Belmont is a village in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, England. It is close to

Darwen Darwen is a market town and civil parish in the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The residents of the town are known as "Darreners". The A666 road passes through Darwen towards Blackburn to the north, Bolton to the sout ...

. It has around 500 inhabitants and lies within the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

North Turton North Turton is a civil parish of the unitary authority of Blackburn with Darwen in Lancashire, England. According to the United Kingdom Census 2001 the civil parish has a population of 3,736, increasing to 3,867 at the 2011 Census. North Turton ...

in the unitary authority area of

Blackburn with Darwen Blackburn with Darwen is a borough and unitary authority area in Lancashire, North West England. It consists of the industrial town of Blackburn and the market town of Darwen including other villages around the two towns. Formation It was fou ...

History

Archaeological finds at or near Belmont have been

Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymous ...

material and a flint blade, Flint

Microlith A microlith is a small Rock (geology), stone tool usually made of flint or chert and typically a centimetre or so in length and half a centimetre wide. They were made by humans from around 35,000 to 3,000 years ago, across Europe, Africa, Asia an ...

Core and Flint Scraper. Finds have included

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

Barbed and tanged arrowheads. Items found from the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

include a spearhead with Bronze Age Round cairns on Noon Hill and Winter Hill. Before 1804 Belmont was known as Hordern and was part of the upper part of the township of Sharples in the parish of

Bolton le Moors Bolton le Moors (also known as Bolton le Moors St Peter) was a large civil parish and ecclesiastical parish in Salford (hundred), hundred of Salford in the Historic counties of England, historic county of Lancashire, England. It was administered f ...

. The township contained

cotton mills A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system. Although some were driven ...

, a large

dye A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution an ...

works owned by Thomas Rycroft that had a landmark chimney (which has been demolished), and a print works; there was a paper works at Spring Side in Folds. Following a factory fire several years ago a housing estate was developed with houses designed to look traditional. The

neo-gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

parish church of St Peter's designed by

John Edgar Gregan John Edgar Gregan (1813–1855), was a Scottish architect. Gregan was born at Dumfries on 18 December 1813. He studied architecture first under Walter Newall and afterwards at Manchester under Thomas Witlam Atkinson. He commenced practice on h ...

, built at the end of 1849 was consecrated on 1 April 1850. One of Gregan's last projects, the church was constructed from local stone on the site of an ancient farm.

John Hick John Harwood Hick (20 January 1922 – 9 February 2012) was a philosopher of religion and theologian born in England who taught in the United States for the larger part of his career. In philosophical theology, he made contributions in the are ...

, a local

industrialist A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

and later MP for

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...

, was very involved with the church and responsible for the installation of several

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

windows, the

church bell A church bell in Christian architecture is a bell which is rung in a church for a variety of religious purposes, and can be heard outside the building. Traditionally they are used to call worshippers to the church for a communal service, and t ...

s and

turret clock A turret clock or tower clock is a clock designed to be mounted high in the wall of a building, usually in a clock tower, in public buildings such as churches, university buildings, and town halls. As a public amenity to enable the community ...

Governance

Belmont is in the borough of Blackburn with Darwen. Tockholes is part of the Rossendale and Darwen constituency.

Jake Berry Sir James Jacob Gilchrist Berry (born 29 December 1978) is a British Conservative Party politician and former solicitor who served as Chairman of the Conservative Party and Minister without Portfolio from 6 September to 25 October 2022. He pr ...

has been the Member of Parliament for Rossendale and Darwen since 2010.

Geography

Belmont is a

linear Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship (''function'') that can be graphically represented as a straight line. Linearity is closely related to '' proportionality''. Examples in physics include rectilinear motion, the linear r ...

settlement in

moorland Moorland or moor is a type of habitat found in upland areas in temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands and montane grasslands and shrublands biomes, characterised by low-growing vegetation on acidic soils. Moorland, nowadays, generally ...

in the

West Pennine Moors The West Pennine Moors is an area of the Pennines covering approximately of moorland and Reservoir (water), reservoirs in Lancashire and Greater Manchester, England. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The West Pennine Moors are separat ...

, built along the old

to Preston road, the A675. It lies about northwest of Bolton in a valley between Anglezarke Moor and Turton Moor. There is a minor road to

Rivington Rivington is a village and civil parish of the Borough of Chorley, Lancashire, England, occupying . It is about southeast of Chorley and about northwest of Bolton. Rivington is a rural area consisting primarily of agricultural grazing land, ...

to the west. The

Winter Hill transmitting station The Winter Hill transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications site on Winter Hill, at the southern boundary of the Borough of Chorley, Lancashire and above Bolton. It is owned and operated by Arqiva. Height The original mast at ...

stands on Winter Hill about a third of a mile (0.5 km) southwest of the village. Belmont Reservoir, built by Bolton Waterworks in the 19th century, occupies the valley to the north of the village, and is home to Bolton Sailing Club. The smaller Ward's Reservoir, built in the early 19th century to supply water to the former Rycroft Dye Works and known locally as the ''Blue Lagoon'', was drained in 2010.

Economy

The village has one public house, and a restaurant/bar. It also has around 20 business located in the old bleach works including various forms of engineering, decorative glass, architectural iron works, vehicle restoration workshops, landscaping, specialist coatings, motorbike engineers and bathroom retailers.

Education

Primary education is provided by Belmont Primary School.

Religion

St Peter's Church Belmont is a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

serving the local community of Belmont Village, including a

Sunday school A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West. Su ...

References

External links

Belmont Village Web SiteGENUKI Lancashire GenealogySt Peters parish churchSt Peter's ChurchBelmont Primary School
{{authority control Geography of Blackburn with Darwen Villages in Lancashire West Pennine Moors