FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[Stanley]

Sorry David but speak as you find. At one time it had the highest rate of UFO sightings in the country..... I was glad to get out!

[chinatyke]

At one time it had the highest rate of UFO sightings in the country.....

Probably all from one local nutter!

[Stanley]

No China, they were organised. Even had an observatory at Shiny Ford on the hill over to Todmorden, next to the maggot farm...... (That gives you a flavour)
Maggot farms were quite common actually. I once visited one at Bradford and as we walked over the hill to it from the neighbouring farm, the man I was with said "Dosta smook?" I told him yes, "Leet up lad!" He was right! The rooms were long sheds with rotting hen carcasses hung over sloping plastic guttering. The maggots dropped off the carcasses into the guttering and their wriggling helped them to slide down the slope to the end where they fell into tubs filled with bran. They must still exist but will keep themselves very quiet I expect. Not so much a forgotten corner, more hidden!

[Stanley]

I'm told that coarse fishing is the biggest participating sport in England but have never seen any evidence of a strong following in Barlick. Thinking about it, is this because we are the summit level and so any stocks we have are continually moving out at each and into the lower pounds of the canal? All that will come in via the top up sources will be fish used to running water and one supposes that they will not thrive in the relatively still water of the canal. Occasionally we have had fishing tackle shops, there used to be one on Cobden Street and later a short-lived one on Rainhall Road but they don't thrive.

[Nolic]

Comrade, I think coarse fishing is as popular as ever but there are a number of reasons why your observations are accurate. First, fishing tackle is now generally purchased on line as with many other "hobby" goods. You can buy the exact gear that you want unlike at the old tackle shops who only had limited stock. Maggots are no longer as popular a bait as they were so the USP of local shops has gone.
The biggest change in the past few years is that commercial fisheries are king. For a reasonable charge anglers can be almost guaranteed to catch lots of quality big fish that are well stocked in these places. In addition they have their own tackle shops and cafes so everything is on tap. Add to this the availability of cars/vans for almost every angler and distance is no object.
So its not surprising that you don't see the guy on his bike with his rod strapped to the cross bar going for a days fishing on the canal. Pity as there are still many good spots on the cut. Nolic

[Stanley]

Thanks for that Comrade and yes, I should have remembered the commercial fisheries, I had a connection with what used to be called 'Black Dog Fisheries' on the Clitheroe by pass. It was named after Emma, Robert Aram's old Labrador dog....



A dragline cleaning the reservoir out at Black Dog Fisheries in 1983.

[Wendyf]

There is still a fishing tackle shop on Albion Street in Earby.

[Stanley]

I wish it well Wendy, one of the most civilised sports I have ever encountered. No noise or crowd violence!



Bancroft Dam was a reservoir of wild life. We had the occasional trout, moor hens, ducks and on one occasion something like a large rat swimming around and causing problems for the birds! When I drained it there were always some duck eggs laid in the bottom. Never understood that, were they laid while the ducks were swimming? Or were they eggs that had failed to hatch and the ducks had thrown them out of the nests.....
One Day, George the old engine tenter brought a gun to work and shot a brace of ducks. There was nearly a riot because the weavers saw them as pets and fed them every lunch time. Funny bloke.......

[Tizer]

Funny bloke.......

Every workplace has one like him!

[Stanley]

Probably one of the reasons I have always preferred jobs where I was on my own!



Seven Stars Yard in 1982. The buildings were always populated by small independent firms.

[Tizer]

I like the diagonal carving on that stone pillar - our Neolithic ancestors would have been proud of that. In fact it might have been one of theirs!

[Stanley]

A very common treatment for gateposts made out of gritstone Tiz, it was a good way of getting a presentable surface on stone that is that hard.



The buildings in the Seven Stars Yard from the back. Much bigger than they appear from the street and as you can see from the chimneys, some parts have been cottages at one time. I suppose that they were stables originally but have no direct evidence. I know that the building on the right hand end with the sloping roof and double chimney was occupied until at least the late 1930s from Arthur Entwistle's evidence in the LTP.

[Stanley]

I have mentioned Berry's wood yard at Sough in another topic but it reminded me again of the Gas engine that powered the enterprise until the day it closed. In the latter days it ran on town's gas but earlier it was run on producer gas from a plant outside fuelled with waste sawdust and shavings,
Before the days of mains electricity and cheap electric motors many other enterprises, some as small as a home workshop in a front room of the house making wooden toys (See Arthur Entwistle's evidence in the LTP). The Majestic and the Co-op had large gas engines in the basement powering generators for internal lighting and services and we had a firm, Brown and Pickles, which was qualified to provide the maintenance and repair services needed to keep them going.



The engine and generator beds in the cellar of the Co-op Central Building on closure. This was a large installation and served them well.

[Stanley]

Many of the forgotten corners I illustrate in this topic are easy because of their visibility, two pics, before and after illustrate them perfectly. However.... there are some forgotten corners which are invisible.



Here's an example of one of them. The Pioneer store in August 2010 is concrete enough and perfectly visible but it's an example of a trend which, over the years, has completely altered the way our town functions.
What I am referring to is the export of local capital gained from trading in the town. The Pioneer store makes the profit that previously was earned in the many small businesses selling groceries in the town. The difference is that it is now exported whereas in days gone by the capital stayed in the town and was recycled in local investments. For instance, it's quite amazing how much capital in the local manufacturers came from these small businesses. In turn the profits from the mills largely stayed in the town. This was how Barlick financed the explosive growth in the late 19th century that gave us mains services, enough housing to last us until 1945 and an efficient local council that at one time controlled all the local social services.
Look at the businesses in the town today and ask yourself where the profits go. True there is still a healthy private sector and we should support it but most of the money we pay out leaves the town.... The only way I can see to redress the balance is a local sales tax. Over to the movers and shakers!

[PanBiker]

The Pioneeer store as you call it is still the Co-op and as such still pays a divi back to it's customers. Aside from that they also support local charities and causes out of the profits. Bosom Friends and many other local groups have benefited from these grants. I take it you use your divi card at the checkout when you you visit your cathedral of choice?

[Tizer]

Time for the Barlick equivalent of the Totnes Pound? Totnes Pound
There's even an electronic version now! Totnes e Pound

[Big Kev]

The Pioneeer store as you call it is still the Co-op and as such still pays a divi back to it's customers. Aside from that they also support local charities and causes out of the profits. Bosom Friends and many other local groups have benefited from these grants. I take it you use your divi card at the checkout when you you visit your cathedral of choice?

I bought some shaving gel this morning using my 'divi'. My chosen charity is Bosom Friends so plenty of 'local' going on there.

[plaques]

1949 was before the time when Old Age Pensioners became Senior citizens. Or have you still got to be an Old Age Pensioner to get in here?

P3060220AC.jpg

[Stanley]

OK, the Coop wasn't the best example but the principle still stands....
I'm still an OAP whatever PC speak says.....

[chinatyke]

I'm still an OAP whatever PC speak says.....

So am I, and I don't find that term objectionable. There is no need for a lot of the political correctness.

[Stanley]

I agree China.....
There is another forgotten corner. Every time I see one of the 'upper classes' trying to do some ordinary task like shovelling coal I think about the fact that the 'common' people who they denigrate so much privately have skills that they know nothing about. I think about the jobs in the mill, particularly the weavers and they were women! Even the most lowly job has a measure of skill in its execution but that sort of knowledge has never been valued highly enough.A woman once watched me and John Plummer shovelling coal into the bunker at Bancroft and told us that we were graceful. I've never forgotten that, I have never regarded myself as 'graceful' but I can see what she meant. There is something very attractive about economy of effort and effective movement.
One of the reasons why the aero industry found it so easy to move to Barlick in WW2 was the availability of a labour force used to working in a complicated and demanding trade like textiles. Perhaps we should value these things more.....

[Tizer]

Graceful...another useful word in this context is `elegant'. The best designed scientific experiments and solutions to problems are described as elegant.

In the early days of aeroplane manufacture many of the workers were chosen to be women because most aircraft had to be covered in fabric.

[Tizer]

In searching for old maps online showing the area where we now live I've found a superb site that I didn't know about before. It's run by the National Library of Scotland and offers a number of ways of viewing a location. You can zoom in on your selected place from a map of Britain or put in a place name, then choose different maps ranging from mid 1800s to recent times. There are several ways of viewing them and it can seem a bit confusing to begin with but it's definitely worth the effort! The web link is: LINK

I've been making screenshots of appropriate parts of the the maps showing my area but I've done three Barlick ones to show you how good they are. They were published in 1853, 1905 and 1909 respectively. On the web site you can zoom in more closely to see details better.

[Wendyf]

I've been using it for a couple of years now. Try the "side by side viewer" or even the Spy viewer which is great fun. There is now almost countrywide coverage of 25" to the mile OS maps as well as the 6".

LBH Farm on Spy Viewer

[Wendyf]

The Earby & District History Society talk this month is about a forgotten corner!