Read, Lancashire
Read is a village in Lancashire, about five miles west-northwest of Burnley and two miles east of Whalley. It sits on the A671, the road between Burnley and Clitheroe. The parish had 1,419 people at the 2011 census.
The name Read comes from Old English and means a ridge where female roe deer lived. The village grew in the 16th century along the main medieval road between Whalley and Padiham.
A notable event here was the Battle of Read Old Bridge in 1643, during the Civil War. A small Parliamentarian force defeated a larger Royalist army near the bridge, helping Parliament gain control of Lancashire.
Read used to be a township in the parish of Whalley and became a civil parish in 1866. It was part of Burnley Rural District from 1894 to 1974, and some areas joined Sabden in 1904. Today Read is part of Ribble Valley and, with Simonstone, forms the Read and Simonstone ward. The ward had a population of 2,573 in 2011.
Read Hall and Park were the home of the Nowell family from the 14th century; Roger Nowell was a magistrate during the Lancashire Witches trials in 1612. In the 1870s, Victoria Mill and houses for workers were built near the turnpike road, and the area became known as Newtown.
The parish church is St John the Evangelist, built in 1884 with the west steeple added in 1911. About a mile southwest is Martholme Viaduct, which carried the former Great Harwood loop line of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway over the River Calder. Built around 1870–77 by Sturges Meek, it has ten arches.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 21:39 (CET).