Clayton-le-Moors

History

It is thought that the town developed with the fusion of the two hamlets of Oakenshaw (bottom end) and Enfield (top end) which began during the construction of the Leeds Liverpool Canal, which pre-dated the railways. The merger continued with the development of the cotton textile industry, particularly that of weaving and cloth finishing. The stretch of canal between Burnley and Enfield Wharf (now alongside the Enfield Bridge on Blackburn Road) was opened in 1801. By 1808 it had been extended to the village of Church. The final link up between Leeds and Liverpool was completed 1816. Clayton-le-Moors now lies at the midpoint of the Leeds Liverpool Canal although there is no marker. The canal continued to be used for the commercial transportation of coal between Bank Hall Colliery, Burnley and the now demolished power generating station at Whitebirk, Blackburn, until 1963. During the harsh winter of 1963 the thickness of the ice on the canal prevented the movement of barges and coal had to be transported by road. Canal transportation was never resumed. The canal is now used solely for leisure boating and is managed and maintained by the Canal and River Trust, a charitable trust. The Roman Catholic St. Mary's Church which opened in 1819, was originally sited on Burnley Road, east of the town, on the boundary with Altham, as a replacement for the chapel at Dunkenhalgh. The present-day St. Mary's in Clayton-le-Moors was built in 1959 and the old one demolished, with only the graveyard surviving. The Church of England, All Saints' Church was erected in 1840. The town's two main thoroughfares are the A680 Whalley Road, which still has some canal workers' cottages, and A678 which is named Blackburn Road to the west of the junction with Whalley Road and Burnley Road to the…