Stacksteads is a village between the towns Bacup

Bacup

Bacup is a town within the Rossendale borough of Lancashire, England. It is located amongst the South Pennines, along Lancashire's eastern boundary with West Yorkshire. The town sits within a rural setting in the Forest of Rossendale, amongst the steep-sided upper-Irwell Valley, through which the...

 and Waterfoot in Rossendale

Rossendale

Rossendale is a local government district with borough status. It is made up of a number of small former mill towns in Lancashire, England centered around the valley of the River Irwell in the industrial North West...

, Lancashire

Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Stacksteads includes a quarry called Lee Quarry

Lee Quarry

Lee Quarry is a mountain bike trail located near Bacup and Stacksteads in Rossendale, Lancashire. Originally a working quarry, the quarry alongside its neighbour Cragg Quarry have been transformed...

 which has also been transformed into a mountain bike trail.

History

In the 19th century it was home to several cotton mills along the banks of the River Irwell. These expanded after the ending of the American civil war. During the 1870s agricultural labourers moved from across the UK - including many from East Anglia - to drive this expansion.

During the 20th century, as the cotton trade decreased in the face of overseas manufacture, some of the mills were adapted to more modern purposes such as footwear - notably the Bacup Shoe company in the former Stacksteads Mill. In the 1980s, the village featured in a number of episodes of the long running BBC drama - Juliet Bravo - set in a fictional part of the Rossendale Valley between Rawtenstall and Bacup. It was also the location for the filming of Laurence Olivier Presents

Laurence Olivier Presents

Laurence Olivier Presents is a British television series made by Granada Television which ran from 1976 to 1978.The plays, with the exception of Hindle Wakes, all starred Laurence Olivier. Some of the plays were based on productions staged at the National Theatre during the period when Olivier was...

: Hindle Wakes

Hindle Wakes

Hindle Wakes is a stage play by Stanley Houghton written in 1910.It has been filmed four times, twice in the silent era , and twice in the sound era although the film versions have tended to open out the play considerably...

, a 1976 version of the famous play, directed by Sir Laurence Olivier.

Today

The area is today noted for a high number of reported UFO sightings and featured in one episode of a 2008 Five TV series on British cases. Reports have focused on the quarry and the wider steep valley either side of Newchurch Road. This area has even been locally dubbed - 'UFO Alley'.

Stacksteads has a Rossendale Transport

Rossendale Transport

Rossendale Transport is a bus operator running within the Borough of Rossendale and into surrounding areas, including Rochdale, Bury, Manchester, Burnley, Accrington, Blackburn and Todmorden...

 Bus 464 going through it every 10 minutes via the main road through the village, Newchurch Road. There is a high school called Fearns. It offers a lot of sports including trampolining, a climbing wall and two football pitches.