The Rossendale Rambler

Whilst leading a Rambler walk one Sunday last year, Eric one of our regular walkers, told me about a story he had read in a copy of ‘Lancashire Life‘. This was in response to my constant haranguing of everybody about contributions for the next edition of the ‘Rossendale Rambler‘. On the next walk he brought me the magazine in question and sure enough, on page 62, there was the story entitled ‘The House with Four Chimneys‘. It made fascinating reading, especially since it was local and the author of the piece, Ian Reynolds, was very skilful in his telling of the tale which made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

The story concerns a local man, Joshua Calvert, who owned a mill in the Helmshore area. He came from a respectable family of mill owners who originated from Haslingden but then moved to London where they lived in a big house. It seems that Joshua was not interested in the big business of London and was convinced that the really big money was to be earned by running a local mill. It was said however, that he had little real interest in the manufacturing business and had it not been for his father pushing him, he might have remained in London, drinking and womanising.

The mill he set up did not thrive and he had to live in a tiny house in the corner of the mill yard. He hated the life and drove his workers hard and ruthlessly but to little avail and riches evaded him. Then he heard that there was free labour to be obtained through the acquisition of orphan children from the big town just down the road. There was an abundant supply of orphans in the city and in those days, the late 19th century, there was no welfare state and orphans were rounded up by the Bumble and put into workhouses. Before long, deliveries of orphans were rolling up at the mill from Ancoats and Salford and for a bed and a crust of bread he had a (slave) labour force whom he could bully and drive mercilessly to produce his goods.

Before long, the mill began to prosper and Joshua started to make money in his own right. The locals however, thought of him as a greedy dissatisfied fellow, impatient and moody and there were rumours around that he was addicted to opium and that it was this that caused him to do what he subsequently did:

The mill sat in a deep hollow, dark and constantly in shadow so, having made his fortune, he decided to spend some of it on building a fine mansion high on the ridge above the mill; after all, hadn’t he just married the beautiful Alicia, the ‘sweetest bloom in the valley‘. No expense was spared and neither was temper as he bullied and harried the contractors to finish the work by Christmas 1892. Joshua was determined that he should have a big party for the local gentry and by the morning of that day, the house was ready to be shown off. This was apparently when the problems started because try as he might, he was unable to start a fire in the big hearth of the main room. The other three fires had started without fuss and as time went on, Joshua was beside himself with rage at the failure of the show-piece fire.

Legend has it that he stormed down to the factory, picked up the smallest of the orphans, named Alice Devitt but known to her friends as ‘Tiddler’ because of her size, and dragged her off up to the house, intending for her to crawl up the chimney to try and find out what was blocking it. The child was terrified and did not climb the chimney until Joshua got a horsewhip to her and the terrified child shot up the chimney ‘like a rat up a drainpipe‘. But once up there she could find no obstruction and try as she might, there was nothing she could do that made any difference.

Joshua’s rage was a sight to behold and in the end, he took a taper to the kindling in the grate and pumped at the bellows even though Tiddler was still up there ‘wailing like a boggart‘. At once the fire took hold and burst into a magnificent blaze and poor Tiddler was roasted to a turn. They say her screams pierced the walls of heaven that night. She screamed and screamed saying she was sorry and begging forgiveness for whatever she might have done. Soon after, the screaming died, as did Tiddler, to be replaced by the smell of burning flesh.

Joshua was said to have been able to do nothing and stood staring, open mouthed into the roaring fire. To make matters worse, the beautiful Alicia came in just as the screams were at their highest and, asking what was going on, was told by the servants that the master had stuck Alice up the chimney and set fire to her. There was no party that night and Alicia left immediately, never to return. The villagers and orphans rose up ‘in a terrible rebellion’ and set off up the hill to burn the brand new house down. By the time they got there and set fire to it, Joshua had ridden off on his best horse and he was never to see the gutted shell of his splendid mansion: The next morning he was found hanging from an oak tree near Helmshore. There was however, to be a terrifying sequel to the tale. - Watch this space in the next issue of the Rossendale Rambler.

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