Bygone Burnley, with MARGARET JONES

AMONG the streets in Padiham named after the people -- for instance poets and politicians and, of course, the local gentry -- there are some named after men who were once important figures in the town but are almost forgotten today.

One of these is Thompson Street, laid out in the late 1870s after the railway came to Padiham and the town was expanding south of the river.

It is an unremarkable street but that's the last word one would use to describe the man after whom it was named.

This was Richard Thompson, mill owner and businessman, the first chairman of Padiham and Hapton Local Board, and one of the leading men in the town in the second half of the 19th century.

Richard Thompson was born in Blackburn in 1832, the son of a building contractor. He and his brother John, both with previous experience in cotton manufacture in Darwen, came to Padiham in 1858 to set up in business on their own account.

They bought and rebuilt what was to become Britannia Mill on the corner of Ribble Street and Lune Street. The building today, much altered after a fire in 1972 destroyed the top storey, now houses Padiham Carpet Mill.

In the mill yard you can still see the stone rescued after the fire, with the mill's name and the date 1860 when it came into production.

At some point Richard Thompson bought out his brother and the firm of Richard Thompson and Sons was to continue in operation until 1932, a period of over 70 years, making it one of the longest established cotton manufacturing businesses in Padiham.

The first major crisis it faced was the cotton famine in the early 1860s when imports of raw cotton from America practically ceased during the Civil War.

By taking the risk of importing the short staple Indian cotton which was far more difficult to handle, Thompson ensured that his mill was one of the few which continued to operate and that his 200 employees were kept in work.

Richard Thompson became a well-known figure on the Liverpool Cotton Exchange. His business rapidly expanded, making it necessary in the 1870s for him to buy the weaving sheds in Alma Mill in Wyre Street and Perseverance Mill in Burnley Road. In 1880, the firm was one of the first to experiment with electric lighting in Padiham with 50 incandescent lamps fitted in the two carding rooms in Britannia Mill, worked from power provided by the mill engine. In 1890 a new company of Richard Thompson and Co Ltd was formed on the purchase of Green Lane Mill (now Sherry's Towel Mill).

In the cotton world he was recognised as "a man of iron will and strong determination, gifted with foresight and an extraordinary capacity for business".

But Padiham has other reasons to be grateful to Richard Thompson other than as an employer of labour. In the 1860s, the Burnley papers were full of letters complaining about the state of Padiham's roads and the inability of the town's officers to deal with the problem.

For example one irate Padihamer wrote: "If anyone has the misfortune to travel here, then they would have to wade through mountains of mud and encounter the most obnoxious stenches from ashpits, pigsties, slaughterhouses and donkey stables that are reared against many houses, the occupants of which consider themselves respectable and reforming citizens of our town!"

A Royal Commission of 1871 recommended that small towns with more than 3,000 inhabitants should have their own Local Boards of Health to deal with public health and sanitation.

Richard Thompson was to the fore in insisting that Padiham should have its own Local Board rather than its being incorporated into the Burnley Rural Sanitary authority, thus ensuring the town's independence to run its own affairs. He was second on the list of nominees to be elected to the first council in 1873 and such was his reputation for getting things done that he was voted not only chairman, but chairman of all the committees.

Under his leadership, the old Padiham Gas and Waterworks companies were taken over by the Board -- not without a good deal of opposition from the shareholders. The town was surveyed and plans were drawn up for the paving of the streets and the laying of a new sewerage system. After ensuring that Padiham's future was set on a proper course, after six years in charge, Mr Thompson resigned in 1879.

He was married at St Leonard's Church in May, 1860, to Miss Eliza Robinson, the daughter of Thomas Robinson Esq, of Lowerhouse.

In 1869, he moved his family to Whalley, possibly the only one of Padiham's cotton manufacturers at this time to live outside the town. The Thompsons first lived in Vale House but eventually settled in Bramley Meade, a new house which he had built on part of the old Clerk Hill estate. People today will remember it as a maternity hospital. The couple were to have seven sons, two of whom worked in and eventually took over the family business and were also to follow their father into local politics.

Despite living in Whalley, Mr Thompson still played an active role in Padiham's affairs. He was a life-long Conservative and was one of the founders of Padiham Conservative Club in 1869 and became its vice-president.In 1886 he was made a JP and eventually became the chairman of Burnley County Magistrates' bench, sitting at Padiham in the court at the new police station in Station Road.

Such an active life took its toll and a sudden stroke in 1899 forced him to retire from public life. He retained his interest in his business and as a magistrate until his death in February, 1913, aged 82.