NW Cotton Towns Learning Journey
Your guide: John Mortimer, author of "Industrial Lancashire" (1897)
Our itinerary:
Step 1: Liverpool to Manchester; Manchester to Stockport; Stockport to Ashton
Step 2: Ashton to Manchester; Manchester to Oldham; Oldham to Rochdale
Step 3: Rochdale to Bury; Bury to Accrington; Accrington to Blackburn
Step 4: Blackburn to Burnley; Burnley to Clitheroe; Clitheroe to Preston
Step 5: Preston to Wigan via Chorley; Wigan to Bolton
Step 6: Bolton to Salford; Salford to Manchester
Click on the steps below to explore.
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North West Cotton Towns Learning Journey Step 5
PRESTON TO WIGAN (VIA CHORLEY) We arrive in Preston, or "Priest's Town", a town surrounded with a country of fair landscapes, above which it is lifted somewhat. It has several public parklands, the tidal Ribble flows on its way to the spacious docks, along which vessels may travel along the12-mile waterway to the broad estuary and further sea. Preston has 111,000 inhabitants and is largely industrial: it has iron and shipbuilding works, and numerous spinning mills (first erected 1777) and weaving sheds, the tall factory chimneys visible for miles around. Richard Arkwright was born and worked here, first as a barber, later exhibiting his first spinning engine. Here in Preston they spin some 1.7 million spindles and weave on 52,000 looms each year. Almost all known fabrics are produced, and Preston's cotton industry specialises in cambrics, muslins and jacconettes, as well as India and China shirtings. Preston weaves less, but spins more cotton than Blackburn, with much in common with its neighbour, linked by an 11 mile road which traverses beautiful country, with marvellous views of the Ribble valley, Longridge Fell and Pendle Hill. We can join the Leeds-Liverpool canal part way down its course, travelling to Chorley (population 23,000), which stands near the springs of the river Chor, and we might almost be in the countryside were it not for the tall chimneys, collieries and stone quarries dotted about the landscape. Chorley annually spins around 382,000 spindles of cotton and employs some 9,000 looms, weaving muslins and calicos. WIGAN TO BOLTON As we come into Wigan (founded in 1246), we pass over pleasant, undulating land, until we encounter a landscape dotted with mills, collieries, workshops, forges, foundries and other factories. The three main industries are coal, textile and engineering. There are few or no fast flowing streams here, which meant the cotton industry has only recently begun to develop here. Gidlow Mill is an impressive spinning and weaving factory belonging to John Rylands, built in 1863-5. Neighbouring towns including Atherton, Ince and Leigh are also engaged in cotton. We are now close by another important cotton town, we may travel by tram or canal to Bolton. We see on many sides the sombre moorlands spread, broad and far-reaching, meeting the sky along the varied outlines of the hill tops, and in view of these, the road runs through the smoke canopied town. The landscape is dotted with slopes and water from springs and brooks collects in hollows, ideal for the local bleaching industry. Busy Bolton has population of 115,000: woollen and cotton weaving were brought here by the Flemish weavers in centuries past, and here the fustian industry originated. Samuel Crompton changed the cotton industry forever with his spinning mule, and Richard Arkwright was a barber and wigmaker here, busying his head with thoughts of new spinning machinery while he occupied himself with the heads of his customers. Bolton is primarily a spinning town, as befits the birthplace of the mule, with nearly 5 million spindles employed, specialising in finer counts of yarn; but there are also 20,000 looms, producing diverse fabrics, including longcloths, cambrics, muslins, quiltings, toiletings, jacconettes and damasks. |
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