For 200 years after the Black Death our old Barlickers soldiered on through many changes. The strangle hold of Kirkstall abated somewhat in temporal matters as ownership of parts of the Manor changed until the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII in the mid 16th century. At this point everything changed, not least the spiritual climate. Henry's new Anglican Church was essentially still Catholic but under the influence of the Reformation in Europe, even though they were illegal, copies of first the New Testament and later the Old Testament started to be smuggled into England. The dissatisfaction with Catholic teaching in Latin, which ordinary people couldn't understand, grew and with it different ways of thinking. The message the Roman church had been peddling for centuries was revealed to be false. Nowhere in the Bible was there any mention of confession, purgatory or the power of the church to issue indulgences, the 'get out of gaol free' tickets sold by the priests. Non conformism arose and isolated bands of worshippers gathered in remote locations on the moors to worship according to their understanding of Christianity. It's worth noting that at this stage they didn't sing as part of their worship because that would have given away their position.
We know that Dissent was strong in Barlick because the Baptists in Walmsgate were one of the first legal congregations in England. History records prosecutions for Dissent in Barlick from 1500 onwards and by the time King James II's Declaration of Indulgence was proclaimed in April 1687 there was a thriving congregation who were able to establish a proper place of worship. What this signals to me is the presence in the town of educated, literate and thoughtful people who were not only able to make decisions in spiritual matters but were able to succeed in finding new ways of making an independent living. We've already noted the importance of the woollen cloth trade in the area as a means of making an independent living. Surviving wills almost always have an inventory of goods and the tools of the weaver's trade figure largely even in farmer's wills. Weaving was well established and the skills needed widespread.
By the end of the 18th century small cotton textile watermills were being operated in Barlick. Funnily enough we have a piece of evidence that points to Barlick being different. The usual technology in the early powered mills was the Arkwright Water Spinning Frame, whether licensed or pirated. According to Chris Aspin of Rossendale, a considerable historian, Barlick never went down the waterframe route but stuck to the older process of making soft 'roving' for use by hand spinners. Even here they were showing evidence of independent thought.
One of the early watermills, Clough or Mitchell's Mill as it was called then, installed a steam engine before 1827 according to George Ingle (evidence from insurance records). This was a brave innovation and definitely independent thought, the new technology took off and Barlick was on the road to a bright future.
The original Baptist chapel in Walmsgate.
