FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[Stanley]

I can't give you a local picture to illustrate today's forgotten corner but in the days before blanket media coverage political hustings were very popular as local entertainment, something that seems to have vanished completely. My interviews for the LTP showed that attendance at these meetings and heckling the candidates if necessary was a popular spectator sport.

[Stanley]

Havre Park Foundry built by Henry Brown and Son in 1922. Note that as built it had a stone face and tie bars in the top of the walls because of the bad bearing ground.



I had never noticed until today but if you look at the central building in this 2003 pic of Gissing and Lonsdale's works it has never been altered. I was lazy and had assumed it was a new brick skin but it's original.

[Stanley]

Looking even more closely you can see the original lintels over the window openings.
We are so lucky in Barlick because we have a town that has been largely left alone since buildings were first built or in the case of many, rebuilt in the 18th century when a lot of older buildings were gentrified by rebuilding in stone in some cases.



This pre-1890 image of Hill Top Farm is a good example, if you go and look at it today the basic structure is unaltered.

[chinatyke]

Havre Park Foundry built by Henry Brown and Son in 1922. Note that as built it had a stone face and tie bars in the top of the walls because of the bad bearing ground.
I had never noticed until today but if you look at the central building in this 2003 pic of Gissing and Lonsdale's works it has never been altered. I was lazy and had assumed it was a new brick skin but it's original.

How do you work that one out? Hasn't it changed from stone to brick at some time?

[Stanley]

China, have a close look at the two pics I posted on Saturday. In the 1920 pic of the new building you can see clearly that whilst the main body of the structure is brick, the frontage is rubble faced ashlar with two large CI bearing pads for tie rods at the top corners. Exactly the same in the 2003 pic but the face reworked to block windows and install a larger door.

[Stanley]

1960. Johnny Pickles is in his shed at Federation Street putting the finishing touches to the turret clock he built for the new Holy Trinity church. He made the clock for St Joseph's church and Riley Street Chapel in Earby as well. The latter was moved to Wellhouse when the chapel became redundant and is now on the offices of Gissing and Lonsdale on Wellhouse Road.
There's a good story about Johnny visiting his men when they were drilling the hole through the wall at St Joseph's for the spindle that transmitted movement to the hands. They were swearing because the old fashioned star drill was making heavy weather of the hard stone. Johnny stood in the body of the church complete with bowler hat and told them "Remember where you are! Less bloody swearing!"

[chinatyke]

China, have a close look at the two pics I posted on Saturday. In the 1920 pic of the new building you can see clearly that whilst the main body of the structure is brick, the frontage is rubble faced ashlar with two large CI bearing pads for tie rods at the top corners. Exactly the same in the 2003 pic but the face reworked to block windows and install a larger door.

You're right of course, now I can see where the windows have been blocked up, nice job. Apologies, it looked totally different cladding to me.

[Cathy]

Love this. Found on f'book.
(DJ Billy Daniel Bunter's photo)

FB_20170509_23_14_04_Saved_Picture.jpg

[chinatyke]

... and the pride at being elected a 'milk monitor'...

[Stanley]

China, don't be too hard on yourself, it took me 30 years to realise. Partly due to the fact that it's such a poor quality pic of course.
Lovely Cathy, and yes China, I can remember being occasionally given the job of milk monitor. When I was doing the LTP I came across another similar position but at Sunday School. Some had attendance cards which determined what sort of star you got each year (and the quality of the attendance prize book). Being made Star Card Marker was a signal honour!

[Cathy]

My memory is from Rainhall Rd School in winter with the heaters on and having to wait till break-time to have half frozen milk.

[plaques]

Heaters! luxury! Why when I was a lad......

[Stanley]

At Hope Memorial School in winter the milk was put in the hearth in front of the big coke fire to thaw. Yes, we had a big open fire in the large schoolroom.....

[Stanley]

Unfortunately I suspect that this image of two of my daughters and a friend in 1976 is a Forgotten Corner. It's a nice summer's day and they are sat outside as Susan reads Pam Ayre's poetry out loud. Not a designer label or electronic gadget in sight. Call me old-fashioned but I think we may have lost something......

[Stanley]

Coates Mill. Now demolished but from 1865 it was a busy site. Started as a weaving shed, then became Dobson's Dairy. Went back to textiles but for many years it was the site of Carr's Printers, a very successful firm under Norman Fullalove. Its last incarnation was Hope Engineering but after that became disused and eventually was demolished.

[Stanley]

Wellhouse corner in 1982. B&P Wellhouse Shop and the old Laundry have gone but the boiler and engine houses and the main building of Wellhouse Mill remain. Fairchild's stone masons next to the road and behind is the old show ground rented for many years by the Showman's Association for the annual fair. Mind you, it's a bit of a shock to realise that this was 35 years ago. Tempus fugit!

[Stanley]

Group in Wellhouse Yard. Front Left to right, Tom Marshall (engineer at Wellhouse Mill), Newton, Harry Crabtree, Unknown, Back Brian Smith, Sidney Brown, Ernest Marshall, Joe Simons. 1957?

[Stanley]

The smithy at West Marton in 1950 when Jimmy Thompson was the last blacksmith to use it. Forges like this were once an essential feature of any community. The sound of hammer striking anvil could be heard any time he was working. Barlick had several but they are all gone now.

[Stanley]

How many people driving up the steep hill past the Cross Keys pub at East Marton realise they are passing over a unique example of canal architecture? The double bridge that was the solution to the need to span the cut made for the canal.

[Stanley]

This gas engine is in a museum now but used to be one of the two powering the pumps at Kell Well East Marton. They pumped water from the spring up to a reservoir on the hill that supplied the water to the Gledstone Estate. I remember that the water supply was good when I was at the dairy but very hard and had to be treated with care. It tended to block the pipes over the long term. I think that it is all on mains water now.....

[Stanley]

I mentioned that the water from Kell Well was very hard. This was despite being pre-treated for hardness at the spring. Before it was pumped up to the reservoir it was passed through a series of wrought-iron riveted vessels that were charged with hydrated lime! I could never understand why adding lime to the water lessened its original hardness. I know this because when I worked for Harrison Brothers at the dairy we used to deliver hydrated lime in one hundredweight paper bags to the plant in five ton loads. The well itself was a basin in a dry stone walled chamber and water bubbled up continuously from the rocks in the bottom. It was a very reliable source of water.

[Stanley]

The Cross Keys at East Marton in a different age. Around 1900? The group of buildings on the left at the top of the hill was a convent associated with the private Catholic Chapel at Broughton Hall. It stayed that way until the early 1960s. The Tempests at Broughton Hall were always recusants and until the 20th century they were the only RC place of worship in the area.

[Stanley]

Lane Bottoms in winter 2002. If you weren't looking for it you'd pass Lane Bottoms and never noticed it. It's an early weaving hamlet and on the left at the top there used to be two large wooden huts, the headquarters of the Firewood King, Jim Haworth. He was a mate of Jim Rushton the left wing agitator and member of the newly formed Barlick Communist Party.

[Stanley]

Thornton in Craven in about 1900. Notice the Love Tree outside what became the Post Office on the bottom left of the image. (Love was an old name for Lime) Water bound macadam road and nothing but carriage tracks. No danger of getting run over then!

[Stanley]

Another image done at about the same time.