New town trail launched in Brierfield

The trail has been put together by Year 10 pupils from Marsden Heights Community College, who formed a group called Commonality aimed at encouraging people of different faiths, cultures and backgrounds to come together.

The students’ ideas won the support of Brierfield Action in the Community and last year, the Heritage Lottery Fund gave a grant to help with their research into the town’s history.

In order to put the trail together, the group experienced faith trails in Bradford and Lancaster, learned about how to devise a walking trail and researched the buildings and people of Brierfield with Nelson Library’s community history department and the the community heritage team at Lancashire County Council.

They also visited and chatted with people from some of the faith buildings in Brierfield.

A spokesman said: “The group believes that the Brierfield Town Trail highlights a shared history between different faith communities and backgrounds, one that enabled Brierfield to grow and thrive due to some devout religious men and a vision that brought the cotton textile industry, along with better transport links to Brierfield.”

A framed image of the trail, showing important people and buildings from the town’s past, was unveiled at a ceremony at the peace garden in Brierfield town centre by the Mayor of Pendle, Coun. Nawaz Ahmed, and the Mayor and Mayoress of Brierfield, Coun. David and Mrs Colette Brown.