It
was first suggested in 1910 that the town should have a supply
of electricity but nothing had been settled before 1914. The
idea was taken up again in 1921. Cables were first laid to
the Mercer Hall and Town
Hall and connected at 5:30 p.m.. 19th October 1922.
In
1925 the Lomax family sold, by auction, the Clayton Hall Estate
including most of Great Harwood. The sale broke up the holding
between various buyers meaning that after almost nine hundred
years there was no longer a Lord of the Manor.
|
| The
loss of the Indian market in 1930 on top of the general depression
of the time caused much distress in all cotton towns, mills reduced
operations or were closed completely. At
one time 75% of the people of
Great Harwood were
unemployed and
many weavers were forced to leave. Times were so hard in the town
that the cricket club had only two bats, a good one and a very
poor one, so when playing away matches the excuse was made that
someone had put an old one in the bag by mistake and a good one
was then borrowed from the home team.
In September 1931 Mahatma Gandhi visited North East Lancashire
and although the architect of the Indian boycott of Lancashire
cotton he was greeted warmly. He met some unemployed cotton
workers and Mr. Sunderland, Great Harwood Weavers' Union Secretary,
travelled to West Bradford near Clitheroe and told him that
of the 17,000 looms in Great Harwood's mills 14,000 were stopped.
People had begun to leave the town, some going abroad, in search
of work and in 1931
the population had fallen to 12,878. |
Lord
Fenner Brockway visited Lancashire to see for himself the poverty
that existed in the cotton towns.
"As
we enter Gt. Harwood I find it difficult to believe the story
of poverty which I have been told. It is fresh, clean and tidy.
The streets are broad, the pavements are spotless (I see women
sweeping them with long brooms, and even on their knees, with
mat and bucket and brush scouring them). The people are well
dressed. There are lace curtains in all windows,...... . I have
rarely been in a town with more indications of respectable comfort
! I am soon to be disillusioned. Respectable -- yes, but the
comfort disappeared two years ago."
Hungry England. 1932. |
The
Duke of Kent visited East Lancashire in 1936 and spent some
time in Great Harwood to see the effects of the cotton depression.
Even
in these hard times the town was expanding slowly with new semi-detached
houses being built for the more affluent inhabitants.
GREAT
HARWOOD around 1950
|
After
the Second World War more houses were needed and pre-fabricated
bungalows were quickly erected at Greenhill
(bottom left in photo). Intended to last about 10 years these
"prefabs" were eventually replaced in 1966-7 some
twenty years later. Permanent housing was also built by the
council at Waverledge the first being ready in 1948. Prosperity
returned to the town which was no longer as dependent on cotton.
In 1951 there were 15 mills employing about 1,100 weavers from
a population of between 10-11,000 but there were other industries
too, leather, coated felts, shoe manufacture and OXO (beef extract
stock cubes). More private house building took place during
the 1960s at the east end of town bordering Whalley Road.
At 10:47 p.m. 30th November 1957 the last scheduled train left
Great Harwood. The railway had assured the town's expansion at
the end of the 19th century but was now losing money. It had been
the only means of efficient transport into and out of the town
but the station's position was inconvenient for most people and
it could not compete with lorries and buses.
The latter part of the 20th century was a period of industrial
decline. Only two weaving sheds remained in production by the
late 70s and they too have now closed, shoe and OXO manufacture
came to an end in 1992. Smaller units have been developed within
old mills and there are purpose built units on the industrial
estate at the eastern end of town however the numbers employed
in Great Harwood have fallen. Even so the town itself has continued
to expand with housing developments to east and west and even
on the site of Butts Mill.
In
1974 Great Harwood was amalgamated with five other towns to form
the Borough of Hyndburn so, it has been claimed, losing control
over its own affairs which have passed down from the Lords of
the Manor through the Vestry, Nuisance Control Committee, Local
Board of Health and Urban District Council.
|
What
does the 21st century have in store ?
Who
knows but good or bad it will take a lot to erase the character of unique
Great Harwood.
|
