Clocktower is monument to past times
JUST yards from Saint Mary’s Church in Rawtenstall, besides the busy bypass sits a little stone clock tower, part-hidden behind trees and colourful foliage.
It could easily be mistaken for being part of the church, but it is not and instead it is all that remains of a 19th century building with a remarkable history.
The Grade II-listed Holly Mount School Tower is what is left of a school house built by two factory owners to educate their employees.
It opened in 1839 and the entrepreneurs devised a genius plan to charge pupils fees, which was later refunded when they reached 21, in a bid to encourage the working class to save money.
The building was later extended and eventually morphed into its most-famous and fascinating guise in 1932 - the Astoria Ballroom.
The intimate music venue had a stunning Maplewood sprung dance floor and swiftly became a cult, go-to live gig spot in the 1950s.
So much so that is became a magnet for some of the most famous bands of all-time scrambling to play at the cult venue, they included The Animals, The Kinks, The Hollies, The Who and The Walker Brothers.
It created quite the buzz in the sleepy mill town, with music fans travelling from all over Lancashire and beyond to catch a glimpse of their idols inside the former school.
In 1966 the venue moved to a building at Valley Centre Shopping Arcade and renamed Astoria Dance Hall.
It was demolished in 2012.
As for the original school, it was eventually pulled down with just the tower left standing, while a community park was created in its
grounds called Old Fold Garden and was opened in the early 1970s.
The clocktower is now
a protected listed building complete with a blue plaque.
Today visitors can see the former school’s arched entrance with ‘Holy Mount School’ engraved above it.