During the 1870s agricultural labourers moved from across the UK – including many from East Anglia – to drive this expansion.

In the 1980s, the village featured in a number of episodes of the long running BBC1 police procedural drama series Juliet Bravo, set in a fictional part of the Rossendale Valley between Rawtenstall and Bacup.

The area is today noted for a high number of reported UFO sightings and featured in one episode of a 2008 Five TV series on British cases.

Lit and warmed by gas (no electricity), it is still going strong and sells real ale direct from the barrel.

The club moved to New Hall Hey Cricket Ground in nearby Rawtenstall after difficulties with the landlord who also owns the Grade II listed Waterbarn Baptist Chapel on Brandwood Road built in 1847.