The old smithy
About 250 years ago trade in woollen and linen cloth began to provide additional income for farmers in the Knowle Green area and raw cotton began to be imported and distributed to local cottages by “putters out”. To speed the processes inventors improved hand looms and made various types of spinning frame which could be powered by water wheels. Entrepreneurs realised that the way to a prosperous future was to set up a spinning mill.
One such entrepreneur, John Strickland came to Knowle Green from Mitton. In 1787 he bought the water rights and land at Lum Mill Delph, (Dilworth Bottoms) the site of the old corn mill. He built a new mill harnessing the water power of Cowley Brook between the old Smithy and Cowley Brook. He also probably built Lum Mill cottages for his workers. The mill, which is clearly shown on old maps, has now completely disappeared, along with the cottages but the ruin of the old smithy still stands at the bottom of Millhouse Lane.
Another spinning mill was built about the same time higher up Cowley Brook north of the Longridge to Clitheroe road. This was known as Higher Mill. Only a few large stones remain to mark the site of this mill though the outline of the large mill lodge and dam can still be detected.
Higher Mill was followed in 1816 by Lower Mill (much later occupied by Mini-prints). Both Higher and Lower Mills were owned by Thomas Collinson in the early 1800s.
Cowley Brook also powered a mill at Moor Hey for the allied trade of bobbin making using the plentiful supply of wood in the valley. In 1808 Lum Mill too changed to bobbin making.
From the 1780s the output of yarn from the water spinning mills increased enormously but weaving was not yet mechanised. As a result hand loom weavers enjoyed golden years of plenty commanding unlimited work, high wages and a superior status in the industry until the 1830s. Wages for hand loom weavers were high and could even reach 15 shillings per week compared with the wages of a manservant who might only earn £5 a year, and a woman in service £2 a year.
It is therefore not surprising to find people building cottages suitable for hand loom weaving at home so they could share in the prosperity. Two groups were built locally for this purpose.
One is New Row, a terrace of possibly 12 cottages thought to date from the early 1800s. These had ground floor loom shops at the side. Some of the original features can still be seen in a few of the cottages particularly the triple windows of the loom shops. In 1851 thirty-three of the residents were hand loom weavers and as late as 1881 Martin Margerison, a master cotton manufacturer employing 20 hand loom weavers, lived in one of the cottages. His business had specialised in muslin weaving and no doubt survived so late for this reason.
The other settlement of handloom weavers’ cottages was at Seed Green. Here the dwellings are arranged in 3 groups, 2 set at right angles to Stoneygate Lane. The loom shops of the centre terrace seem to have been at the back and one house retains a triple window.
On maps drawn in 1786 and 1818 Knowle Green is named, whereas Longridge is not. This relative importance was, however, soon about to change.
By the mid 1800s the Knowle Green water powered mills were suffering from competition from steam powered factories in the towns on the coalfields. Longridge, whilst not on a coalfield, was linked by rail to the coalfields from 1840 and from 1851 had its own steam powered mills. The Knowle Green mills continued to operate by supplying the bigger mills in the towns with parts for the textile machinery. Lum Mill and Moor Hey made bobbins and Lower Mill, in the ownership of the Bond family was making iron rollers from 1824. Higher Mill, a bigger concern, also run by the Bond family, continued spinning until 1864 by installing a steam engine to augment the water power. However, the number of operatives declined from the heyday in the 1820s when 38 were employed to 19 or so, before it closed in 1864 at the time of the cotton famine. Lum bobbin mill was burnt down in 1825, although some restoration took place and it continued on a small scale until 1846 when Preston Water Board proposed to take water from Cowley Brook to increase the supply to Preston. This was done when an additional reservoir for Preston was built at Spade Mill near the Corporation Arms (completed 1862).
However, there must still have been profit to be made in bobbin manufacturing as three more bobbin mills were built along Cowley brook between 1835 and the 1850s.
The first of these, Cage Mill, was built in 1835 further down Cowley Brook where its name changes to Boyces Brook. The owner was probably James Fenton the new “lord of the manor” who had bought large estates in Ribchester and Dutton in 1830. Always small, Cage Mill later diversified into making a wide range of wooden articles - hay rakes, stools, tool handles, mangle rollers etc. It continued to operate until 1978 and was the last of the mills along the Cowley Brook to close down.
White Carr bobbin mill was built by James Bennett in 1850. This larger mill was situated near the ford in Dilworth Bottoms. At its height the mill employed 41 operatives using 22 lathes and 5 circular saws driven by a water wheel and a beam engine. John Bennett’s house “White Carr Lodge”, built in 1859, still stands nearby on the south side of the brook.
Later William Forrest took over the running of the mill. It was gutted by fire in 1887. Although it was restored, and continued to be run by Robert Bourn after Forrest’s death in 1888 making rakes as well as bobbins, operations ended around 1908. There is now no trace of it and a house was built on the site in 1990.
The last mill to be erected on Cowley Brook was Clay Hill Mill built in 1854. It closed in 1927 and its substantial ruins, with the sites of the water wheel and later steam engine, can still be seen today, by the side of the steep steps below Glen View Avenue.
The ruins of another water-powered mill still exist in Dutton along Duddel Brook. This was built on the site of a medieval water mill. Towards the end of the 18th century, this medieval mill was converted for use as a carding and roving mill. In 1840 Mr R Rothwell, then owner of Dutton Hall replaced this by a bobbin mill. By 1880 this in turn had changed to making combs and other domestic items from animal horn. It closed in 1912.
