UPS AND DOWNS
I've been doing a bit of thinking about our physical environment, Don't worry, I am not going off on an eco-trip! This is about Barlick, how it sits on the land and how our perceptions of it can be skewed at times. Once we build and lay roads down we alter the look of the land. When we started using motorised transport we didn't have to worry about bumps and hollows and the consequence is we get divorced from the topography, the lie of the land, and how we have used it over the years.
For instance, stand on the side of the New Road outside the bus shelter at Salterforth and look towards Barlick. It's plain to see that the town is on top of the hill. Or is it? Look to your left and you'll see the embankment up to the canal. There is nothing more accurate than still water for indicating levels. There are no locks on the canal between Salterforth and Barlick so it's dead level. Now think about the fact that at Coates Bridge, above Barlick, the canal is well above the general level of the town. In other words, most of Barlick is at a lower level than you are stood on the roadside at Salterforth! True, your eyes tell you that the road is uphill towards the town but because it is so built up we forget that once over the rise at the school it falls quite steeply right down into the town.
Think about the town centre itself. Once you get your eye in and your brain in gear you can start to recognise that a series of valleys run down through Barlick from the South and the West. If you start walking up Park Road from Rainhall road it is only a gentle slope but turn right on Park Avenue and you are going up quite a steep hill. If you go forward across Manchester Road (Barnoldswick Lane in earlier years) and along Longfield Lane you drop steeply into Ouzledale Clough and then climb steeply up again on the other side before dropping down again towards Bancroft where you hit another valley running down from Tubber Hill, which again is climbing steeply even though it's heading towards Salterforth. You can recognise ups and downs like this all over the town.
So what? Why bother to think about these things? Because they have had an enormous influence on how the town grew from a series of hamlets dominated by what I think was the most important, Townhead (Guess how it got that name!), into the place we live in today. These slopes and valleys dictated the course of streams and in turn these produced the water sites which were so important in the early years of industrialisation. In later years these same streams were essential to steam power and set the sites of our first mills. To understand how we grew, we have to understand the lie of the land.
The canal at Long Ing in 1979. Above the level of the town!
UPS AND DOWNS
- Stanley
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UPS AND DOWNS
Stanley Challenger Graham
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net
"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net
"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
Re: UPS AND DOWNS
The other day, without recourse to any maps, I tried to imagine the location and direction of the streams that flowed through Salterforth, Earby and Barlick. I got myself hopelessly lost. As you say its so easy to move about now-a-days that you forget that these same streams and gullies would have been major obstacles to travel.Stanley wrote:These slopes and valleys dictated the course of streams
- Stanley
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Re: UPS AND DOWNS
P. There is more to come on this subject. You're right about the watercourses, the easiest way to sort them out is to make some assessments of which way they go, Ribble or Aire. A consequence of being slap bang on the watershed.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net
"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net
"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
- Stanley
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Re: UPS AND DOWNS
Bumped and the image restored.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net
"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net
"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
- Stanley
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- Posts: 90319
- Joined: 23 Jan 2012, 12:01
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Re: UPS AND DOWNS
Still a matter that surprises many when pointed out to them.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net
"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net
"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
- PanBiker
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Re: UPS AND DOWNS
Incorrect in both cases Stanley. The canal runs along the 150m contour on the summit length between Barrowford and Greeberfield top locks. Coates estate is higher as is most of the town centre and houses which undulate around the 200m contour. Its uphill from Long Ing via Rainhall Road just as it is also uphill into Barlick on Kelbrook Road from Salterforth. Going out of the town down Gisburn Road the houses down Syke are still just on the top side of the 150m contour.
Ian
- Stanley
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Re: UPS AND DOWNS
Suppose we said 'appears to be above the general level' would that appease you?
Stanley Challenger Graham
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net
"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net
"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
- PanBiker
- Site Administrator
- Posts: 16450
- Joined: 23 Jan 2012, 13:07
- Location: Barnoldswick - In the West Riding of Yorkshire, always was, always will be.
Re: UPS AND DOWNS
Not a case of appeasement Stanley. Just pointing out that the thrust of your original post and the overall premise that it is built on is incorrect. I agree with the numerous undulations around the town but the vast majority of development is not below the level of the canal. No optical illusions in play either when I view from your two chosen locations.
Ian