Chap. 1.] GENERAL HISTORY. 33 



"The hollow, in which the bnthina; cots stand, was for the miU race, 

 and there was another provision, ^^■hich I do not quite understand, 

 for surplus water in flood time. 



" To raise the water up to this, there was a Co (I speU phonetically, 

 evidently a dam), fi-om the point stiU to be seen on the other side, 

 where there is a bit cut out of the field. I am rather under the im- 

 pression that this had something to do with the above-mentioned 



overflow. 



"The miU worked on cotton spinning only— no weaving— there 



would be no power looms in ' them ' days. 



" The hands were all town apprentices (none of the country folk 



were admitted), and were a dreadful bad lot." 



A wi-iter in the Sfo?i,/hurst Magazhw, of Feb., 1887, who signs himself 



" Uph," says, "that it is weU known that near Hodder bridge there 



existed, about a hundred years ago, a cotton miU. Both its owners 



and the people who worked there, were foreigners to Lancashire ; 



accordingly, both from what they had heard about the new-comers, and 

 from reports of mysterious proceedings at the miU, the country-folk 



held the strangers in the greatest abhorrence and awe." He goes on 

 to describe what was probably a singular case of contagious hysteria, 

 which occurred among the factory girls, but which was regarded by 

 the people in the locality as a case of demon-possession. He concludes 

 by stating that " the remains of the mill, in the shape of a few large 

 sized stones, may still be seen at the river, not far below the bathmg 

 cots." It was from this apprehension of the wickedness of the miU 

 hands that the people gave to the site of the factory the name of 

 " HeU's Gates," which it long retained. 



Since copying the above account, I have seen an old number of the 

 Stowjlmrst Magazine, dated May, 1885, which had been mislaid, and in 

 it is an article on "Stonyhurstiana," over the signature 'Amhdus^m 

 which reference is made to this mill. The writer says :— 



At the time of the {..umling of Stonyhurst as a College by the Jesuits,' there 

 was situated close to wlierc Hockler^ now stands, a water-wheel cotton factory, 

 parts of whose ruins still remain near the old bathing place. This had hecn 

 erected by, and was in po-=ession of, a certain Mr. Emmett, who built the old part 

 of the present Hodder House, and lived there. 



■sy-oii ^Hodder House. 



