THE CALF HALL SHED COMPANY

[Stanley]

THE CALF HALL SHED COMPANY

On Thursday the 6th of March, 1885 William (Billycock) Bracewell died suddenly of ‘congestion of the lungs’ a week short of his 72nd birthday. He was the biggest industrialist in Barnoldswick and his sudden decease threw the town into decline. On June 23rd 188 the Craven Herald reported that ‘The town is in a very low state’, this was because the Craven Bank was more interested in realising the assets of William Bracewell and Sons than running the mills. There was an exodus from the town as skilled operatives left their rented houses and flitted to textile towns in Lancashire where there was plenty of work.

It was obvious to many capital holders in the town that something had to be done. The result was the foundation of the Long Ing Shed Company in 1887 which built Long Ing Shed and let it out as Room and Power to local manufacturers. In 1888 there was another crisis meeting on Tuesday October 16th in the Old Baptist Chapel. It was chaired by the Rev. E R Lewis and those present were all local retailers and businessmen who stood to lose most if the town failed to recover.

The result was the formation of the Calf Hall Shed Company which built Calf Hall Shed from scratch and eventually bought and restarted Wellhouse Mill and Butts Mill. Existing and new manufacturers in the town took up this modern weaving capacity and laid the foundations of the later mill-building in the town with the profits they made as room and power tenants of the Calf Hall Company.

So, the first of my pictures this week is of a very important group of men indeed in the modern history of Barlick. It is a photograph of some of directors of the company. It was made in 1895 outside ‘Crowtrees’ in Barrowford, the home of William Henry Atkinson who was an eminent local architect. I have little doubt that some of my readers will find a relation here.

The men in the photograph are: Standing, left to right; Proctor Barrett, Harry Wilson, William Holdsworth, W H Atkinson, Edward Smith, William P Brooks and John Horsfield. Seated; Leonard Holdsworth, Tom Dent, Johnson Edmondson and Greenwood Wilkinson.

Proctor Barrett was a joiner and builder with premises on Station Road, Harry Wilson was an overlooker and lived at 18 Railway Street, William Holdsworth was a joiner with premises on Commercial Street, W H Atkinson was the architect, Edward Smith was a stonemason and contractor of Mosley Street, William Proctor Brooks was an auctioneer and valuer and I think he owned Wellhouse Farm which stood on Church Street. At the moment I have no definite information about John Horsfield, but I’m still looking!

I don’t know what Leonard Holdsworth did but in 1887 he was noted as living at 23 Rainhall Road, Thomas Dent was a baker of 5 Albion Terrace, Johnson Edmondson was an overlooker and his address in 1887 was 9 Albion Terrace, Greenwood Wilkinson was a shopkeeper of 31 Rainhall Road.

The second picture was taken in 1948 outside the main gate at Butts Mill. Left to right they are, Edward Wood, Chairman (Both he and Victor Hedges were connected with Proctor and Proctor of Grimshaw Street Burnley who were accountants and managed the company. Edward Wood was the engineering expert). Moses Horsfield was a Barlick manufacturer, Richard Jacques was the architect, Harold Duxbury was of course a builder and contractor down Butts, John Vernon Patrick was a grocer Norman Barrett was an architect. The end man on the right is Victor Hedges.

Harold Duxbury gave me these pictures, together with a mass of other information, 25 years ago. On one level they are a valuable historical record, on another, they might have woken a few memories among my older readers. Thanks for your continued interest. You can get me on 813527 if you have any comments or questions.


SCG/13 November 2002
660 words