We’re turning a big old church into a working digital hub. Not a ‘concept’ and not a ‘vision’ and not a glossy render that looks great on LinkedIn, then quietly dies on its first contact with reality. This is about a proper space where people can work, learn, meet, build things and move the local digital economy forward together.
This post is about why I helped bring together a team of investors to acquire Christ Church, why I co-founded Rossendale Digital CIC only to hand it over to a new board so the community can take it forward, what’s happening next and why having Manchester School of Architecture involved is a really smart move by the team at Rossendale Digital at this stage.
Key Points Up Front:
Christ Church in Bacup is being redeveloped into Rossendale’s first dedicated digital and tech hub, known as the Rossendale Digital Bacup Campus – or simply The Bacup Campus or The Rossendale Digital Hub or even just Rossendale Digital.
We’ve secured planning permission and listed building consent. Now we’re into the hard part, which is making a heritage building work day to day. Students from Manchester School of Architecture are helping us test assumptions early, so we avoid expensive mistakes later and build something that lasts.
What Is The Bacup Campus And Why Are We Building It?
The Bacup Campus is a practical answer to a simple problem. Rossendale has loads of talent. It has growing digital businesses. It has freelancers and people who want to learn. What it does not have is enough of the right kinds of spaces to bring those people together consistently.
You can build a ‘community’ online up to a point. After that, you need real rooms, real tables, real events and a place people can point to and say ‘that’s ours’. That’s what we’re building at Christ Church and that’s what we hope people in the digital and tech community will wholeheartedly embrace.
GrowTraffic will be the anchor tenant. Not because we want to dominate the new digital hub, but because hubs need stability. They need a base level of activity, a team using the space every day and enough momentum that it does not rely on occasional bursts of enthusiasm.
As one of the leading SEO agencies in the UK, and one which is on the cusp of many new innovative online technical solutions, it makes perfect sense that GrowTraffic would anchor a space such as this in Rossendale.
Why A Grade II Listed Church? Are We Mad?
Possibly. But there’s also logic here.
Christ Church on Beech Street is a Grade II listed building that has been part of Bacup’s skyline for generations. It closed as a place of worship back in 2012 and like a lot of landmark buildings, it could easily have drifted into slow decline. Empty buildings do not stay ‘nicely empty’. They just become expensive problems.
From 2019 to 2024, I headed up a group of local investors to acquire the building through a pension trust. That matters because it means local ownership. It means the building is not being flipped. It means we are not waiting for a developer from somewhere else to decide what Bacup deserves or whether residential flats would be a better idea.
Still, we’re treating it like an asset that needs to earn its keep and serve the place it sits in. That’s the only way these buildings survive long-term.
Why Planning Permission Is The Easy Bit
We’ve secured planning permission and listed building consent. That’s a big milestone. But it is not the moment you relax. It is the moment you start worrying about all the things that can go wrong.
Heritage buildings have a habit of humbling people. On paper, everything looks fine. In real life, you find out how a building behaves when it’s full of people and laptops and heating schedules and wet coats, and you realise the difference between a beautiful space and a functional space is often one annoying detail repeated every day.
Heat retention and recirculation. Moisture movement. Ventilation. Sound. Layout flexibility. Routing cables without wrecking the fabric of the building. Creating spaces that can do more than one job without feeling like a compromise. This is where projects either become brilliant or become a money pit.
In our experience, the conversions that struggle are the ones where people fall in love with the idea and forget to interrogate the reality.
What Phase Are We In Right Now?
Rossendale Digital is already reactivating parts of the building so it can be used by GrowTraffic and by other businesses in the near term. That approach is deliberate.
If you wait until every element is finished before anyone uses the space, you delay learning. You also delay momentum. This is about getting some real usage happening early, learn what works, then scaling the next phases with better information.
It also keeps the building alive. Buildings like this respond well to being used. They deteriorate when they sit empty and Christ Church is showing signs of having been empty for almost 14 years.
What Will The Hub Actually Be Used For?
The Bacup Campus is being built as a base for digital businesses, digital work, events for the digital and tech community and digital skills. That includes co-working, events, training, workshops and community activity.
We want this to be useful for people working in areas like AI, cybersecurity, automation, software development and digital marketing. Not because those are trendy words. Because those are real career paths and real business opportunities right here in the modern world.
We’re also focused on making the space flexible. The best hubs aren’t single-purpose. They can host a workshop in the morning, co-working in the afternoon and an event in the evening without needing a full reconfiguration every time someone wants to use the hub in a different way.
So Why Bring In Manchester School Of Architecture?
Because at this stage, the most valuable thing is not another set of opinions. It’s better questions.
Through the MSA Live programme, students from Manchester School of Architecture are working with us to explore the practical side of delivery. They are not rehashing what has already been approved. They are not doing heritage theatre. They are helping us test assumptions early and reduce risk.
That means asking the awkward questions before we commit money and time.
How does the building retain heat in Rossendale winters? Where does moisture move and how do we prevent condensation issues without turning the place into a sealed plastic box? How do we integrate modern tech without compromising the architecture? What decisions look good on paper but do not stand up once people start using the space daily?
If we can answer those questions now, we avoid expensive mistakes later. That’s the whole game.
What Does ‘Testing Assumptions’ Actually Mean In Practice?
It means treating the building like a living system and not a static object.
In our experience, the most project pain comes from assumptions that never got challenged. Groupthink. TikTok construction experience. People assume the heating will be fine. They assume the ventilation will work. They assume a layout will feel ‘open’ and ‘creative’, but then it turns out to be echoey, cold and awkward.
Testing assumptions means modelling performance. It means exploring options. It means stress-testing the decisions before they become irreversible.
That’s exactly the kind of work these architecture students can do brilliantly because they are trained to interrogate, model and iterate. They also tend to ask questions adults avoid because adults are too busy pretending everything is under control.
What We’ve Learned About Heritage Conversions The Hard Way
Heritage projects fail when design meets reality. They fail when spaces are beautiful but unusable. They fail when the building is too cold and nobody wants to sit in it for more than an hour. They fail when the layout looks great in a render but doesn’t work for real humans with real needs.
They also fail when decisions get locked in far too early because everyone wants a bit of ‘progress’. Progress is great. But locking in the wrong decision is not progress. It’s just an expensive commitment.
We’re trying to avoid that trap by doing more thinking now and more committing later.
That’s not to say we haven’t made mistakes in this journey. We initially moved our own business into the organ chamber, thinking we could rent out the vestry for podcasting. But we then found we couldn’t keep the organ chamber warm and it really wasn’t ready yet for people to be in that part of the church. Technically, it’s still derelict in those places. So our use is only restricted to those places we have done some work and made safe.
What Hannah Has Been Saying Internally And Why It Matters
Hannah Weinhold is both a director of GrowTraffic as well as a director of Rossendale Digital CIC, which is managing the redevelopment of Christ Church to create Rossendale Digital Bacup Campus and she’s been clear on the point that matters most.
She said: “Planning permission is only the starting point. The real challenge is making sure a historic building actually works once people start using it every day. This phase is about testing assumptions early about how the building handles heat and moisture, how spaces adapt and how we avoid locking in decisions that look good on paper but don’t stand up in practice.
“Heritage buildings often fail at the point where design meets reality. We’re trying to make sure Christ Church remains flexible, usable and viable over the long term rather than becoming another project that struggles once the doors are open.
“That’s the tone we need for this whole project. Practical. Honest. Transparent. Slightly paranoid in a healthy way.”
Why This Matters For Rossendale And Not Just For One Building
We talk a lot in the UK about levelling up and productivity and skills gaps. Most of it is just noise. What changes things is infrastructure that people can actually use.
And a tech and digital hub does three things when it works.
First, it gives people a place to work that is not their kitchen table. That sounds small until you realise how many good people stall because they don’t have the right environment.
Second, it creates collisions. Freelancers meet founders. Designers meet developers. Marketers meet product people. Those collisions create work, partnerships and learning. I’ve personally seen this so many times.
Third, it creates continuity. Events are great. A hub creates a rhythm that lasts beyond one event. That’s how you build a proper ecosystem.
What It Means For GrowTraffic
For GrowTraffic, this gives us a base that matches the kind of business we want to be.
We’ve spent years helping companies grow through cutting-edge SEO and content and performance marketing. We’ve seen how important it is to build things that last for the long haul. That mindset applies here, too.
Being the anchor tenant doesn’t mean we are building a GrowTraffic clubhouse. I am sure there will be an element of that to begin with, of course, but ultimately it means we are committing to the space and helping to make sure it has activity, relevance and longevity.
It also means we can support newer businesses and talent more directly. We can share what we’ve learned without turning it into a lecture. We can host practical sessions that help people get better at the stuff that actually moves the needle. There may be skills swaps and share deals all happening under one roof and that’s what should be happening in this kind of space.
What Success Looks Like And What It Does Not
Success is not a ribbon-cutting. Success is not a press photo. Success is not a nice quote and a few claps.
Success is sustained activity.
It’s people using the space every day. It’s businesses forming. It’s skills improving. It’s local people getting access to opportunities that used to feel ‘somewhere else’. I want to see a spike in people in digital in Rossendale. I want to see a spike in the proportion of people working in Manchester coming from Rossendale. I want to see an increased number of Rossendalians working for leading global tech giants. I want to see people from Rossendale working at the National Cyber Taskforce as that begins to operate in Salmesbury. This is what Rossendale Digital’s Bacup Campus – and any future campus and the activities we carry out in any of them – will be all about.
In our experience, hubs fail when they peak at launch. The goal here is the opposite. Quiet start. Strong foundations. Then growth.
How The Space Will Support Events And Training
The digital campus in Bacup will host events, training sessions and practical workshops as the space develops. That includes beginner-friendly sessions like WordPress training. It includes tech talks and community meetups. It includes the kind of events that help people connect and learn without making it feel like a corporate conference.
We also want the programme to broaden across industries. Digital is not one sector. It touches construction, healthcare, manufacturing, hospitality, retail and everything in between. The more varied the community, the stronger it becomes.
Why We’re Designing For Flexibility From Day One
Flexibility is what protects a hub from becoming dated.
In our experience, the spaces that survive are the ones that can change without drama. The world shifts. Tech shifts. Work patterns shift. A building has to be able to shift with it.
That means thinking about movable spaces, adaptable zones, multi-use rooms and practical infrastructure. It also means avoiding decisions that lock us into one layout that only works for one type of user.
How AI And Tech Will Show Up In A Heritage Space
We’re building a digital hub in Rossendale in 2026. AI is part of that world, whether we like it or not. Personally, I love it! What an amazing time to be part of the digital world. I am so grateful for when I entered the workforce almost 25 years ago.
That does not mean sticking screens on walls and calling it ‘smart’. It means building the infrastructure for modern work. Reliable connectivity. Secure networks. Thoughtful use of tech where it improves user experience, not where it creates complexity.
It also means creating a place where people can learn the practical realities of AI tools, automation and modern digital workflows. Not from a webinar. From real people in a real room.
What Happens Next?
The collaboration with Manchester School of Architecture helps us move into the next phase with more confidence.
The next steps are about delivery. Prioritising the right areas. Getting the building performing properly. Creating spaces that people genuinely want to use. Building the programme of activity around it so Rossendale’s first digital hub grows as a living thing and not a finished product.
We’ll keep sharing updates as we go. Not because we want applause. Because we want the right people to find their way into it.
Want To Get Involved?
If you’re a digital professional, business owner or someone who wants to be part of what’s emerging in Rossendale, we’d love to hear from you.
You might want desk space. You might want an office. You might want to run training. You might want to host an event. You might just want to meet the community and see what’s happening.
Email us at contact@rossendaledigital.com and we’ll point you in the right direction.
We’re saving a landmark building by giving it a job to do. The Rossendale Digital Bacup Campus is about digital skills, real collaboration and long-term local ownership. The MSA partnership is helping us build it properly so it works in practice, not just on paper.
If you want to be part of it, get in touch. The future of Rossendale’s digital economy will not arrive by accident. We have to build it.
FAQs
What Is The Bacup Campus In Bacup?
The Bacup Campus is a digital business and skills hub being developed inside Christ Church in Bacup. It’s designed to support co-working, training, events and digital collaboration across Rossendale. The aim is to create a practical base for building skills, businesses and community.
Why Are Manchester School Of Architecture Students Involved?
They’re involved through the MSA Live programme to help test practical assumptions before major delivery decisions are locked in. That includes how the building handles heat and moisture, how spaces can adapt and how technology can be integrated sensitively. The goal is to reduce risk and improve long-term usability.
Will GrowTraffic Be Based At The Bacup Campus?
Yes. GrowTraffic will be the anchor tenant and will operate from the building as the hub develops. That helps provide stability and consistent day-to-day activity, which is critical for any hub to succeed long term.
What Sort Of Businesses Will The Hub Support?
The hub is aimed at digital and tech-led work, including software development, cyber security, AI, automation and digital marketing. It’s also relevant to businesses in other sectors that want to improve their digital capability and build modern skills.
How Can We Get Involved With Rossendale Digital And The Bacup Campus?
If you want desk space, want to collaborate, want to run training or want to host an event, email contact@rossendaledigital.com. We’ll help you figure out what makes sense and how you can plug into the community activity as it grows.