FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[David Whipp]

Thanks Kev.

One of the reasons I post about drains on here is to broaden the knowledge base.

I'm up for anything that would make information easily accessible. One issue is the timescale over which such information would be needed, as it could be decades before there's an issue and the information comes in useful. Don't know how you'd keep it 'live' over that sort of period?

[PanBiker]

How about putting it on the TC website as a downloadable document (pdf maybe) or even on here in the same format within a suitable topic? Google and other bots, spiders and crawlers would disseminate it across the web.

[Stanley]

We may be doing the best we can simply by posting on here and archiving my articles. Search engines are so efficient nowadays (and will get better) that the seekers will find. Question is how many people seek? The developers at Crow Nest who were 'unaware' until David alerted them are a case in point. At Ellenroad I saved Coates thousands of pounds by alerting them to ground heave, hidden pillar foundations and mine workings. All things you would think due diligence would discover as a matter of course. Perhaps the best thing we can do is keep nagging......

[Stanley]

The old canal bridge at Long Ing during the conversion of Moss Shed to the present bedding factory for Silentnight.

[Stanley]

Not earth shaking.... I did this pic in 1982 and think it's off Philip Street near the surgery on Park Road. It's simply typical of hundreds of back yards in the town which over the years have been quietly tidied up and are fast disappearing.
Looking at it again, I think that what attracted my attention was the paving and central gutter. I have an idea that at one time this was the extension of Back Lane (Philip Street) across the back of what is now the surgery.

[plaques]

In the upstairs window there is the reflection of what looks like the finial cross of a church. If so would this help to locate the picture?

[Stanley]

If I'm right P, that reflected cross is on the Wesleyan church on Rainhall Road.



Click to enlarge this 1892 map of the area. The lane that runs parallel and above Chapel Street is what used to be Back Lane, now Philip Street. In 1892 it crossed over York Street and connected into Park Road which was Blue Pot Lane on the 1853 OS map. It is now stopped beyond York Street and the newer building in the gap is the modern surgery on Park Road. So I think I'm safe in saying that the setts and central gutter in the yard are a remnant of the original paving of Back Lane. definitely a Forgotten Corner.

[David Whipp]

I'm going to have to dissent from Stanley on this one...

Philip Street still continues across York Street and onto Park Road. What is now (mainly) the surgery is a row of cottages on one side of the lane fronting onto an unmade section of Chapel Street.

Thinking about the buildings in the picture, the first floor patio window with a balcony is distinctive and rings a bell, but I can't place it at the moment.

[Stanley]

David is right.... It just goes to show how memory can deceive. I've gone back to the original neg file in the archive and looked at the contact sheet. The pics I took before this one show that I was walking down Rainhall Road towards Newtown and the frame before is a pic of the shops taken facing Newtown and I was stood outside what is now Whitworth's Chemists. Then there is the pic of the back yard and the next pic is an interior at King Street. So it looks as though the back yard is in that area. Back Rainhall Road? Back of King Street? This is going to natter me!

[Stanley]

The whole of the top of Newtown interests me. Before Craven House with its adjoining stables and coach house was built, Newtown connected directly into Back Lane (Philip Street) behind and was a main through route for the town. However, my object of interest this morning is the tall, scabby cast iron standard to the left with the 'one way' notice on it. I suspect it's completely overlooked and even if it was noticed, very few would know what it is. It's a sewer gas outlet for the foul water drain to ensure that any noxious gases are discharged at high level. I only know of one other in the town......

[David Whipp]

Surprisingly, Stanley, I can match your knowledge about the sewer vents!

I first encountered one at the top of Shuttleworth Street in Earby in the 1980s. It was causing a problem of some sort for residents.

Due to current building regs, they are now considered redundant - an endangered species.

Will have a look to see if the other one is still in place. Don't think it's been removed.

[PanBiker]

That will be Wellhouse Road by the railings and bench on the sweeping bend I would assume. It was still there the last time I looked.

[Stanley]

That's it Ian! Well spotted!



Here is Dixon's chimney at Shaddongate Mill at Carlisle. When it became redundant the city council used it (and about 30 other stacks in the town) as vents for the sewer system. See Bancroft, 'Tall Chimney Construction' on the site in rare books.
You don't think about sewer gas until you experience it. When I lived at Addingham with Mary the developers of the housing at High Mill installed a large collecting tank and a pump that kicked in when the level rose pumping the effluent up into a manhole just outside the house. When it did we got the benefit of the accumulated gas, very intense! They cured it finally but only after expensive modifications to the system.
Just for the record I did these two pics this morning.



The sewer vent at the junction of Wellhouse Road and Valley Road. It is the right hand standard and has lost its ornate CI vent on top.



The vent at the top of Newtown (The white one with the road signs attached to it to the left of Craven House). This still retains its finial.

[Stanley]

Lazy I know but this kissing gate on Shitten Ginnel intrigues me. Where did the path go? The LIDAR survey has since proposed a possible site for the Saxon Church at the farm across the field. Possibly before Calf Hall Lane existed.

[Stanley]

A different sort of Forgotten Corner this morning.... We've been considering sewer vents and of course every house has one if it has a correctly installed connection to the main sewer. This is the extension of the foul water pipe upwards and which should discharge above roof level so as to not let any noxious effluvia get into the roof space under the eaves. There used to be a by-law stipulating that but I begin to wonder if this is no longer so. Many foul water pipes discharge before they even reach the roof. If you keep your ayes open as yo walk round the town you'll find plenty of offenders. Is this a change in regulations or just sloppy installation?

[Big Kev]

A different sort of Forgotten Corner this morning.... We've been considering sewer vents and of course every house has one if it has a correctly installed connection to the main sewer. This is the extension of the foul water pipe upwards and which should discharge above roof level so as to not let any noxious effluvia get into the roof space under the eaves. There used to be a by-law stipulating that but I begin to wonder if this is no longer so. Many foul water pipes discharge before they even reach the roof. If you keep your ayes open as yo walk round the town you'll find plenty of offenders. Is this a change in regulations or just sloppy installation?

Mine has a one-way vent on it. It allows air in to stop syphoning, these vents are normally used for an internal solution and can be prone to freezing when used outside. It was there when I moved in and I haven't, as yet, felt the urge to extend the soil stack.

[David Whipp]

My recollection of the building regs is that an appropriately capped stink pipe just has to be a minimum distance from any windows.

[Stanley]

It looks as though you are right David. Funnily enough the actual regs don't stipulate any conditions for the outlet but I found this on an an advisory site.... "The minimum a soil pipe should be above an opening area is 100mm. The reason for this is so than there are no foul or gas entering the house so that there are no illnesses occurring." I always understood that ventilation space under the eaves into the roof space could be construed as 'an opening area' but evidently this isn't seen as important today. Despite this, it is still good practice to extend the vent for the soil pipe above eves and gutter level.

[Stanley]

Whitsuntide walk in Barlick in the 1960s. New clothes bought and worn. Whatever happened to the tradition?

[Whyperion]

Tradition probably went when Whit Sunday got shifted in favour of Spring Bank Holiday.

[Stanley]

Gala parade(?) forming up on Bank Street around 1920.

[Stanley]

Here's a Forgotten Corner from Nelson, very apposite at the moment. Len Dole the long time Labour activist addressing the audience at the May Day Rally in Nelson in 1978..... Len must be spinning in his grave......

[PanBiker]

I thank Len for some of my views Stanley. he was a staunch ILP member along with his wife Betty, we had some good conversations up at the Clarion.

Len Dole - Working Class Movement Library

[Stanley]

Interesting. I don't claim parity with Len and his wife but he and I withdrew our membership of the Party at the same time for the same reasons.



Here's an associated Forgotten Corner for you. Sidney Silverman addressing a Labour Party rally at Seedhill football ground in 1936.....

[Stanley]

Gisburn Railway Station in 1903.