GREAT HARWOOD

Handloom Weavers' Cottages

Little, if any, physical evidence of the carding mills is left, many cottages have been demolished and those which are left have been altered to such an extent that it is not always easy to identify them. Weaving was also associated with the many farms in the area, plans for a farmhouse built as late as 1810 include a weaving shop, but again "physical traces are hard to isolate".
However documents show that weavers' cottages do remain at:

Dean Lane,
Back o' Bowley.

Photo: Brian Sheperd

John Mercer's mother and stepfather built this in 1809 and he lived here for a while.

	Lowerfold,

and Lowerfold Road.

This was one farm house which was converted into three cottages and at a later date two of them were joined together. The original building dates from the mid seventeenth century I'm told.

Paradise Cottage, Hindle Fold was built for one John Hindle in 1763.

The wife of James Lomax, Lord of the Manor, ran a Catholic school here.

If you work at home it's handy to have a pub close by

Delph Road just above the Commercial Hotel.

Row of cottages with different roof lines
Edge End Cottages where the 1851 census shows handloom weaving taking place.

Laneside Cottages

and

Four Winds,

Blackburn Old Road.

My informant believes these cottages are of similar age to the ones in Lowerfold Road.

Cottages above Dog and Otter public house

There are two terraces at The Cliffe the row above the Dog and Otter bearing this date stone

the other, below the pub, was built about 1804.

On Blackburn Road two of these cottages are dated 1780

and at Cop Hall a cottage industry of sorts continues.

The Wellington Hotel in the centre of town was originally a cotton warehouse and private dwelling built by Adam Dugdale in 1801.

Handloom weaving went into decline from the 1820s as demand fell after the Napoleonic Wars and power looms could produce all that was required cheaply although there were still 31 weavers at Whalley Banks in 1851 and the trade only finally died out in the 1870s. Ironically it was a maker of handlooms who began the revolution of cotton manufacturing in Great Harwood in 1844.

Map of mills and cottages

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Last updated 11th June 2004
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