Forest of Rossendale. 299 



The raw cotton consumed annually in the Rossendale mills is 

 about 76,000,000 lbs.; the yarn produced, 68,000,000 lbs.; cloth, 

 210,000,000 yards. The number of spindles at work is 835,000, 

 and of looms, 22,000. The operatives employed are about 20,000, 

 and the wages paid weekly amount to between ;^i 2,000 and 

 ^14,000. The total capital invested is over ^^2,000,000. A 

 surprising result truly, when it is remembered that at a time within 

 the present century, the whole of the cotton consumed in Rossen- 

 dale was brought into the district on the backs of pack-horses. 



Of trades directly dependent upon the cotton manufacture, we 

 have in Rossendale Cotton Warp Sizers, Reed and Heald 

 manufacturers, and other subsidiary trades, employing 500 hands, 

 paying in wages, weekly, about ^400, with an invested capital of 

 ;£'3S>ooo- A large and important business in Calico Printing and 

 Dyeing is also carried on. 



The upper part of the district is supplied with water by the 

 Rossendale Water Works Company, and the lower from the works 

 of the Bury Corporation. The district is lighted by the Rossendale 

 Union Gas Company, which includes nearly the whole of Rossendale 

 within its area of supply. The Company was incorporated by 

 special Act of Parliament in 1854. 



The line of Railway which traverses the Rossendale Valley 

 diverging from the nqain line at Stubbins, near Ramsbottom, and 

 extending to Bacup, where it terminates, is a branch of that vast 

 network of iron which permeates the two chief manufacturing 

 counties of England, and known by the name of " The Lancashire 

 and Yorkshire Railway." 



Previous to the amalgamation of the East Lancashire with the- 

 Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company, the line whichthreads 

 the Rossendale valley constituted a Branch of the former. The 

 town of Bury claims the honour of having given birth to the 

 undertaking. A number of capitalists there were desirous to 

 connect their town by railway with Manchester, and, with that 

 object in view, instituted a canvass in the town and surrounding 



