FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[Stanley]

Cornish Tin mine3rs in the 19th century. We need anonymous images like this to remind us of the horrible working conditions men had to put up with. I'm glad to say this is a forgotten corner!

[Stanley]

Tom Varley in Bancroft engine house in 1977. Tom made his money as a dry walling contractor, bought Great Todber Farm in Rimington and established the collection of steam wagons and traction engines. Tom died in 1990. See this Wikipedia article for the collection.

[Stanley]

The Nook at the end of King Street and the head of Jepp hill, before and after.

[Stanley]

The same scene in 2020. The old council offices have been converted into flats.

[Stanley]

Calf Hall Lane in 1982.

[Stanley]

The east end of Calf Hall Shed in the 1980s when it was still a textile mill.

[Stanley]

Calf Hall shed Yard in the days when it was still textiles and later after Carrprint had tidied it up and moved in.

[Stanley]

Parrock Laithe. Originally the farmhouse and barn for the landholding which was all the land behind bounded by the beck and Walmsgate back to Gillians Beck below Clough Mill. In the late 18th C it became a small water powered twist mill processing cotton but was made redundant by the advent of the steam powered textile industry. At a later point it became the headquarters of the local Scouts and as far as I know remains so to this day.

[Wendyf]

I'm doing a bit of family history research for a lady in Australia whose grandparents had links to the Earby area. I've just found electoral roll results that suggest the couple were living in Barlick during the 1920s on Gisburn Road and running Carr's grocery shop at 61 Gisburn Road which I believe is now the sub post office. It would be lovely if I could find a photo from the 1920s for her!

[Stanley]

I've had a furtle Wendy and this is the best I can do. Horse muck on road, possibly 1950 or even a bit earlier?

[Wendyf]

Thanks Stanley!

[Stanley]

It's a pleasure Ma'am!

[Stanley]

I believe this is the Congregational Church that used to stand on Gisburn Road.

[Stanley]

Apologies for the quality but this image of Stockport in 1950 is important because it demonstrates a forgotten corner of municipal enterprise. In 1950 the original gas and electricity works were still operating. Stockport Corporation as it was pre-war operated its own gas and electricity services and both were close to the town centre. All gone now of course but an important part of the economic history of the town.

[Stanley]

The Burco gas boiler which was made in Burnley. At one time this was the height of modernity as it replaced the coal fired 'set boiler' or 'copper' in the corner of the backyard wash house. Nowadays it's a long forgotten corner....

[Cathy]

Stanley, Did the above boiler grow up to become one of these ?

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[Stanley]

I suppose you could say they did Cathy.
Have a look at Seen in the News for this morning's news which applies to them.

[Stanley]

This building at Wellhouse (snapped in 1978) was known as 'the laundry' in the latter days of the mill because it had its own well bored under the floor and was the original home of Barrett's Steam Laundry who used power from the mill engine to run their machinery and steam from the mill boilers to heat the water. They moved out into their own premises in about 1940 and Brown and Pickles took over the space for some of their larger machines.
When the mill was built originally they made their own bobbins in this small building but soon realised that they could buy them in cheaper and better than they could make them, an early rationalisation and specialisation in the industry. From then on it was the Joiners Shop until Barrett's took over.

[Stanley]

The couple are Fred and Elizabeth Mary (nee Windle) Bracewell. Married in 1898 and pic taken in 1900. Info from Mrs Tom Ward, their granddaughter, April 2004. Wonderful that this image and the information about it has survived and is still with us.

[Stanley]

Concorde at Heathrow in 1980. Can it possibly be that long ago?

[Stanley]

This tiny micrometer was in some loose tools I inherited from a workshop I bought. It intrigued me and so I looked it up. This is the first micrometer commercially made for sale. Made by Brown and Sharp it was intended for measuring the thickness of sheet metal. I gave it to my Grandson Harry when he started work on his engineering degree in Australia. (It was still accurate after all that time.

[Stanley]

Colin Macro's cactus garden in the warehouse at Bancroft in 1977. Colin was the cloth carrier at Bancroft and used the window cill in the warehouse for his cactus plants. A forgotten corner in itself but the image is notable because these were the washbasins provided by the mill for the use of all the workers except the engine house and the office. Would this be seen as adequate provision today?

[Stanley]

I tripped over this image in the archive this morning and it struck me what a good example it was of the supreme confidence of the textile industry in the early years of the 20th Century. The Broadstone Mill, Reddish, Stockport. This was a major investment and a building of the highest quality with two identical halves giving a symmetrical design. Everything was the highest quality and the latest design. Definitely a forgotten corner.

[Stanley]

Calf Hall Shed Company directors outside 'Crowtrees' Barrowford, the home of W H Atkinson the architect, in about 1895.
Left to right. Standing, Proctor Barrett, Harry Wilson, William Holdsworth, W H Atkinson (architect), Edward Smith, W P Brooks and John Horsfield. Seated. Leonard Holdsworth, Tom Dent, Johnson Edmondson and Greenwood Wilkinson.
These men are long forgotten but were a major element in the recovery of Barlick from the depression that followed the collapse of the Bracewell interests.

[Stanley]

This image caught my eye this morning as I trawled through the archive. The title is 'Alfred Harrison with his horse and fruit cart'. It fascinates me because he appears to be wearing sandals. It's a forgotten corner in as much as I have forgotten where it came from and who he is. Can anyone enlighten me?