to supplement the resources of their direct landholdings. Many of them had rights to graze animals, but also
1045-702: The 'ease' of the scattered population providing access to the Mass and the sacraments. After the move made by the Cistercian monks of Stanlow to Whalley at the end of the 13th century, traffic would have increased along this route. In April 2020 the historian Mark Fletcher, in an article 'So Who Were the Medieval Pilgrims?' questioned this theory, and suggested the perhaps rather more plausible alternative that these 'pilgrims routes' were actually used by drovers, moving livestock from grazing areas to markets. To
1100-474: The 1790s on, small mills were built on the river valleys, such as Alden Valley where there are still ruins, close to the farming areas – indeed most mill-owners were also farmers. But by the latter half of the 19th century these mills became redundant and industry expanded enormously as mill owners such as the Turner family built terraced dwellings to house the workforce necessary to run their cotton mills close to
1155-587: The 1920s. Flaxmoss House on Campion Drive was built as the Turners' residence. Turners also built Tan Pits, a dye works, and the seven-storey, steam-powered Hollin Bank (or Middle Mill) which was built for power looms The area expanded with the opening of the railway in 1848, and new buildings included the Station Hotel and St Thomas's Church (1851/2). One of the new mill owners who contributed to this expansion
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#17327913979761210-465: The 1960s, Aspin mentions American paratroopers landing on Bull Hill in the autumn of 1941. He also mentions seeing, as a boy, GIs camped near the bullock sheds above Great House, just before D-Day , and the practicing with live ammunition in Alden Valley. Local historian Chris Aspin mentions a number of ghost stories relating to Helmshore. The 1860 rail accident (see above) has led to stories of
1265-514: The 1970s and 2020 new housing estates have proliferated. The area around Helmshore is moorland. Post- Ice Age this would have been forested, and bog oak can still be found on the flat peatland tops over 250 metres high. The forest declined in the Neolithic period, and largely disappeared during the Bronze Age , mainly as a result of climatic change although hastened by human activity. There
1320-512: The 19th century on the site of his smaller and older mills. For a time it had the longest loom in the world and was one of the world's largest producers of industrial felt (mainly for papermaking). His quarries in the Alden Valley provided stone for his buildings in St Annes on Sea . In the 1970s the mill was sold to developers and was eventually demolished in 1977, including the chimney which had been one of Helmshore's dominant landmarks. There
1375-694: The English countryside. The boundary would have been close to the old White Horse (Anacapri) along Alden Road to the lodge below Alden Farm. From there it is still recognisable as it climbs the hill. It then crosses Green Height into Musbury and runs down to Musbury Brook, eventually appearing in Grane and close to the Holden Arms. From this point there are no more signs of the earthworks, but it emerged in Station Road, Helmshore, and from there led back to
1430-536: The Snig Hole/Ravenshore footpath has been upgraded. Helmshore has had a second major expansion since the 1970s with the building of a large number of new estates, and infill, often for commuters to Manchester. Helmshore was the site of the 2016 murder of businesswoman Sadie Hartley . In 2001 the American musical group The Factory Incident released an EP entitled Helmshore . Karl Hill, one of
1485-495: The Tor are two valleys: Alden Valley in the south-west and Musbury Valley to the north-west. The 'whole land of Musbury' was granted to John de Lacy (before 1241) by Lewis de Bernavill. A licence for a 'free warren' was granted to the Earl of Lincoln in 1294. Work on fencing the Park was completed by 1304–05, with palings being erected. The park, with its 'herbage and agistments' was said to be worth 13s. 4d. in 1311. In 1329 and 1330 it
1540-545: The White Horse. It would have been stocked with fallow deer . There was at least one gate through the pale in Alden Valley. In 1323 a park-keeper (a parker) was employed and earned 45s 6d (£2.31) a year. By 1480 no park-keepers were employed, and in 1507 parcels of the land that made up the Park were rented out. The site of the original manor house was believed by the historian Thomas Hayhurst to be where Great House Farm cottages are, backing onto Musbury Tor, although this
1595-427: The brakes there was a jerk and 16 carriages broke away from the train and started sliding down the line between Helmshore and Ramsbottom . Mr Shaw, the superintendent, saw what had happened and unhooked the engine from the train in order to go down the other line to warn the third train, but unfortunately he was too late. The carriages had already run 400 yards down the line and collided with the oncoming train." One of
1650-529: The building of textile mills. These have now been demolished and the valley is dominated by sheep grazing, with three working farms and a number of smallholdings. To the north and north-west is Musbury Tor , to the south-west at the head of the valley is Scholes Height, to the west is Musden Head Moor and Burnt Hill. To the south is Bull Hill and the Holcombe Moor, to the south-east is Beetle Hill. Alden Brook forms from several streams draining Wet Moss on
1705-485: The fell running tradition of the area. Rossendale Valley Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.226 via cp1108 cp1108, Varnish XID 253417778 Upstream caches: cp1108 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 10:56:38 GMT Alden Valley The Alden Valley
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1760-465: The guitarists, named it as a tribute to his late mother, Joyce Bargh Hill, who was born in Haslingden and raised in Helmshore. Originally Higher Mill, Helmshore Mills Textile Museum is a water-powered fulling mill and a 19th-century condenser cotton spinning mill, with working machinery. Built by the Turners in 1789, and rescued from dereliction by Derek Pilkington and Chris Aspin in the 1960s, it
1815-399: The house at that date). Below Great House, surrounded by trees and south of Musbury Tor, is Tor Side House. This was built about 1868 by Joseph Porritt for his own occupation. The relative tranquility of Alden Valley (and the fact that it was to the west, and protected by the prevailing wind from the smoke from his own mills) provided a suitable place for his son, William John Porritt, to create
1870-471: The line between Snig Hole and the Ogden Viaduct, both local beauty spots, 400 yards from Helmshore station . About 3,000 people had gone from East Lancashire on three excursion trains to Salford to visit the attractions at Belle Vue Gardens. The second train with about 1,000 passengers and 31 carriages got to Helmshore Station where it stopped to let out some passengers. "When the guard released
1925-464: The north side of the brook, can be found the ruins of Alden Old Mill, an old bleach works built by Robert 'Rough Robin' Pilkington. He acquired his name because of his invariable habit of claiming the weather was 'a bit rough'. Still known as the Township of Pilkington, the ruins of his farm (Spring Bank Farm) can be found above the ruined mill. He enclosed common land and would not pay his rates and
1980-629: The north-western slopes of Scholes Height, which join after flowing through several gullies at an area known as Alden Ratchers. It is the last of the River Ogden 's tributaries to join before it joins the River Irwell . It has been suggested the name Alden derives from Old English ælf ('elf') + denu ('valley'), thus meaning 'elf-valley'. although the Old English root alor ( alder tree) seems an equally likely element. A story
2035-469: The offices of Great House Experimental Farm. In 2010 it was the setting for the BBC drama series Survivors . In the 17th century it became possible to buy up parcels of land outside of the old park boundary, and thus create new farm holdings. There are still remaining ridge and furrow rows visible under certain conditions, demonstrating past land cultivation. The majority of these farmsteads are situated on
2090-484: The opening of St. Anne's Pier, organising special trains that ran from Helmshore Station. Porritt mills included the water-powered Bridge End Mill and the huge Sunnybank Mill, which at one time was reputed to have the longest loom in the world. Their mills were famous for industrial felts, some of which were used in the production of bank notes. In 1922 Porritt donated the Memorial Gardens with its clock-tower to
2145-412: The right of turbary . This meant the right to cut peat to use as fuel, as well as to make turf embankments. There was also the right to dig stone on their land. Most of the farms built in the 17th century would have combined farming with textile making, with a loom or two in one of the farmhouse rooms. By the end of the 18th century the first small water-powered mills were built in Alden. Midge Hole Mill
2200-462: The roads and railways. During this period Helmshore gradually superseded Musbury as the main name for the community. Helmshore became a mill workers' settlement, comprising an extensive area of woollen and cotton mills and associated workers' housing built along the valley of the River Ogden. The Turner family first established the settlement, buying land in 1789 and building Higher Mill as
2255-399: The second half of the 19th century, as the large mills of Turner and Porritt and others and associated housing grew up in Helmshore around the turnpikes and railway . The outlying mills in Alden were no longer practical, and the valley reverted to farming. The estate built in the late 1990s above Wood Bank in Helmshore is the site of Sunny Bank Mill , built by Joseph Porritt at the end of
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2310-480: The site in June 1978, during which a memorial stone carved by Liverpool artist Don McKinlay was unveiled. These routes fell into disuse for anything other than foot traffic after the turnpike improvements of the 19th century. Helmshore owes its development to a damp climate that was ideally suited to the development of the wool , cotton and linen industries. During the early part of the Industrial Revolution , from
2365-561: The south (by the Pilgrim's Cross which was in existence in AD 1176) on Holcombe Moor, and then goes through Haslingden on its way to Whalley . This also connected with Watling Street at Affetside , and a well-established way from Bolton to Rossendale. In Anglo-Saxon times, Whalley church was an important Minster and the mother church of an enormous parish. Later, in the medieval period, several chapels-of-ease were attached to Whalley church for
2420-466: The south on the old pilgrim road is Robin Hood's Well, and above that is a cairn and memorial stone in memory of Ellen Strange, generally believed to be a young girl murdered by her lover – an event recorded in a Victorian ballad by John Fawcett Skelton but now known to be a murder of a wife by a husband in 1761 that has become replaced by a colourful, but fictional, story. The ballad was commemorated by Bob Frith and Horse and Bamboo Theatre by an event at
2475-513: The textile museum, is now a footpath. The Ravenshore viaduct has been vandalised but remains a considerable monument to the railway heritage. Remedial work has been done during 2018/19 to the viaducts relating to Sustrans cycle route, known as 'The Scenic Route Branch Line', part the National Cycle Network Route 6. It links Accrington down through Rossendale via Haslingden and Helmshore to Ramsbottom . As part of this work
2530-401: The village of Helmshore and downstream. The peat is also no longer able to store carbon, something which makes it such a valuable resource in reducing the carbon in our atmosphere. A number of agencies including Natural England and the local Commoners' Association have supported this work. It has a number of aims, including creating permeable dams to restrict the flow of flood water. This work
2585-527: The village. Holden Wood Manufacturing Company, know locally as the Bleach Works, and earlier as Nobels, produced a top secret propellent for aircraft as part of the World War II effort. It was situated at the north of the village, below the reservoirs, on a site that spread across both sides of Holcombe Road. It closed in 1997 and at the time of closure it manufactured cellulose paper, some of which
2640-575: The war was Rodwells, who had a large poultry operation between Irongate and Kenyon Clough off Holcombe Road, to the south of Helmshore. By post-war standards it was fairly small, but large-scale poultry production only started elsewhere in the UK during the 1960s. The West Pennine Way guide mentions that American GIs set up camp on the flat top of Musbury Tor to practice paratroop drops and field exercises with live ammunition before D-Day. In 'The Helmshore Historian', published by Helmshore Local History Society during
2695-476: The world's first municipal bus services linked Helmshore to Haslingden in 1907. The 18-seat Leyland bus was operated by Haslingden Council. It made 14 daily trips with a top speed of 16 mph (26 km/h). In 1919 the Council introduced a 12-seater 'Whippet', which turned round at Woodbank. The driver issued the tickets, making it one of the world's earliest one-man operated bus services. On 25 September 1916
2750-546: Was William John Porritt (1820-1896), who was born in Ramsbottom. Porritt worked as a young man at Dearden Clough Mill as a hand-loom weaver and eventually became a cotton merchant. By the standards of the day the Porritts were considered to be good employers. Porritt invested heavily in the new seaside resort of St. Annes , and some of the houses there were built using stone from his Helmshore quarries. He sent workers to see
2805-408: Was built in 1794 and the original Sunnybank Mill in 1798. The first purpose-built cotton mill was Higher Alden Mill, built in 1810, near the small bridge below Alden Farm (then known as Top o' th' Rake). Its output was estimated as being just two and a half horse-power. In the 1820s a larger mill with a reservoir was built just downstream, in what is now Alden Wood. These small mills were to disappear by
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#17327913979762860-455: Was created encircling the area, which included the Alden and Musbury Valleys . £22 10s was paid "to carpenters...for felling timber and making a paling in part of the park". This was a hunting area that fell into disuse over the next few hundred years, although the boundary earthworks can still be clearly seen between Alden Reservoir and Fall Bank. Such hunting parks were status symbols of the period; there were 3,200 of them, covering roughly 2% of
2915-404: Was first run in 1911, and may have an even older ancestry. Originally the runners ran to, and around, Big Nor, a large stone at the tip of Musbury Tor, and back, but it was stopped after the farmer withdrew permission to use his land. The route was altered to make all parties happy, and it now actually measures two kilometres – 1.2 miles. Since 2004 the race has been taking place again and is part of
2970-596: Was therefore refused poor relief during the depression in the 1820s. The local historian Chris Aspin remembers that "four Home Guardsmen armed with one old rifle and six rounds of ammunition" climbed to the top of Musbury Tor each evening to keep watch. They had a small hut for shelter, but there was no telephone and in the event of an invasion one of the guards would have had to run down to their HQ in Musbury School. He also reports that GIs held exercises in Alden with live ammunition, and remembers discovering
3025-481: Was used in the production of bank notes. The factory was a major contributor to the pollution at that time entering the River Ogden. Despite this the area at the eastern end of the works was a wetland known as The Flash, and was a breeding area for Little Ringed Plover . There was a major railway accident in Helmshore in September 1860. There were eleven lives lost and 77 people were injured. The accident happened on
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