He left school at 14 and started sweeping up in a woollen mill.

Here, family homes go for £400,000 or more, while two-bedroom flats - perhaps in a converted woollen mill - fetch about £200,000.

During the 1820s, he built a gristmill, sawmill, shingle factory and woollen mill.

In following years a grist mill (1806) and woollen mill (1808) were added and a small community grew up around them.

After 1848 the building was converted to a woollen mill and was rebuilt in 1864.