Worsthorne is a rural village on the eastern outskirts of

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Br ...

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 Lancas ...

, England. It is in 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 authorit ...

of Worsthorne-with-Hurstwood and the borough of Burnley. At the 2011 census the village had a population of 1,028. The village was known as ''Worthesthorn'' in 1202, which means "thorn tree of a man named 'Weorth'." The village has a small

village green A village green is a common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for gathering cattle t ...

, overlooked by the church and Bay Horse

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

. Buildings in the village include cottages dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, and housing for millworkers dating from the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

. Relatively high property prices in the village reflect the fact that it is perceived to be a desirable place to live, with low crime and good education.

History

StoneCircleWorsthorne(RichardSpencer)Jan2006

The history of human habitation in the area goes back to the late stone, bronze and Iron Ages. Earthworks and two prehistoric

stone circle A stone circle is a ring of standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially in Britain, Ireland, and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being built from 3000 BC. The ...

s are shown on

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was a ...

maps, one at on the moors to the east of the village; both are in a poor state of repair. A

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start ...

dagger A dagger is a fighting knife with a very sharp point and usually two sharp edges, typically designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon.State v. Martin, 633 S.W.2d 80 (Mo. 1982): This is the dictionary or popular-use def ...

15 cm in length found on the moor is now in Towneley Museum.

Governance

Worsthorne forms part of the Worsthorne with Cliviger ward, which is currently represented on

Burnley Borough Council Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Br ...

by two Green Party councillors. In 2002 the ward elected a

British National Party The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and its leader is Adam Walker. A minor party, it has no elected representatives at any level of UK gover ...

(BNP) councillor, which generated considerable media comment at the time; the seat returned to the Conservative Party when it was next contested. In the 2021 local elections, the ward returned a Green Party councillor for the first time. In 2022 The Green Party won a 2nd seat to become the majority party in the ward for the first time.

Landmarks

ChurchOfStJohnTheEvangelistWorsthorne(AlexanderPKapp)Oct2005

JacksonsHouseWorsthorne(JohnIllingworth)Feb2007

The village had a close association with the Thursby family, benefactors of the Burnley area, and has a number of

listed buildings In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. These include Jackson's House in the centre of the village, which was built in about 1600, and the Church of St. John the Evangelist which dates from 1833–1839. The original plans for the church, drawn up by architect

Lewis Vulliamy Lewis Vulliamy (15 March 1791 – 4 January 1871) was an English architect descended from the Vulliamy family of clockmakers. Life Lewis Vulliamy was the son of the clockmaker Benjamin Vulliamy. He was born in Pall Mall, London on 15 March 179 ...

, can be seen on the Incorporated Church Building Society website. It has a 61 ft clocktower, stained glass windows and wrought ironwork. The churchyard has the grave of a ''packmaster'', a person whose job was to lead

packhorse A packhorse, pack horse, or sumpter refers to a horse, mule, donkey, or pony used to carry goods on its back, usually in sidebags or panniers. Typically packhorses are used to cross difficult terrain, where the absence of roads prevents the use of ...

s across the moors in special sunken trails that allowed the horses to walk unhitched since the walls of the trail prevented them from straying. An earlier landmark used to be Worsthorne Methodist Chapel, on Chapel Street off Ormerod Street, next to where the former Old Hall stood, but it was demolished in the 1980s, an old people's home now sits on this site. The connected Sunday School building is now a children's nursery. There is a former cotton mill in Gordon Street, a relic of the time when the area, especially Burnley, was the world centre of cotton weaving. There are two

public houses A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

in the village: the ''Crooked Billet'' and the ''Bay Horse Inn''.

Education

The village has a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

with about 180 pupils in the 4–11 age range, serving Worsthorne, Hurstwood, Brownside and Pike Hill. The school houses seven classes in modern buildings and has extensive playing fields and grounds. Students used to be organised into four houses, Gorple, Extwistle, Brownside and Ormerod, which were named after the four roads running into Worsthorne and which meet in the village square. However, in 2020 the houses were renamed to Earth, Wind, Fire and Water. The original village school house, now converted into residential housing, stands in the square.

Transport

A regular bus service (route 4) runs between Worsthorne, Burnley and Stoops. On Mondays to Fridays, the first bus leaves the village square at 06:53 and services then run hourly until 18:53

Notable people

Ron Greenwood Ronald Greenwood CBE (11 November 1921 – 9 February 2006) was an English football player and manager, best known for being manager of the English national football team from 1977 until 1982, as well as being manager of West Ham United for 1 ...

CBE (1921–2006), the English football player and manager, was born in Worsthorne. * Footballer Brian Miller lived there for many years before passing away in 2007. Miller played and managed Burnley F.C. throughout his career at the football club. * Catriona Seth, Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature at the University of Oxford, was born here * Thomas Whitham VC, soldier, First World War was born here.

References

External links

Worsthorne-with-Hurstwood Township – British History Online
{{authority control Villages in Lancashire Districts in Burnley