28o History of the 



It is interesting to note our gradual emergence from the ideas 

 and methods of restriction which in times past prevailed, and kept 

 the trade of the country — the most important trade or business, 

 that of agriculture — bound and fettered within confined and 

 narrow limits. I do not now refer to the doctrine of prohibition as 

 applied to the keeping out the produce of other countries from our 

 own, but to the interference which at one time existed with internal 

 freedom of trade. 



Take, for example, the grinding of corn. The practice was 

 general, in past times, throughout the country, of compelling the 

 grinding of corn to be done at certain favoured mills in the 

 different districts ; and it was even a punishable offence to evade 

 this custom by carrying, or attempting to carry, the corn grown 

 in the district, or that purchased outside the district, to be ground 

 at other than the special mills named. 



The Corn Mills in Rossendale, anciently called the " Soke 

 Mills," were situated in Wolfenden Booth, Newchurch, and 

 Oakenhead ^Vood Booth, Rawtenstall. They existed here from a 

 comparatively early period. It is probable that they were built in 

 the sixteenth century. They were originally the property of the 

 Sovereign, who was then lord of the manor, and were erected for 

 the convenience of the inhabitants of the Forest ; who, in return 

 for the accommodation thus provided, were compelled to bring to 

 those mills to be ground all their Corn grown in the Forest, and 

 also all Malt, whether grown in the Forest or out of it, used or 

 spent ground, in their respective houses ; for which grinding they 

 were to pay mulcture at the rate of a thirtieth part, except for the 

 grinding of bought Shelling or Groats grown out of the Forest ; — 

 for these they were only to pay half-mulcture or one in sixty. The 

 inhabitants of Musbury, and Yate and Pickup Bank, owing to their 

 distance from the mills, were not bound by the above regulations. 



This rate of mulcture was fixed by a decree of the Duchy 

 Court, dated May 1638, on consideration of a certificate returned 

 into the Court by Sevile Radcliffe and John Starkie, Esquires, who. 



