Bacup

Bacup, a municipal borough and manufacturing town of Lancashire, on the Spodden rivulet, 19½ miles N. by E. of Manchester by rail. Besides many churches of all denominations, the oldest dating from 1788, it has a mechanics' institute (1846, enlarged 1870), a market-hall (1867), a very large co-operative store that cost £22,000, &c. Bacup was constituted a municipal borough in 1882. Cotton-spinning and powerloom-weaving are the staple industries; and there are also dye-works, brass and iron foundries, and vast stone quarries. Coal-mines are worked in the neighbourhood. Pop. (1798) 1426; (1861) 10,935; (1871) 17,199; (1881) 25,033; (1891) 23,498.