"Home town" Bolton by jetwind

In the ninteen eighties pop group Candy Flip made a hit with "Life in a northern town" the hit typifes life in Bolton. The town is founded on the cotton trade and has a number of mills pepper around the town as reminder of it's grim past.
Cotton was first produced in 1641, and the textile trade continued with fulling, the washing, shrinking and thickening of cloth. Velvets made from cotton were first made in around 1756 by Jeremiah Clarke, muslins and cotton quiltings in 1763 by Joseph Shaw. The industry was still cottage based, and development was slow but helped by the inventions of James Hargreaves' Spinning Jenny in 1768, and Richard Arkwright's (A barber from Bolton) Water Frame. A year later in 1769 James Watt patented the steam engine, used to drive machinery from coal dug locally. Mechanisation took a big leap forward with the invention of the spinning mule, by Bolton-born Samuel Crompton (1753 - 1827) in 1779, permitting a much finer and stronger yarn to be made. A statue of Crompton was erected in Nelson Square in 1862. The first spinning mill was built in 1780.

Bolton is located close to Manchester and accessable by road, train and by Plane. For flight info visit www.manchesterairport.co.uk