The New Eagley Mills being situated in a narrow valley, several miles from Bolton, and the property being in the possession of the owners, they forbade the opening of any tavern or beerhouse on the estate; so that the district became distinguished for the order and sobriety of the inhabitants.  A man of intemperate habits has little chance of remaining in the Ashworth villages.  He is expelled, not by the employers, but by the men themselves.  He must conform to the sober habits of the place, or decamp to some larger town, where his vices may be hidden in the crowd.  Many of the parents have expressed how much gratification they have felt, that by reason of the isolated situation they enjoyed as a community, they had become so completely separated from the corrupt influences of music saloons and drink-shops.

The masters have added to their other obligations to the workpeople, the erection of comfortable cottages for their accommodation.  They are built of stone, and are two-storied; some have two upper bedrooms, and others have three.  On the ground floor there is a sitting-room, a living-room, and a scullery, with a walled courtyard enclosing the whole premises.  The proprietor pays the poor-rates and other local charges, and the rentals of the houses vary from 2_s_. 4_d_. to 4_s_. 3_d_. a week.

The regularity of their employment, accompanied with the payment of wages on Friday night, doubtless promoted their local attachment to the place.  Many of the descendants of the first comers remain on the spot; their social relations have been promoted; intermarriages have been frequent; and during the whole period there has not been a single prosecution for theft.  The working people have also thriven as well as their masters.  Great numbers of them are known to possess reserved funds in savings banks and other depositories for savings; and there are others of them who have invested their money in cottage buildings, and in various other ways.

But have not the men risen above their lot of labouring spinners?  They have.  Such of them as possessed skill, ability, and the faculty of organization, have been promoted from the ranks of labourers, and have become mill managers.  “About thirty of these,” says Mr. Henry Ashworth, “have been reckoned on the spur of the moment, and ten of them have become business partners or proprietors of mills....  Many manufacturers,” adds Mr. Ashworth, “are to be found who have done a great deal to ameliorate the condition of those they have employed; and no one will doubt that they have been prompted, not by hopes of gain, but by emotions of goodwill."[1]

[Footnote 1:  The greater part of the above information is contained in the statement by Mr. Henry Ashworth, in the Reports on the Paris Universal Exhibition, 1867, vol. vi., pp. 161-163.]