BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



WHALLEY 



HENHEADS 



Henhades, 1464; Henneheedes, 1507. 



Henheads is a small extra-parochial township of 

 317 acres lying on the hillside to the north of 

 Haslingden, and having a little detached portion to 

 the west. The population in 1901 was 174. The 

 road from Haslingden to Accrington touches it, and 

 the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company's 

 line to Accrington has a station named Baxenden in 

 the detached portion. 



The township, which had from 1883 been included 

 in the Haslingden local board district, was in 1894'^ 

 absorbed in the new township of Haslingden, and 

 ceased to have any independent existence. 



This portion of the chase or forest of Rossendale 

 does not come into view till 1463-4, when it is 

 recorded that John Hargreaves and Gilbert Rishton 

 paid 3/. \d. for Henheads and Frerehill or Friar Hill, 

 as against the old rent of (>s. id}'' In the survey of 

 1507 it is stated that the two pastures called Over- 

 heads and Frerehill, otherwise called Henheads, which 

 the king's tenants and farmers had held in common 

 for 1 3/. \d., had been granted as copyhold for zSs. %dP 

 In 1527 the tenants of Rossendale and Accrington 

 paid 10s. for Henheads.^* The place is again men- 

 tioned in disputes in 1583^^ and 1591.^" In 1662 a 

 rent of 20/. a year was paid for the pasture called 

 Henheads, of which the copyholders of Accrington 

 New Hold paid ds. Sd. and those of Rossendale 

 i3^-4«'-'' 



NEWCHURCH-IN-ROSSENDALE 



Bacop, Dedequenclogh, Wolfhamdene, Tunstede, 

 1324. 



Newchurch occupies a considerable part of the old 

 forest of Rossendale, and still remains for the most 

 part desolate hill country, in which heights of 1,340 ft. 

 above sea level are attained ; but a populous 

 manufacturing district has sprung up all along the 

 narrow valley of the Irwell, which bounds the town- 

 ship on the south, as well as along the doughs 

 extending north from this valley in the centre and 

 east end of the township. The old divisions are 

 Deadwenclough on the west, in which is Newchurch 

 proper, Tunstead and Wolfenden Booth in the south, 

 Wolfenden in the north and Bacup in the east. 

 There are two small detached portions in the town 

 of Rawtenstall to the west. The total area is 5,857^ 

 acres,! ^j^j j^ j^qj (.},£ population numbered 

 26,845, about equally divided between the Bacup 

 and Rawtenstall parts, viz. 13,443 in the former and 

 13,402 in the latter.^ 



The principal road is that from Bury, which leads 

 east and north-east up the Irwell valley on the north 



bank of the river. It enters the township at 

 Rawtenstall, and passes through Clough Fold, Water- 

 foot, Stacksteads, Bacup and Sharneyford into Tod- 

 morden. From Waterfoot, at the south end of 

 the central clough above named, another main road 

 leads north through Newchurch, Sagar Holme, 

 Lumb, Water and Windy Bank to Burnley, Dean 

 lying to the east of it ; while from Bacup similarly a 

 road leads north by Broad Clough and Weir towards 

 Burnley. From Newchurch other roads go west to 

 Rawtenstall and east to Stacksteads. The Lancashire 

 and Yorkshire Railw.iy Company's line from Bury to 

 Bacup, opened to Newchurch in 1848 and to Bacup 

 in 1852, also leads up the Irwell valley, sometimes 

 on one side of the river and sometimes on the other ; 

 the stations are named Clough Fold, Waterfoot, 

 Stacksteads and Bacup, the terminus. From Bacup 

 there is also a line south to Rochdale, opened in 

 1881. 



The town of Bacup, though mainly in Newchurch, 

 extends across the Irwell into Rochdale, in which are 

 the places called Greave, Tong, Thorn and Rock- 

 cliffe. The main street. Market Street, runs north 

 and south on the west- side of the river ; the railway 

 station stands at its south end, where the street turns 

 to the west and is called Newchurch Road. At the 

 north end the street is continued to Lane Head ; but 

 there is a western branch, now the Burnley Road, by 

 Waterside and Holmes to Broad Clough, and an 

 eastern branch, the Todmorden Road. The first 

 resident magistrate, James Whittaker, qualified in 

 1824.' The Mechanics' Institution, opened in 

 1846,'' has a library and reading room. There are 

 Liberal and Conservative clubs and a theatre. A 

 Co-operative Society was formed as early as 1847. 

 At Stacksteads there are three clubs. 



The woollen manufacture was formerly the chief 

 industry, and there was some silk weaving, but since 

 about 1770 the cotton manufacture has become the 

 principal business.' There are minor trades — size 

 works, slipper works, dye works, foundries, reed and 

 heald manufactories, roperies, saw-mills and corn- 

 mills. Stone is extensively quarried, and at Deerplay,* 

 on the northern border, and other places there are 

 collieries. The soil is clayey, overlying rock, and the 

 agricultural land is almost entirely in pasture ; the 

 returns show at Bacup l^ acres of arable land, 3,929 

 in permanent grass and 6 of woods and plantations, 

 and at Waterfoot no arable, 3,054 acres of pasture 

 and 1 3 of wood *^ ; but part of the Waterfoot 

 district is in other townships. 



Fairs are held at Bacup in the week before Easter, 

 Whit-Week and October, and at Newchurch on 

 29 April and at Midsummer. 



There is a company of the 5 th Battalion of the 

 East Lancashire Regiment representing the Territorial 

 force. 



" Loc. Govt. Bd. Order 32291. 



'^ Whitaker, Whalley, i, 359. 



" MS. at Huntroyde. 



" Duchy of Lane. Rentals, bJle. 5, 

 no. 1 2. 



'^ Ducatus Lane. (Rcc. Com.), iil, 146 : 

 James Lord v. Edmund Tattersall. 



** Ibid, iii, 278 ; various copyholders v. 

 Robert Holden and other copyholders 

 concerning common of pasture. 



*' TowneleyMS. ' Honor of Clitheroe.' 



' The areas of the separate divisions 



are — Bacup, i,994j acres ; Deadwen- 

 clough, 767 ; Tunstead (656^) and Wol- 

 fenden Booth (361J), 1,018 ; and the 

 part of Wolfenden in Newchurch 2,077. 

 The rest of Wolfenden, which contains 

 2,352 acres, is in Higher Booths. 



^ The total population of the borough 

 of Bacup was 22,505. 



^ This and other notes have been taken 

 from the borough Tear-book, 1908-9. 



* The institute was formed in 1839. 



' In 1852 there were forty cotton mills 



437 



at Bacup, iron and brass foundries, corn- 

 mill, aaw-mills, roperies, machine works, 

 size works and woollen mill ; Mannex, 

 Dir. 



There were various riots in 1812, 1826 

 and 1842, caused by opposition to 

 machinery, &c. ; Newbigging, Rossendale^ 

 239, 250. 



^ This was a pasture land in 1296 (Der- 

 plaghe) ; De Lacy Compoti (Chet. Soc.), 4, 



ICO. 



""Statistics from Bd. of Agric. (1905), 



