Fired by the mob

It made way for the bungalows that now occupy the spot off Ribchester Road. But it was itself a 'redevelopment' -- of one of the most prominent mansions in East Lancashire's history, famed for being torched in 1878 by a rampaging mob of mill workers infuriated by their bosses slashing their wages by 10 per cent.

They made Clayton Grange their target because it was the home of Colonel Robert Raynsford Jackson, chairman of the textile employers' federation which in May that year cut workers' pay in response to slump in the cotton trade.

News of the decision, made at a conference in Manchester, spread like wildfire and in within only a few hours thousands of mill workers were gathered at an angry protest meeting at Blakey Moor in Blackburn town centre. Hundreds stormed off and set about smashing scores of windows at five of the town's mills before surging up Whalley New Road where they showered stones on Brookhouse Cottage, then the home of the prominent mill-owning Hornby family.

Led by a sword-waving ring-leader called Smalley, the mob then marched to the elegant home of Col. Jackson. Fortunately for the cotton magnate, he received advance warning of their arrival -- from his wife whose brougham carriage had been attacked with stones as she was being driven past Blackburn Cemetery on her way home, but had managed to outpace the rioters.

With the howls of the mob getting louder, the family -- Col Jackson, his wife and small daughter, Juliet -- fled from Clayton Grange, going via Mellor to Blackburn where the mother and child stayed with friends while the Colonel went for the police.

It was too late to save their home. It was stormed and set on fire -- an event depicted in this engraving which appeared in the Illustrated London News 11 days later. Valuable furnishings, books, pictures, silver plate, rare china were destroyed in the blaze.

The house itself became a burnt-out shell that looked like this the next day. All that was salvaged from the ruin was a brass barometer with its front glass cracked.

But as the house was going up in flames, the authorities at Blackburn were sending to Preston for military assistance. Infantry and cavalry were urgently despatched and set about dispersing the crowds who fled before the mounted troopers and the fixed bayonets of the foot soldiers -- but not before the mob that destroyed Clayton Grange had thrown the wreck of a four-wheeled carriage they had dragged from the coach house into the River Darwen at Ewood.

The next morning, the Riot Act was read from the Town Hall steps by the Mayor. But the trouble continued as demonstrators dashed up Preston New Road where they smashed hundreds of windows in 64 homes before the police and troops could scatter them and obtain control.

The law quickly caught up with the leaders of the mob. Smalley got 15 years' penal servitude and eight others were sentenced to terms ranging from 15 years to 12 months. And the destruction of Clayton Grange and the Blackburn riots were commemorated in souvenir pottery with illustrations of the events.

A new 32-room Clayton Grange rose from the ashes and retained parts of the original grey-stone walls from the original building. After many years, it was occupied by Blackburn ironfounder John Harrison, the first of five generations of the family which ran the well-known Blackburn engineering firm of Clayton Goodfellow Ltd which closed in 1984 after 127 years.

He died there in 1916 and afterwards it was the home of Alexander Porter-Hargreaves, son of the founder of Blackburn cotton manufacturers, J. and J.A. Porter. After his death in 1953, it was bought by a local man who sold it for the bungalow development.

From Warminster in Wiltshire comes an echo to Looking Back's feature two weeks ago on the Home Guard's 9th Battalion based at Clayton-le-Dale-- from Mr Gerald Burton whose father, Lieutenant Colonel Sydney Burton was its commanding officer.

He tells us that the officer seen sitting cross-legged at the centre of the 1941 picture we showed of the battalion's Mellor and Wilpshire companies was not the 9th's second-in-command, Major Harold Hindle, as was stated, but his father. Major Hindle is two places away to the right in this detail (left) from the photograph and next to him at the right is the battalion's adjutant Captain J.W. Richardson.

Mr Burton adds that the small white dog which sharp-eyed readers may have spotted at the extreme right of the original picture was his father's West Highland Terrier, Chummy.