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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted -  21/10/2011  :  09:38

HORSE POWER PART ONE

The First World War from 1914 to 1918 is ancient history to most young people these days but, as I have pointed out in the past, very few of those youngsters come from a family that wasn't changed forever by the consequences of the deaths on the Western Front, the Spanish Flu epidemic that struck in 1918 and a host of other changes that were triggered by the war. The biggest change for Barlick was the decline in the cotton industry which started in July 1920 as a direct consequence of the disruption of trade caused by the conflict. These massive events left scars on the town that are still with us today. On November 11th we will focus again on the list of names on the War Memorial and remember the fallen. The more informed citizens will also remember the other effects of the Great War as it was called then.

This week I want to look at one of the lesser known but significant changes that cast a long shadow. When the British Army went into Belgium and France in 1914 it relied totally on horses for transport and of course, as mounts for the cavalry brigades. It is often said that when we go to war we are always behind the times because we are using the technology of the last conflict. This was the same all over the world. A friend of mine in America once told me that when his father volunteered for the American Army in 1939 because 'he thought there was going to be trouble with Hitler', he was disgusted to find he was sent to Oregon for intensive training as a cavalry man. The problem was of course that the generals had not moved on and recognised that the technology of killing had changed.

In 1914 the first reaction of the generals was to recruit men as volunteers. At the same time, contrary to general perceptions, they introduced conscription but it was called by a different name. They scoured the country for horses, hay and oats and 'requisitioned' them for the duration. They knew that any increase in the size of the army had to be matched by an increase in the number of horses and feed for them. It's very difficult to find any numbers in order to get an idea of the scale of this problem. The first German army to enter Belgium in 1914 had 84,000 horses which ate 900 tons of fodder a day, remember that all this feed had to be transported by horse drawn transport as well. This gives us an idea of the size of the problem.

Of course, by 1914 motor transport was available but in its infancy. Apart from a few staff cars, civilian vehicles had to be requisitioned for general transport. I think we have all seen pictures of London buses and taxis being used on the Western front to ferry troops around and we have records of steam traction engines being taken as well. The Germans had the same problem and Kluk's first army in 1914 had about 1,300 motor wagons, mainly used in civilian life for carting beer! Despite these imaginative measures, horses were the main form of transport in the early years of the war.

The fact that these enormous numbers of horses could be requisitioned at short notice tells us that they were available. I'm afraid I haven't a clue about the horse population of England in 1914 but it must have been enormous. However, my research into Barlick has produced enough information to give us an idea of how common they were here. This is where we start to get some idea of the scale of one of the changes caused by the war. On average, one ton of coal ran 35 looms for a week. We know that just before the war there were about 20,000 looms in the town so we can take a rough guess that the coal consumption in the mills alone was about 600 tons a week. All this had to be carted by horse-drawn tipping wagon from the railway yard or the canal wharf. The carts held about one and a half tons so this means a minimum of 400 journeys a week to the mills loaded and the same number empty back to the yard, over 800 trips a week. On top of this we have to add all the other horses used for domestic coal, carriers, local traders and personal transport. I admit that it's pure guesswork but I reckon there was a minimum of 2,000 horses at work in the town every day. They all had to be stabled, fed and cared for, many would be on the local farms but a large number had to be accommodated in stables in the town. We know that there were stables in Butts and at all the mills. One of the things that the Calf Hall Minutes made me aware of was that if a horse was ridden to work by a manufacturer it had to be accommodated for the day, in summer it was easy, just turn it out in an adjacent paddock but in winter it had to be under cover. Using the German army figures, these horses were eating about thirty tons of feed a day, over 200 tons a week, and all this had to be provided from the local farms and corn merchants.

There is also the question of the horse muck and bedding. 2,000 horses would produce about 500 tons a week, all of which had to be carted to local farms or market gardens where it would be used as fertilizer. Bear in mind that horses aren't house-trained, quite a lot of muck was dropped on the streets. When I was a lad it was a golden rule that if a tradesman's horse dropped any muck on the road outside the house it was shovelled up and put onto the garden. I think there must have been a lot of well-manured gardens in Barlick right up to the 1920s!

I think we have done enough to demonstrate that until after the First World War any notions we have about a quiet town with people walking about in the street have to be modified. Over 2,000 horses were going about the town, many of them hauling carts and wagons. Towers Singleton in Commercial Street was hiring out carriages and even in death, we went to Gill in a horse-drawn hearse. Horse power was King and if we could bring an old Barlicker back to look at today's streets one of the first thing they would ask is “where are the horses?”. All this was to change and next week we'll look at how this came about.

Hacking's oat cake bakery in Westgate in about 1890. Every trader needed transport.


Stanley Challenger Graham




Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk

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Lancsbabe
New Member


2 Posts
Posted - 23/10/2011 : 18:54

Here we have a photo back in the 1970s Horse drawn Fruit and veg cart on Ruskin Avenue with my son and nephew on the horse I cannot remember the mans name but he was a well known Colner. 


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wendyf
Senior Member


1439 Posts
Posted - 23/10/2011 : 22:06
Nice photos Jill, the second one could almost be in the same place as Moh's picture, just 40years on.
I dont like to think what a cart load of dog dirt would smell like!


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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 24/10/2011 : 06:32


Horse outside Central Coop in Albert Road in 1968.


Stanley Challenger Graham




Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk Go to Top of Page
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