Barley, Lancashire
Encyclopedia
Barley is a village in the borough of Pendle
Pendle
Pendle is a local government district and borough of Lancashire, England. It adjoins the Lancashire boroughs of Burnley and Ribble Valley, the North Yorkshire district of Craven and the West Yorkshire districts of Calderdale and the City of Bradford...

, in Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

, England. It is in the parish
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 of Barley-with-Wheatley Booth
Barley-with-Wheatley Booth
Barley-with-Wheatley Booth is a civil parish in the Pendle district of Lancashire, England. It has a population of 271, and contains the village of Barley and the hamlet of Wheatley Booth. To the west of Barley is Pendle Hill; its summit, at 557 metres , is within the parish....

. The village lies between Black Moss Reservoirs
Black Moss Reservoirs
Upper and Lower Black Moss Reservoirs are reservoirs close to the village of Barley, in the Borough of Pendle, close to the market town of Burnley, England. They should not be confused with Black Moss Reservoir in Oldham, Greater Manchester. The reservoirs provide drinking water to Nelson when...

 and Lower Ogden Reservoir
Lower Ogden Reservoir
Lower Ogden Reservoir is a reservoir close to Haslingden Grane, half a mile to the west of the village of Barley, in the Borough of Pendle. It supplies drinking water to the town of Nelson....

.

The village is situated close to Pendle Hill
Pendle Hill
Pendle Hill is located in the north-east of Lancashire, England, near the towns of Burnley, Nelson, Colne, Clitheroe and Padiham, an area known as Pendleside. Its summit is above mean sea level. It gives its name to the Borough of Pendle. It is an isolated hill, separated from the Pennines to the...

, and is a popular starting point for walkers of this hill. The circular Pendle Way long-distance trail
Long-distance trail
Long-distance trails are the longer recreational trails mainly through rural areas, used for non-motorised recreational travelling ....

 passes through here.

There is a children's playground by the stream. There is also a substantial 1920s built public house, The Pendle Inn, and a restaurant, The Barley Mow.

General History

After a cow farm was established around 1266, Barley earned its livelihood from agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

. This continued up until the 18th century. During the 18th century textile
Textile
A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...

s began to be manufactured as an extra source of income. The brook
Stream
A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...

s around Barley offered an effective source of waterpower which lead to the building of several cotton factories
Cotton mill
A cotton mill is a factory that houses spinning and weaving machinery. Typically built between 1775 and 1930, mills spun cotton which was an important product during the Industrial Revolution....

. Two small cotton mills were built at Narrowgates and Barley Green. At its height, Barley Green Mill had 200 loom
Loom
A loom is a device used to weave cloth. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads...

s, until floods destroyed the building in 1880. The cotton twist mill at Narrowgates, which was built by William Hartley to spin cotton warp thread, and the adjacent weavers cottages survive and are now private houses.
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