Stacksteads is a village between the towns of

Bacup Bacup ( , ) is a town in the Rossendale Borough in Lancashire, England, in the South Pennines close to Lancashire's boundaries with West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester. The town is in the Rossendale Valley and the upper Irwell Valley, east of ...

and Waterfoot within the Rossendale borough 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. The population of this Rossendale ward at the 2011 census was 3,789. Stacksteads includes a mountain bike trail called

Lee Quarry Lee Quarry is a mountain bike trail located near Bacup and Stacksteads in Rossendale Valley, Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North Wes ...

which had originally been a working quarry. It is part of the

Rossendale and Darwen Rossendale and Darwen is a constituency in Lancashire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Sir Jake Berry, the former Chairman of the Conservative Party. Boundaries 1983 to 1997: The Borough of Rossendal ...

constituency, with

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 ...

having been the Member of Parliament since 2010.

History

In the 19th century it was home to several

cotton mill A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning (textiles), 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. Althou ...

s along the banks 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. The Irwell marks the boundary be ...

. These expanded after the ending of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. During the 1870s agricultural labourers moved from across the UK – including many from

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

– to drive this expansion. During the 20th century, as the cotton trade decreased in the face of overseas manufacture, some of the mills were adapted to more modern purposes such as footwear – notably the Bacup Shoe Company in the former Stacksteads Mill. In the 1980s, the village featured in a number of episodes of the long running

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

police procedural The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the protagonist(s), as contrasted with other genres that focus on eith ...

drama series ''

Juliet Bravo ''Juliet Bravo'' is a British television police procedural drama series, first broadcast on 30 August 1980, that ran for six series and a total of 88 episodes on BBC1. The theme of the series concerned a female police inspector who took over con ...

'', set in a fictional part of the Rossendale Valley between

Rawtenstall Rawtenstall () is a town in the borough of Rossendale, Lancashire, England. The town lies 15 miles/24 km north of Manchester, 22 miles/35 km east of Preston and 45 miles/70 km south east of the county town of Lancaster. The town is at the cen ...

and Bacup. It was also the location for the filming of ''

Laurence Olivier Presents ''Laurence Olivier Presents'' is a British television anthology series made by Granada Television which ran from 1976 to 1978. The plays, with the exception of '' Hindle Wakes'', all starred Laurence Olivier. Some of the plays were based on ...

'': '' Hindle Wakes'', a 1976 version of the stage play, directed by

Laurence Olivier Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier (; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, was one of a trio of male actors who dominated the Theatre of the U ...

Today

The area is today noted for a high number of reported

UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...

sightings and featured in one episode of a 2008

Five 5 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 5, five or number 5 may also refer to: * AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era * 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era Literature * ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram * ''5'' (comics), an awa ...

TV series on British cases. Stacksteads has a

Rosso Rosso is the major city of south-western Mauritania and capital of Trarza region. It is situated on the Senegal River at the head of the river zone allowing year-round navigation. The town is 204 km south of the capital Nouakchott. The Ar ...

Bus 464 going through it every 10 minutes via the main road through the village, Newchurch Road. There is a secondary school called

The Valley Leadership Academy The Valley Leadership Academy (formerly Fearns Community Sports College) is an 11–16 co-educational secondary school with academy status in Stacksteads, Bacup, Lancashire, England. It was formerly a community school and adopted its present ...

. Stacksteads is home to the famous Kimberley Club formed in 1897 as a drinking club for quarry workers. Lit and warmed by gas (no electricity), it is still going strong and sells

real ale Real ale is the name coined by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) for beer that is "brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous car ...

direct from the barrel. From 1903 until 2011 Stacksteads Cricket Club played on Waterbarn Recreation Ground adjacent to Waterbarn Baptist Church. The club moved to New Hall Hey Cricket Ground in nearby Rawtenstall after difficulties with the landlord who also owns the Grade 2 listed Waterbarn Baptist Chapel on Brandwood Road built in 1847.

References

Villages in Lancashire Geography of the Borough of Rossendale {{Lancashire-geo-stub