Botany Bay (Chorley)
Encyclopedia
For other uses see Botany Bay (disambiguation)
Botany Bay (disambiguation)
Botany Bay is a bay in New South Wales, Australia.It may also refer to:Places:* City of Botany Bay, the local government area in New South Wales, named after the bay* Botany Bay, London, a village in the London Borough of Enfield, England...



Botany Bay refers to an area on the outskirts of Chorley
Chorley
Chorley is a market town in Lancashire, in North West England. It is the largest settlement in the Borough of Chorley. The town's wealth came principally from the cotton industry...

 alongside the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. It was instrumental in transport for the North West of England and was home to several mills during the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...

. The earliest proof of settlements in the Botany Bay area, formerly known as Knowley Moss, date back to 1734 as shown on the map of Chorley
Chorley
Chorley is a market town in Lancashire, in North West England. It is the largest settlement in the Borough of Chorley. The town's wealth came principally from the cotton industry...

 at this time. It was not until the late 18th century that Knowley began to develop further when the site was earmarked as the main port for the Chorley area.

Canal Building

During the construction of the Lancaster Canal Botany Bay played host to the canal workers, and it is believed the name Botany Bay originated from around this time, due to the nature of the navvies occupying the area the locals saw it as an area to be avoided, much like the penal colony at Botany Bay
Botany Bay
Botany Bay is a bay in Sydney, New South Wales, a few kilometres south of the Sydney central business district. The Cooks River and the Georges River are the two major tributaries that flow into the bay...

 Australia . By 1816 The Leeds-Liverpool canal had come to incorporate the Lancaster canal and by this time Botany Bay had become an important loading and unloading area due to its warehouse system and proximity to the canal.

Cotton manufacture

Constructed during the Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...

 by the Smethurst family as part of an already well established cotton business. Canal mill specialised in fine carded yarn until the Cotton Famine
Cotton famine
The Lancashire Cotton Famine, also known as The Cotton Famine or the Cotton Panic , was a depression in the textile industry of North West England, brought about by the interruption of baled cotton imports caused by the American Civil War. The boom years of 1859 and 1860 had produced more woven...

 and shut down in 1861. It re-opened after the Cotton Famine and in 1864 employed between 200 and 300, making it very important to the local economy, producing cotton from 45,000 spindles
Spindle (textiles)
A spindle is a wooden spike used for spinning wool, flax, hemp, cotton, and other fibres into thread. It is commonly weighted at either the bottom middle or top, most commonly by a circular or spherical object called a whorl, and may also have a hook, groove or notch, though spindles without...

. Botany Bay was also home to Hope Mill and several weaving sheds and warehouses,

Transport

Due to the canal Botany Bay became a hub for transport, as early as 1830 services ran from Botany Bay wharf to Manchester, Wigan and Liverpool as well as others. This contributed greatly to Botany Bay's importance in both the cotton trade and increasing communication in the local area.

1869 saw the opening of the Blackburn Railway which ran through Botany Bay, this was facilitated by the construction of a viaduct across the canal which was used primarily to transport coal between Wigan and Blackburn. The track was completed entirely from steel rails and cost £530000 to construct. The Railway line was also used extensively during the First World War to transport wounded soldiers to Liverpool and the viaduct remained in service until 1968 when it was demolished.
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