A History of Lancashire

Religion had widened out her views, and now denominations heretofore unheard of had arisen, and churches and chapels were multiplying in every community. Some feeble attempts were being made for popular education; but the press was almost the only means then at command, and that, whilst so many of the poorer classes could neither read nor write, was at best but of small avail. But there was a future opening out when much of the intellectual darkness – which had so long prevailed, not only in Lancashire, but all over the land – should become a thing of the past, and the workman should cease from being a mere machine and become an educated and enlightened citizen. Nothing but the utter want of knowledge of the simplest elements of political economy could justify or account for the manner in which each of the great inventions which were to bring about such gigantic results were received; there was scarcely one of the great improvements of the age which was not, on its introduction, opposed by disorder and riot by the very people who were in the long–run to be most benefited by its adoption.

Nevertheless, the close of this century witnessed a tremendous progress in the direction which led to the results which placed the trade of Lancashire in the position which it ultimately attained.

CHAPTER XII

THE DAWN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The cotton trade of Lancashire was now fairly established; steam was just beginning to be commonly used as the motive power instead of the old water–wheel, and consequently the sites suitable for factories were no longer limited, and this at once led to a further very great development of textile manufactures. This rapid growth was not unattended with intermittent periods of depression, which the working men of the day were not always prepared to attribute to the right cause, and thus riots and disturbances were of frequent occurrence in the manufacturing districts. One of the most serious of these terminated in what has ever since been known as “the Peterloo.” In 1816 the staple trades of Lancashire were in a very depressed state, and this led to the formation of political union societies, one of the chief objects of which was to obtain annual parliaments and universal suffrage. These societies met in St. Peter’s Fields, Manchester, in October, 1816, when all passed off quietly and orderly, but on March 10 following a larger meeting was held at the same place, at which about 1,000 men appeared with blankets over their shoulders, and with the avowed intention of marching to London to lay their grievances before the Prince Regent. This meeting was dispersed by the military, and several of the Blanketeers (as they were called) were taken to prison. The popular feeling was, however, not appeased, and the turn–out for an advance of wages of the spinners, weavers and colliers, towards the end of 1818, added fuel to the fire. Led on by Henry Hunt of London and others, it was decided to hold a mass meeting in St. Peter’s Fields on January 18, 1819, which meeting was held, and a resolution passed calling for the immediate repeal of the Corn Law. In the August following, the borough reeve and constables of Manchester refused to call a public meeting to consider the best means of obtaining a reform of the House of Commons, although 700 householders had signed the requisition. The result was that the requisitors themselves summoned the meeting, which was held near St. Peter’s Church on August 16, Henry Hunt being called upon to preside.

This meeting was attended by members of the societies from Oldham, Rochdale, Middleton, Ashton, Stockport, and all the surrounding villages, each contingent being accompanied by its band of music. The magistrates, being determined to disperse the vast assembly, called to their aid 200 special constables, the Manchester and Cheshire Yeomanry Cavalry, the 15th Hussars, and a detachment of the 88th Regiment of Foot, some pieces of artillery also being ready if required.

The mob was unarmed, but carried a plentiful display of banners with inscriptions more or less revolutionary. Acting under the orders of the magistrates, the Manchester Yeomanry and the hussars, with drawn swords, dashed through the crowd in the direction of the temporary platform, where they captured Henry Hunt and others. The would–be reformers fled in every direction, and the arrival of the Cheshire Yeomanry assisted rapidly to clear the field. After this onslaught – for it could not be called a fight – three or four people were found to have been killed, and twenty–two men and eight women were carried off to the infirmary; but it subsequently transpired that eight persons were killed and several hundreds were wounded. Henry Hunt was tried for sedition, and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, but some of his friends got off with a lesser penalty.

When the times again became settled, there was a vast increase in the population of the towns and villages where factories and workshops were established, and this increase came from all the surrounding districts and from other counties, whose sons, hearing of the rise of new trades and industries, came with their families and settled in Lancashire.

A careful study of the surnames of any of our manufacturing towns will show that about this time a very large number of names now for the first time appeared in these districts, a small percentage of which were of foreign origin, but the greater proportion were English. The tendency was, therefore, to concentrate the scattered population around certain centres; thus it came about that in some parishes which remained purely agricultural, the population for years remained stationary, or even decreased. Thus we find, in the extensive parish of St. Michael’s–on–Wyre, the population between 1801 and 1871 had only risen from 1,197 to 1,290, whilst that of Goosnargh shows an actual decrease of 545 inhabitants between 1821 and 1861. The railway system was first introduced into Lancashire in 1830, when the line between Manchester and Liverpool was opened, which ceremony was marred by the fatal accident to William Huskisson, which happened at Parkside, near Newton–le–Willows. The cost of this railway up to June 30 previous to its being opened for traffic was £820,000, but before the end of 1838 the total expenditure had reached £1,443,897; other railways soon followed, and before a generation had passed away the county was intersected in every direction by these iron roads. Steam packets were in use before the railways were started; they first plied on the canals in 1812.

The sudden progress in commercial affairs could not be accomplished without some inconveniences and evils following in its course. The overcrowding of towns brought a condition of social life which took all the powers of the local authorities to grapple with. Some of the sleepy old towns with ill–lighted and worse–paved streets, with their old tumble–down dwellings and their utter want of anything like sanitary arrangements, were ill adapted to receive suddenly large additions to their population. Then, again, the time–honoured grammar schools and the few sparsely endowed free schools were all inadequate to meet the educational requirements.

Very early in the century a few schools were started on Dr. Bell’s system, and subsequently what were called national schools became common in large towns, and to supplement them the Sunday–schools (which were first started about the year 1782) were giving an elementary education to many who did not or could not give regular attendance on the week–day. Another great evil rising out of the increase in manufactories was that men, women, and especially children, all worked too many hours a day, which, had not a wise Legislature stepped in to arrest, would soon have told dreadfully on the physical, moral, and mental condition of the labouring classes. With the necessary improvements of the sanitary condition of our towns came the introduction of the use of gas for illuminating purposes, and our streets became safe by night as well as by day.

To trace the growth of the various towns and villages of Lancashire during the present century is outside the scope of the present volume, and if it were not so, it would be quite impossible to do anything like justice to the subject within the limits assigned to this series of “Popular Histories.” It must therefore suffice to say that in all the grand movements achieved by Great Britain in the nineteenth century, Lancashire has done its share, and that in trade, commerce, education, and every modern advance in moral, religious, or social life, the county has been in the van. Before closing this very brief notice of the present century, a few statistics may with advantage be given which will serve to illustrate the enormous growth of material progress and the ever–increasing numbers of its teeming population. Preston, in the first twenty years of this century, doubled its population, and between 1821 and 1868 it rose from 24,000 to 90,000, and in the latter year there were in the town seventy–seven cotton–mills, which gave employment to 26,000 persons. Through this important centre – just before the railways were opened – there passed daily seventy–two stage coaches. In Bolton the population rose from 11,000 in 1791 to 105,414 in 1881. Wigan, through the large coal–fields in the neighbourhood, advanced from 25,500 in 1801 to 78,160 in 1861, and about the year 1831 6,000,000 tons of coal were annually raised in the parish; other of the now large towns increased in the same proportion. But Liverpool and Manchester were the two centres in the county.

Liverpool, very early in the century, began to exhibit that spirit of enterprise which soon placed that city in the foremost rank in the maritime world. It was only in 1815 that the first steamer appeared on the Mersey, yet in 1835 there had been constructed docks which extended for two miles along the shore, with a water area of 90 acres; these docks have now a frontage of considerably over six miles.

In 1834 the total number of bales of cotton imported into this country and landed in London was 40,400, whilst at Liverpool the number was 839,370; in 1868 at the latter were landed 3,326,543 bales, and it has been estimated that in 1834 the value of the export trade of Liverpool reached £20,000,000, the goods mostly consisting of woollens, linens, and cotton goods; the imports in the same year were put down as being worth £15,000,000. The dock dues paid in 1812 amounted to £44,403, and in 1862 to £379,528. The number of vessels which entered the port in 1802 was 4,781, with a tonnage of 510,691; in 1832 there were 12,928 vessels, with 1,540,057 tonnage; and in 1862 the vessels numbered 20,289, their tonnage being 4,630,183. The population of Liverpool in 1801 was 77,653; in 1861 it was 269,742.

Manchester and Salford, though one is now a city and the other only a borough, are in some senses almost inseparable: they both made rapid progress, following the rise of the staple trades, and both received their charters of incorporation as Parliamentary boroughs in 1832; their united population in 1801 was only 112,300, in 1831 it was 270,963, and in 1861 it had risen to 529,245. Manchester has been well described as the centre of the largest and most populous area in the world; it has on all sides large and increasing towns and villages, all of which are engaged in the staple trades of the district. The following figures will illustrate: In Manchester itself there are 2,708,000 spindles, in Oldham 11,500,000, Bolton 4,860,000, Ashton–under–Lyne 2,013,000, Rochdale 1,914,000, Blackburn 1,435,000, and there are some other towns in the neighbourhood each of which has close on a million spindles. Without detailing the marked progress in the other districts, it will perhaps equally well show the fact if we quote the population returns for the whole county.

In 1801 there were 673,486 persons, in 1851 there were 2,026,462, being an increase in fifty years of 1,352,976 persons; this is considered one of the most remarkable features in the official returns of England in 1851. In 1831 the population was 1,336,854, so that in twenty years it was nearly doubled. According to the returns of the last census (1891) Lancashire is the most densely populated county except Middlesex, and to every square mile of its surface there are 1,938 people.

We have now traced the history of the county palatine of Lancaster from the time when it was first inhabited by mortal man, through all its varied and not uneventful course, until we now leave it with, we may hope, a bright future dawning upon it – a future that will still find it, as it for so long has been, an important power in that great kingdom on whose domains the sun never sets.

CHAPTER XIII

MISCELLANY

There are many traditions relating to the county, some of which are worth preserving; others are only the result of some fertile brain which first invented the tale and then told it as a tradition. Several of Roby’s “Traditions of Lancashire” are of this class; others are of considerable antiquity and of historic interest.

Scattered all over Lancashire are the remains or traces of roadside crosses, which at one period must have been very numerous, many of them being of great antiquity. At Burnley, near to the church, is one of these, which is of undoubted Saxon origin; it is known as Godly Cross, and associated with it is a tradition to the effect that long before the church was built religious rites were celebrated on the spot indicated by the cross, and that Paulinus baptized his converts in the waters of the Brun, which flows close by. The legend further asserts that upon an attempt being made to build an oratory on an adjacent site, the stones were nightly removed by supernatural agents, in the form of pigs, to the place where ultimately the church was erected. Similar traditions as to the removal of foundation–stones obtain as to the parish churches of Winwick, Rochdale, and one or two others. Very few parishes in Lancashire are without some trace (if only in a name) of these ancient crosses. The following furnishes a good example of the use to which these relics of a past age were applied as late as 1624. John Stirzaker and others, on July 25 in this year, confessed to the Bishop of Chester that they had been present and assisted in carrying the corpse of Thomas Bell of Garstang to the parish church there, and that they were in the company and consented “to the settinge downe of the said corse att crosses and yielding obeysance to the same superstitious manner as they went alonge, and that they carryed, or agreed thereto, the sayd corps by the church porche, and afterwards it was buryed without the mynister’s ayd or any prayers made at the buryall thereof.” The Bishop’s sentence was that the offending parties should acknowledge their faults “in their accustomed apparel on the Sundaie next, being att Morning Prayer tyme,” and also be prepared to receive the Holy Communion before the Feast of St. Michael, or in default they were to be excommunicated.

In this same parish of Garstang there still exists near Cross House the socket of one of these crosses, about which a curious bit of folklore obtains, to the effect that any persons troubled with warts or similar excrescences would get instant relief by washing their hands in the water from time to time collected in the hollow place where the base of the upright shaft once stood.

In the town of Wigan is a portion of a very ancient stone cross, known as Mab’s Cross. The origin of the cross itself is unknown, but its name is derived from a family tradition connected with the Bradshaigh family, one of whom, Sir William Bradshaigh, in the time of Edward II., having been absent from home for ten years, on his return found that his wife Mabel (daughter of Hugh Norres of Haghe) had married a Welsh knight, who, on hearing of the first husband’s return, took to flight, but was overtaken and slain by Sir William. For her unfaithfulness, Mabel was enjoined by her spiritual adviser to walk barefooted and barelegged once every week to the cross at Wigan, and there to do penance.

The most interesting monument in Wigan Church is the tomb of Sir William and Lady Mabel Bradshaigh.

In a county where there are so many ancient private houses, the successive owners of which led not unadventurous lives, it is no wonder that there are not wanting those old legends which add a charm and an interest to the remaining vestiges of what were once the family mansions of the oldest settlers in the county. Of these traditions a selection only can be taken.235 At Kersall Hall, near Manchester (see p. 209), Peverill, the last Saxon owner, is said to have been slain whilst defending his ancestral home against the Norman intruder, who forthwith caused his dead body to be cast into the Irwell, and having taken possession, he retired for the night. But before the dawn he was called to account by ghostly visitors, and was found dead next morning on the threshold of the hall, and on his brow was written in blood a warning that all future intruders would meet with a similar fate, which threat the legend records was carried out against a succession of occupiers of the old dwelling–place. Not far from Bolton is a small farmhouse called Timberbottoms, which is also known as the Skull House, in consequence of the tradition that the taking away of two human skulls which had for generations been kept there would bring bad luck to the inhabitants; the tale goes that many times and oft had these relics been buried at Bradshaw Chapel, but they had always found their way back to their old quarters.236 The dragon often figures as the hero of legendary lore, and associated with particular localities. The dragon of Rusworth is the only legend of the kind referring to Lancashire. At Rusworth is a house at one time owned by the Rusworths, one of whom in the remote past is supposed to have slain the beast which was devastating the district. In the house are several old oak carvings illustrating the event. In connection with Townley Hall, near Burnley, the spirit of some former owner, who demands a life every seven years, was supposed to wander about the demesne crying:

“Lay out, lay outHorelaw and Hollinhey Clough.”

The late Mr. Harland, in his “Lancashire Legends,” quotes this as a singular instance how these old tales frequently have some foundation; for in 1604 James I. granted by letters patent to Charles, Lord Mountjoy, the Earl of Devon, for services rendered in the time of Queen Elizabeth, inter alia, “all that parcel of land called Horelaw Pasture, abutting on Hollinghey, part of the Duchy of Lancaster, and formerly inclosed by John Townley.” Here was evidently the source of the legend. Townley had without authority inclosed the land, and on the King reclaiming it, an imaginary grievance was created.

Turton Tower had its ghostly visitant – a lady in white, who passed from room to room in rustling silken dress. Samlesbury Hall had a similar apparition, which was accounted for by the reputed murder of the lover of one of the daughters of the house. Osbaldeston Hall (like Holyrood) has in one of its rooms traces of blood which cannot be washed out; the story told is that at a large family feast a quarrel arose, which by the interference of friends was apparently made up, but later in the evening Thomas Osbaldeston met his brother–in–law in this particular room, and at once drew his sword and murdered him in cold blood. For this he was outlawed, and ever since the place has been haunted by the ghost of the victim, who walks through the silent rooms with uplifted hands and blood–stained clothes. How many of these old superstitions arose cannot ever be explained, but there is scarcely an old hall in the county but has associated with it a “ghost story.” In Lancashire still linger many very ancient bits of folklore and superstitious beliefs, but a large proportion of these are not peculiar to the county, but are also common in Yorkshire and other Northern parts of the country. Some are, however, purely local, and are worth a passing note. In Ashton–under–Lyne is an annual festival known as the Gyst–ale or Guisings, at which is performed the ceremony of “riding the black lad,” which is said to have had its origin from a grant made to Rauf and Robyn Assheton in 1422.

The custom is still observed in a modified form. An effigy of a man in armour is fixed on horseback, and led through the streets, after which it is dismounted and made to supply the place of a shooting butt, at which all kinds of firearms are discharged.

Rushbearings have already been referred to (see p. 123). They have now practically become a thing of the past; the people who formerly remained at home to celebrate these old rites now go away by the numerous cheap trips which mark the dates when the fairs were held.

Most of the old grammar schools had several customs, strictly observed by many generations of scholars —inter alia, barring out (Burnley Grammar School), which consisted in an assumed right for the boys at the end of each term to exclude the masters from the school, on which occasion a tallow candle was used to illuminate each pane of glass in the windows. Cock–penny was an annual present claimed by the head–master from each boy; this was probably intended as a payment for the game–cocks which in former years were provided. One of the statutes of the Manchester Grammar School, made about 1525, appears to have been especially designed to put a stop to this custom; it runs: “He” (the master) “shall teach freely and indifferently237 every child and scholar coming to the same school, without any money or other reward taking therefor, as cock–penny, victor–penny, etc.” Another clause provides that the scholars shall “use no cock–fights nor other unlawful games, and riding about for victors, etc.”

The payment of the cock–penny was continued in some places until a few years ago.

At funerals many old customs not common in other parts of the country were here observed, and, indeed, have not yet quite died out.

The promiscuous giving of the penny manchet (often provided for by will) was almost universal amongst the richer classes; but the gift to each person who was “bidden” to the funeral, of a cake called the “arval cake,” was not quite so common.

These cakes were generally given with ale, provided at the nearest public–house. In the neighbourhood of Burnley guests attending a funeral are met at the door by an attendant, who offers spiced ale (or other liquor) from a silver tankard. In some districts, those who went round to invite the guests to the funeral presented each of them with a sprig of rosemary; this inviting was sometimes called “lathing.” At Poulton–le–Fylde, at the beginning of this century, the older families always buried their dead at night by torchlight, when every householder in the streets through which the cortège passed placed a lighted candle in his window. In the seventeenth century a singular privilege was given to women dying in childbed, their bodies being allowed interment within the church without the usual fee.238

The peculiar rites appertaining to All Hallows’ Eve (October 31) are well known; but in the Fylde district it was celebrated by the lighting of bonfires, and it was locally known as Teanlay, or Teanley, night. Pace–egging in the same district is called “ignagning.”

In Rochdale, Good Friday, some fifty years ago, was called “Cracknel Friday,” as on this day people regaled themselves with small thin cakes called cracknels. St. Gregory’s Day (March 12) in the northern parts of the county is characterized as the day on which onion seed must be sown, or no crop will be yielded. Lancashire is rich in this kind of folk–lore.

Bury simnels are now known all over the country; they are a kind of cake, which derives its name from having originally been made from the finest part of flour, which in mediæval times was called “siminellus.” They are used on Mid–Lent or Mothering Sunday. This day in other parts of Lancashire is called Bragot or Bragget Sunday, and on it a peculiar drink known as bragot was used; it consisted of spiced ale, which was always taken hot.

Did space permit, this chapter might well be extended, as the county is rich in old tales, ancient superstitions, “wise saws and modern instances,” charms, divinations and omens, many of which, however, are not of local historical interest, as they are more or less common to other parts of the country.

1

“Recent Results of the Investigation into Local [Rochdale] Erratic Blocks,” by S. S. Platt.