ChrisASPINChris Aspin, who has died at the age of 91,
was one of Rossendale, and indeed Lancashire’s,
finest historians.
He was the author of more than twenty-five books on the history of Rossendale, Lancashire and the textile industry both in this country and abroad.
His expertise on the early cotton trade was well known and his help was sought by researchers from all over the world. Chris began writing articles in the 1950s and published his first book in 1962. Haslingden 1800 – 1900 examined the development of the town largely through reports in local newspapers. It quickly sold out and has become a much sought after title, changing hands at prices which Chris found astonishing. In 1964,
Chris produced a pioneering study of James Hargreaves, inventor of the spinning jenny, while his Lancashire: the first industrial society (1969) looked at the social changes the county underwent during the Industrial Revolution. In terms of textile history, Chris’s magnum opus was The WaterSpinners: a new look at the early cotton trade (2003).
In this book, which was some fourteen years in the making, Chris looked at the impact of Arkwright’s invention on the north of England and located the sites of many early water-powered spinning mills. Chris spent his entire life in Helmshore, where he attended the local council school before moving on to Haslingden Grammar School. Leaving at the age of 16, Chris had little idea of what do to for a career.
Spotting an advertisement in a local newspaper, he applied and found himself appointed Accrington and district reporter for the Lancashire Evening Post. Thus began his long career as a journalist. From Accrington, he moved to the Northern Daily Telegraph in Blackburn, then to Wigan and Bolton, before joining the Manchester Evening News in 1965.
He wrote mainly on business, finance and music matters. He retired in 1993. Chris’s interest in local history began in childhood when he discovered a series of pamphlets Historical Notices of Helmshore and Musbury published in the 1920s. After doing his National Service in the RAF, he and his friend the late Derek Pilkington co-founded Helmshore Local History society in 1953. The Society began to build up an archive of material relating not only to Helmshore and Haslingden but to other parts of Rossendale too. Many of the photographs and items of ephemera later found their way into picture histories, beginning with Helmshore (1977) and Haslingden (1979).
In its early days, the Society held lectures, and members undertook an excavation of part of the Roman road at Edgworth. In 1958 and 1959, two colour films recorded village life, capturing Helmshore just before the large-scale changes of the 1960s. In 1967, Chris and Derek were instrumental in saving the water powered woollen fulling mill in Helmshore which had belonged to the Turner family. The mill had closed, and its contents were scheduled to be sold for scrap. At the last minute a preservation order halted the sale and work began to turn the mill into a working museum. Within a short time, it was attracting hundreds of visitors and gained an international reputation. It is now part of the Helmshore Textile Museum site. Apart from history, Chris’s other great passion was cricket. He played as a child and youth and was a skilled bowler. Later in life, he became secretary of Haslingden Cricket Club, a position he held for more than 40 years. The club honoured him by naming a suite after him at their Bentgate grounds. Chris wrote annual reports on the Lancashire League for Wisden and was proud to be acknowledged as their oldest contributor when filing his report for 2023. Chris had an easy facility with verse, often producing poems to mark some local event. His memorial poem for the closure of the railway through Helmshore in 1966 begins: Old line farewell. Now useless you must lie In mute rebuke of those who let you die. In old age, he would write something every day before breakfast as a means of keeping his brain active and he issued many of these poems in slim volumes, beginning with Smile, please in 2004. From a young age, Chris had an interest in the paranormal. For many years he was a member of the Society for Psychical Research and collected accounts of all sorts of strange happenings from the locality. These too he published, beginning with Strange stories from a Lancashire village in 2014. Chris left no family, but his books are a fine legacy and lasting memorial to him. As long as people care about our valley’s past, his name will live on.
At his request, there will be no funeral,
but it is hoped that an event to celebrate his life
will be held in the future.
Keep me informed of updates
