ANNALS OF OLDHAM No. CX 1827 The year 1827 begun on a Monday, wich was the most dissmal and distressed Cristmas that ever took place in this country. Poor familys were never in such a disstressed state before. A deal of familys, in consequence of the stop of the factorys, are intirely without work, and the spinners still refuse to submit to an abaitment. The following is the price of the following articles:- Meal, 2s. 2d. to 2s. 4d.; flour, 2s. to 2s. 2d. a peck; treacle, 4d.; chees, 6d. to 7d.; pork, 5d. to 6d.; beff, 51⁄2d. to 61⁄2d. ; mutton, 6d. to 61⁄2d. per pond; pottatoes, 8d. to 10d. a score; straw, 8d. per stone; hay, 1s. per stone. In January, 1827, the new Act for the government of the town, passed, May 26, 1826, had come into operation. Mr. Jonathan Mellor, churchwarden, was appointed the first chairman of commissioners, Chadwick was appointed beadle, and Newton was appointed watchman. Up to this time the town was governed by the vestry. The old church and its officials had performed for centuries the various duties imposed by the Church and State. No doubt these duties were discharged at small cost to the ratepayers, but the growing wants of the town called for stricter rules of local government. Not only were the streets in a fearful state of repair, but, as already seen in these annals, the town was badly supplied with water, and the streets were dark and narrow. Sanitary arrangements seem to have been altogether neglected, while the majesty of the law was set at nought through defective police arrangements, as witness the number of burglaries and hush shops. The property qualification of commissioners was fixed on a rental of £30 a year, or possession of visible property of £50 value. The establishment of the cotton trade in Oldham had no doubt been the cause of the progress of the town, and had enabled very many of the ratepayers to qualify as commissioners. Once a commissioner, however, and always a commissioner if the property qualification remained. A commissioner was answerable to no man, and no body of men could turn him out of his stewardship. The Radical Oldhamer soon found out the mistake. The system was bad, and the administration of it was worse, if anything. In the old days, the vestry depended on the popular vote to a great extent, if not altogether. An obnoxious churchwarden could easily be removed at the Easter meeting. |
Annual local parliaments seem to have been a church ordinance from time immemorial, but a commissioner, after the order of Melchizadek was found to be a blunder and a fraud. Moreover the act was a peddling scheme, limiting the sum to be expended on any improvement to £200 a year. No wonder the people soon grew weary of the new scheme, and after being grieved with beadledom twenty-one years, they swore in their wrath to obtain a charter of incorporation. January 13th – Died at St. Helen’s, Northmoor, Nanny, widow of the late John Kershaw, of that place; her age 74 years. January 21st – Died at Yealds Green , Chadderton, Edmund Howard, of that place. January 29th – Last night, between six and seven in the evening, whilst the family were absent, the house of John Schofield was broke into and robbed of a large sum of money and a watch; detected by one Joseph Medley offering to pawn the watch in Manchester on the 30th. January 30th – Died at Rhodes House, near Oldham, Henry Barlow, attorney and clerk to the Rev. John Holme, magistrate. January 29th – This day the spinners (turnouts) returned to their spinning to the different factorys at abated prices, wich their masters offered them nearly six months ago. It has been a very unfortunate circumstance for a deal of familys, and has been a hurt to the whole country. This annal states it as six months, Butterworth as four months, that the strike lasted. About 6 per cent was the matter in dispute, but it seems the operative spinners had expected an advance of at least 50 per cent. if trade had continued good, and had prepared a list on that or a higher basis. That is perhaps the secret of the length of this strike. This strike must have been a great trial to masters, coming so soon after a financial crisis, during which it would seem manufacturers had applied to Government for the loan of exchequer bills on goods or personal security. At the Salford Epiphany Sessions six persons were indicted for assaults, during the strike, on the persona of James Ashworth, John Lees, and Robert Lees, of Oldham, on the 7th October, 1826. This was a tumult caused by the turn-outs. Abraham Whitehead received 12 months, with hard labour; John Cocker, nine months’ ditto; James Brierley, 12 months’ ditto; and all three were sent to Lancaster Castle. William Prestwich was sent for four months to the New Bailey. James Taylor and George Challoner were found not guilty. |
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John Davies, a spinner for Mr. Abraham Hilton, Croftbank Mills, seems to have defended the cause of the strikers in the newspaper with considerable ability. January 30th – Was intered at Royton Ephereim Beswick, age 74. February 6th – John Lees unfortunately killed at the collory at Werneth. February 7th – Died Mary, widdow of the late Robert Marlor, of Top of Northmoor, her age 77 years. Charles Gibson, Esquire, of Quarmore Park, High Sherif for Lancashire this year. February 19th – Last night it froze most severely, more severe than in the memory of the oldest person living. February 26th – This day and last night a very fine thaw, wich is to be hoped will put an end to this severe storm. February 21st – Audacious robbery last night. George Holden, of Holden Fold, and William Travis, of same place, cotton manufacturers, on returning from Manchester, where about the hour of nine o’clock at night, furiously attacted in a field, near Holden Fold, by six men, who robbed Holden of 104 sovereigns and a quantity of Bank of England notes, the whole amounting to £211. Travis was more fortunate; from him they got only a small quantity of copper, a knife, and some stocins. The villans made a clear retreat with there booty. Hand bills have been stuck up offering thirty guineas reward for the discovery of the offenders. February 27th – Last night it comenced a fine thaw, and rained very much all this forenoon, but at night it comenced freezing. February 24th - £300 arrived at Oldham from the committee at London, for the use of the poor, to be disstributed in clogs, linen, cloth and flour. A fund amounting to over £60,000 was raised in London, £2,000 of which was contributed by King George IV. This money was voted away at various times in small sums and distributed to the places most urgently in need. This was not the first grant made to Oldham. February 28th – This day John Fielding had his final examination before Mr. James Lees, of Clarksfield, wen William Holt, of Northmoor, proved that the hat and handkerchief found on the ground where George Holden was robbed were the property of John Fielding. He was, of course, committed to Lancaster Castle for tryal. Fielding was apprehended a few days ago. |
February 28th – Last night a most severe frost took place, and early this forenoon it commenced raining and rained all day, and a wetter day was seldom seen. February 22nd – Was a public meeting at the Angel Inn, Oldham, when they came to resolution to petition parliament for an alteration in the Corn Laws. Poor George Canning spent his latest strength in trying to get an alteration in the Corn Laws. His scheme was rejected in the Lords. It was no doubt in support of Canning’s scheme that this meeting was held at the Angel, as we find Canning proposed his scheme on the 1st of the ensuing March, and carried it through the Commons. February 27th – Was a public meeting at Oldham for the purpose of electing a proper person to fill the office of vestry clerk, when Mr. William Barlow, son of the late Mr. Edward Barlow, of Rhodes House, was elected by a large majority. Mr. Edward Brown gave up the contest soon after the pole commenced. Mr. Brown was chosen clerk to the commisoners of the turnpike road a short time since. February 28th – Last night the factory of Mr. Wm. Travis, of Holden Fold, was broke open and robbed of a quantity of weft, and some rovings, is the same Travis as is mentioned on the 21st. Lancaster Assizes commenced on the 10th of March, when Fielding and Moses Marsden, on a charge of robbing George Holden, wher acquited March 3rd – Oldham was lighted with gas for the first time this evening. (This evidently applies to shops and mills.) It looks strange that the world had stood so long before the discovery of coal gas. In 1650 we are told there was a burning spring at Wigan, in Lancashire. The superstitious imagined some supernatural agency at work, and the scientific merely guessed at what was the probable cause. The application of gas for lighting purposes does not seem to have made much headway till the beginning of the present century, and then it seems to have provoked a deal of opposition on the part of the candlestick makers and others. Prophets of evil, who foretold nothing but destruction and unhappiness for gas consumers, were many. How a light could be created without a wick was a question only for a wizard or a witch to answer, and even a wizard or a witch could not tell how the pipes conveying the gas must be kept cool while the light was burning. The promoters of the new light were pitied as idiots. Members of Parliament objected to it when it was proposed to light the House of Commons with gas, on the ground that if the pipes were conveyed along the walls of the House, they could not fail to set the place on fire. |
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William Rowbottom's Diary as published in the Oldham Standard |
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