Oakenclough

Oakenclough
The church of St. John the Evangelist
Oakenclough Location in Wyre Borough Oakenclough Location in the Forest of Bowland Oakenclough Location within Lancashire
OS grid reference	SD538474
Civil parish	Bleasdale Barnacre-with-Bonds
District	Wyre
Shire county	Lancashire
Region	North West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	PRESTON
Postcode district	PR3
Dialling code	01995
Police	Lancashire
Fire	Lancashire
Ambulance	North West
UK Parliament	Wyre and Preston North

Oakenclough (/ˈoʊkənkluː/) is an English hamlet located on the edge of the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire.

Oakenclough is a small and scattered community, which appears to have developed largely as a result of a paper mill being sited here to make use of the water power available from the swiftly flowing River Calder. In 1827, Quaker John Jackson bought the mill from Richard Curtis, a paper manufacturer and farmer who had gone bankrupt. Jackson built and lived in the adjacent house, known as Calder Bank, where his descendants continued to live for well over a hundred years. Jackson's brothers, Jonathan and Richard, founded nearby Calder Vale in 1835, when they built a mill on the river. It was used to weave cotton and is still in use today, even though the river no longer provides the power.

Built by public subscription, St. John's Church, and the small church school next to it, stands at the top of Church Wood between Calder Vale and Oakenclough.

Gallery

• 
  Oakenclough Works. In view is the paper mill, a shed manufacturer, and a scrapyard

Further reading

• Wilcock, Jack (2012). The Story of Calder Vale and Oakenclough: A Lancashire Village Victorian Diary. ISBN 978-0-9531719-3-4.

External links

Media related to Oakenclough at Wikimedia Commons