Nevertheless, Bacup's historic character, culture and festivities have encouraged the town's suburbanisation and redevelopment as a commuter town ; English Heritage has proclaimed Bacup as the best preserved cotton town in England, and its town centre is designated as a conservation area for its special architectural qualities.

The name Bacup is derived from the Old English fūlbæchop.

The Irwell is mostly culverted in central Bacup but it is open in the suburbs.

Bacup is roughly above sea level ; the Deerplay area of Weir is above sea level ; Bacup town centre is above sea level.

Bacup is surrounded by open moor and grassland on all sides with the exception of Stacksteads at the west which forms a continuous urban area with Waterfoot and Rawtenstall.

The major towns of Burnley and Accrington are to the north and northwest respectively ; Todmorden, Walsden and the county of West Yorkshire are to the east ; Rochdale and the county of Greater Manchester are to the south ; Rawtenstall, from where Bacup is governed, is to the west.

Bacup is home to the long Elgin Street which held the record as the shortest street in the world until November 2006, when it was surpassed by Ebenezer Place, in the Scottish Highlands.

Bacup Museum is local history hub and exhibition centre in Bacup.

The work of the society is carried out by a group of volunteers who have a base in the Bacup Museum which contains an idiosyncratic collection.

Rawtenstall is the practical northern limit of the line as the formation on towards Bacup has been lost immediately north of the station.

At approximately 850 feet above sea level, Seel Park is the fourth highest altitude stadium in English football, with only Buxton, Tow Law Town and Bacup Borough being even higher.

Part of what is now Haslingden, along with that of the neighbouring towns of Rawtenstall and beyond that Bacup were part of the Forest of Blackburnshire, that part being the Forest of Rossendale.

The Rossendale Valley is characterised by the steep sided valley of the River Irwell and its tributaries which dissect the moorland of the Rossendale Hills In the valley bottom, urban settlements grew up at river crossing points between Rawtenstall and Bacup and form a contiguous urban and industrial development.

Following the Industrial Revolution Bacup became a mill town, its landscape dominated by distinctive and large rectangular woollen and cotton mills.

Bacup received a charter of incorporation in 1882, giving it honorific borough status and its own elected town government, consisting of a mayor, aldermen and councillors to oversee local affairs.

In the late 20th century Bacup became part of the borough of Rossendale – at which time the town was suffering from chronic depopulation and urban decay with little in the way of infrastructural change in a century.

The adoption of the factory system, which developed into the Industrial Revolution, enabled the transformation of Bacup from a small rural village into a mill town, populated by an influx of families attracted by Bacup's cotton mills, civic amenities and regional railway network.

Bacup received a charter of incorporation in 1882, giving it honorific borough status and its own elected town government, consisting of a mayor, aldermen and councillors to oversee local affairs.

Records in 2005 show Bacup to have some of the lowest crime levels in the county, and the relative small change to Bacup's infrastructure and appearance has given the town a " historic character and distinctive sense of place ".

English Heritage, a public body responsible for the management and maintenance of England's significant historical architecture and archaeology, has proclaimed Bacup as the best preserved cotton town in England ; the town centre has been designated a Conservation Area of Special Architectural and Historic Interest.

A Rossendale Transport bus in Bacup town centre

The River Irwell passes through the town on the first part of its route between Bacup and Manchester.

Though located in Waterfoot, rather than Rawtenstall, the traditional grammar school, Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School takes part of its name from the town.

Lying within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire since the High Middle Ages, Bacup was a chapelry linked with the parishes of Whalley and Rochdale, and divided between the townships of Newchurch and Spotland in the hundred of Blackburn.

Under the Local Government Act 1972, the Municipal Borough of Bacup was abolished, and since 1 April 1974 Bacup has formed an unparished area of Rossendale, a local government district of the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire.

From 1983 until 2010, Bacup was represented in the House of Commons as part of the parliamentary constituency of Rossendale and Darwen, by Janet Anderson, a member of parliament belonging to the Labour Party.

Bacup had previously formed part of the Rossendale constituency.

At Bacup passengers used the terminus opened 30 years earlier by the East Lancashire Railway, joining the Rossendale line just outside the station.

In Group B ( the Rossendale Valley group ) are Bacup, Edenfield, Haslingden, Ramsbottom and Rawtenstall.

The Trail includes 28 art pieces and follows a well established footpath stretching from Salford Quays through Bury into Rossendale and up to the Pennines above Bacup.

On 11 August 2007, a couple walking through Stubbylee Park in Bacup, Lancashire, England were attacked by a group of teenagers because they were goths.

The Municipal Borough of Bacup became a local government district of the administrative county of Lancashire under the Local Government Act 1894, meaning it shared power with the strategic Lancashire County Council.

The River Irwell at Weir, Lancashire | Weir in the rural north of Bacup

* Elgin Street, Lancashire, in Bacup, Lancashire, one of the world's shortest streets

In Bacup, Lancashire, England, the Britannia Coco-nut Dancers wear black faces.

Currently in membership are Accrington CC, Bacup CC, Burnley CC, Church CC, Colne CC, East Lancashire CC, Enfield CC, Haslingden CC, Lowerhouse CC, Nelson CC, Ramsbottom CC, Rawtenstall CC, Rishton CC, and Todmorden CC ( coincidently actually in Yorkshire ).

The Manchester and Leeds Railway Company ( later the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway ) arrived in Castleton in 1839, and it was here that the line formerly diverged to Bury, Ramsbottom, Rawtenstall, Bacup and finally rejoined the main line at Rochdale.

* Christ Church, Bacup, Lancashire

In 2007 Harris played for Bacup in the Lancashire League and finished the season as the League's highest wicket-taker with 82 at 13. 08.

Exterior scenes were filmed in the Lancashire towns of Colne, Bacup, Accrington, Nelson, Burnley, and in Todmorden, West Yorkshire.

The 29 year-old, who used to play Rob Grayson in the BBC soap EastEnders was arrested in the early hours of the morning of 14 May 2011, after police raided his home in Bacup, Lancashire.

In 1949 Weekes accepted an offer of £ 500 to play as the professional for Bacup in the Lancashire League.