FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[Stanley]

The hall had a chequered career after the sale, it was used as a boarding school for a time but in the 1930s became a very popular country club, a surprising development for Barlick! See Arthur Entwistle's evidence in the LTP for a lot of the story....

[Stanley]

Bracewell is full of interesting reminders of the days when it was actually more important than Barlick and Stock village on the hill was a proper hamlet. The disused road to Stock is still there, Hall Lane. It has a road bed and a paved ford over Stock Beck.

[Stanley]

Click to enlarge this section of the First Edition OS map of 1853. Lots of information here and in particular the water mill near Yarlside. Thinking back to what John Clayton said about the LIDAR survey of this area and the fact that it showed traces of more than one contiguous settlement here, there is every possibility that the mill is one of the oldest in the area.



Click to enlarge again. While I was digging for the mill I found this 2012 letter from Roy Redfearn which I had forgotten. There is some interesting and I have no doubt accurate information here.

[Stanley]

This small building in Walmsgate has always fascinated me. It's orientation is dictated by Gillians Beck and not the building line of the rest of the buildings. This suggests to me a very early date. It was semi-derelict for many years but is now properly refurbished and an attractive little property. Try to imagine it before the other buildings were there and the route of the road wasn't up Lamb Hill but up the old route slanting up behind the squatter's house towards what was then Back Lane, now Philip's Street.

[Stanley]

Such a shame that prior to 1850 we have no accurate maps of the town apart from a few estate plans. The period that interests me is before 1815 when the village green on what is now Church Street was sold and the proceeds used to culvert Gillians beck in Walmsgate [Called 'Town Bridge' at the time]. This was when Back Lane ceased to be the main through route and set the course of the development of the town centre we see today.

[Stanley]

Wellhouse Farm in 1881. This stood on what is now Church street in the block opposite what is now the Fountain Inn. It had a barn in Newtown on the site where the Occasion used to be and when I was looking into land ownership in Butts I found that there was a very strong link between a lot of the land down there and this farm. Hard to pin down exactly but it looks as though Wellhouse had land all the way down Butts. The name suggests that it also incorporated one of the town wells. At the time this pic was done it was, apart from being a shop, the Post Office as well. By that time it had sold off much of its land.



The 1853 OS map, surveyed in 1849.

[PanBiker]

Looks like by the time the photo was taken it was already scheduled for clearance. Toothing stones for continuation of what will become the two rows on Church Street are evident to the right.

[PanBiker]

Can anyone with access to the first edition 1853 map please post the section showing Moor Close on Esp Lane through the valley up to Gisburn Old Road / Coal Pit Lane. I am interested in the routes from Higher Laithe Plantation and beyond. I'm sure I have already seen this on here but I cant find it.

[Wendyf]

Have a look Here Ian

[PanBiker]

Thanks Wendy, that's the one. I have just found it as a mapping layer on Mario Maps as well. Interested in the old route from Higher Laithe through to Gisburn Old Road / Coal Pit. It's fallen out of use but would like to explore the possibility of a re-instatement. This must be one of the oldest E/W routes from the town (excluding the Bronze Age one over Weets).

[Stanley]

Every time I see that map it costs me twenty minutes!

[Stanley]

Brown and Pickles have had several mentions on the site recently. This pic from about 1978 is of their shop at Wellhouse which was a hive of industry for almost 100 years at first as Billycock's engineering facility, later as Henry Brown and Sons and in the end up to demolition as Brown and Pickles. No job was too big and they were a wonderful asset for local industry.

[Wendyf]

Do you think that these lovely photos of the Slater family (from a family album in our archive) will have been taken outside Bank House?

[PanBiker]

The building has the same two pane windows as David's picture.

[Wendyf]

That's what I thought Ian, and the pillar of the porch would be in the right place.

[Stanley]

Almost certainly correct.



I think this is the same group of people and I was told this was at Bank House. Allowing for the bad copy it could have been taken on the same day.

[David Whipp]

The dressed stone bottom right on Wendy's picture looks the same as stonework that survived for many years alongside the steps leading up to the front door following demolition

Who were the Slaters? Is it known when they lived at Bank House?

[Stanley]

Very important family. I've bumped the article I did in 2003 on the family. There is much more on the site if you dig for it. Not sure about the dates at Bank House but it looks like the early part of the 20th century. I'm guessing that Henry who went blind is the old bloke with the beard and the bald headed one is James.

[Wendyf]

James Slater & family were living at Bank House in 1911 when the census was taken, he was 66 and his wife Sarah Ann had died in 1910. I think the chap with the beard has to be James, the bald man doesn't look old enough. Is the slightly older looking woman Sarah Ann, who was only 54 when she died, or one of the daughters I wonder?
1901 they were all living on Park Road.

[PanBiker]

The woman on the right of the dining table photo in profile looks remarkably like my mate Pauls wife Susan. Susan Atkins is well known around town, she was a Slater before marriage. Not sure if it's the same family though.

[Wendyf]

I believe that none of the daughters married because of the blindness passed to males in the family through the female line. Does that make sense?

[Stanley]

That was what I was told Wendy.....

[Tripps]

I believe that none of the daughters married because of the blindness passed to males in the family through the female line. Does that make sense?

That's how 'colour blindness' is passed on. If you are male, and have a problem - so will your daughter's sons.

[Stanley]

Annie Brooks and Fred Slater enjoying an afternoon out at Bracewell Hall in 1929.

[Stanley]

I've just posted in What Attracted your Attention on the waste bin in the engine house at Bancroft and realise that I should have posted it here! Have a look at it.
We had stirrup pumps as well during the war and they were used with the bin as well using it as a water supply. Many of these survived the war, they were well-made but very few survive now....



The air raid shelter in Bancroft yard. All factories had to have one and if not embedded in the building they were a standard design. A strong brick construction with a staggered entrance to stop blast and a reinforced concrete roof. In latter years it came in handy for storing 'sweeps', the oil contaminated cotton fly waste swept up in the weaving shed. By law it had to be stored in a separate fireproof building because it was prone to spontaneous combustion.