FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[Stanley]

Another example of how the trees have taken over. Tubber Hill in about 1900, the same scene now is dominated by trees.
Another interesting feature is the sheds at the top of the lane down to Lane Bottoms. This was the HQ of Barlick's Firewood King, Jim Haworth who lived at Lane Bottoms.

[Stanley]

The trash guard on the weir at Clough dam only just coping with the flow about ten years ago. In a way this is not a forgotten corner because the council have been very good at keeping it clear. I'm not too sure who is responsible now but I hope they are on the ball. If this defence fails Wapping will be flooded... Shades of 1932!

[Stanley]

Click to enlarge. An account of the July 1932 flood in Barlick. It's largely a forgotten corner today but I raise the matter every now and again in my BET article just to remind the powers that be how much damage an event like this can cause....

[Stanley]

Here are the images that went with the above article....

[Bruff]

I like the apt reporting of a ‘Mr R Leeper’ escaping by ‘springing onto a loom’……..

The depth of reporting too stands in stark contrast to much that appears in today’s local papers, many of which are dominated by what I think are termed ‘click bait’ articles and ’10 things to do/see/you didn’t know/celebrities want for Xmas’ etc etc. The formerly great Liverpool Echo being a prime example.

Richard Broughton

[Stanley]

I wonder if this was the same family.... If I remember rightly this is what is now Sainty's pie shop....

[Stanley]

I think I was right, 23 Skipton Road which used to be George Leeper's shop. (Barrett Directory 1914)

[Stanley]

My friend and Ellenroad volunteer Joan Smith with Hedley Bradshaw in 2001. Hedley was engineer at Spring mill and Joan visited him regularly as his mind deteriorated... so sad.



Sophia, his wife was a well known singer in the local chapels. Kathleen Ferrier once told her she should sing professionally so she must have been good.
This forgotten corner came to mind recently when Daughter Susan who lived next door but one to them in Water Street at Earby told me that Sophia had followed Hedley, she died a while ago. In so many ways they were a part of Old Earby....

[Wendyf]

Hedley Bradshaw carrying out maintenance work on Spring Mill lodge during the holiday shutdown.

[Stanley]

Thanks for that Wendy I've pinched it for my archive....
He's checking and cleaning the intake for the condenser water for the engine. Lovely clean lodge, I wish Bancroft could have been so clean!



Bancroft lodge during summer shut down in 1977. We used to open the clow and let the water running in carry silt away naturally. Amazing how much it shifted in the holiday fortnight. It made it safer as well in case any kids got in during the school holidays.

[Wendyf]

Would it have been clean because the supply came from springs rather than surface water?

[Stanley]

Probably a combination Wendy, all the rainwater from the roof of the mill, surface water off the site but mostly I suspect from a stream coming down off Stoneybank. As it's so steep the bed would have been rocky and very little silt would come down. It's quite striking what a difference this makes to lodges. Then of course there is the fact it is fully concreted to a high standard and would be easier to keep clean. A natural lodge like the old one at Ouzledale Mill or, on a larger scale, the big dam at Quarry Bank at Styal, if not well maintained filled up completely and as vegetation grew would actually rise above water level. Clough Mill dam in Barlick is another example of this....



All the trees and vegetation to the right of the path have grown up during the long period of neglect of the resource. At one time not long ago there was a proposal for regenerating this area and I still have hopes that one day we will do something about it. It could be a very attractive asset to the town.

[Stanley]

There bare many disadvantages to living at high level in our area, ask Wendy! But there are also the good days. Here's the view from Prospect over Barlick in 2006 when Doc lived up there. Lots to be said about wakening up in the morning to a view like this.....

[Stanley]

Something we tend to forget today is that mains electricity was late arriving on these farms outside the town centres. It was late 1956 before many of them were connected and I can still remember many of them had Lucas Freelight wind driven dynamos to give minimal low voltage lighting in the house and buildings. The Tilley Lamp and Aladdin oil lamp were alive and well! The same applies to street lighting, before it started to appear late in the 1920s many evening functions were timed to coincide with the full moon as this made travel at night possible. The black-out during the war educated me into just how dark a moonless night can be!

[Stanley]

Before electricity gas lighting was used in public buildings and due to the imperfect combustion in the simple gas jet produced a smell that we now understand is actually poisonous Carbon Monoxide gas. They didn't fully appreciate this then but disliked the smell and went to great lengths to use the heat off the lamps to encourage ventilation. If you are ever in a book shop and see an old book on sanitation and health regulations grab it and have a read. You will find all sorts of interesting facts that will give you an insight into the problems they faced and the measure they took to alleviate them. This explains to magnificent examples of the tinsmith's art you used to see on top of schools, chapels and other buildings. Another influence of course was the fact that the general belief in the spread of disease by 'Miasma' was current.



Ventilators on the Infant's department at Gisburn Road School. Alas no longer with us, they were removed in the 1970s and 80s.

[Stanley]

In 1978 the engine house at Calf Hall Shed was standing and had its original ventilator on the roof. Slightly different reason for this of course, the engine houses got very hot in summer and in winter it was a good thing to get any steam away from leaks on the engine as this helped prevent corrosion.

[Stanley]

In 1978 the engine house at Calf Hall Shed was standing and had its original ventilator on the roof. Slightly different reason for this of course, the engine houses got very hot in summer and in winter it was a good thing to get any steam away from leaks on the engine as this helped prevent corrosion.
One interesting fact about metal ventilators. Have you ever seen a metal ventilator shaped like this?



This one is being used on a flue but they were mostly used as roof ventilators. They were pivoted on a bearing at the bottom and the fin ensured that they always faced away from the wind and sucked air out of the building. The trade name for them was 'Lobster Backed' and you can see how they got that name. They were tinsmith made and I once watched the tinsmith who worked in our shop at Rochdale Electric Welding making three. You wouldn't believe the shape that the individual segments had to be cut to in order to make the segments in the bend. They looked like two headless fishes joined at the head. Les told me that this was the only shape that worked and I bet there aren't many men about today who could lay one out and make it by hand. They were works of art!

[Stanley]

The next time you walk in Valley Gardens take the time to look at the massive cast iron girders that support the two footbridges over the beck. I have been told that they were recycled for this purpose when the bridge that carried the railway over the canal was taken out when the branch line was demolished. I can't find any evidence for this but I believe it. One thing is certain, they are well up to the task they are doing now and will never give any trouble!

[Stanley]

Kev's picture of the old station site in 1979 before the Co-op store was built. 35 years ago...... How things change.

[Stanley]

The redundant stump of the old Pelican crossing outside the old Post Office has been an eyesore for years since the crossing was altered. It was left in because it contained all the electrical connections for the crossing. About ten days ago it was given a painted cover which was an improvement but I noted yesterday that this was being replaced by a totally now installation. I look forward to seeing whether the new one is an improvement!



The new box. I suppose it's an improvement but yet another bit of clutter on the pavement. The fog reflected the flash so I don't know whether you can see the two new access lids or the dog muck that someone has trodden in! Why oh why don't they pick it up.....?

[Stanley]

Old maps fascinate me. Here's the 1892 OS map of the area which is now Valley Gardens and the watercourse to the Corn Mill. The original Corn Mill dam was the small round pond immediately behind the mill but when Bracewell took over the mill in about 1855 he made the much larger dam which is now back-filled and used as a garage site. The only buildings are the old cottages on Damside and the original Dam Head Farm, still there buried in the more modern housing. Today the mill race has been diverted into the beck where it goes underground behind the farm but at that time went forward under the road to feed the lodge for the mill. Notice the 'nurseries' marked in Butts. At one time that area was used for market gardens which supplied the greengrocers in the town.



Here's the 1930 survey for comparison. Click on both to enlarge.

[Stanley]

It might surprise you if I said that many gas and water services in Barlick are forgotten corners. The mains are adequately mapped but the service pipes in the older areas of the town are, in many cases, the originals installed when the houses were built. I forget his name but at one time an old council worker was employed at Rolls Royce and Yorkshire Water had an arrangement with Rolls that when they needed him they could borrow him because he knew many of the services that hadn't been mapped. Forty years ago the gas went off one day at Hey Farm and when I went for a furtle I found the Gas Board working in Longfield Lane, 100 yards away. When I asked them if they had cut our gas off they said they couldn't have but later found that our gas connection did indeed start there and ran under the allotments behind the Dog.



Here's an example of an old service pipe which failed when the water board increased the pressure in the Barlick mains because of a problem in another part of the town. It was a miracle any water had been getting through! There are many pipes like this one that are over 100 years old.... Definitely a forgotten corner! Unless you know for certain you have a new connection, if you're living in an old house your service pipe could well be like this one.

[Stanley]

Probably the biggest forgotten corner we have is the experience of the old people. Hedley Bradshaw, Arnold Smith and Newton Pickles in the engine house at Bancroft in Spring 1982. All gone now and what a wealth of experience was lost when they left us. This was the driving force behind all the effort I put into the Lancashire Textile Project and we don't do anywhere near enough to save some of the information. To this day I regret not asking my mother enough questions, if you have a oldster available start talking to them now!

[Stanley]

Writing yesterday's post triggered me into thinking about talking to the old ones. This is Jim Boss in 1957, he was born around 1870 but I never got round to talking to him. Billy Brooks in the LTP is another good example but I managed to capture some of his memories. I think back to Mother Hanson who lived at Moorcock Farm in a small outbuilding in the yard. She used to keep the Moorcock Inn and what a catch she would have been. When I knew her she was still wearing skirts down to the floor and cotton petticoats. (I know this because she tore the hem off one to bandage my shoulder when she successfully treated a carbuncle under my arm that nobody including the doctors had made any effect on.) I repeat what I said yesterday, if you have access to someone as old as this, talk to them and learn!

[Bodger]

You realise you are describing the likes of people like us !