THE name Hargreaves is perhaps one of the most well known East Lancashire names.

Arguably the most famous was James Hargreaves from Oswaldtwistle, whose invention of the Spinning Jenny revolutionised the textile industry.

Now, however, a new book charts the rise of another Hargreaves family who played a vital role in establishing East Lancashire as a thriving industrial centre. In the Eighteenth Century, the transportation of goods was a painfully slow process. Pack horse routes were really the only way to carry items around the country. Often the routes were fraught with danger with thieves regularly attacking the convoys.

It was through carriers such as James Hargreaves that a more professional approach came into being and allowed manufacturers in the North to make their goods readily available to cities and ports around the UK.

John and James Hargreaves were descended from the Hargreaves family from the Witton area of Blackburn.

Members of the family are also recorded living around the Grane Road area of Haslingden and by 1705 Richard Hargreaves, of Lower Darwen, was recorded in the parish registers of being a carrier.

In the 1730s the two brothers were involved in carrying goods. Between 1736 and 1738, John and his wife Alice moved 12 miles from their home in Witton to live in West Houghton -- and the Hargreaves haulage dynasty was begun.

Being based around two of the most rapidly evolving industrial towns -- Blackburn and Bolton -- the brother had access to the fledgling cotton industry.

It was the arrival of the canals which really saw the Hargreaves become hugely successful -- and wealthy. Over the next 200 years the Hargreaves sphere of influence grew and grew and ultimately led to the family becoming one of the most prominent in the.

The Carrier's Tale by Elizabeth William-Ellis is available from CC Publishing, Martins Lane, Hargrave, Chester, CH3 7RX priced £12 plus £1.50 p&p.