Briercliffe


Briercliffe is a civil parish in the borough of Burnley, in Lancashire, England. It is situated north of Burnley. The parish contains suburbs of Burnley, and the rural area north east of the town. Hamlets in the parish include Cockden, Lane Bottom and in the Extwistle area, the tiny hamlet of Roggerham.
The parish adjoins the Burnley parish of Worsthorne-with-Hurstwood and the unparished area of Burnley, the Pendle parishes of Brierfield, Nelson and Trawden Forest and West Yorkshire. According to the United Kingdom Census 2011, the parish has a population of 4,031, an increase from 3,187 in the 2001 census.
Briercliffe-with-Extwistle was once a township in the ancient parish of Whalley, becoming a civil parish in 1866. In 1894, the parish was dissolved, part moving into the county borough of Burnley, with the rest becoming a new parish called Briercliffe, forming part of the Burnley Rural District.

Extwistle Hall

Extwistle Hall stands high on Extwistle Moor between Haggate and the village of Worsthorne. The Hall, built of coursed sandstone on three sides of a courtyard, is now a ruin. It was built in the 16th century in the Tudor style by the Parker family who were prominent in local affairs.
Robert Parker had bought the land, which had previously belonged to Kirkstall Abbey, in 1537 after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The Parker family occupied it for some two hundred years before moving to Cuerden Hall around 1718. John Parker was High Sheriff of Lancashire for 1653 and Robert Parker for 1710. The house was remodelled in the late 18th century.
The listed Grade II* building, owned by an Isle of Man based property company, has been unoccupied for more than twenty years and is listed in English Heritage's Heritage at Risk Register. In January 2012, £2million plans were revealed to save and restore the hall to its former glory, then afterwards to be sold off.

People

Tattersall Wilkinson

Tattersall Wilkinson was a local antiquarian most usually known as 'The Sage Of Roggerham'. Tattersall was well known in Burnley during the late 1800s. He was the first person to uncover the flint daggers and stone circles of nearby Worsthorne, and other antiquities such as burial urns. He also wrote many articles for the Burnley Express and a book of his own named 'Memories Of Hurstwood'.

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