I start with an update. My friends on Oneguyfrombarlick have alerted me to some research posted by Ken Ranson that adds to our knowledge about the Lane Head pub. “...'ye bruing vessell with other wood gear, £2-10-0'. Christopher Varley of Salterforth Lane Head died in 1679 and was interred in the graveyard of St Mary-le-Gill at Barnoldswick. Shortly afterwards on 2nd May an inventory was taken of all his belongings. This extract shows that beer has been brewed/sold on this site for at least 330 years.” It is of course difficult to say whether this brewing was for domestic consumption or for sale but we can at least be sure that it was happening in the 17th century. The present building is later and was built in 1914. I think we can safely assume that it was functioning as an inn before 1790 catering for the packhorse traffic on Higher Lane and so could have been frequented by the navvies building the canal.
Ken also relates this story: “As for the elusive Fanny Grey, I don't think we will ever find out who or what she was. There is no record of a family called Grey. It has been suggested it was the name of a famous race horse of the times and Michael Town, landlord of The Fanny Grey for many years, relates the story that a Mr Uttley, a manufacturer from Trawden, was riding by one day on his "grey" horse when he told the landlady, Mrs Sowerbutts, that he would whitewash the building if she called it The Fanny Grey.” I have two other snippets of research which fit in here. A friend of mine once told me that there used to be a cottage called 'Hatter's Rest' opposite Lower Close Farm which had a well outside it. She was sure of this because at one time her sister lived there. Jack Platt told me a sad story about his mother being attacked and her purse stolen one night at the head of Salterforth Lane in the 1930s, her assailant was never found. At the time she was a single mother rearing her children on a weaver's wage and walking to and from work in Barlick each day. That's real hardship!
Right, back to our story of how the coming of the canal affected Salterforth. The canal made the carriage of all goods easier, cheaper and quicker but the main traffic that benefited was bulk coal and stone in forty ton boatloads. Salterforth was now directly connected to the Yorkshire and Lancashire coalfields and had the opportunity to export stone as a return load. The immediate effect was that coal fell in price. I have no record of what coal cost delivered by packhorse but we can be sure that only the wealthiest people could afford it, poor people would burn wood and peat from the moor. Taking an educated guess, 9d a hundredweight at the wharf and 1/- a cwt bag delivered will be about right for 1800. (A hundredweight (cwt) is 112lbs or 51kg in metric measure.) A small coal fire would burn at least 1cwt a week and if we take 10/- as the average wage and allow for transport from the wharf and the coal merchant's profit we can guess at a tenth of an average workman's income for one bag of coal a week. Remember that a fire was needed all year round for cooking. This was expensive but supportable especially if more than one person in a family was in work, peat probably cost almost as much. Remember that in 1800 there was no industrial use for the coal beyond some small tradesmen like blacksmiths but this soon changed.
We need to have a look at Earby. The wharf next to the Anchor Inn was the nearest point on the canal to Earby and so the first opportunity that arose at Salterforth was supplying domestic fuel to Kelbrook and Earby as well as Salterforth. Baines in 1822 tells us that Francis Peel was a coal and lime merchant at Salterforth and he was probably the first to take advantage of the new trade. At that time he would only be supplying domestic coal but if you look at his catchment area this would be a considerable and profitable business. One word here about the reason why Salterforth never commanded any of the trade in Barlick. We don't take much account of hills these days, they are no obstacle to modern road transport but in 1800 they were a serious matter. There was a wharf at Coates in Barlick and even though it was on the same level as Salterforth it took all the Barlick trade because of the hill that had to be climbed to get to Barlick. This is why Salterforth never had any direct coal trade with their close neighbour.
The domestic trade paled into insignificance when compared to the demands of the early steam engines. Until the canal arrived it was uneconomic to burn coal but all this changed. Christopher Bracewell had been active in the Earby textile trade since the late 18th century. He had a warehouse on what is now New Road from where he catered for the needs of his out-workers in the cottage industry. In 1839 he built a small steam driven weaving and spinning mill below the warehouse using Earby Beck for his condenser water and took his coal supplies from Salterforth Wharf. This was originally known as Green End Shed but later became known as Old Shed when Christopher built the much larger Victoria Mill in about 1856. All the coal for the old shed had to be carted from Salterforth in horse drawn carts carrying about one and half tons per trip. Think of the demand for horse transport and assume that at least some of this work was catered for by farmers in Salterforth going into the transport business. There was no competition from the new railways until they reached Earby in 1848. By that time the original coal merchants had developed into coal agents who arranged deliveries of coal from the pit head to the mills by both rail and canal and I have records of Salterforth agents continuing to supply mills in both Earby and Barlick well into the 20th century.
In November 1888 Salterforth Shed was built by the Salterforth Weaving Shed Company, one of the main investors was James Slater from Barlick. From then until the advent of modern road transport they got their coal from Salterforth Wharf because it was closer than the railway.
We've only looked at coal transport but I'm sure you can see how it opened up opportunities for the village. Next week we'll have a look at an even bigger industry, quarrying and the carriage of stone.
A typical coal cart delivering coal to the mill.
