The Book of Me, Written by You - Week 53 - My Home Town

The Book Of Me, Written By You is a 15 month project set up by Julie Goucher at Anglers Rest.

Each week there are prompts which require answering.

Week 53 - My Home Town

My home town is Bacup in East Lancashire, it is where I grew up. I lived here from being a few days old to 18 years old, which was when I left home. I still return to Bacup to see my mum and may be a few other people.

A Moorland photo above Bacup

Bacup is the head town of the Rossendale Valley, once a thriving town with the cotton and woollen industries of the Victorian era. Since the start of the 20th Century there has been mass decline in industry and there was a move to the slipper and shoe manufacturing. The Rossendale Valley was nicknamed The Golden Valley at it's peak at the end of the 19th Century. 

It is in the heart of the Pennines, with Burnley to the north and Rochdale to the south, or Yorkshire to the east and Blackburn to the west, it sits in a rural spot, being at the head of the valley you have to climb hills and over moors to get out to surrounding towns of Burnley, Todmorden, Whitworth or down the valley to Rawtenstall. The river Irwell's source is in a small village to the north of Bacup and the river runs through the Rossendale Valley out towards Manchester before it joins the River Mersey.

Map from Google Maps, accessed 15th Oct 2014

 

It is and will always be a special place, as this was where I grew up and got my first job after qualifying as an Optician, but I do feel that Bradford is becoming more and more my home town as I have now lived here nearly half as long as I did in Bacup.