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1826 were of a much more formidable character than the Shuttle Gathering riots of 1812 and they resulted in the loss of life.
The Plug Riots as is generally known, originated in the belief of the Chartists leaders and their followers that but a voluntary and compulsory cessation of work for a given time throughout the country six weeks it is believed, was the limit fixed the Government would be compelled to concede the Charter and it's six points.
Murder The earliest
murders within the once great Forest Of Rossendale of which there is
any record occurred in 1741 and was known as the Holmes Chapel
Murder. Cliviger at that time being a part of the forest. Living in
Cliviger at the time was a respectable young farmer by the name of
Lawrence Britcliffe and his wife. Britcliffe like his father
before him was a staunch Baptist and walked weekly over the moors to
Bacup to attend the ministrations of David Crossley, one of the two
pioneering itinerant preachers who first settled in Rossendale.
Britcliffes wife however was a zealous adherent of the National
Church, and religious differences arose between them. In consequence
domestic quarrels were frequent. Britcliffe took to drinking, and on
one occasion, at Holmes Chapel, wakes he seized a curdle or churn
staff, and knocked down a man with whom he was having a quarrel,
killing him on the spot.
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He escaped for a time and served on board the Victory, but at last
he was brought to judgement and was executed at Lancaster in 1742.