1 RAWTENSTALL Ian Fishwick 1990 Contents Introduction 2 Farming in Rawtenstall 6 Textiles – wool and cotton? 8 Footwear 12 Stone 14 Fire clay and brick 15 Coal 16 Other industries 17 Transport 19 Society 22 2 INTRODUCTION There are some people who believe that Rawtenstall ‘has no History’, they have looked in books for the name Rawtenstall and are disappointed except for the last 100 years. Yet Rawtenstall only became a borough in 1891. To find events before this one must look under “Haslingden”, Rossendale”, “Newchurch” “Crawshawbooth” etc. There are some people who believe that Rawtenstall has a History but faced with weighty books by Whittaker, Newbigging and Tupling, or special volumes on ‘Busses and Trams in Rossendale” etc feel that they cannot cope of do not have enough time. Some people have read the excellent books by Chris Aspin or the publications by Groundwork etc but they lack a wider more general view and also be put off by the large academic works. I have attempted a History of Rawtenstall in brief. I hope that this will inform the general reader, however it is a brief History, drawn from many sources. The serious scholar will turn to the specialist works and the Local Library. Mine is a pamphlet, not a book, produced for Rawtenstall Civic Society. The faults are all mine, the choice of entries and omissions is mine, as it the typing and the presentation. I do not claim to be a Local Historian just a student of History who lives locally and felt the need to draw together his own notes so that a general understanding of the broad outlines should be made easier Ian Fishwick Rawtenstall, in Pre Roman times, fell under the control of the Brigantes. The most famous, of the rulers, of this tribe, was Queen Cartimandua who betrayed the leader of the anti-Roman coalition of tribes, King Caradoc, to the Romans. By around AD 70 the area was under Roman control with the main Roman forces at Chester and York plus the important base at Ribchester. However, the area was not a Roman settlement, there were few this far North, and even the local Celtic population was small. In many ways the area was unimportant except as part of the route system used – tracks and paths – crossing the hills. When effective Roman control collapsed around 400 AD, Rawtenstall fell into the control of the British ‘Kinglets”. The North of the old Roman province was held by the so-called ‘Men of the North, the Ceolings, that is those rulers who were associates of coel Hen (Old King Cole), who had been the military commander of the North. Once again, Rawtenstall was on the perifery (sic) of history, sometimes under the Kingdom of York (under, say Peredur), sometimes under the control of Lodis-Elmet (Leeds) (under Ceretic) and sometimes under Reged (Urein the Great). As Northumbrian Angles increased their power, around 600 AD, led by Kings such as Aethelfrith and then Edwin, the British collapsed. By 615 the area was 3 almost certainly inside Saxon influence. In the years that followed it was a border region on the edge of Northumbria and Mercia. In the 9th century the Vikings conquered both of these two great Saxon states but still the area that we call Rawtenstall was part of a route rather than a settled region. In 937 the Vikings were defeated at the Battle of Burnanburh.. The coalition of Anlaf Sihtricson (Viking ‘King” of York) which included Scots, Welsh, Britons of Strathclyde and Vikings from Man, Ireland, the Northern and Western Isles and Scandinavia, was smashed by Athelstan, the King of Wessex and Overlord of Mercia. From this date there was a single Kingdom of England. It had been argued that a possible site of this battle is to be found at Broadclough Dyke, by the Irwell, just outside Bacup. Prior to the Norman Conquest, Rawtenstall was part of the “Forest of Blackburnshire”. This was given to Roger de Poictou, along with other vast areas in the North and elsewhere, by William I. He proved a dangerously powerful Baron; too powerful, he later rebelled. As a result he lost his lands which were transferred to the Conqueror’s grandson, Stephen of Blois, later King Stephen. The very large holdings were sub-divided between other lesser (yet still important) Barons. In this way the area passed into the hands of the De Lacy family. William de Lacy held the Hundred of Clitheroe (including Rawtenstall) from Roger and the association continued for several generations until Alice de Lacy married Thomas, Earl of Lancaster. From then the Lordship eventually passed to John of Gaunt and then to the Lancastrian Royal Family. Charles II passed Clitheroe to General Monk, Duke of Albermarle, who had masterminded the Restoration after the Cromwellian Commonwealth. The title then passed through marriage, first to the Cavendish family, then the Montagues and in 1767 to the Duke of Buccleugh – hence the Waterfoot pub, the Duke of Buccleugh. From Norman times (and even before) the ‘Forest of Rossendale’ was a hunting area. Perhaps not a ’real’ forest, as we think of them, but nevertheless with some tree cover. Inside there were few inhabitants, except at certain points where vaccaries or cattle ranches were set up. During the reign of Kong John, Roger de Lacy granted an area known as Brandwood (by Waterfoot) to the Cistercians of Stanlawe in Cheshire. The area was cleared and farmed, becoming an agricultural settlement outside the Forest. The monks of Stanlawe then moved and set up a new ‘house’ at Whalley in 1296. This began the area’s long connection with Whalley. However the area that is now modern Rawtenstall (taking the area that is served by the Rawtenstall Civic Society – Loveclough and Water to Turn, Stubbins and Edenfield) includes not only the Forest and Brandwood but areas that were in the Manor of Tottington eg Cowpe, New Hall Hey Edenfield etc. The confusion is 4 made worse since much of the area was in the Parish of Whalley (via Haslingden) but Tottington was in Bury Parish and Rochdale had influence to the South East. Real change came forest with the Disforestation under Henry VII in 1507 and then with the Dissolution of Whalley Abbey under Henry VIII in 1539. (The last Abbot, John Paslow, being hanged for his involvement in the Pro-Catholic, Pro- Monastery movement known as the Pilgrimage of Grace.) The area was opened up for greater settlement and a number of farms began cultivation. They gradually increased in size and numbers. At first the ‘intakes’ were small but later under the general move towards enclosure and the improvement of agriculture, larger stretches were fenced for farming, mainly pasture Haslingden dominated Rawtenstall from the West and after 1511-12 when the Church at Newchurch was founded, Newchurch dominated from the East. In fact, Rawtenstall did not exist! Rather there was just a collection of hamlets and what were called ‘townships’ (administrative areas) eg Higher Booth and Lower Booth. Higher being Crawshawbooth, Loveclough, Goodshaw, Gambleside, and Wolfenden. Lower was Rawtenstall hamlet, Constablee and Oakenheadwood etc. Local Government was first in the hands of the large landowners, then, expecially after the Great Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601, it was administered by the Parish. Again there is a complication since most of the area was under Whalley but some was in Bury. Further, Whalley was so large it had to subdivide using Haslingden and Rawtenstall as local centres. 1824 saw the first Magistrate for Rawtenstall, Mr Whittaker. In 1834 came the Poor Law Amendment Act which set up Poor Law Unions (of Parishes). As a result there was set up Haslingden Union, which included part of Bury (Edenfield etc). As the 19th century progressed there were further administrative changes. In 1841, Rawtenstall (Lower Booth) became a Parish and soon after gained some measure of control over Higher Booth. Even so, though pulling away from Haslingden, it was moving closer to Newcurch. At this time there were a number of people who forsaw Newchurch becoming the centre of the whole valley, though this never materialised. After 1874 a series of Local Boards reorganised Local Government. Though there was a definite move to split the Valley into 4 sections, Haslingden, Rawtenstall, Newchurch and Bacup, there remained close contact between them. Co- operation was bound to be present given the Poor Law Union, The Pike Law Workhouse (now the Hospital) being built in 1869. Gas was to be provided by the Cloughfold based Rossendale Union Gas Co, set up in 1854. Water was provided by the Bury Corporation after 1872. It had many water rights in the area and took over from the Haslingden-Rawtenstall Water works of 1853. They had not been able to provide water until 1864 due to problems with Clow Bridge Reservoir. 5 In 1877 Rawtenstall ‘opened’ its Cemetery, and in 1885 there was the first Parliamentary Election in Rossendale, the Marquis of Hartington being returned. In 1890 the Haslingden, Rawtenstall and Bacup Outfall Sewerage Board was set up ……perhaps progress being measured in a mixture of getting a MP, a Cemetery and a Sewer! In 1891 Rawtenstall was granted a Charter of Incorporation and elected its first Town Council. The area now covered was a wide one, from Lockgate to Stacksteads, from New Hall Hey to Loveclough and Gambleside. In 1894 the area became an Ecclesiastical Parish and the situation remained much as this until 1974 when Rawtenstall joined with the other Valley boroughs, Haslingden, and Bacup, and areas such as Whitworth and Edenfield, to form Rossendale, a new Borough in Lancashire.