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LancashireAI

AI automation in Accrington and Hyndburn.

Hyndburn had 2,440 businesses in 2026, and 86.5% of them employ fewer than ten people.⁠Source [1] Manufacturing made up 17.2% of Hyndburn's 29,000 employee jobs in 2024, more than double the British share of 7.3%. Wholesale and retail made up 20.7%.⁠Source [1]

We cover all 35 towns and villages in the district. Most of what we build is delivered remotely, so the practical question is not how far you are from us. It is whether we understand the way your trade actually works. We will come out if it helps.

Get a quote Call 01772 485 348

Written by Sami (Sam) Swain. Local facts checked 9 October 2026.

What is happening in Hyndburn

Where the work is

  • Hyndburn's draft Local Plan, as amended in March 2026, provides about 70 hectares of employment land to 2040, centred on two strategic sites at Whitebirk and Altham.⁠Source [2]
  • The largest allocation is land south of Altham Business Park, about 45 hectares in gross area.⁠Source [2]

Accrington town centre

  • Accrington's £20 million Levelling Up Fund scheme is turning Burtons Chambers into modern coworking space, alongside a food and drink Market Hall and a cultural venue in Market Chambers. Enabling works began in March 2024.⁠Source [3]

Support for businesses

  • Hyndburn Council's 2026/27 grants offer up to £2,000 for start ups and up to £5,000 for existing firms. The council now pays for them itself, and applications stay open while funds last. Email business@hyndburnbc.gov.uk.⁠Source [4]

Industries that matter in Hyndburn

These sectors employ a bigger share of people here than they do across Great Britain, so they are where automation usually earns its keep first.

Manufacturing and engineering

Manufacturing is 17.2% of employee jobs against 7.3% in Great Britain.⁠Source [1]

AI for manufacturing

Help across Lancashire

  • Boost is Lancashire's business growth hub. Its Business Support Helpdesk on 0800 488 0057 is open to every Lancashire business and to anyone planning to start one. Growth Lancashire runs the helpdesk on Boost's behalf.⁠Source [5]
  • Made Smarter North West helps small and medium manufacturing and engineering firms adopt digital technology. Firms with 249 staff or fewer and a turnover under £36 million, or a balance sheet under £18 million, can apply. It offers up to 50% match funding to a maximum of £20,000 for equipment and specialist advice, a leadership programme and funded digital internships worth up to £4,035. Boost is one of its delivery partners.⁠Source [6]Source [7] Read our Made Smarter North West guide
  • The UK Shared Prosperity Fund pays for no activity after 30 September 2026. Several council grant schemes it paid for have closed, and some councils, such as Burnley and Hyndburn, now pay for their own schemes.⁠Source [4]Source [8]Source [9]

Grants and funded training that are open now are on our funding page.

Main towns in Hyndburn

Accrington

Town, population 34,897, BB5

Built on cotton and textile machinery and on NORI engineering brick, used in the Empire State Building and Blackpool Tower. The Arndale and Peel Centres and a £60m Civic Quarter scheme anchor the town today.

Great Harwood

Town, population 10,800, BB6

Cotton weaving town of John Mercer, inventor of mercerisation. Its weavers' association had over 5,000 members by 1920 and it now has Aldi, Tesco and Morrisons stores.

Oswaldtwistle

Town, population 10,815, BB5

Former textile and coal town. Oswaldtwistle Mills is a mill conversion retail and tourism destination.

Rishton

Town, population 6,625, BB1

Claimed as the first place calico was woven for sale in Britain (1776). Rishton Colliery worked from 1884 to 1941 and the canal drove local commerce.

Church

Village, population 5,186, BB5

The Peel family ran one of the world's largest calico printing works here using water from the River Hyndburn. Now a local service centre with supermarket, sports centre and fire station.

Villages and smaller places we also cover

These are covered on the same terms. They are listed here rather than given a page each, because a page that only restates the district page helps nobody.

Altham

The borough's only civil parish. Former colliery land now holds Altham Industrial Estate and Moorfield Industrial Estate on the old pit site.

Altham West

Suburb of Accrington occupying the south-western part of Altham parish.

Barnfield

Baxenden

Home of Holland's Pies. Earlier a farming township with print works, mills and coal and lead mines.

Belthorn

Moorland village of old weavers' cottages, divided between Hyndburn and Blackburn with Darwen.

Clayton-le-Moors

Cotton weaving and cloth finishing town on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

Dill Hall

Suburb of Church best known for Dill Hall Lane and the Church and Clayton-le-Moors (Dill Hall) cemetery

Enfield

Fern Gore

Green Haworth

Moorland hamlet above Oswaldtwistle.

Hillock Vale

Huncoat

Huncoat Colliery worked 1890 to 1968, a coal-fired power station ran 1952 to 1984, and the Huncoat Plastic Brick and Terracotta Company made Accrington brick until 1992.

Knuzden

Area on the Blackburn boundary with historic coal mining connections.

Laneside

Martholme

Ancient demesne and seat of the Hesketh family on the left bank of the River Calder near Great Harwood

Milnshaw

Netherton

One of the wards of Great Harwood.

Oakenshaw

Part of Clayton-le-Moors. A calico printworks on Hyndburn Brook employed the village until 1848, and chemist John Mercer worked there.

Overton

One of the wards of Great Harwood.

Peelfold

Oswaldtwistle district associated with the origins of the Peel family.

Rhyddings

Oswaldtwistle district containing Rhyddings secondary school and public park.

Rising Bridge

Roadside village on the A56/A680 junction, straddling the Hyndburn and Rossendale boundary, with filling station and drive-through trade.

Scaitcliffe

Sparth

Clayton-le-Moors locality on Whalley Road centred on the Georgian Sparth House

Stanhill

Hamlet near Oswaldtwistle where James Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny around 1764.

Tottleworth

Tiny farming hamlet between Great Harwood and Rishton, recorded in 1925 as 15 houses and one farm.

Whinney Hill

Huncoat locality whose quarry and brickworks produced NORI engineering brick for the Accrington Brick and Tile Company

White Ash

Oswaldtwistle district, site of the former Brookside Mill.

Whitebirk

The eastern, Hyndburn side of Whitebirk falls in Rishton ward and contains the Peel Centre retail park.

Woodnook

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Sources

We opened and read every source below on 9 October 2026. If one has changed since, the source is right and this page is out of date, so please tell us.

  1. 1. ONS via Nomis, Labour market profile, Hyndburn (BRES 2024 employee jobs, UK Business Counts 2026).
  2. 2. Hyndburn Borough Council, Main Modifications to the Hyndburn Local Plan (amended), March 2026.
  3. 3. Hyndburn Borough Council, Construction works begin as Accrington Town Square regeneration moves forward, 6 March 2024.
  4. 4. Hyndburn Borough Council, Hyndburn Borough Council launches business grants programme for 2026/27, 13 May 2026.
  5. 5. Boost, Lancashire County Council, Business Support Helpdesk.
  6. 6. Made Smarter, Made Smarter Adoption, North West.
  7. 7. Made Smarter, Made Smarter Adoption, in my region.
  8. 8. MHCLG, GOV.UK, UK Shared Prosperity Fund 2025-26, additional information.
  9. 9. Burnley Borough Council, Future Business Support and Employment Support, report to Executive, 25 February 2026.