DID you know that Pendle was connected with the first telephone?

For a man who used to live in Kelbrook played a part in helping Alexander Graham Bell develop his invention.

It happened in the 1870s in Canada, and the local man in question was one William Whitaker.

He owned a tinsmith's business and fashioned a special tin box to order for Bell although, at the time, he did not know the reason behind it.

The story is that William once lived in Waterloo Road, Kelbrook, with his parents and five brothers and sisters in the early 1840s.

His father was a handloom weaver, who decided to emigrate with a group of people from the Colne area, as the textile industry moved to power looms and mills.

This was 1843, when William was just nine years old, and his father became a farmer in Brantwood, Ontario.

Bell's family also arrived in the town in 1870 and, as time went on, William made pieces of equipment for the professor, who was an audiologist.

After making the box, William visited Bell at his home and saw the first telephone.

Lines were strung between the back and the front of the house and William was asked to speak over the line.

Later wires were fixed along the fences from the homestead into town and William, who spoke clearly, was again asked to test the clarity of the line.

The United States Patent Office granted Bell a patent for his telephone in 1876 - and the rest is history.