FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[Stanley]

Stanley indicating Bancroft engine while it was driving 600 looms in 1977. Definitely a forgotten corner.

[Stanley]

One of my Dobbie McInnes indicators. At one time an essential item in the serious engine tenter's arsenal but now long gone and a forgotten corner. They don't make tools like this any more, just the fact that they put it in a mahogany box speaks volumes.

[Tripps]

Tell us more about 'indicating' please, and is there a connection between engine tenters and tenterhooks?

[Stanley]

Indicating is using that instrument to draw a diagram of what is happening inside the cylinder as the engine is running. It draws a figure which is a time/pressure graph. Much overrated by many but quite useful for some information.
Tentering is the process of stretching woollen cloth as it dries outdoors. The cloth was attached to the frames by hooks, in fact tenterhooks. They kept the cloth stretched and under tension and this gave rise to 'being on tenterhooks', i.e. being stretched and under tension. This transferred to the tension of being constantly attentive and became the common word for anyone who watched or guarded. Hence engine tenter.

[plaques]

Searching for information about where some of my old relatives who lived in Burnley and came across the house where they lived. Prior to them moving in it used to be a Turkish Baths. Long since demolished with nothing on the surface to show it ever existed.

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Barbara's House.4 .jpg

[Whyperion]

Was there not a Turkish Baths in Morecambe near the Train Station Opp the Hotel ?

[Tripps]

Hence engine tenter.

Is it at all possible that the words for stretching textiles, and attending to a mchine have different origins?

This suggests it's possible? Gives different origins.

tenter

Sorry the link gives a different view to the one I wanted. Here's what it says -

noun: tenter; plural noun: tenters
a framework on which fabric can be held taut for drying or other treatment during manufacture.
Origin
Middle English: from medieval Latin tentorium, from tent- ‘stretched’, from the verb tendere .

tenter2
nounarchaic
a person in charge of something, especially of machinery in a factory.

Origin
early 19th century: from Scots and northern English dialect tent ‘pay attention’, apparently from Middle English attent ‘heed’.

Take your pick

[Stanley]

Of course it is David. One of the joys a word origins is that there is always an alternative and yours, 'Attendre' is a good one. If I was forced to take sides I'd stick with the textile connection.
We nearly had a public baths in Barlick.



This building on Sagin Hill that was the Croft Garage for many years was originally built by Matt Hartley as a swimming baths but for some reason the council refused him a water main large enough to operate it.

[Big Kev]

DId I read somewhere it was a roller skating rink at one time?

[Stanley]

If you did it was wrong Kev. That was the Alhambra in Butts.



Here it is after the fire in 1923. That's Butts chimney in the background. The theatre was never rebuilt and the site was used as a market up to WW2 when the Clinic was built there.

[Stanley]

Old postcard of the Alhambra fire. It describes it as a 'picture palace'. That was correct because the roller skating didn't go well and I think the building reverted to a cinema before the fire.

[Stanley]

In 1939 when we entered WW2 the government had to try to prepare for any emergency. Much of these preparations were connected with the expected bombing campaign. Air raid shelters, black outs and air raid wardens were all elements of the preparations.
There was a great fear of the use of poison gas and everyone was issued with a gas mask and trained in how to use it. Children's gas masks were in square cardboard boxes and we had to carry them everywhere we went. There were frequent gas mask drills. Today this looks absolutely bizarre but then it was all part of everyday life. Thank god it is now a forgotten corner.

[Cathy]

Let’s hope Covid-19 Face Masks will be looked on as bizarre one day and a Forgotten Corner .

[Stanley]

[plaques]

I have lifted this from Burnley Past and Present written by Jack Naden.

MEN OF BURNLEY..
ALTHAM Jesse Liddell (business man)
Jesse Liddell Altham was the youngest son of Abraham Altham, the wholesale tea merchant and self-made man. He was born in July 1869, and after being educated at the Burnley Grammar School continued his education at a private school at Hitchin. Further education was gained at Gigglewick, and at Owens College Manchester.
At Owens College, Jesse took his B.Sc. degree in 1890, and in the engineering laboratory carried off the prize of the year for achievement. At this time the use of electricity was in its infancy, but Jesse had much faith in new technology and its future, which by events was warranted. When the large model weaving factory was being contemplated by the Altham family at Heasandford, it was Jesse who put forward the proposition to use electric as the motive power. This shed was to become the first in England to be powered by this source.
Jesse's wealth meant he had the means to indulge in various hobbies, and he was a keen pioneer of motoring. He was one of the first in Burnley to own a car, in the days when ten miles an hour was "scorching". Jesse also had a great love of music, and he once fulfilled the position of joint organist at the Sion Baptist Church Burnley.
When he moved from his home at Greenfield Reedley to Summerhill Greenodd, near Ulverston he installed a fine organ in the mansion house there. Besides his connection with the manufacturing business at Heasandford, he was a director of his father's business Messrs Abraham Altham Ltd. He began his association with this concern in June 1891, principally dealing with the Yorkshire side of the enterprise.
The firm at this time had no less than 80 branches throughout Lancashire and Yorkshire and additionally acted as travel agents. Jesse was also connected with the firm of Holgate's, jam manufacturers of Leeds. Like his father, Jesse was a prominent Baptist in religion, and at one time was president of the Burnley and District Baptist Union. He also sat on the Burnley Borough Council as a representative for the St Peter's Ward in 1892. This was for a term of three years, at the end of which he was defeated by Bentley Dixon.
He also stood for the Lowerhouse, and St Andrews Wards, and he retired in 1909. Around 1907, he was appointed a county magistrate and when he left Burnley he continued as a county justice in the Ulverston area. His home at Greenodd, was stated to be one of the most delightful country mansions in the district. Around 1912, Jesse left Greenodd to live in the South of England, principally at Kensington and Torquay. He married Miss Walton, the eldest daughter of Robert Walton cotton manufacturer of Willow Bank Burnley, though there were no children of the union.
It was at Torquay, that Jesse died on 21, November 1929, it was also here that he chose to be buried. This broke tradition, inasmuch as the greater part of the family Altham’s, were laid to rest at the Haggate Baptist Church. The image shows the firms Heasandford mill powered by individual electric motors installed by the Altham family.

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Heasandford Mill..jpg

[Stanley]

That's a good article Ken. Not too sure about him being 'a self made man'. He got a fairly good start with grammar school and then Giggleswick!
I didn't know about Heasandford Mill, thanks for that.

[Stanley]

There used to be weaving sheds like this in Barlick. Definitely a forgotten corner!

[Stanley]

Fred Inman putting a belt up on to its pulley when the shed was stopped. This was also done when the shafting was turning and was very dangerous. Fred never did it and I never photographed it. The danger was that the belt, or more likely, its fastener, could snag in your clothing and take you up into the shaft. This was quite a common accident in the early days. Notice that Fred has very short sleeves specifically to avoid this possibility.

[Stanley]

Fred Dawson milking at Thornton Hall Farm in 1976. The daily routine of the dairy farm used to be common in the district but now is almost defunct. Gone too are the dairies, the haulage firms moving the kits and bottles and of course all the jobs and service industries that the milk trade supported.
I hate the fact that it happened and can't understand the mentality of the leaders of an industry can allow it to be rendered extinct like this. All right, we can't avoid change but milk is still one of the best foods available. The same complaint applies to school milk as well and that is part of the story. A bad move!

[Stanley]

Once of a day every house in the town would have some of these and they were used to decorate freshly scrubbed stone floors and steps. They are donkey stones, hard moulded Lion Brand on the left and natural soft stone on the right. You won't be surprised to hear I have some.... I could be the only person in Barlick.....

[Cathy]

My memory tells me we once had these as a Mystery Object.
How do they decorate Stanley?

[Stanley]

You rubbed the edge of a wet step with the stone. The hard ones left a white deposit, the soft a more orange colour. There was a lot of competition among housewives and if one donkey stoned the Kerb edge they all did!
Yes, I think we did once have them as a mystery object.

[Cathy]

[Stanley]

I love old advertisements. I could hang this on my wall and look at it for hours. Very few adverts qualify today!

[Stanley]

The model lodging house in Butts which later became Briggs and Duxbury's 'Model' joinery works. This pic was about 1920. The lodging houses were built because there was a shortage of accommodation in the town for the scores of weavers who came to Barlick to work in the mills but who often went home at weekend or other holidays.