Brandlesholme
Encyclopedia
Brandlesholme is a suburb north of Bury
Bury
Bury is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the River Irwell, east of Bolton, west-southwest of Rochdale, and north-northwest of the city of Manchester...

 in Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...

, England, half-way between Bury town centre and Ramsbottom
Ramsbottom
Ramsbottom is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England. It is situated on the course of the River Irwell, in the West Pennine Moors. Historically within Lancashire, it is located north-northwest of Bury, and north-northwest of Manchester...

.

Brandlesholme Road (B6214) is the main road through the area. At its furthermost south junction it meets with Tottington Road and Crostons Road, providing access to Bury Town Centre. Northwards at a stretch of open farmland, the road forks, bearing left to Greenmount
Greenmount, Greater Manchester
Greenmount is a village in the district of Tottington amongst the West Pennine Moors, within the northern area of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, in Greater Manchester, England....

 with links to Tottington
Tottington, Greater Manchester
Tottington is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, in Greater Manchester, England.Historically a part of Lancashire, Tottington's early history is marked by its status as an important Medieval fee, a type of Royal Manor which encompassed several townships...

 and Bolton
Bolton
Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...

, and right to Holcombe Brook, Summerseat
Summerseat
Summerseat is a village in the Ramsbottom district of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England. It lies in the Irwell Valley, on the course of the River Irwell to the north of Bury, along the course of the M66 motorway....

 and Ramsbottom
Ramsbottom
Ramsbottom is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England. It is situated on the course of the River Irwell, in the West Pennine Moors. Historically within Lancashire, it is located north-northwest of Bury, and north-northwest of Manchester...

. Frequent bus services run along the road every 10 minutes throughout Monday to Saturday daytime.

History

In the 13th century a small number of people were living in Brandlesholme. The name belonged to a family who administered the local forests on behalf of Henry III
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...

 but following marriage they were replaced by the Greenhalgh family. This family lived in Brandlesholme Old Hall, one of the oldest buildings in Bury on the northern outskirts of Brandlesholme. The building comprises the remains of a medieval hall, a single storyed cruck-built structure with two farms and a Victorian wing built up around it.

Historically, mills tended to be located along rivers and streams. The Kirklees Brook runs to the West of Brandlesholme and in the 18th century mills stood on the site of the old Kirklees Bleachworks, now demolished and redeveloped into a new housing estate named Miller Brook. In 1884, a French chemist, Hilaire de Charbonnet, Comte de Chardonnay, moved to the area to work on a cellulose-based fabric that became known as "Chardonnay silk". A forerunner of rayon
Rayon
Rayon is a manufactured regenerated cellulose fiber. Because it is produced from naturally occurring polymers, it is neither a truly synthetic fiber nor a natural fiber; it is a semi-synthetic or artificial fiber. Rayon is known by the names viscose rayon and art silk in the textile industry...

 it was an attractive cloth, but like celluloid it was very flammable. Eventually, following numerous accidents, it was taken off the market. More recently the mill was known locally as Courtaulds
Courtaulds
Courtaulds was a United Kingdom-based manufacturer of fabric, clothing, artificial fibres, and chemicals.-Foundation:The Company was founded by George Courtauld and his cousin Peter Taylor in 1794 as a silk, crepe and textile business at Pebmarsh in north Essex trading as George Courtauld & Co...

 after the textile company who took over the site in 1962. Its occupation, latterly as a dyehouse, ended in 1980.

Housing

To the west of Brandlesholme Road lies the Garside estate, a sizeable council social-housing estate of terrace houses, and a middle-class estate encapsulating Bankhouse Road. To the east, two further sizeable middle-class estates exist, one encapsulating Trimingham Drive and Hunstanton Drive and the other Rudgwick Drive and Springside View. A second council social-housing estate lies south of Brandlesholme on Woodhill Road. The latest housing development in the area is at the bottom of Garside Hey Road. Named Miller Brook, this new development is located besides Kirklees Brook between Brandlesholme and the neighbouring town of Tottington.

Schools

Local primary schools include Our Lady of Lourdes RC Primary School and Woodbank County Primary School. Brandlesholme County Primary School previously existed until the late 1990s, when it was demolished as a result of demographic change in the area.

Brandlesholme is served by Tottington High School
Tottington High School
Tottington High School is a Community High School and Specialist College of Mathematics & Computing in Tottington, Bury, England. The school opened in 1955. The school is coeducation and takes pupils aged 11–16 years. The current roll is about 928....

, Woodhey High School
Woodhey High School
Woodhey High School is a secondary school in Ramsbottom, in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester; it was recently made a Specialist Science College. Woodhey High School was built by the Bury LEA in 1979 to replace the old Ramsbottom secondary school...

 and Elton High School
Elton High School
Elton High School is a mixed secondary school located on Walshaw Road to the north-west of Bury town centre in Greater Manchester.It has 8 forms of entry for boys and girls from 11–16 years of age...

 in terms of secondary education
Secondary education
Secondary education is the stage of education following primary education. Secondary education includes the final stage of compulsory education and in many countries it is entirely compulsory. The next stage of education is usually college or university...

, but many students attend selective church-aided secondary schools, St Gabriels High School or Bury Church of England High School
Bury Church of England High School
Bury Church of England High School is a mixed-sex secondary school located just south of Bury town centre.It maintains a specialist humanities status....

 or the private Bury Grammar School
Bury Grammar School
Bury Grammar School is an independent grammar school in Bury, Greater Manchester, England, that has existed since Kev Cryer was born, c.1570. The current headmaster is the Reverend Steven Harvey MA. The previous headmaster, Keith Richards MA, retired after sixteen years of headmastership on 7...

 in the town centre.

Shops & services

There is a small selection of shops in Brandlesholme Shopping Precinct, known locally as the 'Top Shops'. They include a Tesco Express
Tesco
Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...

 convenience store, a sandwich takeaway and bakery, hairdresser's, chemist's, fish and chip shop, Chinese takeaway, pizza parlour, florist and optician's. A newsagents, Woodbank Newsagents is located further south.

Brandlesholme has a BP/Spar petrol station to the south and Brandlesholme Service Station to the north. A cattery
Cattery
There are two types of cattery, boarding cattery and breeding cattery.A boarding cattery is where cats are housed temporarily when they can't stay at their owners' home...

 exists at Brandlesholme Hall Farm.

Recreation

The Peel Tower
Peel Monument
The memorial tower to Sir Robert Peel high above Ramsbottom was planned and erected at the same time as Bury was preparing its statue to the then recently deceased statesman who was born in Bury....

 can be seen from Brandlesholme.
The area is home to three children's parks: Hunstanton Park, located within walking distance of Burrs Country Park; Purbeck Park, on the Rudgwick estate; and Brandlesholme Park, a newly created facility on the land of the old primary school.

Close to the shopping precinct, there is a non-profit making pre-school called "Playaway" for children aged between 2 and 4 years old, along with a branch library .

Burrs Country Park

About a mile from the centre of Bury is Burrs Country Park
Burrs Country Park
Burrs Country Park covers a 36 hectare site located on the banks of the River Irwell, 1.5km north west of Bury, Greater Manchester. It was acquired by Bury Metroplolitan Borough Council in 1986 and transformed from a derelict industrial site into a modern country park...

 which covers an area once housing the mill complex of the Burr and Higher Woodhill cotton mills. Situated on both sides of the River Irwell
River Irwell
The River Irwell is a long river which flows through the Irwell Valley in the counties of Lancashire and Greater Manchester in North West England. The river's source is at Irwell Springs on Deerplay Moor, approximately north of Bacup, in the parish of Cliviger, Lancashire...

, it is overlooked by Castlesteads
Castlesteads, Greater Manchester
Castlesteads is an Iron Age promontory fort, situated on the east bank of the River Irwell on a natural promontory in Bury, Greater Manchester . It is listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Excavated pottery indicates the site was occupied between 200BC and 250AD....

, an Iron Age/Roman settlement and hill fort and one of only four Scheduled Ancient Monuments in Bury. The local public house, the Brown Cow, is one of the oldest buildings in Bury. A number of sculptures that form part of the Irwell Sculpture Trail
Irwell Sculpture Trail
The Irwell Sculpture Trail is the largest public art scheme in England, commissioning regional, national and international artists. The Trail includes 28 art pieces and follows a well established footpath stretching from Salford Quays through Bury into Rossendale and up to the Pennines above...

 are located within the park, which is the base for the Burrs Activity Centre where a popular sport is canoe
Canoe
A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...

ing. The East Lancashire Railway
East Lancashire Railway
The East Lancashire Railway is a heritage railway in Lancashire and Greater Manchester, England.-Overview:After formal closure by British Rail in 1982, the line was reopened on 25 July 1987. The initial service operated between Bury and Ramsbottom, via Summerseat. In 1991 the service was extended...

 runs through the park. The latest addition is a Caravan Club
Caravan Club
The Caravan Club is an organisation representing caravanners in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It was founded in 1907 and now represents nearly 1 million members.-History:...

caravan and camping site and the adjacent showground is used by the Bury Show and similar events.

Sport

Local sports teams include Woodbank Cricket Club and Brandlesholme Warriors. Established in 1935, the Woodbank Cricket Club team play in the Lancashire County League. Its ground, Kenyon's is named after a local family who were involved when the club was established, and supported it for many subsequent years. Brandlesholme Warriors are a local junior football club.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK