Firewatcher’s directory. Comments

[Stanley]

Firewatcher’s directory. Comments
Whilst I did not see the light of day until 6 years from the end of the war, many of the 'phone numbers relate to people or shops that I was familiar with in the '50's.
No.3 Edmondsons Fern Bank were still weaving there into the 70's as I took a couple of holiday jobs there when on break from university.
No.35 is presumably the old isolation hospital
No.43 is Dr Rankin of whom I have written elsewhere. He lived at the Vicarage and had a surgery there but in the 50's operated (sic) from a house on Wellhouse Rd quite near the level crossings. He still lived at the Vicarage up to his death in the late 50's early 60's.
No. 61 Wraws. The "pop shop" was run by a rotund gentleman who always wore a trilby and a brown warehouseman's coat - was he Mr Wraw?
No. 78 Savages the grocers on Church St. Do I remember another branch on Fern Lea Ave close to where the post offices buildings now are?
No. 83 Tomlinson’s, Church St. Mr Tomlinson was a butcher who had a small dairy at the back of his shop and made the best ever ice cream, catch him making it at the right time and you got a free taste.
No. 98 The Palace, was a theatre and a cinema when I was a nipper. Became one of the first Supermarkets when Barmy Mick took it over in the mid 60's.
No.127 Standings, Butts. wasn't this a printers? I seem to remember the man who owned it driving a massive Citroen car with the sloping bonnet that was ever so impressive.
No. 168 Pilkington’s ironmongers and hardware. Sold Airfix kits with a massive selection. Had a branch in Earby.
No. 191 Sneath’s - short back and sides on a Saturday morning.
No.202 Vaughan, Rainhall Rd was this the cook meat shop where my mum got pigs trotters from ?
No. 209 Kings on Newtown was a grocers. The smell of bacon and coffee in that shop was to die for. Watching the staff pat butter and cut bacon on a hand slicer was a treat !!!
Brilliant. Thanks Stanley.

Edited by - Another on 16 Oct 2004 20:02:57


That was interesting Colin. It triggered me off to see what I have got on the names you mentioned and as usual, there are some holes in the index! This is how they get filled in.

I don’t know when Edmondsons finished at Fernbank. But I know a bloke who has been researching West Craven and Pendle mills for longer than I have, I have asked him the question…

You’re right about 35 being the isolation hospital. BUDC papers in Bow Lane PRO at Preston show that Barlick applied to the Public Loans Board in London on 10th November 1898 for permission to borrow £3,500 to build the hospital on Banks Hill. 24th November 1898, letter to Tom Biker, surveyor, asking him for plans for the new hospital. 28th November 1898, an advert in the Craven Herald asked for loans in £500 modules, interest was 3 ½ % per annum. 5th February 1902. Hospital must have been completed as council invited two ladies to view the hospital, prospective matrons perhaps. 7th November 1904, I have a note that the caretaker’s wage was 23/- a week.

Ernie Roberts talks about the isolation hospital in the LTP transcript 78/AC/04, page 7. He was in there with suspected Scarletina. (Scarlet Fever). He says the fever ambulance was green. In Stockport it was yellow (I think yellow flag was the international colour for quarantine). Earby had a small isolation hospital near the Black Lane Ends pub according to Fred Inman in LTP 00/FI/01, page 22.

The hospital closed down sometime in the 50s and B&D built houses on the site. Harold Duxbury lived in a bungalow there when I was doing the interviews with him.

No 43 Dr Rankin is a bit of a puzzle to me. See ‘When the Vikings Invaded Barlick’ in Stanley’s View for Eddie Spencer’s evidence that he was billeted in the Vicarage in WW2 and his landlords were Jack and Eileen Usher. Eddie died of lung cancer shortly after I spoke to him so I can’t ask him.

No. 61, Wraw’s pawnshop. The manager was called Bob Newton and his assistant was David, I think he lived at Colne. He had a very good name in the town. Norman Berry told me that when he was a haulage contractor he used to deliver furniture for Wraw’s and he says that their original shop was in the row where the Commercial pub is now. There was an entrance at the back for people who didn’t want to be seen going into the shop.

I don’t know about Savages having another shop on Fernlea Avenue but Ernie Roberts (LTP. 78/AC/02, page 6.) says that his mother told him that Savages started in business as greengrocers at number 8 Walmsgate with a box of onions. This shop later became Alan Fielding’s butcher’s shop and is now Stephen Bell. I think they moved into Church Street in about 1920.

No 83. Jack Tomlinson was the butcher’s shop where Ernie Roberts’ mother used to shop. Ernie said he was very good to them in the days when they had nothing. In Kelly’s directory for 1922 John Henry Tomlinson is noted as a butcher at 27 Church Street. There is another Tomlinson, John who was a butcher at 57 Gisburn Road in the same year.

The Palace Theatre. Arthur Entwistle (LTP transcripts 78/AL/04 and 05) told me that talkies hit Barlick in 1932 and the Majestic was the first to convert to sound. The Palace wasn’t hit as hard as you might think because the great disadvantage the Majestic had was that there was no stage accommodation. The Palace suffered a bad period at first but eventually converted and made a good do because it could stage theatrical productions. Towards the end of the silent days when all the cinemas had a small orchestra at weekends Arthur says the trio at the Palace was Arthur Harper, Arthur Nutter and Lizzy Daly. Arthur Harper was the leader of the orchestra and after the Palace orchestra finished he went to the Majestic as manager and stayed there until his death. Fred Hartley of the Majestic had a cinema at Skipton and if there was a pantomime at The Palace it played at the Skipton theatre the following week.

Number 127, Standing. He was a printer and the address usually given for him was 24 Church Street but it always seems to be referred to as Butts Top. (Kelly for 1922 gives 7 Butts Top, Barrett 1896 gives 24 Church Street, perhaps they moved premises.) Harold Duxbury said that the first motor car he ever saw in Barlick was Joe Standings. He said that the thing he remembered clearly was that he always wore goggles and his cap on back to front.

John Sneath, barber was in the building on Albert Road occupied in 2004 by Nutters, newsagents. This building was the only purpose built shop on Albert Road, all the others were built as houses and later converted. When new it was the Post Office.

In 1922 Kelly George Stephen Vaughan was a baker at 40 Rainhall Road. He was a member of the council 1922-1934 and died June 30th 1961. This is the only Vaughan reference I have. Father to the butcher?

I have no references to a grocer called King but I know exactly what you mean when you talk about the smells in an old fashioned grocer’s shop. When I was in Perth, WA, my daughter Janet took me to a Greek shop where all the spices were in open topped sacks on the floor, you just took a bag and helped yourself. I can’t describe the smell, it was heaven. Only problem was the corner where all the peppers were kept!

SCG/17 October 2004