OneGuyFromBarlick

John Lancaster's wagon and trailer parked on Bank Street in 1979. John had taken note of what Richard Drinkall and John Harrison had done in 1972 and at one point drove my old wagon for Richard after I had left to work at Bancroft. I suspect he found that it wasn't a license to print money. So a forgotten corner.....

Johnny Simpson in 2003 at Bancrofts Farm. He was 89 years old......

Arthur Duxbury with his carpenter in the Model joinery works in 1976. Briggs and Duxbury were an important element of the town fifty years ago.



And his brother Harold.

Charlie Sutton my flue chap at home in 1976.....

Nothing special, just Bancroft engine running smoothly one summer morning driving a weaving shed and making power for the whole mill. Alles in ordnung! A forgotten corner now....

These two tools were given to me by Newton Pickles. They were made by an uncle of his called Wilkinson and are beautifully crafted. This was in the day where machinists and fitters made their own tools instead of simply buying them. I think that is a forgotten corner now.
(I have used these since I was given them and they are perfect. Mr Wilkinson was a good man!)

Twenty years ago I decided Terry Gissing needed his own steam engine and made this one for him. It will be a forgotten corner now.....

No Pic Stanley

Thanks for the heads up Cathy. Sorted.... I hope you can see it.

The remains of the canal company ice breaking boat that were still visible in 1977. No trace now, I think we can call it a forgotten corner.

Click to enlarge:



My dads pen and ink drawing of the Ice Breaker in 1936, he was 18 when he did that.

This former furniture shop on the junction of Robert Street and commercial Street was where Briggs and Duxbury first went into partnership. I think most people have forgotten this now....

The far end of Commercial Street. This used to be Paul Brydon's marine store but is a tattooing parlour now. The premises further up which are garages now used to be a carriage hire business and Briggs and Duxbury's first workshop with the shambles underneath. All forgotten now....

John Pickles' model of a cross compound mill engine in the shed at Federation Street. This model finished up in the Moorside Industrial museum at Bradford and they allowed the pistons to seize in the bores after running it on compressed air. I was asked to help to free it but refused because I knew what a big job it could turn out to be.

In 1927 Johnny Pickles was newly married and buying a house in Federation Street. He wanted a lathe but had no money so he built himself a copy of a Birch Ornamental Turning lathe made in Manchester. Fifty years later in 1977 it was in his son Newton's workshop on Vicarage Road. Fast forwards another thirty years and it sits in my front room at East Hill Street.
As such it isn't a forgotten corner but the concept of making your own lathe if you can't afford one certainly is!

In 1956 Johnny was at it again. He needed a bigger lathe with the ability to divide and cut gear wheels for the turret clocks he was building. He found an old bed and tailstock in a scrapyard, brought them back from the dead and built a new headstock for it incorporating tangential dividing gear. Thirty five years later I had found it and rescued it. Another fifteen years later and I had refurbished it and many of the specialised accessories he had made to go with what was in effect a very large ornamental turning lathe. Once again, not forgotten but again, the concept of making your own lathe perhaps is.

In 1942 Johnny was making lathes again for the government. Here he is with a six inch shell lathe built by B&P at Wellhouse works.

Deerplay brickworks in 1978 when it was under demolition. All gone now but at one time a major undertaking on the moors between Burnley and Bacup.

Moving a Lancashire Boiler at Dolcoath mine in Cornwall in the late 19th century. The use of horses for tasks like this is a completely forgotten corner.
(LINK)

Brown and Pickles even manufactured their own valves at one time.

Newtown as it used to be....

Taken on the same day.....

All these images were 1983 I think.

Hey Farm in 1976. There were so many certainties in life then, all of which were to change in the next few years. But we didn't know that then so it was a happy time. Now it's a forgotten corner.

Jim Pollard, weaving manager at Bancroft shed. His heart and soul was in cotton and he was a good man. I learned most of what I know about weaving from Jim. He was part of the immense pool of skill and knowledge that made the Lancashire cotton industry an example for the world.
That's right, we were world leaders. A very unfamiliar concept nowadays.....