ABSTRACT
The name of Saddleworth is applied to a range of wild and hilly country about seven miles long and five broad, lying on the western confines of Yorkshire, and including one spot from which a walk of ten minutes will carry the visitor across the boundaries of four counties, into Lancashire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire. To all intents and purposes, however, Saddleworth lies in the latter county ,its heathery hills and deep valleys dividing the woollen from the cotton cities, and being themselves peopled by a hardy, industrious, and primitive race engaged in the manufacture of flannel and cloth - sometimes in mills, sometimes by their own hearths; in which latter case the business of a dairy farmer is often added to that of a manufacturer, and the same hands ply the shuttle and milk the cows. Saddleworth is now intersected by the Leeds and Huddersfield Railway, and as a consequence, is beginning to lose much of those primitive characteristics for which it was long renowned. Until recently there was no regular means of transit from many of its valleys to the more open parts· of the country. Goods were conveyed by the Manchester and Huddersfield Canal; and many a small manufacturer and comfortable farmer grew grey amid the hills, without ever having journeyed further than Oldham and Staleybridge on the one hand, and perhaps Huddersfield or at furthest Leeds, upon the other. The rail has however thrown open the wilds of Saddleworth to the world. Mills driven by water and steam, are rising on every hand, and the old-fashioned domestic industry, carried on in the field and the loom-shop, is gradually dying away.
