Close and Height Side

[rossylass]

I have been looking at the birth records for Bridge Chapel which are now on the Ancestry website. My GGG Grandparents Richard and Betty Pickles had eight children and apart from my GG Grandfather James Pickles, who was born in Springs, one was born in Height Side and the others in Close. Can anyone help me to locate these places please?

[Nolic]

I think Heightside is an area of Bacup going up to the football pitches overlooking the town. Nolic

[Wendyf]

Higher & Lower Close are on Higher Lane heading towards Barrowford and just before Salterforth Lane. Higher Close is on the market by the looks of it. I have come across a couple of references to a Height Side Farm in Barnoldswick...one in the old archived site which is now proving elusive and another somewhere in the Historic towns survey but I haven't got time to look for it just now.

[Wendyf]

This link should go to the LRO archives and 3 references to Henry Dean of Heightside, Barnoldswick.
This one is the item about farms on the old site.

[rossylass]

Thank you Wendy.

Do you know if there would have been any other farms or cottages in Close in the first two decades of the 19th century?

As far as I can see Richard Pickles and his family lived in the countryside around Barnoldswick from 1804 until they moved down the road to Lower Blacko Farm in 1826. The births of his children save one, were registered at Bridge Chapel and his occupation shown as a cotton weaver. I had guessed he was a farmer /weaver, but have no evidence about the farmer bit, although it seems that he always lived on farms. The census of 1841 gives his occupation as handloom weaver and again in 1851 he was a handloom weaver of delaine. Two of his sons give his occupation as farmer on their second marriage certificates; they remarried in 1854 and in 1866, but one of the sons was pure showman and never let the truth get in the way of a good story, so may have given this as his father's occupation because it sounds more grand than weaver. I don't suppose anyone can unravel the mystery, but it would be interesting to hear some theories.

It is good that a facsimile of the book showing the births registered at Bridge Chapel is now on line as it shows more information than the transcription. In the case of my own Pickles family I don't think that they were regular attenders at Bridge St as, apart from one, the births were registered as job lots, the first two two years after the events and in the case of another four, which were registered in 1818, eight years after the first birth in the batch and two years after the death of one of the children. Can anyone shed any light on this?

I wish I could be a time traveller. When are they going to bring it in?

[Stanley]

Wendy is almost there, I wonder of she has found a worm hole?

[Wendyf]

I don't know about there being any more cottages around that area, but there would often be more than one family living under the same roof. I've just had a look at Higher & Lower Close in the 1851census (they come under Salterforth) and at that time Higher had 14 acres and Lower had 10 acres, just a couple of small fields really. The tenants are described as "farmers" and the rest of their families as weavers, but these aren't farmers as we would think of them today...more like smallholders, they would just have been able to sell butter & eggs to supplement an income from weaving.
I'm stuck with Heightside, but got distracted by Henry Dean. The Dean family came from Gisburn, and other references place Henry in the Brogden area at Higher Clough towards the end of the 18th century. He (or a son also called Henry) heads off to Colne as a prosperous businessman, but I found a marriage for him in 1854 to an Ann Mitchell of Barlick at which point he is 79 years old! He must have died very shortly after and Ann appears to have inherited.
Sorry! Nothing to do with your question...unless it leads us back to Heightside
I think the Ancestry subs might be beyond my reach if they start to offer time travel....

[rossylass]

That's a big help Wendy! Looks as though there were only the farms up there then. The Pickles' probably left Close in 1824 less that 30 years before the 1851 census so I don't suppose it changed much up there in that timespan.

Let me know if you find a wormhole and you can pull me through too!

When I have finished writing about my mob (if ever), I'll be glad to transcribe the birth register!