Lives in Cricket No 29 - AN Hornby

17 In addition to his cotton manufacturing business, Albert’s father founded Sunday schools in conjunction with St Michael’s Church in Derrikens in Brookhouse in April 1840 and was a governor of Blackburn Grammar School. He was also a leading promoter – and chairman – of the railway that ran between his home town and Bolton and Clitheroe. When that company was amalgamated with the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway he became a director of the latter. William was the town’s first mayor, being elected in November 1851 and the following March was presented ‘by a number of the burgesses and other inhabitants’ with a gold chain and civic badge. He was also supportive of the first important measure for regulating the hours worked in factories, known as the Ten Hours Bill. Presumably as a mark of appreciation for his efforts, the workforce at Brookhouse Mill presented him with ‘an address and silver vase’. Born with a silver spoon Young Hornby first saw the light of day at Brook House, in King Street, Blackburn. It was a rather grandiose mansion, but in design almost as utilitarian as the mill.