Chap. 1.] GEJJ^ERAL HISTORY. 



43 



Banks contracted for the work on the Longridge line at 2s. a metal. 

 Notwithstanding the great reduction in price, Mr. Banks was able to 

 make as much as £8 a day. Within twelve months his plan was in 

 use on all the railwaj' lines in the Kingdom; and his "patent" was 

 sold for only £5. 



On Aug. 10th, 1867, a serious accident occurred. A special train 

 left Longridge shortly after the ordinary 7-30 p.m. train, and, near 

 Fulwood, through some blundering, the special ran into the leading 

 train. A terrible scene followed. Both trains were crowded with 

 visitors returning from the Guild festivities at Longridge. Over sixty 

 persons were injured, several seriously. Strange to say no news of 

 the accident reached Longridge until the following morning. Many 

 himdreds of the visitors remained in the vicinity of the station waiting 

 for the return of the train ; and numbers had to sleep out of doors 

 amid scenes of indescribable confusion. 



From such works as Bamford's " Radical ; " Waugh's " Lancashire 

 Sketches ; " Dr. Cooke-Taylor's "Notes of a Tour through Lancashire ; " 

 and the Press of the period, it appears that the state of the people in 

 the cotton manufacturing districts of Lancashire was pitiable in the 

 extreme, from 1830 to 1850. Handloom weavers were out of work for 

 months, going up and down begging for a job of any kind to get a bit 

 of bread with. There was hardly any parish relief to be had, and 

 starvation and misery were only too often the lot of the poor people. 

 Nor was the Longridge stone trade much better at that time. The 

 cause of this sad state of things is apparent at once. The cotton trade 

 was in a state of transition ; the power-loom was superseding the hand- 

 loom in all directions ; and in the interregnum which necessarily 

 prevailed, the workpeople had to suffer. How much this state of 

 things affected Longridge is proved by the retrograde position of the 

 population. In 1831 the population of Longridge was 1,917; in 

 1841 it was only 1,904, a decrease of 13 in 10 years, while in the next 

 decade the population had dwindled down to 1,821. 



But for the development of the stone trade, there can be little doubt 

 that the village of Longridge would have remained in the same 

 stationary condition as such places as Chipping, Goosnargh, and Eib- 



