CLAUGHTON
| Population: 209 | Grid Reference: SD562664 | Co-ordinates: 54.092,-2.668 |
Claughton Aerial Ropeway
Lune
valley village a few miles to the east of Lancaster on the A683 road to
Kirkby Lonsdale. Claughton is on the northern edge of the Forest
of Bowland and is home to 209 people (2011 Census) increasing from 132
ten years earlier.
St. Chads Church in Claughton was closed by the Church of England due to declining congregations.
St. Chads Church in Claughton was closed by the Church of England due to declining congregations.
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Claughton is dominated by it's aerial ropeway, now unique in the United Kingdom. The current ropeway dates from 1924 and is gravity powered. Until recently there was another ropeway adjacent but that has now been dismantled. The ropeway conveys shale from quarries on Claughton Moor to the village's Claughton Manor Works, a brick manufacturing plant owned by Hanson Brick. One of the subsideries of Hanson was the Butterley Company, founded in 1790 and was based in Derbyshire. The ropeway is now a Transport Heritage Site. A railway used to run through Claughton, the "Little" Northwest Railway, so called to distinguish it from the larger London & North-Western Railway used to have a station at Claughton. |
(above) Information plaque at the brickworks (left) The ropeway crossing the A683 BACK |
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