FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[PanBiker]

I couldn't possibly say but Her Majesty needs "touching up"!

[Stanley]

Looking at the Gormless against the background of the trees behind it I think they may, at last, have found the right place for the Jubilee Fountain. It was a Forgotten Corner when it was moved up into Letcliffe Park. Like the Cenotaph, positioning it at the top of a steep climb was not a good idea because the very people who would have appreciated them couldn't easily get up there. Having the Cenotaph in it's present location and the fountain across the road seems right to me but who knows what will happen in the future?

[Stanley]

Funny how you can walk past some things on a daily basis and not notice them. One forgotten corner I have been overlooking for 60 years (Or since it was demolished) is the gap in the buildings on Station Road between the Old Liberal Club and the Con Club where the chapel used to stand. It was tarmacked and made into a car park for what is now the Civic Hall and I suppose there is no prospect of it ever being built on.
However, it is an eyesore and there is the Pioneer car park just across the road. It would be nice to see a new build instead of an unsightly gap but as I know only too well from my experience with the planning system at Ellenroad, car parking rules all so don't hold your breath.
Is the short walk across the Zebra crossing really too far? Times of peak use for the Civic Hall would be outside Co-op opening hours so no problem there.

[plaques]

One forgotten corner I have been overlooking for 60 years (Or since it was demolished) is the gap in the buildings on Station Road between the Old Liberal Club and the Con Club where the chapel used to stand. Quick take a photograph of it not being here, when it gets built on people will have forgotten what it was like not being there so you always have something to remind you of nothing. Do I make myself clear.

When I started taking pictures of lumps of stone, actually carvings and other Objet d'art that people walked past every day but ignored completely I could see a time when new developments would take over and they would be lost forever. If effect I was trying to preserve what people were blind to so when the time came they could reminisce about things they ignored when they were there. Strange world.

[Stanley]

Exactly P. Now I don't have the encumbrance of Jack I am thinking about doing a new set of Barlick Street images for 2020. Nobody's interested now but in twenty years they will be valuable evidence. Look back at the ones I did all that time ago. Nothing beats a good before and after image.

[Tripps]

That's good news. I was going to suggest something similar. It will be great for people in future.
I think Pluggy did something similar, but it was a long time ago, and I don't know if the pictures are still available. I doubt it. He had a few webcams then as well. I'd welcome one in the town centre- I'm getting bored with the Trevi Fountain, Blackpool front, and Dover Beach. I think looking at a webcam from Pluggy's back yard would have easily taken me to the top of the league for useless activities.

When the web first started I followed a site called accy.com, or some such, and a lady there used to do requests from exiles from Accrington, who wanted to see where their ancestors lived.

Having just typed that - I realise that Streetview would do the job nowadays, but I'm sure your take, and local knowledge of the town would be more interesting.

Where would you host it though for posterity?

[PanBiker]

When the web first started I followed a site called accy.com, or some such, and a lady there used to do requests from exiles from Accrington, who wanted to see where their ancestors live

Ha, went looking for Fenning's for another thread and came across this:

Accrington Web

[Tripps]

Spooky. . . .

[PanBiker]

You are welcome.

Register now, you know you want to.

[Stanley]

We used to have a very good woman from Accrington on the site. Very good local historian but I can't remember her name.
Can anyone remember the telegraph boys on the red Post Office bikes delivering telegrams? Billy Harrison used to get in touch with me in the late 1950s by telegram in the days before we could afford a phone. Very quick and efficient!

[Stanley]

Ted Waite viewing my herd over the gate at Hey Farm in 1966. I would never claim to have made a living from my pigs and cattle but we broke even and at times made a small profit. It was my driving that kept us going.
When I bought Hey Farm (£2,200 for 7 acres) you could buy any of the small farms on the tops, like Wendy's at Lower Burnt Hill, for £50 an acre and that included the buildings. Only the larger holdings made money. The writing was on the wall in 1960 for the small holdings that previously had afforded a precarious existence to families. In the case of LBH, I delivered their groceries every week and knew exactly how they were situated. I described it at the time as poverty farming and always felt sorry for them. The farm below Wendy's was the same even though the man of the house worked, I think, at Rolls Royce. Metcalfe's (?) on the farm above had a slightly larger acreage, were nearer the road and were childless. They seemed to be doing better.
From what I can see it has all changed now and nobody is 'comfortable'. I fear that the days of the small farm on the tops as a viable business has long gone and I think Wendy would agree. It's a shame in some ways, we have lost some very skilled and independent families but in another way, if it can't support a reasonable standard of living perhaps it's good that it has gone. I am torn, I loved all those small farmers.

[Wendyf]

The Metcalfes were below at Brown Hill and yes he worked at Rolls, you have a lovely photo of Mrs Metcalfe and her young son outside the house. The Mellin family still farm Higher Burnt Hill, John Mellin's nephew Thomas took the farm over. He had just retired when we bought LBH and now his son John farms quite a large acreage scattered around the area, sheep, cattle and more recently fattening pigs for M&S.
I've recently been delving into my vaults to find information about Brown Hill for someone in Facebook Land whose grandparents called Hodgson lived there. I have a bundle of deeds and discovered that they bought it in 1935 for £350 and sold in 1947 for £1460.

[Stanley]

Mellins! That's right Wendy I had it wrong. They were a lovely couple, when I had my carbuncle Mrs Melling dosed me each week with a small square of toast with yeast spread on it and enough Armenian Bole to cover a sixpence. I can't say it did any good but it was the thought that counted!



Mrs Metcalfe and her son at Brown Hill in 1957. That lad could be close to 70 now! Time flies but that isn't a forgotten corner because someone took a picture.

[Stanley]

Kev's pic of Town Square in 2011. This looks like becoming a forgotten corner because after a false start with very thick imported highly finished flags they have started again, not with native stone but slightly lighter imported ones.
I have no doubt there are good reasons for this but I regret it, the new ones are not a warm colour and if the experience of the similar flags round the public toilets in the Pioneer Car Park is anything to go by they will be terribly slippy when there is a frost. Good for the events I suppose but I fear we have lost something.....

[plaques]

I have both the local paving stones , ex-mill floor, and imported pavings making up the paths round the garden. The imported stones are so hard that they are almost impossible to cut and drill this will give them better wearing qualities but makes them more slippery than the softer local pavings. What I have noticed is that depending on the material the soles of your footwear is made out of the level of excitement in your life changes.

[Marilyn]

We have a lot of gum-nuts underfoot as we walk, Plaques. I always know when my soles are wearing thin....(oooo...ooooh...ahhhh)
And one has to be careful. Go for a roll on one of those and it will be a hip replacement job.

[PanBiker]

Apparently according to FB land the new paving stones a "flamed" to provide better grip. Don't know what that is personally but David Whipp assures everyone they are the dog's do dah's and more than fit for purpose, we shall see. Amazing that this major work has been arranged when the Town Council is not holding meetings? Tom Whipp has sole executive control of the council which was bestowed on him the last time the Town Council met back in March. The rustic Town Square look is only 30 years old or so but much preferable to the "shopping precinct" look that it looks like we are going to get. It will be nice for putting tents on though.

[Whyperion]

Whitemoor Reservoir in 2005. Funny thing is that even during the current spell of hot weather I have heard no mention of water supplies. Could it be that the earlier rains are still protecting us? The water companies are usually very quick to warn us of the dangers of using too much water. Perhaps that's a treat in store on top of everything else!

United Utilities were warning further south of potential shortages, this was also with a warning that more people at home more washing hands, etc, that more water was being used (i would have thought with the loss of incoming tourists to hotels toilet flushing would be less, but maybe someone has better statistics)

[Stanley]

I was talking to one of my ladies in Town Square yesterday and she says that they have been told the re-paving is to be extended to the existing stone pavement outside the shops, it is to be widened. Don't know if that's correct.



My experience of the same type of flags used round the public toilets is that they are a death trap on a frosty morning. I tread with great caution! I would imagine that moss or lichen would have a similar effect.

[Big Kev]

Screenshot_20200825-074359_Metal Pro.jpg

from David Whipp's Facebook.

[plaques]

Rossendale stone is noted for its white appearance and its hardness. Most local flag stone was the softer 'york stone' dug from very small shallow local beds. These were often 'rumbled' after splitting to give a smoother surface. Odd pieces of Rossendale stone can be seen in walls but wasn't generally popular mainly because the quarries being farther away added to the cost. Imported pavings come from places like India which are normally supplied in relatively thin slabs very decorative and ideal for patios etc but can be slippery when covered with a very thin film of lichen. I know its going against the nostalgic grain but concrete paving is about the safest underfoot in most circumstances.

[Stanley]

That's interesting and reassuring Kev. Rossendales have always been used in mills and some are to be seen on Church Street. You can tell the old ones by the fact they have a ridged surface. This is because stone from Whitworth and Facit is not bedded in planes that split easily, a characteristic of typical Yorkshire flags like those from the Southowram district behind Bingley. So the old ones were planed mechanically with a point tool and that gave the ridges. They are typically heavier than the Yorkshire flags.
I'm glad you told me that, I feel better about them now. Thanks!
I've just seen your post Ken. Just one point, when the railway came in it had a big effect on the Yorkshire quarries which specialised in flags and stone roofing slabs. Rossendales and Welsh slate could be delivered by rail and with blue slate particularly, the old stone slabs became redundant. That;'s why you cab date houses in Barlick by their slates, stone was pre-1850 and blue slate after. I think the majority of blue slate now comes from Spain.
By the way I agree entirely about those Indian flags, lethal in frosty weather as well.

[Big Kev]

Rossendales and Welsh slate could be delivered by rail and with blue slate particularly, the old stone slabs became redundant. That;'s why you cab date houses in Barlick by their slates, stone was pre-1850 and blue slate after.

I must presume the kitchen, on my old Park Street house, was using up the old stone stock as the main house has a slate roof. It was built around 1907 I believe.

There's a fair amount of stone on an 8ft x 8ft roof, I used it to flag the 16ft x 10ft yard when I built the kitchen extension.

[Whyperion]

Somewhat rightly at road junctions there was a move to dropped kerbs for ease of buggy and wheelchair pushing, great as long as road drainage was correct otherwise one started to slide into a frosty ice rink in winter, however then the paving was done in yellow pimple concrete squares , which at least mitigated the slide, but ended up bumpy underfoot and wheel when pushing shopping trolleys. So then the idea of raising the roadway and a level footway crossing - again good drainage is needed but seems the best for pedestrians.

[plaques]

however then the paving was done in yellow pimple concrete squares

Pimpled and other patterns are usually placed as an aid to visually impaired pedestrians. Each pattern conveys a meaning eg: pedestrian crossing, pavement edges etc. Most normally sighted people don't take any notice of this tactile aid because they have no need to but they are useful to those who do need them. Tactile pavings.