FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[Stanley]

When John Kirkham closed the lubricator business down in Bolton he gave me two beaten up high pressure lubricators that were in his stock rather then scrap them. I completely refurbished them and one day they might find there way back onto a a working engine. Until then they are ornaments at Graham Towers and a forgotten corner. I wonder what it would cost to make one of these today, many thousands of pounds.....

[Stanley]

North Street kids playing out in 1952. Salutary to realise that they are all pensioners now! Time flies, that's how we get forgotten corners.

[Stanley]

The old police station on Manchester Road in 2018. When I came to Barlick in the late 1950s this was a fully functioning police station and mortuary.
Times change, as far as I am aware we don't even have a police station any more.

[PanBiker]

Times change, as far as I am aware we don't even have a police station any more.

Yes we do, a perfectly modern usable one but they don't utilise it. I'm fairly sure our MP Jonathan will have mentioned that when he met with the Divisional Commander of Lancashire Police yesterday.

Jonathan Hinder MP

It's a particular interest for Jonathan as he was formally a Metroplital Police Inspector himself.

[Stanley]

I know we have the building Ian but not a functioning police station!



Flueing the boiler at Bancroft Shed when it was running. This is Charlie Sutton of 'Welldone' at Brierfield, one of the best men in the business. It killed him in the end. It's a forgotten corner at Bancroft of course but this job is still having to be done today in other plants and is a killer.

[Stanley]

Over the years there were some very strange ideas about flues and chimneys. This spiral chimney at Bingley was built like this in the belief that it would aid removal of smoke from the vicinity of the works as it would rotate the stream and encourage it to stay in one mass and move away. Needless to say it didn't work and is a forgotten corner.

[Stanley]

Albert Road in 1983 when Nutters still ran the newsagents and Town Square hadn't been conceived.

[Stanley]

Another image of Albert Road. This must have been after 1990 because the Square has been built but there something about it that puzzle me. I have no memory of the large cast Iron standard on the pavement in front of the Majestic Building. It looks to me like a sewer vent. Does anyone else remember it?
The walnut tree was still there on the corner of Ellis Street and the new sapling on this side of it is a far bigger tree now!
Let me know if you remember the standard!

[Stanley]

Kelbrook Co-op on left in the centre of the village as it was in the 1930s. Note the cows in the background.....

[Stanley]

One of my favourite images. My daughters and their friends Sandra and Philip Lawson with a calf at Hey Farm in 1976. Almost 50 years ago now and I have always said that if there was a better way to rear kids than with their own seven acre field for a playground and pets like this calf I don't know it!
Life is cruel.... Sandra Lawson (Dark dress and in the corner of the wall) and Janet, my youngest daughter on the extreme right, are both dead from cancer. So it is definitely a forgotten corner.... (What a good job I took this picture....)

[Stanley]

Yesterday's pic reminded me of the importance of making images for family history and here's a superb example of that. That is me in Spring 1936 on my grandmother Challenger's knee with my mother behind the table and great grandma Shaw on the right. Four generations recorded on one image. Brilliant!

[Stanley]

A different view of the bridge at Rainhall Rock before the quarry was filled in..... It looks as though there has been a repair to the wall and people are using it as a footpath.

[PanBiker]

It's marked as public footpath on the map and the route remains so even though it is just a flat field now

[Stanley]

Fred Inman, tackler, at Bancroft in 1977 having dinner in the tackler's cabin in the warehouse. Fred had retired but was brought in by the management to help get us through the final year of weaving. Fred was a lovely man liked by all. If you look in the LTP you'll find his life story. It was a privilege to know him and work with him.

[Stanley]

Dye house Farm c.1930.

[Stanley]

Garden games at Hey Farm in 1976. Daniel, Shireen, Janet and Susan. Nearly fifty years ago......

[Stanley]

Original setts from 1900 revealed in repairs in Newtown. I was told that these were laid by French paviors by Billy Brooks who lived there and have often wondered where the small setts came from.

[Stanley]

Walmsgate from Church Street. This image must be prior to the late 1950s because that was when Clough mill was demolished. You can see the chimney and the main building on this image. Hard to realise this is at least seventy years ago.....

[Stanley]

The old Baptist chapel in Walmsgate in 1979. I have had this image for almost 50 years but have only just realised that the original name under Procter on the painted sign on the wall is (I think...) Hartley.

[Stanley]

By 1982, three years later, the burial ground had been tidied up and the stonework of the chapel cleaned. The painted sign was no more.....
Procters name was still on the shop front but if my memory serves correctly, Procters had moved their business into Church Street and the Walmsgate shop was now selling secondhand furniture.

[Stanley]

Mark, one of Norman Sutcliffe's main men extracting a little light entertainment out of scrapping Bancroft Shed in 1979. These were hard men doing a hard job..... A forgotten corner now.

[Stanley]

Moore and Wright internal micrometer. The reason why this is a forgotten corner is that in the 50 years I have owned this impressive bit of kit I have never used it!

[Stanley]

The Coronation hotel at Horton Lane end in the 1960s when it was a Vaux coaching pub and I used to deliver their milk each morning.

[Stanley]

Canal traffic in 1944 when the canals were still a commercial enterprise.

[Stanley]

The engine smash at Crow Nest Mill in 1951. This was a serious accident necessitating the replacement of the Low Pressure cylinder and part of the motion. Repaired by Brown and pickles. Such services are not available in the town now.....