OneGuyFromBarlick

Stanley wrote:Yes Kev, a good example of railings for safety, protecting the drop into Skipton Road. Funny thing is that the gate survived as well.

Both of them did, they are big lumps of metal, too.

Having been born here in 1940, and thinking about things that have vanished since then, and the changes to the structure of the Town, plus the amount of time I have spent over the past 34 months looking at the lives of local people and where they lived has set me digging into my memory. Since 1940 the greatest number of things to disappear were the corner shops, but that has already been well covered. Several streets have gone, Hartley St. Bankfield St, a whole area down Long Ing that included Peter Square, Raikes Cottages and the adjacent houses on Long Ing Lane. Further along there was a farm, and between that and the canal bridge, a terrace of houses on the right. Both canal lengthsmens cottages at Long Ing and Coates are no more. Barretts Steam Laundry and the nearby Co-op stables, all of the dwellings on the left of Westgate, and of course the main Co-op on Albert Rd. And of course there were the wooden huts and shops, the clogger's at Dam Head bridge and Long Ing, The Ebenezer Chapel behind Gisburn Rd, the shops on Fernlea Avenue where the Council Shop is now, Abe Wears butchers and Foden's Saddlers were just two, and Belfords Café, St James Church, the old Martins Bank, the Majestic Ballroom and Cinema, not forgetting the Palace buildings and the Ivory Hall Club. The Railway Station and sidings, Lamberts, Tom Parkers and Grainge's Joiners Shops are all memories of an age gone by as is the bottom left of Hill St and the old Ambulance depot. Despite all of the this the Town retains it own unique identity and character, long may it remain so.

Hey Farm in 2001

I keep forgetting to post this pic of a day out at the Cross Keys at East Marton in days gone by.

Bill Barritt [seated] of Kayfield Farm on holiday in Ireland.

Tom and Jack Pratt in 1953.

John's obituary in 2007.

Old Maudslay charabanc in 1914. I think it's in Nelson. Almost certainly a wagon chassis that had demountable bodies so it could be converted at weekends.

I've had a closer look at the charabanc above and I was wrong, this is a purpose built vehicle, not a conversion.



An earlier version of a good day out.

George Forrester Singleton and Newton Pickles at Bancroft in 1984. George was an auctioneer and mill agent form Blackburn, his firm is still working today. He was heavily involved in many matters concerning mills in Barlick. A good man and one of the old school.

Gisburn Horse Trials in 1982.

Gisburn Auction dairy ring in 1981.

Tacklers at Widdups, Moss Shed. Left to right, Joe Askham, Fred Watkinson and ?. Before WW1.

Bracewell Hall in 1850. Photo reputed to have been taken by Billycock Bracewell.

Bracewell Hall in the 1930s when it was a country club (after being a boarding school for a while). There was a boating lake, ballroom and restaurants, a very popular venue for Barlickers.

In the 1930s.....

Annie Brooks and Fred Slater at Bracewell Hall near the boating lake. 1929. A pleasant afternoon out in those days!

Looks like 'a pleasant afternoon out, was a very serious matter. Reminds me of Uncle Mort.

Indeed Tripps, although this couple are not particularly young there was no definitive fashion difference between old and young until the 1950's really. Twenty year old blokes in their Sunday best with tache and flat caps look just like their dads in the early to mid part of the 20th century. They all tended to look old before their time.

I've always thought that they look a bit serious.... Mind you he was a manufacturer and the cotton trade was in severe decline....

Bracewell Hall in 1900.

The end of Bracewell Hall in the 1950s when it was demolished by Briggs and Duxbury. Harold told me they got more for the slates than they paid for the hall.

An ash pit door in Back Beech Street. Waste disposal has changed completely in my life time. At one time all rubbish was burned on the fire, even empty tins, so the contents of the ash pit were not as noxious as we think these days. It was disposed of in dumps close to the town. We forget now that Victory Park started life as the council dump. If you walk down the path to Greenberfield lane and look in the beck you'll see where the bank has been eroded and revealed the old rubbish that the site contains.

The other waste problem was night soil. Before the sewage works was built it was spread on the land by the private contractors, usually farmers, who ran the service. I have a reference to a man called Bracewell being taken to task about the nuisance being caused by him spreading too much on his land, it wasn't getting washed in as it should. And people today complain about normal farmyard muck spreading!

Left to right, Bob and Jim fort with Harry Crabtree having lunch in Bancroft engine house in 1077. Brown and Pickles were doing a repair on the shafting in the tape room.