OneGuyFromBarlick

This was the site of what used to be Westfield Mill in early 2006 when it was being redeveloped as housing.



Here it is in 2005 just before demolition......

According to the Oxford History of Britain the first purpose built cinema in the world was built in Colne in 1907. Can this be true and if so where was it?
The Guinness World Records suggests otherwise and says it was the Theatre Eden in La Ciotat in France.

db

deebee wrote: ↑13 Mar 2025, 09:18 According to the Oxford History of Britain the first purpose built cinema in the world was built in Colne in 1907. Can this be true and if so where was it?
The Guinness World Records suggests otherwise and says it was the Theatre Eden in La Ciotat in France.

db

Central Hall on Colne Lane, the building is still there. Have a look at this link.

https://backthenwhen.wordpress.com/2015 ... oVteEMU9kw

Splendid, many thanks.

db

Blackburn was another early place for `moving pictures'...
At one time Blackburn could boast 15 cinemas — to be precise it was 14, plus the Grand which was a variety theatre, but included films in its performances. Indeed the town was at the forefront of cinematography in several ways. In 1896 when ‘moving pictures’ first began, the Lyceum gave the very first show. Records show that the moving picture was of a man watering his garden with a hose. A boy stood on it, the man looked at the nozzle, the boy removed his foot and funnily enough the man was soaked!

Scroll down this page to see that text... LINK

I did this pic in 1982. The 1909 cinema in Nelson was the corner property on the left of this block

A view of Nelson in 1983.

Another view of Nelson in 1983.

Nelson Centre in 1955.

Nelson Cricket Club in the early 1920s. There was a time when Nelson and other Lancashire League teams were forces to be reckoned with in the world of cricket.

Damside Cottages in 1982. I think the small shop was a cobblers but I am not sure.

Dick, Abel Taylor's horse at Green Farm, Gisburn Old Track, 1956. It was a way of life that was fast dying. When I did this pic the farm had no electricity, water supply or sewer. What we would call 'off grid' today.....

Brian Robinson with the Jubilee engine bearings on the horizontal borer at Gissing and Lonsdale's. The last time a set of big steam engine brasses was worked on in Barlick.

Was there a reason why firms like Gissing and Lonsdale didnt/havent been involve with railway locomotive component engineering (I know laser cut steel frames seems to happen in Sheffield ) ?

Too busy with better paying jobs.

Gissing and Lonsdale undertook the job of dismantling the Jubilee Engine, moving it to Masson Mill and installing it there. They accomplished the work with no mistakes. I know because English Heritage designated me as the person responsible for the move. They wanted to be at arm's length!. It took about five years and I saw it through to the end. All water under the bridge now, we are forgotten men.
(Funny, but when you get to my age a lot of things come under that category!)

Not all chimneys were straight! Peter Tatham once told me that the worst thing about working on this one was that round tools like chisels tended to roll off the scaffold.....

That’s quite a photo. I hope the photographers neck was OK after taking it.

I can't remember Cathy.



Another bent chimney at Valley Mills Bacup in 1987. There used to be quite a trade in straightening bent chimneys by steeplejacks.

In 1982 I was walking down Back Lane and looked over a wall into this yard. It struck me that I must be wired up differently to most people because I find this collection of evidence of how people lived their lives far more interesting than It would be if everything was tidied up and concreted!

Annie Brooks and Fred Slater at Bracewell Hall near the boating lake. 1929. Fred Slater was a wealthy manufacturer in Barlick. This pic fascinates me because I don't see much evidence of joy in it

I wondered this morning what had happened to Brooke Bond Tea, so popular a few years ago so I looked it up and here's the Wikipedia article on it. (LINK)

Nobody can ever do this pic again, Brooklyn Bridge and the East River. It was done from the top of the World Trade Tower in New York. Truly a forgotten Corner.

Brook Shed Earby in 1986.

It looks like there is a cricket match in progress on Applegarth. The houses of "Bracewell Gardens" are being built there now after a lot of groundwork.