The first Rishton craftsmen is mentioned in a list of debts owed by Henry Rissheton on Saint Giles the Abbots day 13 Richard II. (1st September 1389). The craftsman as one would expect is Richard le Smyth. In a similar list on the feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle , I. Henry VI (21st September 1422), we find Thomas Hyndley (or le Hind), John le Cooker, John le Smyth, John le Carter, and Emma le Smyth. ¹

Many craftsmen whose names are not included in de Rishtons list of debtors, would have been busy in the village. There was sure to be a village sawyer, a wheelwright, a tiler to burn tiles from clay, and the ale house wife who brewed ale and beer and sold it in her own home.¹

On the 1st of June 1939, A letter was received from the Hon. Secretary of the Accrington & District Industrial Development Committee suggesting steps should be taken  by the authorities in East Lancashire to obtain additional powers in connection with Industrial development. The letter was referred by Rishton Urban District Council to a later date.²

The letter proved at the time that the local boards were no longer getting the opportunity to say if business or business development could occur in the area. The power was being transferred to Lancashire County Council inch by inch.......

References

²Council minutes.

¹Rishton Parish Church Jubilee 1927 by Carlton Noble.