OneGuyFromBarlick

Stanley wrote: ↑17 Jul 2025, 02:39 A Nelson and Colne College function at Gawthorpe Hall in 1979 when the college was a partner in managing the Hall.

One of my ancestors, born in Mellor, was a 21-year-old under-gardener living alone in the `Garden Boothy' at Gawthorpe Hall in the 1871 census. It did him good and he ended up with a career as Gardener in Corporation Park, Blackburn.

I've taken afternoon tea in that house Peter.... I went there to see a magnificent rocking horse owned by the wife of the gardener.



Rainhall Road in 1901 with decorations up for the coronation of Edward VII and Alexandra. These things were more important in those days....

Penney's and Pickles' confectioners on Rainhall Road in 1983.

The interior of the magnificent waterwheel at Lothersdale Mill in 1983. At 44 feet in diameter and 7 feet wide it's believed to be the largest indoor waterwheel ever installed in UK. How many people know it exists?

1978 at Bancroft. Malcolm Dunphy from Rochdale visits Bancroft Shed. He was considering buying it as a place to manufacture oil and gas burners for boilers. His intention was to rest them on the boiler and run the engine to make electricity with the resulting steam.
In case you're wondering it never happened but it was possibly a first, a helicopter landing at Bancroft!
I'll bet not many people remember that....

In about 1930 this was the height of modernity! A 'modern' posser for hand washing. It was used with an up and down movement and the vents in the side circulated the water in the dolly tub.

Ribblesdale terrace early in the 20th Century. The large hut on the gable end of the nearest house on the terrace is the old fire station I think.

I remember the introduction of the AGA well, it was the brain child of my dad who was Works Manager at General Gas and Doctor Greig his R&D man. What is forgotten is that the first introduction was a failure so it was pulled off the market, the front casting re-designed and the price increased 50%. It sold like hot cakes and never looked back.
Funnily enough its main rival was the Esse Stove and that is now owned by Ouzledale foundry here in Barlick.

General Gas made a cheaper stove called the Rayburn. I doubt if anyone remembers it today.....

Rayburns are still quite popular

Thanks Tom! I didn't know they still made it.....

Rayburn stoves are a cheaper and more useful alternative to the AGA as they also run central heating. I can't remember why we gave up on ours and moved to the Stanley, which is made in Ireland. I seem to remember that the boiler rusted through.

We had Rayburns at Napier Road and also at Hey Farm. They were good....

In 1988, 25 years after we moved out of Napier Road the Rayburn was still there in the kitchen..... (I had received word that the house was to be demolished and so I went to have a last look....

A good example of a 'gormless', a lamp in the middle of the road. This one is on Riley Street at Earby.
I have no explanation for the men on horseback......

While you are looking at the image, note the clock face on the gable end of the chapel. This is the clock made by Johnny Pickles as a tribute to his old master Henry Brown, later it was on the Wellhouse shop of Henry Brown Sons and Pickles, then on the Wellhouse Street offices of Gissing and Lonsdale and it is now in the engine house of Bancroft Shed.

They look like Sikh lancers, I wonder what the were doing in Earby? Looks like 1940's picture according to the dress of those watching.

It was a parade of some sort, May Day perhaps. It was a local farmer who dressed up for events.....I'll see if I can find the details.

Can't find any more details at the moment, but it could have been the local blacksmith rather than a farmer.

Can you remember what happened to your Green Shield Book?

A pub crawl in 1976 with a recovering alcoholic, my friend John Pudney. If the name doesn't mean anything to you, look for this....

For Johnny
Do not despair
For Johnny-head-in-air;
He sleeps as sound
As Johnny underground.

Fetch out no shroud
For Johnny-in-the-cloud;
And keep your tears
For him in after years.

Better by far
For Johnny-the-bright-star,
To keep your head,
And see his children fed.

[During World War II, John Pudney was commissioned into the Royal Air Force as an intelligence officer and as a member of the Air Ministry's Creative Writers Unit. This poem featured in the film' The Way to the Stars'. ]

This is the only image I have of the Primitive Methodist Chapel that used to stand in Station road between the Liberal and Conservative clubs

Is this the same one? Demolished in 1966.

Yes Kev, that's the same one.

Big Kev wrote: ↑31 Jul 2025, 06:01 Is this the same one? Demolished in 1966.
Screenshot_2025-07-31-06-53-09-228_com.android.chrome~2.jpg

The windows and doors are different to Stanley's photo.

Wendyf wrote: ↑31 Jul 2025, 06:31

Big Kev wrote: ↑31 Jul 2025, 06:01 Is this the same one? Demolished in 1966.
Screenshot_2025-07-31-06-53-09-228_com.android.chrome~2.jpg

The windows and doors are different to Stanley's photo.

So they are, I got the image from https://redrosecollections.lancashire.g ... 3944344885