According to Canon Hulbert of Almondbury in Yorkshire, the 28-year-old was an intelligent young man who had ambitions beyond the linen trade: "Slaithwaite was scarcely a sufficient sphere for his genius and he emigrated to the United States, where he took up the then infant Art of Photography; which he much improved by his experiments and discoveries."
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History books which deal with the Linthwaite and Slaithwaite district report that Jabez Meal in his 20s worked in the linen thread trade of West Yorkshire.
Using the more common definition, the Colne Valley includes the towns and villages of Marsden, Slaithwaite, Linthwaite and Golcar.
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It was created by the merger of Golcar, Linthwaite, Marsden, Scammonden and Slaithwaite urban districts, and had a population of about 20,000 for its lifespan.
The Huddersfield Narrow Canal provided a heavily-locked Western connection to wool-weaving towns of the upper Colne valley (Golcar, Linthwaite, Slaithwaite, and Marsden) and across the Pennines to Saddleworth, Stalybridge and Manchester via Standedge Tunnel.
Longroyd Bridge is where the A62, Manchester Road, route to Manchester passes over the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and the River Colne, it then travels down through the Colne Valley passing Milnsbridge, Linthwaite, and Slaithwaite to Marsden before crossing the Pennine hills to Oldham and Manchester.