Earby Ranch

[Wendyf]

The Earby & District Local History Society has been approached for help by a budding young historian (aged 13) who lives on the Northolme Estate in Earby. His dream is to stimulate interest in the heritage of the estate by holding an exhibition & event in the community centre.
His enthusiasm has inspired us to discover as much as we can about the early history of “The Ranch”, and to help him to gather material for the exhibition in the form of photographs and memories.
We haven’t yet discovered when work first began on the prefabs. One of our members worked on the site in 1942 when he left school, but it was almost complete by then. Does anyone know any details? The land for the estate, which was built to provide housing for workers in the Rover shadow factories in Earby and Carleton, was requisitioned by the government from North Holme and White House farms, but there seems to be no record of when this happened,
We would be very grateful for any information, memories of life on The Ranch or photographs that we can use in the exhibition.

[Stanley]

The only hard information I have is that my old firebeater at Bancroft, John Plummer, lived on the Ranch. Best firebeater I ever had, a good man. Encourage your young historian to knock on the doors of the older end and ask them, the people are far more important than the artefacts!

[Nolic]

Ken Ranson is the person as far as the ranch is concerned. He set up this website http://www.earbyranch.co.uk/Nolic

[Wendyf]

Thanks Nolic, we are lucky to already have Ken involved in the project.

[elise]

Wendy - any progress on this project?

[Wendyf]

Yes Elise, we are making some progress. A search of the Earby UDC minutes in Barlick Library has given us some dates for the start of works on the Ranch and various people are coming forward with photographs and memories. Do you have a connection to the Ranch yourself?

[elise]

Had a few boyfriends lived on The Ranch.

[Wendyf]

NORTHOLME HERITAGE DAY

Sunday 28th July 2013
To be held at Northolme Community Centre
Exhibition
Living History
Refreshments
We invite everyone, particularly Northolme residents past and present, to get involved. We would be pleased to hear from anyone with pictures and memories to share.

Contact info@earbyhistory.co.uk
or me!

[Wendyf]

Just a reminder about the Ranch Heritage Day mentioned above. A great deal of information has been discovered about the building of the "hutments", the people who lived in them and the shadow factories where they worked. One of our members, whose first job when he left school was on the building site cutting asbestos sheets to size, has built a model showing what the original hutments looked like.
It's going to be a fascinating exhibition....worth coming to see even if you have no connection to the Ranch.

[elise]

Hi Wendy,
What time is it on?
Will come and look at it, will wear a red rose and have Mail on Sunday tucked under my arm.

[Wendyf]

Ooops! sorry, forgot to mention the time. It is on from 10am till 4.00pm. I'll look forward to seeing you there Elise!

[Wendyf]

Another reminder about the Ranch Heritage Day being held tomorrow (Sunday) at the Northolme Community Centre in Earby from 10am till 4.00pm. It is all about an important time in the history of Earby and Barnoldswick when workers from the Midlands were brought to the area to work in the Rover/Rolls Royce "shadow factories" both during and after the war. We have traced the development of the Estate from it's wartime beginnings through to modern times and hope to capture a record of the day in a "time capsule" to store in the archive for future historians.

[Wendyf]

The Ranch Heritage Day went really well with many visitors enjoying the exhibition and a chance to reminisce.

[PanBiker]

An excellent exhibition with Wendy and Margaret in attendance. Met Steve Marshall who I haven't really seen for the best part of 40 years. He was a teenager when I used to mend the family TV. He quipped that his dad used to have a remote control for the TV, it was him!
I will look forward to when the material is up on the ELHS website. Well done to all involved.

[Wendyf]

Thanks Ian. Most of the research was done by Bob Abel & Ken Ranson with invaluable input from Peter Dawson who helped to build the original prefabs and produced a model prefab for the exhibition. Steve Marshall took the project to a more professional level with the information boards which will now be displayed in Earby Library.

[PanBiker]

I remember when I was working in Earby That Peter used to make model houses and cottages out of miniature stone blocks all put together with mortar and proper building materials. A bit like bonsai for houses. He used to have a farmhouse on display on his window bottom on Stoneybank Road. I assume he will still have these labours of love.

[Wendyf]

The information boards from the Ranch Exhibition are now available as PDF downloads on the Earby & District Local History Society website...

HERE