The cotton owners and merchants of Blackburn and Darwen were conscious of a public duty to promote good works, undertake philanthropic and charitable projects, and have their names associated with worthy causes. During the 19th century many institutions, societies and social projects were sponsored by the elite in society. These ranged from paying major contributions to building churches and schools, through the provision of workers’ housing, to clothing clubs and mechanics’ institutes and temperance organisations. Many of these gestures were motivated by a genuine, though usually low key, concern for the community, but most of the people involved were also well aware of the beneficial publicity which their actions generated – it was essential for their image.
By Dr. Alan Crosby
The millowners and merchant princes of the cotton towns saw themselves, quite correctly, as the elite of the community. They, with the professional classes on whom they relied and who in turn depended on them, set ‘the tone’ for polite company. In the wider world of high society, where wealth which came from (or was invested in) land still counted most, men who had made their fortunes in trade were not quite ‘top drawer’ and were regarded with a certain condescension, but in their own towns these people reigned supreme. Their money brought them fine houses, desirable addresses, obvious signs of status such as carriages and servants, and also political influence and power on the borough councils, the magistrates’ bench and – in some cases – seats at Westminster. But it also brought a wide range of community obligations and duties which many cotton men and merchants earnestly sought to fulfil. It was expected that any self-made man or prosperous family would and should bestow patronage upon worthy causes, sponsor projects designed to improve public life, and give his or their name to respectable institutions which would benefit the lower orders.
By Dr. Alan Crosby
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Learning and culture were also considered important matters. Blackburn’s free library (1854) and museum (1874) were projects undertaken by the new borough council (which was, of course, heavily influenced by the leading merchants and mill owners) but when the new building in Museum Street was opened in 1874 its decorated sculptured friezes depicting arts, literature, science, industry, commerce and agriculture were paid for by the main industrialists and commercial interests – one, significant in every sense, depicts cotton manufacturing. Likewise, the Technical School in Duke Street, another municipal project (1888-1894), was sponsored by the same elite group. The Mechanics’ Institute, which was founded in 1844 under the presidency of Joseph Feilden, was – as in other towns where such institutions were established - intended to provide the working classes with access to literature, instructive lectures, discussion groups and newspapers. To encourage such wholesome pursuits, there was also strong interest in temperance. In Blackburn, the temperance movement had been strongly supported by the Pilkington family – in 1845 a mass tea party for abstainers was held at Pilkington’s mill. The most impressive example of this attitude, though, was in Darwen, where the nonconformist (and especially Congregationalist) background of the Shorrock family and the other important mill owners meant severe disapproval of drink. In a survey of 1895 the borough was one of the ‘driest’ in the country in terms of number of drinking places in relation to size of population – the mill owners were the magistrates, and the magistrates controlled the licensing system. They would always win!
By Dr. Alan Crosby
The spiritual wellbeing of the labour force, or the need to educate their children, encouraged other cotton men and town merchants to make contributions to the building of churches, or to make sites available for such projects. In 1844 Joseph Feilden, one of the most prominent citizens of early Victorian Blackburn, gave the land on which the new St John's Day and Sunday schools were built in Altom Street, continuing a generous pattern of funding such projects - in 1840, for example, he had given the land and some 'start up' funding for Christ Church, Grimshaw Park, serving a new industrial community and with its classic site in the shadow of the Park Mill and close to the canal (though lack of money delayed completion until 1859). In the mid-1820s Joseph Birley had sold, rather than given, the site for St. Alban's Roman Catholic chapel on Chapel Street. As a loyal Anglican he was not in the business of giving free gifts to the Catholics, but as a businessman he was happy to sell. Thus, charity and philanthropy might come with strings attached: it was never given automatically.
by Dr. Alan Crosby
Behind these schemes and projects there was usually a genuine desire to exercise philanthropy, but employers were undoubtedly well aware that this was what would now be called 'good PR'. If they put money into churches and schools, charities and emergency relief funds, public parks and drinking fountains, they could claim to be conscious of workers-welfare and considerate in their treatment of the labour force. This might foster better labour relations at troubled times: Darwen's 19th century historian, J.G. Shaw, commented that the mills of the Eccles family, who were enthusiastic patrons of chapels, schools and workers- housing, usually escaped labour unrest. There was also an element of social one-upmanship: if your name appeared at the head of a list of charity subscriptions, as the largest donor, you could feel superior to your equally prosperous neighbours. An excellent example of a serious interest in the well-being of the workers is the Brookhouse area of Blackburn. Here William Henry Hornby, the town's first mayor, largest cotton owner, and most prominent citizen in the 1840s, operated a series of mills closely spaced along the southern bank of the Blakewater. Hornby paid most of the costs of Brookhouse School (1839, with his crest over the door) for the children of millworkers, and Brookhouse Gymnasium, a remarkable though short-lived attempt to provide for workers 'recreational and leisure needs' the problem was that they had no leisure. At Darwen, Alexander Carus of St Paul's Mills at Hoddlesden had a similar concern for the practical wellbeing of his workforce: in the late 1880s his company built 14 houses off Queens Square for its workers.
By Dr. Alan Crosby
The industrialists acted as patrons and supporters of many schemes which would directly benefit the economy and commercial life of the towns. These ranged from the much-disliked Poor Law Board of Guardians, established by national legislation in 1834 - Joseph Feilden was the first Chairman of the Blackburn board - to the Blackburn, Darwen and Bolton Railway Company of 1845, whose first chairman was the ubiquitous William Henry Hornby. But they also served as patrons of non-profit-making charitable and philanthropic societies. Cotton merchants and other industrialists were among the leading subscribers to the Blackburn Dispensary which opened in February 1824 and provided good-quality free medical treatment to at least some of the town's poor. Their wives founded the Ladies- Clothing Club, which raised modest funds to purchase clothing for poor women and their new-born babies. John Hornby was one of the founding trustees of the Blackburn Savings Bank, opened in 1818 (and re-founded in 1831) with the aim of encouraging thrift and financial prudence among the industrious workers of the town - it operated a penny-a-week savings scheme - and he was also the first president of the Strangers- Friend Society (1821), which was intended to help the destitute sick poor in their own homes irrespective of creed or religious denomination.
By Dr. Alan Crosby