Forest of Rossendale. 283 



In the latter years of the reign of Henry VIII. the Woollen 

 Manufacture was introduced into the district, and during a period 

 of about three hundred years this formed the staple trade of 

 Rossendale. The clothing of the inhabitants in earlier times was 

 chiefly of " self " material ; that is, it was of home manufacture — 

 not bought in the finished piece. In lieu of oil, which was difficult 

 and expensive to procure, the wool was greased with butter raised 

 from the farms. The process of carding, spinning, reeling, and 

 weaving were performed by hand. The hand-loom of those early 

 days is as much surpassed in efficiency by the hand-loom of 

 modern times, as the latter is by the power-loom of our factories. 

 The weft, instead of being conveyed across the loom by means of a 

 shuttle, was rolled into a ball, and thrown or " picked " by hand 

 from one side to the other, by two persons alternately. The 

 shuttle was a great improvement on the earher system, but owing 

 to its ponderous and unwieldy size, a person was still required to 

 be stationed at each side of the machine, to propel it through the 

 shed of the warp. The application of wheels to the shuttle (said, 

 as before mentioned, to have been the invention of John Maden of 

 Bacup) greatly added to its efficiency by lessening the friction, and 

 enabled one person sitting in front of the loom to perform with 

 greater ease that which before required the labour of two. As 

 water power came to be applied in turning the machinery (a) the 

 trade rapidly increased, and a regular flow of population into the 

 manufacturing districts was the consequence. 



As bearing on the trade of Eossendale in past days, the 

 following is interesting : — In the " Travels through England," in 



(a) To the application of water-power in turning the machinery which had 



been invented to supplant hand labour, there were at first strong prejudices 



openly expressed ; as witness the old Rossendale man's prayer in a time of 



drought, — 



" The Lord send rain to till the ground, 



But not to turn the Engines round." 



The woollen-carding engines are here referred to, these being put in 

 motion by the water-wheel. 



