OneGuyFromBarlick

Ellenroad in1985 and N&R have finished taking the mill away and leaving us with our engine house. Now I faced the task of making this pig's ear into a silk purse! Looking at it today I wonder what possessed me to take it on. I suppose fools rush in covers it......

100 years ago this 'Cottage Range', a smaller version of the large Cast Iron kitchen range, was the height of modernity in what were described as 'artisan's cottages'.
The estate cottages in West Marton had them when I worked at the dairy and I imagine examples still exist.
They were very efficient and a big advance on cooking over the open fire.

I remember me and Peter tidying the loose brickwork on the roperace at Ellenroad

We spent quite a lot of time in each other's company in those days Tom. This was in 1985 before we started the job of replacing the head of the chimney. Would anyone bother to do that these days? That was probably the last time it happened. Truly a forgotten corner.

The West Marton Dairy's 1935 Albion tanker. This was bought new by the company that eventually became Associated Dairies then Asda. this was the wagon that the man who was our transport manager in 1968 drove when he first joined the firm. It had a glass lined tank and the original Albion 4 cylinder oil engine. It had a maximum speed of 32mph and the brakes were so bad that when brake testing was done after the advent of the 1968 Traffic Act brought in by Barbara Castle, it was immediately condemned. The hand brake was better than the foot brake! This pic was done as it was waiting to be scrapped. We were glad to see it go but had a certain amount of affection for it as driving it was a challenge. The first time I ever drove it I did almost two miles before I worked out how to get it from third gear into top! Such vehicles are a forgotten corner!

Kids and a calf at Hey Farm 50 years ago..... If there was a better way to rear kids than with plenty of green space to play in and with animals as companions, I never found it!

In 1993 I demolished the remains of Dee Mill for Littlewoods Home Shopping. Here's a link to the report I did to support the application to demolish the Scheduled Monument, the equivalent of demolishing Stonehenge in terms of the level of legal protection. (LINK)
It was sad but necessary, it had been allowed to fall into total disrepair by not stopping vandals gaining entry over many years. This seemed to be a deliberate policy pursued by the owners. Despite this I was accused of vandalism myself. A forgotten corner now.....

This is what the people who protested remembered. It was a fine engine.



This was the reality, I have never seen an engine more comprehensively vandalised than Dee was.

Forgive the quality, this was a snatched image. I wasn't supposed to be snapping in such elevated company.
I was taking dinner in the company of this man, Lord Montague. (Yes, that Lord Montague!) We were at Durham and I think we were actually in the crypt of the cathedral. Forgive the name dropping. I was a guest of the British Council and was with the party as an expert witness on certain aspects of recording Industrial Archaeology.
#Not often a working lad gets to sit down with the great and the good.....

Eastwood Bottoms in summer 2008. This was when the earthworks were done for the developments on Skipton Road and back towards Silentnight at Long Ing. This was when we lost the access to the Bowker Drain. I alerted the contractors to the existence of the access but got no response.

My mum and dads allotment site bulldozed for housing development.

That as well Ian....

Stanworth's pot shop in 1984. Since then it has become the vet's offices of course.
There used to be a smithy in the yard behind the shops. That's long gone as well.

Wartime holiday at Cleveleys in 1943. Dorothy, Mother, Leslie in the pram and Stanley. The oversized Burberry raincoats were par for the course then. Funny thing is I can't remember ever having one that wasn't too big. (So that we could grow into it!)

Part of the preparations for D-Day. A 'Landing Craft Minor' leaving General Gas Appliances at Audenshaw near Manchester in 1943. It was built there and launched on the Manchester Ship canal at Salford.



My Father steering LCM7006 on trials on the Manchester Ship Canal on the way to Ellesmere Port. The bearded naval officer on the stern is Charlie Warren who later entered the ministry and finished up as Suffragan Bishop of Tasmania. This would be in 1944. His role on the day was to accept the vessel on behalf of the Admiralty.

Last night we watched `The science behind D-Day' (Rob Bell, BBC One) and when it showed the landing craft I thought `I hope Stanley has watched this'. I remembered your photo from it being on OG years ago and that your dad was on one on the Manchester Ship Canal. If you haven't seen the programme there are links here to two BBC pages with details and pics... LINK 1 LINK 2

General Gas Appliances (GGA) and Planet Foundry on Corporation Road in Audenshaw made gas cookers and when you think about it it's quite remarkable that they could produce a complete landing craft ready for action, all it needed was to be put in the water!



Buses outside the works ready to set off on the works trip to Buxton in happier days before the war.

A 1931 works trip to Llangollen. Everybody looks well oiled including my father on the right who has his hands on the shoulders of the man in front of him.

Manchester Piccadilly in 1940. I was in an Anderson shelter five miles away. We survived this and built what we have today. Don't forget this when things are looking bad.

One for Wendy. Ardnamurchan lighthouse in 1991.

Postcard of the Zeppelin Field in Nuremberg in 1938. The Marching Road crosses the front of the colonnade and podium. This was the venue for the Nuremberg Rallies.

All that was left of the colonnade in 2000 when I was there with my American students.

Big Jack and Doc's old dog Meg in March 2005 up at Letcliffe. Meg is bossing Jack, she has his Frisbee and he will not attempt to take it off her until she relents and drops it. They had very clear rules of engagement!