ANNALS OF OLDHAM No. L 1808 The year 1808 commenced on Friday, wich was a windy, cloudy day, and an uncomon gloomy appearance for Christmas, for the weaving trade in all its branches in the ebb, wich as put the poor into a very deplorable situation, and there is no hopes of better times until a general peace takes place. We have repeated proof in these annals of the fact that the old trade of the country was, to a great extent, dependent on the conditions of peace being maintained. The war which was being waged on the Continent brought misery and starvation to many English homes, though so far away from us. What would have been the state of the country had Napoleon carried his designs of invasion into effect? The following is an accurate statement:- Meal, 2s. 4d. to 2s. 6d.; flour, 2s. 8d. to 2s. 9d.; malt, 2.s 7d, to 2s. 9d. a peck; treacle, 3 1/2d; butter, 14d.; new butter, 15d. to 16d.; candles, 10d.; cheese, 6 1/2d. to 7 1/2 d.; pork, 5 1/2d. to 6 1/2 d.; beef, 6d. to 8d.; bale cotton, 18d. a pond; mutton, 7d.; bacon, 9d.; hops, 14d. to 16d.; salt, 4d.; onions, two pounds for 2 1/2d.; sugar, 6d. to 9d.; soap, white or brown, 9 ½ per pond; pottatoes, 1s. per score; peas, 8d. per quart; hay, 8d. to 11d.; straw, 3 1/2d. to 4 1/2d. per stone; coals, at pit, 1s. to 1s. 4d. a load. Cotton wool, white, from 14d. to 15d. a pond; weaving 24 hanks velveteens, cords, &c., 2s. to 2s. 6d. a pond, and some give no more than 1s. 10d. Tabbys, 17s. to 21s. per cut; all sorts of weaving very low, especially light goods; roof calicoe, 3s. 6d. a cut. Hatting in a declining state; factory work moderately brisk. Factory work brisk &c. Compton’s mule was at this time making great progress. It was in this year or the year after that the scutching machine of Mr. Snodgrass, of Glasgow, invented in 1797, was introduced into Lancashire, and it came into general use according to Mr. John Platt, in 1810. Before the invention of the scutching machine by Mr. Snodgrass, the raw cotton, says Mr. Baines, “was opened and cleansed by being placed upon cords stretched on a wooden frame, and then beaten by women with smooth switches” – an employment not only very fatiguing, but one looked upon as exceedingly degrading. The scutching machine not only relieved the hands of this dirty occupation, but it did the work a good deal better, and at one-twentieth of the cost. The cotton after being beaten by the switches, which were generally made of willow branches, hence the term “willowing” which is the first process now of opening cotton, was “fed on” behind the carding engine by a continuous lattice made of calico, the invention of John Lees, of Oldham.
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Our export trade received a great impetus at this time. The yarns sent abroad were brought into competition with those used for our home trade, which was chiefly carried on in the old hand system. This had a great depressing effect on the home trade, though it would seem great fortunes were being made in the factory business. January 10th - Died wife of John Travis, Top-o’th’-Moor.
A most interesting collection of nicknames could be made from these annals. I wonder how it was that the ancient Oldhamer had such a penchant for nicknames. Jockey o’ Shops will surely do for company for Neil o’ Flutes, Matt o’ Keppels, Joss o’ Foomurts, and Ab o’ th’ Crag. I have heard of instances in which a man’s neighbours did not know his proper name, and in some cases even near relatives would forget it. An old friend of mine tells of a man known by the sobriquet of “Jinker” going to Hollinwood to one Mr. Whitehead, to order a load of lime for his employer. Mr. Whitehead knew “Jinker,” and knew also his proper name, but as a precaution Mr. Whitehead ordered his bookkeeper to deliver the invoice before he sent the lime. Although the lime was for “Jinker’s” employer, Mr. Whitehead made out the invoice to Mr. John Buckley, which was “Jinker’s” proper name, and sent over his bookkeeper with the invoice thus made out. The bookkeeper, a complete stranger in the neighbourhood in which “Jinker” lived, came to the village of Hey and enquired for Mr. John Buckley, who lived not far from a place known as Den. After many enquiries the bookkeeper was directed to a certain door, at which he knocked and asked the good wife of the house if Mr. John Buckley lived there. Says the good wife in her strong vernacular, "Neaw master, there’s’ no Mr. John Buckley lives here. Whoa towd you that tale?” Said the man, “I have been directed to this door, and was told that John Buckley lived here.” Says the good wife, “It does no’ matter who’as directed thi, there’s no John Buckley lives here.” So the man turned away and went back from his bootless errand to his master. But the man’s enquiries had set the good wife a thinking who John Buckley could be (of course it was her husband), and at length she was heard to exclaim with head erect and arms akimbo, as if struck with the force of her own reflections, “Well, aw’ll be sunken if he is no wantin’ eawr Jinker – a dear o’ me.” In Jinker’s case there was some reason for the nickname, there being three persons of the name of John Buckley living at the same time in the same fold, all relations; one was “Jinker,” one was called “Toggy,” and one “Briggy.” The frequent recurrence of the same name in Oldham, no doubt led to the use of nicknames. |
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January 15th - It comenced a very keen frost. January 16th - A great fall of snow. January 25th - Deal of snow fell. January 29th - Last night it begun a very fine thaw. January 29th -The workmen began to re-open the mill dam belonging to Joel Halliwell, of Cloughfield, Northmoor, agreeable to a decree obtained in the Court of Common Pleas in March last, at the assizes at Manchester, wich Mr. W. Clegg, defendant, removed to London, where the judges confirmed the above verdict wich was obtained at Lancaster. February 1st, 2nd, and 3rd – Extreme cold days, with the wind due west. February 4th - Several towns at this time petition Government for peace. The influence of a new class of writers was doing its work. Malthus had written what some people would call an infamous work, Bentham was dreaming of the greatest happiness for the greatest number, and Cobbett. Oh yes, Cobbett, was framing out his “Annual Register,” and cotton mills in Oldham had to stop in the middle of the day when the coach arrived bringing “Cobbett’s Register,” till the workpeople had been gathered together and heard the views contained therein read out to them by some leading politician among their number. If any one asks for an instance of a mill stopping for this purpose, I shall quote the mill of Messrs. Rhodes and Schofield, now Phoenix Mill, opposite Hey Church. These advanced politicians were great advocates of peace, hence the petitions here mentioned and the meeting held on Oldham Edge on the previous Christmas Day. February 7th - It commenced a severe frost this morning and a fall of snow. Thomas Clayton Esq., of Carr Hall, near Burnley, High Sheriff for Lancashire. February 7th - Caroline, wife of Daniel Eastwood, intered this day, age 63 years.
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February 8th - Last night Mr. Joseph Nadin, thief-catcher, of Manchester, and his assistants, came to the house of John Eastwood, of Highgate, near Royton, and took Eastwood and his wife into custody; searched his house for forged Bank of England notes, but found no notes, but took a large sum in gold and silver. Nadin conveyed them to the New Bayley, were he were examined on a charge of uttering forged notes, and where both committed to Lancaster Castle for tryal. “Nadin the Thief-catcher” was a terror to evil-doers all over the country. This being a capital crime, he was employed by the county authorities to “run in” capital offenders. “Nadin and his runners” as they were called, were well-known in Oldham and the neighbourhood. Old Sam Bamford describes him as a coarse and brutal man, but that is what we might expect from breakers of the law which Nadin was charged to maintain. From recent accounts I am glad to learn that Nadin had two sides to his character. February 12th - Tremendous storm happened last night, which for wind and snow was seldom equaled; its direction was north. The snow soon drifted in some places to a great depth, so that carts, carriages, and all sorts of travelling was stoped for the night. Happily we have not heard of any lives being lost. February 13th –This day Jonathan Chadwick entered as tenant on the Blue Bell alehouse, Elderroot (late Rowbottom.) February 14th - Being Sunday, the old singers of Oldham Church going to their seats in the loft as usual in order to chant their sweet notes to the congregation, they were violently attacted by a posse of constables, churchwardens, &c., and three of them taken into custody – viz., Daniel Lees, John Hilton, and Thomas Mellor. They were kept in custody all night, and on Monday taken before the magistrates, and admitted to bail. What the cause of this dispute was we are not told, but the old singers of Oldham Church purchased certain rights in the singing gallery when it was first erected by James Brierley about 1705. These seats were evidently looked on as their own private property by the singers, and it was probably in asserting these rights that they got into trouble. |
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