FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[Stanley]

This is the new flywheel for the Bishop House Mill in Burnley which was needed after the engine was destroyed by an overspeed in 1949. Arthur Roberts of William Roberts and Sons stood on the right. See Newton Pickles evidence in the LTP for the full story of the rebuild and the mistakes that were made.

[Stanley]

1982. This corner shop on Commercial street was once a furniture store and was where Briggs and Duxbury started operating in the town. Their workshop was in the lock-up on the opposite side of the street until 1931 when they took over the redundant Model Lodging House in Butts.

[Stanley]

Brown and Pickles dismantling the large water wheel at Glasshouses, Pately Bridge in 1979 preparatory to it being reinstalled at Quarry Bank mill. I was drawn in by English Heritage to give an opinion on feasibility and in the process I recommended Brown and Pickles as contractors. I later wished I hadn't because they lost money on the job and were badly treated. Newton told me later that it was a factor in closing B&P down but not the main reason.

[Stanley]

Halifax Cloth Hall in the 1920s when it was used as a market place. The cloth halls were where cottage weavers took their pices to sell them. There was a very active one at Colne but that was demolished.

[Stanley]

It's 1977 and at Bancroft we saw looms being sold, a bad sign. We knew things were bad but when a weaving shed starts selling looms we were left in no doubt that the end was nigh. It was a bad time and best forgotten.

[Stanley]

Newtown in 1983. Everything was going to change.....

[Stanley]

Sough Bridge Mill in 1956 when Bristol Tractors were still working there, Kelbrook Metal Products in the section of the mill closest to us and the Forecast Foundry at the back of the mill.

[MickBrett]

My ex father in law, Tommy Watson, worked that foundry for years before moving to Ouzendale

[Stanley]

Morning Mick! Thanks for adding information.....



Thornton in Craven before 1900. Mary Lancaster (Nee King) lived in this row of cottages and she once told me that they used to sit in the middle of the road playing because there was virtually no traffic and what there was was horse drown and very low because of the steepness of the hill. Not recommended in this day and age!

[Whyperion]

In 1977 I got the impression that there were not many jobs about , one of my decisions to stay on at school and go to university (in the days when it was free). looking back at newspapers of 1978-1982 there were probably more jobs of interest to me than I actually realised at the time. Nowadays it seems less that pay well for a decent grafting day of hand or brain.

[Stanley]

A reminder of what was a thriving part of Colne's industrial heritage on the 19th century. Makes you wonder where it all went!

[Stanley]

Cecil Hufton, volunteer, Ellenroad 1992. Cecil was a pensioner who lived close to the engine house and he was a good man for me especially when I was building the Whitelees Engine. He came in every day for about three months and cleaned every part of the engine as it was needed. He has been forgotten now but not by me. He was a lovely bloke to work with, totally reliable and took everything in his stride. RIP.

[Stanley]

Ernie Roberts and Roy Wellock whitewashing the weaving shed roof windows in June 1977. The windows were whitewashed to prevent the shed getting too hot in summer. The trick was to make the whitewash thin so that it had weathered off by the end of summer.

[Stanley]

The Ellerbank Manufacturing Company at Wellhouse Mill. This was 1937 and it was a party to celebrate the Coronation of George VI. What strikes me about this is that it is all men, tacklers and warp preparation. Was there another party for women? I would like to think this couldn't happen today.......

[Stanley]

Specimen banknote, the Craven Bank. The first bank to operate as a public bank in Barlick.

[Stanley]

[Stanley]

Peter Thompson boatbuilding at Lower Park Marina in 1998.

[Stanley]

Posting that Image of Peter reminded me of this, a section from me memoirs that describes what we were doing at LPM....


Once again I have gone off at a tangent to describe the Dee Mill demolition. If you remember, it is 1997 and I am driving back into Barlick convinced I needed a new job. I’ve been held up by traffic on New Road and on the spur of the moment have turned into the opening that led to Lower Park Marina. As I think you have heard me remark before, there is a providence that looks after drunken men and idiots! It was about to come into operation again. I drove down the lane to the canal and walked into the office and had a word with the manager, John. I came out with a job and a pound more an hour than I’d been getting at REW! Things were looking up!

Lower Park Marina is a fairly recent addition to Barlick. It was started by a bloke called Doug Moore who gained a reputation for building very good boats but from what I can make out, didn’t make a lot of money at it. His number two was Peter Thompson who’s trade was actually painter and sign writer but like me, he had acquired other skills on the way and when Doug finally sold out Peter stayed on with the new owners as boatbuilder and carried on the good work Doug had started.

I suppose the first thing to do is to give you an idea of the sort of boats we were building. The standard canal narrow boat which can fit in almost all the canals and locks in the country is 60 feet long, 7 feet wide and about 2 feet draught. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal which passes through Barlick is a broad canal and can actually take boats over twice this width but most owners wanted to be able to travel the length and breadth of the country and so built to narrow standards. The standard build was 10mm plate for the sole plate (the boats were flat bottomed) 6mm for the sides and 4mm for the superstructure. Some owners specified heavier plate for the sole, up to 15mm. The finished hulls weighed about 15 tons. They were fully welded construction and, in LPM’s case, fabricated entirely from flat sheet. Some firms used profiled sections to cut down on cost but Doug Moore’s design was a traditional steel boat.

The hulls, as finished, were a very strong and rigid construction. Properly looked after they could have a life of well over fifty years even for the lighter constructions. The heaviest boats we made would do a lot more than this.

Building the hull, painting it and launching it was the easiest part of the job in many ways and certainly the cheapest. The installation of the engine and fitting the boat out was as expensive as you wanted to make it. We had boats in for repair which had a total cost of over £200,000!

I’ll briefly describe how you go about building a boat like this. The first essential is a building big enough to build the boat in! The LPM workshop had been designed specifically for this work and was wide enough to work on two full sized boats at once. Next, you need access to the canal. We had enough room to be able to slide the boat out into the yard on skids and then lift it into the water using a crane. The shop was equipped with the usual machines needed for fabricating with steel plate, a guillotine, a bending machine, welders, plasma and gas cutting equipment and of course, a variety of welders, both MIG and stick. Outside, on the canal, we had a floating covered dock which was used for paint jobs and small repairs.

The first thing to say about building the hull is that I lay no claim to being a boat builder. If pressed, I know enough of the basics to build a hull but when it comes to the finer points I would be out of my depth. This is where the skill lies with a bloke like Peter or Doug Moore. They know all the wrinkles that make all the difference between a floating box and a thing of beauty! Having said this, if you want to build one, here’s how you go about it.

Start by laying three steel beams on the floor. One at each edge of the hull and one, slightly longer, down the centre. The sole plates have been ordered about two inches wider than the finished hull and are laid down on the girders and welded together. The weld is a full penetrating weld which leaves a bead on the bottom side. There is no need to do any welding from underneath. At this stage there is no shape in the plates, they are square and will be cut to shape later. The side plates on the straight section of the hull are then set up and tack welded in position with temporary angle iron stays where necessary to ensure they are perfectly placed. All the welds are simply tacks at this stage. The shape of the stern and hull is marked on the sole plate and the bow and stern plates, cut to the correct shape, are tacked to the existing side plates and bent to the correct profile. The bow plates are cut away at the bottom to give shape to the front of the boat and when in place are bent in to shape using a pull lift attached to temporary lugs welded inside until the correct shape of the bow is achieved. The sole plate at the front is then warmed sufficiently to allow it to be pulled up until it is in contact with the shaped bow plates and then tacked in place. At this point the front and rear sole plates can be cut to shape following the hull plates. At this point we have the hull of the boat sat there on the floor with all plates in their correct positions and tack welded together.

A word about welding. The biggest problem in fabricating any construction out of flat plate is that as the sections are welded together they distort due to heating of the plate and welding in place while expanded. As the metal cools down the structure tries to regain its original shape but cannot because of the welds, at this point tremendous stresses are set up in the structure and the only way it can relieve itself is by distorting. If you are building a 5 million gallon oil tank this is no big problem because plates can be dogged and wedged into place and nobody is worried about a bit of distortion. In the case of our hull, any distortion sticks out like a sore thumb as soon as it is given a coat of high gloss paint and this is where the skill lies, in joining the plates but keeping them flat.

The key to this is to tack weld first and then complete the weld in very small sections about two or three inches long. These welds are done about 18 inches apart and when you have completed a seam with spaced tacks on one side of the boat you move to the other side and repeat the operation allowing the first side to cool completely. When it is cold, you start again with two inch welds half way between the existing welds. You carry on like this until all the seams are welded and if you’ve done it properly and allowed ample cooling time, the result is a perfectly flat side to the hull. This regime of small welds equally spaced is used for every part of the boat apart from the heavy sealing weld which is done where the hull plates join the sole plate. However, this is one of the last welds to be done and by that time the hull is so rigid that it can stand any stresses imposed without distortion.

So, we have a sole plate and a hull form. The next stage is to insert the ribs in the hull and attach these to the hull by tack welds again. Gussets are fitted where the bottom ribs meet the ones up the side. These ribs are all placed in the optimum position for fitting partitions, engine beds and other elements of the construction and vary from boat to boat.

The next stage is to finish the bow. All we have at the moment is two plates which give the shape but have about a three inch gap between them at the front. This is filled by a very heavy pre-fabricated construction that forms the stem of the boat. Eventually this will be finished at the top in a graceful curve and is probably one of the most definitive components of the boat in terms of the impression of grace and proportion it gives. The stern needs some attention as the plates which form it are quite complicated. The bottom section bends in on a taper to form a point under water. This is known as the swim and is shaped like this to give a smooth flow of water to the propeller and rudder. At water level this taper becomes the rounded stern so typical of this class of boat. The junction between the two shapes has to be completed with shaped flat plates. At the same time provision has to be made for fitting the stern tube for the propeller shaft and the vertical tube which carries the rudder post.

After all this is completed the coaming is fitted at the top of the straight hall plates and the decks to bow and stern. Once all these are in place the superstructure is raised and the roof fitted. This is thinner plate but even more prone to distortion. In addition all the welds above the waterline are ground back smooth when finished so as not mar the final paint job. When the superstructure is completed things like integral fuel tanks or cooling panels have to be fitted and then the finishing touches like lockers, doors, internal steps, bollards etc. all of which are fabricated out of steel. The last stage is to fit rounded rubbing strakes to the hull. Their number depends on how much protection the boat needs. There are more on the bow and stern than on the sides. The last job when all welds have been completed and ground back is to paint the hull below the water line with bituminous paint and all the upper part of the hull and the superstructure with red oxide paint. It may be a good thing at this point to start installing the woodwork which is the base for the internal panelling and insulation. Usually, at this stage the new owner takes over and either fits the boat out himself or takes it to a specialist. Peter was a good carpenter and was quite capable of doing this job but many owners wanted to do much of the work themselves to cut down on the cost.

Depending on what the owner wants, the next job is to install the engine, propeller shaft and rudder so as to make the boat capable of travelling under its own power. All that remains is to drag the boat outside, lift it into the water, load a crate of ale on board and go for a spin on the canal so you can all congratulate each other on how well it swims!

Right, so now you know how to build the hull of a narrow canal boat. Don’t be fooled by this brief description. I have had to miss out many of the essential stages in the construction, there’s a lot more to the job than what I’ve described and the finer points are only learned after years of experience.

As I remarked previously, the hull is the cheapest part of the boat. I remember something I came across many years ago which was an explanation why ships are always called ‘she’. It said that this was because the rigging cost more than the hull. I apologise for the sexist nature of this remark, I simply report it! In the case of a narrow boat, the fitting out costs more than the hull. There is almost no limit to how far you can go. We never fitted out a complete boat from scratch but had several re-fitting jobs after accidental damage like fires.

I really enjoyed working on this these jobs with Peter because I leaned so much. The basic construction is a framework of wooden battens fixed to the metal of the hull. This is infilled with insulation and then skinned over with high grade veneer faced ply. Most of the furniture and fittings is built in and then the whole of the interior sanded down, sealed and coated with gloss varnish. The resulting finish in varnished wood grain was beautiful and the bigger the budget we were given, the better we could make it.

The final stage with a boat was the painting. Again, Peter was a master at this and the finish was several coats of high gloss paint to give depth to the finish, all to be finished off with a coat of gloss varnish. Before the final coat goes on the decorations have to be applied. Traditionally, canal boats are decorated in a very distinctive style. This varies from multi-coloured geometric designs on the bow and wood grained finish on the rear of the superstructure to butterflies and traditional scenes of castles in improbable landscapes on the rear entrance doors. When completed, these boats were a magnificent sight and the pride and joy of their owners. Having said this, it was surprising the number of people who spent the money getting a really good paint job and then neglected it instead of rubbing the varnish down every few years and re-varnishing. We did some like this an it’s amazing how well they can come up after treatment, just like new in fact.

We did running repairs as well and there were some interesting jobs. Of course, I liked the mechanical best and Peter soon realised that if there was a bit of turning to do I was the man for it. Once again I was able to demonstrate just how useful a lathe can be if you are doing general mechanical repairs.

Apart from the work, the fact I was working only five minutes from home was a wonderful improvement. Mornings became more relaxed as I could stay in the house until ten minutes to eight and still be in plenty of time. It was good for Eigg as well because she could run around to her heart’s content chasing rabbits and rats. Being on the side of the canal with a country view the other side was a delight. You could always take a spell and if the weather was fine, a cup of tea and a smoke on the benches outside the workshop became a picnic.

There was one drawback of course. Any fabrication work on steel involves welding, cutting and grinding so you suffer permanently from what I always describe accurately but not elegantly as ‘black snot syndrome’. If you are ever in a job where, when you blow your nose, you leave black stains on the tissue, you are doing work which is bad for you! The work at LPM was definitely in this category and I was always conscious of this.

Mention of grinding dust reminds me that there is a bit of a mystery that needs to be addressed. I am told frequently that smoking is bad for me. I’d be the first to admit that it isn’t all good but in my experience, nothing in nature is wholly good or bad, there are usually points on either side. However, this isn’t my polemic in favour of smoking, that will come later! The point I want to look at now is the fact that right the way through my working career I have been exposed to various substances which I am certain were bad for me. In farming we were exposed to organophosphates in the dressing used on cattle for warble fly and some very powerful chemicals we used to spray the land. I think all the ones we used then have been banned. The ones that spring to mind were DNOC (Denocate) and 2.4D, then there was the Cymag we used for killing vermin in burrows, this was relatively ‘clean’ as it was Magnesium cyanide and you knew immediately if you’d got any of that down you!

Later, at the dairy there was ODC the tank cleaner which I never trusted, asbestos dust out of brake systems and liberal doses of particulates from smoky diesels. At the mill there was asbestos. One regular job was sweeping the dust off the top of the boiler. Being bone dry it rose in clouds and as the boiler was insulated with asbestos, it was very dangerous. At REW there was more asbestos but even more dangerous to my mind, the dust from insulating mat made of slag or glass fibre. The official line is that this is safe compared with asbestos but I have never been able to accept this. The slightest bit of dust would start you coughing and irritate your skin and as it is almost entirely silica, how can it be less dangerous than the dust miners breathed which resulted in silicosis.

The point I am trying to make is that I have been exposed to all these things and, to the best of my knowledge, haven’t been adversely affected by any of them. Is it just luck or are there other factors like a strong basic constitution. Could the fact that I smoke a pipe and therefore encourage mucus forming in my lungs be a protection against air borne nasties? I’m not saying that this is so, simply saying that it seems to me that it might be true. So, when people tell me I should give up my pipe I accept the fact they might be right but on the basis of my experience so far, I’m not about to alter anything.

The work at LPM was fairly regular while we were building a boat because it was then that the pressure was on but it tended to dry up during normal times. This didn’t cause me any great problems because I was beginning to feel the need to slow down. I didn’t actually do anything about looking for other work but late in 1997 the phone rang………

[Stanley]

Launching a boat at Lower Park Marina in 1998. We used to have a short shake down cruise down the cut to make sure it was going to float!

[Stanley]

A picture of a happy bloke. The Lad in his new wagon (A bit dirty because I was doing a lot of miles..... ) setting off from Demense Farm at Gisburn with a load of cattle for Exeter. 280 miles, about six hours driving and when I got there and unloaded I set off back home again immediately. Illegal? Of course it was, but that was the name of the game and how you made money out of the job, both for me and Richard my boss.
An economist would call it maximising the use of the assets. I called it being cab-happy!

[Stanley]

My last waggon parked outside Yew Tree Farm, West Marton in 1972. I had the biggest wagon in the district, I was doing the most miles and possibly had the best wage. As one of my mates said to me one day, "What are you going to do for an encore?". It was one of the best and most settled periods of my life, I was King of the Road. Needless to say, it didn't last......

[Stanley]

Six years after I did the pic of TWY outside Yew Tree I was weaving Bancroft out and a year later I was at university..... I never saw that one coming! As I said, these things never last.

[Stanley]

This ginnel down the side of Craven House at the top of Newtown is all that is left of what used to be the main road out to Gisburn from the main route through Barlick, what is now Back Lane or Philip Street. Definitely a forgotten corner.....

[Stanley]

Coates, 20 years ago. So much has changed......

[Stanley]