General History
After a cow farm was established around 1266, Barley earned its livelihood from agriculture. This continued up until the 18th century. During the 18th century textiles began to be manufactured as an extra source of income. The brooks around Barley offered an effective source of waterpower which led to the building of several cotton factories. Two small cotton mills were built at Narrowgates and Barley Green. At its height, Barley Green Mill had 200 looms, until floods destroyed the building in 1880. The cotton twist mill at Narrowgates, which was built by William Hartley to spin cotton warp thread, and the adjacent weavers cottages survive and are now private houses.
In December, United Utilities engineers were "stunned" to unearth a 17th Century cottage, complete with a cat skeleton, during a construction project in the village, near Lower Black Moss reservoir. There has been some speculation that the well-preserved cottage could have belonged to one of the Pendle witches, although there is no evidence to suggest that it did. Simon Entwistle, an expert on the witches, said: "In terms of significance, it's like discovering Tutankhamen's tomb. Frank Giecco, from NP Archaeology, who unearthed the building, said: "It's like discovering your own little Pompeii. We rarely get the opportunity to work with something so well preserved." Many artefacts from the building's latter years, such as Victorian crockery, a tin bath and a bedstead, were discovered around the site.
Read more about this topic: Barley, Lancashire
Famous quotes containing the words general and/or history:
“Without metaphor the handling of general concepts such as culture and civilization becomes impossible, and that of disease and disorder is the obvious one for the case in point. Is not crisis itself a concept we owe to Hippocrates? In the social and cultural domain no metaphor is more apt than the pathological one.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“It would be naive to think that peace and justice can be achieved easily. No set of rules or study of history will automatically resolve the problems.... However, with faith and perseverance,... complex problems in the past have been resolved in our search for justice and peace. They can be resolved in the future, provided, of course, that we can think of five new ways to measure the height of a tall building by using a barometer.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)