The River Calder is a major tributary of the
River Ribble
The River Ribble runs through North Yorkshire and Lancashire in Northern England. It starts close to the Ribblehead Viaduct in North Yorkshire, and is one of the few that start in the Yorkshire Dales and flow westwards towards the Irish Sea (t ...
in
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
, England, and is around in length.
Course
Starting in
Cliviger
Cliviger is a civil parish in the Borough of Burnley, in Lancashire, England. It is situated to the southeast of Burnley, and northwest of Todmorden. According to the 2011 census, the parish has a population of 2,238.
Although the whole parish ...
, its source is very close to that of the
West Yorkshire river with the same name, and that of the
River Irwell
The River Irwell ( ) is a tributary of the River Mersey in north-west England. It rises at Irwell Springs on Deerplay Moor, approximately north of Bacup and flows southwards for to meet the Mersey near Irlam Locks. The Irwell marks the bound ...
. It flows northwest through the Cliviger Gorge supplying two fish ponds near Pot Oven Farm, before collecting Green Clough as it passes
the Holme and Black Clough near
St John's Church at Holme Chapel. As the Valley widens, the Calder is met by Easden Clough near Southward Bottom and continues to Walk Mill. At the Cliviger Bridge it passes under A646 Burnley Road and it collects Dick Clough near Barcroft Hall before entering
Towneley Park
Towneley Park is owned and managed by Burnley Borough Council and is the largest and most popular park in Burnley, Lancashire, England. The main entrance to the park is within a mile of the town centre and the park extends to the south east, c ...
and being joined by Everage Clough.
On the
Burnley
Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...
side of the park it passes
Unity College and
Fulledge Recreation Ground, and under the Hand Bridge which carries the
A671 Todmorden Road. It flows on the northern side of the town's
Burnley Wood district and through a
culvert
A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe (fluid conveyance), pipe, reinforced concrete or other materia ...
in the
Burnley Embankment on the
Leeds and Liverpool Canal
The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool.
Over a distance of , crossing the Pennines, and including 91 locks on the main line. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal has several small branc ...
and on through the town centre. It is again culverted, first as it is crossed by Centenary Way and then again at Parker Lane, before running under Chaddesley House and Manchester Road next to the Town Hall and
Mechanics Theatre. It is then crossed by Hammerton Street before flowing under the old Empire Music Hall and Cow Lane as it
meander
A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the Channel (geography), channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erosion, erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank (cut bank, cut bank or river cl ...
s to the west and is crossed by St. James's Street, then joined by the
River Brun just before the Active Way bridge. Turning to the north and under the
East Lancashire railway line viaduct and through the site of
Burnley College and under the
M65 motorway
The M65 is a motorway between Preston, Lancashire, Preston and Colne in Lancashire, England. It runs from Bamber Bridge just south of Preston, through major junctions with the M6 motorway, M6 and M61 motorways, east past Darwen, Blackburn, Ac ...
as it leaves the town. It collects Barden Clough near Royle and is shortly after joined by
Pendle Water at Burnley Wastewater Treatment Works (also known as Duck Pits) on the edge of
Reedley Hallows
Reedley Hallows or Reedley is a civil parish in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England. It forms part of Burnley and Brierfield. It had a population of 1,994, reducing to 1,960 at the 2011 Census.
It is on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal ...
parish.
[
It is met by Spurn Clough and Moor Isles Clough as it turns sharply to the south west past ]Ightenhill
Ightenhill is a civil parish in the Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a population of 1,975.
Since its creation as Ightenhill Park in 1866 the parish has seen a number of boundary changes. The modern civil parish includes Gawth ...
and collects Whitaker Clough near Gawthorpe Hall and continues through the town of Padiham
Padiham ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the River Calder, Lancashire, River Calder, in the Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, Lancashire, England. It is located north west of Burnley, and north ea ...
where it is met by Green Brook. It is joined by Castle Clough Brook as it passes the old Padiham Power Station before collecting Dean Brook and then Shorten Brook as it flows past St James' Church at Altham. Crossed here by the A678 Burnley Road, the river turns northwest and the meanders become more pronounced as it is met by Simonstone Brook, Syke Side Brook and then Hyndburn Brook at Hyndburn Wastewater Treatment Works near Great Harwood
Great Harwood is a town in the Hyndburn district of Lancashire, England, located north east of Blackburn and adjacent to the Ribble Valley. Great Harwood is part of the "Three Towns" conurbation along with the towns of Clayton-le-Moors and Ris ...
. Continuing its winding route it is then crossed by the old railway viaduct at Martholme, and shortly afterward it is joined by Sabden Brook, just before flowing under the A680 Accrington Road at Cock Bridge. Turning to the north and the back to the west as it is met by Rodger Hey and Egg Syke Brooks and another Dean Brook, it approaches Whalley. Here it runs over the corn mill weir and under Whalley Bridge before it passes the ruins of Whalley Abbey, and is then crossed by the red brick Whalley Viaduct. After flowing under the A59 bypass, it collects Bushburn Brook and then meets the Ribble near Brockhall Village.[
]
History
The name Calder is relatively common and thought to originate from the ancient British language, the first part may be the ancestor of the Welsh word (hard), with the second being ''*dubron'' (water), giving a possible meaning of the rapid river. There is some uncertainty that the name has always been applied to the current route in the Burnley area, as at the confluence with Pendle Water it is the Calder that is the smaller watercourse. And in Yates' 1786 map of Lancashire it is the lower section of Pendle Water that is labelled as the Calder. However both William Harrison's ''Description of England'', first published in 1577, and Camden's ''Britannia'' both appear to support the route as it is named today.
The fishponds at Cliviger are possibly over 200 years old, dating from Thomas Dunham Whitaker's time and were restored in 1990 by a private angling club. In the 1840s, a third pond was located upstream of the surviving two. At the Pot Oven Farm site, there are also the remains of a blast furnace
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being supplied above atmospheric pressure.
In a ...
constructed around 1700 for the Spencer partnership. Although it had become a pottery
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...
by 1760, it is thought to be the first of this type of furnace built in Lancashire.
The approximately long, 15-arch sandstone
Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...
railway viaduct
A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide ...
at Burnley was built in 1847–48 for the East Lancashire Railway
The East Lancashire Railway is a heritage railway line in North West England which runs between Heywood, Greater Manchester and Rawtenstall in Lancashire. There are intermediate stations at Bury Bolton Street, , Summerseat and Ramsbott ...
.
In its passage east of Padiham the river was diverted in the 19th century away from Gawthorpe Hall because of pollution,[ being restored to the original route in the 1960s.
A weir built in the 1950s to allow Padiham Power Station to take water from the river was removed in 2010 along with other improvements to aid the passage of fish upstream.
The core of the bridge at Whalley is possibly contemporary with the abbey, although it must have been extended and was certainly widened several times over the centuries, most recently in 1914. The old ]Roman road
Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...
between Ribchester
Ribchester () is a village and civil parish within the Ribble Valley district of Lancashire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Ribble, northwest of Blackburn and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston.
The village has a long history w ...
and Elslack
Elslack is a village and civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England, close to the border with Lancashire and west of Skipton. Thornton in Craven is nearby. The Tempest Arms is a large pub in the village, sited by the A56, which is ...
(part of Margary 72a), crossed the Calder further downstream, close to the river mouth.
During 2014, an Archimedean screw type hydropower station
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...
was constructed on the old weir at Whalley and included preservation work on the weir and the installation of a fish pass. Built for Whalley Community Hydro, the site became operational at the end of the year and is expected to generate an average 345,000 kWh of electricity annually.
Heavy rainfall across Northern England over Christmas 2015 saw record water levels in the river and caused flooding in Whalley and Padiham.
Gallery
File:Cliviger Gorge - geograph.org.uk - 1135769.jpg, The source of the Calder in Cliviger Gorge.
File:Calder Fishponds (upper) 1.jpg, The upper fish pond at Cliviger.
File:Hand Bridge, Burnley.jpg, Todmorden Road, Burnley
File:River Calder (2) (geograph 4086051).jpg, After collecting Pendle Water near Ightenhill.
File:Padiham map ca1844.jpg, Padiham 1844, highlighting the modified route.
File:River Calder West of Padiham (geograph 3953314).jpg, Near the old Padiham Power Station.
File:Weir on the River Calder - geograph.org.uk - 366013.jpg, The weir
A weir or low-head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the water level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...
at Whalley.
File:Whalley Viaduct and the River Calder - geograph.org.uk - 1455276.jpg, Whalley Viaduct.
Settlements
The following towns and villages are situated along the river:
* Brockhall Village
* Whalley
* Altham
*Padiham
Padiham ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the River Calder, Lancashire, River Calder, in the Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, Lancashire, England. It is located north west of Burnley, and north ea ...
*Burnley
Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...
* Walk Mill
* Holme Chapel
Tributaries
These tributaries
A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream ('' 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 into which the ...
have Wikipedia articles:
* Sabden Brook
* Hyndburn Brook
:* River Hyndburn
* Green Brook
* Pendle Water
:* Walverden Water
:* Colne Water
::* Trawden Brook, Wycoller Beck, River Laneshaw
* River Brun
:* River Don
References
Notes
Citations
{{DEFAULTSORT:Calder, Lancs
Rivers of Lancashire
Rivers of Burnley
Rivers of Hyndburn
Rivers of the Borough of Pendle