GREAT HARWOOD
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Handloom Weavers' Cottages
Little, if any, physical evidence of the carding mills is left, many cottages have been demolished and those which are left have been altered to such an extent that it is not always easy to identify them. Weaving was also associated with the many farms in the area, plans for a farmhouse built as late as 1810 include a weaving shop, but again "physical traces are hard to isolate".
However documents show that weavers' cottages do remain at:
Photo: Brian Sheperd
Dean Lane, Back o' Bowley
John Mercer's mother and stepfather built this in 1809 and he lived here for a while.
Lowerfold
Lowerfold Road
This was one farm house which was converted into three cottages and at a later date two of them were joined together. The original building dates from the mid seventeenth century I'm told.
Delph Road
Just above the Commercial Hotel.
Edge End Cottages
The 1851 census shows handloom weaving taking place here.
Blackburn Old Road
Laneside Cottages
and
Four Winds
My informant believes this cottages is of similar age to the ones in Lowerfold Road.
Cliffe Lane
There are two terraces at The Cliffe the row above
the Dog and Otter bearing this date stone
the other, below the pub, was built about 1804.
Blackburn Road
Two of these cottages are dated 1780
and at Cop Hall a cottage industry of sorts continues.
The Wellington Hotel in the centre of town was originally a cotton warehouse and private dwelling built by Adam Dugdale in 1801.
Handloom weaving went into decline from the 1820s as demand fell after the Napoleonic Wars and power looms could produce all that was required cheaply although there were still 31 weavers at Whalley Banks in 1851 and the trade only finally died out in the 1870s. Ironically it was a maker of handlooms who began the revolution of cotton manufacturing in Great Harwood in 1844.
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1 Industrial Heritage: A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Gt Harwood;M Rothwell, Hyndburn Local History Society,. 1980. Page 3
Industrial Heritage: A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Gt Harwood;M Rothwell, Hyndburn Local History Society,. 1980. Pages 2, 3, 4
Old Harwood, Louie Pollard and Harry E. Eaton, Great Harwood Civic Society, 1973. Pages 10, 19, 20
Great Harwood Gleanings, Louie Pollard, 1978, Lancs County Council. Passim
People and Places in Great Harwood, Louie Pollard. Pages 2, 15
A Great Harwood Miscellany, Louie Pollard. Pages 10, 13, 14
1066. Great Harwood from William the Conqueror to the Millennium, Louie Pollard, Great Harwood Civic Society, 1999. Pages 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 17, 18
Festival of Britain Programme, "Our Town", 1951. Pages 29, 35, 41
Last updated 17th April 2020 by ifinwig
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