Hamlets and homesteads
Badger Gate | Binn | Clough Lee | Dirker | Farms etc | Hard End | Hey Green
Planks | Smithy Holme | White Lee
Clough Lee
The small group of cottages known as Clough Lee (or Lea) is on the south bank of the Colne, about a quarter of a mile upstream from Marsden. It is now part of the village, and a new housing estate has been built on the site of Clough Lee Mills. There are cottages dated 1782 over the door.From 1696 to 1728, the Minister at Marsden, Isaac Walton, lived at Clough Lee. There is also a record of a Thomas Mellor living here in 1691. A field at Clough Lee was mentioned in a lawsuit of 1595.
The old packhorse road from Marsden to Rochdale climbed the upper Colne valley here. Mellor's Bridge, the narrow stone bridge which crosses the river here, was built in 1775, and the Union Bridge at the end of the road was built in 1861.
1841 Census
| Number of households in Clough Lee - 11 | Population of Clough Lee - 73 |
| Ave household size - 6.6 | Ave size of nuclear family unit - 5.4 |
| Ave age of household heads - 48.2 | Number born outside county - 0 |
Dwellings included are all called Clough Lees.
| Labourer - 8 | Slubber- 1 |
| Woollen cloth maker - 7 | General dealer - 1 |
| Independent means - 1 | Burler - 3 |
| Wool feeder - 4 | Millwright - 2 |
| Waterman - 2 | Piecer - 2 |
| Carder - 2 |
Resident families
| Bamforth Bulmer Carter Cordingley |
Hall Rayner Schofield Shaw |
Sanderson Seynier Stancliff Sykes | Thorp Whitehead Dodson |
1881 Census
| Number of households in Clough Lee - 29+1 uninhabited | Population of Clough Lee - 141 |
| Ave household size - 4.86 | Ave size of nuclear family unit - 4.3 |
| Ave age of household heads - 45 | Number born outside county - 7 |
| Percent born outside Marsden - 48 34% | Born outside Colne Valley - 25 17.7% |
| Households with related kin - 6(20.7%) | Wives in paid employment - 5(24%) |
Of those born outside the valley, 1 was from Philadelphia USA, 3 from Stalybridge, 1 from Hinchcliffe Mill, 1 from Penistone, 1 from Birkenhead, 1 from Bradfield, 1 from Belper, 1 from Barnsley, 1 from Saddleworth, 1 from Chester, 4 from Holmfirth, 1 from Honley, 2 from Hepworth
| Number listed as employed - 94(64% of total popn) | Stone Mason - 6 |
| Spinner - 2 | Woollen dresser - 2 |
| Bobbin winder - 1 | Iron Planer - 1 |
| Dressmaker - 1 | Railway labourer - 1 |
| Woollen shawl fringer - 1 | Woollen Beamer - 1 |
| Woollen weaver - 23 | Fettler - 1 |
| Woollen knotter - 4 | Mender - 1 |
| Boiler maker - 2 | Finisher - 1 |
| Piecer - 7 | Ironfoundry labourer - 1 |
| Dyer - 1 | Waste picker - 1 - |
| Engine tenter - 1 | Twister - 2 |
| Warper - 1 | Tailor's apprentice - 1 |
| Burler - 1 | Spinner - 4 |
| Woollen feeder - 7 | Drawer - 1 |
| Mill Manager - 1 | Shawl twister - 2 |
| Railway Porter - 1 | Cloth miller - 1 |
| School mistress - 1 | Loom Grinder - 1 |
| Music teacher - 1 | Duffer - 1 |
| Power loom tuner - 1 | Cloth cutter - 1 |
| Carder - 1 |
There was only 1 house at Clough Head in 1881, and no houses at Clough Hey.
Resident families
| France Whitehead Gunning Hall Bamforth Carter Brown Beaumont |
Hirst Marsden Simpson Hanson Mellor (lodger) Taylor Armitage Batty |
Dawson Street Biltcliffe Bulmer Raynor Blacon (lodger) Lockwood Broadbent | Woodhead Palmer Wood Hamer Norton (lodger) Dyson Pallas Haigh |
1891 Census
| Number of households in Clough Lee - 35 | Population of Clough Lee - 127 |
| Ave household size - 3.6 | Ave size of nuclear family unit - 3.6 |
| Ave age of household heads - 43 | Number born outside county - 2 (Cheshire) |
| Percent born outside Marsden - 23% | Born outside Colne Valley - 11.8% |
| Households with related kin - 4(11.4%) | Wives in paid employment - 3(13.6%) |
Of those born outside the valley, 2 were from Cheshire, 1 from Barnsley, 3 from Holmfirth, 3 from Saddleworth, 2 from Pontefract, 1 from Bradfield,1 from Cumberworth, 1 from Dewsbury, 1 from Batley. Lingards was noted as separate from Marsden.
| Number listed as employed - 73(57.5% of total popn) | Living on own means - 1 |
| Numberlisted as retired - 2 | |
| Foreman cloth finisher - 1 | Cloth finisher - 3 |
| Dressmaker - 4 | Mender - 5 |
| Millhand - 1 | Loom fitter - 1 |
| Woollen weaver - 16 | Fettler - 4 |
| Professor of Music - 1 | Buiding contractor - 1 |
| Boiler maker - 2 | Loom tuner - 2 |
| Piecer - 3 | Engine tenter - 1 |
| Housekeeper - 2 | Woollen knotter - 1 |
| Labourer - 2 | Twister - 3 |
| Warper - 2 | Percher - 1 |
| Burler - 3 | Spinner - 1 |
| Woollen feeder - 1 | Worsted drawer - 2 |
| Willoer - 1 | Carpenter - 1 |
| Book-keeper - 1 | Cloth miller - 1 |
| School mistress - 1 | Woollen engineer - 1 |
| Carder - 1 | Duffer - 1 |
85% directly dependent on textiles, not including labourers, carpenter, builder and book-keeper. The 4 people in engineering are working in the mills.
The average household size diminished in the latter half of the century, as did the size of the average family.
Click here for a History of a House at Clough Lea
1901 Census
| Number of households in Clough Lee - 36 | Population of Clough Lee - 124 |
| Ave household size - 3.44 | Ave size of nuclear family unit - 3.14 |
| Ave age of household heads - 31.4 | Number born outside county - 7 (5.6%) |
| Born outside Colne Valley - 19.3% | Households with related kin - 3(8.3%) |
| Wives in paid employment - 3(13.6%) |
The population of Clough Lee appears to have stabilised at the beginning of the new century. There was little scope for physical expansion, as it was bounded in the east by the new church and graveyard, to the north by the river, to the west by Clough Lee Mills, and to the south by the slope of the valley. The average size of the household and family had been shrinking for 60 years, from 6.6 and 5.4 in 1841. Similarly, the age by which people were running households had dropped, by 35%. There were now more 'outsiders' in Clough Lee, though 13% were from outside the valley even in 1881.
| Cloth finisher - 7 | Pupil teacher - 1 |
| Living on own means - 1 | Dressmaker - 2 |
| Dressmaker's assistant - 2 | Weaver - 19 |
| Wool worker - 6 | Mender - 2 |
| Rug clipper - 1 | Tailor - 2 |
| Woollen feeder - 1 | Navvy - 3 |
| Twister - 2 | Book-keeper - 1 |
| Stone waller - 1 | Burler - 2 |
| Warper - 2 | Woollen spinner - 1 |
| School teacher - 1 | Woollen waste sorter - 1 |
| Stoker at Mill - 1 | Wool dyer - 1 |
| Engine tenter - 1 | Fettler - 1 |
| Council labourer - 1 | Cloth dresser - 1 |
| General labourer - 1 |
Resident families
| France Gledhill Shaw Johnson Bamforth Garsider Fallas Brook Battye |
Quarmby Holroyd Haigh Wilson Pogson Gunning Biltcliffe Knowles Whitwam |
Lawson Palmer Schofield Wrigley Hanson Wright Marsden Carter Bearley | Hirst Hampson Kaye Croft Calverley Sykes Sheldon Grason |