Literature
Samuel Laycock - Marsden's dialect poet.
Samuel Laycock was born at Intake Head in 1826. Laycock's father was a hand loom weaver, and Samuel was brought up on the isolated farm above Marsden. The only education he had was at Sunday School, and at the age of nine he started work in the mill.
When Sam was 11 the family moved to Stalybridge in Lancashire, and he worked in a cotton mill. The Cotton Famine of the 1860s threw him out of work, and he responded to this by publishing poems about the crisis.
After this he worked as a librarian at the Mechanics Institute, as a Curator in Fleetwood, selling books on Oldham market, and as a photographer. He died in Blackpool in 1893.
Read more about Samuel LaycockBibliography
This bibliography contains books about the Marsden area, fiction and non-fiction.None of them necessarily come with a recommendation - just dip in and decide for yourself!
- Simon Armitage, "All Points North", Penguin
- Simon Armitage, "Zoom"
- See Simon Armitage's web-page
- Phyllis Bentley, "Inheritance", Gollancz
- Lesley Kipling & Nick Hall, "On the Trail of the Luddites", Pennine Heritage Network
- D F E Sykes,"The History of the Colne Valley", Toll House 1906 Reprints
- D F E Sykes,"Ben o' Bill's, The Luddite", Lambsbreath