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June
Did they have makeovers in 1861? If so Nanny Dearden must have been one of the first. Her two eldest boys have fled the nest and her young daughter disappeared. No longer washing the villager’s dirty linen but at 44 years old, Nancy Dearden, cotton power loom weaver who also has two gentlemen lodgers and shares her home with James and Charlotte Heppenstall and their six children. Nancy’s fortunes have definitely improved
Joseph Hirst, Baptist Minister, is still residing at Blackley House, now referred to as The Mansion. His son, Oliver is a mohair manufacturer and his daughter an infant school teacher.
At Prospect House lived Dan Smith, woollen manufacturer and his family of five. A dressmaker, two sons and a daughter working for father and the eldest keeping house. This was the former packhorse hostel. An elderly resident in Blackley told the tenant farmer in the l930’s his father used to drink at The Shoulder of Mutton, as it was known.
It was a very shrewd move when George Crowther started a beer house and hostel. He is now the proud owner of The Golden Fleece complete with five acres of land. Sadly, his wife has died, perhaps in childbirth as there is a young daughter. The two eldest boys work in the mill and l5 year old Hannah Maria looks after the three youngest.
Samuel Wilkinson, still a miner, now lives with 70-year-old Mary Farrar; a baker of oat bread and David Wilkinson has joined him. Mining is still important, 24 living in the village as well as l7 handloom weavers, 11 farm labourers and working for Edward Kitson 10 men in the brickyard.
There are now eight farmers, including Martha Smith, 6 acres and Hannah Sykes, retired grocer with her sister Hannah Jane farming 11 acres. But where was The Magnolias, their home?
Titas Kitson was the biggest landowner with 18 acres and also had the largest family with 9 offsprings ranging from 10 months to 22 years.
At Woodman House was Charles Broadbent, perhaps a man to be feared, - the debt collector!
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