A NEW book tells how a leading Accrington family were so ‘eccentrically wealthy’ they created a private island kingdom.

Eccentric Wealth: The Bulloughs of Rum tells the rags to riches tale of handloomer James Bullough and his grandson George who built ‘the most intact reserve of Edwardian high living to be found in Britain’.

The book, to be launched at Accrington Library next week, starts with the humble beginnings of handloomer James and his wife Martha who settled in Baxenden in 1869.

James, who embraced the new power looms, worked on improving the machinery until he was able to buy into local firm Howard and Bleakley. This was the start of the famous Globe Centre Howard and Bullough firm in Accrington, which at its zenith employed over 6,000 people.

George, heir to this fortune, began renting the remote Hebridean Isle of Rum, known as the ‘forbidden island’ for shooting holidays in 1879.

One of the richest men of the age, he was able to not only buy the island in 1883 but build his own castle there.

Hiring architects whose other commissions included the Admi-ralty in London and the Municipal Buildings in Edinburgh, Kinloch Castle dominated the skyline.

The first occupants were convales-cing Boer war soldiers, earning a knighthood for the castle’s owner.

Scottish author Alastair Scott said the Bullough story continued to make ‘extraordinary reading’ more than 70 years after Sir George's death.

A launch at Accrington Library on Wednesday will start at 2pm. Admission is free but by ticket only, which can be arranged on 01254 306905.