Colne - Lancashire County Council

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Lancashire Historic Town SurveyColne2. LOCATION, TOPOGRAPHY AND DESCRIPTIONOF STUDY AREA2.1 Geographical locationThe town of Colne is located at NGR SD 862 378 (centred). It is positioned on the westernedge of the Pennine Hills, adjacent to the south-west is the town of Nelson and just overfive kilometres to the south is Burnley, to the north is the village of Foulridge. Colne lies atthe far northern end of a number of closely neighbouring settlements that lie along thevalley of the Pendle Water and its tributaries.2.2 GeologyThe underlying solid geology of the area consists of Millstone Grit of the Carboniferous era.This is overlain to the south by the Lower Westphalian Coal Measures known, in this area,as the Burnley Coal Measures (Earp et al 1961, 133; IGS 1979; Pickles 1989, 20).The drift cover mainly consists of the soils of the Rivington and Brickfield Association, bothof which are derived from Millstone Grit and Carboniferous sandstones and shales. Theformer are also associated with medium to coarse textured head and till. They are foundon hillocks ridges and steep to moderately sloping valley sides up to 30m aOD and areunder permanent pasture which becomes rough and matted over 180m aOD (Hall andFolland 1970, 48). The Brickfield association soils, associated with medium- to finetexturedtill, are generally found below 180m aOD and produce a landscape of gentlyundulating meadow and pasture (Hall and Folland 1970, 58). In both cases frequent limingis required to maintain fertility, otherwise the land quickly gives way to rush infestation athigher levels and in the valley bottoms (Hall and Folland 1970, 54, 62). Occupying anarrow, low-lying tract of land in the north-west of the area is an isolated area of SollomAssociation soils that are more usually associated with the richly fertile south-westLancashire and are formed on fluvio-glacial sand and gravel (Hall and Folland 1970, 116).2.3 Landscape settingColne sits on the north side of the valley formed by the Colne Water and its tributaries. Thesettlement grew up on a well-defined ridge, between the Colne Water and a tributarystream in the North Valley. A subsidiary settlement, Waterside, developed next to theColne Water. The early settlement spread along the highway that favoured the top of theridge, and along the road to Waterside, until the two nucleations joined in the nineteenthcentury. Later growth saw the town on the south side of the ridge and to the east. By thelate nineteenth to early twentieth century expansion encompassed the North Valley. Thetown ranges in height from around 130m aOD near Bradford Mill next to Colne Water, toaround 212m aOD at the north end of the defined urban area at Colne Edge. The towncentre lies at a height of around 190m aOD along the ridge, with the church at the highestpoint of 193m aOD.Colne is situated in the Lancashire Valleys countryside character area (CountrysideCommission 1998, 101), which has an intensely urban character. Colne, however, lies atthe far northern end of this character area, and is largely surrounded by open countrysideto the north, east and south. The steeply rolling countryside, which defines the foothills ofthe Pennine uplands in this area, hides the urban development of Nelson and the smallersettlement of Barrowford from Colne, which reinforces the impression that the town is setwithin a rural landscape. The surrounding fieldscape is fragmented by scattered residentialdevelopments. Quarries and reservoirs are also a feature of the urban fringe on the northside of Colne.© Lancashire County Council 2005 9
Lancashire Historic Town SurveyColne2.4 Study areaColne’s urban area was defined in relation to Lancashire’s Historic LandscapeCharacterisation Project, which outlined urban areas in accordance with their extent in c1990. The urban area, which includes Colne, also comprises Barrowford, Brierfield,Burnley, Nelson, Lowerford and Higherford. Burnley and Nelson are the subject ofseparate Lancashire Extensive Urban Survey (LEUS) town assessments. Barrowford,Brierfield, Lowerford and Higherford were not included in the LEUS, as they wereconsidered to have insufficient historic urban characteristics or archaeological significanceto warrant a town assessment.The discrepancies between those parts of the c 1990 urban area included within thepresent assessment and those parts excluded, have been defined in relation to the 1895Municipal Borough boundary rather than township boundaries. In particular, the urban areaexpanded south of the river Colne, in the late nineteenth century, at the Lenches andPrimet Bridge. These areas lie outside the borough boundary and have, therefore, beenexcluded from the study, although they are contiguous with Colne’s urban area from thelate nineteenth century. Colne is part of the post-1974 county of Lancashire and lies withinthe Diocese of Blackburn.© Lancashire County Council 2005 10
Page 1 and 2: LANCASHIREHISTORIC TOWNSURVEY PROGR
Page 3 and 4: Lancashire Historic Town SurveyColn
Page 13: Lancashire Historic Town SurveyColn
Page 65:
Lancashire Historic Landscape Chara
Page 71:
ColneFig 6: Medieval sites, areasan
Page 75:
ColneFig 8: Industrial-era sites,an
Page 79:
88893909142ColneFigure 10. Present
Page 84:
Originally published by Lancashire
show all

Colne - Lancashire County Council

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?