FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[Tripps]

Is this a forgotten corner these days?

Perhaps not? I found this from 1988 and the Bacup Coconutters are definitely still going. They sent me an email saying they are doing an appearance today Easter Saturday. Long may they continue.

Perahps this will be the modern alternative? Rochdale Jaloos

[PanBiker]

You can always encounter Morris Men when Malham has it's events on. I well remember the jingle stick man holding up the traffic coming into the village from the top road as the troupe were doing their thing in the middle of the road. He announced with a devilish grin, "this dance is a traditional one, originally from Derbyshire, it's only a short one, about 45 minutes"! it was a 4 minute job of course.

[Stanley]

Wellhouse Mill in about 1900. Notice in the multi storey part of the mill that there are two sections that have windows spanning both floors, These are the engine houses where the old beam engines were situated.
All gone now of course.

[Stanley]

The Barlick waterworks as it was when first built.



And David Whipp's image of it in 2017 after conversion to a private residence.

[rossylass]

RE SPRINGS

Records from Bridge Chapel show that my 3x grandfather, James Pickles, was born at Springs in February 1806, the son of Richard Pickles, cotton weaver, and his wife Betty (nee Aitken). Was Butts Mil a spinning or weaving mil? Later records show that he was a handloom weaver of delaine amongst other things.

[Stanley]

Nice surprise to see you popping in! I hope you are well?



Old pic of Elslack Brow Cottage. Note the phantom on the doorstep, very long exposure and he must have popped out to see what was going on.

[rossylass]

Nice to know that you're all still active! I'm well thanks and I've nearly finished my book about the Pickles boys. It's only taken me 20 years and a hundred revisions to write it!

[Stanley]

I'd forgotten about that! Let me know when it's finished and I'll be the first customer.....



Gone are the days when a man could get away with giving this to his wife as a wedding present! Seen in the office of Coniston Slate in the Lake District.

[Stanley]

The turbines in the wheel chamber at Quarry Bank Mill in 1982. You can see the axle of the original water wheel still in place and being used as a structural member to support the mezzanine floor. All taken out when the refurbished water wheel From Glasshouses Mill at Pately Bridge was installed shortly after this image was created.

[Stanley]

Higher Mill at Helmshore at the end of the 19th century. This is not the forgotten corner, it is still there but what is long gone and forgotten is the tenter fields marked to the west of the mill by parallel lines on the map. This is where the heavy woollen cloth processed at the mill was stretched out on 'tenter-frames' to dry and bleach in the sun.

[Stanley]

Tentering blankets.

[Stanley]

Women in Salford in 1976. In those days any back street you went into was Coronation Street. Look carefully at these faces, any one of them could be slipped into a soap opera! I suspect this might be a forgotten corner but am not sure.

[Stanley]

Peter Tatham's two men, Higgy (who had a broken arm at the time) and Andy having lunch in September 1976 while working on the incinerator chimney in Salford. Essential workers and this was 50 years ago before H&S hit the industry. Essential workers and they both died young.

[Tripps]

This is where the heavy woollen cloth processed at the mill was stretched out on 'tenter-frames' to dry and bleach in the sun.

Days when that was possible are certainly a 'forgotten corner' now.


I found this photo of Peter Tatham in my collection.- worth posting again I'd say. . . When he is mentioned I always think of Capstan Full Strength.

PeterTatham0286.jpg

[Stanley]

Nice David.... Yes, it was the Capstan Full Strength that got him.



Peter brewing up for Higgy and Andy in 1976 at Salford. This was the full extent of employee perks in those days..... I doubt if it would do now.

[Steeplejerk]

He would have been 98 this year

[Stanley]

Pity he couldn't have been spared longer..... Peter was a good man.

[Stanley]

A WW2 stirrup pump and bucket. Standard issue for fire fighting. I can't remember every household being issued with one but they were very common.

[PanBiker]

My dad used to have a couple on his allotment. I seem to remember a spray head fitting for one which he use for treating his tomato plants in the greenhouses.

[Stanley]

Standard issue was a plain brass jet as far as I remember.



An old fire bucket. They used to be hung in rows on wall brackets, ready filled with water. The curved bottom was to discourage the use of them for any other purposes than firefighting. I remember when we had fire inspections they had to be free of rubbish and even dust floating on the surface.

[PanBiker]

Standard issue was a plain brass jet as far as I remember.

Aye, but I have no doubt it would probably be a self designed modification, as long as it worked. Spraying for whitefly on the toms.

Necessity the mother of invention and proper for on an allotment.

[Stanley]

Rebuilding the brickwork round the remaining Lancashire boiler at Ellenroad in 1987. I doubt if anyone will ever do this job again. So many elements of the construction depend on lost skills.
As an aside.... this job like all the others was done by the lads from Manpower Services, the government organisation that found work for 'no hopers' who were unemployed. It was amazing what good work they could do given good supervision. That's another forgotten corner.

[Stanley]

The new back wall of the Ellenroad engine house. Building a wall as big as this isn't easy. I set the job out with a local builder in Milnrow· I told him there was no deadline, if he wanted to break off for another local job he could but I expected to see steady progress. I was criticised by everyone for the length of time it took to complete but it ended up a lovely job and as you can see, fairly impressive.
There's a story goes with this wall. Many years later my daughter Janet in Australia set on a newly migrated English bricklayer to build some houses for her. The bloke asked her if she came from Colne as he recognised the accent. She said no, but close, Barnoldswick. He said that he knew a bloke form Barlick, he had set him and his dad on the build the highest brick wall they had ever attempted. Janet said yes, Ellenroad, that was my dad!
Now how much of a coincidence was that.... the lad had just migrated to Oz.

[Cathy]

I remember a few years ago while talking to a gardener / maintenance guy in my front garden, at the same time a plane flew overhead and somehow Rolls Royce was brought up. Turns out that he knew Barnoldswick well, from when he was a delivery guy in the area.
I’ve met a few people who know Barnoldswick over the years. Small world.

[Stanley]

Brigitte Bardot in 1956. And thereby hangs a tale.... I make no apology for repeating this story!
[At this time I was a member of the British Berlin Yacht Club which had Herman Goering's boathouse on the Havel See and the German Olympic boats from 1936.}
The Colonel had been watching my sailing and early in the summer of 1955 invited me to sail for the club in an international regatta to be hosted by the French yacht club at I think, Tegelsee. This of course meant that I was sailing for England! I don’t want to give the impression I went overboard about this but it looked like a good day out and one or two mates came to cheer me on. I think it was Ronnie Dean and Ken Collins. It was a two day event, Slim towed the boats over there with the RAF launch and we went over each day by coach.
I had to race twice, once on each day. The first day was so so, I came in fifth out of a field of about 15 competitors in the Pirate class. Nothing to write home about but I certainly hadn’t disgraced myself. We had a good drink in the bar and retired home ready for the next day. The following day there was a hell of a wind, the Havel See could produce some serious squalls, especially if there was thunder about, I have a picture in my photograph album of a Star which was dismasted about the same time. The water didn’t build into a swell as badly as in a sea way but could get up to very considerable waves and these weren’t regular, they came at you from all sides and were very choppy. The wind wasn’t steady but very squally and these sudden gusts always came from a different direction. For a while there was some doubt as to whether we would race at all but eventually the umpires decided we could go ahead but were all warned to be very careful. It’s an interesting commentary on attitudes towards safety that nobody even dreamed about wearing a flotation jacket. I wasn’t afraid at all, I could swim well and really enjoyed hard weather sailing, I reckon it improved my chances.
We started and if anything conditions got worse, we had to do two circuits of the course and after the first half I was lying third and several boats had dropped out. What mattered was that the two boats which were leading had been behind me the day before so all I had to do was hold position and I would be the winner. This wasn’t good enough for me, I have to admit I had the red mist! I really pushed on and had one or two lucky escapes but it was as bad for the others as it was for me and I was gaining on them. I reckoned I was going to come in second. Great stuff until I over-cooked it.
On the next to the last turn, a wave and a gust of wind hit me at the same time and drove me on to the buoy. One of the rules was that if you touched a mark you were disqualified, this had been hammered home by the Colonel time after time together with the virtues of honesty and sportsmanship so I let the boat drop off down wind and sailed in to the club house where I was met at the jetty by the Colonel, no doubt to congratulate me on a brave try. I was in for a shock.
“What the f*****g hell do you think you are doing Corporal!” was what he actually said. I was gob smacked, “Sorry Sir I broke the rules and touched the buoy so I disqualified myself.” “F**k the rules, you were winning!!” He was absolutely beside himself with rage and I could see terrible trouble looming ahead. I could see the effort he was making as he regained control. He gave me a hand to tie up the boat and stow the sail and then he turned to me and apologised, “Sorry lad, that was unforgivable of me, you did well and you would have won, I got carried away.” I told him I understood and was not best pleased myself but I was OK and thought the best thing to do was write it off to chance. With that we went into the clubhouse and the Colonel bought me a beer.
I went and sat with Ken and Ronnie and told them about the incident. Other people had noticed and several came over and commiserated with me, and it soon became obvious that being honest about the rules hadn’t done us any harm. The Colonel started to thaw out and wanted to buy another round of beers but Ronnie decided that as I was the hero of the hour I should have some champagne, it was very cheap in those days. Off he went to the bar and came back with a bottle and four glasses. As we drank the champagne, Ken looked around us and said it was obvious we were drinking the right wine as every one in the room was on it, he supposed it must be cheap. Then a couple of people toasted us and thanked us for the wine. I think the penny dropped with us all at the same moment. The French Yacht Club, like the Berlin bars, only asked for the money as you were going out so Ronnie hadn’t realised that due to his bad German, he had bought champagne for every one in the bar! More people came across and shook our hands, Ronnie was stunned but quite enjoying the attention. Ken and I were trying to work out how much we owed and how we could get out of it. The Colonel wasn’t saying anything and rose to his feet, he had evidently decided that the more distance there was between him and us the better it would be.
Rescue was at hand and from a most unexpected quarter, the crowd parted and a young woman bore down on us. She grasped my head, kissed me full on the lips and said how impressed she was with my sportsmanship, all this in the most marvellous French accent. Then she kissed the Colonel who turned bright red and she followed up with Ken and Ronnie while thanking them for the champagne. I was sat there in shock because I had recognised who it was! I had been kissed by Brigitte Bardot! I swear this is true, we had no idea she would be there but evidently she was in Berlin and the French Officers had decided it would be nice thing to take her to the club to present the prizes.
We all sat down stunned and looked at each other, including the Colonel. The first words came from him, he leaned over the table and told Ronnie not to worry about the drinks bill. It had been a genuine mistake and as it had done so much for international relations he would see it was paid from regimental funds! He set off for the bar to receive the envious congratulations of his brother officers and we set about making the drinks bill a bit bigger. Later in the afternoon I got Brigitte’s autograph on a BAFV (British Armed Forces Voucher, used in the NAFFI instead of German currency.) ten bob note. I haven’t seen it for years but it was useful evidence when we got back to the billet and told of our good fortune. 53 years later I can still recall that kiss and La Bardot. I don’t know what it was that she had but I can assure you it was magical. The other thing I remember is that she looked as good walking away as she did when coming towards you! I saw a photo of her a couple of months ago and the years have not been kind to her but I can still see the fresh young woman who gave us such pleasure, and saved us so much money, all those years ago on the banks of the Havel. A great memory and I have lost count of the number of times I have told the story.
Bit of a cheat really because that will never be a forgotten corner as long as I'm alive!