Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

My 4th great grandmother lived in Shuttle Alley, Prescot - she's there in 1851 with two of her daughters. Not surprisingly, they are employed in the cotton weaving industry, as the name might suggest.

Anyone know anything about Shuttle Alley?

Hi Fledge,

If you run it through the Ancestry mangle, it appears Shuttle Alley was associated with the Watch making trades, Directories, 1854-69 ish. Prescot.

Prescot had a substantial connection with the watchmaking trade.
From: http://history.knowsley.gov.uk/informat ... =ptorigins

Watchmaking was introduced into Prescot by a Huguenot refugee from France called Woolrich. The skills were easily picked-up by the town's blacksmiths, with the work being carried-out in houses. In 1795 John Aiken said of Prescot that 'the town produces the best in the world.' The town had hundreds of small workshops where either parts were made, or where watches were constructed from parts organised within an assembly tray.

That'll explain the hundred and fifty watchmakers in my family! They got boring after a while. Actually, a good article there, DS - I don't think I've read it before.

Thanks DS and Bert.

Looking through the 1851 census the balance does still seem to tip in the favour of power and steam loom operators, weavers and twiners etc, so the mill - presumably nearby - was a big employer at that time. I note that Shuttle Alley joined onto Factory Yard, where other family members lived at that time.

It's possibly too old to find on any maps.

It's possibly too old to find on any maps.

Worth a browse here?
https://www.google.ie/search?q=old+maps ... B370%3B300

More about Prescot.. a history written in 1907:
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report ... mpid=41345

Ahh, so it says that 'cotton manufacture was early introduced here, but has died out'. When I think of Prescot, I think of watches, pottery and cables, but not cotton. That explains why by the end of the decade those properties were then occupied by people working in the watchmaking industry.

Now to have a look at those maps...

Shuttle Alley was on the south side of Hillock Street (now called Kemble Street) it's shown on this 1852 map:-






Blue

And we must not forget the mining Industry as well. I came across a article in The Prescot Reporter of some graves collapsing in Prescot Parish Church Yard (St. Mary's) they thought this was due to the tunnelling from the Mine Shafts. And yes they did have Coal Mines in Prescot. The Case family. Very well to do family who had all sorts of fingers in many Pots. Mining/Slave Trade etc Cases Street in Liverpool is named after them Red Hazels a beautiful Georgion Mansion still standing (supposed to be getting restored and looked after with Heritage Lottery Funds) still looks the same to me as I go past on the 10a was their Residence. So Prescot was not just about Watches.

Katie, yes, I have miners in my Prescot family too.

Blue, thank you, that's brilliant. I couldn't find anything going back that far.

And there's the cotton mill, right behind the houses.

I was talking to older members of the family yesterday, to see if 'Shuttle Alley' rang any bells, but it didn't.

I can't seem to find any map detail for the above in 1893. It appears to have gone by then.