Cotton tales
Came across these folk today, commemorating the Cotton Famine of 1861-65. It was the American Civil War and cotton bales weren’t coming over to the East Lancashire/West Yorkshire mills. It was also a time of recession after over production and consequently a time of poverty for the workers. The cobbled Rooley Moor Road, that this lot are parading on, was built as a public works project giving work to the unemployed. It must have been very hard work. It’s also a bloody struggle to ride a push bike up this road.
There’s much textile history in these hills connecting people and places, work done and products made and the story isn’t finished yet.