Bacup () is a town within the Rossendale borough of Lancashire, England.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 followed the regional and national trend of deindustrialisation during the early and mid-20th century ; a process exacerbated by the closure of Bacup railway station in 1966.

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.

The River Irwell, a long tributary of the River Mersey, runs southwesterly through Bacup towards Rawtenstall from its source by the town's upland outskirts at Weir.

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

They then beat Leyland Motors 4 – 1 in the second qualifying round, followed by victories over Bacup Borough ( 2 – 0 in the third qualifying round ) and Hyde United ( 3 – 0 in a replay in the fourth qualifying round ).

When he first arrived in Bacup, Weekes was greatly affected by the cold and took to wearing an army great coat everywhere, to the extent it became part of his League image.

After the war a dance-hall was built on the site, subsequently used industrially by the Bacup Shoe Factory.

At ( 53. 704 °, − 2. 199 °), north-northeast of Manchester city centre and north-northwest of central London, Bacup stands on the western slopes of the South Pennines, amongst the upper-Irwell Valley.

Elements of the BBC TV drama Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit were also filmed on location in Bacup.

Others like an entrenchments on Broad Bank hill at Burwains farm, and Bonfire hill, a possible camp on Shelfield hill around the site of the Victorian Walton Spire, and dykes at Saxifield, Thieveley, Ree Lees, and Broadclough near Bacup, he felt indicated military activity during the period.

He went on to play in the Football League for Huddersfield Town and Burnley before finishing his career with non-league Bacup Borough.

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

Weekes also had success with the ball, taking at least fifty wickets in all but one season at Bacup, including 80 wickets in 1956.

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.

Medieval Bacup was an obscure and lightly populated chapelry linked with the parishes of Whalley and Rochdale, and divided between the townships of Newchurch and Spotland in the hundred of Blackburn.

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.

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.

Bacup experiences a temperate maritime climate, like much of the British Isles, with relatively cool summers and mild winters.

* Beatrice Webb ( née Potter-not to be confused with children's author Beatrix Potter ) lived amongst textile factory workers in Bacup.

* Johnny Clegg, who with his band Savuka had a worldwide hit in the 1980s, was born in Bacup.

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.

After retiring as a player with Bacup Borough, May was appointed assistant manager at the club.

Weekes scored a total of 9, 069 runs for Bacup at 91. 61, with 25 centuries, including 195 * against Enfield, a score that remains a League record, as does his 1954 batting average of 158. 25.

He spent the 2004 – 05 season playing in the North West Counties Football League with First Division Bacup Borough.

At the time of the United Kingdom Census 2001, Bacup — which encompasses the outlying communities of Britannia, Stacksteads, Rockcliffe, Trough Gate and Weir — had a population of 12, 763.

Areas and suburbs of Bacup include Britannia, Broadclough, Deerplay, Dulesgate, Stacksteads and Weir.