Bacup: Culture, Industrial History and Trails

Bacup can be explored through several distinct themes: industrial history, a long-standing Easter performance, cultural venues, and trails linking parkland and art. When planning your stay, you can start by deciding whether you want to focus on a specific event, historic sites, or outdoor activities. The following destinations offer different points of interest to help you plan.

Culture, Industrial History and Theatre

The Britannia Coconut Dancers perform in Bacup every year on Easter Saturday. Their dances include two nut dances and five garland dances. The performance follows a route of about seven miles. Check both the date and the route for your travel year before you set off.

Britannia Mill reveals another chapter in the town’s history: the site is a well-preserved, rare example of an integrated cotton spinning and weaving mill from the mid-19th century in Lancashire. Spinning and weaving are connected here as parts of a single industrial complex. This makes the mill a tangible link to Bacup’s industrial past.

Bacup War Memorial was dedicated in 1928 to the people of Bacup who died in the First World War. An additional inscription commemorates those who died in the Second World War. The dignified war memorial was influenced by Sir Edwin Lutyens’ Cenotaph in Whitehall, London. Bacup Museum has been at the heart of the Bacup community since 1878.

Bacup Royal Court Theatre is also part of the town’s cultural history. It opened in Bacup, with its first performance taking place on 18 September 1893. Since 1893, the theatre has played a defining role in Bacup’s cultural life. It reopened for amateur and professional performances in January 2017.

The theatre offers wheelchair spaces and accessible toilets. Wheelchair users can enter via the stalls entrance at the end of Henrietta Street, OL13 0AR, behind Morrisons. Check this visitor information again before you arrive.

Parks, Quarries and Trails

Stubbylee and Moorlands Park comprises two adjoining, award-winning parks with woodland, formal gardens, and recreational facilities. A fully signposted one-mile circular trail provides a clearly defined route through the park. It is described as a circular walk, making it easy to distinguish from other routes in and around Bacup.

Lee Quarry and Cragg Quarry were once working quarries in Bacup. Today, they are open spaces with mountain bike trails. These trails are also open to walkers and runners. Their use therefore differs from the signposted park loop: here, several groups share the mountain bike trails.

The Irwell Sculpture Trail runs from Bacup to Salford Quays in Manchester and features more than 70 works of art. A walk from Bacup town centre passes through the countryside, by the recreation area, and back along the Irwell Sculpture Trail. This lets you distinguish between the longer trail, which extends to Manchester, and this described walk starting from the town centre.

The different distance details also help put things in perspective: the park loop is one mile long, while the route followed by the Britannia Coconut Dancers’ annual performance is about seven miles. These are different kinds of outings—a signposted circular walk in the park and the route of an Easter performance.

Discover more destinations: Whitworth, Goosnargh, Hutton, Ellel, Wilpshire, Skelmersdale, Accrington, Winewall

For the main travel overview: Lancashire.