You may remember me commenting earlier that in these days of efficient motor vehicles we don't take much account of hills but in the days of horse-drawn transport they were real obstacles to trade. Once you recognise this and start to enquire, one of the best pieces of evidence we have is that the canal is a very accurate spirit level. From Barrowford to Greenberfield it's dead flat and gives us some useful clues. Even though I know it is the case it always comes as a bit of a surprise that despite the fact we have to go uphill from the village to Barlick, the wharf at Coates is on exactly the same level as the one at Salterforth. The topography is very deceptive but controls the way water runs out of the parish. This may seem to be only a small matter but it had a big influence on how Salterforth developed. We need to look at drainage.
If you set off out of the village towards Coates via Cross Lane you have to go uphill. Once you have crossed over the old railway line, any water draining from there heads towards Barlick and the drains are in the shallow valley bottom in which the canal sits. They are gathered in a large drain called the Bowker Drain (That's right, my old puzzle!) which flows gradually alongside the canal via Long Ing and Eastwood bottoms before it empties into the Stock Beck below Crow Nest Mill. At that point it joins the Barlick streams and flows into the Ribble and the Irish Sea.
Every other stream and drain in Salterforth flows via Earby into the Aire catchment and ends up in the North Sea. So what? How does this affect the way the village developed? Take a step back and consider how Barlick managed to get a toe-hold in the textile industry and develop into one of the most concentrated weaving centres in England by 1914 when there were too many looms in the town for the local population to run and the mills depended on outside labour coming in each week to man them. The key factor in the early days was the availability of water power from the streams running down off the Weets enabling the early water mills. Old Coates Mill was the basis of the large fortune made by William Bracewell of Coates and his extensive putting-out trade whereby he provided yarn for the cottage industry. From this sprang the Earby Bracewells and Billycock.
Now look at Salterforth. It had a big problem. The main source of water coming down off the hill was the Black Brook, later called County Brook. Once it got below the line of the canal it flowed into the bottom land running from Foulridge through Kelbrook and Sough and forward into Earby. There was hardly enough fall in this valley to get rid of the water, let alone provide power for a water mill. This is why Salterforth never had any water-powered industry and had the double disadvantage of suffering from flooding in Salterforth Bottoms. Even if there had been enough fall to run a mill on the course of the Black Brook there was another problem. This water fed Whitemoor Reservoir built in 1840 by the canal to supplement the water used in the summit level of the canal. We know that at least one mill, Midge Hole on County Brook, was abandoned because of the canal company interrupting the flow. Any water used by the canal drained away eventually via the locks at Barrowford and Greenberfield.
We can get some idea of how seriously this bad drainage at Salterforth was viewed if we have a look at the 1829 Buttle Award which set out the new enclosures under the 1814 Act for Enclosure in the district. Apart from allocating the new enclosures on what had hitherto been Common Land open to all, a special section of the award dealt with the drainage of 'Salterforth Moss' and the making of a public main drain to be known as the Salterforth and Kelbrook Main Watercourse. Another drain called the Salterforth Moss Catch Water Drain and two subsidiaries called Fleets Covered Drain and Salterforth Beck to the Carrs were also directed to be made. The Roundell Estate (Gledstone) was responsible for this last one but the others were to be administered by drainage commissioners who were responsible for supervising the affected land owners. Edmund Wilkinson of Salterforth was the most prominent local commissioner. Edmund is mentioned in Baines Directory for 1822 as 'Gentleman of Salterforth' and on an electoral roll for Barlick in 1807 as 'farmer of Barnoldswick', beyond that I know nothing of him. The making of these drains would doubtless give some employment to the villagers and the result was an improvement in the quality of the land in the bottoms. From the contemporary name 'Salterforth Moss' it would seem to have been nothing but an unproductive bog before.
We're getting a picture of a village that from 1820 onwards was getting the benefit not only from the opportunities the canal presented and the improvement of drainage and land but also of the rise in demand for workers in Barnoldswick as Mitchell's Mill expanded using steam power and William Bracewell built his new steam mills at Butts and Wellhouse in 1846 and 1854. There was a big demand for workers, Bracewell was scouring the country for labour and I don't doubt that Salterforth benefited as well.
Probably the next exciting development in Salterforth came via Barnoldswick. John Slater and sons were tenants at Mitchell's Mill in 1860. John Slater bought the mill in 1867 for £3,000. [£1000 in May 1867, £1000 in November 1867 and £1000 by May 1868.] The full price was paid by November 1867. He renamed it Clough Mill and also had an interest in the silk mill at Galgate near Lancaster. After John’s death, c.1868, the firm of John Slater and Sons take over the whole of Clough. The partners were the sons, Joseph, Henry, Thomas, Clayton and James who traded as Slater Brothers but as time wore on friction developed between them. In 1880 Clayton Slater, 41 years old, one of the partners, left for Canada taking part of the machinery with him. It would seem that James Slater had itchy feet as well because in 1888 we find him promoting the Salterforth Weaving Shed Company. In November of that year the mill opened and contained 400 looms, in 1889 the warehouse was built and in 1899 an extension was built for a further 230 looms. Once again Salterforth had taken advantage of the boom in the textile trade and had become a 'mill town' The mill wove until 1972 when it was bought by Silentnight to use as a corporate headquarters and showroom. We all know of course that 'progress' has struck again and the mill will soon go and be replaced by houses.
Sorry about the quality but here's a picture of Salterforth around 1900 when you had a mill chimney!