Bygone Burnley: Hapton, with historian Roger Frost MBE

Respected local historian Roger Frost MBE guides us around the area rich in history, not least when he reveals that Hapton was the first village in England to have electric street lighting, recognised in its coat of arms.

Early electrical engineers Simpson’s was the company responsible. They also made electric kettles and other goods, and were even connected to famed American inventor Thomas Edison.

Our video next takes us to Shuttleworth Hall, the home of the Shuttleworths before they took possesion of Gawthorpe Hall in the late 17th Century.

The building is the oldest surviving in Hapton, built in the late Tudor period, but the village has a long history dating back to medieval times, and was even home to a castle which sadly no longer survives.

Roger explains: “Hapton has got a medieval history. There was a castle here which may have been built in the 12th Century, likely to have been in the reign of King Stephen, the period of the civil war, sometimes referred to as the ‘Nineteen Long Winters’ or ‘The Anarchy’.

“The war, a succession dispute between Stephen and the Empress Matilda, ended in 1154 when Stephen agreed on his death that her son Henry would succeed him, becoming Henry II, the first of the Plantagenet dynasty.”

Roger added: “The castle wasn’t the only early building though. The Towneley family owned Hapton Tower, a popular house among some of the Towneleys, including one who saved the altar vestments from Whalley Abbey.”

Our video next looks at a forgotten area or hamlet named Birtwistle, which was situated on the edge of Hapton, now completely deserted. Anybody called Birtwistle gets their name from this area, Roger reveals.

We then look at Castle Clough and the home of one of the borough’s oldest cotton mills. It was there that the mill was built on the banks of the clough as a cotton spinning mill, which later became a dye works.

Our video articles ends by looking at the Hapton Valley Colliery, now synonymous with the tragic pit disaster of 1962, which claimed the lives of 19 miners.