FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[Stanley]

Ian, in my childhood it was still the same. Nobody ever went outside without a hat. Today you can go out without proper trousers and nobody blinks an eye! I still wear a hat every time I go out.
Polished leather shoes have gone the same way. Look at footwear in all the old photographs. All polished and shiny! Even clogs were polished.

[chinatyke]

Today you can go out without proper trousers and nobody blinks an eye!

Today you can buy and wear jeans with holes ripped in them. Whatever happened to patches? We wouldn't be seen dead with holes in our socks never mind knees! Does anyone patch anything now?

[PanBiker]

Does anyone patch anything now?

Indeed they do China, I have a favourite pair of Wranglers that have repairs all over them. Having a seamstress wife has it's benefits. Last time I looked, a pair of Wrangler jeans were well over the £60 mark, more if you have a desire for Levi denims.

[Stanley]

I go to the lady on Rainhall road for my repairs. And yes, I do patch clothes.
I always remember seeing a news item about burglaries at Barbour Coats. It was always the repair department. Evidently well worn Barbour Coats were worth more to the urban warriors than new ones!
Buying jeans that have been aged by heavy washing and even with holes in must be the same syndrome.



Here's a forgotten corner for you. Rainhall Road in 1980 and China's post reminded me of the days when we had a tailor in Barlick, Tom Ward. He used to work at Bristol Tractors at Sough and mother always had a soft spot for him. "Such a nice young man."

[Cathy]

These last few posts remind me of my Grandma Moss. It’s strange because I remember her darning socks. But the image I have is just her hands handling / darning the socks. And when pairing the socks , she would put the socks together then working the two tops of the socks together, would make them into a ball.

[Marilyn]

I always pair socks like that and roll them into a ball...doesn’t everyone?!
Is there another way?

[PanBiker]

So do we, however our daughter Carla has always refused to sort socks. She maintains life is too short to sort socks and always wears odd ones with the occasional pair that have found themselves randomly but perfectly matched. I think I know of two occasions where this has happened in the last 35 years or so.

[Marilyn]

That would not work well with my mild OCD

[Stanley]

I can't remember when I last had a hole in a sock. I don't seem to wear mine, they just go thin with washing until in the end you can see through them! That's when they go in the bin.

[Cathy]

I’ve learnt only to buy black socks, that way they always match and if one gets a hole, it doesn’t matter because I still have a matching one....

[chinatyke]

Just a thought: Do you still have TV aerials? There doesn't seem to be any here. I guess we all use cable or internet connections but I think the CCTV channels will be broadcast free to air.

[Big Kev]

Just a thought: Do you still have TV aerials? There doesn't seem to be any here. I guess we all use cable or internet connections but I think the CCTV channels will be broadcast free to air.

There are TV aerials to receive the 'Freeview' digital channels, I think a lot of them had to be upgraded once the analogue signal was switched off.
I have a satellite dish and receive 'Freesat' (a BBC/ITV collaboration) as the 'Freeview' signal is virtually non existent where I am. Both are 'free to air' although we still have to buy a TV licence. The satellite receiver I have also connects to t'internet and has a few on demand apps configured on it, BBC iPlayer, ITVPlayer, My5, UKTVPlay are free and Netflix which is a subscription service. Up until recently I did have YouTube but that has stopped working following an update at YouTube. Apparently they're working on a fix

[chinatyke]

Thanks. There are satellite dishes here but I've not seen any aerials. My mate had a sat dish on the roof. One day the picture went off whilst he was watching. So he went to the roof of the building to see if the dish had moved. It had: someone had nicked it!

[Whyperion]

I’ve learnt only to buy black socks, that way they always match and if one gets a hole, it doesn’t matter because I still have a matching one....

Tried that, then different makers changed the patterning on the tops, and with mildly swollen legs the elastic varies from keep falling down to cut of circulation depending on make.

[Stanley]

Cathy, black socks.... I once had a conversation with a coal man at Causeway Foot between Denholme and Halifax. He had I think it was five daughters and bitterly regretted the advent of tights. He said that with stockings if one laddered it could always be matched by another stocking the same colour. He said he made his girls cut out the laddered leg and wear it with another one legged set. I often wondered what this did for the girl's susceptibility to Thrush!

[Cathy]

In the ‘80’s when I worked at RM’s as a receptionist in their showroom, they asked me to wear their jeans as a uniform with a cowgirl shirt.
I was a size 9, and they liked ‘how I looked’ in their gear. The company was totally male run, and I told them ‘No’, and explained why it wasn’t healthy for a female to spend 35 hrs a week in close fitting jeans. I won.

[Stanley]

[Stanley]

Mary Southwell from Salterforth in the pasteurising hall at West Marton Dairy in about 1950. She worked in the laboratory testing milk. Later she married David Drinkall and lived at Demesne for many years. As far as I know she is alive and well and living in Cheshire.

[Stanley]

Not the most attractive image in the world. It's the can dock at West Marton Dairies where, every day of the year thousands of 12 gallon kits were tipped and the cans washed as the milk was brought in from farms. ( It got posted on OG because David Whipp once did a stint on the can washer.) No time was wasted and as long as milk wagons came in it kept going.
So what brought this to mind? I was watching the flaggers at work in Town Square yesterday and noting their glacial speed despite having every modern aid, nobody lifts anything these days! My mind went back to jobs like those on the can dock at West Marton and the speed we worked at without any 'lifting aids' in sight (a full kit weighed 168lbs.). It looks to me as though those days are a forgotten corner!
A little known fact for you.... If you look at the image, the wall on the right conceals a girder framework with odd sized milk tanks mounted on them. These were tanks that had been bought second hand as the dairy expanded. The small glass lined one next to the dock was known as 'The Tommy Tank'. It was bought from Bibby's at Ingleton (who are still hauling milk today!) and they named their wagons after nursery rhyme characters. This tank came off 'Tommy Tucker' and the name stuck. Not many people know that....

[Stanley]

One of my favourite Forgotten Corners. Poorbones on Manchester Road (Barnoldswick Lane) in 2001.
It's overgrown but of you look carefully you can see a small yard accessed off the road. It was where poor folk on Outdoor Relief from Skipton Workhouse used to knap stone for use in road repairs. A knapping hammer was a hammer with a long shaft and a small head. It was used for cracking stones down to a size about as large as a pigeon's egg which was the preferred size for road repairs. I suspect that if someone was to dig into it it is still the property of the body which took over the workhouse and I suspect that's the Skipton Heath Trust if there is such a thing. The old workhouse at Raikeswood became the hospital of course.
I have long advocated that we should clear the yard out and make sure it is preserved as a reminder of our history. Think of the poor people working in the yard in all weathers to qualify for a small dole. Times were hard!

[Stanley]

One of the things we are most likely to forget can't be described as a corner, it's more of a perimeter! I'm talking about our easy access to some of the best scenery in Britain, all we have to do is walk for five minutes. Think of being locked down embedded in a city with no easy escape.
So, instead of whingeing, get out and enjoy what we have all around us, some of the finest scenery in the country and a rich heritage to go with it.

[Stanley]

Looking at the picture I posted yesterday I have remembered another forgotten corner. I'll guess at about thirty years ago, if you were walking up Tubber Hill past Bancrofts you would be able to hear a heavy ticking sound coming from the sloping rough ground above Lane Bottoms. It was the sound of a hydraulic ram doing its thing. A hydraulic ram was a device that used the pressure in a water pipe to drive a proportion of the water much further uphill. It must have been to supply water to Loose Games Quarry or the house built by John Sagar. It has been silent for years.....

[Stanley]

The LED lights in the Pioneer Car Park are all out bar one. I have reported it. Have you tried to report a bad street light on the Pendle web site? It's an education!

[Big Kev]

Have you tried to report a bad street light on the Pendle web site? It's an education!

Street lighting is the responsibity of LCC not Pendle, that's probably why.

https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/roads-parking-and-travel/report-it/streetlight/

[Stanley]

That's the conclusion I came to Kev! I have reported it and the receipt of the complaint has come back to me. Let's see if anything happens. Five lamps out out of six seems like a good time to do something!