FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[David Whipp]

Some of the properties at Bancroft Fold have a risk of flooding if the inlet to the culvert under the field gets blocked (and water runs overland). A couple of residents turn out during storms to make sure the trash screens are cleared.

The most likely reason for culverting the section through the lodge was to keep work within the same ownership, where those doing the work had control. Several times at different locations, I've found that it's not been possible to achieve solutions to flooding problems because of the reluctance of a landowner to allow work being done.

[Stanley]

Could be David and there was a Derelict Land Grant involved as well which would have been a complication as well as the clauses in the demolition contract. The 'free' culvert through the old dam would have been a strong incentive.

[Stanley]

Ouzledale is tucked away down Longfield Lane and has been underused for years, it always strikes me as a piece of land ripe for development.....

[Stanley]

The same applies to Ouzledale Clough. There were some interesting overtures about it a couple of years ago but I suspect lack of funding is the problem. Such a lot of potential for improvement here.

[Stanley]

I tripped over this in the archive this morning. (Click to enlarge) It was 1959 and here's a LINK to remind you of what is now a largely forgotten corner. They never did catch the perpetrator, I can't help wondering whether they are still alive.....

[Stanley]

I came across this in the archive....

VOTE. WOMEN’S. 1929
CH. 10/05/1929. Excerpt from Skipton Parish Magazine, written by Canon J F Howson, Archdeacon of Craven. He is described as ‘Imploring the millions of new women voters not to treat the election frivolously, as a sort of joke.’
A giggling young woman who gets her voting paper and simply ‘kinks’ with laughter is to my mind a horrible picture. I am dreadfully afraid there will be many of these. It is a disturbing thought that a very large proportion of these new voters, so far as I can judge, think very little and read hardly anything about the big questions. It is more than disturbing, it is almost terrifying. Are these new voters studying them at all? I believe hardly at all. Realise your responsibility, you are now being treated by the Nation as trustees. Try to ‘weigh up’ the trust and what it involves. Do not be stampeded by some ‘special stunt’. In other words, don’t get carried away. Forgive me for saying it but women are apt to be carried away. Read more. Think for yourself as if you were sitting on a jury and decide upon your verdict. Two things among many others are certain to command the women’s vote; one is peace, the other is greater control of the drink traffic.
[1928: Women received the vote on the same terms as men (over the age of 21) as a result of the Representation of the People Act 1928.]

[Stanley]

I came across this reference in the archive.

ABATTOIR. SKIPTON ROAD
CH. 08/03/1929. The UDC discussed building a public abattoir in Skipton Road at a cost of £4,421. It was decided to apply to the Ministry of Health for permission to borrow this sum.

Anyone who has followed Forgotten Corners will remember the Shambles in Butts and the use of a barn in Newtown as a slaughterhouse. I think that this reference is to the eventual building of a slaughterhouse in West Close Road which later became the Cooperative Society's abattoir and later was used by Harry Garlick's as a TV repair workshop. I have a picture of the red brick building somewhere but shame to say I can't find it.

[Stanley]

When I was 'Open All Hours' at Sough we were agents for Barrett's Steam Laundry. The delivery man was a cheerful little bloke with a white moustache called Ken. Lots of people got their sheets washed by Barrett's then but I suppose there were not many washing machines about. For many years Barrett's worked out of this building at Wellhouse. They had their own borehole for water and used steam from the mill boilers. When B&P took over the space in WW2 for their bigger machines it was still known as 'The Laundry'.



The old laundry in 1978.

[PanBiker]

Ken Wiseman was the driver Stanley. He lived on Valley Road, married to Agnes and had one daughter Lynne who is the same age as me. We used to ride round with him on occasion during the school holidays, Bedford van I seem to remember.

[Stanley]

Thanks Ian, that was the name, Ken Wiseman!
The laundry moved into premises in 'Chinatown' and there are some grounds for speculating that this is the origin of the popular name. The new premises had a stubby square chimney. Until West Marton was rebuilt I think this was the last stack built in the town.



Sorry about the quality but this is pulled out of an aerial photo of the town made in 1963.

[Stanley]

The square brick chimney on the new boiler house at West Marton Dairies in 1968 when the dairy was being changed over to cheese-making. Half way through the build of the stack the brickie want down with flu and his replacement used the batter board and plumb bob the wrong way round and put a dog leg in the build. It had to be pulled back and rebuilt!

[Stanley]

The Marton stack was cavity wall construction and to straighten it up they stripped the outer case, cutting all the throughs that tied the flue to the skin and when they rebuilt it they didn't do anything to rectify this so that when they capped it the only thing tying the case to the flue for the top half was a few throughs under the concrete cap and the cap itself. Looked fine from the outside..... Straight as a shot!
Worth mentioning that the standard way of maintaining the correct batter (the taper of the shaft, usually 1" in 3ft) was to make a plumb board planed on one side to the correct angle and using that to check the batter. What had happened was that whoever made the board didn't plane a curve on the straight side, the usual way to ensure that it was always used correctly.

[Stanley]

I haven't a picture for you but one annual event in the 1950s and 60s was the invasion of our roads by the East Anglian Roadstone and Tarmac Company. (EARAT)
They had a large living van and regularly turned up and camped for a week or two on the large lay-by at the Kelbrook end of the New Road. They were usually here for about six weeks and apart from being a good source of income for the Craven Heifer their job was to tar spray and spread chippings on local roads. They must have been a good firm because they had a regular contract. They were happy hard working lads and we had some good nights out with them. Rumour was that they were a good source of cheap red diesel as well but of course I have no knowledge of that.....

[Wrinklie]

Part of Rainhall Road in 1983. Remember the Pram Shop?

That shot shows the house on York Street where I was born 85 years ago. Nurse Barlow i attendance
I keep bobbing in here from time to time to see if any of my contemporaries post something. Not seen any yet to date...
Surely I' m not the only one left???
Jimmy Howartth

[Stanley]

Could be Jim, not many of our generation are computer savvy.....



Crow Foot Row must be the only buildings in Barlick with two cast iron name plates, one reading Longfield Lane and the other Crow Foot Row. These tiny weaver's cottages have always intrigued me because of their tiny proportions. They have another interesting feature, they don't have back doors. Like back to backs, this gives one great advantage, you don't suffer from through draughts! This doesn't sound very important today when we all have heating and well-fitting doors and windows but if you had old wooden casements, an open fire and a badly fitting door it was an entirely different matter. I say 'weaver's cottages' because of the evidence Billy Brooks gave me. In many towns the distinguishing feature of such cottages is rows of loom-shop windows on the upper storey but in Barlick we don't seem to have gone in for them. Perhaps because they tended to make the houses colder....

[Cathy]

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Another one for the archives. Posted to Barnoldswick and Barlickers then and Now by Sheena Powley.
Believed to be in 1962. Blin and Blins Calf Hall Mill, round the back of the dam.
Bottom to top - don't know, Alan Ashworth, Gus Brennan, Terry Astin, Eric Firth, Graham Widdup.
(bottom - could be Billy Thompson)

[Stanley]

That's a good one Cathy. Is it our Gus Brennan I wonder?

[Cathy]

The surname Widdup jumped out at me. Someone on here is doing genealogy of the Widdup family.

[PanBiker]

That's a good one Cathy. Is it our Gus Brennan I wonder?

Yes it is Stanley.

[Bruff]

Crow Foot Row has I think the ‘crow foot’ of the builder on one of the stones. And am I right in thinking this builder was a Broughton, or have I dreamed this? Probably not related of course - loads of Broughtons popped out of Barlick.

Richard Broughton

[Stanley]

Didn't know that Richard. All I can say is that I'd put the date around 1800 and I know for sure that at least some of them were occupied by hand loom weavers. (Evidence of Billy Brooks.) That area round the Dog was referred to by the district name of Hey in the records I have. It seems to have been a nucleus of semi-industrial settlement before the surroundings were built up. Wheelwright at Hey Farm, saw mill at Ouzledale, both pre dating 1800. I think the older cottages at the bottom of what is now Park Avenue were part of the same complex. What became Mrs Brown's shop was a tea dealer's, Slaters I think. Townhead and Lane Bottoms had a similar genesis.

[Bruff]

The crow's foot is about in the middle, cut into a stone just below the gutter I seem to recall. I'm pretty sure of this; it's the builder I may be wrong on.

Richard Broughton

[Wendyf]

Ken Ranson has kindly sent me this list of local date stones to post. Crow Foot Row is included.

1. "Built by the Barnoldswick Friendly Society" 1829
Colne Road

2. M
W E
1814

Barn at Cow Pasture farm.

3. WB
1828

Crow Foot Row William Broughton was a stone mason

4. 1735

Monks Cottage Manchester Road

5. RR
1858

Horrox farm, Brogden Lane

6. RH
1824

Aynhams farm, Brogden Lane

7. A William Armistead
W M Martha Green (wife)
1816

Barlick Hotel, Church Street

8. MC
1817 Matthew Cragg

near No. 7.

9. CH CH
RB 1688 Christopher Higgin
1699

Fosters Arms.

10. W
I E
1768

Higher Greenhill farm, Salterforth
11. Erected AD 1844

Old school, Salterforth

12. Ebenezer
Erected by voluntary contribution
AD 1851

Baptist church, Salterforth

13. EN 1691
Lane Ends farm, Salterforth

[Stanley]

If the 'crow foot' is a simple representation it could very well be a mason's mark. Here are a couple of examples.



The best examples I know are on the Barrowford end of the Mile Tunnel at Foulridge. It's almost as though all the masons signed their work when the tunnel was finished!

[plaques]

Ken's list has highlighted some date stones that I have missed. In particular No 3 Crow Foot Row and No 4 Monk's Cottage. Both in little back waters that I've never walked down. Another trip to Barlick is called for. Thanks Ken.