101 A HISTORY OF LONGRIDGE. [Chap. i. 



troublous cotton-famine years, caused by the American war in 1861-62, 

 no longer stoppage took place at Mr. Whittle's mill than a week or 

 so, a fact almost without a parallel in Lancashire. Indeed, Blackburn 

 manufacturers and Manchester merchants used to point to Longridge 

 as a place which might proudly boast in this respect. From that time 

 to this the Longridge cotton cloth has kept the reputation won for it by 

 George Whittle ; and no place in Lancashire can boast of such a 

 record of continuous work as this town, a fact which speaks volumes 

 for masters and emploj'es alike. 



On 28th June, 1865, at the early age of 51, George Whittle passed 

 away, amid the lamentations of the people for miles around. An 

 enormous crowd witnessed his funeral. An eye-witness of the scene 

 says that Longridge on that day looked " black " from Tootal Height. 

 All the mills and shops closed spontaneously for the whole day. 

 Longridge was mourning for a strong and good man, for one who had 

 tried to do his duty. Outwardly of a stern and unbending disposition, 

 and a severe master, there beat beneath his somewhat commanding 

 exterior a feeling and generous heart. As a former Longridge man 

 with a natural gift of poetry said, at a concert in the village, at the 

 conclusion of some verses in which references were made to several 

 local gentlemen, 



" He never forgot the poor," 

 a sentiment which brought down " the house." At his death he left 

 a wife and eight children. Above the family vault in the Longridge 

 churchyard, in which rest the remains of himself, his two wives, and 

 son George, there was erected a handsome granite obelisk. 



But the true memorial of George Whittle are the comfortable homes 

 of the cotton operatives of Longridge. 



The Hon. F. A. Stanley, M.P., now Lord Stanley, and Governor- 

 General of Canada, made a very graceful allusion to the late George 

 Whittle, in a speech at the dinner of the 3rd Longridge Agricultural 

 Show, held August 10th, 1868. 



" He had no doubt," said the right honourable gentleman, " but it 

 would be in the recollection of all that Longridge was one of the 

 localities which at the time that dire calamity overspread the coimtry, 

 known as the Cotton Famine, to the last held out in a great measure 



