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At the Weir
Terrace end of the building where the lane leads to Dykes house Farm,
Tattersalls or Wreckers as they were called kept two lorries, both of
which could have their flats taken off and replaced when the occasion
required by a body full of fixed seats and so they became charabancs for
carrying passengers. One of these lorries had a different body which was
entered from the back and had glass windows and adorned at the front
with a sign " Irwell Springs Bacup Band", and was used to carry the
members of this famous brass band to their engagements. Behind
Broadclough Mill are the remains of an intrenchment, called the "Dykes,"
respecting the antiquity of which no tradition exists. It is cut out
from the gentle slope of an eminence, and in one direction is nearly
parallel to the horizon for more than 600 yards: a part of the line, for
about 100 yards, appears to have been levelled; and more than 400 yards
present a trench 54 feet in breadth at the bottom, and of proportionate
depth. So gigantic and singular
On the other side of the road was Carr Bridge a wooden bridge over the river leading to Wright Walkers Top of the bank farm. Back again to the other side was Thowd Engine Mill, where there was a water wheel up to about 1939, and the practice room of Irwell Springs Band
Then you came to Sam Pillings farm and the houses of Step Row, opposite was the Roebuck Inn Lord's Court and a row of back to back houses facing the top half or York Street. The houses and the Roebuck where demolished about 1970.
In 1754 the Rochdale and Burnley Turnpike trust was created resulting in a highway ascending from higher Broadclough up Step row and Bacup Old road as far as Deerplay.
Behind the Roebuck there had been a excellent bowling green on which challenge matches took place between national champions accompanied by the bookies shouting the odds.
Part way up today's main road is a road leading off to Dog Pits where a mill once stood along with two rows of houses. Dog pits mill was originally loaned by the Hargreaves family who when it became too small moved to Parrock Mill at Sharneyford. The mill lodge was to the north about 100 yards away and a further lodge, a circular one, was in a field to the east.
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If you could have stood on the
site of the Old school house at Heald, in the year 1832 and looked out
towards the direction of Weir you would have seen a very different view
from todays. No road or highway running through the village in fact
there was no village. All traffic was carried by pack horse and mules.
Many of the farms supplemented their incomes by hand loom weaving in a
evening after the days work on the land had been completed.
The name of Weir is said
by James L Maxim to mean " a fence for the catching of fish". A less known name for Weir was
Jamland derived from a time when many families survived on jam
butties consuming a thousand pots of jam per week.
Behind the Weir hotel was
at one time the playing field for the Irwell Springs football team
who would go on to become Bacup Borough. About 1867 1868 the local board
had passed plans for four cottages, two dwelling house, a shop and
hotel to be built. In total seventeen houses had plans passed for
building between 1870 and 1878 previous o this in 1865 the Co-op
opened its no1 store in Weir.
 
Prior to the erection of the war
memorial the Weir war committee erected a roll of honour for the men
of Weir who had died in the first world war. The recess can still be
seen today in the wall of the house that was the
Co-op.
Weir was home to one of the
areas largest employers. Irwell Springs printing company also having
been known as The Corner dye works. The
effluent from their dyeing plant coloured the river Irwell, black,
blue, yellow or whatever colour was being used at the time.
Heald town was the centre of village life having a population in
1841 of 107 and in 1851 167 centred on the slate stone
quarrying industry.
In 1832 there was no mill
at Weir bottom, just a farmstead and a few cottages with the river
Irwell flowing close by. New Row ( Treacle Row ) changed its name
in 1878 to Clough Terrace. From the
rough bent grasses which grew
down from the moor to the entrances of the cottages came the name of the Bent
estate and cottages. The large houses of Bent being built in
1925 for the directors of Irwell Springs print works. The
following directors were housed on the Bent estate, M Hughes
managing director, James Hargreaves, sales director, James Buckley
office manager. 
The Deerplay Inn which stands 1338 feet above sea level was the home for many years of the Rossendale Hunt. It is thought that the present Deerplay Inn is the second with that name the first one being on the opposite side of the road. It may also have had another name as a directory of 1818 gives the name James Simpson " The Stag And Hounds ".
The old well on the right which it is said is the start of the River Irwell.and on top of the hill behind Irwell Farm and the well stands the war memorial erected in memory of the lads who fell from Weir village during the first world war. The ground was given by Mr Edmondson who was at the time the owner of the Irwell Springs Dyeing company.
The Toll or Bar house once stood at the junction of the road to Water- Burnley and Bacup. Note the sign below which is taken from the above picture " 4 miles to Newchurch". Newchurch being the name Bacup was known by.
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