WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Wendyf]

Sunday opening only at the moment Tiz, which is a pity as it is packed full of interesting displays. It's run by a decreasing number of volunteers, who aren't being replaced by younger folk as they reach more mature years.

[Tizer]

David, Wendy, thanks for the help. I can't travel to the museum which is why I was interested when I saw the web site on google. But when I tried to view any of the pages nothing happened. I've just tried again and it works now, so it must have been a temporary glitch. I was interested to see chert (flint is a type of chert) was mined in the area - what did they do with it? It's very hard, so road stone perhaps?

[Stanley]

Interesting question and I don't know the answer to it!
I wasn't the only early bird who missed the Shipping Forecast yesterday. See this LINK for one of the reports which incidentally seems to have been ripped off by the Daily Mail. For those who have forgotten, there is an apocryphal 'well known fact' that all Trident submarines on patrol listen to the early shipping forecast as its absence would be the first warning of nuclear attack!

[Wendyf]

I hope to see one of the original members of the Earby Mines Research Group at the book launch event this morning Tiz, so I will ask him about chert.

[Tizer]

Thanks Wendy. In the chalk lands of the south and east flint was used as a decorative building stone but the driving force was not so much a desire for flint nodules in walls as finding a way of disposing of all the flint that was removed from fields during ploughing and piled in a corner. So I think it unlikely that chert or flint would have been mined for building unless there was a shortage of ordinary building stone or cob. But I'm happy to be proved wrong! Of course, in the more distant past, chert/flint was dug up for making tools, scrapers, arrowheads etc but I presume the Earby chert mining was at a much later stage.

[Wendyf]

Sorry Tizer, but Peter Dawson wasn't there today. Earby has no connection with lead mining, the nearest mine was in Cononley. I think the Chert was mined in Swaledale.

[Tizer]

Thanks for trying Wendy!
When I searched online using the words `chert uses' I didn't get much that was relevant but now I've tried `chert mining' and that was more successful. In particular I found this information on a page about Bakewell Chert Mine:
"The most useful role for chert was recognised about two centuries ago for the grinding of calcined flint, used as a whitening agent in earthenware manufacture. In 1772 the potter Josiah Wedgwood recommended Derbyshire chert as a major improvement over granite millstones, which left annoying black specks in the pure white flint."

I take this to mean that millstones were made out of chert and used to mill flint (which itself is a form of chert) and the chert they were mining must have been pure white. The black specks referred to in the granite millstones would be biotite mica which is a common component of granites (although some also contain black tourmaline). The description of the method for mining the chert is interesting too:
"The chert bed was on average 9 ft (2.7 m) thick, though up to 18 ft (5.5 m) in places. It was extracted by removing the underlying limestone so that the chert fell under its own weight."
The information is on this web page: http://www.oldfielddesign.com/holmebank.html

[Wendyf]

Have a look at this link for Swaledale Chert.

[Stanley]

The Muslim woman sentenced to 100 lashes and stoning to death for marrying a Christian in the Sudan is expected to be released soon. Good! Before we rush to judgement remember that in an earlier age we were just as savage as this, particularly in matters pertaining to religion.
Five Taliban prisoners to be released from Guantanamo in exchange for a US soldier who has been held by the Taliban for five years.

[plaques]

I'm not always certain that the death sentence wasn't somewhat intentional to bring it to the top of their ' things to be sorted out' agenda. Sometimes its advantageous to take things to an extreme to get them discussed without putting themselves in the firing line.
I always thought that a parallel to this was putting 'homeless' in £2000 a week mansions just to demonstrate how out of hand it had got. But in our case we could then cut back with a vengeance.

[Thomo]

What "we" were in an earlier age may be correct, but this is not an earlier age. Another Woman was stoned to death near Lahore in Pakistan last week for marrying the Man she loved. Some factions of the religion involved in these cases are still from the aforementioned earlier age and show no signs of moving forward.

[Tizer]

Have a look at this link for Swaledale Chert.

Nice one Wendy, that confirms the way chert was used.

[Thomo]

Yesterday morning I had the great pleasure of attending the launch of a new book in Earby. Titled "Earby in the First World War" it was written by Stephanie Carter and is published by the Earby and District Local History Society. It is beautifully put together and will be a "good read", it is also very reasonably priced. I was made extremely welcome and met a few people who I have not seen for many years, I also met people whom I was aware of but had not seen before, Wendy being one of them. I was much impressed by another project that is under way in Earby in commemoration of the Centenary of WW1, each of the fallen from the town will have their own individual legion cross with their details attached. Where possible these will be given the descendants of the Soldiers for them to place at the Memorial, others will be placed by local groups, ie. schools etc. I came away with a copy of the book, a packet of Poppy seeds to sow wherever I wish, and a very warm glow inside. Thank you Earby, and well done, you deserve success.

[Tizer]

It's strange how often coincidences occur...there's been discussion above about chert being used to grind flint to a powder. When reading up about chert I saw a geologist writing about how it's probably the most dangerous stone he's ever had to hit with his geological hammer - sharp slivers shoot off and embed themselves in your skin. Any stone can do that but chert gave him the most grief. Then our plumber arrived today and found he would have to drill through 18 inches of Blue Lias stone in one of our old walls. "Oh well", he said, "At least it won't be like the chert I had to drill last week, the worst stone I've encountered. Dangerous small slivers shot out everywhere and, to make things even worse, they were red hot from the drill!" So, the moral is, avoid ever having to drill or hammer chert!
(Of course we've now given him a crash course in chert mining, flint, porcelain manufacture etc. Luckily he's a very intellectual plumber and enjoys learning anything new about the world...and he's a good plumber too!)

[Thomo]

The mystery of the Army truck pictured here last week is now solved, it appeared close by again this morning, in fact it turned into Westfield road and the garages behind there. So I followed it to discover that it has been bought by a friend of mine, Paul Harold ex mechanic at the Marina. It is a 1952 Morris Commercial Army Radio Truck, Paul is going to do some restoration work and then display it at suitable events. I can already think of such an event and Paul has friends with ex WD vehicles.

[Tardis]

We all need support:

http://feistyoatcake.blogspot.co.uk/201 ... pport.html

Plus the DWP has now put me into the support group of ESA, though some prominent people still don't believe that I have a disabling condition.

[Stanley]

Tiz, many years ago when we decided to put CH in Hey Farm I bored the walls for the pipes to save money. It was a 1" star drill and lump hammer then! I found to my cost that the base stones of the walls are blue limestone, used there I think because they are impervious and don't wick water up the wall from the footings. An old friend, Billy Entwistle called in one day and found me hard at it. He gave me a good tip: old walls like that very often don't have modern footings but were laid directly on the soil if it wad good bearing ground. The solution was to dig a hole to a level below the base stone, poke a hole through and when the pipe was installed, fill the cavity with dry sharp sand. I don't know about chert but blue limestone is as hard as the hobs of hell! Dull red sparks every time you hit the drill.
Anyone who has listened to Michael Sandel, 'The Public Philosopher' on Radio 4 might be interested in this article that Martha sent me this morning. LINK

[Tardis]

The library is consulting on it's hours of opening:

http://www3.lancashire.gov.uk/corporate ... asp?ID=235

[Stanley]

Every now and again when the sweeper comes down the back street I slip them a quid towards a drink just to let them know someone notices. I did it this morning and noticed the lad had a pair of ladies shoes in the cab with him so I pulled his leg about his glamorous assistant. He told me that he goes over to Blackburn every weekend to help with work supporting the homeless and anything like the shoes that he finds on his rounds he cleans up and takes them with him. It struck me that there are so many people doing little acts of kindness and never advertising it. Nice, gives me a warm glow. (And a cleaner back street!)

[Thomo]

We have one like that down here, very helpful. I have decided what to do with some of the Poppy seeds that were given to me in Earby last week, some are to be grouped alongside our front path and flagpole, and some are going to be put on Gunner Wilfred Anker's as yet unmarked grave in Ghyll Cemetery. The remainder I have yet to think about.

[Stanley]

The attack on David over the Memorial Garden. Broad shoulders Councillor Whipp!

[David Whipp]

...and thick skinned (or just thick?).

Given it's not even my suggestion, it does seem a tad unreasonable that I'm taking the flak...

What attracted my attention (at last night's West Craven area committee) was the very reasonable and cogent case put forward by the spokesman for the objectors to new housing on the land round Moss Side. If time permits, will try and post in the committee topic on this.

[Big Kev]

...and thick skinned (or just thick?).

Given it's not even my suggestion, it does seem a tad unreasonable that I'm taking the flak...

What have I missed? Who's kicked off?

[Wendyf]

It's all about the Memorial Gardens Kev. See topic in Local History section.

[Stanley]

I still think there is a hidden agenda in that thread...
The message my scales gave me when I stepped on them yesterday! They said I was 15 stone! I cleaned them the other day and had left them upside down on the shelf in the bathroom. For some reason this had sent them berserk so I left it until today (the right way up), adjusted them this morning and now they seem to be telling the truth, 20lbs lighter! I shall see how they act over the next few days. They are incredibly old and a Salter spring scale that my mother had for years. Never given any trouble up to now. I hope they get back into the groove!
Just remembered that when I was a lad I always called any weighing machine 'nebbins', no idea where that came from!