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Grindleton lies in the valley of the River Ribble, between Pendle Hill and the rising fells of the Forest of Bowland. It is a historical village, identified in the Domesday Book in 1086 as Gretlintone.
The Parish Council
Welcome to the Grindleton village website. The site has been developed by the Parish Council. Our aim is to offer residents and visitors a focus for events and activities taking place in the village and its environs, to enable access to Parish Council documents and to advise residents of local issues. Information is also available from organisations such as the police and local charities.
We also seek to promote the village to visitors and to support local businesses.
The website highlights to residents and visitors alike, the opportunities for recreation and exercise in our beautiful surroundings.
The fells and valleys of the Forest of Bowland AONB, Pendle Hill and the Ribble Valley are internationally recognised as outstanding landscapes.
Announcements
The next Parish Council meeting will be on 7 February 2012 at 07:30 pm in the School Hall. All villagers are welcome to attend.
A village meeting on the Pavilion project will be on 8 February 2012 at 07:30 pm in St Ambrose Church. Please come along to hear about the final plans, arrangements for the building period and activities that will happen.
Events
The Village Diary (incl. Pavilion project events once confirmed) lists the principal village events, and is available here. It does not list regular monthly or weekly events such as WI meetings and church services.
St. Ambrose Parish Church events are principally on the Churches web-page.
Royal British Legion events are listed on the Organisations web-page.
The Grindleton WI meetings are held monthly. Please download the 2011 Programme
for dates and information on events.
Grindleton Pavilion: New sports facilities & Community Room
We are pleased to announce that the total raised to date (20 January 2012) is over £330,000, which includes matched funding generously agreed by the Bowland Charitable Trust.
Many thanks to all who have contributed with their time or financially. The plan is for the builders, John Moore & Sons, to take over the site on 27 February 2012 and the proposed completion date is late October 2012. We will then have new changing rooms and a Community Hall!
An exciting clothing range and Cook Book to support the Pavilion Project are now available for sale. All the details are here.
The second Newsletter was circulated to the village in August 2011 and is available for download. We have also compiled a list of FAQs (ver. 2 Sep 11) to address villagers' and potential users' queries.
On this website
310,000 sheep in Bowland
Some of the features available are:
- Download Parish Council minutes, the Parish Plan, Parish Actions and other documents related to the Council's desire to strengthen its links with the community;
- View the Village Diary;
- Review progress on the project to develop and build the Grindleton Pavilion;
- View a comprehensive list of activities available in the village and other local communities;
- Get advice on the ways to contact the police and our Emergency Community Support Officer, download copies of In-Touch (the neighbourhood policing newsletter), and review community safety statistics;
- Support the Recreation Ground Charity by attending publicised fund-raising events;
- Acquire information on outdoor activities, and view a gallery of the village and fells;
- Through Google mapping, view and navigate active satellite images and maps of the area;
- A history of the village and download our village Heritage Trail.
An abridged history
Grindleton is one of a series of villages on a terrace above the River Ribble. Our neighbours are Sawley, West Bradford and Waddington. Clitheroe is about three miles away, and Chatburn is situated across the river close to the foot of Pendle Hill.
The historical character of the village is farming, and cottage-based hand-loom weaving. Grindleton is a planned Saxon village. The Main Street is linear, climbing up towards the fell, parallel to Grindleton Brook.
The village is famed for a 17th century non-conformist religious sect - the Grindletonians. Jam making was a local industry and damson trees still grow in a number of gardens.
Grindleton's mills are now gone. Gandhi visited the area in 1931 as part of his visit to the Lancashire cotton industry. He came at the invitation of the Secretary of State for India to see for himself the impact of the Indian National Congress' policy on the boycotting of English cotton goods.
The remains of Sawley Abbey
are a short distance away.
The Parish Church of St. Ambrose dates from 1805, and its chancel, north aisle and porch from the 1895. The church is named after St. Ambrose of Milan, the patron saint of beekeepers. [More...]



