That is not to say, however, that the history of Lower Barrowford dates only to the middle of the nineteenth century – far from it, in fact, as the farms and landed estates of the district will testify.

The course of the nineteenth century saw a marked change within the social and economic fortunes of Barrowford. The period of prosperity enjoyed by farmers and handloom weavers throughout the final decade of the eighteenth century proved to be fickle. Outside forces regulated both the supply of cotton to the voracious mills and the strength of the end market for their finished goods - many periods of sustained unemployment punctuated the better times of full employment through to the Second World War.

The object of this book, then, is to trace the history of the district of Lower Barrowford estates, farms, social life, cotton mills and a murder.

 

The subject area of this book covers the extended area traditionally known as Lower Barrowford. This encompasses the separate districts of Reedyford, Newbridge and Newtown, Wheatley Lane Road, Laund, Carr, Noggarth and Rishton Thorns (The Sparrow Hawk area). The Newbridge area of the village is very much the product of the new factory system of the Victorian era when cotton spinning and weaving mills were erected, quickly followed by terraces of stone-built houses for the mill workers that now give the place its character.