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In 1851 my great-grandmother Sarah Edmondson was about 13, and a Rover in Colne. She married William Bannister in 1857, and in later censuses she was a clearly a busy mother and housewife.

I know from the censuses that my great-grandfather William Bannister (born c 1835 at Lane Head) worked in the mills from at least 1851, when he was a doffer, to at least 1871, when he was a power-loom overlooker. By 1881 he was a grocer and draper living at 38 Stafford Street, off Colne Road in Burnley and it appears that by 1891 he had combined the Stafford Street house with the adjoining house on Elm Street to make a corner shop on the corner of Elm Street and Stafford Street: according to the plaque on the corner of the roof, the houses were built in 1878.

William and Sarah and their family lived at Clow Bridge (Dunnockshaw) at least from 1860, when one of my great-aunts was born there, to at least 1877 when my grandmother was: I presume that William left the mills and they set up the shop when the Stafford Street house was new, as my youngest great-uncle was born in Burnley in 1879.

I wonder if anyone can suggest which mill or which area of mills William is most likely to have worked in? Clow Bridge is a fair distance from either Burnley or Hapton, but I suppose he must have walked to and from work daily in one or other of them, unless there was a mill nearer to Clow Bridge?

Charon

I would have thought there was only one mill in Clowbridge, it is a bit of a drive through place with a couple of terrace rows. He would have passed many mills on his way there. It would have been an uphill walk out of Burnley through open countryside. If you tab out from the link you can see the distance. http://www.pagemost.com/Clowbridge-Reservoir-Lancashire
There would have been lots of mills around Colne Rd and Elm St.
Hope this helps

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Gloria

I'd be dangerous with a brain.

Thanks, Gloria

I know just what you mean about Clow Bridge - blink and you miss it! I was there a couple of months ago and took pictures of what I think must have been William and Sarah's house.

Do you know that there was a mill in Clow Bridge? I agree that a small place like that couldn't have had enough housing for the workers of a large mill, let alone more than one. It seems to me an unlikely place for a mill, up on the moors and a long way from canals or railways, but what do I know?

Charon