The Alden Valley is a small valley on the eastern edge of the West Pennine Moors, west of Helmshore in Rossendale, Lancashire, England. In the 14th century it was part of the Earl of Lincoln's hunting park. By 1840 it was home to about twenty farms, largely involved in cattle rearing, although most inhabitants were also involved with the production of textiles, which quickly developed during the Industrial Revolution into the building of textile mills. These have now been demolished and the valley is dominated by sheep grazing, with three working farms and a number of smallholdings.
Alden from Stake Lane
Alden Valley showing the boundary ditch that encircled the medieval deer park.
A view from near the top of Robin Hood's Well. Pendle Hill is just visible in the background.
A waterfall in the Alden Ratchers tributary
Helmshore is a village in the Rossendale Valley, Lancashire, England, south of Haslingden between the A56 and the B6235, 16 miles (26 km) north of Manchester. The population at the 2011 census was 5,805. The housing in Helmshore is mixed, with some two-up, two-down terraces, top-and-bottom houses and a few surviving back-to-back cottages. Between the 1970s and 2020 new housing estates have proliferated.
The White Horse public house
A spinning room in the Helmshore Mills Textile Museum.
Helmshore Signal Box. Rebuilt as private housing by Alan Dunn in 1990
Helmshore railway station in 1970, looking west along Helmshore Road with the signal box (left)