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Bentham Development
Trust The market town
of Bentham lies in the far north west of North
Yorkshire on the borders between Yorkshire and
Lancashire. It consists of two villages - Low
Bentham and High Bentham which have a joint
population of just over 3,000 people. Although
surrounded by agricultural land, the town has in
fact a strong tradition of manufacturing. During
the 19th and first half of the 20th century the
local mills were prosperous and employed a high
proportion of the local population to produce
various textiles, including silk. Latterly the
town's mills specialised in making hose pipes - one
manufacturer (Williams, now owned by an
international company) still operates in High
Bentham and is the only significant industrial
employer. The town is 12
miles from the M6 motorway and 14 miles from
Lancaster, the nearest large shopping and services
centre. For a market town of its size Bentham is
surprisingly self-sufficient with a higher level of
local facilities than would normally be found. This
is due to the relatively large hinterland that it
serves and the distance to towns with major
facilities.
Bentham
Development Trust has been successful in creating
new jobs, including a Community Office worker, a
domestic cleaning business, a garden maintenance
service, etc. However, the way that
funding
operates means that sometimes it is not possible to
specify the use of local labour when work goes out
to contract. There is a
clear distinction between Low and High Bentham.
There are separate schools, playgrounds and
churches and a small area of agricultural land
still separates the two. Low Bentham is
believed to be the older of the two settlements -
it appears in the Domesday
Book .
In 1785 a flax mill was established using water
power from the River Wenning; this later worked in
conjunction with High Mill in High Bentham. In the
1860s the mill switched to silk
production. Local people
consider Low Bentham to be much more family based
and settled, since in recent years there has been
less influx of newcomers, with fewer people now
commuting to Lancaster University or working in
Lancaster than used to be the case a decade or so
ago. Some retirees have come into the settlements
and quite a lot of new building has happened in
recent years. High Bentham is
now the bigger of the two settlements and well
known for its regular market. It has a wide range
of small shops and services for the local
community. There have been several local building
projects which have added new housing and
refurbished some of the local buildings. The
Bentham Development Trust has an office in the
town. Perhaps because
the Benthams could be termed less quaint in
touristic terms, they are a much cheaper area in
which to buy houses than the neighbouring tourist
centres such as Kirkby Lonsdale, despite being
adjacent to land of equally high quality landscape
- the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the
Trough of Bowland are all within a short drive of
Bentham and the rural landscape on people's
doorsteps is particularly attractive. The Wenning Oak last update 17 July 00 |
Background
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Prepared by STEP on behalf of DTA - Yorkshire and Humberside Region |
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