John Dawson bought Bankside from the Ormerods and though he rebuilt it he never actually lived there. James Smith was a sizer who  came to Bacup from Burnley in 1834 and built Tong Mills he married Ann Birtwistle in 1799  and it is said they had eleven children but only eight survived Elizabeth born 1808 married James Smallpage,  Mary born 1806 she married Mr William Sutcliffe of Hempstead's.

 

Robert born 1808 married Ann,  Richard born 1811, William 1813  Ann born 1816 Sarah born 1818 James 1820 , Alice born 1822 married James Whitfield. Three  of the surviving sons  came to Bacup with their father. William started a business on his own account at Greensnook Mill whilst Richard and Robert stayed with their father at Tong. James died of heart failure at  Bankside in 1844 and was interred at Mount Pleasant Wesleyan church.  Bankside house is  shown on the 1851 as Old Mansion House Bankside and living there is James's son  Richard and his second Sophia his first wife  wife Mary nee Greenwood, whom he married in 1838 lost two of their children James aged 6 died on 29th September and John Greenwood aged 3 who died 10th October  four years later Mary died on 15th June 1842 giving birth to their daughter Mary Ann.

 

Richard  married his second wife Sophia Cockroft  in 1843 daughter of Betty Cockroft . Betty ran a shop across the street from the Green Man Hotel  in Yorkshire Street which was next to Tong Mill and its said that  some of Sophia's brothers and sisters  worked for Sophia's husband at the mill. 

 

 

 

 

 

Although Richard and Sophia have three children living with them in 1851 they only have one servant. By 1861 Richard had moved to Oak house, Richard suffered more tragedy when his daughter Mary Ann died in aged 21 in 1862 and again two years later in 1864 when his second wife Sophia died on March 25th 1864 in Dec of the same year Elizabeth Hamilton another daughter died.

 

Ann married Joshua Lord  born at Old Meadows in 1807 at a young age  he was apprenticed to a grocer  in Burnley named Mr Howorth. After marrying Ann he returned to Bacup and became a member of the firm of James Smith and Sons. The couple had five children sons named below and two daughters Martha and Mary Ann.  In 1871 when Richard Smith retired Joshua took over the business, taking on his three sons as partners, James Smith Lord, William Henry Lord, and Richard Lord,  Joshua died on 1st June 1876.

 

 

By the time of Joshua's death in 1878 Richard Smith had moved to Oak House, Todmorden road, and Bankside was occupied by Dr  William Stewart  his son also called  William also a doctor and  a daughter Ann.  Born in Ayrshire in 1815 the year of Waterloo he was for many years the Parish doctor and Vaccination Officer for Newchurch and for the part of Bacup situated in Spotland

He was also the Factory Doctor, and it  was on his say so that many half timers got their certificates to work. Dr Stewart worked for both the rich and poor residents of Bacup visiting his patients on horseback then later in a Hanson, Dr Stewart died on August 4th in 1894 at the home of his daughter in Cheetham Hill, Manchester. She had married Dr Stewarts one time assistant Dr Roger.

 

In 1889 Bankside House and grounds  came up for sale when the owner John Dawson had died, twenty years earlier and owing to a dispute between the heirs-at-law the property had been thrown into chancery and had been the subject of litigation throughout the previous twenty years being rented out by various families, already mentioned. The house hand grounds where bought by Henry Maden for the sum of £1,900. It had been Henry's intention that his son should live at the house and part of the farm land purchased at the same time namely, Top'o t'bank, Slip Inn and Bankside farm should be used for a public recreation ground but he died before his ideas could be carried out. Young  Dr Stewart  lived at Bankside following the death of his father with his wife Lucy and three servants when he retired at the end of 1908 Dr Shaw took over the practice, and eventually took over a junior partner in the form of Dr F. J. Thornton, of Brighouse Yorkshire.