DOREEN CROWTHER

[Stanley]

Doreen Crowther

I heard today that Doreen is dead and I feel so guilty, I have been meaning to visit her in the home at Nelson for months. We have all lost a wonderful woman, her research was impeccable and she always shared it with anyone who wanted it. Besides that her handwriting was so small and legible, a pleasure to read her manuscripts.

One example of her generosity; I told her one day in conversation that I was looking at Pendle water power sites for a bit of light entertainment. About a fortnight later a big sheaf of closely written papers landed on my desk. Doreen had trawled Farrar and given me every reference she could find in the Manorial Court Rolls. This became the basis for all my watermill research and for the recent Pendle Heritage exhibition and their 'Water Power Trail'.

She rang me one day and asked me if I would take custody of some papers for her until she asked for their return. It was a folder of research on the Roberts family of Nelson, the engine makers at Phoenix Foundry. Evidently one of the family had been working on the family history and had found that one of the ancestors had never bothered to get married. The rest of the family put pressure on him to destroy the research but he gave it to Doreen for safe-keeping. She was afraid the family would guess that she had it and put pressure on her so I took the folder. 15 Years later she rang me and asked if I remembered the folder. She was so pleased when I delivered it back to her the following day.

Apart from all this, Doreen and George were lovely people and always a pleasure to visit. They used to get two copies of The Times and retreated to separate rooms every morning to do the crossword. Doreen denied that it was a competition but I'm not so sure.

I hope she slipped away quietly, she deserved it. One thing is certain, her work will be informing historians for many years to come as it is deposited in Colne Library.

SCG/15 November 2004