GAWMLESS END
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History of Gawmless End
The farmhouse was rebuilt around 1790. Older maps show a property at the site, part of which is retained at the northern end of the building at what is now the kitchen. This part clearly shows a plinth construction, which dates the original house to the sixteenth century.
Gawmless End can be seen up on the hillside.
the above photograph was taken from within what is now the linear park or "Greenway". Thanks go to Mrs. Sheila Riley for this picture |
The house itself was originally accompanied by more land than at present. At the time the original property was rebuilt, another farmhouse was built nearby and the lands split between them: the estate remained in one ownership but this move enabled the owner to draw rent from two tenants who each were provided with a haymeadow and some pastureland. Relatively recently, the two very steep "bank" pastures to these farms, which formerly gave the estate a "frontage" onto the main Bacup to Rochdale (Turnpike) road, went into other hands.
Examination of old Census returns shows that tenants of the two properties were never full-time farmers, giving their occupations as weaver, coal carrier, miner, etc. The many quarries and small mines, and later mills, in the area would have provided plentiful work for the population of the region.