JCA 35 Lancashire Valleys.
FGU Summary: The Lancashire valleys run north-east from Chorley through Blackburn and Burnley to
Colne. The areas lies mainly in east Lancashire and is bounded to the north-west by the river Ribble
and the Millstone Grit outcrop of Pendle Hill, and to the south by a section of the southern Pennines.
19% is urban area and 5% is wooded. A small proportion of the area (5%) lies in the Forest of Bowland
AONB. 63% of land has LFA status.
3 sub-units: undulating lowland farmland & floodplain west of Blackburn; millstone grit ridge between
Ribble and Calder; Industrial foothills and valleys.
1. Settlement and Development
Character of the area very much dominated by a long history of access and movement along the grain
of the valleys (e.g. Roman road and forts at Burwen Castle, to the north east near Elslack, and at
Ribchester in the Ribble valley to the west) and by the industrial development of the valleys from the
16th century onwards. These developments took wool and flax from domestic to factory systems with
the development of first water then steam-powered mills.
Nucleated settlements, developed from late 18th century and built around factory locations, dominate the
main NE-SW route alongside the Ribble floodplain and between the Forests of Pendle and Trawden.
Some represent developments of earlier rural villages and retain early buildings alongside the stone
terraces built to accommodate textile workers in the 19th century. Scattered settlements on the valley
sides are comprised of older stone buildings, often the Longhouse type.
Post medieval country houses with ornamental settings are well represented, particularly along the
northern valleys away from industrial towns, where historic extents of parkland have frequently been
subsumed within later enclosed farmland.
Traditional building materials sandstone grit and timber frame, brick from 19th century, with stone flag
and from late 18th century Welsh slate roofs.
Substantial houses and barns dating from 16th century attest to wealth from textile industry.
Private and public parks and gardens are also a significant feature of the more urban landscapes (e.g.
the many parks at Burnley).
2. Agriculture
The landscape of well spaced nucleated villages and medium densities of smaller hamlets and
farmsteads was transformed in the 18th and 19th centuries, and further fragmented by the modern
transport networks along the valley floors.
However, the foundation of later industrial expansion - the improved pastoral economy of the 15th-16th
century, is still visible in the dispersed pastoral farmlands of the Ribble valley floodplain and the later
(1600-1850) enclosure of the low moorlands to either side of the A56 north of Burnley.
Medium survival of pre-1750 farmstead buildings.
Historic farm buildings related to these periods of expansion remain visible - either in original isolation or
subsumed in later urban growth. Linear (particularly to north of area) and dispersed farmstead groups
predominate, with some courtyard steadings developed from the late 18th century where arable
increased; field barns for cattle on higher ground. Aisled barns dating from 16 th century, and
combination barns with cattle housed at storeyed ends associated with larger farms from early 17 th
century and in general use by 19th century.
3. Fields and boundary patterns
The Ribble valley floodplain to the south and west is dominated by irregular, hedge-bounded pasture
fields dating from before 1600. These appear to have been created mainly through processes of
assartment - leaving occasional fragments of former woodland along boundaries.
To the north east the dominant field forms are more planned and rectilinear reflecting episodes of
moorland enclosure along the fringes of the Forests of Trawden and Pendle in the period 1600-1850.
Hedges give way to stone walls on rising ground.
Except around the fringes of the urban settlements there is very little evidence for post 1850 enclosure
patterns.
Rare fragments of former strip-field agriculture (noted on HLC) alongside northern villages (Fowlridge,
Kelbrook, Earby)
4. Trees and woodland
Fragments of ancient woodland survive with the assarted fieldscapes of the Ribble Valley floodplain and
lower slopes of Pendle Hill and Longridge Fell. Elsewhere broadleaf woodland is scarce - confined
within the narrow cloughs.
5. Semi-natural environments
Abandoned industrial landscapes and canal margins may develop greater species diversity than the
surrounding urban (or rural ) landscapes.
7. River and coastal features.
Leeds & Liverpool Canal and associated industrial buildings.