Albion Mill Bacup

"From the hill top at Sharneyford  twelve hundred and fifty feet above sea level, were the cotton wedge waves it's white fleeces, on the moorland and were once upon a time there was some cotton spinning and weaving. You look down to smoky Bacup which lies  deeply at this end of the Rossendale Valley."

Between the years 1824 and 1865 35 cotton mills were erected in Bacup. People flocked from the agricultural districts such as Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire  to work in Bacup. The beautiful wooded valleys and the clear fish filled river Irwell soon disappeared and instead of growing trees we grew chimneys that belched out smoked 24 hours a day. Money was made so quickly that the  valley became known as " The Golden Valley".

 Prosperity reigned until the year 1861 when the American Civil war  stopped the supply of cotton to Bacup amongst many other towns and villages in Lancashire.  It is said that of 6,000 operatives in Bacup 3,000  were out of work the other 3,000 working  2 - 3 day weeks. For four years the people of Bacup were without work or wages. Practically every family  needed help from the parish coffers as well as the individual church funds just to survive. Relief funds were sent from bigger towns in Lancashire as well as places such as Australia. James Maden Holt J.P master of Stubylee tried to help by giving the local men work on building a road over the moor from behind Height Barn farm, Lee Quarries and Brandwood Moor. It became known as " The Cotton Panic Road". When the first load  of cotton arrived at Bacup after the termination of the war men and women followed it through the streets, weeping for joy as they knelt in the streets  to thank god.

In November 1875 Joshua Hoyles and Son Ltd imported more  labour from other counties at this time fifty families, farm labourers had arrived from Norfolk. These families had been brought to work in the mills of Bacup and Sharneyford, belonging  to the firm of Joshua Hoyles. Homes and houses had been provided and due to the wet weather carts were provided to transport them from Bacup station.

  By 1880 there were 67 cotton and woollen mills  in Bacup. Although the mill owners were hard task masters with their employees  during this gold age they were generous with their wealth in relation to the health and education and general well being of their employees.

The air in the cotton mills had to be kept hot and humid (65 to 80 degrees) to prevent the thread breaking. The air in the mill was thick with cotton dust which could lead to byssinosis - a lung disease. Eye inflammation, deafness, tuberculosis, cancer of the mouth and of the groin (mule-spinners cancer) could also be attributed to the working conditions in the mills. The Royal College of Nursing journal for February 1911 reported a article written by Dr John Brown of Bacup in which he calls attention to the habit many weavers called Kissing the shuttle. During the process of threading the shuttle is kissed many times daily with no attempt to disinfect the shuttle eye and the shuttle being passed from weaver to weaver diseases could spread rapidly. The oil from the shuttle was responsible in many cases for causing mouth cancer. Long hours, difficult working conditions and moving machinery proved a dangerous combination. Accidents were common and could range from the loss of a finger to fatality especially for the many child workers.

The average earnings in 1906  for a ordinary weeks work for Bacup's cotton operatives was.