Libby Ashworth
WHEN the production of Lancashire’s lucrative cotton moved
from home-spun cottage industries to the factory floors of mighty, mechanised
mills, it brought change and hardship to many families across the county.
Libby Ashworth – who has written several historical novels and
non-fiction books featuring fascinating corners of the county’s rich heritage
under the name Elizabeth Ashworth – was born and raised in the Blackburn area
and can trace her family back to the village of Whalley in the Middle Ages.
But in this first hard-hitting and captivating book of her
new Mill Town Lasses saga series, Ashworth draws inspiration from the lives of
her great, great, great, great grandparents, Jennet and Titus Eastwood, who
were forced to move from their cottage in the countryside in the early decades
of the 19th century to find work in the burgeoning mill town of
Blackburn. Several women in Ashworth’s family were weavers and suffered
the grind and privations of work in Lancashire mills and, ironically, her
research threw up a possible blood link to Sir Richard Arkwright, the Preston
man who was one of the leading players of the Industrial Revolution and is
credited with founding the whole factory system.
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| FAMILY INSPIRATION: Libby Ashworth |
And the series, she reveals, is her tribute to the
hardworking, resilient women mill workers who brought up their families and
supported one another through some shocking and appalling times.
Until 1826, Jennet and Titus Eastwood have forged a living
by spinning cotton at their idyllic cottage at Pleck Gate in the countryside
near Blackburn where the air is clean and they have a garden to grow their own
vegetables.
But it has become impossible to make ends meet as the price
of home-spun cloth has fallen because the new mills and their machinery can
weave the cotton so much faster. With reluctant hearts, the couple and their
baby daughter Peggy leave their cottage and move into the centre of Blackburn
to find work in the cotton mills. But their new home in Paradise Lane bears no resemblance to
anything heavenly… damp and neglected, it sits in the middle of a grubby
terrace and across the road from the towering walls of Dandy Mill which steals
all the light from their small house.
Click HERE for Lancashire Post review
Click HERE for Lancashire Post review
Soon their lives are changed in so many ways. Titus finds
the long hours of mill work, hard, hot and noisy, little Peggy falls seriously
ill, and Jennet cannot imagine ever feeling happy in her new home. And when Titus is arrested and sent to prison in Preston for
attending a Reform meeting which gets dangerously out of hand, Jennet is left
to fend for herself and their child. But things
become even worse when she finds herself pregnant and alone… with another man’s child.
become even worse when she finds herself pregnant and alone… with another man’s child.
Ashworth uses her vast local knowledge and research, her eye
for rich period detail, and passion for her home county to bring readers an
enthralling story which offers a vivid portrait of the tumultuous early years
of the Industrial Revolution in Lancashire. Jennet’s struggles to protect her family and battle through
the unimaginable hardships of work, illness, caring for her little daughter,
putting food on the table and suffering the fall-out of the Reform riots make
for gripping reading.
The rise of the mills changed everything for the workers of
Lancashire and The Cotton Spinner helps to put their experiences and their
plight into a memorable focus. Brimming with drama, heartbreak, love,
friendship and the powerful bonds of family, this is an exciting opener to a
wonderful new series.
(Arrow, paperback, £6.99)
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