AI automation in Rawtenstall and Haslingden.
Rossendale had 2,620 businesses in 2026, and 88.9% of them employ fewer than ten people.Source [1] Manufacturing made up 22.5% of the borough's 20,000 employee jobs in 2024, about three times the British share of 7.3%. Construction made up 6.2%, against 5.0% nationally.Source [1]
We cover all 62 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.
Written by Sami (Sam) Swain. Local facts checked 9 October 2026.
What is happening in Rossendale
A digital hub in Rawtenstall
- In May 2026 Rossendale Council's cabinet agreed up to £60,000 to turn the ground floor of the Old Milk Depot on Bacup Road into a digital hub and coworking space for 2026/27.Source [2]Source [3]
- The council has paid Northern Reach to bring local digital firms together, and that community had 54 members by May 2026. Its members asked for shared space in or near Rawtenstall.Source [2]
Where the work is
- Rossendale's Local Plan, adopted in December 2021, focuses new jobs on the A56 Rossendale Valley Growth Corridor and the Futures Park Employment Village in Bacup.Source [4]
- Futures Park business centre has self contained suites from 248 sq ft.Source [5]
- Manufacturer Melba Swintex opened a 52,742 sq ft distribution building at Ewood Bridge in 2026.Source [6]
Support for businesses
- Rossendale's £20 million Pride in Place plan for Rawtenstall, Crawshawbooth and Waterfoot over ten years won government backing in March 2026.Source [7]
- Its Make Your Move grants offered £500 to £10,000 to firms taking empty units in those three areas. Expressions of interest closed on 28 September 2026.Source [8]
- The council's Economic Development Team helps with networking, rural grants, town centre partnerships and finding premises.Source [9]
Getting around
- The A56 gives the valley its main road link to Manchester, through Bury.Source [4]
- Futures Park sits on the A681 Newchurch Road.Source [5]
Industries that matter in Rossendale
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 22.5% of employee jobs against 7.3% in Great Britain.Source [1]
AI for manufacturingConstruction and trades
Construction is 6.2% of employee jobs against 5.0%.Source [1]
AI for construction and tradesHelp 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 [10]
- 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 [11]Source [12] Read our Made Smarter North West guide
- The Lancashire Combined County Authority's Growth Plan, published in October 2025, names digital and artificial intelligence as one of five priority sectors for the county.Source [13]Source [14]
Grants and funded training that are open now are on our funding page.
Main towns in Rossendale
Rawtenstall
Town, population 23,000, BB4
Largest town in the valley. The Whitehead brothers' cotton mills (Ilex Mill still stands) gave way to slipper making and now to retail and services after town centre regeneration.
Haslingden
Town, population 15,969, BB4
Quarried Haslingden Flag sandstone paved Trafalgar Square. A cotton weaving town once known as part of "The Golden Valley".
Bacup
Town, population 13,323, OL13
Engineering, plastics, furniture and e-commerce employers at Futures Park and New Line Industrial Estate, including Orthoplastics, JJO plc, Dale Print and AV.com.
Whitworth
Civil parish, population 7,500, OL12
The borough's only civil parish. Coal mining, quarrying and yarn manufacture were the chief industries, served by the 18th century Manchester to Burnley turnpike.
Helmshore
Village, population 5,805, BB4
Helmshore Mills Textile Museum occupies the Turners' water-powered Higher Mill. Sunnybank Mill made industrial felts and once held the world's longest loom.
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.
Acre
Balladen
Bankside Top
Bent Gate
Britannia
Forms the Britannia and Lee Mill built-up area on the Bacup to Whitworth road.
Broadclough
Hamlet on the northern edge of Bacup.
Chatterton
Small Irwell-side village next to Strongstry and Stubbins, site of the 1826 Chatterton power-loom riot
Cloughfold
Valley floor settlement between Rawtenstall and Waterfoot.
Constablelee
Cowpe
Farming hamlet with a Christmas tree farm and Cowpe Reservoir fishing. Its mill closed in 2002 after flooding.
Crawshawbooth
Victorian cotton and shoemaking village ringed by farms and moorland, known locally for its butchers.
Cribden
Rawtenstall district on Burnley Road beneath Cribden Hill. Gives its name to the Goodshaw and Cribden ward.
Deerplay
Moorland area north of Bacup on the Burnley road.
Dulesgate
Edenfield
Greater Manchester commuter village with an independent high street of baker, butcher, pharmacy and post office. Formerly water-powered textile mills.
Ewood Bridge
Facit
One of the settlements strung along the A671 through the Whitworth Valley.
Flax Moss
Goodshaw
Rossendale ward on the Pennine edge between Rawtenstall and Crawshawbooth.
Goodshaw Fold
Hillside hamlet above Crawshawbooth adjoining Goodshaw Chapel, the Grade I listed Georgian Baptist chapel
Greave
Gregory Fold
Hall Carr
Hareholme
Haslingden Grane
Depopulated reservoir valley west of Haslingden holding three reservoirs, now a walking and recreation area.
Healey
Settlement at the southern end of the Whitworth Valley on the A671.
Higher Cloughfold
Holden Vale
Site of the Holden Wood bleach works, which made propellants in the Second World War and cellulose paper afterwards until 1997.
Hud Hey
Irwell Vale
Riverside village at a river confluence, with a station on the East Lancashire heritage railway.
Lee Mill
Quarry settlement paired with Britannia in the local built-up area.
Lockgate
Longholme
Loveclough
Village at the northern edge of the Rossendale valley, north of Crawshawbooth.
Lumb
Whitewell Brook valley village. A chapelry from 1846, when St Michael's church was founded.
Musbury
Valley and hamlet near Helmshore beneath Musbury Tor.
New Hall Hey
Rawtenstall riverside district, now the borough's main retail and business park on the former New Hall Hey print works site
Newchurch
Hilltop village above Waterfoot. The old Newchurch civil parish covered much of upper Rossendale before 1894.
Newline
Gives its name to Bacup's New Line Industrial Estate.
Oakenhead Wood
Settlement on Haslingden Old Road above Rawtenstall with Grade II listed weavers' cottages
Reedsholme
Former township between Crawshawbooth and Goodshaw in the Limy Water valley, historic weaving settlement
Rising Bridge
Roadside village on the A56/A680 junction, straddling the Rossendale and Hyndburn boundary.
Shawforth
Ward of Whitworth township on the River Spodden, with a railway station from 1881 to 1947.
Sherfin
Stacksteads
Cotton mills lined the Irwell here before the Bacup Shoe Company took over Stacksteads Mill. Lee Quarry is now a mountain bike trail centre.
Strongstry
Preserved mill-workers terrace hamlet beside the River Irwell in the southern Rossendale Valley
Stubbins
Industrial village at the southern end of the Rossendale Valley on the East Lancashire Railway, historically a paper and print works settlement
Townsend Fold
Small settlement south of Rawtenstall on the Irwell.
Tunstead
Stacksteads/Bacup district giving its name to the Anglican parish of Tunstead Holy Trinity with Bacup St Saviour
Turn Village
Moorland hamlet above Edenfield on the Rossendale side of the Bury boundary
Water
Small Burnley Road East settlement with farms, industrial estates and a primary school.
Waterbarn
Stacksteads locality centred on the Grade II listed 1847 Waterbarn Baptist Chapel
Waterfoot
Felt making, slipper manufacture and stone quarrying town. Karrimor began here in 1931, and Chadwicks black pudding and footwear distribution operate locally.
Weir
Grew from hamlet to outlying suburb of Bacup after the Burnley Road turnpike was cut through it in the late 18th century. Now has a cafe-bar and riding centre.
Whitewell Bottom
Wood Top
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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. ONS via Nomis, Labour market profile, Rossendale (BRES 2024 employee jobs, UK Business Counts 2026).
- 2. Rossendale Borough Council, Funding Proposal, Digital Hub, report to Cabinet.
- 3. The Herdwick, local news, Digital and coworking space approved for Old Milk Depot, 15 May 2026.
- 4. Rossendale Borough Council, Rossendale Local Plan 2019 to 2036, written statement.
- 5. Rossendale Borough Council, Futures Park.
- 6. Boost, Lancashire County Council, Lancashire Growth Hub Pulse, August 2026, August 2026.
- 7. Rossendale Borough Council, Government strongly backs Rossendale's £20m Pride in Place Plan, 24 March 2026.
- 8. Rossendale Borough Council, Up to £10,000 available to help businesses fill empty shops in Rossendale, 14 August 2026.
- 9. Rossendale Borough Council, Growing your business.
- 10. Boost, Lancashire County Council, Business Support Helpdesk.
- 11. Made Smarter, Made Smarter Adoption, North West.
- 12. Made Smarter, Made Smarter Adoption, in my region.
- 13. Lancashire Combined County Authority, Lancashire Growth Plan maps over £20bn investment opportunity, 10 October 2025.
- 14. Lancashire Combined County Authority, Lancashire Growth Plan, sector priority 3, digital and AI, October 2025.