FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[Stanley]

My Forgotten Corner is a bit different this morning. Here's Doc's old dog, Meg in 2012 against the backdrop of Pendle in the snow. A brilliant pic of a good dog. Some of us haven't forgotten!

[Stanley]

One of the two footbridges over the beck in Valley Gardens. I wonder how many people that use these bridges every day have noticed that the support for the pathway on both is a pair of massive cast iron girders. Far too heavy for the job they are doing and obviously re-used from another structure.



I have absolutely no proof and have never found anyone who can corroborate this but I think they most likely came from the bridge over the canal that carried the Barlick Branch of the railway. They certainly originated in a structure like this and because of the weight, not too far away as this would have made re-use uneconomical. If anyone knows anything about them I would love to hear from you.
One thing is certain, they will outlast all of us!

[Stanley]

A forgotten bridge at Salterforth before the New Road was built in the 20s and 30s.

[Stanley]

Bracewell Hall country club in the 1930s. Have a look at Arthur Entwistle's evidence in the LTP for more about the Hall. My question is, would people go swimming in a muddy pond like this today if it was available? Can you imagine the Elfin Safety implications?

[Stanley]

Ernie Dawson in the kitchen of Thornton Hall Farm in 1976. One of the old school of Craven farmers, a good man but not someone you should ever cross! I picked his milk up for years. The last time I went in the yard it had all been converted into twee housing..... I liked it better when it was a working farm!

[PanBiker]

I used to mend Ernie s TV, I remember the farmhouse well.

[Stanley]

I used to have a cup of tea with them regularly in the kitchen and one thing that always fascinated me was the fact that if a fly landed near him Ernie would just reach out and squash it with his finger. There must have been a secret to it but he never told me what it was.



Fred Dawson milking in the parlour at Thornton Hall Farm in 1976.

[Stanley]

Thinking about Ernie Dawson reminded me of this...... remember that having a working farm with animals in a town is high risk, every mouse in the district targets you! Good mousing cats are essential.

One day I had half a load of hay delivered at the farm during the day. I told the driver to throw the bales down in the mow stead under cover and I would deal with them when I got back home. I got home that night and let Tip out as usual forgetting about the bales in the barn. He ran up to the barn, shot straight up the bales on to the baulks and proceeded to kill cats. By the time he had finished there were three dead cats and the rest were long gone, it was slaughter! Father played hell with me, he thought I’d done it on purpose but it was a pure accident. I shrugged it off and went for Ted Lawson, he, Vera and myself sorted the hay out after tea.
We were now without cats and something had to be done. I was at Ernie Dawson’s at Thornton Hall Farm one day and I asked him if he had any spare cats about. He said there were plenty and did I want a few. He gave me a sack and told me to hold it over the end of the drainpipe coming out of the bottom of the wall at the back of one of the stables near the house. I did so and he went round the front and hammered on the door. Thornton Hall cats were almost wild and when they heard the noise they all bolted through the drain pipe, all I had to do was hold the bag in place and count them in. I thought I’d got five but in the end it turned out there were seven!
I was in the Neville conversion that day which had a big square cab and I put the sack with it’s neck tied up in the near side footwell and started off for home. Before I had gone far the cats had escaped, the bag was a bit rotten. They were doing the wall of death round the interior, pulling out electrical wiring and generally making life difficult! When I got home I blew the horn until Vera came out and got her to put some milk in saucers in the barn and then we let the cats go and Vera frightened them through the door. They settled down in the barn and we were well catted again.

[Stanley]

In 1976 Sid Demaine built his new barn at the Old Tannery opposite Bancroft Mill. Bit of a shock to realise this was 41 years ago.

[Tizer]

You don't see so much corrugated iron about these days! It used to be everywhere, great fun for kids building dens. And if you found a sheet that had been lying about for a while you could turn it over and discover mice, shrews, slow worms, perhaps even a grass snake.

[Whyperion]

There was a pile just off cobden street's back alleyway ( it might have been a few sheets of the plasitsol coated profile sheeting- the local cats used under it as a safe birthing area

[Stanley]

Tiz, it was handy stuff and in Sid's case he used recycled/reclaimed timber and made a good job. Old telegraph poles were just the job for the uprights, there was a rule that they had to be replaced after a certain life and there was a ready market for them. Being fully impregnated with creosote they were long lasting as well. Old railway sleepers were just as useful, many were used for building silos for grass silage. Incidentally, the market in sleepers altered significantly once the effects of Beeching's closures had worn off. This was further exacerbated by gardening programmes recommending using them for raised beds. When Gissing and Lonsdale were moving Jubilee engine they needed a lot of sleepers to make a ramp and Terry told me that they all came from Poland.



Sid having a breather.



Nothing beat sleepers for big packing jobs when you were moving heavy weights. The Jubilee engine beds being moved into the engine house at Masson Mill at Matlock Bath.

[Stanley]

I always admired Sid Demaine and the tidy way he ran his job opposite the mill. I knew his father, Old Sid as well and always got on well with him even though he was a real Barlick character, hard as nails and always direct! When Sid was having difficulty getting planning permission to build his bungalow on the Old Tannery site, it just happened that the solution to his problems coincided with mine and I sold him the field that went with Hey Farm plus a right of way though the Hey Farm yard. This solved his problems and the result was the productive little unit we have today. The nice thing is that neither he nor the family have ever forgotten it.



Here's Young Sid and Alwin Simpson passing the time of day in 1977. Alwin had both his eyes then and like Sid was a real character.

[Stanley]

Johnny Simpson, Alwin's dad, in 2003. He was 89 years old. Definitely a Forgotten Corner!

[Stanley]

The forgotten corner is the milk stand at Bancrofts Farm. They are fast disappearing now. This was the elevated platform outside most farms where the kits of milk were placed ready to be be picked up each morning. They were the height of the flat on the wagon and saved the driver a lot of work. Worth taking note of the farm buildings as well. Simpson's have always kept everything tidy and in good order and as one of the first buildings visitors see when coming into the town from the Lancashire side a wonderful introduction. I've always said they should get an award!

[Stanley]

If you keep your eyes skinned you can still find some surviving milk stands.



Here's the one at Yarlside, Bracewell.



And a bit further on another forgotten corner. Pop Hill's memorial.

[PanBiker]

Not forgotten by me and lots of others Stanley it is well used, I always have breather there when out on my bike returning that way.

[Stanley]

Good! Always follow Billy Parson's rule. Carry a plastic carrier bag folded up in your pocket and use it as insulation and a damp course when you sit on a bench outside! The Wild Bunch always had theirs with them.....



2005 on Letcliffe.

[Stanley]

If you're wondering why they covered their faces, they all reckoned to be ex members of the security services!



When my friends Martha and Roger visited I introduced them to the Wild Bunch and they agreed with me that our daily meetings on that bench in the park was wonderful We covered every topic under the sun and I always learned something. Incidentally, the reason for the two forms being together is because I pointed out to Parks and Leisure that we hadn't enough room when there was a full attendance so they moved a bench for us immediately! There's a forgotten corner for you......

[Stanley]

I have a funny forgotten corner for you today. I was looking at Martha sat on the join between the two forms. Have you ever had your bottom pinched by the forms shifting as you sat on the joint? You never do it again!

[Stanley]

Letcliffe Park is one of Barlick's best assets. Formed in 1900 by the council it was, and remains, a lovely place for a walk to enjoy the magnificent views. From the viewpoint you can see 40 miles up into the Dales.

[Stanley]

I was in a forgotten corner in Lancashire yesterday, a weaving hamlet off the beaten track with a lake that was made as a reservoir for the local mill, lovely survival even though the level has been dropped for safety. Gems like this still exist!.

[Stanley]

Folly Lane looking down into the town from Standridge Farm. The lane was an accommodation road for the new enclosures on the waste made necessary by the growing population, mainly in the 19th century but some much earlier in the 16th. It was on the line of a much earlier track, the Bronze age route over Weets which connected the West Coat with the Baltic States and one of the main trades was gold from Ireland en route to Europe. Funny to think that this was the equivalent of the M62 at least 3,000 years ago.

[Stanley]

Here's something we should note and preserve. The old iron kissing gate at the bottom of Letcliffe Park giving access to the lane behind Hill Top Farm. This is a very ancient track, you can tell by the bank separating it from the fields. The LIDAR surveys suggest it could be pre-Roman Occupation.

[Stanley]

Clarence Club Earby. this pic was taken outside the front of the Clarence Club Earby around 1950,the two gents on the right are Harry Hodge(snr)and Bobby Taylor two old Earbyers. Sent by Rosie OGFB.



The Clarence Club Building in 2003 at the bottom of Stoneybank in Earby. Apologies to David, he won his seat then and he will do again today!