FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[Stanley]

Horse flesh was not rationed in either of the world wars. In Stockport a man called Bert Slack sold horse meat in a shop in the town centre off the main shopping street, Prince's Street. My mother used to buy meat there for us kids but father wouldn't eat it, he had been reared with horses and worked with them. They often operated under the title of 'Continental Butchers'.

[Stanley]

Ten years ago I delighted in baking bread and apple pies like these..... But time passes and circumstances change..... If I baked and ate these now they would make me very poorly. It's not fair and I hate it...... Roll on the day when Star Trek medicine is with us and conditions like diabetes can be reversed!

[Stanley]

I mentioned Aberfan this morning in another post and it reminded me of this also..... See THIS link.
We must never allow these things to be forgotten. History now but it was the price of coal.

[Stanley]

The boiler house yard at Bancroft Shed in 1978. Because I had reminded them the management had just realised they had an asset of 300 tons of coal in stock worth £35 a ton and so they told me to burn it. That's when I knew for certain that they were going to close the mill. We always kept a stock of coal in hand so that in the event of a coal strike or anything else that stopped coal deliveries, we could carry on. Another ting to note is that the material on the right of the picture up to the boundary fence is clinker and ash from the boiler. We never had to pay for it to be taken away, everyone knew that if they wanted free road or path making material they could simply come and get it whenever they wanted.

[Tizer]

We kids used to play football on clinker and ash which had been spread out on waste ground in front of the mill to act as tracks for lorries passing by to the brickmaker's next door to the mill. Not a good idea to fall down on, especially when wearing short trousers!

[Stanley]

Doctor Arthur Morrison collecting ashes and clinker from Bancroft in 1978.

I seem to remember at one point there was a scare about the level of background radio activity in the clinker used in allotment paths but it seemed to peter out.....
(This was the year the mill closed. Note the absence of coal stock behind Arthur up the side of the mill.)

[Stanley]

Once of a day these three were all the housewife needed to maintain her reputation with her neighbours, scrubbing soap, dolly blue for the washing and donkey stone for the doorstep and whatever other decoration was customary.
My father once told me that in Ashton under Lyne it got out of hand on one street which was a steep hill. The housewives, competing with each other got to the stage where they were black-leading the rails the corporation trams ran on and they were getting wheel slip and couldn't climb the hill especially in wet weather. I don't know if that was true but it's certainly feasible.....

[MickBrett]

I once read that the owners of Sunlight were pretty good regarding the welfare of their workers.

[Stanley]

Yes Mick. Lever Brothers who made sunlight soap built a model village, Port Sunlight, for their workers.



We can still buy bar carbolic soap in Barlick. It's a much kinder soap, made from good fats, than you'd think.

[Stanley]

Bonfire Night at Hey Farm in 1976. A forgotten corner now.....

I have a story for you about bonfires..... Many years ago in the days when my beard was black I used to deliver school and institutional milk up into the Dales. One of my daily calls was a residential Mental institution at Cowan Bridge, I delivered their milk every morning. One day round about this time of year I turned in the gate and the gardener flagged me down. He was gathering leaves up to burn them but had no matches. I had a spare box and gave it to him then carried on to deliver my milk. As usual the staff had a bacon butty and a pot of tea waiting for me and I was sat in the kitchen enjoying them when a bell started ringing and the staff locked all the doors. They told me that as soon as they had addressed the problem I could be on my way.
Shortly afterwards they unlocked the doors and as I was going I asked what the problem had been. They told me that the inmates had been collecting sticks for what would eventually be the communal bonfire on November 5th but somehow one of the inmates had got hold of matches and had gone round setting fire to all the heaps. This had caused uproar.....
I thought it best to keep my mouth shut and went on my way.....

[Stanley]

Janet in her mother's wedding dress in 1977 at Hey Farm. Memory Lane!

[Cathy]

A lovely memory, Stanley

[Stanley]

Yes Love, not really a forgotten corner but I tripped over it this morning.

[Stanley]

Tyne Cot cemetery, the scene of the battle for the village of Passchendaele on the Ypres Salient. A place of useless slaughter. Read it up and weep. (LINK)

[Stanley]

I came across this memorial at Putlos on the Baltic coast where we used the former German tank gunnery school to practice live firing with our 17pdrs. You don't need to be fluent in the German language to make out that the commander of the school was not a lucky man. He was killed in the invasion of Poland that triggered WW2 in 1939. A timely reminder of the fact that this weekend if we are to be fair, we should be remembering the fallen of other countries as well as our own. When I was in Berlin we used to work with the German Border Police who were mainly ex-Wehrmacht and they impressed me as being good blokes. I realise they were probably recruited because they were acceptable but even so we should not have been fighting these men and killing them. I don't expect everyone to agree......

[Stanley]

My Carleton College students at Langemark Cemetery in 2000. The four figures on the back boundary of the cemetery are statues.
Have a look at THIS link.

[Stanley]

I forget where I got this image from but the caption is 'Colne War Memorial and 100 year old lady.' It made an impression on me.

[Wendyf]

That isn't the war memorial in Colne unfortunately.

[Stanley]

I thought there was a difference when I was posting it but forgot to check. Pity it's wrong but I still like the image Wendy....
Thanks for correcting it.

[Wendyf]

This is Colne. Just a bit different!

COLNE, LANCASHIRE 0001 (07-08-2014)_547x410.jpeg

[Stanley]

[Stanley]

Bunker near Ypres used in WW1 as a forward dressing station. Almost certainly where my grandfather was taken with his fatal wound.

[Stanley]

Bailleul cemetery where my grandfather is buried, near Ypres. This was before the Imperial War Graves Commission brought uniformity to the sites.

[Stanley]

Wellhouse Mill in about 1900.

[Stanley]

Taken in 2005. This building at the head of Walmsgate used to be Holmes Pie Shop.