All of the trail is public access and involves a mixtures of hard pavement, footpath and bridlepath. Depending on the weather, you might want to ensure you wear appropriate footwear. If you work up a thirst or an appetite, you can also drop in at the Stanhill Pub located in the centre of the village, which has some pictures of Old Stanhill, including James Hargreaves’ family tree.
Board 1
Birthplace Of The Industrial Evolution
Stanhill Village is the birthplace of the Industrial Textile Revolution. In front of you is the cottage where James Hargreaves {1720 – 1778], a cottage hand-loom weaver, invented the Spinning Jenny in 1764.
Board 2
Stanhill Hall and Residents
The impressive building in front of you is Stanhill Hall. The Hall dates from 1748 but was remodelled in a Gothic style around 1840. It is a Grade 2 listed building being ‘of national importance and special interest’. Originally a substantial farmhouse stood on the site occupied by the Rishtons, a Royalist family whose estates were confiscated after the English Civil War.
Board 3
Local Industry
As well as textiles, coal mining was once an important activity in the area. Stanhill Pit provided local employment as did a large quarry at Kemp Delph that was worked from before 1839 until after WW2.
Board 4
Robert ‘Parsley’ Peel
Robert Peel came from a yeoman farmer family who lived at Peel Fold Farm. He was also engaged in the home-based textile system and earned success from calico printing.
Board 5
Knuzden WW2 Pow Camp
An Italian POW camp, which after the war housed German POW’s waiting for repatriation (1946-47). The camp and its relationship with local people was the subject of a BBC Time Watch documentary – The Germans We Kept – which is available on the internet.
Board 6
Calico Printing
During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Church and Oswaldtwistle played a major role in the development of calico printing once Peel had learnt the secret of fixing colours by using iron acetate as a mordant.
