Clayton-le-Moors

Clayton-le-Moors
Clayton-le-Moors  Clayton-le-Moors shown within Lancashire
OS grid reference	SD745315
District	Hyndburn
Shire county	Lancashire
Region	North West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	ACCRINGTON
Postcode district	BB5
Dialling code	01254
Police	Lancashire
Fire	Lancashire
Ambulance	North West
EU Parliament	North West England
UK Parliament	Hyndburn
List of places UK England Lancashire

Clayton-le-Moors is a township in Hyndburn in Lancashire, England. The town is locally referred to as 'Clayton'. 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.

Description

It is thought that the town developed while the Leeds Liverpool Canal was being built. The half-way point of the Leeds Liverpool Canal is Clayton-le-Moors. A mural that depicted this fact has been demolished. The town's main thoroughfare is Whalley Road, which still has some canal workers' cottages.

Attractions include Mercer Park, freely open to the public, with an updated war memorial, once the grounds of Mercer House. The house was previously Oakenshaw Cottage and it was 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 a pioneer of colour photography.

Clayton-le-Moors is said to be a town of halves. Residents were 'top-ender' or 'bottom-ender', depending on which side of the Load O'Mischief pub, now demolished to make way for the M65 motorway. The two had firm opinions about each other and rarely mixed^[1] There was, however, an annual football match between each at the running track at Wilson's Playing Fields. The fields sit behind a woodland in Whalley Road - close to Sparth House. The synthetic track is surrounded by football pitches, a cricket pitch and changing rooms. There are shops around Pickup Street and Barnes Square.

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 which was established in October 1982, by Sensei Tony Gregson under the guidance of Sensei Thomas Duckett. Initially held in the Methodist Church as Goshin Kempo Ju Jitsu on Church St, it has recently moved to the Local Civic Library on Pickup St.

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

Education

St. Mary's Primary School was built in 1896 as a Roman Catholic school. The original building, which stood where the playground is, was demolished in 1985 and replaced with a new modern building. The other primary schools include the Church of England's All Saints and the non-denomination Mount Pleasant. There is also a public library in the town.

Amenities

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 Conservative Club. There were three Working Men's Clubs, known colloquially as the Top Club. Come and Welcome is the middle club and bottom (Park View) club. The top closed in the 1990s and is now an eating house, the middle is no longer functioning, but the bottom – Park View – remains open. The Load O' Mischief was well known throughout Lancashire and gave its name to a bus stop outside its location in Whalley Road and for bus routes from Accrington. It was closed and bulldozed to make way for the M65 motorway but is still referred to as a way of referencing that stretch of Whalley Road.

Hotels

Hotels include the Dunkenhalgh in Blackburn Road, Maple Lodge in Blackburn Road, and Sparth House in Whalley Road.

The Dunkenhalgh is a four-star hotel built around a 700-year-old house – the manor of Dunkenhalgh. The manor was recently renovated. Maple Lodge offers four-star accommodation. The house was built in the early 1700s and retains many original features.

Notable People

• Jack Simmons the Lancashire and Tasmania off-spinner was born in Clayton.
• Alan Ramsbottom was a professional racing cyclist from Clayton-le-Moors, and rode the Tour de France, finishing 16th in 1963 was his best achievement. He later moved to Great Harwood, where there is a road named after him.
• Comedian Eric Morecambe, of the double act Morecambe and Wise, lived in Clayton while working in a mine as a 'Bevin Boy'.
• Alex Higgins 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 an English poet who spent most of his working life as a weaver in cotton mills near his home in Barnes Street, Clayton-le-Moors. He published five books of poetry, occasionally writing in Lancashire dialect, and won fifteen awards including a gold medal presented by the president of the United Poets' Laureate International. He was listed in the third edition of Who's Who in the World. He appeared on television and radio reading his own work^[2] and a UK national newspaper, the Daily Mirror, referred to him as 'The Cotton Mill Bard'.^[3]
• 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.^[4] Originally from Great Harwood, Netherwood Hughes, one of the last surviving veterans of World War I, died at the Woodlands Home for the Elderly in 2009, aged 108.

Notable Businesses

Karrimor International, a world-renowned manufacturer of backpacks, footwear, and other outdoor pursuit equipment, was founded in Clayton-le-Moors in 1946. Prior to receivership and disposal of its UK manufacturing business and retail operations in 2004, it was considered to have a "tremendous tradition", a history that included "legendary" products, and a "very strong brand name",^[5] and past owner Industrialinvest stated in 2002 that the company had an "international reputation for outstanding [products]".^[6] A 1996 review of top British manufacturers by The Independent had also described Karrimor as "a leader in its... field" and one of Britain's great post war manufacturers, albeit one that it felt had (like other businesses) "failed to invest and expand".^[7] The brand and product lines still exist as of 2013, and are owned by the Sports Direct group.

References