A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



It is impossible to give here a list of all the 

 principal vessels built at Barrow. It must 

 siiiEce to say that battleships, armoured cruisers, 

 protected cruisers, 25-knot scouts, gun-boats, 

 torpedo-boats, torpedo-boat destroyers of 30-knot 

 speed, submarine-boats, merchant ships for 

 passengers and cargo, steam yachts, dredgers, 



and hopper barges have been built durmg the 

 past few years at Messrs. Vickers, Sons & 

 Maxim's works. 



From the census returns we learn that 7,558 

 men in 1881, 7,758 in 1891, and 8,564 in 

 1 90 1 were employed in the county in the con- 

 struction of ships and boats. 



TEXTILE INDUSTRIES 



THE WOOLLEN INDUSTRY 



Nothing definite is known as to the com- 

 mencement of the woollen industry in Lanca- 

 shire. We have been unable to find any 

 foundation for the statement ot Baines,^ that an 

 aulnager was appointed in Bolton as early as the 

 reign of Richard I, which would lead one to 

 believe that the woollen cloth trade existed there 

 in the twelfth century. The first introduction 

 of the industry has been ascribed to Flemish 

 settlers in south-east Lancashire in the reign of 

 Edward III. It is, however, quite certain that 

 the woollen industry existed in the county prior 

 to 1327. The presence of fulling mills on the 

 Irk at Manchester, and at Colne and Burnley, at 

 the end of the thirteenth century, conclusively 

 proves the existence of the woollen industry at 

 that period. The Kuerden Manuscripts^ show 

 that there was a dyer in Ancoats, near Man- 

 chester, about the middle of the thirteenth 

 century, which points to some textile industry 

 in the neighbourhood at that earlier date. 



The first definite reference to the woollen 

 industry is in 1282. In that year, on the death 

 of Robert Grelet, seventh baron, an inquisition 

 was held into the extent of the manor of 

 'Mamecestre.' It is therein recorded, 'there is 

 in the aforesaid manor ... a certain fulling 

 mill, which is worth yearly 26s. Sd.' ' From 

 the survey of the same barony, June, 1320, we 

 learn that there is 'a certain fulling mill running 

 by the stream of the Irk, worth by the year 

 13^. 4.d.' * Two years later the fulling mill is 

 described as worth 8;. ^.d.'' In 1+73 the rental 

 had risen again as high as £2.' The other 

 early reference to fulling mills comes from the 

 Accounts of the Lancashire and Cheshire manors 

 of Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln, for the year 

 29 September, 1295, to 29 September, 1296, 

 rendered 30 January, 1297. 



£ '■ d. 

 Colne : Rent of the fulling mill of Kaune 



I Sept.' I 13 4l 



Brunley : Rent of fulling mill there, this 



year the first ° 068 



' Hist, of Lane, iii, 70. 



' Chetham Soc. Rec. Ixriii, 77 and 78. 



' Ibid, liii, 143. * Ibid. Ivi, 315. 



* Ibid. 393. « Ibid. Iviii, 504. 



' Ibid, cxii, 4, 1 19. *■ Ibid. 8, 122. 



Expenses : Repairing the fulling mill of 



Kaune ' 0128 



Foreign Expenses : Fulling mill at Brun- 



ley built anew '" 2 1 2 6 J 



Though the existence of the woollen industry 

 in Lancashire at the end of the thirteenth century 

 can be established, it must be admitted that it 

 was only of very slight importance compared 

 with that in other parts of the country. The 

 first reference to it in an Act of Parliament 

 appears to be in 1514,^^ where it is enacted that 

 the statute is not to apply to ' any cottons or 

 playne lininge or frise made . . . in . . . Lanca- 

 shire.' A similar exemption occurs in an Act in 

 1523." In 1538 Leland writes :" 'Bolton apon 

 Moore Market stondith most by cottons and 

 cowrse yarne. Divers villages in the Mores about 

 Bolton do make cottons.' By 22 Henry VIII, 

 cap. 15, the privilege of sanctuary was removed 

 from Manchester, on the ground that it was pre- 

 judicial to the woollen and linen manufactures 

 of that town. An Act of 1552 ^■' regulates the 

 length and weight of Manchester and Lancashire 

 cottons and Manchester rugs and friezes. Under 

 Mary an attempt was made to stop woollen goods 

 being made outside corporate towns, certain dis- 

 tricts, however, being excepted, including Lanca- 

 shire." In 1566 it was enacted that the 'aulnager 

 for the county of Lancashire shall appoint and have 

 his lawful deputy within every of the several towns 

 of Manchester, Rochdale, Bolton, Blackburn, and 

 Bury.'" In 1577 t^e clothiers of Lancashire 

 petitioned that middlemen, forbidden by an Act 

 of Edward VI, should be allowed." They 

 described themselves as ' poore cotagers whose 

 habilitye wyll not streche neyther to buye any 

 substance of wolles to mayntayne work and labour, 

 nor yet to fetche the same.' They feared that if 

 the statute were enforced the trade would be 

 driven into the hands of a few rich men. 



Mbid. IS, 125. ">\h\d. 16, 126. 



" 6 Hen. VIII, cap. 9. 



" 14 and I 5 Hen. VIII, cap. 11. 



" Itinerary, vii, 56. 



" 5 and 6 Edw. VI, cap. 6. 



" 4 and 5 Phil, and Mary, cap. 5. 



'° 8 Eliz. cap. 1 2. 



" S.P. Dom. Eliz.civii, No. 38, quoted m Ectmomk 

 "Journ. X, 23. 



376 



