Brookside Restoration

A living model for nature recovery, community wellbeing, and a climate-resilient future.

Following the purchase of the 87-acre Brookside site in Stanhill Village, Hyndburn Borough Council has partnered with the PROSPECTS Foundation, Lancashire Wildlife Trust, Stanhill Village Community Association, the Ribble Rivers Trust, and Proffitts CIC to transform the space. The development phase of this project has been generously funded by the National Lottery Climate Action Fund.

Brookside has always been at the heart of the Stanhill community: used for farming, mining, quarrying, and the textiles industry. Perhaps most famously, Stanhill is where James Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny in the 1760s, which kick-started the industrial revolution in Britain! All of these activities shaped the local landscape and brought prosperity to the region. However, they also came at a great cost to the environment, emitting tonnes of CO2, polluting the water, and degrading the landscape.

We now have the once-in-a-generation opportunity to return the space to nature, creating a place where local people can learn about the climate crisis and take action in their homes and neighbourhoods.