FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[Stanley]

Barnsey and Moss sheds in 1978.

[Stanley]

From an old postcard. The canal at Long Ing before Barnsey and Moss were built, showing the entrance to the Little Cut.
The chimney at Long Ing is there and the square chimney at Coates. On the extreme right is Bank House, long since demolished.

[PanBiker]

When I was a lad you used to be able to walk through the tunnel at the Barnsey end to get to the fishing length at Rainhall. There were some very nice Perch in that stretch and nice lilly pads and weed beds. Fishing rights were held by the Marsden Star Angling Club, you could also but day tickets at Foden's if you were a non member. it was also visited by the water bailiff as part of his round You could also get through the tunnel under Salterforth Lane, (the tow path was still passable) until it collapsed. I actually went through it the same morning it collapsed in the afternoon!

Toxic now due to leeching from the far end which of course was used as the local council tip for about 20 years. Levelled off now and a methane tap to burn off the gas produced. Viaduct is still there but buried with the parapets removed to field level.

[Stanley]

The stretch of canal Ian refers to and the bridge in 1978. Looking through the arches you can see that tipping had already started in the top end of the quarry.

[PanBiker]

My dads dog Lassie, (Collie) used to walk along the parapet when we went for a Sunday walk. On one occasion she jumped off to chase a rabbit she had seen, she didn't catch it and it was a bit of a trial getting her back up and out of the cutting.

[Stanley]

When you think about it, building that bridge was a very expensive exercise to preserve the right of way to the church.



Here's the tunnel Ian mentioned.

[Stanley]

A postcard sent in 1906 of the tunnel.

[Stanley]

Tipping in progress in 1982 at Rainhall Rock.

[Stanley]

I found another Harden Niche PC on Ebay. Is this the one that Wendy saw and mentioned?

[Wendyf]

Yes it is Stanley. Though I don't remember a coloured version.

[Stanley]

HERE it is Wendy, £3.99.

[Stanley]

The basements under the premises in Commercial Street in 1982. They were used by the town's butchers as slaughter places, all the offal went in the beck which is just to the right. The brick stables on the right have been demolished since then.

[Stanley]

This bench on the main pathway up to Letcliffe always amused me. I took an accurate sprit level up with me one day and checked. The Bench is perfectly level.

[Stanley]

There's a story behind this picture.... Martha's Daughter Emily had asked me to wear the kilt at her wedding in Devon. (She'd seen four weddings and a funeral) This lady Mary was a guest at the wedding and we were staying in the same hotel. She wanted this pic with me and her husband took it. (I didn't need a lot of persuading.)
We kept in touch and about six months later she informed me that they had been trying for a baby for years and she had conceived while she was at the wedding. She reckoned that it was the kilt that had done it! Happy Days.....

[Stanley]

1977, Elslack primary school. Janet (smiling in the centre) at a young Farmer's meeting where they were teaching public speaking.

[Stanley]

One of the bells at All Saints Hamer Rochdale before they were removed and sold. This shows the frame and how the bell was mounted.

[Stanley]

My late brother Leslie in Flanders visiting the war graves. He was a respected historian of the Western Front in WW1.

[Stanley]

Young Ronnie Goggins and his mate (Ronnie is sat down....) on Mons chimney in 1986 when they were demolishing it brick by brick. The chimney was built with bricks from the Newhey Brick works and I wanted them to use on the new head we were building on Ellenroad stack. The unique thing that isn't immediately apparent is that Ronnie had lost a leg in a motor cycle accident but never let it interfere with his trade.....

[Stanley]

The engine at Mons Mill Todmorden. Reputed to be the biggest engine ever installed in a UK textile mill, it was rated at 3,000hp and was built by Carels Frere of Ghent in Belgium. Carels stepped in and financed the building of what was originally Hare Mill after the Hare Mill Company got into difficulties. The engine was so large because the mill had been designed as a double mill but only one half was ever built. I have been told that there were problems with bad bearing ground and this halted construction.
One of the conditions Carels imposed on the company was that the mill's name was changed from Hare to Mons. There was a bit of a problem in that the name 'HARE' had already been built into the chimney in white glazed brick. I had heard this story and asked Ronnie to let me know if he found anything interesting when the demolition reached the name 'MONS'. He told me I was right, when they got to the name the layer of brickwork that contained the name was single skin and not tied into the courses behind it. It peeled of like a skin when they attacked it so I think we can say that the story was true.
One fial thing. My friend Newton Pickles told me he had seen the engine running when he called in one day out of professional interest. He said it was badly maintained, the valves weren't set properly and even if it was perfect it would have been a wastrel.
The engine was scrapped in 1964 and the mill closed in 1968.

[Stanley]

Further to the above post. There was a common comment in the district that you could always see snow from the top of Mons chimney.
That makes sense if you imagine the name 'Mons' as seen upside down as it would be looking from the chimney top.

[Cathy]

Are these interesting to you Stanley?

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[Stanley]

The first one looks as though it's on Jepp Hill.... Here's my version of it noted as 1920s 0r early 30s.



(If you look on the extreme right you'll see the edge of the St John's Ambulance coffin board case mounted on the wall.)

[Stanley]

Another meeting on Jepp Hill from the same period. Slightly wider angle shows more of the hill itself. The Case containing the coffin board is included in this image. The fact that there are banners in the background tells me that this is part of the progress of an annual procession, probably on Whit Sunday.

[Stanley]

Jim Marsh Clogger1910. Jim Marsh (extreme left) and his clogger's shop at Dam Head. This pic is in Barnoldswick, a century of change and was brought to my attention by Rodney Birtwistle of Barnoldswick.

[Stanley]

Here's a forgotten corner from five years ago....
This is probably as good a place as any for another car overturning story. When I first started for Richard my first week was solid Scotland trips and two runs to Seascale in Cumbria. At that time the road to Seascale hadn’t been modernised at all and was terrible as far as carrying cattle was concerned. On my second trip up there John Henry had a day off and came with me for trip out. We were going along a particularly winding and undulating piece of road when we were overtaken by a car with four people in it. They vanished over a blind summit and we heard a crash. When we crested the rise we saw the car on it’s side and a bloke climbing out of a window. I pulled up and we went to see if we could help. There was petrol all over the road and the bloke who had got out first was in the act of lighting a cigarette, to steady his nerves no doubt. I grabbed it off him and pointed out that this wasn’t necessarily the best idea he had ever had. When we looked at the car there was one person still in it in the back seat, she was a fat lady and if she’d been a sheep you’d say she was rigged, she couldn’t move. It was obvious we couldn’t get her out through the door, we would never have lifted her so I did my clog trick and kicked the windscreen in, we dragged her out to the accompaniment of the bloke who had been driving screaming at us and saying he’d have me prosecuted for criminal damage! A police car happened to come by and they took charge of the situation. I told them what I had done and the bobby said “You did exactly the right thing. Get back in your vehicle and b****r off, we’ll look after this lot!” So John and I went on our way. I couldn’t help reflecting that some people aren’t really fit to push a barrow never mind drive a car. John Henry thought it was all great fun, he had an exciting day out!"
There was another interesting thing about Seascale.

"The staff at Lanark were good. There was a bloke on the bank who drew the cattle and he was always known as ‘Chow’, I think it was because he used to chew tobacco. He kept me up to speed with all the gossip and surprised me one day when he told me that one of the biggest dealers at the market, a bloke from Seascale to whom we used to sell cattle occasionally, wasn’t allowed to take cattle off the bank without written authorisation from one of the directors. He was evidently into the market for so much that he had to pay so much of his debt off each week or he wasn’t allowed to load, it was a shock to realise that some of these big men in the ring were actually sailing very close to the wind. I never had any bother, I could draw my own cattle if I wanted, nobody was worried about Drinkalls not paying and it was a nice feeling.
Richard told me a story about a dealer who went to Annan market for over fifty years, one day the auctioneers stopped the sale and made him a presentation of a gold watch. Shortly afterwards he died and they had two minutes silence for him. A few weeks later it was announced that he died owing the auction many thousands of pounds! As my father used to say, the worst thing in the world to weigh up is another man’s finances"