Great Harwood is a town in the

Hyndburn Hyndburn is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, England. Its council is based in Accrington and covers the outlying towns of Clayton-le-Moors, Great Harwood, Oswaldtwistle and Rishton. The borough was created in 197 ...

district of

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, located north east of

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...

and adjacent to the

Ribble Valley Ribble Valley is a local government district with borough status within the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. The total population of the non-metropolitan district at the 2011 Census was 57,132. Its council is based in Clitheroe. ...

. Great Harwood is the major conurbation of the 'Three Towns'; the three towns being Great Harwood,

Clayton-le-Moors Clayton-le-Moors is an industrial town in the borough of Hyndburn in the county of Lancashire, England. located two miles north of Accrington. The town has a population of 8,522 according to the 2011 census. To the west lies Rishton, to the no ...

, and

Rishton Rishton is a town in the Hyndburn district of Lancashire, England, about west of Clayton-le-Moors and north east of Blackburn. It was an urban district from about 1894 to 1974. The population at the census of 2011 was 6,625. History Its ...

. In 2001, the town had a population of 11,220, which decreased to 10,800 at the census of

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

History

Blackburn Road, Great Harwood - old postcard

Great Harwood is a town with an

industrial heritage Industrial heritage refers to the physical remains of the history of technology and industry, such as manufacturing and mining sites, as well as power and transportation infrastructure. Another definition expands this scope so that the term a ...

. The Mercer Hall Leisure Centre in Queen Street, and the town clock, pay tribute to John Mercer (1791–1866), the 'father' of Great Harwood, who revolutionised the cotton dyeing process with his invention of

mercerisation Mercerisation is a textile finishing treatment for cellulose fabric and yarn, mainly cotton and flax, which improves dye uptake and tear strength, reduces fabric shrinkage, and imparts a silk-like luster. Development The process was devis ...

.Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - subscription based, accessed 15 June 2011
/ref> The cotton industry became the main source of employment in the town, and by 1920, the Great Harwood Weavers' Association had more than 5,000 members. The town was once on the railway line from Blackburn to Burnley via Padiham – ''The North Lancs or Great Harwood Loop'' of the

Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) was a major British railway company before the 1923 Grouping. It was incorporated in 1847 from an amalgamation of several existing railways. It was the third-largest railway system based in northern ...

. The last passenger train ran in November 1957 and goods traffic in 1964. The

Martholme Viaduct Martholme Viaduct is a 19th-century railway viaduct in the English county of Lancashire. It lies between the town of Great Harwood and the village of Read, and lies in both the district of Hyndburn and that of Ribble Valley. The viaduct was cons ...

on the line remains about one mile north east. Public transport links were further curtailed in 2016, when the direct bus link to Manchester was axed by Harrogate based

Transdev Transdev, formerly Veolia Transdev, is a French-based international private-sector company which operates public transport. It has operations in 17 countries and territories as of November 2020. History The group was formed by the merger of V ...

. Great Harwood used to have a lively and bustling market around the town clock in the main square. Great Harwood has three supermarkets:

Aldi Aldi (stylised as ALDI) is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 10,000 stores in 20 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when t ...

, which opened in November 2010,

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

, which opened in December 2011, and

Morrisons Wm Morrison Supermarkets, trading as Morrisons, is the fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Scotland, as well as one in Gibraltar. The company is headqua ...

, which was previously

Co-Op A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

, which originally opened in June 2001, which also opened in 2010. There are two petrol stations, run by

Texaco Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American Petroleum, oil brand owned and operated by Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its Gasoline, fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an Indepe ...

, as well as Morrisons. In July 2016,

Domino's Pizza Domino's Pizza, Inc., trading as Domino's, is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain founded in 1960 and led by CEO Russell Weiner. The corporation is Delaware domiciled and headquartered at the Domino's Farms Office Park in Ann Arbor ...

announced plans to open in Great Harwood, as well as

Accrington Accrington is a town in the Hyndburn borough of Lancashire, England. It lies about east of Blackburn, west of Burnley, east of Preston, north of Manchester and is situated on the culverted River Hyndburn. Commonly abbreviated by locals to ...

. A

retained In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a retained firefighter, also known as an RDS Firefighter or on-call firefighter, is a firefighter who does not work on a fire station full-time but is paid to spend long periods of time On call shift, on call to ...

fire station is also located in the town, having opened in 1972.

Sports

The town football team, Great Harwood Town, closed in July 2006. Great Harwood Cricket Club, was a member of the Ribblesdale Cricket League, winning the senior division in 2008, and has seven teams, ranging from under-9s through to senior level. In 2016, the club accepted an invitation from the Lancashire League, and played in that league from the season of 2017. In 1954, and again in 1957, the Great Harwood team won the ''Roller Hockey National Cup''.

Events

Great Harwood is also home to ''Great Harwood Agricultural Show'', an annual show, established in 1857 and held on

Spring Bank Holiday A bank holiday is a national public holiday in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and the Crown Dependencies. The term refers to all public holidays in the United Kingdom, be they set out in statute, declared by royal proclamation or held ...

Monday. It moved to its present site at the junction of Harwood Lane and Whalley Road in 2009.

Notable people

Thomas Birtwistle Thomas Birtwistle (16 October 1833 – 22 March 1912) was an English trade unionist and factory inspector. Born in Great Harwood, Lancashire, he worked in a cotton mill from the age of six, becoming a power-loom weaver at the age of fourteen. In s ...

(1833–1912), trade unionist and factory inspector, born at Great Harwood. * Matthew Derbyshire, professional footballer with Blackburn Rovers,

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς, Olympic Club of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number ...

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

and

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

. *

David Dunn David John Ian Dunn (born 27 December 1979) is an English former professional football player and manager; he is now a coach at club Port Vale. Dunn played as an attacking midfielder and spent the majority of his playing career representing ...

, footballer, was born and brought up in Great Harwood. He initially played for

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

, but moved to

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

in August 2003. In January 2007, he moved back to Blackburn Rovers. *

Leslie Duxbury Leslie Montgomery Duxbury (13 June 1926 – 17 October 2005) was a British newspaper sports writer and columnist born in Great Harwood, Lancashire. He turned his attention to television and became a writer for the ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ...

(1926–2005), ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Origi ...

'' scriptwriter, was a resident. *

Nicholas Freeston Nicholas Freeston (28 August 1907 – 6 February 1978) was an English poet who spent most of his working life as a weaver in cotton mills near his home in Clayton-le-Moors, Lancashire. He published five books of poetry, occasionally writing in L ...

(1907–1978), award winning Lancashire poet, who worked at Birtwistle and Fielding's, Delph Road Mill, Great Harwood. * Michael Gibson, television presenter director, was brought up in Great Harwood. *

Mortimer Grimshaw Mortimer Grimshaw ( 1826 – 22 December 1869) was an English political activist, strike leader and cotton weaver. He briefly attained national fame in the 1850s due to his part in the Preston strike of 1853–54. A large man whose face was ma ...

(1824/5–1869), strike leader and political activist *

Ethel Carnie Holdsworth Ethel Carnie Holdsworth (1 January 1886 – December 1962), working-class writer, feminist, and socialist activist from Lancashire (also published as Ethel Carnie and Ethel Holdsworth). Poet, journalist, children's writer and author, Carnie Hol ...

(1886–1962), writer, also published as Ethel Carnie and Ethel Holdsworth, lived in Great Harwood until her marriage in 1915, and some of her poems and novels were written in the town. *

Netherwood Hughes Netherwood "Ned" Hughes (12 June 1900 – 4 April 2009) was one of the last two Tommies who served the United Kingdom during the First World War, along with Harry Patch, although Patch was the only one to have seen action. Hughes was also one of ...

(1900–2009),

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

veteran, was born in Lord Street. * Mick Jackson, writer, best known for his novel of 1997 '' The Underground Man'', was born in the town in 1960. * John Mercer, scientist who developed a process for treating cotton, was born in the town in 1791. *

Brett Ormerod Brett Ryan Ormerod (born 18 October 1976) is an English retired professional footballer. A forward, he made 340 appearances in the Football League, including 215 for Blackpool, for whom he is the only player to have scored in all of the top four ...

, footballer, Great Harwood born and bred. Grew up on Duke Street.

References

External links