Great Harwood is a town in the Hyndburn district of Lancashire, England, located 5 miles (8.0 km) north east of Blackburn and adjacent to the Ribble Valley. Great Harwood is part of the "Three Towns" conurbation along with the towns of Clayton-le-Moors and Rishton.[2] In 2001, the town had a population of 11,220,[3] which decreased to 10,800 at the census of 2011.[1]
History
Great Harwood is a town with an industrial heritage. The Mercer Hall Leisure Centre in Queen Street, and the town clock, pay tribute to John Mercer (1791–1866), the 'father' of Great Harwood, who revolutionised the cotton dyeing process with his invention of mercerisation.[4] The cotton industry became the main source of employment in the town, and by 1920, the Great Harwood Weavers' Association had more than 5,000 members.[5]
The town was once on the railway line from Blackburn to Burnley via Padiham – The North Lancs or Great Harwood Loop[6] of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. The last passenger train ran in November 1957 and goods traffic in 1964. The Martholme Viaduct on the line remains about one mile north east.
Public transport links were further curtailed in 2016, when the direct bus link to Manchester was axed by Harrogate based Transdev.
Great Harwood used to have a lively and bustling market around the town clock in the main square.
Great Harwood has three supermarkets: Aldi, which opened in November 2010, Tesco, which opened in December 2011, and Morrisons, which was previously Co-Op, which originally opened in June 2001, which also opened in 2010. There are two petrol stations, run by Texaco, as well as Morrisons.[citation needed]
A retained fire station is also located in the town, having opened in 1972.
Sports
In 1726 it was reported:
Events
Great Harwood is also home to the Great Harwood Agricultural Show, an annual show, established in 1857 and held on Spring Bank Holiday Monday. It moved to its present site at the junction of Harwood Lane and Whalley Road in 2009.[8]
Notable people
- John Mercer (1791–1866), a scientist who developed Mercerisation,[9] a process for treating cotton.[10]
- Samuel Brooks (1793–1864), cotton manufacturer and banker.
- Mortimer Grimshaw (c. 1826–1869), strike leader and political activist
- Thomas Birtwistle (1833–1912), trade unionist and factory inspector, born at Great Harwood.
- Ethel Carnie Holdsworth (1886–1962), a working-class British writer, feminist, and socialist activist.
- George Smith (1895–1967), a British mycologist, studied mildew and moulds that grew on cotton items
- Wilson Smith (1897-1965), physician, virologist and immunologist, developed a vaccine against influenza.
- Netherwood Hughes (1900–2009), World War I veteran, was born in Lord Street.
- Nicholas Freeston (1907–1978), award winning Lancashire poet, who worked as a weaver in cotton mills
- Leslie Duxbury (1926–2005), scriptwriter for Coronation Street, lived locally
- Lesley Mercer (born 1954), a former British trade unionist, President of the Trades Union Congress, 2012-2013
- Steven Pinder (born 1960), actor, played Max Farnham in Brookside
- Mick Jackson (born 1960), writer, best known for his novel of 1997 The Underground Man
Sport
- Brett Ormerod (born 1976), footballer, played 564 games mainly for Blackpool, grew up on Duke Street.
- David Dunn (born 1979), footballer, played 382 games, including over 300 games for Blackburn Rovers in two sessions.
- Matthew Derbyshire (born 1986), footballer, played over 430 games, mainly with Blackburn Rovers and Rotherham United.
- Lenni Cirino (born 2003), footballer, plays for Gillingham F.C. and Montserrat national football team.
- Raff Cirino (born 2007), footballer, plays for Fleetwood Town F.C. and Montserrat national football team.
See also
References
- 1 2 3 UK Census (2011). "Local Area Report – Great Harwood Built-up area (1119884003)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 8 February 2018.
- ↑ "Solicitors Great Harwood". WHN Solicitors. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
Our Great Harwood office is at the heart of a conurbation known as the Three Towns, which also includes Clayton Le Moors and Rishton.
- ↑ Lancashire Profile Archived 8 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine lancashire.gov.uk
- ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - subscription based, accessed 15 June 2011
- ↑ Marsh, Arthur; Ryan, Victoria; Smethurst, John B. (1994). Historical Directory of Trade Unions. Vol. 4. Farnham: Ashgate. p. 108. ISBN 9780859679008.
- ↑ Suggitt, Gordon (2003). Lost Railways of Lancashire. Newbury, Berkshire: Countryside Books. pp. 80–82. ISBN 978-1-85306-801-0. OCLC 52565677.
- ↑ "London". Ipswich Journal. 3 December 1726. p. 2.
- ↑ "History of the Society". Great Harwood Show. 7 August 2018. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
- ↑ Knecht, Edmund (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). pp. 150–151.
- ↑ Hartog, Philip (1894). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 37. pp. 265–267.
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