Musbury Valley
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The Musbury Valley is a small valley in the
Helmshore Helmshore is a village in the Rossendale Valley, Lancashire, England, south of Haslingden between the A56 and the B6235, north of Manchester. The population at the 2011 census was 5,805. The housing in Helmshore is mixed, with some two-up, two- ...
area of
Rossendale Valley The Rossendale Valley is in the Rossendale area of Lancashire, England, between the West Pennine Moors and the main range of the Pennines. The area includes the steep-sided valleys of the River Irwell and its tributaries (between Rawtenstall ...
,
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 Lancash ...
. Musbury Brook flows through its length, and its south side is flanked and dominated by Musbury Tor. In the 14th century it was part of the Earl of Lincoln's hunting park. Most of the Musbury valley is now sheep grazing pasture. To the south is Musbury Tor and Alden Valley; to the north-west is Musbury Heights and, beyond, the Grane Valley. Beginning as Long Grain Water on Musden Head Moor, the stream becomes Musbury Brook after its confluence with Short Grain Water. It flows in a north-westerly direction to join the
River Ogden A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...
, a
tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drai ...
of the River Irwell.


Musbury Park

In 1305 a huge ditch and earth bank were dug to enclose a large area that included most of the west side of Musbury township (later becoming Helmshore). A palisade of oak stakes created a fence on the outside of the ditch which extended from Grane Valley in the north to Alden Valley in the south. This created an enclosure to keep in
fallow deer ''Dama'' is a genus of deer in the subfamily Cervinae, commonly referred to as fallow deer. Name The name fallow is derived from the deer's pale brown colour. The Latin word ''dāma'' or ''damma'', used for roe deer, gazelles, and antelopes ...
for the estate of Hugh de Lacy, and supplying
venison Venison originally meant the meat of a game animal but now refers primarily to the meat of antlered ungulates such as elk or deer (or antelope in South Africa). Venison can be used to refer to any part of the animal, so long as it is edible, ...
for his table. Musbury Valley was at the heart of the deer park, which covered 1,713 acres, and the area was known as Musbury Park. Although deer parks were very fashionable at the beginning of the 14th century, by the middle of the century many parks were in decline, hastened by the introduction of the Black Death. From 1480 no park-keepers were employed, and in 1507 a survey reported that the park was closed down. The old park area was then divided into eight different holdings, four of which included sections of Musbury valley. The process of enclosing parts of the old park and Musdenhead, at the head of the valley and which had been outside the boundaries of the park, continued through the 16th and 17th centuries. By the first detailed map in the 1840s there were well over 20 farms in the valley.


Farming

During the period after the decline of the hunting park most people in the valley made a living combining farming and textile making. Raising cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry, and growing a few cereal crops on their land. Inventories in the 17th/early 18th centuries show corn, oats and barley being grown. There is a tradition of illegal Musbury
whisky Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Various grains (which may be malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky is typically aged in wooden ca ...
distilling Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heating ...
too. In 1881 James Barlow, known as "Musbury Jim" was caught at Hare Clough with a whisky still. He was fined £10. Several farms near Hare Clough were raided by excise men in the 1880s and there are stories of distilling in Musbury throughout the 19th century. The moorland also gave the farming community
turbary Turbary is the ancient right to cut turf, or peat, for fuel on a particular area of bog. The word may also be used to describe the associated piece of bog or peatland and, by extension, the material extracted from the turbary. Turbary rights, whic ...
rights, this being the ability to take peat from the upper moorland peat beds for fuel. Sods of peat could also be used for repairing banks, although stone quarrying meant that walls could be built from the stone taken from the moorland. These dry stone walls are still characteristic of the area.


Textiles

From the 16th to the 18th century, textile production was small-scale and complemented the farming work.
Tannery Tanning may refer to: *Tanning (leather), treating animal skins to produce leather *Sun tanning, using the sun to darken pale skin **Indoor tanning, the use of artificial light in place of the sun **Sunless tanning, application of a stain or dye t ...
work also developed, tanning leather, and Tan Pits is a name still given to the Helmshore end of the valley. But in the 18th century, the
textile industry The textile industry is primarily concerned with the design, production and distribution of yarn, cloth and clothing. The raw material may be natural, or synthetic using products of the chemical industry. Industry process Cotton manufacturi ...
developed rapidly, with the brook providing a source of water-power. In 1790 the first mill was built at Tan Pits, and others soon joined them. The first mills were used for carding wool, or
fulling Fulling, also known as felting, tucking or walking ( Scots: ''waukin'', hence often spelled waulking in Scottish English), is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of woven or knitted cloth (particularly wool) to elimin ...
and finishing woollen cloth, but a change from wool to
cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...
started soon after 1800. This developed first in Alden Valley, but soon the Turner family began building much larger mills in the Musbury area and by the early 19th century they were one of the largest textile firms, and had several mills in the township of Musbury. William Turner died in 1852, while the Porritt family were developing Sunnybank and for a while, during the
cotton famine The Lancashire Cotton Famine, also known as the Cotton Famine or the Cotton Panic (1861–65), was a depression in the textile industry of North West England, brought about by overproduction in a time of contracting world markets. It coincided wi ...
, things were less secure in the Musbury mills. However, the new owners, the Ashworths, expanded Turner's Middle Mill and were soon employing 200 workers in their mills. The older mills in Musbury began to disappear after 1850, as production switched from the outlying districts to the new village that was growing up in Helmshore, and this pattern continued to be the case. In 1883 the unit of local government known as Musbury was abolished and it became known as Helmshore. During the 20th century the textile industry declined severely, and most of the mills were closed. After WWII the remaining companies pooled resources and opened a research centre which, in 1956 moved across Holcombe Road into a new building, but this finally closed in 1981.


Water Board

The farms at the head of the valley fell in to disuse relatively early, and the Porritt family, who had rights to shoot in the surrounding moorland, built kennels in the garden of Longfield House, which had been built about 1800 by the Worsick family. But in 1929 the Porritts left Helmshore and in 1934 they sold their land – 806 acres – in Musbury valley to the Irwell Valley Water Board. A plan to flood the valley and create a
reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...
was developed throughout the 1950s. During this period much of the valley was abandoned and fell into disrepair, but access remained available and so it became a popular picnic and walking area. The reservoir was never built. Heavy rain in July 1964 caused a flood which destroyed much of the brook-side footpath at the bottom of the valley.


Musbury Heights

On the north-west side of the valley is Musbury Heights. Between 1850 and 1931, this area was an extensive
quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...
working the Lower Haslingden Flag. It is now disused but has been tidied by the Rossendale Groundwork Valley of Stone project. The ruins of several buildings and a (rebuilt) Scrubbing Mill chimney remain, along with a number of spoil heaps and old workings, including an extensive tramway system, including an incline. The quarry produced mainly road setts (cobbles), kerbstones and
flagstones Flagstone (flag) is a generic flat Rock (geology), stone, sometimes cut in regular rectangular or square shape and usually used for Sidewalk, paving slabs or walkways, patios, flooring, fences and roofing. It may be used for memorials, headstone ...
.


Gallery

File:Musb valley.jpg, Looking into the valley from the path following the brook. File:Heights tower.jpg, A view of the chimney, ruined buildings and spoil heaps of Musbury heights.


References

{{Rossendale Valleys of Lancashire Geography of the Borough of Rossendale