Quaker Brook Brow Cottage

Quaker Brook Brow Cottage circa 1894

Quaker Brook Brow (the cottage), as it was known in the Smith family, was the home of John Smith (1833-1894) following his marriage to Ann Crook (1833-1890). John was born and raised in Seed House farm in Samlesbury, where both his father (William 1808-1882) and grandfather (John 1770-) farmed until around the 1850s. Ann Crook came from Coppice where both she and her father were hand loom weavers. John and his wife lived at Quaker Brook from 1859 until they moved to Blackburn in 1873 for John’s work. John was a joiner and Ann continued with her hand loom weaving in a back downstairs room of the cottage. She would take finished cloth to the Cotton Exchange in Blackburn and receive fresh supplies of warp etc. to weave more. It is reputed in the family that when Samlesbury Hall was being restored by Joseph Harrison, a prosperous iron works owner from Blackburn, in 1862, it was John Smith who built the new staircase. During their time at Quaker Brook Brow, John and Ann had five children. Their sixth child was born in Blackburn in their new house shortly after they moved there in 1873.

One of John and Ann’s sons, also John, became a cotton weaver, but by the time he was in his 20s he had become a professional musician, and went on to play violin in various music theatres and resort orchestras in the late 19th and early 20th century. John junior’s son Herbert (David’s father) was also a professional musician who spent his career as a violinist with The Hallé and BBC Northern orchestras.

Information and photo courtesy of David Smith (Te Horo, New Zealand), great grandson of John Smith.

Where was it situated?

At the 1861 census, that corner (Roach Road, near Stanley Grange) was called Tallen’s Lane, and a 1848 map shows it as Tallen’s Lane End - before Stanley Grange was built. An 1894 map has "Talentine Farm" written next to the cottage.

 If you enlarge it and look carefully behind the tree to the left of the picture, you can make out the wall on Roach Rd surrounding Stanley Grange. Also, the silhouette of the Grange is just visible through the branches of the tree.

I was recently informed that the Grange had a project to make a Gatekeeper's lodge on the site of this farm.