Clayton le Moors - <>

Clayton-le-Moors is a village in Hyndburn in Lancashire, England. The village is locally referred to as 'Clayton'. There is also a ward with the same name in Hyndburn. The population of this ward at the 2011 census was 4,725. To the west lies Rishton, to the north Great Harwood, and two miles to the south, Accrington. Clayton-le-Moors is situated on the A680 road alongside the M65 motorway.HistoryIt is thought that the village developed while the Leeds Liverpool Canal was being built. The half-way point of the Leeds Liverpool Canal is Clayton-le-Moors. A mural that depicted this fact has been demolished. The village's main thoroughfare is Whalley Road, which still has some canal workers' cottages.Mercer Park, once the grounds of Mercer House, is freely open to the public, and contains an updated war memorial. The house was previously Oakenshaw Cottage, where John Mercer lived towards the end of his life. Mercer, a self-taught chemist born in Great Harwood, invented the mercerisation process for treating cotton which is still in use today. He was also a pioneer of colour photography.Clayton-le-Moors is said to be a village of two halves. Residents were 'top-enders' or 'bottom-enders', depending on which side of the Load O'Mischief pub they lived. The Load O'Mischief has since been demolished to make way for the M65 motorway. The two communities had firm opinions about each other and rarely mixed. There was, however, an annual football match between them at the running track at Wilson's Playing Fields, which sit behind woodland in Whalley Road close to Sparth House. The synthetic running track is surrounded by football pitches, a cricket pitch and changing rooms.

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