River Hyndburn

The River Hyndburn is a small river in Lancashire. It starts as Woodnook Water on Goodshaw Hill and flows through Stone Fold, Rising Bridge and Baxenden. After joining with streams from Thirteen Stone Hill, it becomes the River Hyndburn near St James Church in Accrington. The river collects Broad Oak Water, Pleck Brook and Hyndburn Brook as it moves north and west. Near Church it turns north again, meets Hyndburn Brook and passes under the M65 motorway bridge south of Dunkenhalgh. Finally it joins the River Calder after passing Clayton-le-Moors and Great Harwood. The river’s name comes from Old English burna meaning stream. Early records from 1360 call it Hindeburne or Hyndburne water. Maps from 1786 show it as Winburn, named for the Win Fields where it rises. By 1828 it appears as Henburn, perhaps because it ran along HenField. The 1848 Ordnance Survey map calls it Hyndburn Brook, the form still used today. The Hyndburn borough takes its name from the river. Improvement work has created fish bypasses at old mill weirs to help salmon, trout and eels migrate upstream. Woodnook Vale and Peel Park are local nature reserves along the river. Woodnook Vale follows Woodnook Water for about 3.5 kilometres south of Accrington. Peel Park lies east of town and includes mill ponds that feed Pleck Brook. Much of the river and its tributaries now run underground in culverts through the towns.