Clayton-le-Moors

Clayton-le-Moors
Lancashire
Location
Grid reference:	SD745315
Location:	53°46’45"N, 2°23’18"W
Data
Population:	8,522  (2011)
Post town:	Accrington
Postcode:	BB5
Dialling code:	01254
Local Government
Council:	Hyndburn
Parliamentary constituency:	Hyndburn

Clayton-le-Moors is a small industrial town two miles north of Accrington in Lancashire. It is usually referred to locally as simply 'Clayton'. The town has a population of 8,522 according to the 2011 census.

To the west lies Rishton, to the north Great Harwood, and two miles to the south, Accrington. Clayton-le-Moors is situated on the A680 road alongside the M65 motorway.

History

It is thought that the village developed with the fusion of the two hamlets of Oakenshaw (bottom end) and Enfield (top end) which began during the construction of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, which pre-dated the railways. The merger continued with the development of the cotton textile industry, particularly that of weaving and cloth finishing. The stretch of canal between Burnley and Enfield Wharf (now alongside the Enfield Bridge on Blackburn Road) was opened in 1801. By 1808 it had been extended to the adjoining village of Church. The final link up between Leeds and Liverpool was completed 1816. Clayton-le-Moors now lies at the midpoint of the Leeds Liverpool Canal. Sadly, the mural which depicted this fact has been demolished. The canal continued to be used for the commercial transportation of coal between Bank Hall Colliery, Burnley and the now demolished power generating station at Whitebirk, Blackburn, until 1963. During the harsh winter of 1963 the thickness of the ice on the canal prevented the movement of barges and coal had to be transported by road. Subsequently, canal transportation was never resumed. The canal is now used solely for leisure boating and is managed and maintained by a charitable trust, the Canal and River Trust.

The village's two main thoroughfares are Whalley Road, which still has some canal workers' cottages, and Blackburn Road to the West/Burnley Road to the East.

Mercer Park, once the grounds of Mercer House, is freely open to the public, and contains an updated war memorial. The house was previously Oakenshaw Cottage, where John Mercer lived towards the end of his life. Mercer, a self-taught chemist born in Great Harwood, invented the mercerisation process for treating cotton which is still in use today. He was also a pioneer of colour photography.

Clayton-le-Moors is said to be a village of two halves. Residents were either 'top-enders' or 'bottom-enders', depending on which side of the Whalley Road canal bridge they lived. The two communities had firm opinions about each other and were said to rarely mix. With the mixing of the town's children at common schools, this is no longer the case but the distinction between top and bottom enders still remains. There was, however, an annual football match between them at the running track at Wilson's Playing Fields (formerly the Woodlands Playing Fields), which lie behind woodland close to Sparth House in lower Whalley Road. The synthetic running track there is surrounded by football pitches, a cricket pitch and changing rooms.

Sport

Clayton Le Moors Harriers founded in 1922, is one of the largest athletic clubs in the North of England, catering for cross-country, fell and road running.

Kuon Ji Ju Jitsu Association is a martial arts club established in October 1982, by Sensei Tony Gregson under the guidance of Sensei Thomas Duckett it meets at the Civic Library on Pickup Street.

Hyndburn athletics club is the biggest track and field club in the area and is a successful club winning midlands championships back to back also has many Lancashire champions, combined event champions, English school competitors and competitors for Lancashire.

Enfield Cricket Club is the town's cricket club and competes in the Lancashire League.

Amenities

Schools

Secondary education is no longer available within the town. 11 - 18 year olds now have to travel to schools in adjoining Hyndburn townships or beyond. Three primary schools provide education for the under 11s. They are Mount Pleasant Primary School on Earl Street, All Saints Church of England Primary School on Church Street and St Marys Roman Catholic Primary School on Devonshire Drive.

Pubs

There are a few pubs: The Albion, Hare and Hounds, Hyndburn Bridge, Forts Arms, The Royal Oak, Old England Forever, Wellington Hotel, Sparth Manor - built at an unknown date but sold for the first time in 1556, and the Conservative Club. There were three Working Men's Clubs, known colloquially as the Top, Middle and Bottom Clubs. The Top Club closed in the 2000s and became an eating house. The Come and Welcome was the Middle Club and no longer functions, but the Bottom Club – Park View – remains open. Perhaps its most famous pub was The Load O' Mischief, which was well known throughout Lancashire. It was situated by the traffic lights at the junction of the A678 and A670 trunk roads and gave its name to the 4 bus stops adjacent to its location in Whalley Road, Blackburn Road and Burnley Road for the routes to Accrington-Clayton Forts Arms and Blackburn- Burnley. Although the Load O' Mischief was closed and demolished to make way for the M65 motorway in the late 1970s, its name is still used to refer to the area around the traffic lights at the Whalley Road, Blackburn and Burnley Roads Junction.

Hotels

Hotels include the Dunkenhalgh in Blackburn Road, Maple Lodge in Blackburn Road, Sparth House in Whalley Road and a Bed and Breakfast Inn at Sparth Manor in Sparth Road.

• Sparth House Hotel main house was built in 1740 with parts of the building dating back to 14th century. The Georgian architecture runs throughout the property. It also is the home to furniture from RMS Olympic, sister ship of Titanic. Sparth House Hotel began as a family home, then became as an antique shop and now is a family-owned and -run hotel.
• The Dunkenhalgh is a four-star hotel built around a 700-year-old house – the manor of Dunkenhalgh. It was the former residence of Judge Walmesley and later the equally influential Petre family.
• Maple Lodge offers four-star accommodation. The house was built in the early 1700s and retains many original features.

Notable people

• Jim Bowen (James Whittaker, born Peter Williams; 20 August 1937 – 14 March 2018) was a stand-up comedian and television personality.
• Jack Simmons MBE, the Lancashire and Tasmania off-spinner, was born and raised in Clayton.
• Alan Ramsbottom was a professional racing cyclist from Clayton-le-Moors; he rode the Tour de France, finishing 16th in 1963. He later moved to Great Harwood, where there is a road named after him.
• Comedian Eric Morecambe OBE (1926-1984), of the double act Morecambe and Wise, lived in Clayton while working in a nearby coal mine as a 'Bevin Boy'.
• Alex Higgins (1949-2010) lived in the town after his arrival from Northern Ireland. East Lancashire had a thriving snooker scene and Higgins was keen to learn from great players in the area.
• Nicholas Freeston (1907-1978) was a poet who spent most of his working life as a weaver.
• Vicky Entwistle, the actress who played the factory worker Janice Battersby in Coronation Street, has a link to Clayton-le-Moors. Her parents ran a newsagent shop close to the M65 bridge in Whalley Road.
• Netherwood Hughes (1900-2009), originally from Great Harwood, one of the last surviving veterans of World War I, died at the Woodlands Home for the Elderly in 2009, aged 108.
• Sir Clyde Walcott (1926-2006), the West Indies test cricketer was the professional for Enfield Cricket Club between 1951 and 1954, when he lodged in Clayton during the English cricket season.
• Fred Brown OBE FRS (1925-2004), a virologist and molecular biologist, was born in Clayton-le-Moors.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Clayton-le-Moors)

• Tourist guide to Clayton-le-Moors - Lancashire Telegraph