Barlick was booming from 1887 till 1914 when the Great War interrupted progress. There were three major areas of improvement all of them having their genesis in the success of the new mills. The character and infrastructure of the town, the stimulus to local services and the effect they had on the workers. All these were essential parts of 'making a living'.
From 1886 onwards there was a building boom, land was developed, houses were built and in turn these demanded modern services. A gas company was formed and a new gasworks built on land next to the Corn Mill, gas mains and public street lighting were installed. Wells were sunk at Whitemoor and water mains installed throughout the town. An entirely new water-carriage sewage system was put in with a treatment works on Greenberfield Lane. Backing all this up a programme of street paving started around 1900 which improved pavements and gave relatively dust free streets in the middle of town. All this building stimulated the local quarries, Greenberfield and Rainhall Rock for roadstone and the Sagar's Tubber hill quarries for building stone. On Salterforth Lane Park Close quarry made bricks and specialised in road setts.
Try to imagine what it was like living in the town in those days, the streets were full of builders carts and wagons, all the stone you see in the town came down Tubber Hill at one time. Imagine the number of horses, the constant demand for hay and fodder for them and the same amount of manure which had to be moved from the town stables to be spread on the land. Add to this the normal traffic of coal carrying and the new machinery coming in by canal and rail for the mills and then drop into the mix the increasing number of pedestrians. I often think that Barlick at that time must have been like an ant-hill!
All these activities needed services to support them, the builder's yards, joinery shops and smithies were hives of activity. Professional services like doctors, banks, accountants, solicitors and stockbrokers flourished. Local government had to be transformed and the Urban District Council was formed. Streets had to be surveyed and laid out and once finished, had to be swept and maintained. The new sewage system meant the decline of the night soil man but the town's normal rubbish had to be dealt with. These were all new jobs and the posts were filled by local men. Money had to be raised, rates and rents collected and nuisances detected and put right. Think of any function of local government now and these early councillors had to start with a blank sheet and invent them. One great advantage was that all the money made in the town stayed in the town, this was what financed the improvements. Making money had never been easier and next week we'll look at how it trickled down to the rest of the town.
The Council bought a steam roller in 1898.