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Walks in Lancashire |
| Buy the Walks around Pendle CD-Rom/DVD here |
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Walks in Lancashire |
| Buy the Walks around Pendle CD-Rom/DVD here |
View nearby accommodation from Sykes Holiday Cottages or from Holidaycottages.co.uk
Rimington was believed to have been in existence in Anglo-Saxon times and was listed in the Doomsday survey as Renistone. The signs heading towards the village from the A682 are for Rimington and Middop with the Rimington parish being spread over quite a large area and includes the small hamlets of Stopper Lane, Newby, Middop, Martin Top and Howgill.
Rimington sign
Pendle from Howgill Lane
The village's most famous resident, Francis Duckworth, was born in Rimington on Christmas day in 1862 and was brought up next to Stopper Lane Wesleyan Chapel, the musical and social centre of the district. During his lifetime he composed numerous works, including many hymns, with his most famous one being 'Rimington', which is sung the world over beginning with the words "Jesus shall reign where'er the sun". He later moved to Colne, died in 1941 and is buried in St Mary's churchyard in Gisburn, with the opening lines of Rimington engraved on his grave. Rimington remembers him with a blue plaque on the wall of the former Methodist chapel.
Francis Duckworth Grave
Francis Duckworth Grave - opening lines of 'Rimington'
Rimington's population was once much higher, but the demise of the surrounding mills caused residents to leave and search for work elsewhere and as a consequence, over the years the chapel, post office, shop and village school have now all closed. There also used to be a lead mine at Stopper's Lane, which again is now closed. There are rumours that in the 16th century Squire Pudsey had a silver mine, known as 'Pudsey's Mint' close to Stopper Lane, but neglected to pay tolls on the silver he collected. When the bailiffs of the time came to arrest him, he fled to London where he begged for his life from the Queen. Being her grandson, or maybe because he reputedly gave her the mine, she pardoned him. There is little evidence of a silver mine now, or even the whereabouts of it!
The village still has a pub, the Black Bull and an upmarket dress shop, Cosgrove's House of Colour which people come to visit from miles around and which keeps Rimington on the fashion map of the North West.
Black Bull
Cosgroves
The Black Bull is also a very interesting place, and houses the Platform 4 Model Transport Museum, which opened in 1998. Rimington did used to have its own railway platform, but this was closed following the Beeching reforms.
There is a sundial at the chapel at Martin Top, dating from the 18th century, with its profound warning that 'time flies swift away'.
Sundial at Martin Top
Martin Top Congregational Chapel
Rimington Memorial Institute
The village hall, the Rimington Memorial Institute, was built in 1927 to commemorate the First World War, and has been recently refurbished thanks to a lottery grant and celebrated its 80th anniversary in 2007.
