There are easier office moves than relocating a digital marketing agency into a Grade II listed church that has stood above Bacup since the middle of the nineteenth century. You can rent modern office space, install a coffee machine that costs more than somebody’s first car and add a few inspirational words to the wall. Nobody asks many questions. Instead, GrowTraffic is becoming the anchor tenant within the Rossendale Digital Hub at Christ Church. That decision probably says something about us. More importantly, though, it says something about Rossendale and where we believe the valley’s future could be headed.
This is not really a story about an office move. It is not even really a story about a church. It is a story about confidence. Confidence that digital businesses do not only belong in major cities. Confidence that former industrial towns still have futures worth building. Confidence that heritage and innovation are not opposing forces but parts of the same story. Most importantly, though, it is confidence that Rossendale can create its own digital identity rather than borrowing somebody else’s.
For years, conversations around digital economies naturally gravitated toward larger places. Manchester became the obvious comparison. MediaCity grew. Innovation districts appeared. Co-working spaces multiplied. Creative clusters formed. Smaller towns often found themselves cast in the role of supplier rather than creator. The assumption was frequently that talented people would leave, build careers elsewhere and perhaps return later. We have never been completely convinced by that narrative.
Rossendale has always been entrepreneurial. Long before people started talking about startups, ecosystems and innovation hubs, the valley was already building industries. Cotton, engineering, textiles and manufacturing all helped shape the landscape around us. The mills may have changed use and many have disappeared altogether, but creativity did not vanish with them. Ambition stayed. Problem-solving stayed. The willingness to build things stayed. What changed was the infrastructure around it.
For many years, people working in digital, creative and technology industries often felt they needed to leave the valley to access the right environment. If you wanted collaboration, specialist communities, co-working, events or wider opportunities, there was a feeling that you travelled to Manchester, Leeds or Liverpool. Meanwhile, Rossendale quietly carried on producing agencies, developers, designers, videographers, photographers, marketers, content creators and entrepreneurs. The talent was already here. Increasingly, the infrastructure is starting to catch up.
That is why projects like the Rossendale Digital Hub matter. They are not simply collections of desks or office space wrapped in fashionable language. Digital economies work differently from traditional industries. The important moments often happen between meetings rather than inside them. Somebody meets a developer over coffee. A freelancer finds their first client at an event. A startup discovers a collaborator they did not know existed. Strong ecosystems are often built through those informal collisions of people, ideas and opportunity.
Christ Church feels like an appropriate place for those collisions to happen. Completed in 1854 and designed by the Lancashire architectural practice of Sharpe and Paley, the building served Bacup for more than 150 years before closing in 2012. Generations passed through its doors. Families celebrated there, gathered there and marked important moments of their lives there. The church became part of the identity of the town itself. Like many historic buildings across former industrial communities, however, changing times brought uncertainty and the building entered a new chapter.
This vision originally came from GrowTraffic founder Simon Dalley, whose ambition was to create dedicated digital infrastructure within Rossendale long before Christ Church entered its current phase of redevelopment. Having spent years working within digital marketing and seeing the impact that collaborative environments, creative clusters and shared workspaces could have on innovation and business growth, Simon wanted to create something similar within the valley rather than seeing local talent continually drawn elsewhere. In 2019, Dalley and his group of digitally-minded investors reached an agreement with the Church of England to purchase Christ Church with the intention of transforming the building into the first digitally focused hub in Rossendale, where agencies, freelancers, creatives, entrepreneurs and technology businesses could work alongside each other. The idea was never simply to create office space. It was to help build an environment where collaboration happened naturally and where Rossendale’s digital economy could develop its own identity and future.
The vision for digitally focused infrastructure within Rossendale has evolved over a number of years and alongside wider conversations taking place across the borough. These included the earlier ambitions around The Bridge project, originally associated with proposals for Rawtenstall Town Hall and focused around skills, employability, innovation and creating a modern learning environment outside traditional educational settings, likely including digital skills development.
When the Town Hall route became more complicated due to the building remaining occupied and funding timelines evolving, those involved in the emerging Christ Church project worked closely with council officers to ensure the developing vision aligned with the broader ambitions already being explored. Both schemes shared common themes around skills, innovation, incubation, training, entrepreneurship and creating space for businesses operating within modern and emerging sectors.
As opportunities developed and the projects evolved in different directions, Christ Church established its own identity and long-term purpose, ultimately becoming the Bacup Campus of Rossendale Digital and what is widely regarded as the defacto Rossendale digital hub and home of GrowTraffic, where we will act as anchor tenant. The wider ambition, however, remained consistent: helping create stronger infrastructure, opportunity and long-term digital growth within Rossendale.
Its future now looks rather different. Instead of remaining silent, Christ Church has the opportunity to become part of Rossendale’s developing digital economy. The building was originally created to bring people together and, in many ways, that purpose remains unchanged. The conversations simply evolve. Where previous generations gathered for worship and community, future generations may gather for collaboration, entrepreneurship, digital skills, content creation, software development and new business ideas.
GrowTraffic’s place within that story is straightforward. We are proud to become the anchor tenant within the Rossendale Digital Hub at Christ Church. We do not own the hub and we do not speak for the wider organisations, communities and people involved in its development. Our role is that of participant and supporter. We are one business becoming part of something larger and we are genuinely excited about what that could mean for Rossendale.
Perhaps the most encouraging thing of all is that Christ Church does not stand alone. More digitally focused spaces are beginning to emerge across Rossendale and that should be celebrated. Healthy ecosystems rarely depend on a single building. Different places develop different strengths. Some focus on co-working, others on production, events, learning, networking or community activity. Together, they create resilience. Together they create opportunity. Together, they begin building the kind of digital infrastructure that modern economies increasingly depend upon.
For GrowTraffic, becoming anchor tenant within the Rossendale Digital Hub feels like the start of a new chapter. For Christ Church, it represents a new purpose built upon an old one. For Rossendale, though, it may represent something even bigger. The quiet realisation that the valley does not simply have a past worth preserving. It may also have a digital future worth building.