Great Harwood, Rishton, Clayton and Baxenden

Accrington gets most of the attention in Hyndburn, but a lot of the borough lives just outside it. Great Harwood and Clayton-le-Moors to the north, Rishton to the north-west, Baxenden up the hill to the south. Each is its own place with its own high street, and each has a slightly different reason for needing a taxi.

This is a quick guide to all four: where people from each one are usually heading, the journey times, and the one pickup tip worth knowing in each. If you are after the town itself, our guide to getting around Accrington by taxi covers the station, the town centre and the late runs home.

Great Harwood

Great Harwood sits on the northern edge of Hyndburn, between Accrington and the Ribble Valley. The middle of town is Town Hall Square, where the Mercer Clock Tower has stood since 1903 in memory of John Mercer, the chemist who gave his name to mercerised cotton. Park Road runs through with the shops, the takeaways and a couple of pubs.

What Great Harwood does not have is a railway station. Passenger trains stopped calling in 1957, so every train journey starts with getting to Accrington, Rishton or Blackburn first. That, and the evenings out, are where most of our Great Harwood taxis go.

The journeys that matter from Great Harwood:

• Accrington town centre, around 8 minutes, for the bigger shops and the station
• Blackburn town centre, around 12 minutes, for the shops and the trains
• Whalley, around 10 minutes, mostly for dinner out, with the return being the bit worth booking ahead
• Clayton-le-Moors, around 4 minutes, and the Dunkenhalgh for evening functions
• Burnley, around 15 minutes

Walkers heading for Martholme Viaduct, the old railway viaduct about a mile north-east of the town, can be dropped at the nearest road point and walk down from there.

Pickup tip: set your pin at Town Hall Square. It is the easiest spot in the centre for a driver to pull in.

Clayton-le-Moors

Clayton-le-Moors sits about two miles north of Accrington, with the A680 running through it as Whalley Road and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal passing through the town. The centre is Barnes Square, where Whalley Road meets Barnes Street, and that is where most pickups in Clayton happen.

The biggest single draw is the Dunkenhalgh Hotel and Spa on Blackburn Road, which hosts weddings, functions and spa days most weekends. Guests come from right across Lancashire, many of them without much idea of the local roads, and nobody at a wedding wants to be the designated driver. If you are going to an evening event there, book your return when you arrive, because the midnight pickups go quickly.

Daytime buses along the A680 are fine. By evening they thin out, and that is when people reach for taxis in Clayton-le-Moors.

The journeys that matter from Clayton-le-Moors:

• Accrington town centre, around 5 minutes
• Great Harwood and Rishton, around 5 minutes each
• Blackburn and Burnley, around 15 minutes each
• Clitheroe, around 20 minutes

Pickup tip: Whalley Road is long. Name the nearest pub or junction so your driver knows which stretch you mean.

Rishton

Rishton sits on the A678 between Blackburn and Accrington, with the Leeds and Liverpool Canal running through the town and Rishton Reservoir, which feeds the canal, on its edge. High Street is where everyday Rishton happens: the post office, the pubs, the takeaways and the bus stops.

Rishton does have its own station on the East Lancashire line, with trains towards Blackburn and Preston one way and Burnley and Colne the other. It is unstaffed, the ticket machine takes cards only, and step-free access is only on the eastbound platform, with the Preston-bound side reached by the footbridge. With heavy luggage, or for a train that does not stop at Rishton, a run into Blackburn or Accrington station is the easier option.

Beyond the trains, Rishton taxis mostly head for Blackburn, Accrington, the Whitebirk retail parks and the Dunkenhalgh. The reservoir is a pleasant walk out and a less pleasant one back in the rain or the dark, which is a journey the app handles well.

The journeys that matter from Rishton:

• Blackburn town centre, around 8 minutes
• Accrington town centre, around 8 minutes
• The Whitebirk retail area, around 5 minutes
• The Dunkenhalgh, around 5 minutes
• Clayton-le-Moors, around 5 minutes, and Great Harwood, around 8

Pickup tip: the Norden side of Rishton is all houses, with no shops or pubs to use as landmarks, so give your street name.

Baxenden

Baxenden sits south of Accrington on the A680, Manchester Road, climbing towards Haslingden and the Rossendale Valley. Manchester Road is the spine of the village, with the post office, the chippy and the bus stops, and the streets of Woodnook climb steeply up the hillside to the east of it.

Baxenden lost its station in 1951, so catching a train usually means a run into Accrington, around five minutes away. The other thing that shapes journeys here is the hill. Walking down Woodnook to the main road is fine. Walking back up with shopping is another matter.

At the southern end is Rising Bridge, where the A680 meets the A56, and that is the way into Rossendale. Our guide to days out in Bacup and the Rossendale Valley covers what is down that way.

The journeys that matter from Baxenden:

• Accrington town centre and the station, around 5 minutes
• Haslingden, around 5 minutes
• Oswaldtwistle, around 5 minutes
• Rawtenstall, around 10 minutes, through Rising Bridge
• Blackburn, around 15 minutes

Pickup tip: on the Woodnook terraces, give your house number and street. The steep rows can confuse sat navs, and a precise pin saves your driver circling. Book Baxenden taxis in the app and the pin does most of the work.

Between the four, and into Accrington

The four places are close enough that a lot of journeys are between them: Great Harwood to the Dunkenhalgh, Rishton to Clayton, Baxenden to Oswaldtwistle. All of it is covered round the clock, every day of the year, by licensed, DBS-checked drivers, and every journey runs through the same app. If there are more of you, Ride XL takes up to six passengers.

For everything in the town itself, see our Accrington taxis page.

Booking

There is no number to ring. Ride is app-only, so you set your pickup on the map, see your driver coming, and can share your trip live with someone at home. You can also pre-book up to twelve months ahead, which is worth doing for early trains, airport runs and the end of an evening function.

Get the Ride app, or find out more on our app page.

Do you cover Great Harwood, Clayton-le-Moors, Rishton and Baxenden?

Yes. We cover all four, along with the rest of Hyndburn, 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Does Great Harwood have a railway station?

No. Passenger trains stopped calling in 1957. Rishton and Accrington both have stations, and Accrington town centre is around 8 minutes from Great Harwood by taxi.

Can I get a taxi to the Dunkenhalgh Hotel?

Yes. It is around 5 minutes from Rishton and a few minutes from the centre of Clayton-le-Moors. For evening events, book your return when you arrive.

How far is Baxenden from Accrington?

Around 5 minutes by taxi, heading north on Manchester Road.