The days when cotton was King

The Burnley stretch of the Leeds Liverpool waterway was one of the most expensive in its 127 miles, but it created the spine around which the town, particularly the Weavers’ Triangle, developed and brought a huge boost to the town’s economy.

Dozens of new mills, using steam power, were constructed alongside, while foundries and ironworks also sprung up, to supply the cotton mills and the coal mines with machinery and cast and wrought iron for construction.

The town also became renowned for its mill engines and the Burnley Loom, a narrow loom that produced grey cloth suitable for printing, became recognised as one of the best in the world.

By 1911, the town’s textile industry was at the height of its prosperity, there were around 99,000 power looms in operation and its population had grown from 4,000 in 1801 to more than 100,000.

The 1840s had proved pivotal to the development of the area. Firstly the canal company began allowing mills to take the water they needed for steam engines directly from the canal.

In 1848, the East Lancashire Railway opened to the barracks near the western end of Trafalgar Street, followed a year later by the Manchester and Leeds Railway line from Todmorden to Burnley.

A goods shed was sited at Thorneybank.

As Burnley expanded, the area originally part of Habergham Eaves, later to be known as the Weavers’ Triangle, officially became part of the town in 1894.

The Weavers’ Triangle comprises a concentrated cluster of 19th century buildings, such as the three canal warehouses at Manchester Road wharf. Each of a different age, there is an 1801 two-storey stone warehouse, which was built parallel to the canal, allowing direct unloading from the barges using cranes.

A single storey open-fronted stone warehouse was built in the 1890s, its roof is supported by four rows of full-height cast-iron columns.

A traditional weaving mill usually had a two or three-storey preparation area for pirning the yarn, beaming and sizing, attached to an engine house with a mill engine, boiler house and chimney.

The line shafts from the engine would pass into a large single-storey weaving shed with its characteristic sawtooth roof with north lights.

There were many such stone-built mills in the Weavers’ Triangle, including Waterloo Shed, Wiseman Street Shed, the Sandygate Shed, dating from around 1860 and the brick-built Woodfield Mill, built in 1886.

Trafalgar Mill, built four storeys high, in 1840, is an example of a combined mill, which spun the thread and then passed the yarn to its own weaving sheds. Clock Tower mill in Sandygate, built around 1840 by George Slater, was another, which was run by John Watts (Burnley) from 1890 to the 1980s.

Other mills and industrial concerns which quickly grew up within the Triangle include Caledonia Mill, Canal Street shed, Charlotte Street Mill, Hope Works and Oak Mount Mill, begun in 1830, which was one of the last steam powered mills to close in 1979. Its steam engine, which dates from 1887, has since been restored.

There were also associated heavy industrial concerns such as Waterloo Foundry and the Globe Iron Works and a whole cornucopia of shops, pubs and businesses serving the hundreds of families which lived in back-to-back terraces in the mills’ shadow.

Slater Terrace, a row of weavers’ cottages, built above a mill, overlooking the canal, is of major historical interest today.

Here was Habergham Eaves Parochial School, built by Holy Trinity Church as a day school and Mount Pleasant Baptist Chapel, along with a variety of public houses such as the Nelson Inn, theNeptune Inn and Waterloo Hotel.

Today, Burnley Weavers Visitor Centre tells the story of the area’s industrial past and has attracted visitors from across the world.

Created from the former toll office and canal agent’s office, there is a Victorian schoolroom, Edwardian bathroom and weaver’s dwelling on show.

Picture 1: Weaving in Trafalgar Shed. Early weaving sheds were usually added to existing spinning mills, but later in the 19th century, as Burnley began to concentrate on weaving, factories were built solely for this purpose.

Picture 2: Inside Burnley Ironworks. There were several foundries within the Weavers’ Triangle which made both textile machinery and steam engines, to power the mills. Machinery made in Burnley had a high reputation and was exported all over the world.

The mechanical stoker for steam engines was patented in 1875 by James Proctor of Burnley. By 1903, more than 10,000 were in use worldwide and Burnley Ironworks’ flywheels were being sent to India.

Picture 3: A tackler at Coronation Mill, around 1900. He ensured that the looms worked properly. A bad tackler could make a weaver’s job a misery – paid by piecework their livelihoods depended on machinery running smoothly.

Picture 4: Joseph Pickup, who was the canal agent in Burnley, from 1925 to the mid-1950s. His job was to catalogue deliveries and loading for the day, at Burnley wharf and ensure the correct fees were paid.

Picture 5: This is where he worked, in the canal toll office.

Pictures 6 and 7: While Burnley’s weavers worked hard, they also enjoyed their short leisure time. Here, townsfolk enjoy the fair which came to town annually. These photos are from 1906 and 1922.

Picture 8: A typical weaver’s home in Burnley in the early 1900s, as recreated in the visitor centre.