News of Jane Horrocks

When Jane met her aunt Molly, Molly told Jane that her father had a knocker-up (a man with a bamboo stick) to wake him up. Knocker-ups were responsible to wake up all the cotton weavers as their work started so early in the morning.

My hero, the late Fred Dibnah, had a different story on how cotton weavers woke up: "Can you imagine? it is the middle of the night and they repaired the engine, ...

To start off her family research, Jane went to see her Aunt Molly (her mother's sister). Jane's grandmother called Doris was Sarah Cunliffe's only child, and Jane was curious to know why. Molly told Jane the story that Sarah (Jane's great grandmother) always told her. Sarah's story said that her mother (Jane's great great grandmother) died when she (Sarah) was only twelve and she had to raise her two younger brothers whilst her father (Jane's ...

Whilst exploring her great-grandmother (Sarah Cunliffe)'s working life in a cotton mill, Jane was advised to investigate the cotton kings of Samuel and John Horrocks by Jean Leonard (a former cotton weaver). Following a visit to the Harris Museum in Preston, Jane met two men who showed her how she's connected. Going back many generations of John Horrocks (Jane's father's family), the two men found Adam Horrocks (the common ancestor) and then, down another line ...

Jane was very upset about the death of a child in her family. Sadly this is all too common. I have come across several inmates of Workhouses in my research and it always gets to me. I get very emotionally involved with the people I am researching which people who do not do this as a hobby don't understand!