Last words on Darwen's lost art

On December 30 that year the Darwen Gazette visited Edward Eccles in the Chapels district.

Now Blackburn Library volunteer June Riding has unearthed and transcribed the article for the Cotton Town website giving a fascinating insight into a lost trade.

The article says: " Chapel’s is the oldest part of Darwen. Hand loom weaving flourished here in olden days.

"Edward Eccles’ father died at the age of 92. His grandfather and great grandfather had also been weavers or 'chapmen'.

"The loom, over one hundred years old, is a capable and perfect piece of mechanism and the quality of work delightful.

"At one time this locality was the special abode of a little community of silk weavers. Apart from a few colliers and quarrymen and a few print workers there was no-one else in the whole Darwen valley.

"It was only the arrival of cotton and the power loom that ousted silk from pride of place.

"The chapmen used to get their weft and warp on Monday, play the rest of the day and Tuesday, then hurry the work towards weekend.

"Many of the old things still retained within the family are rarely to be found outside the textile museums. There were old contrivances for winding bobbins and for sizing warps.

"While showing his treasures, Mr Eccles described how people lived in 'the handloom weaving days'.

"He was convinced that the porridge and rough ‘keep’ of two or three generations ago produced a finer lot of folks than did the luxuries of the present day. His father sat at his after he was ninety one, did not require glasses and retained his keen faculties.

"Mr. Eccles remembered the riots at ‘Top Factory’ in 1826. The handloom weavers from Chapels took an active part in smashing up what they believed were robbers of their living."

The article adds: "Mr Eccles then took the interviewer into the house to show him some of his beautiful fabrics.

"As he spoke, the last of the handloom weavers, grey bearded and clear eyed, lovingly handled the soft rich materials."