STREET FACING UP TO CHANGE

DURING recent reports on the closure of Barclays Bank in Rawtenstall (‘Another Valley bank to close,’ April 1), several comments were made on the few banks being left in Bank Street - but that is not how it got its name.

The original road through Rawtenstall was the old Fold, a narrow, crowded lane by the river which has now been moved to the side of Asda.

When traffic increased in the early days of the Industrial Revolution, a new road was needed between Burnley and Manchester, and in 1795 a ‘Turnpike Act’ was taken out to build a link from Burnley to Edenfield.

Rather than demolish the housing and workshops in Rawtenstall Fold, a new, wider route was taken round it over the ‘bank’ of land between what is now Daisy Hill and Ormerod Street; in fact, Rawtenstall’s first by-pass.

It was called Bank Street because it went over the bank.

As this new road began to carry traffic, commercial buildings such as weavers’ premises, shops and banks moved onto it. Barclays Bank itself was built in 1830 as a prestigious Town House (facing down the sunny slope and away from the busy road) and for many years was the home of the local Doctors, named Edwards.

In 1848 the Unitarian Chapel moved onto Bank Street from its original home in the Fold and the surrounding old buildings there were gradually neglected until they became part of the new Rawtenstall Corporation slum clearance programme of the early 1900s.

The Fold was left in a dilapidated condition due to the two World Wars and was an obvious route for a new road when Bank Street itself became congested in the 1960s.

A great deal of earth moving was needed, especially at the western end of Ormerod Street, to create a wide enough space for a modern road.

So ironically, Bank Street, the original by-pass, was by-passed and a whole chunk of the original bank went with it.

Bank Street, as with many other High Streets throughout the country that grew up in Victorian times now faces a new future, and it will be fascinating to follow the evolution of its next role in the life of the town.

Kathy Fishwick Rossendale Civic Trust