Social History collection overview

Development of the collection

Local history objects were among the start-up collections recorded in the first Museum register. On the first page is Samuel Crompton’s death mask, donated by J. P. Thomasson (a local mill owner, and natural history collector) in 1879. Today, the Local history collections number upwards of 20,000 objects and are a rich resource for understanding the experience of living in Bolton (particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries) and the towns identity.

Strong local historical links for all Bolton's collections

In a sense, all of the Museum’s collections whether art, natural or human history, are local history objects by virtue of being collected and deposited by local donors, and by being part of the Museum’s history. In this respect the local history collections are important because they draw all of these disparate strands together into a large unified narrative.

Crompton and textile industry

Early history collecting focused on Samuel Crompton, local “relics” (e.g. a cannon ball from the Civil War, a piece of carved wood from the old Parish church), and early cotton processing machinery. Sir Benjamin Dobson who led the development of the Museum for the council, probably influenced the collecting of machinery, and was himself former head of Dobson and Barlow, Bolton’s most famous cotton machine making firm.

Only surving spinning mule made by Crompton

The star items from this period are the only surviving mule to be made by its inventor, Samuel Crompton, and several machines from Sir Richard Arkwright’s Cromford mill. These are objects of national importance as they represent the leading edge of the Industrial Revolution.

The first big collecting drive relating to this collection was to stock the Hall i’ th’ Wood museum. This Tudor-period house was home to Samuel Crompton, and was bought and restored by W.H. Lever, later Lord Leverhulme (of Sunlight Soap / Lever Brothers fame), for the town of Bolton to be used as a museum. Under the second curator, Thomas Midgley, it was developed as a folk museum of domestic life in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Lord Leverhulme

Leverhulme sponsored collecting furniture, kitchen objects and art for this museum – around 500 individual objects. Leverhulme was born in Bolton and always maintained a home in the area; he was a mayor of Bolton and large-scale private collector, creating the Lady Lever Gallery in his model village, Port Sunlight. Like many Boltonians he was interested in both the town’s history and future.

In 1927, the year of the Crompton centenary, a Tudor building known as Hacking Hall was investigated before it was demolished. It was discovered that a cotton dealer had resided in the hall, and a number of notes relating to his trade were discovered with woven and spun cotton samples.

Earliest Lancastrian cotton samples

These are the earliest surviving examples of pure cottons woven in Lancashire (c.1610). The significance of this find of 20 objects is described by Wadsworth and Mann (1968) in their text The Cotton Trade and Industrial Lancashire 1600 - 1780.

Between the 1930s and 1950s there was a lull in local history collecting by the museum. Then in the early 1960s two new collections were begun.

Bygones collection

The Bygones collection was begun with the aim of developing a collection that represented all aspects of local life in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Collecting areas included: civic material, weights and measures, societies and clubs (religious and secular), insurance marks, militaria, kitchen ware, domestic technology, royal visits, sporting equipment and trophies, home entertainment, public entertainment, personal items (e.g. toiletries, hearing aids), cameras, photographs and albums, postcards, scrap books, drinking and theatres, fire and police services, local businesses, medical and pharmacy, advertising.

The collection was built through donations by numerous Bolton people and is therefore a collection of what local people have seen as important to save for posterity.

Textiles

A separate Textiles collection was simultaneously established for clothing, embroidery and wovens. The clothing collection is made up of around 1200 pieces and its main strength is mid 19 – mid 20th century women’s wear. A local collector, Miss B. L. Walker donated around 500 of the items in this collection. Bolton was a centre for weaving from at least the 1500s. From the 18-20th centuries it was known for its counterpanes. Some examples in the collection, known as Bolton Quilts, were hand woven in the 1790s. The counterpanes are an area prime for research.

Later industrial collection

In 1974 a new industrial collection was established that expanded on the existing historic textile machinery collection. This covered major Bolton industries: coal, cotton, bleaching, chemical, engineering, and transport, and distinctive local industries: clog making, skip making. It also includes a collection of text books related to cotton and coal mining industry. Key groups within this collection are:

The Bolton made Dobson and Barlow cotton machinery, of which the star is the only surviving fine spinning mule in Lancashire (and probably England). The major donor of this collection was the Bolton Institute (now University)
The pattern books collection, this includes early books such as the Peel & Co. pattern book (1807-20s), a Tootal, Broadhurst and Lee group, and the 20th century set from Joseph Johnson, which includes a complete run of 5000 painted designs (with alterations and annotations) with woven samples.
The visually interesting bolt stamp and labels collection, largely related to Hampson mills Bury, donated by the Bleachers Association, and to Slater’s Works in Bolton, donated by Slater’s
41 Hick Hargreaves locomotive drawings. This local engineering firm produced locomotives during the early railway boom. These are original hand drawn and coloured designs for engines built from the 1820s to 1850s and sold here, in Europe and America.

One of the major challenges with this collection is to develop the knowledge of the relationships between design (e.g. pattern books), production (e.g. machinery) and markets, especially in the context of global trade. Sykas (2005) in his Secret Life of Textiles has suggested some connections in these areas, but much work remains to be done. The machinery collection has been listed in the publication First Steps (1998). There is also work to be done in developing links with the university textile and design courses.

Photography collection

Over the twentieth century the local history photograph collection has grown. This includes an interesting record of mills and foundries, some of which are now demolished. It is also a record of local people, places, work and life.

The 5000 strong collection includes around 300 photographs of local brides wearing dresses made by local dressmaker Anne Heaton (a.k.a. Poppy Hinds) during her career spanning the mid 1920s to 1969. The latter collection was a gift from her daughter Yvonne Bryce.

Mass Observation project

Bolton Museum is also the recognised collector of Humphrey Spender’s Worktown photographs taken as part of the Mass Observation project in Bolton in 1937-8. This collection has been developed through purchases from the photographer himself and other collectors. There are over 900 prints and negatives within this archive. It is one of the Museums’ premiere collections, is of international significance, and is heavily requested by other Museums for loan.

Over the last couple of decades local history collecting has tended to run along the themes that had emerged in previous decades. The post-war ethnic and religious diversification of the Bolton population is not well represented in this object record. Addressing this absence is the main challenge for local history collecting in the 21st century. One of the key aspects of the Local History collection is its complimentary relationship with the Archives and Local Studies collections. Both work well together for researchers looking into local politics, industry, and family history. The development of these collections runs in parallel.

Value of the collection

The local history collections are extremely important because they are a way to explain why Bolton developed the way it did. They provide narratives that contextualise Bolton’s past and present.

Bolton has been involved in two major social, economic and environmental transitions over the past three centuries. As a Lancashire cotton town it was at the forefront of the industrial revolution – the transition from rural home-based work to town-dwelling factory work (from c.1750). This was not just a revolution in ways of working but also in ways of living, and Bolton profited and suffered as the population learnt to live in an industrial town and economy.

Then, in the second half of the twentieth century Bolton experienced industry recede as one by one the mills that defined the townscape closed. While entering this post-industrial era it simultaneously entered the post-colonial era with the population diversifying through immigration. Once again the population was faced with adjusting to new ways of living and working. Explaining these macro transitions and the major events that happened along the way (e.g. wars, depressions), as well as the myriad of individual stories that sit within them, is the purpose of this collection.

The collection also provides ample scope for connecting with many areas of the school curriculum as the research, display and education work to mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade has recently shown.