On two days in June, Janet Barrie took groups of SPAG members on walks around the Springhill area of Higher Cloughfold, between Rawtenstall and Newchurch. Meeting at Marl Pits, we walked through the village and considered its mansions and more humble dwellings; churches; institutions; the people who lived there and significant events in its history. […]
Industrial Summerseat Walk SPAG Researcher Elspeth Dennett volunteered to take members on a guided tour of Summerseat to discover the village’s industrial past. Our starting point was the local Garden Centre just a short walk away from our first point of call, Robin Road Mill, a water powered spinning mill built around 1780 by Peel […]
We had a good turn out on a sunny Thursday afternoon for Stephen Irwin’s talk on how the American Civil War affected the people involved in the cotton trade in Lancashire. Stephen has worked as the Education Officer at Blackburn Museum for over 17 years and is an entertaining and informative speaker. During the 1860-62 […]
SPAG members met in Edenfield to accompany David Scott on Day 3 of his walk to commemorate the Weavers‘ Uprising of April 1826. 
We were joined by several others , some of whom had travelled from as far away as Liverpool, to walk in the footsteps of the crowd of 3000 starving weavers and other workers in their desperate attempt to gain recognition of their plight.
We walked down Dearden Clough past the site of Dearden Clough Mill where the power looms had been destroyed almost 200 years ago and headed along Chatterton Road to the site of Aitken and Lord’s Mill in Chatterton. It was here on that fateful day, April 26th, 1826 that the crowd was confronted by the fully armed 60th Rifle Corps. The Riot Act had already been read so the crowd knew that the militia could shoot to kill and six people including an innocent bystander, Mary Simpson, were shot dead.
The Riot Act was read out by Barbara Smith, playing the part of local magistrate, William Grant then the group watched as David Scott laid a wreath to commemorate the dead. The wreath of red roses was paid for by the Lancashire Trade Union Council.
