Background
Dean is a small community within the east Lancashire valley of Rossendale, near Water between Rawtenstall and Burnley, part of the area in which the textile industry expanded massively during the Industrial Revolution. In 1835 the Scottish writer George Hogarth noted 'In the densely-populated manufacturing districts...music is cultivated among the working classes to an extent unparalleled in any other part of the country', in his Musical History, referring to the industrialised parts of England. Soon after, in 1862 Edwin Waugh describing Manchester in the Cotton Famine mentions 'swarms of strange, shy, sad-looking singers and instrumental performers in the work-worn clothing of factory-operatives'. Making music provided one of the few ways to find relief from the hardship of working in the new mill factories of Lancashire. The Larks of Dean were one notable group of musicians that grew from this situation, as well as from the non-conformist religious background of the area.
Read more about this topic: Larks Of Dean
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