THIS TAPE HAS BEEN RECORDED ON MAY 15TH 1980 AT 119 BURY ROAD, HASLINGDEN. THE INFORMANT IS ROLAND TAYLOR, JUMBO OPERATOR AT SPRING VALE MILL. THE INTERVIEWER IS MARY HUNTER.
What sort of work did you do at Spring Vale, Roland?
R- That's a good question. Starting wi’ weft carrying, that is take the empty trucks into the spinners, and take the full weft away, the pirns when they were full, I used to take them and load them on the wagon. And after that I went on to the baling press. I were on there what? Perhaps six years on the baling press.
Is that the press where the stuff came through after it's been blended?
R – Yes. It's a press, it bales it up .. well bales anything that they want baling up. And after that I went upstairs like, I were on putting the mixings down. I were on the Jumbo, unloading the wagons, like there used to be a lot more wagons of bales coming in then than what there are now. Well there were like you could have said a ... what? At least one wagon a day come in with what’s like the bales that we make on the press now, but then we used to have Lambert's, they used to be running that down to Carr’s, Flash used to run, Grane Road run, and Higher Mill run, we used to keep them all going.
(50)
Did you?
R - In fact Paul wouldn't have done it, he wouldn't have made enough bales to do it.
Who wouldn’t have done it?
R - Paul that’s on now. Now in fact the lads that’s on the blender now wouldn’t have done it. Like when I were on there we used to do thirty-six a day, and normally twenty on Friday because we used to stop about two o'clock Friday to clean.
By thirty-six you mean thirty-six of those big bales that are on the pictures?
R - Them ones that are in the warehouse then yes.
Good heavens.
R - Well they’re lucky if they do twenty now, they are lucky if they do twenty a day, when we wore doing thirty-six and you needed them because we
used to go through, of a day, work it out for yourself, forty eight a week to Grane
Road, thirty six a week to Higher Mill, thirty six a week to Lambert’s and twelve to Flash.
Lambert’s is a different firm altogether isn’t it?
R - Well it were their mill, but they traded under Lambert’s.
Oh I see yes.
R - In fact it's where I'm working now and it's called Gibb’s now and it is doing chemicals.
Ah so it's different again altogether yes?
R - It is.
So how long is it since you've not had to make that output per week?
(100)
R- About six, seven years now they haven’t had to really push it. First with Lambert’s shutting, then with Flash not wanting them then with Grane Road spinning going out, they didn't need them there either so all you had were higher Mill. And once you shut that, well they were on a doddle, two days really would have been enough.
So presumably then you were asked to do all sorts of different jobs, and you weren’t just on the jumbo then.
R - Well you kept mostly on that you see, you had a hell of a lot more time to yourself where like before you just didn’t have time. Like you start, like even now I’m not, I weren't allowed to set the Jumbo on at half seven if it were Winter, because it took the power off the devils, and it ... Well he said “Set the other buzzer on” and if that buzzer went off it would stop the devils because your electric load were too high. You were using too much of it you know. See ours were rather expensive to run, so if I had me jumbo going, which I think it’s in that motor on top, it's a bigger motor than almost anything else in the mill.
Oh yes, definitely yes.
R - So if you get that and the devils going as well as all your mill running. Well in fact we used to do it on purpose sometimes just to get a break to do another job .. till Johnny twigged what we were up to.
That's John Greenwood is it?
R - Right. He weren’t green weren't Johnny. Green be name may be but not be nature!
So I shan’t go and play him the tape?
R - No he knows. In fact he said “I know what you buggers are up to. Cut it out! Don’t run that till after half eight. I know what you're up to, you want to have it stopped because of you!” See ... like I could run it even then and not fire the overload alarm off if I took it nice and steady, just so that I could feed on. But I wouldn't, I didn’t believe in little feeds in there, get it through. So you like then, with doing thirty six bales a day you were hap having to put at least one mixing a day down, at least one right? And this last time you could go two days without putting a mixing down, and then you had to put at least one down a day. And you know you've got one, two, three, four, five, there were six mixings down then.
What do you mean by mixings Roland?
R - You know where you've got bales down at each side of the machine?
You don't mean the Jumbo, you mean the blender don’t you?
R - The blenders yes.
Ah yes, right. So when you say 'putting a mixing down’ what do you really mean?
R- It’s putting a blend of cotton bales that we’ve been getting. So you can get them from Japan, China, Africa or even Russia. See you’ve got a, a blend of, like you've got good long fibres and you’ve some of them are short. So you want a blend, so you've got a firm mixture, and a bit of dark cotton, a bit of light cotton .. like each country has a different coloured cotton. Yes you’d think there isn't but it is different coloured cotton from each country. So you've got them down so you get at a fine blend between the lot.
The material that you put through the jumbo what sort of quality is that?
R - Well that’s stuff that’s already been used and it's like cop ends and then there were cops that were no good and then they throw them
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out. Well we fetch it and break it up and put it through so we can run it through again. So we keep on using the stuff. Like it's not a first use cotton place it’s a waste cotton place. Somebody else's used it before we can get hold of the cotton.
So you could have full threads in there all matted up together that have to be broken down?
R - Yes.
Anyway we got a bit sidetracked there, but it doesn't really matter. So if it came down to giving you a title for the job that you did at Spring Vale that would probably be rather difficult to do, wouldn’t it?
R- It would. All round worker's more like it.
Yes because I would have said that you were the operative, or whatever the word is for that machine but since talking to you I’ve realised that you’re Jack of All Trades.
R - There were a bit more involved. Like even with, when on the jumbo, like you’ve got your jumbo to run. Really, when I first went there that were a part time job, you know, “If you got a spare moment” job. But it got to such a stage when they were selling the devilled stuff, it got so as that were the main job, an your other got to be a ‘Do it when you've got chance job’. And when I first went there, well with the mixing, they were putting down like, well I’d say at least one mixing. Now we were lucky on them days when only one mixing went down, there used to be about two, they used to have two go out together if you got
(10 min) (250)
them two top machines going out together in an hour and a half to two hours, putting them two mixings down. Oh well, opening, you were putting them down and opening them. Say for .. you happen to have your stack low on your jumbo and you’ve got them out at the same time, you've got troubles, because you can't do both at once.
When you say an hour and a half to two hours, to fetch the right bales in?
R - Well you’ve to send them down from upstairs, and then wheel ‘em in and then open them.
Before you…?
R - .. they've all, they’ve all got to be cut, opened up .. you know your strings off. So your tare folds up on top. Because once you get them down here and you tip ‘em off. It you're going up against another bale you can't get behind to cut the tare off and if you can’t get the tare off you can’t use your bale, so you’ve got to cut your strings off upstairs before you send them down. Now when I use them I've got to cut all the wires off downstairs and some of them aren’t the easiest wires in the world to pull off once you've cut them. You’ve got to fiddle around with them to get them off. The wires aren't too bad, most of then would pull off, well easy for me, but with somebody who hasn’t got that much strength, they can sweat a bit just with them. But you get them bands, especially from the Arabic countries and they are all joints, they are not like one piece and one joint, they have a joints and so if you get some of them joints underneath and you try to pull it out it pulls into the tare does the joint so you've got to try and lift the bale and pull it out at t’same time, and it’s not the easiest job.
Now we know why you are in the job, with all the strength you've got.
R - Well it's the same when they actually land on the truck on that platform from upstairs. Now Arnold’ll tell you this, him and Fred Lewis, him that used to be overlooker’s mate. Now he's, Arnold were the overlooker and Fred were his under man, stood right where Bill is now, or was. Well they were saying you see “You've got it easy!” I said “It’s not as easy as it looks, because I make it look easy to pull that.” And Johnny had just put one down, sent one down on the truck so I said “ You think it's that easy Arnold, there's the truck, pull it in for us!” And Fred and Arnold together couldn't pull that bale up over that step, because there's an inch step from that platform up on to, into our floor. That platform were an inch lower down than what the floor were. So you've got to pull up once and now .. they hadn't got the idea to run forward and pull back, they’d just picked up and pulled it slowly. If you're going slow you know, like in a car it
(300)
you hit a kerb going slow, you’re not going to go up, you’ve got to get a bit of speed up to go up over it. Well they put it down and left us to it and they never said a word for at least twelve mouths afterwards didn’t Arnold about how easy my job were.
Yes, that's it.
R - In fact ever after that he never actually got on to about how easy it were, he’d say I had plenty of time to meself but he never said me job were easy.
So, two hours to put the right number of bales down, that’s before you even start the blending machine off.
R- Yes that's before you can set them on. Like .. with us having a mixing on either side it didn’t actually stop us ‘cause you, they could use that other one. But you had to get them down before they used that other mixing up, 'cause if they used the other side as well then the whole lot stops until you get the mixing down. While if it's taking you a couple of hours to get enough down then they are going to be stopped for two hours which in about ten bales.
And why was it that you were responsible for bringing those down rather than the people who were working the blending machines?
R – Well, yes, if you were working the blending machine you can’t go, you'd have to stop them again to get them bales down. Well if you haven't the bales that you wanted, you just hadn't time to stop them to put mixings down so you had the job of putting them down for them.
Yes, right. All this of course could have come with the photographs, but we've got so carried away with…
(15 min)
R - Probably could and all.
Now I'd better ask you, and I should have asked you right at the very beginning, if you don't mind answering this question. When were you born Roland?
R - Twenty sixth of February nineteen forty seven.
Twenty six of February nineteen forty seven. And you told me before we started that you’d been working at Spring Vale for fifteen years.
R – Yes, I’ve done 15 years.
So that must have been your whole working life.
R - Well most of it. I did two and a half years at Porritt's before 1 went to Spring Vale.
Porritt’s?
R - Porritt & Spencer’s.
And what firm is that? What do they make?
(350)
R - It's a woollen place, they make felts for the paper mills, they make it all over the world. Theirs go all over the world, even now they still do.
Are they a local firm?
R - Yes. Big local company and probably the only one that won’t go out of business.
Have they a mill in Haslingden?
R - Yes. Well they're on Broadway, off Broadway, well they've got one there and one at Stubbins and another one at Bury and they’ve got one in Canada, one in Australia ... I think they've one in Blackburn and I’ll say it’s Scapa Porritt rather than Porritt and Spencer. It used to be Porritt and Spencer and Scapa bought Porritt’s out. You would have thought it would have been the other way round. Like Scapa started with a director that were fired at Porritts so he set up on his own and they called it Scapa. So for, when one director's come off Porritt's and he’s bought Porritt's out.
It's the way of the world, Roland I am afraid.
R - In fact the mill where I worked at, it's been pulled down for years now, and they used to have one down Helmshore, Sunnybank Mill, and they pulled that down, there in nothing there now.
What did you do there Roland?
R - Oh I were in the warehouse when I first went there, and I used to see all tin lined boxes like into which I used to put felts. Well where they used to send them, all over the world, like you got different insects and it's laughable when you think about it but they once showed us a list, one of the salesmen, he said “Now these different insect [all attack the felts]” See, they used to wrap them in .. some of them [that went] abroad they used to put them in a plastic, cellophane. Well not cellophane, plastic you know, polythene and seal the ends up with an iron. And you’d to put DDT inside the felt before you sealed it up with polythene and you wrapped brown paper round
It and a sacking and it used to go in a tin box and that was inside a wooden box that were painted, some of them were painted green, that Cuprinol stuff. This salesman was saying this insect can eat through paper so you've got to put your sacking on and this one can eat through sacking, this one can eat through polythene, this one can eat through tin, another ant can eat through wood. We were trying to counteract every insect that could possibly get into it. The felts cost too much for them to have ’em spoilt with the insects before it ever gets there. And that's when they first started sending them they found that out, trial and error, it ware an expensive way of finding out though.
I’ll say. So you were responsible for this packing?
R - Well you see there is all the tin liners to set up and nail the box up and mark them, pack all the bales up. Then I went over to being second man in the picking room, they called it picking ...
Picking ... ?
R- I used to put them up over the rollers and [inspect] them. If there's any faults we used to put them right you know, any faults on and trying, if it were possible to put them right without having to go all the way back to the start again. Well I were up there about two years in the picking room. In fact I taught the last foreman the job before I left. I taught the foreman the job. See they wouldn't give me the foreman’s job because I were only seventeen then and they said an older man wouldn’t take orders from me. What made us laugh in there, they used to have to [come to me].. I taught the foreman the job, I had got one bloke up and taught him the job. They didn’t use to ask him what had to be done, they'd still come to me rather than him and he were the foreman. And it makes you laugh, I said “There's them saying they wouldn’t work under me and yet it’s me they used to come and ask “Has this to go?” So you got a list at the beginning of the morning or the day before, what they wanted out. Well not only that but on Monday they'd give you a rough idea what they wanted out that week. Like you'd have some that they were rushing for. So you’ve got to see such and such and each one were marked with a number sewn into it so you could tell which one you were looking for. And they'd give you a certain number “We definitely want these through as soon as you can, in fact before you get ‘em!” You know, that sort of thing.
Yes. We want them yesterday!
R – Yes. Well if you got through them then you push something where there's no call for it, might be six months before you want that felt. See we used to have orders for twelve months in advance. Well it used to be when they made one we’d say "We’re not changing over, not now, we'll go through a few orders for a few months in advance.” If you got the ones that, those numbers they wanted out then you sorted
for them, like when they came into my room I'd check through all the ones that’d come in then I'd take all the numbers and I'd go through me list to see if any of them were the ones that I wanted. Anything that weren’t on the list were taken off the rollers, even if they hadn't finished and put to one side to do the [urgent ones] first. I had a few that I knew, as now then when you’ve done a job a while you know .. really you get to know what’s wanted anyway, even without being told, you've an idea. If you see a certain felt and you know who it's for you know they are always
pushing for their stuff. I got so I could see 'em before they did. Moment they'd
come in some of them. In a way really you start getting that off, [you know] that one's going on before you can even see the felt to look at the number on it. “That ones going, they want that.”
Why did you leave Roland?
R - Money.
You wanted more cash?
R - Plus the fact I left when the manager were on his holiday and all ‘cause I think he might have talked me round. And he were on his holiday when I gave me notice in and finished there. 'Cause when I started there I were on £3-14-8d that makes you feel sick when you think about it.
It does doesn’t it.
R - And what were it, 45 hours then, £3-14s and yes, £3-14-8d.
Can you remember what you went to Spring Vale on? It mast have been more I suppose?
R- Yes, because me wage’d gone up then it were… I think it were about £10 I went to Spring Vale for, 40 hours at £10. Have more than that now. Like that Jumbo, like I said it used to be a part time job. Now you got paid half a crown a bale, for each bale you put through. You got half a crown each bale. Now that never went up from when I set on to when I finished two weeks ago.
Never?
R - It never went up once what they paid you for that bale.
In fifteen years?
R - In fifteen year it never went up once. And what I were trying to tell David Hardman, oh a year or two back and he changed the subject nicely.
David Hardman?
R - I said “Now look, when I first started getting that half a crown, there was a man, and I worked with him, that died there. Now he used to live at Rising Bridge. Now he could catch a bus at Rising Bridge, go to Rawtenstall, go in and watch the picture, buy an ice cream, come out and buy a bag of chips, and go back home and have a penny left out of his half a crown. Now you work out the same thing today and just think what you’d have to pay me to do the same thing. It’ll cost you 40p bus fare, 60p to go in the pictures, 10p for the chips and 8p for the ice cream. That’s nearly thirty bob it’s cost you. You’re getting for half a crown (twelve and a half pence) what it’s really costing thirty bob when you first started paying us. And he changed the subject and went away. But it’s right is that.
So you’ve got a set wage, and then you got a bit of piece work on top.
R – Yes, you got twelve and a half pence each for every bale you put through. Like today for instance, even for me to come from Haslingden, never mind Rising Bridge, it’d cost me 21p I think to Rawtenstall.
Return or single?
R - Each way, that’s forty two pence, that’s just from here. It costs, I think it's one pound fifty now to get into the pictures. And then you've got chips .. our cheapest chips is now sixteen pence for chips, your cheapest ice cream in the pictures is fifteen pence. That’s pushing two pounds and it is still only twelve and a half pence for that bale. I said “That’s how you’ve been making your money. You’ve been making it off us.”
It is isn't it? Ridiculous. Were you born in this valley?
R - Yes, I were born in Haslingden.
And what about your parents, were they local?
R - Well .. No, me dad were born in Bacup and me mother were born in Suffolk.
Ah, now that's unusual isn't it.
R – It’s a long way away.
Because all the other people I’ve spoken to, their parents were both local.
R – Oh, she’s lived here most of her life from a baby, her other two brothers were born here.
Oh I see.
R- But she .. going back me grandpa and grandmother, she is a Suffolk woman that’s how you get the Suffolk part.
I see.
R - And she married a bloke from Blackpool.
And have your parents been in the textile business?
R - Oh aye me dad’s still in, so were me mum. In fact me dad’s retired this month.
And what’s he been?
R - He’s on all sorts in cotton now, he is one of the few around that has a green card off the Union to say that you're qualified to do such and such a job. You ask about if you like. If you see Johnny again, ask him, very few of them green cards around, very few.
And it literally covers everything from blending through spinning through weaving through finishing?
R- Well not your spinning and weaving, just your card room end. But there’s very few people who have them green cards.
Oh I see. And they're issued by the Union are they?
R - Yes.
Which Union, do you know?
R – I’m not sure now which one. Textiles & Blowers Union I think it were then.
Textile and …?
R - Blowing Union I think it were called. I think that’s what it were called then but he is also a qualified cook and baker.
Is he?
R - He is but there were no money in cooking and baking then. Like he were cooking and baking in the army.
I see.
R - In fact he is a bit [of a dark horse] In the Army on the quiet he were in the commandos and all. You wouldn't think to look at him. I found that out when I were about seventeen when I argued with him. I was so big, I were twenty stone then, and me dad, he is only ten. He turned round and hit me and he literally lifted me off the floor and right across the room, I hit the wall at the other side. I never argued with him for a while, in fact I never spoke to him for two week afterwards. You'd be surprised though he doesn't look that big but he said afterwards, he said "Look, when you are in the Commandos they teach you how to hit, you know just how to hit and no matter how big you are you can go down. They also taught you how to kill easy enough, watch that part and all.”
Watch it. What’s he done in the textile trade then?
(600)
R - Oh anything in the card room. He can literally, where he were working, if they'd had break downs on the cards, the carder and the Undercarder have, before today, left that machine, they’ve given up to him, and left a little note on it “Bob, can you fix this?” And he’s fixed them and all.
I bet. And what about your mother?
R - Oh she's been a machinist for blanket folders and things like that in textiles.
So was it expected that you would go into this trade?
R - Well sort of I suppose. But like I made a mistake when I left school, you know what you're like when you are young? You are cocky; and I applied for a job as electric mechanic at Howard and Bullough’s down Accrington. Now 1 applied before I left school for the job. Like when I left school they'd never let us know, yes, no or indifferent and that were two months before I'd left school. So I thought oh they don’t need anybody, never bothered and asked. I started work at Porritts and I had been there two week and I got a letter from them “Could you please come and start work for us?” I thought, well I don't think much of anybody where it takes them nearly three months to let you know whether there is a job or not. At least they could say "We were thinking about it - or - We'll let you know" Well no, I don't want to work for anybody like that, so bugger them, I never bothered. Now when you start looking at the trades, electric mechanics are a damn sight better jobs than labouring around. But in them days you don't think of things like that, you think the sod took three months and never let me know. I'm not going to work for them.
Well you can’t see into the future, that's the trouble.
R - Well, you can change your future, you can't change your past.
Well there is something in that I suppose. Yes. So to come back to where we are now what about the closing of the mill, did you have any inkling about it, before you were told?
R - Oh aye, three or four mouths before.
What gave you the idea?
R - Just be, what shall I say? Little things like not ordering bales that they used to order. Like in using stock rather than buying a lot more in. You see where we had that bale store? That were always full of bales.
That's the room above where the blending machines are .. ?
R - No, besides that. You know the new one outside, you know where you park your car outside .. ?
Oh yes.
R - Well that were ram jammed full of bales, always full of bales. In fact at one time they said there wore eighty thousand pounds worth of bales in there, so you can tell how much stuff there were in. So when it goes right down, and they don't put any in it and like don't really keep the one upstairs full as well, and like that’ll only run, if it's full it keep you going about three weeks or a month. That’s the top side. So if they’re not keeping that full, it's only a month’s running, and they are not keeping it full, you start wondering why aren't they keeping it full?
Well, what's the difference between the store up above your room and the one, what I call the warehouse?
R – Well, that warehouse were built so they could buy in bulk so it were cheaper, like once they bought some from Russia and there were four hundred and odd bales come in at once, and you'd to stack your two hundred and odd bales down there. No way you could get four hundred bales up there; it were built specially for buying in bulk. Like you get your Russian and some of your Japanese that they don't send it out all the time, they release it from Russia every so often, it’s not all the time. And they got so they were getting it when you needed it, then after so long you went months without having any. So that’s why, if you buy in bulk you've got it there when they are not releasing it, you’ve still got it. So you don’t have to keep changing your blending. See if you haven’t got a bale you've got to put something else in its place.
Right.
R - Well you keep swapping around if you haven’t got them bales like if you had them in stock like they had, they had them for months . When they weren't letting then come in they still had them.
Yes I am with you. So really they were both store rooms.
R- Yes.
Yes. What other indications were there that the mill was closing down Roland?
R – Eh, this may sound funny like. Just got that feeling. And then a week or two before they actually told us you had people coming round measuring up. You are not measuring up for nothing.
No. And were there rumours flying around?
R - There was always rumours. But when you see them all measuring up, now they are not measuring up for nothing ...
So that was a bad day for you was it, when they told you?
R- Well it were no surprise.
Do you think you’d have stayed with them for a long time?
R – Yes probably. Probably for a year, a few years. Or as U say, if they had knocked overtime off then I think I’d have been looking somewhere else because of the money. It weren't that good on a flat week.
No. And what sort of jobs did you do on the overtime?
(700)(35 min)
R- You’d run your devils, then you baled your stuff up that you'd run on your devils. That’s why you had your overtime, they were selling, in fact they could still sell all they made.
Did they?
R- Off the devils they could.
Why do you think the mill has had to close down?
R - Too much foreign stuff coming in cheap. Far too much. Like ours goes abroad, had a tax on it, comes in here there isn't, but their government subbed them. All our mills, they’ve had them shut.
Do you think the days for the condenser trade have gone now.
R - I think they have, yes. In fact I think cotton’s near enough gone.
Because with, what's it called? Continuous what’s it called this, the new method of spinning?
R - Open end spinning,
Open end spinning and ring spinning. There presumably isn't the same sort of waste is there?
R - There isn't. It’s also quicker, quicker and cheaper than mule spinning but mule spinning’s far better cloth.
Quality, yes.
R - But it cost’s that much more.
That’s right.
R - And these days they go for cheapness rather than quality.
Yes. Do you have any waste coming from ring spinning and open end spinning?
R- They have had bits of it. Like that thread waste of ours that was here on the Jumbo a lot, a good bit of that'd be ring spinning waste.
Is it?
R - Like it comes from other mills, well most of them other mills are ring spinning so it has to be ring spinning waste.
That's right. What other waste is it that you get from abroad?
R - Now what do you mean by waste?
Well what sort of stuff is it that you're bringing in from abroad? The bales that you get from abroad?
R- Oh it's your, what should I say, second class cotton really. Now, with being a waste industry you get what your main, your good quality people don't want.
So in fact it's raw cotton, it hasn’t been used in any process?
R - A lot of it is raw cotton, yes. Now, all them bales on the blenders is raw cotton.
I didn't realise that, I thought it had all been used in some way once.
R – No not all. I mean you look at it, there in no way sommat like seed is still in the cotton. Well, if your seed is still in the cotton it’s never gone through any process.
(750)
No well that’s the one thing I haven't really studied and spent some time looking at, those blenders. I haven't really seen them running properly.
R - You won't now. I've seen Brian must have had something going through this week though.
I think Brian’s been on it this week, yes. Well I think we've exhausted your life history haven’t we Roland, so perhaps…
R - Yes, we're right.
.. we are able to start with the spinning folio number 1. We'll go through the whole of the blending process with you if we may. OK? So, number 1, what have we got there?
R - That's the aerial view of the mill at Spring Vale. That's changed too, they are putting all that roadwork stuff on there. That’s gone, the railway line’s gone. He should have took another one now you know?
I’ll probably get him to do one.
R - Can say that, all that has gone now, in fact all that’s on there.
All what?
R- All this.
Railway line?
R - All this stuff and reight, lower down than that, they've all gone.
What's they?
R- That’s what used to be the Flip Inn many years ago. Now the buildings, they've all gone now, because they're, that road's, well the wagon's cross there, they're tipping most of the dirt on there.
Lt’s going to be a by-pass for Haslingden is it?
R- Yes, to Burnley. It’s going to just cut the end of the mill. In fact it were going to go through the mill...
Ah, was it?
R - and they changed the road.
It’s from Burnley to where? Accrington?
(40 min)
R - No it’s, when I come off the motorway at, where you'd come off
Oh, M65?
R - At the bottom there, road end ... it's going to go straight through to Burnley.
Ah well, that'll be a good do, that'll make travelling into Manchester really easy won't it?
R- It’ll take over eighteen months though before they finish. That’s if they finish in time is that. You never know with this lot.
Do we know who bought the mill or what's going to happen to it?
R- I've no idea right? Just rumours and you can’t credit rumour.
No well it’s perhaps as well not to. What’s the hill behind?
R- Cribden is that one at the back. A long while since I used to walk over there and all.
This second chimney behind Spring Vale .. what is it?
R- That one, that one were Waterside.
Is that not there any more?
R - It's there but it’s shut like a lot more.
Whose mill was that?
(800)
R - Higham’s had that from Accrington.
Are they slippers?
R - No, cotton. There’s another one there. See, you’ve got two different firms moved into them, one’s filtration and the other one is a slipper place.
One's Automet isn’t it?
R – Yes.
That's opposite Spring Vale isn’t it. Right, number 2.
R- It’s a closer view of, that's the yard, that's your bale store that were built just for the stocking up.
With the long line of windows?
R - Yes, our own brickies built that.
Did they?
R - Yes. I wouldn’t like them to do mine. For one thing you'd never knock that downy if you’d drop a bomb on there. That’ll stay stood.
Well .. why do you say you wouldn’t like then to do one of yours then?
R - It cost too bloody much.
Oh I see.
R - Do you know how much it cost to build that?
No.
R- Thirty thousand pound, it did. You can’t see the foundations on there. They had a Council building Inspector come and because he hadn’t seen the foundations going in he had them digging all the way around and putting more concrete under. And they were what ? They must have been about six foot of foundations, the concrete and on top flags, before he had the extra put in. And the floor inside, what used to be the lodge, the lodge used to be underneath that warehouse and they've put cinders, and
then about four or five foot deep of concrete, then they put reinforced concrete on top of that. And that floor’s round about ten foot deep in concrete. So as I say if you drop a bomb on it, it won’t shift. You've got stone outside walls then you’ve got a cavity inside with broken bricks in, not solid but in between. Then on the inside you've got double brick inside it.
Double brick inside?
R - Double brick inside.
So I suppose it had to be definitely dry did it?
R - Oh aye, it has to be really dry.
Who lives in this house that we can just see with the two chimneys on.
R - He's one of the weavers. It's firm's house is that.
I wondered if it was.
R - Yes it's the firm's house and they own it.
So really, should the manager or someone live in that?
R - It used to be the gate keeper's house years and years ago.
Oh I see. So that was when there was a sort of gate?
R- Yes well that’s how they used to have a ... like I've said the lodge used to he there and they used to have a gate across here.
I see.
R - And they used to have a gate keeper there.
And, and this sort of wing that comes off the main part of the mill on the right?
R – Well, that were built afterwards, aye.
That’s where Brian’s office is, isn’t it?
R - Yes it is now. That's where we used to store our bales for the jumbo in there till they pinched it off us..
(850)(15 min)
I've never seen down there yet. Brian's promised me a visit so I shall have to see what happens.
R - And at the back that's your boiler house.
What's happened to that now?
R- Still there is the boilers. It used to be coal but it's oil now. In fact when they had coal that used to drive all the power in the mill. We never used to have electric power that thing used to drive the mill.
Where was the steam engine then?
R - It wore in the same place. It were run off the boiler itself.
Yes but it was in that same building was it?
R- Yes, it were in that same building.
I've noticed that everybody refers to the heating pipes as if they were steam pipes which is going back to when it was steam power.
R – Well yes, but you see your heat is still steam though, it’s still steam in them pipes. in fact they probably still call it steam pipes.
Well in the sense that it's hot water you mean? Or is it really…
R - It is steam, it’s the cheapest system. It's hard work pumping water through, it's easier to let the steam go through and by the time it comes back it's water again. See, the water come back on its own, water always finds its own level and it comes back on its own. And you've only got to drive your steam through.
That's true enough.
R - And the tank at the top is your old sprinkler system. That's full of water, in fact I think it’s still full of water which is a tank an top of the roof that used to run the old sprinkler system before they built that big tank at the back. The big water tank at the back and they re-piped the sprinkler system.
Is that for fire?
R - Yes
Number 3.
R - Well, that’s you date stone.
Do you know anything about its history?
R - 1 don't know much about it at all. Not so many do now.
No. It was an old water site which of course you said by saying that there was a lodge where the warehouse is now. Nothing much to say about that. I think it was Charlie and Joe that were telling me that those arched windows were originally the doorways.
R - I think they were yes many years ago. Like them, the windows that’s in now aren't the windows that were in when I come, our joiners made them 'cause they rotted away while I were there. Like a lot more things that weren't replaced.
Yes. Well we’ll move on I think. Number 4.
R - Mr Roy Tomlinson’s office. That’s been there a few years too.
That office? Was that the one that John Greenwood had?
R – Yes he had that. It’s been there a long while ‘cause you can see it's all stained glass. It has L Whitaker's on that window and they don’t make windows like that any more.
I was going to say, that would be worth a small fortune will that window.
R – It’ll be worth a bit aye.
Because I had a quote to have one small pane, I don't mean a pane of glass, I mean the coloured bits replaced, somebody was giving a quotation for it and it was something like sixty quid just for a small bit and that was a few years since.
R- It would be something like that..
Yes. So that's where it all happens from is it?
R - Well that’s where it all stops. Whichever way you look at it. It won't be happening from there much longer.
No it won’t will it.
R- Looking serious is the lad.
SCG/01 July 2003
7,593 words.