Barlick was not a happy place in the inter war years. Apart from the frequent disturbances caused by the strikes there were instances of sabotage in the weaving sheds and during the lock-outs when a heavy police presence guarded public order there were instances of the police sleeping in engine houses to protect them. Mills started to close permanently, in 1931 the biggest mill in Barlick, Bankfield shut its doors and despite rumours of reopening by British Celanese, never wove again. Some manufacturers went bankrupt and the local employment tribunals were busy hearing appeals against the refusal of dole money on the grounds that workers had made themselves unemployed by striking. After the building of the new St Joseph's Catholic Church in 1931 their former home, the tin tabernacle that is now the Sunday school was taken over as a Labour Exchange and dole office and long queues formed there every weekday. Shops that sold cheap food like the Maypole Dairy and the Argentine butcher's shop did well. There were coal shortages that closed mills as the miners also struck against their grievances, they were suffering even more than the weavers. There was even a General Strike in 1926. By 1935, all the signs pointed to Barlick sinking into the permanent decline suffered by other single industry towns like Jarrow in the North East. There was very little reason for any optimism.
Meanwhile, in another part of the forest.... Trouble was brewing on the Continent again. Germany had been ground into dust by the Versailles agreement after the Great War, the political system was in disarray and raging inflation made life impossible. Come the day, cometh the man and an insignificant war veteran and house painter called Adolph Hitler rose to power and started to make his dream of a Third German Reich come true. By 1935 this had been noted by our government and they started to rearm and take measures against what they were fairly certain would be another world war. At that time the great fear was aerial bombing, the belief was that 'the bomber will always get through'. It was known that for years the Germans had been photographing our cities from the air as the German Zeppelins passed over the country on their transatlantic flights and they knew where our major aircraft factories were. Give the government their due, they reacted quickly and started to look for sites for 'shadow factories' beyond the reach of German bombers and luckily our area was just the ticket. We had large empty mills, a good labour force and good rail links. In September 1940 Bankfield Shed was the first of many in Earby Barlick and Clitheroe to be requisitioned, even Bracewell Hall was taken over as offices for the Rover Company who were the main manufacturers concerned. On the 14th November 1940 their Coventry factory was almost totally destroyed by a major bombing raid and the move to the north started immediately.
Bankfield Shed in 1963.
