FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[Stanley]

Fred and Eliza Bracewell on their tandem.

[Tizer]

My dad was in a cycling club in Blackburn in the 1960s but unfortunately we have no photos of him with the bike or the club. He would always save his money until he could buy the best clothes, shoes etc and it was the same with bicycles - he had a Claude Butler and claimed you could lift it with one finger. Later he had a tandem but says that his younger brother sold it whilst Dad was in the RAF!

[Stanley]

My parents sold my beloved heavily modified Raleigh Clubman when they moved to Sough while I was in the army. It had all the latest Italian hubs, gears and accessories by then and was a proper bike. Never really forgave them....... (my big Meccano set, 25lb practice bomb, Mills grenade and Ostrich egg went at the same time....)

[Nolic]

My mum sold my Carlton drum kit when I was at University. Her argument was that she had paid for most of it and I didn't use it - the kit was in Earby and I was in Southampton!!!. Nolic

[Stanley]

I don't think parents fully realise how much these things mean to us... For instance, there was my bound copy of a year's worth of Boy's Own Papers from the 1920s..... Fascinating reading and I wish I still had it.....

[Stanley]

This is a personal forgotten corner. My old bedroom as a lad at 6 Napier Road in Stockport. I was alerted to the fact it was about to be demolished and went down to take pictures. A weird experience as the house had been converted to low cost flats and neglected for many years. Much decayed but exactly what it was like when I was using it.... Even the wall paper was unchanged.

[Stanley]

Upper Tubber Hall in 1991. We had a lot on the old site about this, including someone whose relations lived there.

[Stanley]

I tripped over this in the archive.... Days gone by!

[Stanley]

That pic of hay making and the artificial furore over Poldark's scything skills reminded me of this pic of Tom and John Pratt in 1953. (Note how the toe caps of their clogs have been polished by the grass they have been cutting.) These blokes could have put him right! Best man with a scythe I ever saw as John ? who farmed at Higher Sandiford at one time. He was a big lad and could cut the most difficult grass of all, hard 'bent grass', on a steep slope as well as any lawn mower. Being a big lad he used what we used to call an 'Irishman's Scythe'. They were bigger than the normal model. Modern scythes have a riveted back but the old ones were welded backs and a lot heavier. A favourite ploy with a new welded back scythe blade was to leave in in a gutter to rust all winter. This thinned the blade down and made it easier to get a good edge. The rough sharpening was done with an oval, round carborundum stone. The best men finished the edge off with a 'strickle', a piece of round hard wood smeared with bacon fat with fine carborundum powder embedded in it. They never let anyone else use their scythes and had them set perfectly for their physique and technique. The worst sin was to let the point dig into the ground and break it off. Vera once lent my scythe to a bloke who did just that and he could never understand why I was so annoyed about it..... Even in latter days, scythes were still used to 'pike out' odd corners that the mower couldn't reach. Those days are long gone.....

[Stanley]

Notice Tom's trousers. The waistband button is open, not because he has put weight on but to slacken the waistband. He'll be wearing braces and note the heavy leather belt. This gave a degree of support to the back when working and was a favourite with men spending their working days lifting heavy weights and bending. I did exactly the same when I was lifting milk kits all day. Same reason why weightlifters wear very heavy leather belts for support. I don't suppose they are needed these days so another forgotten corner.

[Stanley]

When Bancroft closed down I should have bagged this nameplate but didn't, after all it was the property of the demolition company who had bought the mill. It vanished and so it's a forgotten corner now. I should have been less honest!

[plaques]

All is not lost. Its now on the display board in the engine house of Bancroft mill.

[Bruff]

Talk of things being sold when you’re away reminds me. I left the house on James Street I grew up in for the final term of my first year at college in Leicester. I returned to a new ‘home’ up Moorgate 3 months later. I was informed of the fact ‘we’d moved’ in a ‘phone call home one night!

Richard Broughton

[PanBiker]

Now here's one with a question attached. What is the history of the former Bodycare / Greenwoods shop on Church Street on the corner with Brook Street? It has some interesting features and used to have a winch on the gable with a corresponding trap door below into the cellar. I can only remember as far back as Greenwoods and would like to know what it's former uses were.

[Stanley]

Richard, my biggest problem was finding where I lived when I came back from Burnley. My pronunciation of Sough same as in Slough fooled all the locals!
Ian, I have an idea it was a grocer's shop but I'm not sure.
P. That's good news! I'm glad they got it back.....

[Bruff]

Stanley – ‘Broughton’ is not too unusual a surname however, when I come across someone from the south who has never heard it pronounced they almost without exception pronounce the ‘ough’ as in ‘Slough’ whereas it is always pronounced as in ‘brought’ by those having the name, wherever they are from.

Strange, but it is also one of those things that makes me bristle whenever someone gets the pronunciation of my surname wrong. Odd that it should gripe me so.

Richard Broughton.

[Stanley]

I know exactly what you mean. The Asian call centre operators always ask for Mr Graham pronounced with a flat 'A' as in Brahman. This gets me every time!
Ian, what's the street number of Greenwoods? I might be able to identify it......

[Cathy]

When giving my christian name, I always wait to be asked 'Is that with a K or a C?'

[Stanley]

Very common Cathy. I have a Katherine at the butcher's and always try to get the name right.

[PanBiker]

Property in question is number 23, Church Street Stanley.

[Stanley]

I'm pleased to say the index has turned up trumps....

23 Church Street 1892
Urban District of Barnoldswick rate book for 1892. Entry number 592. 23 Church Street was owned by William P Brooks and the tenant was Derby Brothers who were grocers. Poor Rate £15-10-0, Town Rate for house and shop £15-10-0.

[PanBiker]

Thanks for that Stanley, I assume that the grocery would have been a reasonably substantial business to warrant a winch for unloading purposes. The property is deceivingly large inside.

[Stanley]

Many of the groceries were delivered in bulk and repacked at the shop for sale. Barrels of butter and vinegar, sacks of flour and sugar. I can remember barrels of butter on the counter at the grocer's on Heaton Moor when I was a lad. At Sough we used to get butter in large blocks and pack it on the counter for customers. Big cheeses, full sides of bacon and of course bags of spuds. A cat head and teagle would be very useful.

[Stanley]

Hill Street.... How many people realise that when you see a building like this you are looking at a defunct corner shop? Before the days of the supermarkets they were the main source of everything from groceries to newspapers and tobacco. Squeezed by the supermarkets they became uneconomic but I note that in the new expansion plans announced by the Co-op, despite the general troubles in the price wars, they are putting their money on what is now known as a 'One Stop Shop'. Just another word for a corner shop. It would be ironic if we saw small family businesses like this becoming economic again. We are already seeing them in places like the Gisburn Road Parade.....

[Stanley]

Talking about corners.... Elmer's ironmongers on the corner of Albert Road in 1982. A really good ironmonger's shop, now a tanning saloon. That says something about the decline of the small retailer.....