OneGuyFromBarlick

A few years later, when I was made redundant I had to go to Colne to sign on. There were about 2,300 folk unemployed in Pendle at the time and I noted 118 jobs "on the board". After getting shafted with one of Maggies enterprise schemes. I decided to go self employed. I hardly had any money as my last wage had gone on the mortgage, once I had used the fuel in the car I had to walk to sign on. No real problem there but it took them 10 weeks to sort my unemployment payments out. The first cheque they sent me was for £12.36, I remember it well! I started my business with £45.00 scraped together, I went to the Yorkshire Bank and saw the manager and came out with a cheque book and an account. I was self employed for the next 9 years.

My wife, Jan, used to work at that job centre and around 1970 my girlfriend at the time worked at Hillards

Butts top in 1982.

Butts in 2002 before it was completely resurfaced.

This ramshackle shed behind Federation Street was Johnny Pickles' workshop and was where a lot of good work was done.



This magnificent model of a cross compound mill engine was just one example.....

Time was when we had heavy engineering facilities in the town. Newton Pickles (Leaning on the table of the horizontal borer) is talking to a customer about an upcoming job in the second floor of the Wellhouse shop. The man is almost certain a mill owner.....

October 2 2011. Fernbank chimney bites the dust.

I doubt if many Barlickers could identify this house because, perched on the hill above the road at Gill Brow, we never get a good view of Gill Hall. A very good house with fine views out to the North.

Instantly recognisable to me. I used to mend Freda's TV back in the 70's. Around the time they accidentally knocked a hole in the lath and plaster while moving furniture in the front room and found all the original 17C Oak panelling behind. It has some good beams in the kitchen as well with original hanging hooks.

That would be a good surprise!



Hall Spout Ram at Salterforth. This small building housed this....



Which is a hydraulic ram, an automatic pump, that supplied clean water to the Roundell (later Gledstone) Estate Properties above Salterforth.

If I have it right this is the corner of Frank Street and Rainhall Road that is now Well Pharmacy. This was in 1983, almost 40 years ago when Ken and Ern ruled. (Anyone know who they were?)

The same corner about 15 years later (around 1990). It then became the Co-op pharmacy before changing again to Well Pharmacy.

Rainhall Road in 1980. In those days we had a tailor, Tom Ward. He used to work at Bristol Tractors and my mother had a soft spot for him.... ("Such a nice young man!" She was right of course, he was a nice lad.)

Scrapping the old Lancashire boilers at Bankfield Shed in 1978.



The boilers on the way to the scrapyard at Burnley. It was Dixons of Burnley who got the job.

Fred Dibnah's steam roller in 1979 before he had achieved fame on TV (and before he fell out with me because I didn't give him the job of doing Ellenroad stack!) This was in the shed at his house in Bolton.....

One of the two gas engines that drove the pumps at Keld Well at East Marton. (Now preserved) The pumped water up to a reservoir on the hill above the village and that served all the properties on the Gledstone Estate before mains water. When I was working out of Marton in the 1960s the supply had been taken over by Craven Water Board and they frequently sent for a man called Jack Brown who used to work for the estate as he knew where all the stop cocks were and where many of the pipes ran.

Booth Bridge Mill in 1979. Originally a corn mill it later became a bobbin mill . I went through there a few days ago and it is all gone, it's a housing development....



There used to be evidence like rack stones from a drying kiln and parts of mill stones incorporated in the walls. All gone now.

Barlick Railway Station Waiting Room.

These Cast iron doors in the back of the outhouses in a Barlick Street were once common, every house had them in the back street. The upper one is where coal was tipped into the coal place accessible from the yard and the lower one was for removing the bucket of the pail toilet. Some had another low level one for the ash hole but most houses used a communal midden nearby.

This was the biggest stone sink I have ever seen, in the warehouse at Bancroft. The steam heated boiler was free for the workers to brew up and was thee only concession to company catering! In the early days weavers were docked a penny a week from their wages for the use of the boiler and I once worked out it was perhaps the most profitable operation in the mill.
The bucket was for collecting the tea leaves which were used to lay the dust when sweeping the warehouse floor. It stunk to high heaven. Nobody thought to keep it or the sink clean. Thank God standards in these matters are higher now. This is a forgotten corner!

I hope this is a forgotten corner!

Look at the cap stones on the top of this wall in Philip Street. They are re-used from a building or part of a building that was demolished. Too shallow an angle to be ridge stones from the roof. Set on end that could be the cheeks of a window opening or a door. Whatever, they sit there on top of the wall and remind us of a forgotten corner.

Another good one Mick. In the days before mains water that water tank was supplied by a steam pump working 24X7 pumping water up from Bracewell's Wellhouse Mill. The source of the water was the Bowker Drain. This probably happened because Bracewell was one of the promoters of the Barlick Railway. When the Calf Hall Company bought the mill after the Bracewell interests collapsed they found one Cornish boiler was still in steam and water was being pumped up to the station at no charge. It took a while but in the end they changed this arrangement.

The Orme Pick Clock. Totally redundant today, this was the single most important artefact that made a system of payments in the mill that didn't rely on actual pieces woven possible. It was possible under the old system to work for a week and have no wage due at pay day. The Pick Clock measured the number of times the shuttle had passed through the warp on each loom and wages could be accurately assessed on this basis. It was brought into use from about 1935 onwards and by the end of WW2 was the standard method of assessing pay due.