Longsight Methodist Church and School Archive Material

We have recently received a donation of archive material mainly relating to Longsight Methodist Church and School.  Some photographs from the collection are reproduced below.

1. Photograph of Brook Bank
2. Hon Secretary Correspondence Carbon Copies. Copies of letters sent 500 pages. 1905 - 1926
3. Old fashioned clip board - Correspondence relating to Longsight Methodist Church and School  1951 - 1955.   Approx. 80 letters.
4. Expanding file 1920s - 1960s
1. Bolton Corporation - Letters relating to water charges from Bolton Corporation, 1929
2. Harwood Wesleyan Bazaar 1916 accounts
3. Cemetery - (i) Various correspondence 1930 -51 ~15+21 items (ii) Harwood Wesleyan Chapel Burial Ground Rules & Regulations 1920 (iii) Rules and Fees of Tottington Road Methodist Church Harwood 1932
4. Caretaker - Boiler Insurance documentation 1949 - 1954
5. Electricity dept. charges, 1948
6. Grave plans - about 75 items design plans for grave stones 1920s - 1950s
7. Insurance - various insurance certificates 1930s
8. Inland Revenue - correspondence 1930s - 1950s
9. Organ - about 30 items 1930s - 1950s
10. School Trust - About 90 items .  1920s - 1960s.  Includes newspaper cutting - Opening of Turton Harwood Methodist School - Sat Oct 22nd 1960
5. Envelope - Trustees minutes 1948 - 1955
6. Blue file - Longsight newsletters 1958 - 1970
7. Brown folder - 15 family photos 
8. Envelope.  23 short walks around Harwood area.  1961-62 typed.
9. Print offs from CWGC website 2014 - Soldiers from Harwood

#1 - Brook Bank (undated)

Textile Mills of Turton and Edgworth (Richard Horrocks)

Upcoming Talk - January 2025

7.30pm at Harwood Methodist Church
Thursday 23rd January 2025

Speaker: Richard Horrocks

The Textile Mills of Turton and Edgworth (1774-2000)

The 200 plus years of the growth and eventual decline of the cotton industry in the Turton and Edgworth areas mirrored the history of the wider Lancashire cotton industry as a whole and as such could be considered as a miniature version or snapshot of that industry. All stages of cotton manufacture were included – spinning, weaving, bleaching & finishing, dyeing and printing. The way in which each stage developed was defined by local geography (e.g. availability of water for processing and power and of coal for energy) as well as national (e.g. the repeal of the Calico Acts of 1700 and 1721 in 1774) and international (e.g. French wars of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, World Wars 1 and 2 and the not unrelated development and decline of overseas markets) events.

Vale Mill, Turton Bottoms (by the late W. M.Williams)

Together Turton and Edgworth hosted at least 14 mills, a concentration which demonstrated not only the importance of the area economically, but also a favourable geography and geology in which a variety of different textile industries could develop. The first, a printing works on the site of the Lord of the Manor's corn mill in 1774 coincided with the repeal of the Calico Acts. Since that time the mills involved cotton spinning, weaving, bleaching, dyeing, finishing and printing - in fact the whole range of the cotton industrial processes. The last mill closed in 2000, coinciding with the closure of the last spinning mill in Bolton, Swan Lane Mill.

While there are hardly any remains of these former mills, their presence shaped the local society of the two villages over 200 year period and also have left imprints in terms of local geography, although these are difficult to spot by the casual visitor.

The talk will outline their history in terms of growth, evolution and death.

The fourteen mills of Turton and Edgworth
superimposed on the 6 inch OS map.