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 ...

and Waterfoot within the

Rossendale Rossendale may refer to several places and organizations in Lancashire, England: Places *Rossendale Valley, a river valley *Borough of Rossendale, a local government district *Rossendale (UK Parliament constituency) Rossendale was a United King ...

borough of

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. The population of this Rossendale ward at the 2011 census was 3,789. Stacksteads includes a mountain bike trail called Lee Quarry which had originally been a working quarry. It is part of the Rossendale and Darwen constituency, with Andy MacNae becoming Member of Parliament in 2024.

History

In the 19th century it was home to several

cotton mill A cotton mill is a building that houses 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. Although some were driven ...

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 Locks. The Irwell marks the bound ...

. These expanded after the ending of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

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

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

– 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 channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...

police procedural The police procedural, police show, or police crime drama is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasises the investigative procedure of police officers, police detectives, or law enforcement agency, law enforcement agencies ...

drama series ''

Juliet Bravo ''Juliet Bravo'' is a television in the United Kingdom, British television police procedural drama series, first broadcast on 30 August 1980, that ran for six series and a total of 88 episodes on BBC One, BBC1. The theme of the series concerned ...

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

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

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 ITV Granada, Granada Television which ran from 1976 to 1978. The plays, with the exception of ''Hindle Wakes (play), Hindle Wakes'', all starred Laurence Olivier. S ...

'': '' Hindle Wakes'', a 1976 television film 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. He and his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud made up a trio of male actors who dominated the British stage of the m ...

, that starred

Rosalind Ayres Rosalind Ayres (born 7 December 1946) is an English actress, director and producer. Active since 1970, Ayres is well known for her role in the 1997 film ''Titanic (1997 film), Titanic'', in which she played Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon. Her husband, ...

, Judi Bowker, and Roy Dotrice.

Today

The area is today noted for a high number of reported UFO sightings and featured in one episode of a 2008 Five TV series on British cases. Stacksteads has a

Rosso Rosso is the major city of south-western Mauritania and capital of Trarza Region, 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 Nouakc ...

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. 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 ale 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 ca ...

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 II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

Waterbarn Baptist Chapel on Brandwood Road built in 1847.

References

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