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Archiver > ENGLISH-FENS > 2001-04 > 0986419977


From: THJ <>
Subject: [FENS] Higher Booths
Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2001 22:39:06 +0100
In-Reply-To: <200104030500.f3350Mu26029@lists5.rootsweb.com>


Higher Booths was an administrative area within the Rossendale Valley
before the creation of the Borough of Rawtenstall in the late 1880's. It
comprised, as you rightly have said the area to the north of Rawtenstall,
taking in Reedsholme, Crawhawbooth, Loveclough, Goodshaw and
Dunnockshaw. There were also some detached parts of Higher Booths near to
Rawtenstall centre. The area where the town of Rawtenstall is
situated and parts to the south and East of the town were in Lower Booths.

A booth was a temporary summer dwelling for people looking after cattle in
the pasturelands which existed pre mid 1750 and were the chief occupation
of those parts. There are about twenty local placenames containing the
word Booth.

Many families from the Fens moved to the industrial areas of Lancashire
during the mid- late 1800's as the need for cheap labour grew in the Cotton
areas and the numbers of unemployed agricultural workers
increased. Lancashire millowners often struck deals with the Parish
officials to move unemployed families north.

In the census returns for the Rossendale towns, there is hardly a village
in Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire that isn't represented.

Please let me know if you need any help in East Lancs.


Terry Haslam-Jones
Bacup
Rossendale
Lancashire


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