Investigating the Built Environment in Lancashire’s Historic Textile Areas

Introduction

The remarkable rise in industrial and commercial activity that occurred during the Industrial Revolution in Lancashire’s textile districts, essentially the central and eastern parts of the county, brought profound changes to the built environment, in rural as well as urban locations.

The author has had a long-established interest in the history of regional industrialisation. This interest was stimulated by noting that former handloom weaver’s cottages with distinctive rows of windows in their upper storeys, which were commonly found in the woollen weaving districts of the West Riding of Yorkshire and parts of East Lancashire, especially the Rochdale area, did not appear in other parts of Lancashire where cotton textile manufacturing was strongly represented.

This variety within the textile belt in the north of England raised questions which demanded inquiry into the explanation of the observed pattern of building.

Throughout textile Lancashire, factories powered by steam and water- power featured prominently, of course, as did tens of thousands of cottages provided with loomshops, mostly situated in cellars, used by handloom weavers. But other types of houses, along with buildings meeting a varied range of business and social needs, also added distinctive components within what became, in effect, a transformed landscape in the area’s towns and rural areas. So, too, did new methods of transporting goods and people.

Unfortunately, demolition has taken a heavy toll on the historical evidence these developments provide, giving credence to the despairing complaint of W. G. Hoskins, the eminent landscape historian, about the ‘modern lust for destruction’. Nonetheless, especially in the more rural parts of the area, notable elements of the built environment established at the time have survived. For the historian, these remains have high value in helping to reveal the nature, extent and timing of the changes taking place.

Coping with rising traffic volumes

Consider, for instance, the changes made to the district’s road transport network.

Lancashire was unusual in that an additional turnpike (toll) road was constructed between several neighbouring towns to facilitate the movement of freight and passengers between them. The common characteristic of these towns, which explains why the new roads were built, was that they lacked linkage by canal. Accordingly, an alternative means of transporting increased traffic between them was sought. Alterations have been made to these roads, but the routes they took are largely intact, enabling field evidence to be adduced in revealing how and to what extent improvement arose.

Several towns were joined by two generations of turnpike roads, often designated as ‘old road’ and ‘new road’. This was the case between Preston and Blackburn, for example, and between Bolton and Bury. Amending steep and narrow roadways leading to and from canal wharves and railway goods yards did much to ease expanding traffic flows. For example, a more circuitous route was taken to ease the gradient along the road between Blackburn’s town centre and its canal wharf at Eanam.

Easing movement along roads

An often overlooked aspect of transport during the Industrial Revolution relates to the road system. Given the dependency on horse-drawn road vehicles during the Industrial Revolution, widening roads and minimising gradients along them were matters of high importance to contemporaries. To cope with increased traffic, the width of roads had to be sufficient to enable vehicles to pass and overtake, whilst gradients no steeper that one in thirty were favoured, reflecting a concern for horse welfare and the weight of payloads.

Documents and fieldwork can reveal changes to roads. Plotting spot heights on contemporary Ordnance Survey maps of both old and new roads enables insights to be obtained about the extent of improvement  Field investigation reveals much about the ways in which road gradient easing and widening was achieved by making cuttings and embankments, as well as by lowering summit heights and raising bridge heights in valley bottoms. These methods were applied to minor as well as major roads to provide an improved network. These advances were significant in developing the area’s rural industrial activity, as well as in helping to realise the full potential of the regional canal and railway facilities with which minor roads linked. Amending steep and narrow roadways leading to and from canal wharves and railway goods yards did much to ease expanding traffic flows.

Housing the workers

Studying the surviving housing stock in textile Lancashire that remains from the period also offers rich opportunities for historical research. Regarding working-class houses, surviving examples are highly informative about the standard of accommodation made available, not least in the numerous factory villages and hamlets that were created. What emerges is support for the often-expressed view that their proprietors provided ‘model’ housing for their employees, which set high standards for the period that others might follow. But what also becomes clear is that, in doing so, factory owners still offered considerable variation in the standard of provision they made and that they did so because they took due account of the differing income levels.

At Barrow Bridge near Bolton, for example, where all the cottages built during the 1830s have survived, through houses with two rooms downstairs and as many four bedrooms were provided. But so, too, were back-to-back and back-to-earth houses, both types that met with profound contemporary condemnation, mainly because they were seen to lack through ventilation.

However, both field and documentary evidence demonstrates that the Barrow Bridge back-to-backs were superior examples of their type in several respects. Field evidence on the standing buildings establishes that they were well constructed from coursed stonework - and that they had two bedrooms at first-floor level. This was a more generous provision than in many other back-to-back dwellings and a more convenient arrangement than in houses of this type that, as was commonly the case, had two bedrooms situated one above the other Maps show the uneven spacing of the rows of housing in the village and that all the houses opened out onto quite a sizable amount of yard or garden space. The houses formed part of a low-density rural development that contrasted sharply with the crowded and highly insanitary back-to-back houses often built in urban areas, of which contemporaries were so critical.

Conclusion

This article provides a very brief account of how the landscape of the textile district of Lancashire changed radically during the Industrial Revolution. The recently published book explores the subject in more depth and breadth.

The recently published book explores the subject in more depth and breadth. Particularly important in terms of methodology is the demonstration of how findings arising from combining field and documentary evidence enable important new insights to be gained into the transformation of the region. The book adopts a contextualised case study approach in investigating the major historical themes covered, namely those concerning housing conditions, transport provision and industrial development. Setting the local and regional evidence in context by examining changes occurring elsewhere in Britain and overseas at the same time allows in-depth analysis of what, on the one hand, Lancashire shared with other places and, on the other, of how and why its experience differed. The approaches adopted have widespread applicability in investigating key changes made to the built environment during various time periods.

Further information

Ashmore, O 1969: The Industrial Archaeology of Lancashire. Newton Abbot: David and Charles

Palmer, M and Neaverson P, 1994: Industry in the Landscape, 1700-1900. London: Routledge

Timmins, G 1998 Made in Lancashire: A History of Regional Industrialisation. Manchester: Manchester University Press

Timmins, G , 2021: The Built Environment Transformed Textile Lancashire during the Industrial Revolution, Historic England/ Liverpool University Press

Trinder, B 1913: Britain’s Industrial Revolution. Lancaster: Carnegie Press.

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