The ancient township extended from the River Calder in the north, over Hameldon Hill to the Forest of Rossendale in the south.

[5] In 1482, Sir John Towneley inherited the estate at the age of nine, when his father, also called Richard, died of wounds obtained during the capture of Berwick Castle.

With Royal permission he enclosed the manors of Towneley and Hapton, which he connected with the illegal enclosure of Horelaw Hill.

[9] After the King's commissioners re-let the Forest of Rossendale to local farmers in 1507, Towneley in 1514 enlarged his park at Hapton to embrace 1100 Lancashire acres (2,000 acres (810 ha), about half of the township[10]) making it the second largest in historic Lancashire after that of the Earl of Derby at Knowsley.

By the time of first Ordnance Survey map of the area, published in the 1840s, tram roads cross Stone Moor to the north, connecting the Wharf to collieries there, with more coal mines evident near the castle site.

[22] Another weaving shed, Robert Walton’s Hapton Mill, was erected on the canal in 1905-6 and there was also Mathers Brick & Tile Works, the site later occupied by Lucas Industries and redeveloped for residential use in the 1990s.

The only inn in Hapton before 1848 was the Towneley Arms which was situated in a no longer extant building on the north-east corner of the Lane Ends road junction.

[a][b] There were further boundary changes in 1935 when the parish lost another small area to Padiham but gained a detached part of Dunnockshaw.

[28] The village gives its name to the Hapton with Park ward of the Borough of Burnley, which also includes the eastern areas of Padiham.

[29] In recent years this ward has shown high levels of support for the British National Party, electing a BNP councillor in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008.

[31] The ward elects three councillors, currently Joanne Broughton, Alan Hosker, and Jamie McGowan, all of the Conservatives.

[33] The Member of Parliament for Burnley, the constituency into which the parish falls, is Oliver Ryan of the Labour Party, who was first elected in 2024.

[5][34] The underlying geology of the Hapton area consists of Lower Westphalian coal measures of the Carboniferous period, while the hills are formed of Carboniferous sandstones, ranging from millstone grits to finer grained stone such as the Dyneley Knott flags and the Dandy Mine Rock.

The drift cover consists primarily of glacial till deposits, which cause poor-drainage soils, meaning the grassland is prone to reed growth.

In addition to UK common species, green and lesser-spotted woodpeckers, willow tits, yellow wagtails, woodcocks and herons have all been spotted in the area.

Water voles, newts and frogs can be found on the steeper-sided river embankments and in large marshy wet areas by the stone bridge at the ford known as Castle Clough South and Childers Green.

At that time tram roads connected the main site to another at Snipe Rake and to a facility at Park Gate Farm.

[41] During World War II the Government funded the construction of plant for Magnesium Elektron at Pollard Moor to produce metals for the aircraft industry.

Ownership of the 38-acre (15 ha) site passed to multi-national Synthomer PLC (then Yule Catto), who funded work to remediate the land for future housing use.

[44] At the time of the 2011 census only 14 people were listed as long-term unemployed in the parish, with the most common employment sectors being manufacturing, retail, health and education.