Now you are asking yourself the question “Is Nelson an attractive place to live?” You have found some estate agents, and they have provided the answers you were looking for. You have read some speil from a local councillor that Nelson is going up and up. Now, it’s time to look at the facts. These statistics were compiled from the Police, Indices of Deprivation, and the most recent census. Are Nelson and Burnley really nice places to live? We’ll soon find out.
The Nelson (Pendle), property market has experienced a rapid increase in the last few years, but slower growth. The average detached house cost £242,791, up 12.7% over last year. A semi-detached property costs on average £153,641, while a terraced house costs £104,605 and flats cost £77,878. Renting a 2 bedroom apartment will cost you £451 per Month.
Nelson (Pendle) property prices are slightly higher than average Lancashire property prices and are slightly lower when compared to other locations in England with similar density. If you compare the annual changes in Nelson’s property prices to the average price change across the region of Lancashire, prices have increased at an equal rate.
Property data is based at Pendle level pricing data as of January 2022 (publicized 23 March 2022).
A town without history: The curious beginnings of Nelson in Lancashire
They used to call it Little Moscow, because of the socialist tendencies of its electors.
This same town was once known as “America of Lancashire”, a reference to its youth, rumbustious nature, and hardly any past.
In a special report, the Northern Daily Telegraph’s Roving Commissar looked at Nelson as a town that had experienced rapid growth and was relatively new. This was 66 years ago. Even though the town was home to 38,000 people, it had only been officially called Nelson for 40+ years when the Telegraph’s Roving Commissioner called.
Nelson had to be grateful for Matthew Pollard’s patriotic sentiments in naming it. On what was then the New Road between Burnley and Colne, he built the Nelson Inn and named it Marsden. This was at the same time as the nation was celebrating Lord Nelson’s victory in 1805 at Battle of Trafalgar.
However, the reporter said that he did not realize he was starting “one the romances of cotton trade.”
Although the inn was successful and the hamlet that housed the handloom weavers’ and farm workers’ homes soon took the name of the pub. However, it didn’t take long before the railway came along and the arrival at Lomeshaye of power looms at Ecroyds’ mills.
According to the reporter, “Other factories sprouted like mushrooms in night and Nelson began doubling its population every decade until it had over 20.000 people living there when the borough was incorporated in 1891.”
“So Nelson has no past. “It is the America in Lancashire as it were. It does not have any traditions passed down through the generations that will hinder its future development or inspire it. There is only a small, unremarkable inn located on the Burnley-Colne road which was built less than 100 years back.
According to him, its character was just beginning in 1932.
“The town grew rapidly and people moved in from all parts of Lancashire and the rest. It is difficult to pinpoint the Nelson type. The number of natives in this town is probably lower than any other one. “It is likely that their grandparents have never heard of Nelson,” he said.
It was even unknown to others long after Nelson’s official name was given when the borough became an entity.
Roving Commissioner talked about Nelson soldiers returning to their home after a leave of absence during the First World War. He said that staff at London’s railway stations could talk about trains to Colne and Nelson in Wales but could not remember if Nelson was in Lancashire. A second aspect of Nelson’s freshness was its attitude towards it’s inhabitants, according to the reporter.
He stated, “The young residents of the city have all the youth qualities and the aggressiveness of youth.”
“And they are aggressive. They are not a nuisance. It takes only two minutes for you to see this. The self-confident way they walk along the footpath shows that they don’t know what an inferiority complex is.
But they weren’t drinking from a glass, despite having lived in a town that was born out a pub. Nelson had 13 pubs and the highest number of churches, but the country was lacking in them. Nelson was able to overcome one lingering legacy of its inn origins.
The Commissioner concluded that the Nelson Hotel in the centre of town was “now like the town to whom it gave its names, enlarged beyond all recognition from Matthew Pollard’s little hostelry.”
A large open space was visible in front of the pub, which was its private property.
“Here,” he wrote: “The police are powerless “to’move’ the mass human flotsam or jetsam which seems to congregate in the middle of any large city.
I wonder if Nelson still has this strange sanctuary from law.
You can find more pieces in the “spite wall” puzzle
TWO MORE readers have joined Looking Back to the search for the origin of “spite walls”
The wall at Ribchester Road (Wilpshire) was constructed from rubble and old tiles as well as half bricks.
Clayton Manor was built by Clayton Manor’s neighbor to prevent them from looking into Clayton Manor.
Mrs. S Wood, Clayton-le-Moors says she was told by Thomas Connor, her grandfather and stone mason, that the wall was built for Bullough and Howard, Accrington’s textile machinery engineers, Bullough and Bullough. Mrs Elsie Ellison, an elderly lady who lived near Shore House Farm, Ramsgreave remembers seeing the wall her first time as a girl. She was also told that it was there to stop people gazing into the Manor. It still stands today, with part of the walls being flats and the remainder a residential home.