COLNE, a municipal borough in north-east Lancashire, Eng land, 341 m. north by east from Manchester by the L.M.S.R. Pop. (1931) 23,79o. Area, 5,062 acres. It stands above a small affluent of the river Calder. Nelson and Colne are towns along a crossway between the Aire valley at Skipton and the Calder valley at Burnley followed by the Leeds and Liverpool canal. Roman coins have been found on the site. As early as the i4th century it was the seat of woollen manufacture. The church of St. Bartholomew retains some Norman work. There is a cloth hall or piece hall, originally used as an exchange when woollens were the staple of the town. The grammar school dates from Reformation times. Textile workers and weavers form a con siderable proportion of the population. In the neighbourhood are several limestone and slate quarries. The town was incorpo rated in 1895 and is in the Nelson and Colne Parliamentary Borough.