Re: The Search for Barlicks WWII Fund Raising Plaques

[Thomo]

This morning I had a mail asking for information on "Plaques" commemorating fund raising efforts in WW2. The Imperial War Museum are compiling a list of all such Plaques. It appears that there was one on the old Town Hall as a result of the towns efforts to fund a Spitfire, do any of the members know what happened to this? or have information about any other such items. This mail originated in Earby:-

Hi Ken,

Hope you are well.

The society has been contacted by a volunteer from the Imperial War Museum; he is compiling a data base of war time plaques which were presented to towns and cities which raised funds for the WWII war effort. We have in Earby three of these plaques which are being added to the list. He asked me if there were any plaques still in existence in Barnoldswick. Dennis Cairns of Barlick History Society and former Barnoldswick town councillor says he can remember seeing a plaque in the old town hall on Jepp Hill relating to funds raised to buy a Spitfire but doesn’t know what happened to it or if there were any others.

Does the current Town Council hold any plaques or know where they might be?

Peter from the War Museum says “Barnoldswick adopted HMS Blackwater between 7-14 Feb 1942, they would have had a plaque like Earby's”

Regards

Bob

[PanBiker]

This morning I had a mail asking for information on "Plaques" commemorating fund raising efforts in WW2. The Imperial War Museum are compiling a list of all such Plaques. It appears that there was one on the old Town Hall as a result of the towns efforts to fund a Spitfire, do any of the members know what happened to this? or have information about any other such items. This mail originated in Earby:-

Hi Ken,

Hope you are well.

The society has been contacted by a volunteer from the Imperial War Museum; he is compiling a data base of war time plaques which were presented to towns and cities which raised funds for the WWII war effort. We have in Earby three of these plaques which are being added to the list. He asked me if there were any plaques still in existence in Barnoldswick. Dennis Cairns of Barlick History Society and former Barnoldswick town councillor says he can remember seeing a plaque in the old town hall on Jepp Hill relating to funds raised to buy a Spitfire but doesn’t know what happened to it or if there were any others.

Does the current Town Council hold any plaques or know where they might be?

Peter from the War Museum says “Barnoldswick adopted HMS Blackwater between 7-14 Feb 1942, they would have had a plaque like Earby's”

Regards

Bob

I reported on both of these fund raising efforts in the War Memorial Research thread unfortunately now lost in the archive site. I cant remember any reference in the newspaper articles about any plaques though, they were more interested in the job in hand and just tended to report the various sterling efforts of fund-raising. No doubt the plaques would be a later arrival. I'll ask Sally if she knows anything from the various committees she used to be on when she was involved, The TC used to meet at the Town Hall, certainly when she was Chairperson anyway. Maybe David will comment as well. BUDC days then of course and then sucked into Pendle, may be lost in the mists of time.

[David Whipp]

Does the current Town Council hold any plaques or know where they might be?

Ken emailed me the other day about this and I've been rootling about in my brainbox, but I can't recall any plaques...

What attracted my attention (yesterday) was the length (or brevity) of the annual county council meeting. The last time the county was in no overall control was in 1985. The meeting began at 2pm and lasted until 3am (13 hours). It took a long time, and a chaotic meeting, before councillors accepted the necessary changes and a minority administration was voted in.

In the three weeks since the elections, with my group leader, I've spent endless hours in meetings and negotiations with the other groups. It's been pretty gruelling, but an immediate benefit of all the discussion was that the meeting was over in just an hour.

[PanBiker]

Does the current Town Council hold any plaques or know where they might be?

Ken emailed me the other day about this and I've been rootling about in my brainbox, but I can't recall any plaques...

Sally seems to recall that when the TC vacated the Town Hall the furniture and stuff went into storage in Nelson. She also cannot directly remember any plaques and there is no guarantee that they were there during Pendles use of the building. I wonder if there is anything in the B.U.D.C. minute books? I seem to remember seeing some of them on the shelves at the library.

[Wendyf]

THIS is what the Wings for Victory plaque looked like, it's made from a plastic material.

This is the Warship Week plaque.

[Stanley]

Have a look at this LINK, mentions both Barlick and Earby

[PanBiker]

Having seen the picture of plaques, Sally does say that she remembers them in the Town Hall. Further to that she has turned up a picture of them from when Colin Pollard was Chairperson. I will scan it and put it up once I have scanned it. It shows the full council seated and stood in front of a wall with oak panelling and not two but three plaques behind them.

It looks like they had one for all three of the fund raising drives I recalled in my research. The warship one is in the middle with the Wings for Victory at one side and Support a Soldier plaque at the other. Sally is right in front of the Warship Plaque and David just to the left of Support a Soldier.

Question still remains where are they now?

[Wendyf]

The Earby plaques were rescued by a member of the public when the council offices were being cleared out. Luckily he is an active member of the History Society!

[PanBiker]

Right here we go:



Town Council 1996 or 97. Sally cant exactly remember the year but thinks it is shortly after she finished her chemo treatment. Sally is in the middle below the Warship plaque. On the left is Support a Soldier week and on the right is the Buy a Spitfire.

As mentioned before all the furniture went into storage somewhere in Pendle. No idea about the plaques, they could be in the same place assuming that Barlick History Society did not rescue them.

[Thomo]

Together we "will" get there, but given that Nelson's old War Memorial vanished, it may not be easy!

[Tardis]

A very youthful David Whipp and a nice piece of history.

Be nice to know that the Town Council table could be found and resurrect it's use, my father remembers it from when he was on the town council.

[PanBiker]

Town Council minutes may shed some light from around when they moved from the Town Hall to the Old Library for their meetings. Another point, does the Library have them? As they belong to the town it should have been recorded somewhere as to where the future destination was, can't see them being left behind.
Mind you, there is a similar thing with a lot of the Working Men's Clubs Rolls of Honour for members lost in the wars. Pidgeon Club definitely had one of those on the wall.

[PanBiker]

I have created this new topic for the ongoing search as it is of relevance to the towns history. I have moved all the original posts into here and renamed the headers.

[Wendyf]

I spent quite a bit of time in that upstairs room at Barlick Library when we were doing the Wilfred Spencer project and Colne library was closed for a refurb. I remember seeing a Roll of Honour for a club in there but I can't remember which one it was.

[Thomo]

Thank you Wendy. I have pics of many of the "Rolls of Honour", and will post them here shortly.

[PanBiker]

I think they would be better in the War Memorial Research thread Peter. Just made this one for the fund raising plaques.

[Stanley]

What was 'The Wilfred Spencer Project'? That's a blast from the past for anyone that worked at Pendle Heritage Centre!

[Wendyf]

Probably a different project Stanley. About 5 years ago I got involved in a joint project between the LRO & Colne library to catalogue the Wilfred Spencer collection. It took a group of volunteers about 2 years to complete. Those of us who survived the experience happily still volunteer in the local history section of the library.

[Stanley]

Wilfred was a good man. His widow Helen told me that after he died in post as Colne Librarian (ironically from a lung disease contracted from the dust on old documents) much of his archive in the stack at Colne was mistakenly classified as rubbish and thrown out. I was down at the library some time later and saw some rolled up maps in a rubbish skip. I asked the librarian if I could have them and he said yes. Thet were 1900 OS maps of the district mounted on linen. I have some still, cut out of a far larger map that are Nelson and Colne. If you want them Wendy, call in and I'll give them to you.

[Tardis]

I talked to the librairian. All the Town Council minutes up to 1974 are upstairs in the library

The minutes beyond this may be held by the Lancashire Record office although she doesn't know, probably to do with the move into Pendle in 1976.

[PanBiker]

20 years or more later when the TC vacated the Town Hall. I wonder if the Support a Soldier and Buy a Spitfire were made of Bakelite?

[Wendyf]

From what I understand Ian they are plastic but not Bakelite.

[Nolic]

Darwen has a recent memorial built and donated by a local firm as it was the smallest town in the country to raise the full cost of funding a Spitfire http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-la ... e-20282777 Nolic

[PanBiker]

That makes the sculpture just over one third scale, very impressive.

[Nolic]

It is Ian. I dr
ove past it a few days ago. It's very central to the town and you can,t miss it. Nolic