The Village of Cowpe

    All of us know some little of the History of the Forest of Rossendale, and we know that as a general fact the district was dis-forested in the 14th and 15th and some of it as late as the 16th centuries and we are apt to think from such knowledge that there is no recorded history of human activity in the district before these times.  Happily, that is not the case as far as Cowpe is concerned.   I shall be able to show that it has a very definite history, going back centuries before those times and before some parts of the Rossendale valley.  It seems to me to be too readily taken for granted that the whole of Rossendale was, prior to the dis-foresting, entirely covered with trees.    It was a deer forest and deer forests are to some extent grass lands.     In   the   earliest recorded documents Brandwood is not spoken of as a clearing but a waste, the moorland as now exists probably running right down into the valley.  The nomenclature of these hills and slopes around Cowpe tells of human habitation and activity going back at least to early Saxon times.  I have submitted the names Cowpe, or as it was spelled centuries ago Cowhope, Crag, Wicken Slack, Boarsgreave, Cowpe Law and Gorsichelache as Old Sink Slack was formerly called, to two language experts and they tell me that some of these places may have received their names as long ago as when the Romans occupied those islands.   We have no evidence that the road along the hill of Crag (name of British origin) over Hailstorm Hill and Rooley moor was made by the Romans, yet forming as it would a connection between the Roman Road from Yorkshire over Blackstone Edge and the one through the Bury valley through Musbury on to Ribchester, I have no doubt this same road still existing was traversed in those early times.  Newbigging tells us that from time immemorial Rossendale has been a favorite-hunting ground.  Bury and Rochdale both had Saxon Castles and we can readily imagine that the hunters setting out from these castles would approach the forest from this side; and Gamel the last of the Saxon Theigns when hunting over the grounds on which we now stand little thought how soon he was to be dispossessed of his overlordship, and his lands given to Roger de Poictou who was the first Norman baron.

    The generally accepted derivation of the name Cowpe is Cowhope a name of Saxon origin signifying Cow pasture.  Through the records it has been variously spelled as Cowhope, Cuhope, Cowoppe, Cowap, Coupe, and Cowpe as at present.  It will have been noticed that the present direction plate at Waterfoot railway arch, erected by the Highway Authorities denotes “Coupe” road.  Why they spell it in that way I don’t know.  It is   contrary   to   history.    Cowpe   has always been just on the edge of everything, which has militated against its rising to importance.  At the time of the Conquest there were Saxon Churches at both Rochdale and Bury, and as the country had long before that been divided into parishes the east side, or Brandwood part of Cowpe, had ever since then been in the Rochdale Parish and the West side in Bury Parish up to Waterfoot Parish being created 50 years ago.  To complicate the matter still farther although the Bury Parish is as a whole in Salford Hundred the township of Cowpe Lenches is and has been ever since early Norman times in the Hundred of Blackburn.    Thus the district has never been one whole for Governmental purposes.   Even today one half is in the borough of Bacup and the other half in Rawtenstall.

    The first Norman Lord of the Manor was Roger de Poictou, who built Lancaster Castle, and after him the manorial rights passed to the de Lacy family.  Shortly after the formation of the Abbey of Stanlawe in Cheshire in 1190 Roger de Lacy, Constable of Chester granted certain rights the land in Brandwood which includes all one side of Cowpe valley, to the Monks of Stanlawe.  The deed is as follows: -

 "The deed of Robert of Chester of 4 Bovates of Land in Rochdale and of Brandwood:

    Know all men present as well as future, that I Roger de Lacy, Constable of Chester having given and granted, and by this my present charter have confirmed to God and the Blessed Mary, and to my Abbot and Monks of the Blessed place at Stanlawe 4 Oxgangs of Land in Rochdale in the Township which is called Castleton with all their appurtenances with common of the whole Township of Rochdale, free and discharged from all service, exaction, and custom, belonging to me or my heirs for ever.  Also I have given to them in my forest that pasture which is called Brandwood to feed their Animals by the divisions under mentioned to wit from Gorsichelache to Cuhopened (Cowpe Head) and so as the Cuhope descends to the Irewill to Fulbachope, then going up to Saltergate then to Hamstalesclogh, and so to the Denesgreave, and so by the top of the Moss to Cuhopeheued to Gorsichelache.  Also the aforesaid Monks shall have in that pasture 100 Cows with the offspring of two years.   And if I shall have cattle there their cattle shall feed and go far and wide wheresoever mine feed and go.   And I forbid any of my bailiffs or servants to offer trouble or grievance or by injuring their animals to unjustly distress them.  And I and my heirs will faithfully warrant this gift to my aforesaid Monks against all men.  To these being witness."  So and So.  (See Whalley Coucher Book.)

    It will be seen that as the boundaries of the land specified are from Cowpe Head over the top of the Moss to Bacup then along Cowpe Brook and the Irwell to Bacup, it is nearly identical with the present Brandwood ward.   The historian of Rochdale says Gorsichelache (still locally called Top o ‘th Lache), was near to if not identical with Old Sink Slack, which as we all know is just beyond Second Edge on the Rooley Moor Road.   The Abbey of Stunlawe, to which half of Cowpe thus passed in ownership about 1190 was near Ellesmere Port in Cheshire and was subject to inundations from the sea and for this reason it was decided to transfer it to Whalley, and to this transfer the consent of the Bishop of Lichfield was given in 1285.  It will thus be seen that the Abbey of Stanlawe was only maintained for about a century, and on account of the people of Brandwood and other parts of Spotland being tenants of the Abbots a considerably local interest in the Abbey was created, and several members of local families were Monks there.  One of them, Robert Haworth, was Abbot of Stanlaw when it was removed to Whalley.   It will be noticed that in transferring the ownership of this district of ours to the Monks of Stanlawe, de Lacy reserves to himself the right to pasture his own cattle here, but in 1552, Henry, Earl of Lancaster, one of his successors, relinquished “all the rights and claims which can belong to us or our heirs for ever, saving to us and our heirs in the aforesaid pasture our right to hunt without injury or troubling the said Abbot and Convent of Whalley or their successors and servants." 

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    Where did the people come from to inhabit Rossendale?  Of this the historian of Rossendale has very little to say, and makes only a very small attempt to tell whence the original people hailed.   There are numerous families whose connections go back several centuries, but of these connections he takes very little account - a very unusual procedure with historians; (although we are right on the borders of Rochdale Parish here I have found much more of the history of local families recorded in the History of Rochdale than in Newbigging's work).  There is ample evidence that they came mainly from the Rochdale district in the first place.  In those early days people used to take their surname from the place they came from, (and other circumstances).  Thus we have Robert de Assheworth in 1281, Henry de Haword in 1250, Randolph de Clegg in 1281, William de Whitacres 1336, John del Holt 1328, and Thomas de Butterworth is mentioned as having dealings with John, son of Gamel the Saxon Theign shortly after the conquest.  Haworth in Rochdale parish is believed to have given rise to the family or families of that name, all the various forms of the name Haworth, Howarth, and Howard having the same derivation.  The Ashworths, Cleggs, Holts, Butterworths and Whittacre (Whittaker) all originated from places of the same name in Rochdale district.  The Ormerods and Barcrofts came from Cliviger district.  The people of the same name were not necessarily of the same family originally, but hailed from the same place.  Of the inhabitants of those isolated farmsteads on the hillsides such as Boarsgreave, Crag, and Wicken Slack prior to the systematic cultivation of Brandwood which was the first considerable area in Rossendale to be brought under cultivation we know nothing. But the Ashworths were amongst the first to cultivate the land for the Abbots of Stanlawe and Whalley, which commenced in the reign of Henry III, who came to the throne in 1215.  The Abbot of Whalley had a Manor House on this (Brandwood) estate, but exactly where it was, and whether it was on the Cowpe side I am unable to say.  Three hundred years later when the monasteries were dissolved in 1556 this end of Brandwood had been separated from the end towards Bacup and all the tenants of the Abbot of this end, seven in number were, named Ashworth.  Of the Ashworths I shall have more to say anon.   In 1511 there were eleven vacaries, as the cow pastures were then called in Rossendale, and Cowpe or Cowhope as it was then spelled was one of them; in 1507 they had increased to nineteen, Cowpe, still spelled Cowhope was one and Lenches another.

    In the very earliest existing Court Roll at Clitheroe Castle, 1425, it is recorded that Thomas de Assheworth sued John de Wolfenden for a debt of 20 pence, which the jury ordered to be paid.  One of the jury was Thomas de Cowhope.  A number of Court rolls have come to light since Newbigging's day, and these were published in 1913.  The case just mentioned is quoted from one of them.  The numbers of Rossendale cases going through the Courts in the fifteenth century show the activities in Rossendale to have been greater at that time than Newbigging imagined.   The forest laws which militated against the development of the district did not, it must be remembered, apply to Brandwood, which was freehold and belonged then to the Abbots of Whalley, consequently Brandwood was developing freely enough before the disforesting.  We all know both by local tradition and from Newbigging's account of the Chapel of Ease which existed in pre-reformation days at Rough Lea.   It must be confessed that there is a lot of mystery surrounding this Chapel.  It must have been subject to Whalley, yet so far as one can ascertain there is no mention of it in the Whalley records.   Rough Lea does not seem to have been a likely place for its erection.  Cowpe was populated in pre-reformation times as no other part of Rossendale was, and moreover the land on one side of this valley belonged to the Abbot, and one would have expected that such a chapel would have been erected nearer where we now stand.   Still, I believe there are several relics found on the supposed site of the chapel at Rough Lea in the Cheetham Library, Manchester, such as an Agnus dei, and some Rosary Beads, and I suppose we must believe that it existed there.  Further, I am told that documentary evidence of its existence was found amongst the papers of the late Mr. James Rushton of Newchurch, which is in the possession of a member of a well known local family now on active service.

    In a decree issued by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the year 1550 granting full rights of a parish Church to Newchurch, it is declared that it was for the use of the inhabitants of the Lenches, Cowpe, Brandwood, Rockcliffe, Greaveclough, and Tongue, and ever since that time up to Waterfoot Parish being formed Cowpe has had certain rights in the appointments of Church Wardens at Newchurch.  It is interesting to note that the second incumbent of Newchurch, appointed in 1548 was named Lawrence Ashworth.  Whether he was a local man I don't know, but Lawrence was then and is still a favorite name with the local Ashworths.

    As I said a little while ago Cowpe has never risen to great importance in the valley, but for three centuries it steadily furnished occupants for the position of Greave or Magistrate of the forest.  In 1574 in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Arthur Ashworth, of Cowpe, was the Greave of the Forest.  He was the occupier and owner of Crag Farm.  He bought Crag Farm in 1562 from Robert Ashworth; Robert Ashworth had bought it from Peter Pickup, who became possessed of Crag Farm in 1540.   The same Peter Pickup along with John Pickup surrendered to the use of Oliver Ormerod in 1553 a piece of land to the east side of Pyke Hill.  This, I make out to be Puss Height Farm, and this to be the time that it came into the possession of the Ormerods.  The same family occupied this farm for over three hundred years, my wife's father Jimmy o 'th Height being the last of his line on the farm something over forty years ago.  Some of us remember one of the family who was known as Lol o’ Ebbs, o' Lols o' Little Lols o'th Height.  It is now well over a hundred years since Lol o’ Ebbs was born, and is there are three generations beyond him represented in his sobriquet his name takes us back about two hundred years.  The Ormerods have played their part in the history of this district.  In 1561 John Ashworth and his son lived at Fair Well  (which we now call Fair Wall) and were described as Cutlers.  Near to Fair Well is Cutlers Green or Cutler Greens.  Tradition says these Ashworths came from Sheffield in the fifteenth century, but having regard to the name one would interpret the tradition as signifying that one of the family had sojourned in Sheffield, learned his trade as a cutler there, and then returned.  One of these Ashworths came as a tenant to Higher Boarsgreave Farm, and in 1742 John Ashworth, who was then living at Boarsgreave purchased Higher Boarsgreave Farm from Thomas Hoyle who owned both Higher and Lower Boarsgreave  Farms.   Members of the Hoyle family also in addition to owning and occupying these two farms at one time owned and also occupied Black Bank and Tong Farms and from Black Bank Farm sprang Captain Hoyle who originated the New Hall - Hey Woollen Mills, and Martha Hoyle, the mother of the New Hall Hey Hardmans.  It is interesting to note that in 1710 in The Reign of Queen Anne, Jenit Hoyle, widow; of Tong Farm, was Greave of the Forest, so there was evidently no sex disability applying to the office in those days.  In   1778 Henry Hoyle, of Cowpe, was Greave.  Others amongst the Greaves were Ralph Nuttall Cowpe, 1590; Richard Ormerod, Lench, 1597; John Ashworth, Lench, 1607; John Holt, Lench, 1624; Oliver Ormerod, Lench, 1650, Thomas Holt, Lench, 1658, John Ashworth, Lench, 1675; James Maddock, Cowpe, 1676,  (A name I have not been able to trace in any other connection) (George Ashworth, Cowpe (Part House), 1743, and others later.  Sometimes the residents on the West side of this valley are described as of Cowpe   and sometimes as of Lench.  This John Ashworth who purchased Higher Boarsgreave in 1742 had in his possession a quaint document relating to the time when his ancestors were at Cutler Greens.  It was the finding of a jury in 1573 appointed to decide a dispute between John Holt, James Holt, and William Ashworth.   The Court decided that "for the adjusting of all old malice, rancorre hateryd an evyill wyll all the ways and gates which John Holt, had heretofore used from the walls   beneath the Kilne up to the fold and from thence to the barn should no longer be used, but that he John Holt should carry and drive to and from his dwelling house upon and down the hollow to and from moss markets at his pleasure, and he was also to retain a garden stydde at the west end of James Holts barn, and a parcelle of land called Cattle banke in occupation of William Ashworth.   If either of the parties failed to carry out this arrangement he was to pay the Lord of the Manor £3 6s. 8d.  This document remained in the possession of the family until Mr. Richard Ashworth owner of Cowpe Mill, purchased the farm early last century, when it was handed to him along with the deeds.

    From these Boargreave Ashworths sprang a very large proportion of the people of Cowpe of the last forty years.  A daughter Ann of Jenit Hoyle of Tong Farm whom I mentioned as being Greave in 1710, became the wife of George Ashworth, owner and tenant of Part House Farm.  James Ashworth, of Fearns, married their daughter Mary, and Mr.   Richard Ashworth and his brothers were their sons - they were Ashworth both on the maternal and paternal side.

    This Mr. Richard Ashworth built Stag Hills for his son Mr. Edward Ashworth.  J.P.  From George Ashworth of Part House and Ann Hoyle Tong Farm sprang also the Ashworths of Aero Mill and the Ashworths of Lea Bank.  The Livesays came from Cheesden in the eighteenth century and were destined to play a very important part in the subsequent history of Cowpe.   Not only are the present Liveseys descended from them, but also a lot of the Ashworths, all the Birtwistles, and some of the Whittakers.  The combination of the Ashworths and Liveseys made it possible to say all Cowpe was related. The Turners occupied Intack and Part House Farms (successively) for more than two hundred years.  Another important family during last century was the Lord family.  I have not had an opportunity of tracing their ancestry.  For my own family I can only claim connection with Cowpe valley since shortly after 1820.  But for lengthy connection with the Rochdale Parish of which Cowpe formed a part, and for a, definite history, my family is second to very few if any.  We claim descent from one of four brothers, Roger, Robert, Lawrence and John who came to England from either Denmark or Germany shortly after the Conquerors time, and one of them settled in Bagslate.   Their name was as variously spelled as Earman and Heardsman.  The historian of Rochdale, Colonel Fishwick, thinks the original name was Heardman.  There is no written record of them for nearly two hundred years, but in 1296 William Herdman is recorded as holding land in the parish.  His father was Alexander Herdman.  Our definite ancestry which we can trace from generation to generation goes back to Robert Hardman who lived at Marcroft Gate, Spotland, in 1555.   His son Lawrence Hardman took Greens on a lease of 199 years in 1625 and the estate was afterwards purchased.  In 1696 the estate was divided into Great Greens and Sheephouse Greens, our branch of the family had Sheephouse Greens.  Here my grandfather was born in 1806.  We have played some little part in this island story of ours.  During the Civil War 1642-1649 we fought with Cromwell.  One member of the family John Hardman fought all through as an officer.  He was not our ancestor - his brother Robert was our ancestor, but John was the ancestor of both Alderman Hardman of Greens, and the Hardmans of New Hall Hey.  He was buried at Newchurch in 1704 aged 90.  The Vicar of Rochdale, Rev. Robert Bath was one who was evicted from his living in 1662 at the Restoration, and our family stood by him, seven members of the family signing a protestation to Parliament against Popery.  The historian of Rochdale pays us the qualified compliment of saying that "this family has never risen to eminence, but it has furnished a race of solid, sturdy, and sometimes substantial yeomen."   As I have said our connection with Cowpe such as it has been commenced nearly a century ago, and this was, I think, about coincident with the commencement of the modern history of Cowpe, and the introduction of industrialism. 

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    In the year 1738 the landowners of Cowpe and Lenches, that is  "all persons having estates in fee simple, for life, holders for years, lives, or otherwise in Cowpe and Lench” entered into an agreement with Richard Ashworth of Boothfold, yeoman, Henry Ashworth of Miller Barn, yeoman, and the Feoffees of James Hey of Boothfold to have "for the sum of fourteen pounds of lawful money of Great Britain, the right of way over a certain newly erected stone bridge called Hugh mill bridge and along the road leading to Carr Lane towards a place called the Waterfoot and on to Boothfold."  (Waterfoot no doubt received its name through the confluence of Cowpe brook and Whitewell with the lrwell just where the existing Waterfoot bridge stands).  They had to keep Hugh mill bridge and the road in question in repair.  A curious stipulation was that they had to maintain three "yates" (gates), one at Waterfoot, one at the South End of the Close, called Miller Barn, and one at the Head or East End of the Close or field called Miller meadow.  A deed executed in 1746 sets forth this agreement, and the signatories also covenant to allow "all and every person or persons to lead, draw, or carry coals over the road gotten and sold in and from Tenement called Hugh mill.  This document is interesting as showing the landowners in Cowpe and Lench at that time (1746) the signatories being as follows:-

    In  1791 James Haworth, one of the above signatories, was along with Edmund Lord of Rough Lea, trustee of these rights and obligations.  Mr. Haworth then lived at Warth.  It is interesting to note that in 1823 Robt. Haworth of Warth in his will left £500 to the treasurer of the Church Sunday school, Newchurch, and a like amount to the treasurer of the Sunday school belonging to the Society of the Wesleyan Methodists at Newchurch.  Whether Robert was the son of James Haworth I am unable definitely to say.

Cowpe Mill and part of Cowpe Village  - 1845
        Mr. James Livesey first erected a mill sometime toward the end of the eighteenth century, where the products from the hand looms in the farmhouses might be brought to be finished.  There was some arrangement whereby they got their warp and weft from Hareholme Mill, and took the pieces to Cowpe Mill to be finished.  Mr. Livesey had eight daughters six of them marrying three pairs of brothers, the other two also marrying.  Mr. Richard Ashworth and his brother married each one of the daughters and at the death of Mr. Livesey, Mr. Ashworth inherited the business, and in a directory of 1828 the business is described as Livesey and Ashworth.  About 1850 steam power was introduced, and work in the cottages came to an end.  The mill was enlarged and this mill stood until it was burnt down in 1876 when the present mill was erected.  My early days were passed amongst the men who had worked for Mr. Richard Ashworth since he obtained possession and even for Mr. Livesey before him, and they used to tell some quaint and amusing stories.  Two of these stories in particular John Collinge told me.  Another of the workmen told John that he wasn't satisfied with his wages, and was determined to have more.  He was working on a Willow and when Mr. Ashworth was approaching he put one hand behind him, and started pottering in the wool with one hand.  "Put both hands in,” said Dicky.  "Nay, nod aw, nod for six shillings a week."  On one occasion John Collinge and some others were instructed to work all night to get out something urgently wanted.   They very much resented this and decided that when Mr. Ashworth had gone to bed, they would go home.  They worked on until bedtime and then watched for the extinction of the light in Mr. Ashworth's bedroom window.   After waiting for a little time longer they put out their lights and went home.  John Collinge had to go to Borders Farm, nearly a mile away.  He had just nicely got snug in bed when a knock came to the door.  Mr. Ashworth had followed on to his home and took him back triumphantly to his work.  Although Mr. Ashworth has been dead for 50 years he still lives on in the history of Cowpe."  Another man James Lord - Lord Tackler as we called him, was proud to recall the commencement of co-operation in this district.  The Lord family, then fairly numerous, resenting a rebuff to one of its member who was unable to pay for the fortnight's groceries through Mr. Ashworth petulantly refusing to pay their wages on the Saturday night because certain work was not completed, combined together and formed along with others, a Co-operative Store.  The law of conspiracy then would not allow open combination, and they had to trade in the name of some individual, and Mr. James Lord had his name over the shop door, which was the house next to where he died opposite Cowpe Mill Gates.  This business was removed to Waterfoot sometime about 1850, and was the beginning of the Waterfoot Co-operative Stores.

    It is not generally known that this district had association with that wild, romantic, erratic genius, Lord Byron the poet, but such is in fact the case.  His family were Lords of the Manor of Rochdale, which as we have said includes Brandwood, from 1430 to 1823 when the spend thrift poet sold the Manorial rights.  During all the time he held the lordship he was engaged in litigation over his rights.    Although I have not found any references to Cowpe families in the litigation proceedings, they were concerned in the result of them as affecting their freehold rights.  We know that the poet came and stayed in Rochdale in connection with his Manorial affairs, but whether he came over here we don't know, but one would think it quite probable.

    In looking over the court Rolls of Clitheroe Castle I have been struck with the number of landowners in Cowpe through the centuries prior to last century.  About 1662 there were 19 Copyholders in Cowpe besides some freeholders, Brandwood being freehold. The coming of industrialism does not seem to have had a good effect in keeping an interest in the land.    If you look around all the old farmsteads you find in addition to the farmhouses one or two or three cottages and the land formerly supported all the occupants of those houses.  The people first of all procured a handloom and took weaving into their houses, and this was the first step towards losing interest in their land.  When steam power was introduced about 1830 the tillers of the ground then went to work inside.  The farming was neglected, and the farms were one after another sold.  The evil has been manifold.  The people of Cowpe have lost their former independent yeoman character, agriculture in the real sense of the word has been neglected, and we have done something towards producing what has been described as a C3 population.  I don't want to talk politics, much less party politics, but if the policy just enunciated by the Prime Minister results in the restoration of the land to the tenant, and the tenant to the land it is a laudable policy.  Well, has Oliver Goldsmith said: -

“Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
When wealth accumulates and men decay."

    It may seem paradoxical but it would be progress to restore such a district as Cowpe, to such a position as Cowpe occupied two centuries ago.  It then regularly furnished its   Greaves, but during a century of industrialism it had not furnished a single resident Magistrate up to the appointment of the late Ald. Wm. Lord as first Mayor and Chief Magistrate of the newly formed Borough of Rawtenstall.  (1891).

    How has the spiritual, intellectual, and social welfare of the people of Cowpe been provided for during the centuries which we have had under review?  I suppose we must not judge our forefathers by present day standards, but for all that I think we must conclude they have been somewhat neglectful of their obligations to provide for the exercise of the higher instincts of man.  Having regard to its long history one would have expected a Church to have been erected here even before St. Nicholas’ was erected.  In the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, they would attend Newchurch when they attended anywhere except for marriage, when they would have to attend the Parish Church of one of the parties, and if both parties lived in Cowpe this would be Rochdale or Bury.  But one fears they were not very zealous attenders at Divine Worship.  They were almost one an all for centuries in such circumstances as to have been able to provide themselves a Church, but this they failed to do, and it is a very safe assumption that the initiative was not taken by the Church Authorities on account of neither Rochdale nor Bury being entirely responsible.

The old Boarsgreave School
    The first public institution erected in Cowpe was the old Boarsgreave Sunday School, which was built in 1832.  The circumstances of its inception I had from my grandfather, who as a young man of 26 was one of the actual builders.  There had been an awakening of interest as a consequence of the Napoleonic Wars (one of my family by the way was killed at Waterloo), and the young men wanted a meeting-place as much, possibly more, for secular improvement as for worship, and they set about and built the school with their own hands.  They met whilst the school was under consideration and whilst it was in building in the house on the landing, which is still standing at Boarsgreave.  The house next door (where we afterwards lived so long had a licence and had a sign up just as elusive as most good things in life, "Good Ale to-morrow for nothing."   After the erection of the school an arrangement was made between Mr. Richard Ashworth, the Vicar of Rochdale and the Vicar of Tunstead to be responsible for the Services; an allowance was made by the Vicar of Rochdale and Mr. Ashworth contributed towards the cost.  This went on for 50 years when Mr. Ashworth raised the question amongst his friends of the creation of a new parish consisting of Cowpe, and the growing district of Waterfoot, the Church to be erected near Tenterheads.  The Waterfoot interests however proved the stronger and the Church of St. James', Waterfoot, was erected and consecrated in 1865, the Curate of Tunstead, Rev. Robert Smith, becoming the first Vicar, and continuing to take the service at Cowpe in the afternoon, an arrangement which has continued to this day.  The present building in which we now stand was erected in 1881 replacing, the Boarsgreave School.  The arrangement for the Spiritual responsibility is one which on the whole has worked very well.  It entails a lot of work for one clergyman, and there ought to be a curate.   But, as I often tell the Vicar, it has an incidental effect which the National Church would do well to copy - it gives the laity a lot of responsibility not only for finance, but also for appropriate spiritual work.  Nothing makes willing workers so much as having plenty of work to do, and I think I can say that (in normal times at any rate) we have a strong band of willing and efficient workers.

    One cannot conclude a history of Cowpe without reference to the Bacup Waterworks undertaking.  The Bacup Corporation obtained Parliamentary powers in 1898 "for the collection of waters for a moorland drainage of 595 acres at the top end of this valley, and the construction of the Cragg High Level Reservoir and the Cowpe Reservoir and all necessary works."  The purchase price of Land and Property for the site was £44,305, and the total expenditure up to the end of last year was £272,379.  These works were carried out and the water first ran through the pipes in 1904, supplying a population of about 26,500.  Thus the Waters of the Cuhope as described in the Norman Baron's declaration in the twelfth century is thus in the twentieth century adapted to the service of Fulbachope mentioned in the same document.  Than it no better water supply exists.  As a conclusion of this review I recall some words which the Historian of Rochdale uses as applying to the Parish of Rochdale as a whole.  They apply equally well to this district, he says, "If it's gratifying to the booted earl to see his descent traced through a long line of noble ancestors, so it is also a source of honest pride to the humbler commoner to know that his forefathers were good men and true although they may have held only the small estate on which they lived and where "far from the madding crowd" and simply doing the duty which was nearest to them they lived and died, bequeathing to those who followed them their lands and goods and" (and this additional bequest is at once the source of our pride and our responsibility) "the  example of a well spent life."

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Modern Cowpe

    In preparing the foregoing paper to read at a meeting of Cowpe people I omitted to review a good portion of the modern history of the village, feeling that my hearers, generally speaking, would be as familiar with it as myself.  But in committing my review to pamphlet form, very probably for perusal in years to come, it becomes desirable to hand down more particulars of the life of the village during our own times.  In fact a grave injustice would be done to the memory of a number of Cowpe worthies if their names were not mentioned in a history of the village written in 1918.

    I used to hear it said 35 to 40 years ago that Cowpe at that time had no more inhabitants than it had 60 or 70 years before then, and I believe it is still correct to say that there were quite as many people in the village 90 years ago as at present.  It does not develop, as it is just off the highway of affairs.  Prior to the road through the Thrutch being made in 1828 one of the main roads through Rossendale Valley was from the  "Warth" or ford at Waterfoot, along Warth Lane up Carr Lane, Hugh Mill, Clay Roads, Heys, and   'Brandwood Road, or Blackwood, to Tunstead and Bacup.  From Clay Roads the road also ascended the hill and was a most important highway to Rochdale.  This road was like a perpendicular dropped from the base to the apex of an inverted triangle - right down the backbone of the original Brandwood settlement of Rossendale.  In the days before the Road and the Railway went through the Thrutch Cowpe was more in tide of affairs than at present.    The present population I estimate to be - including Green Bridge but excluding Hugh Mill - about 450; not a large community for a place having a definite continuous identity for 700 years.

    An event which used to be very much talked about by the generation which has just passed away was "Cowpe Flood" which book place on July 4, 1838.  It was said that a cloud burst on Hailstorm Hill, and the waters rolled in torrents down the valley.  Part of Cowpe Mill and some of the houses were swept away, and one man was drowned at Waterfoot.  Whilst the waters were beating against the walls of the mill and carrying it away my grandmother gave birth to a baby in a house adjoining the mill.  This house a few minutes later was swept away.  Whilst the mother and newly born babe were being carried out one of the beams fell and struck the mother on the shoulder, and she could feel the effects of the blow to her dying day nearly 40 years later.  Another man of my acquaintance tells me that a relative of his was born in a house adjoining the mill the following morning.  Both these events were possibly precipitated by fright.  The incident of "Cowpe Flood" is mentioned   in Newbigging's first edition, but not in the last edition.

    The woollen industry established in Cowpe by Mr. James Livesey about 1780 was continued by his son-in-law Mr. Rich. Ashworth and his grandson Mr. Ed. Ashworth, J.P., of Staghills until 1897, when the mill was sold, along with all the lands further up the valley and the water rights, to Bacup Corporation.  The mill is now run by Messrs. J. W. Kearns as a   bleaching and dyeing works.  Other works lower down the valley towards Waterfoot are the Lumb Holes Felt works run by Messrs. Mitchell, Ashworth, and Stansfield, and Greenbridge Slipper works run by Mr. Joshua Trickett.

    As I have said, secular as well as religious education was taught in the Boarsgreave School on Sundays, and the three R's continued to be taught on Sundays until 1874.  Sometime after 1840 a "National" school was opened there in the week time with Mr. John Mellor as the schoolmaster.  He taught for a good number of years and had two or three successors prior to the passing of the Elementary Education Act of 1871 when attendance at school became compulsory.  The new regime introduced by this Act brought probably the first fully qualified teachers to Cowpe in Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Yates, natives of Leeds, in 1873.  Mr. Yates was headmaster in the Boarsgreave School and afterwards in the new school for 25 years, when he retired through a nervous breakdown.  Mrs. Yates remained at her post as a teacher two or three years longer.

The present Cowpe School
    The new school - the present building - was erected in 1881 at a cost of £1500, Mr. Edward Ashworth, J.P., and his family being generous contributors towards the cost.  In addition to contributing in accordance with their humble means the villagers laboured hard, just as our forefathers had done 50 years before to provide themselves with a more becoming sanctuary, both in the quarrying of the stone in the local quarries, and in the actual building operations.  It was to be a Sunday School, a Mission Church, and a Day School just exactly as was the Boarsgreave School.  The original trustees were:

Edward Ashworth, John Ashworth, George Ashworth, George Birtwistle, Paulinus Barnes, Thomas Ashworth, William Lord, John Lord Ashworth, William Meadowcroft.

Mr. Paulinus Barnes, one of the superintendents was the architect.  Mr. Barnes was a tower of strength to the life of the village, (to which he came as a lad in his teens from Todmorden) during the remainder of his long life of 76 years.  He achieved the remarkable record of being a superintendent for 56 years and his memory is perpetuated by a tablet in the school room unveiled last year by the present writer.

    Mr. Thomas Yates in addition to being schoolmaster for 25 years was a teacher and superintendent for 33 years and his memory is also perpetuated in the schoolroom by a tablet unveiled in 1917 by Mr. Barnes.  No village community was ever more fortunate in the character of its schoolmaster than has been Cowpe with Mr. Yates.  To young and old, but to young men most particularly he was a guide and a counsellor, and hundreds of people scattered about the country are thankful that their impressionable years were passed under his charge.


Late Alderman William Lord, First Mayor 

    Cowpe School had the distinction of furnishing in one of its old scholars, teachers, trustees and for 38 years a superintendent, the first Mayor of the Borough of Rawtenstall, the Late Alderman William Lord, (1891).  Mr. Lord was born at Slacks Farm, Back o'th' Law, and lived there and in the village all his life.  He died in 1895. 

    There have always been four superintendents of the Sunday School, each taking duty every fourth Sunday, and the holders of this office have always exercised a powerful influence over the life of the community. 

    The present writer having had for physical reasons to remove from Cowpe is the first to hold the office and live outside the village since the erection of the first building 86 years ago.


Late Alderman George Birtwistle 1821-1903   

Mr. George Birtwistle another of the trustees was one of the original Aldermen of Rawtenstall Borough.  He was manager of Cowpe Mills at the time of Cowpe Flood, 1838.    He was the father of Mr. George Henry Birtwistle, the present senior superintendent who has 29 years service to his credit.  The present writer has served for 20 years.  The death of Mr. Yates and Mr. Barnes has recently created two vacancies which have been filled by Mr. George Edward Hardman and Mr. William Whittaker.  Mr. Whittakers grandfather Thomas Ashworth was one of the original trustees.

    Since Waterfoot Parish was formed, Cowpe with the rest of the parish has been faithfully ministered to by the Rev. Robert Smith 1863 -1872, Rev. A. J. Harrison 1872-1885, Rev. Charles Wesson 1886-1895, Rev. J. T. Munn 1896-1908, and the Rev. T. E. Peel the present vicar 1908.  May the results of their labours multiply.

During the present war there have been 110 old scholars from the school serving with the colours.  Of this number 88 were either residents in the village or connected with the school when they joined up, and we regret to recall that of these 88 nine have paid the supreme sacrifice and of the inclusive total of 110 twelve have fallen.  Happily an armistice has been signed, and we sincerely trust that it may lead to an early and a lasting peace.

Rossendale's industrial development has been mainly along the banks of the lrwell or its larger tributaries, and Cowpe people have played no small part in this development.  Cowpe Mill, Acre Mill, Holt Mill, and New Hall Hey Mills were built and run by Cowpe people for woollen manufacture, and Irwell and Hall Carr Mills for Cotton Manufacture.  The father of Mr. Richard Ashworth, J.P., of Ashlands, who runs and has extended Bridge End and Longholme Felt Works belonged to Cowpe.  I may also mention Mr. James Trickett at Greenbridge Slipper Works and the Slipper Works run by my brothers and myself at Holt Mill and Warth Mill.

Four Cowpe Sunday School  Superintendants 1913
Seated right, the Late Mr. Paulinus Barnes and right, the late Mr.Thomas Yates.  Standing left, Mr.W. Hardman and right, Mr G.H.Birtwistle

The present Alderman Myles Ashworth of Rochdale is a native of Cowpe.  He has taken a leading part in the commercial and civic life of the town of his adoption which he has served as Mayor for two terms.

As we have shown there have been no violent changes in the village during all the centuries of its history.  The "Cuhope” still flows on as all through British, Saxon, and Norman times:


And the sweet rhythm of its music is quite in harmony with the quiet, peaceful life of the village and the villagers.  Beneath its surface the waters of the brook may be disturbed by boulders of which there is no visible evidence; or they may be temporarily swelled into a torrent by the storms on the hills round about.  So with the life of the village.  So has it been disturbed by the world-war which has robbed it of its young manhood.  But its sons have apparently accomplished their task; some are returning, and there are indications that it will not be long ore all the survivors return.  Then the village will probably resume its normal life in the consciousness that it has done its duty in the fight for freedom and liberty.  It will resume its normal life, hum-drum in some respects, but in other respects a beautiful old world life with an atmosphere sufficient to move the inspirations of the poet and painter.  All its children have day dreams, and it may be that one day, as in the legend, one of its children will have such day dreams about the great world beyond, and such ideals of that great world and the motives impelling its activities, that he will become the embodiment of those ideals, and will bring fame to his native village.