This is the largest of the five main towns in Rossendale with a population of 23,000. Pronounced‘Rottenstall’, it dates back to the Middle Ages and boasts a plethora of independent retail shops and businesses on cobbled Bank Street and nearby Kay Street with a traditional market off Newchurch Road.A £3M development to form a new bus station possibly with a hotel is under construction. The town has a plentiful and varied selection of restaurants and cafes, takeaways, pubs and micropubs and is the terminus of the East Lancashire Railway.
A little way outside the centre there is The Whitaker, a museum and restaurant set in the picturesqueWhitaker Park, a dry ski slope Ski Rossendale, leisure complex and Golf Rossendale driving range.The Bocholt Tree is metal tree sculpture ‘planted’ on Bocholt Way which symbolises the twinning arrangements between Rossendale and the German city. It has been ‘adopted’ by an artist who regularly decorates to reflect the time of year.
The town’s library opened in 1907 and is a key landmark along with the former court buildings now a function and event venue and on the hill is the impressive Ashday Lea Masonic Hall.
In the Rawtenstall Guide
- A Right RoyalTea Party
- Barrels
- Blind Tiger
- Buffer Stops
- Bumba’s Grill
- Casa Tapa
- Do Dah’s
- Fresh Café Deli
- Hop Micro Pubs
- M. Harrison Butcher
- Mr. Fitzpatrick’s Temperance Bar
- Nila
- North Street Restaurant
- Northern Whisper Brewing Company
- The Veg Shop
- The Whitaker Café
- Wood n Chocolates
- The Thai Shack
Also visit in Rawtenstall
- Cordey’s 40 Bank Street, Rawtenstall BB4 8DY
- Nino’s Restaurant 245-251 Bacup Road, Rawtenstall BB4 7PA
- The Fig Tree 45B Bank Street, Rawtenstall BB4 7QN
- The Whitchaff Inn 371 Bury Road, Rawtenstall BB4 6EH