Monday 20th April 2026

Monday 20^th April 2026

Walk to include part of the route of the 1826 Weavers Uprising, from Chatterton

The aim of today’s walk was to follow part of the route that the handloom weavers would have taken on the day of the riots. We were fortunate that our resident historian, Tony, had already prepared handouts with the details of the action and he stopped at the main sites to enlighten us.

The riots, in Chatterton, near Ramsbottom, occurred on April 26, 1826, Driven by starvation, high food prices, and the loss of handloom weaving jobs to the new power looms. Thousands of protestors marched to destroy machinery. At Chatterton, after the Riot Act was read by Willian Grant, Justice of the Peace, soldiers were then allowed to fire on the crowd, killing at least six people.

Our route began from Lumb Carr car park and headed through Tagg Wood into Ramsbottom. On reaching Carr Street we joined the footpath at the side of the Rose & Crown pub and followed the track to Buckden Wood. After crossing the footbridge, we turned right and headed down into Strongstry and onto Stubbins, where we enjoyed our morning coffee in bright sunshine before we started rioting.

We then made our way towards the first of the mills, by heading down Chatterton Old Lane, the route that most of the rioters took. Part way down the lane where the rioters first met the soldiers, but they managed to get around then and started to destroy the machinery in Chatterton Mill, owned by Thomas Aitken. It was at this point that William Grant, read the Riot Act and the soldiers began to shoot.

Our route then headed along Chatterton Lane back through Stubbins to the next mill that they visited owned by Samual & Thomas Ashton at the end of Crow Lane in Ramsbottom. Continuing in the direction that the rioters would have taken we walked through Nuttall Park and joined the footpath into Summerseat. Again, there is very little evidence of the mill, which was Robin Road Mill, on the road of the same nam.

At the time there where several mills in Summerseat including a printing, dyeing and a twist mill, used for spinning cotton.

Once across the bridge over the River Irwell, we followed its route down into Burrs Country Park, where we stopped for lunch. After lunch we walked down Woodhill Road to the site of Woodhill Mill, owed by Willam Hutchinson, this was thought to be the last mill the rioters visited that day.

After crossing Brandlesholme Road we joined the Kirklees Trail and walked back into Greenmount and up to Lumb Carr where we had started the walk having covered fourteen historic miles.