Padiham (/ˈpædiəm/ PAD-i-əm) is a market town and civil parish on the River Calder, in the Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England.

Its first is generally thought to be a personal name: Bede listed Padda as one of the priests who assisted Bishop Wilfrid in the late 7th century.

[7][8] This reflected how people were moving to the south of England in search of work, after the decline in the traditional cotton, coal and engineering manufacturing industries.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip first visited Burnley, Nelson and the old Mullard valve factory at Simonstone near Padiham on their post-Coronation tour of Lancashire in 1955.

[16] The two wards each elect three councillors, John Harbour and Alun Lewis of the Labour Party and Karen Ingham (Conservative) currently serving Gawthorpe and Joanne Broughton, Alan Hosker, and Jamie McGowan, all of the Conservatives in Hapton with Park.

[18] The Parliamentary Constituency, Burnley, is currently represented by Oliver Ryan for the Labour Party.

[24][25] Industrial development was helped by proximity to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, about 2 miles (3.2 km) to the south.

By 1848, Padiham had many coal pits around the town, including two large collieries and a number of smaller workings.

The town's last major employer in the sector, Baxi, closed its factory in March 2007, with a loss of 500 jobs.

[27] A modern business park, Shuttleworth Mead,[28] opened in 2001 on the western edge of the town where Padiham Power Station had stood until 1993.

[30] Tenants include Supanet, an internet service provider (ISP) and Graham & Brown, a wall coverings company.

Gawthorpe Hall was donated to the National Trust in 1970, but is jointly managed with Lancashire County Council under a 99-year lease.

[5] Padiham Town Hall in Burnley Road, built in 1938 to designs by Bradshaw Gass & Hope, is a Grade II listed building.

A detached building over two storeys with large underground vault on Burnley Road, constructed between 1955-1958 and officially opened in 1959.

The building was recently renovated by local businessman Liam Veitch and converted into individual office spaces.

[45] There is a second memorial at All Saints' with St John the Baptist off the A671, Padiham Road, opposite the George IV pub.

[47] Near the war memorial, the Air Crash Memorial recalls several local young people killed on 3 July 1970, when a Dan Air de Havilland Comet deviated from its course and crashed into the high ground of the Montseny Range in north-eastern Spain – see: Dan-Air Flight 1903.

Stockbridge House in Victoria Road was occupied by the Holts, a farming family, in 1802 and has a Jacobean chimney.

[51] High Whitaker Farm is north-east of Hargrove, accessible by public footpath from Higham Road and from Grove Lane.

[51] Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC North West and ITV Granada.

[citation needed] The town is served by the local newspapers, Burnley Express and Lancashire Telegraph.

[58] The 1845[5][59] map (1) shows the town of Padiham in the early days of the Lancashire cotton industry in Victorian times, with three mills marked.

[31] The River Calder, on the right of the map, flows to the north, having been diverted in the early 19th century from its original route, away from Gawthorpe Hall (shown in pink), because of pollution.