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Oaklands House, Barrowford, was built in1860 by John Barrowclough who previously lived at what is now the Conservative Club on Gisburn Road. John Barrowclough was the principal cotton manufacturer and spinner in Barrowford at this time. This family were prominent in Barrowford during the 19th/20th century and can be traced through their headstone inscriptions within St.Thomas's churchyard.
John Barrowcloughs grandson, John, sold Oaklands (along with 3 farms) for £17,000 to James Ridehalgh, JP, in 1906 and his son James Ridehalgh married Elizabeth Lonsdale. The Lonsdales lived in the house opposite the end of the drive to Oaklands and were allied, by marriage, to the Walton family of Walton Hall, Marsden and Colne. The son of James and Elizabeth Ridehalgh, John, ran Higherford Mill and lives at Blacko. Another son, Harold, owned Burnt House Farm and his daughter Elizabeth became an estate agent in Grindleton. The family still run Burnt House Farm and Rachel, who married Andrew Turner, owns and runs the neighbouring Malkin Tower Farm as quality holiday-home lets.
James Ridehalghs other son Arthur became a Barrister in the West Indies and a judge on the Gold Coast. James Ridehalgh died in 1936 at the age of 69, he spent most of his working life as a cotton manufacturer on Edward Street in Nelson and later at Lower Clough Mill (now known as The Pioneer on Dixon Street) in Barrowford. His wife died in 1941 at the age of 74, her maiden name was Feather.
Oaklands was sold in 1941 for £6,550 and became the NFS headquarters for billets with office work relating to the Second World War being carried out at night in the stables.
The nearby Oaklands Home Farm, though older than the Oaklands complex, was allied to the Oaklands estate. In the earlier 20th century a family named Butterfield farmed the Home Farm, this has now been developed into the ubiquitous residential farm estate. Copyright John A Clayton 2005
At the Church Street entrance to the Oaklands estate stood a farm, gardens and cottages known as The Hubby. Sadly this range of buildings was demolished and replaced by the current Oaklands Lodge House. The Hubby was occupied for a number of years, during the 19th, century by the Baldwin family. The site of this earlier farm can still be seen to the south of the present Lodge, by the high roadside wall which was constructed at the time of the Oaklands House.
The Hubby Farm buildings still exist opposite to its former site, across the road by the St..Thomas Church yard. To the south side of this original Hubby Farm barn is a later building known as Lonsdales House. The walled orchard for this property is now a mini-estate. Hubby Farm Barn is reputed to be haunted by a certain Marcus Kinsman who visits periodically and informs the residents that he helped to build the structure in the late 16th / early 17th centuries!
Oaklands Avenue, the council estate to the south of Oaklands, was built in the mid-1950s and named after the original Oaklands estate. Higher Causeway was the first tranch of development on this estate and ran adjacent to Oaklands Avenue up to Church Street, it was named after the original track passing the Hubby (on the present Church Street), this was known as Hubby Causeway and ran diagonally from the top of Higher Causeway, through the present Wheatley Springs estate, down to Clough Farm, near to the present Clement Court to the south, and north in a semi-circle back around to Clough Springs where it rejoined Wheatley Lane Road by the side of the new
Wheatley Springs flats development.
On the death of John Barrowclough on May 10th 1906, at the age of 43, the reverend Gough, who served the community as the Congregationalist minister for some 50 years, said:
".........died at Brandon, Southport attended by Dr.Pim of Barrowford. John Barrowclough was the only son of the late Thomas Barrowclough esq. who died on the 25th of February 1886. John was of a retiring disposition and served as an officer in the Burnley Volunteers, it was in this capacity that he persuaded many local men from Barrowford to enlist. He was of great benifence to St. Thomas's Church and served as a manager for the church school over many years."
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