A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



woollen yarn.' " ' Colne subsists by a manufacture 

 of shaloons, serges, and tamies.' " Burnley is ' a 

 small market town with some share of the 

 woollen trade,' ^ whilst Bacup is ' a large village 

 where they have a great manufacture of woollen 

 cloths, which they send white to London.' ^° 

 The last place he mentions is Rochdale, where 

 ' they have a large manufacture of blankets, baies, 

 and shaloons.' '^ 



During the second half of the eighteenth 

 century Colne appears to have been the centre 

 of the woollen and worsted trade of north-east 

 Lancashire. In 1775 a company of proprietors 

 erected a piece hall there on the principle of the 

 Bradford hall, and for a long time this formed 

 the great mart of the district.'' With regard to 

 the production of worsteds in this locality, the 

 following figures are given by James.'' In 

 1781, 42,843 pieces were made in the chapelry 

 of Colne to the value of ^^54,900, and 19,991 

 pieces in the chapelry of Burnley valued at 

 j^32,i66. The industry had probably reached 

 its zenith about this time, as Aikin, writing in 

 1795, says of Colne: 'The trade formerly con- 

 sisted in woollen and worsted goods, particularly 

 shalloons, calimancoes, and tammies.' " Its place 

 was gradually taken by the cotton trade.*" 



A town where the woollen industry was not 

 suppressed by the cotton industry was Rochdale, 

 which is the principal Lancashire woollen town 

 at the present time. An interesting description 

 of Rochdale occurs in a book published in 1778.** 



This place is famous for manufactories of cloth, kerseys, 

 and shallon. Every considerable house is a manu- 

 factory, and is supplied with a rivulet or little stream, 

 without which the business cannot be carried on. 

 The water, tinged with the dregs of the dyeing vat, 

 with the oil, soap, tallow, or other ingredients, used 

 by the clothiers, enriches the land through which it 

 passes beyond imagination. The bounty of nature 

 with respect to this county, in the two essential articles 

 of coals and springs of running water firom the tops of 

 the highest hills, is not to be equalled in any part of 

 England. The place seems to have been designed by 

 Providence for the very purpose to which it is allotted, 

 viz. the carrying on a manufacture, which can nowhere 

 be so well supplied with the convenience necessary to 

 it. The women and children are all employed here ; 

 not a beggar or idle person being to be seen. 



In 1795 Aikin writes of Rochdale : ' A branch 

 of the woollen manufacture is its staple, of which 

 the principal articles are bays, flannels, kerseys, 

 coatings, and cloths.' *' 



" Pococke, op. cit, i, 201. 

 " Ibid. 204. ^ Ibid. 



" Ibid. 205. « Ibid. 



" James, Hist, of the Worsted Manufacture, 292. 

 " Op. cit. 633. 



^ Aildn, A Description of Manchester, 279. 

 " James, Hist, of the Worsted Manufacture, 633. 

 '■^ Beauties of England (ed. 4, 1778); quoted in 

 "EzTWiktr's Local G/eanings, ii, 17. 

 " Op. cit. 248. 



The first reference we can find of the exten- 

 sion of the factory system to the Lancashire 

 woollen industry, relates to Tyldesley. Our 

 authority is again Aikin's book of 1795- 



Lately Mr. Johnson has erected a large factory six 

 stories high and a steam engine, with dye-houses and 

 other extensive buildings for the woollen business, 

 which consists of kersey meers and various fancy goods 

 in all woollen and silk and woollen. There are two 

 other factories upon the estate, intended to be let for 

 the woollen business, and one very large building 

 newly erected, intended for the spinning of woollen 

 and worsted. 



During the nineteenth century the growth of 

 the cotton industry in Lancashire drove out the 

 woollen industry. A note was added to the 

 Lancashire census of 1831, saying that 



the manufacture of woollen articles is comparatively 

 unimportant, the number of men employed in worsted 

 mills and as fullers, makers of baize, blankets and flan- 

 nels being about 2,700, chiefly at Newchurch in 

 Whalley parish, and in Rochdale and at Bury. 



In 1835, according to the returns of the inspector 

 of factories, there were 106 woollen factories at 

 work in Lancashire, employing 3,038 men and 

 2,028 women." The most recent figures are 

 those of the census returns of 190 1. In that 

 year 4,598 men and 3,852 women were employed 

 in the wool and worsted industries of Lancashire. 

 Of these 284 men and 299 women were cm- 

 ployed at Bury and 1,296 men and 1,884 women 

 at Rochdale. 



THE LINEN INDUSTRY 



During the earliest period it is impossible to 

 separate the linen industry from the woollen 

 industry, so that it cannot be ascertained when 

 linens were first made in Lancashire. Towards 

 the end of the sixteenth century Lancashire is 

 mentioned in Thorold Rogers' History of Agri- 

 culture and Prices in England as the source of the 

 coarser kinds of linen.*' The earliest reference 

 of this kind is in 1555,*' and this constitutes one 

 of the first definite pieces of evidence of the 

 existence of the linen industry in this county. 

 The earliest is that contained in the statute of 

 1 541 removing the privilege of sanctuary from 

 Manchester on the ground that it was prejudicial 

 to the woollen and linen manufactures of that 

 town.*' In 1592 the will of John Turnough, of 

 Oldham, linen weaver, was proved,** which points 

 to one seat of the industry. What is probably 

 the most interesting reference of all to the Lan- 



" Op. cit. 299. 



" Quoted in Porter, Progress of the Nation (1836), 

 i, 195. 



Op. cit. iii, 106. <• Ibid, iv, 489. 



378 



" 33 Hen. VIII, cap. 15. 



** Wills at Chester (Lane, and Ches. Rec. Soc. ii.) 



