THE NOOK
Posted: 18 Sep 2015, 05:36
THE NOOK
I love the way that we are lucky enough in Barlick to have retained many of our old buildings. The general mania for 'improvement' in the 1950s largely passed us by. There are advantages in being a backwater! Mind you, some less than sympathetic developments did happen, Post Office Corner, the replacement for St James Church and the two modern banks at the corner of Newtown and Church street. I'm not sure when the fire station was built but red brick doesn't look right in Barlick!
We lost a lot of old property when Westgate, from John Street up to Townhead was widened by demolishing all the property on the southern side, if you look carefully you can still see the old back walls and remnants of staircases. There were plans to demolish some of the older properties on the other side of the road. My old friend Ernie Roberts bought one of the cottages on Club Row for £500 because it was scheduled for demolition but it survived and is now a very desirable and expensive cottage property! How times change.
One old building that didn't survive is 'The Nook', a cottage at the end of King Street. True, its gable end did restrict the width of the street at that point but looking back, was this really important? How much would it be worth today if it had been bought at a knock-down price, refurbished and converted to a couple of town houses? Ask any estate agent what the value of small town houses in the centre of town is today. Think of the way the price of the much maligned back-to-back has risen in the last twenty years as their value as easily maintained homes for the elderly and singletons has been recognised. Look at the tiny cottages on Longfield Lane next to the Dog, 'Crow Row' and be glad they survived. Consider how many run down properties there are still, they could be profitable.
My old friend Arthur Entwistle told me that in the 1930s when he had just left school, his dad had ideas of setting him up as a tinsmith and bought a Tinman's Jenny and other small tools from an old man who lived at the Nook. It never happened because Arthur didn't take to the idea, he was more interested in his music but it gives us a small insight into that forgotten corner. In 1982 the Council bought the cottages and demolished them to open that corner up. Looking back this was a missed opportunity.
Perhaps there is a lesson here for our planners. Much of Barlick's character rests on our old townscape and even the most decrepit building can be rescued and made useful again. This is efficient in terms of carbon footprint, recycling old materials and maintaining character. I am not against modernisation but I am definitely a conservationist. We should be very careful in any decision to ditch something simply because it is old. After all, at my age I could qualify for replacement!
The Nook in 1979.
I love the way that we are lucky enough in Barlick to have retained many of our old buildings. The general mania for 'improvement' in the 1950s largely passed us by. There are advantages in being a backwater! Mind you, some less than sympathetic developments did happen, Post Office Corner, the replacement for St James Church and the two modern banks at the corner of Newtown and Church street. I'm not sure when the fire station was built but red brick doesn't look right in Barlick!
We lost a lot of old property when Westgate, from John Street up to Townhead was widened by demolishing all the property on the southern side, if you look carefully you can still see the old back walls and remnants of staircases. There were plans to demolish some of the older properties on the other side of the road. My old friend Ernie Roberts bought one of the cottages on Club Row for £500 because it was scheduled for demolition but it survived and is now a very desirable and expensive cottage property! How times change.
One old building that didn't survive is 'The Nook', a cottage at the end of King Street. True, its gable end did restrict the width of the street at that point but looking back, was this really important? How much would it be worth today if it had been bought at a knock-down price, refurbished and converted to a couple of town houses? Ask any estate agent what the value of small town houses in the centre of town is today. Think of the way the price of the much maligned back-to-back has risen in the last twenty years as their value as easily maintained homes for the elderly and singletons has been recognised. Look at the tiny cottages on Longfield Lane next to the Dog, 'Crow Row' and be glad they survived. Consider how many run down properties there are still, they could be profitable.
My old friend Arthur Entwistle told me that in the 1930s when he had just left school, his dad had ideas of setting him up as a tinsmith and bought a Tinman's Jenny and other small tools from an old man who lived at the Nook. It never happened because Arthur didn't take to the idea, he was more interested in his music but it gives us a small insight into that forgotten corner. In 1982 the Council bought the cottages and demolished them to open that corner up. Looking back this was a missed opportunity.
Perhaps there is a lesson here for our planners. Much of Barlick's character rests on our old townscape and even the most decrepit building can be rescued and made useful again. This is efficient in terms of carbon footprint, recycling old materials and maintaining character. I am not against modernisation but I am definitely a conservationist. We should be very careful in any decision to ditch something simply because it is old. After all, at my age I could qualify for replacement!
The Nook in 1979.
