THIS TAPE HAS BEEN RECORDED ON 1ST AUGUST 1978 AT 17 CORNMILL TERRACE, BARNOLDSWICK. THE INFORMANT IS BILLY BROOKS AND THE INTERVIEWER IS STANLEY GRAHAM.
Last week you were telling me about moving boilers. You know, they were moving boilers through the main street by hand.
R-Yes, yes they were. On sleepers and round iron plates. You see, when they’d crowbarred the boiler so far they’d take the plates out of the back and [put them under the front] and that’s the way they went, aye. Round iron plates they had and sleepers, aye. Oh aye, I seen ‘em shift a lot of boilers. I remember before the second world war they fetched a boiler out of Butts into Calf Hall, one bigger, a bit bigger.
That’s it aye, Brown and Pickles did that.
R-Did they. Cause I know it were a bit, them in Calf Hall I think they weren’t as high a pressure so they put a bigger one in out of Butts. [1936]
That’s right, they did Billy. Those in Butts were 180 pounds to the square inch. And what they’d done, Brown and Pickles had rebuilt that engine at Calf Hall, put heavier studs in and a thicker piston and they raised the boiler pressure to get more power, they were short of power so they put that bigger boiler in.
R-Well you see, they’d put an extension at the top, that were a 1200 loom shop same as Long Ing but they built a 400 loom space at t’top you see for Bird, Charlie Bird and them ran it at one time. Well, that were how it were you know. They’d have to strengthen it up wi’ a bit bigger boiler.
You were saying last week about the first road roller, steam roller.
R-Oh aye. Steam roller, well it come at Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee did that. In 1897 it were Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, sixty year reign, th’old Queen. And when it come, it come from John Fowler’s at Leeds and it had on it Diamond Jubilee, aye. First time I saw it, it were up Park Road one dinnertime when I went home for me dinner. I were generally looking at it you know. Aye, but you know it were all limestone roading then, there were none o’ this black stuff. It [the roller] didn’t make much impression on ‘em when it went over ‘em because it were hard stuff you know but that’s what we had. I can tell of ‘em covering Church Street wi’ ‘em, you know, stones that size [indicates about pigeon egg size] you know that had been knapped at t’road side by men that used to take ‘em [contracts] by t’lump, so much a lump. They’d tip ‘em [the stones] at t’road side and they had a long [shaft on the hammer] made out of a tree [green, not seasoned]. And they had one a bit bigger [a hammer] and they used to break the big lumps into lesser pieces and then they finished ‘em off with a lighter hammer you see, aye. They had a bit of spring in did them there shafts wi’ being off trees. They covered Church Street from one end to t’other and when I look back I wonder how the devil they ever get trodden in. A lot on ‘em you know never get trodden in. Cart wheels used to make a rut you know as time went on and then they’d sweep the gutter, a bit of slutch, and throw it on and that’s all you used to get. Aye, road making today, it’s as easy as falling off a flitting, aye it is. Well you know they used to pitch ‘em you know, about that depth [indicates 12”] you know put stones in like that you know.
That’s it, on their ends.
R-For a pitch in the bottom afore they put the little ‘uns in. Eh goodness, they don’t seem to bother today, they throw that there little stuff on and still, they seem to hold all right don’t they. [What Billy is describing here is the classic water bound stone construction as used by the Romans and perfected by Telford and Macadam.]
Aye. Was there any causeway?
R-Aye, there were, it were flagged, all flagged. Some on ‘em is yet you know. Aye, they were all flagged then there were none o’ this [tarmac] Then they started getting that stuff from somewhere, where it’s always boiling abroad somewhere you know. It were baked in little round cakes [Trinidad Lake pitch and asphalt] and they used to boil it in a like, kind of boiler you know, in the road. Then they used to put them setts in and they ran this pitch round ‘em in the cracks you know wi’ a big tin wi’ a spout on. They filled up all the cracks you see. Well then, of course in Newtown they put them little square dos in but they were a bit slippery, aye they were very slippery were them. In frosty weather, or even wet weather, they were slippery so they were condemned were them. So they covered it over and as I were telling you last week, when Pendle did it up [Newtown] , they bared them all. Well, they were a good bottom them you see. I telled t’chap, I says I saw them put them down seventy years since, aye, aye.
Will it be a lot cleaner walking round the town now Billy than it were then? You know, say it were a reight mucky wet day.
R-Oh aye, it used to be mucky you know, it used to get a bit slimy, the roads then you know. Because it had getten like dust wi’ the traffic and one thing and another. Well you know, when it got wet it were kind of slutch. Women in them days used to wear long frocks and when they were walking they used to hold their frocks up like that or sometimes they had hat guards to hold their frocks up you see frae [the slutch].
Aye, what did you say Billy? Hat guards?
R-Well you know they used to sell hat guards at one time because everyone had a straw hat you see.
Oh that’s so that if your hat blew away it caught it like.
R-Aye there used to be a clip and then into their ear(?). And if it blew off you know it hung down. At Barlick holidays you know there were a chap, he were a tramp weaver called Big Matt, and when you got off the train at Central Station (Blackpool] at Barlick holidays he were there selling hat guards aye.
That were Central Station at Blackpool?
R-Aye, it’s been done away with now. At Barlick holidays train used to land at about half past eight and Big Matt were stood there you know shouting ‘Hat guards here!’. Aye, they all used to get one because we all had straw hats you know.
When they were building these mills, when they first put ‘em up, how many of the mills in Barlick had a whistle Billy?
R-Well, Calf Hall had one, we used to call ‘em donkeys. Has donkey gone? Aye. Butts had one, Wellhouse had one and Long Ing had one for a while. I remember one weekend, one Sunday afternoon, it were a reight calm day and me uncle Will lived with us in Mosley Street at time, he were manager for Brooks at Long Ing. Now they’d blown the boilers off at Saturday you see. Now then, David Akrigg, he lived in the mill yard, there’s two houses there at t’side of Ouzledale works and he lived in one. Well, he used to light the fires at Sunday morning and that there whistle, it were at the back of the tape [Connection. The pipe up to the tapes was always a separate connection at the back of the boiler and the supply for the steam whistle was evidently connected in the same place.] The cock had a handle on and when it went cold the weight of the handle made it drop down and it was open, do you see what I mean? Now when David lit his fires and he started making steam he couldn’t get back in the mill you see and the whistle started right low down, Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr and they could here it all over Barlick. Well it sounded reight weird you know. Gradually frae a reight low note, as his steam get up. {laughter] Well, everyone were out, we thought there was sommat wrong. Aye, me uncle Will went rushing down to open the door and shut it off. I remember that, aye!
Had he blown down after the holidays started then?
R-No, they used to blow off many a time at Saturday morning when th’engine stopped they used to blow off you know and then light ‘em, might have been doing the flues out, I don’t know.
Aye, that’s it.
R-But you see he used to light his fires, he lived in the yard, he used to light his fires at Sunday morning you see, aye. They didn’t blow off every Saturday but I know when I were coming out it were blowing off you know.
Were that at Long Ing?
R-Aye, Long Ing.
When you say he lived in the yard, whereabouts did he live Billy?
R-Well, there’s two houses there, have you seen ‘em on the canal side? Well, he used to live in one and one of the tacklers at Brooks, Tom Smith, Old Tom Smith, he lived in t’other, he were a knock kneed chap aye. Well, David were the fireman there and he were a good fireman were David, he could laik wi’t job and it were hard fired were Long Ing at that time afore they got them, they put two bigger boilers in you see. But they were only 100pounds pressure you know and they added Brook’s shed on and they were hard fired. And a chap called Jack Trayford [was firebeater] you know and he were allus at full tilt and David, when he come, he used, he seemed to have it at his finger tips, he were a good un were David Aye. But he wanted th’engine job at t’finish, you know he’d knocked about a lot, upstairs he knew a lot and he’d have been all right but they brought a chap in called Oliver sommat, his daughter married Edward Holden. They didn’t let him [David Akrigg] have it so I think he left Barlick shortly after did David aye. But he were t’best fireman that there were, in my knowledge, as far as I know owt about it because he seemed, never seemed to be ruffled by the job you see. I’ve seen many a time when Robinson Brooks ’ud say to me father, Don’t come while breakfast time, it were in winter time, he says [Wait] while things get warmed up. A bit hard fired you see and he didn’t want the tapes pulling at it until everything had getten going. So many a time he knocked the tapes off while after breakfast at Monday morning in cold weather. But they got two fresh boilers in, they stopped a fortnight to do it, they did it in a fortnight. They get them old boilers out and it were, Hyde Junction it said on them when they’d taken them out, it were on ‘em you see. [Hyde Junction was the name of the part of the Great Central Railway Company where Daniel Adamson and Co. of Dukinfield had their private railway siding. The firm started at Newton Moor in 1851 but later moved to a 13 acre site near Hyde Junction [now called Hyde North Station] It was common practice for boilermakers to stencil their firm’s name on boilers before transport and this could survive for many years under the lagging. What Billy saw was almost certainly the remains of Dan Adamson’s address on the old boilers.] Hyde, aye, I remember that, aye, but they were nobbut 100 pound pound pressure weren’t them you know. Well, what they put in were about 150 pounds or sommat like that, you see they were more, aye. They’ll be in yet will them you know.
That’d be Hyde near Dukinfield wouldn’t it.
R-Aye. Now if you went down to Blackburn, through Blackburn Station you’d allus see a lot of boilers in’t yard on stilts you know. Whether they were there for, I don’t know, happen someone ‘ud buy ‘em you know, aye. I allus noticed that, there were a lot of boilers in Blackburn Station goods yard. Happen someone ‘ud buy ‘em at one time or another. And now they seem to be buying ‘em for tanks up and down.
Yes, that’s right.
R-There’s one down at Windle’s Garage there. Gissing and Lonsdale has a big ‘un in their yard. Aye, I’ve seen several.
Aye well, you can’t get a good riveted vessel now Billy, there’s nobody making ‘em, they’re all welded.
R-No, they brought some boilers up out o’t Wellhouse here when they went on oil and t’chap says they were as good as new when he were breaking ’em up. Aye, it looked a pity.
Same wi’ them at Bankfield, they’ve just taken them Bankfield boilers out you know.
R-What, lately?
Yes, within the last couple of months. They’ve put a brand new boiler house in round the back, coal-fired. The old Yates boilers have been taken out. They were put in in 1905 when they built the shop and they were good boilers you know.
R-I can tell on ‘em christening the first pair of engines [at Bankfield]. Dicky Roundell that selled ‘em t’land from Marton Estate, he selled ‘em the land you know, t’Roundell family, to build t’shed on and he come to christen t’first pair.
And what did they call them?
R-I never knew, no.
Who built Bankfield Shed Billy?
R-Well, it were a company you know, they were all Barlickers in you know. Bill Bracewell, he were one shareholder and Nutters and Bradleys were in as well.
That’s it, the Barnoldswick Room and Power Company.
R-Aye, well, that were Calf Hall started Barnoldswick Room and Power Company. Calf Hall Shed Company started that when they bought Wellhouse and Butts and then they built Calf Hall Shed and called it the Calf Hall Shed Company do you see. [Billy has this wrong of course. CHSC were called that from their inception before they bought Wellhouse and Butts.]
And when they built Bankfield they called it Number 1 and Number 2 didn’t they. They just built one shed first didn’t they?
R-Well you see there’d be about 1800 looms, there were Nutter’s and Bradley’s, that’s all there were, two firms and they’d have about 900 looms apiece, sommat like that. Now then, they built an extension and John Sagar and his son Sidney had some and Horsfield and Wright’s and them you see. Well, they built that to it and a different type you know wi’ glass at t’top same as a shed you see.
Aye, that were 1910 when they built that. Do you know anything about John Sagar?
R-He had the quarries at Salterforth and he were a slave driver. His son Sidney ran the business and he died a few years back. He lived up Park Road and at latter end they were sawing stone at t’side of the road and there were a chap had some silicosis or sommat and he got so much damages and Sagar couldn’t pay it, I don’t know how he went on, he weren’t insured. He lived up the top of Park Road going up that way, aye.
You’ll be able to remember them quarries up there being very busy?
R-Aye they were at that time. They used to be sett makers then. There were George Smith, he were a grocer afterwards, George Smith, Peter Sugden, Harry Cawdrey and several more were sett makers. They used to go working year after year making them square setts. They had some rails frae out o’t delph reight down to the canal side you see and wagons and they used to lower them down wi’ ropes you know on a pulley and he once had a little tank engine did John Sagar to pull these wagons up and down. He hadn’t it long, it were a little tank engine you know like you might have called it a shunting engine. Aye, I remember going up one time to look at it. It tippled ower once, I think when it were coming round that bad bend in the field, it were a rough do. Reight down there to t’canal, there were a wharf built there you know, a stone wharf.
Opposite the pub?
R-No, this way
And they had a little railway line running down there did they?
R-There were a line and it used to pull wagons there, I don’t know how they were pulled up, I never fairly knew that. Whether they were twined up like a crane I don’t know. But they used to let ‘em run down you know and they tippled ower once and all t’setts flew out you know, all t’damned lot aye. ‘Cause you know they come round t’bend you see and I fancy they got off too fast. [laughter]
Did John Sagar have all those quarries up there, both Salterforth and Tubber Hill as well?
R-Well no, I think there were one belonging to the Salterforth Company [Could be Salterforth Stone and Brick Company. Mentioned in evidence to the Light Railway Commissioners in 1906 as being employers of 50 workers. This was the quarry on the west side of Salterforth Lane] It runs in my mind there were sommat o’t sort aye.
Yes, ‘cause there’s really three quarries isn’t there, one each side of Salterforth Drag and then Tubber Hill quarry at t’top of Barlick.
R-I don’t know where they’re emptying these here tanks of rubbish, I don’t know whether they’re taking ‘em there. [In the 70’s Gibson had bought the west quarry and was using it for infill as a private tip and scrapyard. The east quarry was a car-breakers and scrapyard as well.]
I don’t know where they’re taking them to. They did at one time, I think Pickles took them up there and tipped ‘em in the quarry but what they do with them now I don’t know.
R-Well, Barlick Council were using it as a tip at one time but they complained did Salterforth, said it’d breed rats and all that. And there’s some houses you know so of course they had to find Rainhall Rock then you know, aye. [Billy was a Councillor at one time so he’d know about this]
Can you ever remember them having a little stationary engine at the top of the quarry to pull the stone wagons up the hill Billy?
R-Aye, I can tell o’ that, aye. There were a bit of spare ground at the top weren’t there.
That’s it, a bit of an island.
R-Aye, I can tell of them having, aye I remember that.
How did they manage that job Billy, can you remember? Did you ever take notice?
R-Well, I’m a bit hazy about it but I remember it like yes. I remember it quite well.
It doesn’t matter Billy, don’t let it bother you.
I’ve been told that there was a little engine there and that they used to have a rope down the middle of the road and they used to hook it on to the quarry wagons that were pulled wi’ horses to give them a hand up the hill. ‘Cause once they’d got up that hill there were only a little bit of a pull and then it were downhill all the way into Barlick. The Feller that told me said it was comical, sometimes the rope ‘ud wear a bit and they’d have to cut the weak piece out which would shorten it a bit, you know, take the weak piece out. And he said that it meant the horses had to come a bit further out of the gate with the cart, but they knew just where to stop.
R-Well, they kept altering all their gadgets you know as time, as years went on you know. They’d try sommat else, well, I just forget now. We used to go up there and watch them as lads you know.
Well, about that time just about all the stone would come out of there wouldn’t it?
R-Oh aye, and they used to send them setts to Leeds you know and all t’way on. On t’canal you know. They were all paving ‘em then, it were just coming out. They were paving all their streets and you know when horse and trap went ower them it didn’t half rattle. If you went to them big places you’d hear that rattle. Now you know, they’ve had their day and of course they’ve been superseded wi’ tarmac do you see.
And those fellers that were cutting setts up there, would they be on piece work?
R-Aye, they used to take a lump. They’d hoist a big lump of stone wi’ a crane and you’d get so much for doing that. Aye, piece work you know, aye. Then they used to put big wedges in you know and bloody clump ‘em, knock ‘em into sizeable pieces. [Large blocks of tone were cracked by using ‘plugs and feathers’. The technique was to drill a line of holes across the block on the fault plane. Two ‘feathers’ are placed in each hole; these are like curved liners, if you take a piece of pipe and saw it lengthways you have two ideal feathers. The feathers reduce the friction of the ‘plug’ on the stone. The ‘plug’ is simply a solid steel spike which tapers to a point. The plugs are inserted inside the feathers and then driven home progressively along the line of holes. This builds up a line of stress on the stone and even a large block weighing perhaps fifty tons can be split with relative ease. The same technique was used for splitting blocks out of the quarry face.] Then they had a kind of a bench, you know a big [bench], and they used to make these setts, they called ‘em sett-makers. Now when we used to have very long frosty winters, three months at once in the 90’s and they were out of work you know, all th’out door chaps were out of work. Aye, some of them had families and they had nowt you know. They used to have to strap at t’shops you know. [strap = buy on credit] Well, they started a working again, well, they got their families up you know, they used to owe money while their families started in the mill you know and then they’d buy their own house. Used to buy their own house, they were only about 4% or 3 ½% interest in them days you know. Houses like this [two up two down terrace] were nobbut about £130 you know . You could buy a big house across the road [three bedroom high class terrace] for £370. A good big family house wi’ garrets in, £240, a new un. Well they bought their own houses did the old families that had struggled up you see.
Would they buy them through the building society Billy?
R-Yes, yes, aye folk did.
You know nowadays sometimes people have difficulty in getting loans off building societies if their wage is below a certain level. Would you say there was ever any bother then getting a loan off a building society?
R-I can’t remember any trouble but there might have been you know. Of course I didn’t bother about that sort of thing in them days you know but I remember a tremendous lot of families come into Barlick after the Barlick Strike and settled down here out of Lancashire and got their children going into weaving. It were so simple you know, just two up and two down you see, plain weaving and they got on. [Billy isn’t talking about houses when he says two up and two down. He’s referring to the number of healds in the loom, four, which meant it was a simple plain weave and therefore a job that children could quickly learn. This meant that it was so easy to get the children earning in the mill.]
When you talk about the ‘Barlick Strike’ you mean when they were out on and off for nearly two years?
R-Well, it were over a simple thing, it were owing to preferential tariff you see. Barlick Manufacturers, they’d pay about 2% less for disadvantage wi’ not being on a main line. Local Disadvantage. Now then, they [the workers] wanted paying up and it nought meant about a shilling a week difference.
What year would that be Billy?
R-I were thirteen years old, I were just full time so you can reckon its 82 years since.
1895 then.
R-It fizzled out at the finish, they all got full up wi’ folk coming out of Lancashire so they had to go back for the same as they had started.
Can you remember the older end talking about the Cotton Famine Billy, in 1860?
R-Well I’ve heard, aye, I used to hear me Uncle Will and them talk about it aye. But I didn’t take much interest in it you know them days. No, aye I used to hear ‘em aye. There were a strike in 1909, I know I were taping at Coates at the time and I hadn’t been wed so long and I were a bit hard up in them days and there were no wage, no nowt, aye. So one o’t bosses let on me as I were knocking about and he says How are you like? I said Well, I’m not so good. Well he says, Come up to the mill and you can have £2. Well it were a lot of brass then were £2, I could live for a fortnight off that. So I got £2 and paid ‘em a shilling or two a week [the shopkeepers he was in debt to] every week off it, aye. I remember that, I hadn’t been wed long and I’d naught been weaving. Eh, I don’t know, there’s been all sorts, aye.
Were you in the union then Billy?
R-Yes, there were a Barlick branch but they were amalgamated to Lancashire Textile, Northern Counties they called it. They were amalgamated really but it were a separate union were Barlick. Now they ran out of brass you know and of course Northern Counties had to [bail them out], aye.
Which union were that, you’d be in the weaver’s union then wouldn’t you?
R-Weavers, winders and Beamers.
Did tapers come under the beamers?
R-Oh I don’t know about the tapers. I don’t think they were in, no, they weren’t in’t union while sommat like 1948 or sommat of that. It were after we’d gone to Blackpool. And a chap come round to try to get ‘em all in and he got ‘em in and then they had to pay tapers for meal hours whereas they didn’t get paid for meal hours before.
Aye, that’s it because a taper keeps running doesn’t he, he doesn’t stop. [Taping is a continuous process and didn’t stop at meal times. Tapers always made sure they weren’t caught at stopping time with a warp still running. The only time you could stop a tape without waste was at the end of a warp.]
R-All day through and he didn’t get, you know he had very little more than a weaver in a way. He wouldn’t have a pound a week more and he’d to work them hours. But after I left, well, he come a seeking me did t’chap once. He says I’m getting ‘em all in a union. He were frae Nelson. Bit I were barn to leave so I says I’ll not bother ‘cause I went to Blackpool.
So up to then, after WWII none of the slashers ‘ud be in a union then at all?
R- No they wasn’t, no just shortly after that they got in. Now me brother got on well with his wage, it got up to £14 a week through that. Now when I left in 1943 I were getting about £6. He finished up wi’£14 a week because they’d getten so much put on for them hours, an hour and a half in the day you see.
When you were taping Billy, you’ll be able to remember the days when they were sizing for weight won’t you, when they were putting clay in?
R-Well, yes, there were all sorts of does like china clay, aye.
Can you tell me Billy, why did they put china clay in the size?
R-Well, it were to weigh you see. It were to put a bit of weight on. They knock sommat off for that you see, happen two counts less or sommat o’t sort.
Yes, that’s it. So like if you were weaving , if you had a cloth construction that were say 30s in the twist you could get away with 32s if there were plenty of clay in it.
R-Well they’d happen, they’d knock happen a count off or happen sommat off in’t weft do you see if they could manage to do that. But when I left things had altered drastically, they never used any clay nor wheaten flour neither, just starch. That’s all because they could sell it, it were booming after the Second War there were a boom, they could sell it no matter what it were and a good margin off every piece. Whereas before they were splitting halfpennies in two and all that carry on, aye. I’ve seen us put a two hundredweight bag of clay in a mixing you know. They’d be like flour millers were the weavers when they came out. It used to fly off a lot on it, aye.
It used to cause a lot of bad chests and all didn’t it?
R-Well you see, it dried the yarn up you know.
Did you ever have any bother during the war with, I’ve heard Joe Nutter and Norman Grey, the tapers at Bancroft talk about during the war, using pure tallow and it were a favourite for chip pans during the war. [It was a good source of fat which was rationed.]
R-Ah, well, I don’t know about that, it used to be tallow and smelt a bit, well, some of it did. I once got rocked [rooked, cheated] when I were at Blackpool in t’boarding house. A chap come with a drum of ‘Good cooking fat is this if you want a drum’. Well, I were fast you know. I get it bought off him and when I’d getten a good layer of fat off it were tallow underneath. It stunk th’house out. Aye, bloody hell! It stunk th’house out.
Aye, ‘cause there’s different sorts of tallow isn’t there.
R-Aye, well, we used to get some tallow at Coates and it didn’t smell as bad. It were like softish as though it had some oil among it. I don’t think that ‘ud smell.
Aye, we get some tallow now and it’s pure tallow. It’s as white as snow and do you know it’s beautiful, it doesn’t smell at all, it’s beautiful stuff.
R-No, well, we used to get some of that at times.
But it’s the most expensive. Course, all t’stuff to do with taping’s expensive.
R-Well, I used to get some soft soap some time. I telled him to get me some soft soap and I used to drop a lump of that in you know, soft soap, aye. A chap once told me, I were up at Rakery(?) and he come frae Nelson, he were a taper, aye. He were on about sizing for weight and he says I’ll tell thee what to do, don’t broadcast it and don’t tell nobody, get some size [decorator’s size] and put that in, it’ll mek it stick to’t yarn! Aye he did. But you know if you put too much of that in it ‘ud glaze that cloth and it wouldn’t tek t’dye t’same.
Aye, like wallpaper paste.
R-You’d to be careful about that, aye. Oh aye, they used to come up to t’tapers you know and say, Put a bit of weight in these, they’re a bit light. Aye, I’ll tell thee what they used to do. Them reedmakers at Wellhouse, they’d send their reeds [the manufacturers would send the reeds to the reedmaker who was in Wellhouse yard] and they’d make them into bastard reeds you see. They’d put about that width [indicates 3”] each side coarser reed you see. Well, that used to be a saving did that. You see there were a bit off trickery in that you see, they were what they called bastard reeds. If they were a 58 reed you know they’d tek them wires out and put wires in at a bit bigger gauge you see.
At each side.
R-Aye, and you couldn’t tell be looking at it. But they called ‘em bastard reeds, that were a dodge you see.
So actually the reed count ‘ud be different at each side than it was in the middle.
R-Aye but it weren’t noticeable unless you put magnifying glass onto it you know. And it meant you could put a few ends less in you see, you know what I mean, and still get the same width because there were a coarser reed at each side. Well, you got your 38” with less twist. Now it didn’t mean much per piece but when you’ve thousands of pieces it’s a lot.
Aye, it starts adding up.
R-Now they used to send reeds to them reedmakers, Johnson’s, they come from Clitheroe. They had a [place] down here. [In Wellhouse Yard] They used to send ‘em, to look like that. They’d put new paper on’t baulks the knows and a bit of oil . You’d think they were new reeds, they were bastard reeds aye. Eh, there were all sorts of dodges.
Aye, they’d be up to all the tricks Billy.
R-Well you know there were keen competition in the cotton trade. In fact there were some times when things weren’t so good and they happen weren’t buying, trade had gone slack you know, you were happen working at a loss for a while. You weren’t getting enough per piece, what it cost you to make it and there’d be a boom come on and you could get what you liked nearly you know. You’d happen put a weaving on [a weaving order] what it ‘ud cost after you’d worked it all out and t’weaving were going to get three and odd for that, you’d put three and odd on, what they called a weaving when things were good and they were clamouring for it. But you see that’d happen last a couple of years and then it slacked again. That’s the way, cotton trade were allus like that, up and down. Short time a bit happen, all sorts. It got to it peak you know when all these mills in Barlick were, got to it peak about 1907 to 1920 it get to its peak, aye.
SCG/Friday, 26 January 2001
5946 words.