Page "Accrington" Paragraph 13

For many decades the textiles industry, the engineering industry and coal mining were the central activities of the town.

Cotton mills and dye works provided work for the inhabitants ; but often in very difficult conditions.

There was regular conflict with employers over wages and working conditions.

On 24 April 1826 over 1, 000 men and women, many armed, gathered at Whinney Hill in Clayton-le-Moors to listen to a speaker from where they marched on Sykes ’ s Mill at Higher Grange Lane, near the site of the modern police station and Magistrate ’ s Courts, and smashed over 60 looms.

These riots spread from Accrington through Oswaldtwistle, Blackburn, Darwen, Rossendale, Bury and Chorley.

In the end after three days of riots 1, 139 looms were destroyed, 4 rioters and 2 bystanders shot dead by the authorities in Rossendale and 41 rioters sentenced to death ( all of whose sentences were commuted ).