Waterfoot, Lancashire

Coordinates: 53°41′31″N 2°15′04″W / 53.692°N 2.251°W / 53.692; -2.251

Waterfoot is a small Rossendale mill-town at between Rawtenstall and Bacup in Lancashire where the B6238 road from Burnley meets the A681 road. It is where the River Whitwell meets the River Irwell.

It is part of the Rossendale and Darwen constituency. Jake Berry became the constituency's Member of Parliament in 2010.

History

Like the majority of the industrial communities in East Lancashire, Waterfoot expanded rapidly in the nineteenth century with the growth of industrialisation; it became a centre for felt-making, a process related to the predominant textile industry of the region. Before that, the main centre was Newchurch-in-Rossendale, that sits above Waterfoot to the north. The township of Newchurch stretched from Bacup to Rawtenstall, and in 1511 it was recorded as having a population of 1000 people, served by the monks of Whalley Abbey.

Waterfoot was on the railway line between Bury and Bacup, created by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company in 1848 (completed 1852). This was dismantled in 1972 and the route is now hard to trace, although the tunnels can be seen in Thrutch Gorge or 'The Glen', a picturesque cutting to the east of the village.

Rossendale

Rossendale /ˈrɒsəndeɪl/ is a district with borough status in Lancashire, England, holding a number of small former mill towns centred on the valley of the River Irwell in the industrial North West. Rossendale combines modest size urban development with rural villages and is immediately south of the more populated town of Burnley, east of Blackburn and north of Bolton, Bury, Manchester and Rochdale, centred 15 miles (24 km) north of Manchester.

In the 2001 census the population of Rossendale was 65,652, spread between the larger towns of Bacup, Haslingden and Rawtenstall; the villages of Crawshawbooth, Edenfield, Helmshore, Waterfoot, Whitworth; and as well as Britannia, Broadclough, Chatterton, Cloughfold, Cowpe, Irwell Vale, Loveclough, Newchurch, Shawforth, Stacksteads, Stubbins, Turn, Water, Whitewell Bottom and Weir. The population at the 2011 Census had risen to 67,922.

The district was formed on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, from the municipal boroughs of Bacup, Haslingden, Rawtenstall, part of Ramsbottom Urban District and Whitworth Urban District.

Rossendale (UK Parliament constituency)

Coordinates: 53°42′29″N 2°14′24″W / 53.708°N 2.240°W / 53.708; -2.240

Rossendale was a parliamentary constituency in the Lancashire, England. Created in 1885, it elected one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first-past-the-post voting system. When created it comprised the districts of Rawtenstall, Bacup, and Haslingden; Ramsbottom district was added to the constituency in 1950.

The constituency ceased to exist with the implementation of the 1983 boundary changes and was replaced by the Rossendale and Darwen constituency. The exact nature of the changes were as follows: 9,882 electors of the Rossendale seat were transferred to Bury North. 25,918 electors were added from the abolished Darwen constituency and 5,267 from Heywood and Royton.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 1880s

Elections in the 1890s

Elections in the 1900s

Elections in the 1910s

General Election 1914/15: Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by the July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;