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Camborne

Camborne (Cambron, Kammbronn) is a town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The population at the 2011 Census was 20,845. The northern edge of the parish includes a section of the South West Coast Path, Hell's Mouth and Deadman's Cove.

Camborne was formerly one of the richest tin mining areas in the world and home to the Camborne School of Mines.

Toponymy
Craig Weatherhill explains Camborne thus: "Cambron c. 1100–1816) Cambron, ?'crook-hill')"

Kammbronn is Cornish for 'crooked hill'. The word 'kamm', crooked, is sometimes used in the Breton language, and the Welsh and Irish Gaelic word is 'cam'.

Geography
Camborne is in the western part of the largest urban and industrial area in Cornwall with the town of Redruth 3 mi east. It is the ecclesiastical centre of a large civil parish and has a town council. Camborne-Redruth is on the northern side of the Carn Brea/Carnmenellis granite upland which slopes northwards to the sea. The two towns are linked by the A3047 road which was turnpiked in 1839 and the villages along the road (from the west) were Roskear, Tuckingmill, Pool and Illogan. Running north-south are a number of small streams with narrow river valleys which have been deeply-cut following centuries of tin streaming and other industrial processes. An example is the Red River valley which crosses the A3047 at Tuckingmill. To the north, the A30 (road) forms a boundary between the urban area and the agricultural land on the other side.

Climate
Camborne has an oceanic climate typical of Cornwall with particularly narrow temperature ranges even by British standards. The absence of a large landmass nearby means that warm air from the continent gets cooled down over the sea in summer. In winter, cold air masses get moderated by the same effect. Rainfall is frequent all year due to moist air from the Gulf Stream.

The UK Met Office operate an Upper Air Station in Camborne.

Early history
The first mention of the medieval Camborne churchtown is in 1181 although in 1931 the ruins of a probable Romano-British villa were found at Magor Farm, Illogan, near Camborne, and excavated that year under the guidance of the Royal Institution of Cornwall.

There are also early Christian sites such as an inscribed altar stone, (now in the Church of St Martin and St Meriadoc), and dated to the 10th or 11th centuries, which attests to the existence of a settlement then.

Langdon (1896) records seven stone crosses in the parish of which two are at Pendarves. By the late Middle Ages manorial holdings developed in the surrounding area, and church-paths linked the churchtown to the outlying hamlets. Cornish medieval mystery plays were held in a playing place and the churchyard is said to have had a pilgrimage chapel and holy well. John Norden visited in 1584 and described Camborne as "A churche standinge among the barrayne hills". At this time there would have been moors and rough grazing as well as small fields in the surrounding countryside.

By 1708 Camborne had rights to hold markets and three fairs a year. A sign of increasing industrial activity and increasing industrial population is the first chapel built in 1806 and the development of a local Methodist community. In 1823 the population was around 2,000 and in 1841 it was 4,377, with 75 smiths recorded and over two-thirds of the working population employed in the mining industry. In the expanding town gasworks were opened in 1834, the Hayle Railway was built (1834–37) and Holmans opened a small foundry in 1839. The current Market House was completed in 1866.

Mining
Mining is first recorded locally in the 1400s with early exploitation of the small streams cutting through the mineralised area and from shallow mines following lodes. Adit mining was first recorded in the 16th century. The town is best known as a centre for the former Cornish tin and copper mining industry, having its working heyday during the later 18th and early 19th centuries. Camborne was just a village until transformed by the mining boom which began in the late 18th century and saw the Camborne and Redruth district become the "richest square mile in the old world".

As the economic recession of the 1870s led to the first years of mining decline in Camborne, social tensions mounted. In October 1873 thousands of miners, aided and abetted by the townspeople, rioted against a hated, authoritarian police force. One of the greatest shows of mining defiance in Cornish history left the Town Hall vandalised, the Police Station ransacked, and the estimated fifty constables present in the town beaten and scattered. The militia were called in from Plymouth to quell the insurrection, and the Home Secretary, Robert Lowe, asked to be kept informed of events. The Camborne riots were reported in the national newspapers and Sir Colman Rashleigh, JP for Cornwall, had to address the Grand Jury regarding the tumult. The entire Camborne police force was found to be at fault and either removed from duty or transferred as a result. No rioter was ever convicted.

Dolcoath Mine, (English: Old Ground Mine), the 'Queen of Cornish Mines' was, at a depth of 3,500 feet (1,067 m), for many years the deepest mine in the world, not to mention one of the oldest before its closure in 1921. The last working tin mine in Europe, South Crofty, which closed in 1998, is also to be found in Camborne.

Mining related
Apart from the mines themselves, Camborne was also home to many important related industries, including the once world-renowned foundry of Holman Bros Ltd (CompAir). Holmans, a family business founded in 1801, was for generations, Camborne's, and indeed Cornwall's largest manufacturer of industrial equipment, even making the famous Sten submachine gun for a stint during the Second World War. The Holman Projector was used by the Royal Navy. At its height Holmans was spread over three sites within Camborne, employing some three and half thousand men. Despite Britain's industrial decline, Compair Holmans Camborne factory finally closed in 2003.

A modest quantity of South Crofty tin was purchased by a local enterprise and this gradually dwindling stock is used to make specialist tin jewellery, branded as the South Crofty Collection. Tin originally mined at South Crofty was used to form the bronze medals awarded in the 2012 London Olympics.

Camborne School of Mines
Because of the prior importance of metal mining to the Cornish economy, the Camborne School of Mines (CSM) developed as the only specialist hard rock education establishment in the United Kingdom, until the Royal School of Mines was established in 1851. Plans for the school were laid out in 1829, leading to the current school in 1888. It now forms part of the University of Exeter; it moved to the university's Tremough campus (now known as Penryn Campus) in 2004.

Steam locomotion

On Christmas Eve 1801, the Puffing Devil – a steam-powered road locomotive built by Camborne engineer Richard Trevithick – made its way up Camborne Hill in Cornwall. It was the world's first self-propelled passenger carrying vehicle. The events have been turned into a local song:

 * Going up Camborne Hill, coming down,
 * Going up Camborne Hill, coming down,
 * The horses stood still,
 * The wheels turn around,
 * Going up Camborne Hill, coming down.

Cornish language
The Cornish language was the language of the area around Camborne until the beginning of the 18th century and it is recorded that everyone living west of Truro spoke Cornish in 1644. Nicholas Boson wrote that Cornish was spoken as far east as Redruth and Falmouth circa 1700. In 1700 the pioneering Celtic linguist Edward Lhuyd came to Cornwall to study the language and visited Camborne, detailing many aspects of the parish.

One of the most important surviving works of medieval Cornish literature is Beunans Meriasek, the Life of St Meriadoc the patron saint of Camborne. In the 19th century the nickname for Camborne people was Mera-jacks, or Merry-geeks, and those who washed in St Meriasek's well were called Merrasicks, Merrasickers, Moragicks or Mearagaks.

In the 20th century several Cornish words and phrases were noted as still in use amongst the inhabitants of Camborne. These include taw tavas (silent tongue) and allycumpoester (all in order).

Although a limited amount of Cornish was taught in some schools in west Cornwall during the 19th and early 20th centuries the first school to properly dedicate itself to teaching revived Cornish was the Mount Pleasant House school run by E. G. Retallack Hooper in the post-Second World War period. By 1984 Cornish was being taught in Troon and Camborne primary schools as well as Camborne secondary school and there was a Cornish language playgroup. In 2000 Roskear and Weeth schools were teaching Cornish.

In the 2011 United Kingdom census, although there was no specific Cornish language question, thirty people living in the parish of Camborne declared that Cornish was their main language at home, thirteen in Troon and Beacon.

Parliamentary representation
The Camborne and Redruth constituency was created for the 2010 general election, following a review of parliamentary representation in Cornwall by the Boundary Commission for England, which increased the number of seats in the county from five to six. It is primarily a successor to the former Falmouth and Camborne seat.

In the 2024 United Kingdom general election the results were:

Local government
The Camborne Local Board was established in 1873; the seal was a mine shaft and engine house depicted with the date 1873 and the legend "The Local Board for the District of Camborne". This was replaced by the Camborne Urban District in 1895 which commissioned the council offices in 1903. The urban district was merged with that of Redruth and parts of Redruth Rural District and Helston Rural District (both of which were being abolished) in 1934 to form the Camborne-Redruth Urban District. The urban district persisted until it was merged into the Kerrier district of Cornwall under the Local Government Act 1972.

Cornwall Council
Until May 2021, Camborne was represented by five electoral divisions: Camborne Pendarves, Camborne Roskear, Camborne Trelowarren, Camborne Treslothan, and Camborne Treswithian. From the 2021 Cornwall Council election, Camborne will be covered by four divisions: Four Lanes, Beacon and Troon; Camborne Roskear and Tuckingmill; Camborne Trelowarren; and Camborne West and Treswithian.

List of mayors
Political composition of Town Council

List of Town Criers

 * Henry Eva Hocking, circa 1850–1873
 * Joseph Treloar, 1873–1886
 * Charles Rosevear, 1886–1901
 * George Rosevear, 1901–1934

Church history
Camborne's parish church is dedicated to St Martin and St Meriadoc: it is entirely of granite, of 15th century date, but incorporating earlier structural features, including a Norman chevron stone in the west wall of the north aisle found in 2009 and is listed Grade I. St Martin was added to the original dedication to St Meriadoc in the 15th century. There is a western tower about 60 feet high containing eight bells (with a clock before 1882) and the aisles are identical in design: the building was gutted and restored in 1861-62 and an outer south aisle was added in 1878–79 to a design by James Piers St Aubyn. The church was re-opened on 7 August 1879 by Edward Benson, the Bishop of Truro.

An inscribed altar stone found at Chapel Ia, Troon (now set up as the Lady Chapel altar in the parish church), and dated to the 10th or 11th centuries, attests to the existence of a settlement then. It is inscribed 'Leuiut iusit hec altare pro anima sua'. The chapel of St Ia was recorded in 1429 and a holy well was nearby. The site was called Fenton-ear (i.e. the well of Ia). The stone is very similar to one now used as the mensa of the Lady Chapel altar at Treslothan Parish Church, formerly used from c.1841 to 1955 as the base for a sundial in the grounds of Pendarves House.

Camborne churchyard contains a number of crosses collected from nearby sites: the finest is one found in a well at Crane in 1896 but already known from William Borlase's account of it when it was at Fenton-ear. Arthur Langdon (1896) records six crosses in the parish, including two at Pendarves, two at Trevu and one outside the institute. There is a cross at Camborne Park Recreation Ground.

Two other chapels are known to have existed in the medieval period: one not far from the parish church was dedicated to Our Lady and St Anne and one at Menadarva (derived from Merther-Derwa) was one of Celtic origin dedicated to St Derwa, Virgin, but mentioned in 1429.

Transport
The A30 trunk road now by-passes the town around its northern edge. The old A30 through the town has become the A3047.

The railway station is a half-mile south from the town centre, with a level crossing and footbridge at its eastern end. Camborne railway station used to be famous for its short platforms, which meant that passengers on main line services between London Paddington and Penzance could only board and alight from certain carriages. Partly because of this not all services stopped at Camborne, preferring nearby Redruth (which is also classed by Great Western Railway (GWR) as a short station stop). The platforms have been upgraded but the memory lives on, again partly in stories by the comedian Jethro. Camborne railway station is served by CrossCountry and GWR trains. CrossCountry provide one service in each direction from Plymouth-Penzance.

Camborne was, for a quarter of a century, one of the termini of Cornwall's only tram service. This system was opened in November 1902 and ran a regular service to Redruth until it closed in September 1927.

Sport
Camborne RFC were established in 1878 and are one of the most famous clubs in Cornwall, having produced numerous Cornwall players over the years. In 1987 Camborne were the highest placed Cornish club in the newly formed National leagues when they entered at 1987–88 Courage Area League South (equivalent to National League 2 South today). Camborne is one of the grounds used by the Cornish rugby team and has hosted many notable international sides including the New Zealand 'All Blacks' in 1905, 1924 and 1953, Australia in 1908, 1947 and 1967, South Africa 1960, United States 1977 and numerous other touring sides such as the South African Barbarians and Canterbury (NZ). Since 2006 it was agreed to ground share the Recreation Ground with local Division One team the Cornish Pirates and the ground has undergone major refurbishment including a new stand for the 2007–08 and 2008–09 seasons.

Notable local rugby players include Josh Matavesi 18-year-old debut for Fiji against Scotland in 2010, his younger brother Sam, debut against Canada in 2013.

Cornish wrestling
Camborne has been a major centre for Cornish wrestling for many centuries. There were various venues where tournaments were held including: the field adjoining the Pendarves Arms Inn at Beacon, the Unicorn Inn, the White Hart Inn and the recreation ground. There were various local cups that were competed for including the "Mrs Bramble Cup", the "Allen Cup" and the "Moreing Cup".

Sam Ham (1880–1946), was born in Condurrow near Camborne, was the 1910 middleweight Cornish wrestling champion of South Africa.

See Cornish wrestling in Roskear and Cornish wrestling in Pool

Education
A Church of England National School was built in College Street in 1844 (replaced by a newer building further up the street towards the parish church in 1896-now demolished); in the following year a school for four hundred boys was opened in the Centenary Methodist Chapel and in 1847 the Basset Road British (Methodist) School was opened. A School of Mines started in 1872 with the Basset family paying for chemistry laboratories. The town now has a number of schools covering all age ranges, notably the main secondary school, Camborne Science and International Academy, and a campus of Cornwall College.

Twinning
Camborne is twinned with two places: Santez-Anna-Wened in Brittany, France, and Pachuca, Hidalgo in Mexico. Camborne was twinned with Pachuca at a ceremony in Mexico on 3 July 2008.

The town name inspired the name of Camborne, New Zealand, a seaside suburb of Porirua City developed by an investment company headed by an Arthur Cornish. Most of its street names are of Cornish origin. It adjoins the suburb of Plimmerton.

Music

 * Camborne Town Band has been contesting music records from the late 19th century until the present day. It has performed on BBC Radio.
 * Holman Climax Male Voice Choir, based in Camborne, was formed in 1940 by Edgar S. Kessell (1910–1981).

Literature and film

 * Alan M. Kent's 2005 novel Proper job, Charlie Curnow! is set in and around the Trelawney Estate, a fictional housing estate on the outskirts of Camborne.
 * Zoie Palmer is an actress who was born in Camborne.

Notable people

 * Annie Carvosso (1861–1932), activist and social reformer

title: Camborne


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Cambourne

Cambourne is a town and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England, in the district of South Cambridgeshire. It is a new settlement and lies on the A428 road between Cambridge, 9 mi to the east, and St Neots and Bedford to the west. It comprises the three areas of Great Cambourne, Lower Cambourne and Upper Cambourne. The area is close to Bourn Airfield.

Cambourne is the largest settlement in South Cambridgeshire, with a population of 12,350 in the 2021 UK census.

History
As part of plans to build thousands of new homes in the south-east of England, a new settlement on 400 ha of former agricultural land, 9 mi west of Cambridge, was considered in the late 1980s. In 1994, the Section 106 agreement from the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 was completed by the developers (McA), the local authority, Cambridgeshire County Council and the developers together with the landholders. The new settlement was to be constructed by three of Britain's larger builders of housing developments, Bovis Homes, Bryant Homes and Taylor Wimpey. Planning permission for the development at Monkfield Park was given in November 1996, and construction began in June 1998, on what was previously farmland.

In 2008, work began on building Upper Cambourne, with an original estimated completion date of 2012. The existing planning permission allowed 3,300homes in the development. On 3 October 2011, planning permission was granted for a further 950homes. This was set to take building work up to approximately 2016, and complete Upper Cambourne. In January 2017 outline planning consent was granted for a further 2,350homes to the west of Lower Cambourne.

Cambourne was initially going to be named Monkfield after the name of the original farm, which is commemorated by a Monkfield Lane in Great Cambourne and the village pub, The Monkfield Arms. However, the name of the community was eventually created from the names of Cambridge, the nearest city, and Bourn, a nearby village.

The South Cambridgeshire (Parishes) Order 2004 created the new civil parish of Cambourne from 1 April 2004, and changed the boundaries of the Bourn parish. In March 2019 the parish council declared the parish to be a town, allowing the council to adopt the name Cambourne Town Council.

Amenities
Some facilities were built in Cambourne as part of the initial development. These included a Morrisons supermarket and petrol station, a medical practice, a dentist, a veterinary practice, allotments, a pub and a hotel.

The High Street in Cambourne has been developed further with a takeaway and eat-in food outlets, estate agents, a bookmaker, a building society branch, a dry cleaner, and a pharmacy. An initial summary of future plans for the High Street development was presented by Newcrest Developments at a Parish Council planning meeting on 24 January 2012. This suggested that a three-stage process could begin at the end of 2014, with a couple of larger retail units being built beside the Morrisons roundabout. Stage 2 could see a row of smaller shops and a larger convenience store located on land opposite The Monkfield Arms. The final stage could see a couple of medium-sized stores positioned on the barren land beside the medical practice. In April 2014, a planning application was submitted for a new 60-bedroom hotel, pub and small shop unit on open land at the entrance to Great Cambourne. In 2008, the local police force Cambridgeshire Constabulary announced the building of a new police station in the village, complementing the two other rural stations in Histon and Sawston, and two outposts at Melbourn and Linton, in South Cambridgeshire. Cambourne Police Station fully opened in September 2010.n

In May 2011, Cambourne Fire Station was completed on Back Lane, adjacent to the police station. There will however be no serving firefighters or fire engine until the Papworth Everard fire station is deemed no longer necessary. In June 2011, Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service district staff for Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire (managers, administrators, fire protection officers and community safety officers) moved into Cambourne Fire Station while the Parkside Fire Station in Cambridge is being redeveloped. In March 2012, Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service relocated their High Volume Pump and Hose Layer Unit from Huntingdon to the Cambourne Fire Station. Retained firefighters from the nearby Papworth and Gamlingay stations are trained to use these vehicles as part of the UK's New Dimension programme.

Cambourne Business Park is located to the north east of Great Cambourne and is the home of South Cambridgeshire District Council, which relocated there in 2004. Environmental facilities include an educational eco park, which is home to a variety of plant, bird and mammal life, and a Country Park covering 80 acre, partially opened in 2001, situated between Lower Cambourne and Great Cambourne.

Sport
Various sports clubs are located in the villages, including football, rugby, tennis, netball and cricket clubs with their own pitches.

Cambourne cricket club was formed in 2003, but did not begin playing competitive cricket until 2006 due to delays to the delivery and maturity of playing facilities. The club has enjoyed a sustained period of growth since its inception, culminating in the award of ECB Clubmark status in 2008, which demonstrates proven higher levels of organisation, management, coaching and safety. The club has three adult teams playing in the Saturday CCA leagues and three Colts teams playing in the CYCA leagues. Building work on a new pavilion in Lower Cambourne was completed in April 2007 and a second ground in Great Cambourne opened in August 2009 behind the church which allowed the club to enter a 3rd adult team into the league and presents further opportunity for growth.

The senior football club is Cambourne Rovers FC, whose Saturday side plays in the Cambridgeshire Football League BIS Division 1a. A reserve team also plays. CRFC is further represented by a Sunday league team, competing in the Halls of Cambridge Sunday League Division 4B.

The largest junior football club is called Cambourne FC, with a Soccer School for U6, an U7 team in playing in the Hunts Mini League, an U8 team, an U9 team, two U10 teams, and two U11 teams playing in the Cambs Mini League. The club also has an U12 and an U13 team playing in the Cambs Colts league.

Cambourne Exiles Rugby Club was formed in 2005 when some of the villagers decided to form a rugby-related social group. The first game was on 26 November 2005, against Saffron Walden 3. The team have grown to be a competent threes-level team. After the first season of friendly matches, in 2006 the team joined the Greene King Merit League.

A new sports pavilion was completed in September 2011 on the playing fields off Back Lane, Greater Cambourne. This has multi-changing facilities for the Football and Rugby pitches and a maintenance shed for the Parish Council. In November 2011, the second-floor bar was opened as Cambourne Sports and Social Club.

Cambourne Fitness and Sports Centre was officially opened on 4 December 2011 on Back Lane, Great Cambourne by England international footballer Darren Bent, Great British gymnast Beth Tweddle and Great British Paralympic swimmer Harriet Lee. Costing around £2 million it has a large sports hall, dance studio, juice bar and large gym. It is run by leisure firm Everyone Active with a profits share going to Cambourne Parish Council.

Transport
The transport network for the area has been developed further as a result of Cambourne's construction, with the extension of the dual-carriageway section of the A428. This new bypass opened in May 2007 and has moved much traffic from the single carriageway into Cambridge onto the new road. The route does not have a separate cycle lane, even though Cambridge has the highest levels of cycling in the UK, and South Cambridgeshire has the third highest cycling levels.

A bus service operates between Cambourne and Cambridge, with less-frequent services towards St Neots, Huntingdon and St Ives.

, the nearest railway station is located at St Neots. A railway station for Cambourne is planned for the new line between Oxford and Cambridge, which will also have new stations near Tempsford and at Cambridge South. This project has seen a funding of £5billion from the Government.

In 2020, the 'Cambourne West Consortium' gained consent to create a new bus-only roadway to connect Sterling Way in Upper Cambourne and Broadway, to substantially decrease the overall distance travelled by local bus services. (, the majority of services travel along St Neots Road, entering and leaving Cambourne via Cambourne Road.) The new bus gate would allow services such as the Stagecoach Citi 4 route to extend from School Lane to the new roundabout junction on the A1198, and then into Cambourne West. ECL Civil Engineering was appointed as the principal contractor to deliver the first phase of the Cambourne West Project infrastructure.

Religion
In a 2006 survey, 20% of residents identified as undertaking activities of a religious faith.

Christianity
From an early point in planning the new development of Cambourne, Christian church leaders expressed an interest in being involved in helping create the new community. The original Cambourne master plan included space for a church located at the east end of the High Street. This ultimately resulted in the Church of England, the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Methodist Church of Great Britain, and the United Reformed Church working together to form the Local Ecumenical Partnership called Cambourne Church. In late 1999, as the first homes became occupied, the church was already open. The first full-time residential minister was appointed in early 2001. The waiting room of the doctor's surgery (now the dentist's) became the first meeting place. Before funds to build the permanent Church Centre were raised, an old Portakabin classroom was reconditioned by local residents and placed on the corner of Eastgate and Jeavons Lane opposite the planned Church site. It became the first community building available for Cambourne residents, opening as The Ark in 2002. This quickly became home to a wide variety of community groups.

Phase one of building was completed at a cost of £1.1 million in late 2009 and officially opened by the Duke of Gloucester on 13 July 2010. The building has a tall, barn-like design, aiming to be accessible, welcoming and environmentally sustainable. The main hall accommodates up to 150 worshipers, as well as providing space for public and private events. In October 2019 the Annexe was opened offering a further space for worship, church groups and community events. As well as the Cambourne Church congregation, the Roman Catholic congregation also regularly meets in the church centre.

An Independent Baptist church Peacehaven Baptist Church, was started in 2006 and meets at the Cambourne Community Centre (The Hub). Christ Church Cambourne, a free evangelical church, meets at Cambourne Village College.

Hinduism
After Christianity, Hinduism is the second most numerous religion recorded.

Schools
Cambourne has a higher birth rate than many other places in the South Cambridgeshire area. Four primary schools and a secondary school have been built in the area, to ensure that pupils do not have to take buses to schools in Hardwick and other villages in the local area. The first of the schools to be built was Monkfield Park Primary School in Great Cambourne, followed by The Vine Inter-Church School in Upper Cambourne and a temporary Jeavons Wood Primary School in Great Cambourne. In June 2011, work began on a new permanent building for the Jeavons Wood Primary School, situated 100 yards from the temporary site on Eastgate, Great Cambourne. When the Jeavons Wood School vacated the temporary buildings, it re-opened as a fourth primary school, which was operated as a second campus of Hardwick and Cambourne Community Primary School. This school relocated to a permanent campus on Sheepfold Lane in September 2015.

In June 2011, Cambridgeshire County Council held a public exhibition of the plans for 'A Secondary School for Cambourne'. Plans were approved in January 2012. Cambourne Village College opened in September 2013 in the north-west of Lower Cambourne. Previously, primary schools in the area were in the catchment for Comberton Village College. A coach also transports several children in the village to and from St Bede's Inter-Church School in Cambridge.

Youth work
Cambourne has a large population of young people, due in part to the very high birth rate over a number of years, but also as a result of families moving into the town. In Cambourne's early years, Cambourne Youth Partnership was set up as a charity to bring together those working with young people across the town. Cambourne Youth Partnership operates out of Cambourne Soul, a youth centre facility in Great Cambourne, and currently partners with Romsey Mill to provide both universal and targeted youth services.

Media
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC East and ITV Anglia. Local radio stations are BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, Heart East, Cambridge 105, Greatest Hits Radio East, and Star Radio. The town is served by the local newspaper, Cambridge Independent. Cambourne Crier is a monthly magazine delivered free of charge to all residents across the town.

Art, hobbies and culture
Cambourne has several art, hobbyist and cultural clubs and societies. Many of these which cater to specific interests of the community, such as painting, music, photography, gardening, etc. while others are broader in nature.

Cambourne Cultural Society
CCS was set up in 2010 with the vision of creating a platform for celebrating the culture, music and dance of the diaspora from the Indian subcontinent. It has now grown to over 100 members, with membership open to anyone who has an interest in the culture and arts of the sub-continent. The society members hold frequent gatherings, mostly for celebrating Indian festivals like Diwali, Navratri, etc, and featuring dance, music and food from the subcontinent.

Cambourne Crescent
Cambourne Crescent is a local charitable trust established in 2011. The charity works along with the wider community to help Cambridge food bank, Jimmy's Charity, Art and Minds Charity and local schools. It also runs a Science and Technology Club.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Cambourne


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Clacton-on-Sea

Clacton-on-Sea, often simply called Clacton, is a seaside town and resort in the county of Essex, on the east coast of England. It is located on the Tendring Peninsula and is the largest settlement in the Tendring District, with a population of 53,200 (2021). The town is situated around 77 miles north-east of London, 40 miles east-north-east of Chelmsford, 58 miles north-east of Southend-on-Sea, 16 miles south-east of Colchester and 16 miles south of Harwich.

The area was historically in the parish of Great Clacton. The development of the seaside resort began in the 1870s and was called Clacton-on-Sea to distinguish it from the older village about 1 mile inland. Great Clacton and Clacton-on-Sea were always administered together, forming a single urban district called Clacton between 1895 and 1974. The two settlements gradually merged into a single urban area during the twentieth century.

The town's economy continues to rely significantly on entertainment and day-trip facilities; it is strong in the service sector, with a large retired population. The north-west part of the town has two business/industrial parks. In the wider district, agriculture and occupations connected to the Port of Harwich provide further employment. It lies within the United Kingdom Parliament constituency of Clacton.

Geography
Clacton-on-Sea is located between Jaywick and Holland-on-Sea along the coastline and the original village of Great Clacton, now a suburb, to the north. The relevant local authority is Tendring District Council.

It is at the south-eastern end of the A133. The resort of Frinton-on-Sea is nearby to the north-east.

Amenities
Clacton has a pleasure pier, arcades, a golf course, caravan parks and an airfield. The town and its beaches are still popular with tourists in the summer and there is an annual entertainment programme including the Clacton Carnival, which starts on the second Saturday in August and lasts for a week. Clacton Airshow, an aerial display, takes place on the Thursday and Friday before the August Bank Holiday, with historic and modern aircraft such as the Lancaster, Spitfire, Hurricane, Harrier, Jaguar, Tornado, and helicopters. There are also wing-walkers and the Red Arrows.

Clacton has a shopping area with many national chains represented, and a Factory Shopping Village in the north of the town.

Clacton has two theatres, the West Cliff Theatre and the Princes Theatre.

Early history
Clacton was a site of the lower Palaeolithic Clactonian industry of flint tool manufacture. The "Clacton Spear", a wooden (yew) spear found at Clacton in 1911 and dated at 450,000 years ago, is the oldest such spear to have been found in Britain.

There is plentiful archaeological evidence of scattered settlement in the area, including Beaker Folk traces at Point Clear to the south and round houses (as cropmarks) near the A133 extension from Weeley to the north. There may have been a pre-Roman (i.e. Celtic) settlement at Gt. Clacton and there were almost certainly scattered farmsteads as the important British Celtic settlement at Colchester was only about 15 mile away. No traces of substantial Roman settlement have been found at Clacton though there are several Roman villa sites nearby (e.g. Alresford, Wivenhoe, Brightlingsea). After the Anglo-Saxon migration and the foundation of the kingdom of Essex, a village called Claccingtun ("the village of Clacc's or Clacca's people") was established. No pre-Norman buildings survive today. The Domesday Book of 1086 records the village as Clachintuna.

Clacton was repeatedly surveyed by the Army in the Napoleonic Wars as a possible invasion beach-head for Napoleon and his Dutch allies. There was a large army and militia camp where Holland-on-Sea now stands. In 1810 five Martello Towers were built to guard the beaches between Colne Point to the south and what is now Holland-on-Sea to the north of the town.

In 1865 railway engineer and land developer Peter Bruff, the steamboat owner William Jackson, and a group of businessmen bought an area of undeveloped farmland adjoining low gravelly cliffs and a firm sand-and-shingle beach lying to the south-east of Great Clacton village, with the intention of establishing a new resort. One of the first facilities they built for the new resort was the pier, which opened in 1871, allowing visitors to travel by ship; the railway would not reach Clacton until 1882. The town of Clacton-on-Sea was laid out rather haphazardly over the next few years; though it has a central 'grand' avenue (originally Electric Parade, now Pier Avenue) the street plan incorporates many previously rural lanes and tracks, such as Wash Lane. Plots and streets were sold off piecemeal to developers and speculators. In 1882 the Great Eastern Railway already serving the well-established resort of Walton-on-the-Naze along the coast, opened a branch line to Clacton-on-Sea railway station from a junction on the existing railway at Thorpe-le-Soken.

Twentieth century
Clacton grew into the largest seaside resort between Southend-on-Sea and Great Yarmouth, with some 10,000 residents by 1914 and approx. 20,000 by 1939. Due to its accessibility from the East End of London and the Essex suburbs, Clacton, like Southend, remained preferentially geared to catering for working-class and lower-middle-class holidaymakers.

For well over a century Clacton Pier has been an RNLI lifeboat station.

Just before the Second World War the building of Butlin's Holiday Camp boosted its economy, though the Army took it over between then and 1945 for use as an internment, engineer, pioneer and light anti-aircraft artillery training camp.

Four notable incidents occurred in Clacton-on-Sea during World War II. First, very early in the war a German airman bailed out over the town. Procedures for dealing with enemy captives were not yet well-established and he was treated as a celebrity guest for some days, including by the town council, before eventually being handed over to the military. Second, a Luftwaffe Heinkel 111 bomber crashed into the town on 30 April 1940, demolishing several houses in the Vista Road area as one of the magnetic mines on board exploded on impact, killing the crew and two civilians; another mine was defused by experts from the Navy. Third, the Wagstaff Corner area was bombed in May 1941, demolishing some well-known buildings. Finally, a V2 rocket hit in front of the Tower Hotel, injuring dozens of troops inside though without bringing down the structure. Clacton lay beneath the route taken by many of the V1 and V2 bombs aimed at London.

A big role in the town during the pre- and post-war period was played by the Kingsman family, which bought and developed the pier and ran a pleasure-steamer service from London. A summer sea excursion to Calais also ran until the early 1960s. Butlin's reopened the holiday camp after the war. This, along with the expansion of the nearby chalet town of Jaywick, originally a speculative private development of inter-war years, and increasingly capacious caravan sites, all swelled by the movement of retired Londoners into the area, altered the character of the town.

Throughout the 1960s Clacton beach remained a popular summer excursion for residents of Essex and east London and in August was often crammed to capacity in the area around the Pier. The pirate radio ship MV Galaxy, which broadcast Wonderful Radio London, was anchored offshore from 1964 until its forced closure in 1967.

With the advent of cheap flights to Mediterranean resorts in the 1970s, the holiday industry began to decline. Increasingly, hotels' and guest-houses' spare capacity came to be used as 'temporary' accommodation by the local authority to house those on welfare, refugees, migrants and asylum seekers. Pier Ward, in the centre of the town, is one of the poorest in the UK; (nearby Jaywick is often cited as the poorest of all).

Since around 1970 several well-known local buildings have been demolished, including the palatial art deco Odeon Cinema (a great loss to both the town and the county); the Warwick Castle Pub; the Waverley Hotel; Barker House, a large home for the learning disabled, and Groom's Crippleage, which housed orphaned handicapped girls from London. Cordy's, a well-known large seafront restaurant has recently been demolished. The site of Butlin's Holiday Camp was redeveloped as a housing estate. The once famously crowded bus station in Jackson Road has become a car park. The Ocean Revue Theatre, where Max Bygraves made one of his first appearances, has closed.

The town expanded substantially in the 1980s, 1990s and first decade of the 21st century, with new housing estates on the rural margins of town, and some brownfield developments. Many residents commute to work in Colchester, Witham, Chelmsford or London. Clacton was in the news when its town centre and seafront areas were struck by an F1/T2 tornado on 23 November 1981, as part of the record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak on that day.

Twenty-first century
Gunfleet Sands Offshore Wind Farm, built in the early 2000s some 3 mi offshore, is visible from many places in the flat hinterland of the town.

As common with many English seaside towns, unemployment has remained stubbornly high in Clacton. In 2023, Clacton won a £20 million government levelling-up grant to improve the town centre.

Seaside resort
The modern day Clacton-on-Sea was founded by Peter Bruff in 1871 as a seaside resort. Originally the main means of access was by sea; Steamships operated by the Woolwich Steam Packet Company docked from 1871 at Clacton Pier which opened the same year. The pier now offers an amusement arcade and many other forms of entertainment.

People who wanted to come by road had to go through Great Clacton. In the 1920s, London Road was built to cope with the influx of holidaymakers. Later, in the 1970s, the eastern section of the A120 was opened, obviating the need for Clacton visitors to go through Colchester. Today the Paddle Steamer Waverley operates from Clacton Pier, offering pleasure boat excursions.

Clacton has a Blue Flag beach at Martello Bay (two more are locally at Dovercourt Bay and Brightlingsea). Clacton Seafront Gardens which run along the top of the seafront west of Clacton Pier has also been awarded a Green Flag, and includes various sections with formal gardens, memorials and places to sit.

Former Butlins
In 1936, Billy Butlin bought and refurbished the West Clacton Estate, an amusement park to the west of the town. He opened a new amusement park on the site in 1937 and then, a year later on 11 June 1938, opened the second of his holiday camps. This location remained open until 1983 when, due to changing holiday tastes, Butlins decided to close the facility. It was then purchased by former managers of the camp who reopened it as a short-lived theme park, called Atlas Park. The land was then sold and redeveloped with housing.

Governance
There are two tiers of local government covering Clacton, at district and county level: Tendring District Council, which is based at Clacton Town Hall, and Essex County Council, based in Chelmsford.

The ancient parish was called Great Clacton. Until 1891 the parish was administered by its vestry in the same way as most rural areas. As the area became more populous, largely due to the growth of the seaside resort, more urban forms of government were required. The parish of Great Clacton was made a local government district in 1891, governed by a local board. Such local boards were reconstituted as urban district councils in 1894. In 1895 the council changed the name of the urban district from Great Clacton to simply Clacton. The legal name of the parish which covered the same area as the urban district remained Great Clacton, but as an urban parish it had no separate parish council. The neighbouring parish of Little Holland covering Holland-on-Sea was abolished in 1934 and absorbed into Clacton.

Clacton Urban District Council built the Town Hall on Station Road to serve both as its headquarters and as a public hall and theatre for the town, with the theatre now called the Princes Theatre. It is a neo-Georgian building, with a tall portico of composite columns flanked by two-story wings. The architect was Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas and it was completed in 1931.

Clacton Urban District was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, with the area becoming part of the new Tendring District. No successor parish was created for the former urban district and so it become an unparished area, directly administered by Tendring District Council.

The current Member of Parliament for the Clacton constituency is Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, who won the seat from Conservative Giles Watling in the 2024 general election.

Sport
Clacton has a cricket club and a football team called F.C. Clacton, whose best F.A. Cup performance was the 1st round. The football team play at the Rush Green Bowl with the stand for the supporters being known as the "bus shelter".

The Cricket Club has many grounds around Clacton with one in Holland-on-sea and another where Essex County Cricket Club used to play. Clacton also have a rugby club with teams ranging from under 12s to a first and second team. The first and second teams play in Essex League 1 and train on a Tuesday night which is held at the rugby club in Valley Road.

Media
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC East and ITV Anglia. Television signals are received from the Sudbury and local relay transmitters.

Clacton's local radio stations are BBC Essex on 103.5 FM, Heart East on 96.1 FM, Greatest Hits Radio East on 100.2 FM and Actual Radio, a DAB radio station.

Clacton and Frinton Gazette is the town's local newspaper.

Industry
Prior to the foundation of Clacton-on-Sea the chief occupations in the area were farming and small-scale fishing. A steam-powered mill was built in 1867 to replace the local windmill, which was eventually demolished in 1918. Today the town's main industrial area is in the northeast of the town (Gorse Lane Industrial Estate and Oakwood Business Park) which contain a variety of businesses and light industrial units.

Clacton Urban District Council had provided the town with electricity since the early twentieth century from Clacton power station. Upon nationalisation of the electricity industry in 1948 ownership passed to the British Electricity Authority and later to the Central Electricity Generating Board. Electricity connections to the national grid rendered the small 2.15 megawatt (MW) internal combustion engine power station redundant. It closed in 1966; in its final year of operation it delivered 796 MWh of electricity to the town.

In 2013 Tendring District Council undertook significant work to develop a 10-year Economic Strategy for the district which includes Clacton on Sea. Now, half-way through this 10-year strategy, the approach has been refreshed to add a greater focus on the populations of Clacton and Jaywick Sands between 2020 and 2024, noting a decline in economic performance of these locations. The strategy focuses specifically on local participation within communities and addressing long term prosperity and also proposes bold action in Clacton town centre, recognising that its future is unlikely to be led by retail. In 2023, Clacton had the highest proportion within the UK of people classed as "economically inactive".

Landmarks
Clacton has comparatively few buildings of architectural interest. In addition to the surviving large seafront hotels, these are:

St John's Church, Great Clacton
The parish church of St John, Great Clacton, is the oldest surviving building in the town; it dates from the early decades of the 12th century, though considerably altered. In the late 16th century the vicar was Eleazer Knox (d. 1591) son of John Knox and Marjory Bowes of Norham. A local legend that smugglers used a tunnel from the coast to the Ship Inn (16th century) opposite the church is discounted by historians; the pub is more than 1.5 km from the sea. The nearby Queens Head inn may be pre-1600.

St James's Church
A large (and actually unfinished) church of 1912-13 between Tower Road and Wash Lane, St James's is a rare southern building by Temple Moore, an architect chiefly associated with the North of England. Somewhat grim on the outside (as Pevsner noted in The Buildings of Essex), the interior is surprisingly light and spare, with different orders of arch on either side of the chancel giving an asymmetrical feel. The building is only a third of its intended size; the original plans had included a large tower at the west end. Ordered for Anglo-Catholic worship, it is large, without pews, and boasts an impressive reredos which finishes in a canopy at the east end.

Clacton railway station

The main station building dates from 1929. A typical neo-Georgian 'late Imperial'-style building, it is notable chiefly for the decorative use of moulded 'fasces' on either side of the main entrance - a rare instance of Fascist symbolism in British civic architecture.

Martello Towers
There are three Martello towers between the Pier and Jaywick Sands to the south; they date from 1809 to 1812. The immensely thick brick walls look circular but are, in fact, rounded triangles, designed to deflect cannon-fire. The tower nearest the pier was, unusually, built within a moat. The name comes from similar fortifications in Mortella, Corsica.

Moot Hall
A real oddity: in Albany Gardens West, near the seafront to the north of the Pier, this house of the 1400s was moved from the village of Hawstead, Suffolk and reconstructed here in 1911 – though considerably modernised and altered – for a London builder named J H Gill.

St. Helena Hospice
The former hospice is situated in Jackson Road, in the town centre. It has a curved wood and brick corner design of 2001-2 by the Purcell Miller Tritton architectural partnership. The building has been redeveloped and now houses eighteen modern privately let dwellings.

Jaywick Sands
A huddle of self-builds and kit-houses were built in the 1920s and '30s in a bleak field dangerously close to the mean sea level. It has been described as resembling "a shanty town", but it also has its admirers who call it "a great place to live."

Jaywick was attractive to workers from the Ford plant in Dagenham, who bought strips of cheap agricultural land for holiday homes. Following the destruction of many east-end homes during the Second World War, they moved there permanently. The area was badly damaged by the floods of 1953, when 35 residents died; most settlements were swept away.

Clacton Pier

Clacton Pier was the first building of the new resort of Clacton-on-Sea; it opened officially on 27 July 1871. It was 160 yd in length and 12 ft wide. It was built originally as a landing point for goods and passengers, as Clacton was becoming an increasingly popular destination for day trippers.

In 1893, the pier was lengthened to 360 m and entertainment facilities were added. Bought by Ernest Kingsman in 1922, it remained in the ownership of the Kingsman family until 1971. In March 2009, the pier was purchased by the Clacton Pier Company, who installed a 50 ft helter-skelter as a new focal point.

Gunfleet Sands offshore wind farm
A 48-turbine wind farm is located 7 km south-east of the Clacton coast. It has been in commercial operation since 2010 and has an overall capacity of 173 MW.

Climate
Clacton has an oceanic climate (Köppen "Cfb"), but with lower precipitation than most of the UK and Western Europe. This makes for pleasantly warm and relatively dry summers (which also enhances the town's popularity as a seaside town), but also fairly chilly winter days. For the 1961–1990 observation period, Clacton averaged 103.7 days with at least 1mm of rain, and just 24.3 air frosts a year- comparable to south west coastal locations.

Demography
Clacton's population increased substantially during the 20th century from 7,456 at the 1901 census to 25,000 in the 1960s, 45,065 in 1991 and reaching over 53,000 by 2001. Population as 107,237 according to Dataloft Inform, Land Registry, 2011 Census.

Education
St Osyth's Teacher Training College occupied several buildings in Clacton, mostly along Marine Parade East, until its amalgamation with the North East Essex Technical College in the late 1970s. The town is served by two secondary schools, Clacton Coastal Academy and Clacton County High School. Adult Community Learning, run by Essex County Council, is situated in St Osyth Road.

Transport
Clacton-on-Sea is located at the terminus of the A133 road, which runs between Clacton and Colchester.

The town is served by Clacton-on-Sea railway station, a terminus of the Sunshine Coast Line which links the town with Colchester; the other terminus is at Walton-on-the-Naze, on a branch from Thorpe-le-Soken. Trains are operated by Greater Anglia and generally run hourly to London Liverpool Street via Colchester and Chelmsford; the full journey takes about 90 minutes.

Local bus routes are operated by Hedingham & Chambers; termini include Colchester, Harwich, Manningtree and Walton-on-the-Naze. First Essex withdrew from serving Clacton in January 2020; Hedingham & Chambers are now the only operator serving the town from Colchester.

National Express operates long-distance coach services to/from London and Liverpool.

Clacton Airfield has been active since its use by the Royal Air Force during World War II. It does not operate scheduled passenger flights. In the 1990s, the airfield was featured in the BBC Television series Airport.

Conservation
Clacton's environmental qualities draw on several things: proximity to the sea, its evolution as the resort, its attraction as a retirement area, and its business and trade. The conservation and enhancement of Clacton's various environmental qualities depends on assessment, evaluation and management.

Both Tendring District Council and Essex County Council can advise on heritage and historic buildings. The district also advises on wildlife conservation, and on obtaining grants for managing countryside for public enjoyment and appreciation. The county has an archaeological service.

Notable people
The following were all born or have lived in Clacton-on-Sea:
 * George Wylie Hutchinson (1852–1942), Canadian painter and leading illustrator, lived in Clacton in retirement
 * Arthur Townsend (1883-1937), British long-distance runner, competed in the marathon at the 1912 Summer Olympics
 * Flight Lieutenant Edward Pennell DFC (1894–1974), British WWI flying ace and local politician
 * Joan Kiddell-Monroe (1908–1972), British author and illustrator of children's books
 * Ivy Benson, musician and bandleader, retired to Clacton in the early 1980s
 * Pat Fletcher (1916–1985) golfer, born in Clacton-on-Sea and emigrated to Canada
 * Jennifer Worth RN RM (1935–2011), a British nurse and musician
 * Mike Everitt (born 1941), English former footballer and manager, over 300 pro games
 * Graham Hurley (born 1946), English crime fiction writer
 * Paul Barber (born 1951), British actor, best known for playing Denzil Tulser in Only Fools and Horses
 * Steve Foley, an English former professional footballer, made 283 appearances for Colchester United
 * Stephen D. Nash (born 1954), English wildlife artist who primarily specialises in primates
 * Steve Wright (born 1959), English former professional footballer in over 300 games
 * Sade (Helen Folasade Adu, CBE, born 1959), singer, songwriter, model and actress, from the age of 11, lived in Holland-on-Sea, a suburb of Clacton
 * Barry Lamb (born 1963), experimental musician, composer
 * Beth Goddard (born 1969), British actress
 * Paul Banks (born 1978), lead singer of rock band Interpol
 * Ian Westlake (born 1983), English footballer, over 300 league and cup games
 * Tom Eastman (born 1991), English professional footballer, nearly 400 games for Colchester

Cultural references
On the Easter weekend of 1964, rival youth gangs of Mods and Rockers descended upon Clacton-on-Sea. They created mild havoc by fighting with each other.

The music video for "Always on My Mind" by the Pet Shop Boys was filmed in Clacton, which was also the setting for their film It Couldn't Happen Here. Parts of the 2019 film Yesterday (working title All You Need Is Love) were also filmed in Clacton.

title: Clacton-on-Sea


text:
Clacton (disambiguation)

Clacton is a large town in Essex, England.

Clacton may also refer to the following things associated with it:

 * Clacton (UK Parliament constituency) a county constituency represented in the House of Commons around Clacton-on-Sea
 * Clacton-on-Sea railway station a railway station in Clacton-on-Sea
 * Clacton Airport an airport serving Clacton-on-Sea
 * Clacton Pier a pier in Clacton-on-Sea
 * Clacton Coastal Academy a coeducational high school serving the western part of Clacton-on-Sea
 * Clacton County High School a comprehensive secondary school located in Clacton-on-Sea
 * F.C. Clacton a football club based in Clacton-on-Sea
 * Great Clacton a village north of Clacton-on-Sea
 * HMS Clacton (J151) an old turbine engined Bangor class minesweeper named after Clacton-on-Sea
 * Little Clacton a small rural village close to Clacton-on-Sea
 * Clactonian, a flint tool
 * Butlin's Clacton, a former holiday camp
 * Clacton Spear, the oldest known worked wooden implement

title: Clacton (disambiguation)


text:
Clitheroe

Clitheroe is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England; it is located 34 mi north-west of Manchester. It is near the Forest of Bowland and is often used as a base for tourists visiting the area. In 2018, the Clitheroe built-up area had an estimated population of 16,279.

The town was listed in the 2017 The Sunday Times report on the best places to live in Northern England, while the wider Ribble Valley, of which Clitheroe is the most populous settlement, was listed in the 2018 and 2024 Sunday Times report on the best places to live. Clitheroe and the wider Ribble Valley have also been listed as healthiest and happiest place to live in the United Kingdom.

The town's most notable building is Clitheroe Castle, which is said to be one of the smallest Norman keeps in Great Britain. Several manufacturing companies have sites here, including Dugdale Nutrition, Hanson Cement, Johnson Matthey and Tarmac.

History
The name Clitheroe is thought to come from the Anglo-Saxon for "Rocky Hill", and was also spelled Clyderhow and Cletherwoode, amongst others. The town was the administrative centre for the lands of the Honour of Clitheroe. The Battle of Clitheroe was fought in 1138 during the Anarchy. These lands were held by Roger the Poitevin, who passed them to the de Lacy family, from whom they passed by marriage in 1310 or 1311 to Thomas, Earl of Lancaster. It subsequently became part of the Duchy of Lancaster until Charles II at the Restoration bestowed it, on George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, from whose family it descended through the house of Montague to that of Buccleuch.

At one point, the town of Clitheroe was given to Richard, 1st Duke of Gloucester. Up until 1835, the Lord of the Honor was also by right Lord of Bowland, the so-called Lord of the Fells. The town's earliest existing charter is from 1283, granted by Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, confirming rights granted by one of his forebears between 1147 and 1177.

According to local legend, stepping stones across the River Ribble near the town are the abode of an evil spirit, who drowns one traveller every seven years.

Jet engine development
During World War II, the jet engine was developed by the Rover Company. Rover and Rolls-Royce met engineers from the different companies at Clitheroe's Swan & Royal Hotel. The residential area 'Whittle Close' in the town is named after Frank Whittle, being built over the site of the former jet engine test beds.

Ancient monuments
The town only has three Scheduled Ancient Monuments, Bellmanpark Lime kiln and embankment, Edisford Bridge and Clitheroe Castle.

Governance and representation
The town elected two members to the Unreformed House of Commons. The Great Reform Act reduced this to one. The parliamentary borough was abolished under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885.

It was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, and remained a municipal borough, based at Clitheroe Town Hall, until the Local Government Act 1972 came into force in 1974, when it became a successor parish within the Ribble Valley district.

Since 1991, the town of Clitheroe has elected at least 8 out of the 10 Liberal Democrat borough councillors on Ribble Valley Borough Council, while Clitheroe Town Council has been Liberal Democrat-controlled for that period too. Likewise, since 1993, the town has elected a Liberal Democrat County Councillor to Lancashire County Council.

Clitheroe was one of earliest seats to elect a Labour MP, when David Shackleton won the 1902 Clitheroe by-election for the Labour Representation Committee. He was the first Labour MP to win a by-election, and the third ever elected. He was returned unopposed, but easily won the subsequent 1906 general election, at which he was challenged by an Independent Conservative. Shackleton was General Secretary of the Textile Factory Workers Association, and at the time, there were a large number of mill workers living locally. Labour lost the seat at the 1922 election, and did not regain it until their 1945 landslide victory. The Conservatives won the seat back at the next general election, in 1950, and held it from then until 1983, when the constituency was abolished due to boundary changes. From 1885 to 1983, when the seat existed, the boundaries covered areas outside Clitheroe itself, including parts of Burnley and Colne.

As part of the Ribble Valley constituency, Clitheroe has been represented by a Conservative Member of Parliament for many years, with the exception of Michael Carr, who won a by-election in 1991 for the Liberal Democrats, but who lost the seat at the general election a year later.

The current MP is Nigel Evans, who was first elected in 1992. Prior to Michael Carr's election, the MP was the high-profile David Waddington.

Industry
ICI founded a chemical plant in 1941, which was sold for a reported £260 million in September 2002, to Johnson Matthey. Conservatory manufacturer Ultraframe was started in Clitheroe, by John Lancaster in 1983. In March 1997, it floated on the stock exchange, being valued at £345 million in 2003. In June 2006, however, a downturn led to a takeover by Brian Kennedy's Latium Holdings.

Hanson Cement has been criticised for using industrial waste in its kilns. The company claims that its filters remove these and that government inspectors have approved the plant.

Another local firm, the family-owned animal feed producer Dugdale Nutrition can trace its history back to John Dugdale who was trading at Waddington Post Office in 1850.

Retail
Historically, Dawsons green grocers was a significant player in the town retail fabric, circa late sixties and early seventies. Batemans Boys Wear fulfilled a retail need from approx 1968–1980.

There are numerous banks and building societies, including Lloyds Bank, HSBC, and NatWest. Clitheroe has three jewellers, with Nettletons Jewellers being on the high street.

In May 2007, planning permission was granted for a Homebase, although the store didn't open until April 2009. In April 2015, work officially started on a new development, consisting of Aldi and Pets at Home. In October 2015, Aldi officially opened, with Pets at Home and Vets4pets following shortly afterwards.

Clitheroe has five supermarkets: Booths, Tesco, Sainsbury's (including an Argos), Lidl, and Aldi. There is a shopping centre known as the Swan Courtyard. In May 2007, when Kwik Save entered administration, its store on Station Road closed. In September 2008, Booths bought the site, and expanded their store, where it currently houses charity shop YMCA.

Demographics
At the 2011 United Kingdom census, Clitheroe civil parish had a population of 14,765. 5 electoral wards cover the same area (Salthill, Littlemoor, Edisford and Low Moor, St Mary's and Primrose). It has small Eastern European and Asian Populations which are both of similar sizes.

Religion
There are three Anglican churches: the Parish Church of St Mary Magdalene; St James' Church; St Paul's in Low Moor. The Roman Catholic church of St Michael and St John Church is at Lowergate and St Augustine's High School in Billington is the local Roman Catholic secondary school.

Trinity Methodist Church is on the edge of Castle Park in Clitheroe. There is also a United Reformed Church in the town; the Clitheroe Community Church and a Salvation Army citadel. Since 2017, there is also a Friends meeting house. A former church at Lowergate was granted permission in December 2006 to become a multi faith centre, with a Muslim prayer room. It is open for all faiths to use the rest of the building. The conversion was completed in March 2014.

The castle
Clitheroe Castle is argued to be the smallest Norman keep in the whole of England. It stands atop a 35-metre knoll of limestone and is one of the oldest buildings in Lancashire.

The castle's most prominent feature is the hole in its side which was made in 1649 as was ordered by the government.

Dixon Robinson was in residence as Steward of the Honour of Clitheroe from 1836 until his death in 1878 and resided at the castle for the same period. His son Aurthur Ingram Robinson lived at the Castle after 1878, and inherited the Steward title too (see Honour of Clitheroe).

Transport
The town has good local public transport links, centred around Clitheroe Interchange.

Railway
Clitheroe railway station is on the Ribble Valley line,  providing hourly passenger services to Blackburn, Manchester Victoria and Rochdale; the route is operated by Northern Trains. Services are operated usually by Class 150 diesel multiple units, & Class 156 units.

Regular passenger train services had ceased in 1962; they resumed in 1994, though only south towards Blackburn at first. Ribble Valley Rail, a community rail group, is campaigning for services from Clitheroe to be extended north to Hellifield.

On Saturdays, DalesRail trains run to Settle and Ribblehead. A number of freight trains also pass through Clitheroe each week.

Buses
There are frequent bus services from Clitheroe Interchange to the surrounding Lancashire and Yorkshire settlements. Transdev Blazefield, with its Blackburn Bus Company and Burnley Bus Company subsidiaries, is the most prominent operator; it operates mainly interurban services to other towns in Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Yorkshire. Other operators include Preston Bus, Vision Bus, Pilkington Bus, Holmeswood Coaches and Stagecoach in Lancashire.

Sport
Clitheroe F.C. play in the Northern Premier League Division One North. Originally established in 1877 as Clitheroe Central, they play their home games at the Shawbridge Stadium. There is also a youth football club, Clitheroe Wolves, founded in 1992.

Cricket has been played in Clitheroe since the 1800s, with Clitheroe Cricket Club being formed in 1862 as an amalgamation of two sides, Clitheroe Alhambra and the local Rifles Corps. Based at Chatburn Road and members of the Ribblesdale League since its inception, the club won the league title and both the Ramsbottom and Twenty-20 cups in the 2006 season.

The Clitheroe Golf Club was founded in 1891, and originally the course was at Horrocksford on land now quarried away. The current course was designed by James Braid, and play began in the early 1930s. It is located south of the town in the neighbouring parish of Pendleton. Clitheroe Rugby Union Football Club, formed in 1977, play at the Littlemoor Ground on Littlemoor Road in the town and run two adult rugby teams.

In August 2005, a cycle race, the Clitheroe Grand Prix, took place in the town, with Russell Downing finishing ahead of Chris Newton. In August 2006, Ben Greenwood won, with Ian Wilkinson second, but in April 2007, the council decided not to support another event, citing poor attendance. The town was also the start point of the second stage of the 2015 Tour of Britain.

Public sports facilities are available at Edisford, with the Ribblesdale Pool and Clitheroe Tennis Centre located there, along with a number of football pitches and netball courts. The site is shared with the Roefield Leisure Centre, developed and operated by a registered charity whose supporters began fund-raising in 1985.

In April 2006, Clitheroe Skatepark officially opened in the Castle grounds, built and funded by the Lancaster Foundation charitable trust. In June 2016, Clitheroe-raised mixed martial artist, Michael Bisping, won the UFC Middleweight Championship, by defeating Luke Rockhold by way of knockout in the first round of the fight. On 5 July 2019 he was inducted into The UFC Hall of Fame. He is the first English fighter to be inducted.

Culture
In 2018, the short documentary Alfie the Odd-Job Boy of Clitheroe featured on BBC Three. The film follows the ups and downs of 18-year-old Alfie Cookson, who set up his own business on a tandem pushbike and trailer after struggling to work for other people.

Festivals
Clitheroe has hosted the Ribble Valley Jazz and Blues Fest since making a return in 2010 after more than 40 years. It is held annually, usually during Early May Bank Holiday weekend.

The annual Clitheroe Food Festival takes place in early August. Eighty or more Lancashire food and drink producers are selected to participate by the festival organisers. Lancashire's top professional chefs, the town's retailers, groups and volunteer organisations also take part.

Media
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC North West and ITV Granada. Television signals are received from the Winter Hill TV transmitter. Local radio stations are BBC Radio Lancashire on 95.5 FM, Heart North West on 105.4 FM, Smooth North West on 100.4 FM, Greatest Hits Radio Lancashire on 96.5 FM, Capital Manchester and Lancashire on 107.0 FM, and Ribble FM, a community based station which broadcast to the town and across the Ribble Valley on 106.7 FM and also online. The town is served by the local newspapers, Burnley Express (formerly The Clitheroe Advertiser & Times) and Lancashire Telegraph.

Education
The three main secondary schools in the town are Clitheroe Royal Grammar School, Ribblesdale High School and Moorland School. There are several primary schools in the town. These are St James's Church of England Primary School, St. Michael and John's Roman Catholic Primary School, Pendle Primary School, Edisford Primary School, Brookside Primary School and newly built (2024) Ribblesdale Primary School.

Health
Clitheroe has a health centre, accommodating the Pendleside Medical Practice and the Castle Medical Group. There is a community hospital. The area is served by the East Lancashire Commissioning Care Group. Clitheroe also has its own Ambulance, Fire and police stations.

Twin town
Clitheroe is twinned with a small town in France.
 * 🇫🇷 – Rivesaltes, France

Clitheronians

 * Robert de Cliderhou (died. 1339?), Chancery clerk and pastor
 * James King (1750–1784), a Royal Navy officer who was with James Cook on his last voyage around the world.
 * Dixon Robinson (1795–1878) Steward of the Honour of Clitheroe, Blackburn Lawyer and major landowner / employer of Clitheroe and Chatburn. Built the Pendle Hotel. Owned the Horrocksford Lime Co, Bold Venture Kiln and Quarry from 1837 to 1878. Lived at Clitheroe Castle.
 * Arthur Joseph Wrigley (1902–1983), obstetrician and gynaecologist
 * Jimmy Clitheroe (1921–1973) a comedian well known for his radio shows, was born in the town but raised in Blacko, near Colne.
 * Peter Hargreaves CBE (born 1946), co founder of Hargreaves Lansdown plc.
 * John Pettinger (born 1953), winner of the Distinguished Conduct Medal in the Falklands War (1982)

Sport

 * John Lund (born 1954), Eight-time BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Cars World Champion.
 * Simon Westwell (born 1961), former professional footballer
 * Michael Bisping (born 1979), UFC World Middleweight Champion.
 * Samantha Murray (born 1989), a modern pentathlete, considers Clitheroe to be her hometown.
 * Adam Barton (born 1991), professional footballer

title: Clitheroe