FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[Stanley]

Burnley have been quite good at retaining stacks as an essential element of the townscape.



I was called in to give an opinion on Newtown Mill in Burnley in 1987 and got Brooke Edgeley in to ladder it. Keith Batley and I climbed it and he walked round the rim with me shouting at him to come off! I could see daylight through the stonework!



As far as I know, the stack was repaired and will be about for a bit longer.

[Tizer]

Interesting how fern spores have reached the top and colonised it. They won't get browsed by sheep up there!

[Stanley]

I've seen trees growing on chimney tops. I suppose the birds transport the seeds up there.



Some of the chimneys in the district were extended. This was Sough Bridge Mill, long gone now.



Peter Tatham demolishing it in 1979.

[Nolic]

Mention of birds transporting seeds reminds me of a welder friend of mine who was asked to dismantle and remove the old EWS tank from a flat roof at John Cotton's Mill at Waterside in Colne. He went up and had a look and came down and asked the manager what he was going to do with all the fish inside the tank. The manager had to see this himself and couldn't believe the number of carp and roach that were in there. They assumed that the fish resulted from birds picking up spawn on their legs as they fed in local waters and the spawn coming off when they visited the tank. A local fishing club got free fish to stock their lake and Alan got on with the job of cutting the tank down.

[Stanley]

I once saw the same thing at Settle Creamery Comrade. Here's the story....
There were some lads working at the dairy who came from a large mental institution at Giggleswick. They were a happy bunch if somewhat limited and we got on well with them. One day one of them came out at dinnertime with a fishing rod and climbed up on to the boiler house roof. He baited the hook and threw it into the water tank which supplied the boilers and the non-potable water services in the dairy. We were stood there having a quiet chuckle at him when he pulled the first trout out. In a quarter of an hour he had a dozen good fish and we had stopped laughing! We worked it out that the dairy was short of water so they were illegally pumping directly out of the river into the tank during the night. The pump they used was a diaphragm pump and so passed the trout without injuring them. Once in the tank they were short of food and would grab anything that was thrown in.

[Stanley]

The Hole in the Wall pub at Foulridge in January 2010. I could never understand why this happened, it was such a good pub in its hey day. A well built one as well. I have many happy memories of it in the days when Dixon ran it.......
I have a story for you. At the time I bought the recorder I was a regular customer at the Hole I’t Wall pub in Foulridge. The landlord was Tom Dixon and I’ll admit that one of the attractions was his daughters. Tom was a man of many parts and amongst other things had a small business making ice cream and selling it from ‘stop me and buy one’ vans in the neighbouring towns and villages. He made the ice cream in a converted barn above the pub on the corner of the junction with the main road. Being an entrepreneur he sold the ice cream vans to people on hire purchase and the idea was that they paid him back out of the profits from selling Dixon’s Ice Cream.
I called in to the pub one night early doors, I was on my way back from Nelson after delivering a load of bottled milk for the dairy. I was the only customer and Tom asked me if I knew anything about tape recorders because he had borrowed one from one of his ice cream men and wanted to have a play with it. We went in the back room and I showed him how to use it and make recordings, he was all for having a go straight away but I told him we should check that there was nothing on the tape because otherwise we’d erase it. I wound the tape back and set it on to play. The first words that came out of the recorder were “That bloody Dixon’s all right as long as you’re selling his ice cream!” It soon became obvious that the recorder had been set up to record music from Radio Luxembourg while the man and his son were having their tea but the microphone was badly placed and was recording their conversation instead. I went to turn it off but Tom restrained me, “Let it play, I want to hear what these buggers are saying about me!”
I won’t bore you with what followed but the gist of their conversation was a long diatribe against Tom Dixon and all his works. It included slanderous statements about his alleged criminal activities in the black market during the wars and a reference to ‘biscuit tins full of fivers under the bed’. At this point Tom wanted it turning off! He asked me if we could erase the conversation because he didn’t want the man and his son to know that he had heard what they said. He added that it wouldn’t be so bad but they were almost six months behind with the payments on the van. I said the best way to do this was to wind the tape back and record over it. We did this and played about by recording his pet budgie saying “Put that bloody cat out!” when Tom put the cat on top of its cage. And yes, you’re right, we shouldn’t have done it but we took simple pleasures in those days.

[Stanley]

I posted this pic not long ago in another context but the object of interest is the security fence on top of the Fire Station wall. I have long held the opinion that the fire station itself is a blot on our townscape. Arbitrarily plonking an Accrington Brick building in our stone built environment was insensitive to say the least.
A few years ago I saw that a proposal had been made for security fencing round the station yard to keep kids out. I suspect this was more to do with the mobile phone installation than any damage caused to the fire station itself. The proposal was to carry the fencing all the way down the side of the yard adjacent to the Pioneer car park so I objected, attended a site meeting and pointed out that if they did this the fence would make the fire station even more of an excrescence. I suggested that the addition of a fence to the top of the wall all the way down the side was unnecessary overkill and that the same purpose would be served by a small guard on each corner to prevent access to the top of the wall from the Cooperative Street steps or the sloping end on Wellhouse Road where the wall was lower. Luckily they saw the point and appreciated the cost saving. The fence is obtrusive enough as it is but would have been far worse if I hadn't intervened. I've always counted this as a small victory over the system!
The retaining wall of the car park, originally built by the railway is interesting in itself. I think it's the largest construction using limestone from Springs Quarry in the town.

[Stanley]

I see that certification of typewriting skills finished today in India with the last exams. The courses are to be phased out. This reminds me of the days when the route into employment for many women was the Secretarial School. There were many private schools but it was also a recognised course at Nelson and Colne College under the guise of Business Studies. I think many of us Crumblies can remember using them, recycling the ribbons and correction fluid! I used to own one which originally lived in the offices of Brown and Pickles, it was unusual in that it was large type, all capitals. The only one I have ever seen like that. The advent of the Word Processor in the 1980s signalled the end of an industry. When you look back they were very complicated mechanisms as was the Comptometer, the old fashioned version of the calculator. Almost every business had one.

[Cathy]

I remember and used manual typewriters, electric typewriters, comptometers, telex machines, an electronic cash register, calculators, computers and probably more stuff.
What I hated was the thought of having to use a Gestetner Printing Machine, I used to watch it being used but luckily never had to do it myself.
Thank goodness for word processors and photocopiers.

[PanBiker]

I had offset litho printing skills passed on to me by one of my party comrades who ran a printing operation from his cellar. It was a cooperative business and as well as a couple of machines had full plate making, photo reproduction and processing cameras. It was another of my roles for the local branch Labour Party. At election times it was not uncommon to produce a new town wide leaflet every couple of days. You could easily do 10 or more during the campaign. Back in the 90's and during elections my day would go something like this.

I would take master copies produced on a laser printer for front and back sides of the A4 leaflet and any photo's required to my mate, drop them off on my way into work. Roger would produce the metal plates for me with any photos dot screened into the white space provided. I picked the plates up on my way home from work, got home at about 5.45pm had a bit of tea then went round to our base at the Weavers, (GMB Union Rooms, now the Post Office). I had my litho set up on a small table at one end of the committee room. There was a large solid mahogany table for meetings in the room that was ideal for knocking up and stacking the paper ready for the machine. I had to knock up about 6000 sheets for a 5000 leaflet run as there was wastage during the run. Our machine was about 40 years old when we got it and it had a slightly bent main shaft which added to the attrition when running. First plate onto the machine and ink it up loading the ink feed with a spatula from the large tin of printing ink. Start the run and put all 6000 sheets through. Re stacking them as they came off the feeder discarding any duffers. Change the plate and run it in on spare sheets to get the plate coated. Complete the run for the other side, boxing up as the run progressed. Clean down the machine with spirits which took about half an hour. Bag and bin all the rejects and failed sheets. Load up the van, lock up and go home, 11pm to midnight if you were lucky.

Finished leaflets were picked up and passed on to the distribution network.

While I was doing that, another mate had produced the text and stories for the next leaflet and dropped it off at ours. I had the DTP so I usually got a brew and wound down producing the next leaflet dropping the stories into our template, when happy I saved everything off ready to repeat the operation the following day. It was busy to say the least. I think of these days every time I go into our Post Office.

All changed when the Constituency bought a Copifax machine after we successfully got our own M.P. I could nip on to Nelson with my masters after work in Colne. shove them on the machine which would scan them and run out the copies in not much longer than it took to go down stairs and make a brew and drink it. Finished work at 5pm and home by not much after 6pm, nothing to clean down and no mucky hands, happy days.

[Stanley]

Another thing that has changed is that the transition of chemists into pharmacists has resulted in the end of the days when You could go into Elmers and buy Kaolin and Morphine without a prescription, get French Polish, acids and general chemicals with no trouble. If you went in the modern shops and asked for some of the stuff we used to buy they would shop you to the law as a bomb-maker!

[plaques]

Just in the process of trying to buy some ammonia solution to clean some clock parts. It like buying hens teeth. Any ideas on a suitable alternative cleaner?

[PanBiker]

You could have look through some of the cleaning and solvents from CPC. I have some IPA based PCB cleaner which is good and bog standard carbon tet switch cleaner also quite useful.

CPC - Cleaners and Solvents etc

[Stanley]

P, have I seen a method where you line a pottery bowl with aluminium foil, make up a solution of common soda and immerse the parts in the liquid insulated from the foil? I think it's the same principle as anodic blocks on the hull of an iron ship. Just for a laugh, try it on some scrap brass using bleach.





In those days we had good ironmongers and chemist's shops where you could buy just about everything you needed. I still love a proper ironmonger's but they are thin on the ground these days!



What have we got now? A tanning salon and a charity shop..... A sign of the times.

P, as I was walking two things struck me. Straight Coke cleans old coins and so does the dreaded Cillit Bang!

[Stanley]

Thanks to David Whipp I have this image of Bank House. Built by Christopher Bracewell around 1860 it almost became a cottage hospital at one time in the 1920s but the idea never took off.



This 1905 image shows what a prominent site it was built on.

[Stanley]

This 1909 map reinforces the picture above. Crow Nest Cottages are the oldest buildings and I have been told that the Bowker drain runs underneath them. At one time I believed that Billycock Bracewell might have installed the drain but if my informant is correct it is much older. Another detail is that my informant told me that a black stone in the foundations of the cottages marked the location of the drain but I have not been able to find it.

[Stanley]

This is truly a forgotten corner. The lower part of Gill churchyard where I suspect the bodies of the victims of the Black Death in 1348/49 are buried. Somewhere between one third and one half of the towns inhabitants died. Imagine that today......

[Stanley]

Is it my imagination or are there more empty premises in the Town Centre?

[Stanley]

Every now and then I go for a wander in my picture archive. There are a lot of images saved in a format (.psd) which, while it is a very good format for archiving because it retains 100% of the information in the negative, doesn't translate into my image viewer as a thumbnail. I was poking about amongst these this morning and tripped over this pic of the shed roofs at Bankfield Shed in about 1980. It's a good record shot because apart from the modern buildings on the far right it's how the shed looked when it was the height of its use as a weaving shed in 1930. Bankfield was essentially two separate builds, both reputed at the time to be the biggest weaving sheds under one roof in the country at approximately 900 looms apiece. With the new work now being done there it has become a forgotten corner.

[Stanley]

Worth comparing Bankfield above with this early pic (about 1900) of Wellhouse. The layout is very similar for the first build at Bankfield (1900) but the second build (1905) has a North Light roof to the preparation section. Notice the tall arched windows in this multi-story block. These were the engine houses for two separate beam engines that drove the shed originally. Than look at the left hand end of the same block. Here you'll see the scarred wall left by the demolition of the old boiler house to make room for a new shed. Calf Hall Shed company are buying the mill and part of the Craven Bank's conditions of sale was that a new engine house and boiler house was to be built behind the preparation section for a new modern engine. Eventually the mill was further extended. Almost all of this has gone now.

[Stanley]

The double range of the multi-storey section at Wellhouse was necessary because in the original mill this accommodated spinning as well. This was never needed at Bankfield which was a dedicated weaving shed.



A view from the water tank of the 'new' engine house and boiler house at the back of the mill at Wellhouse in 1979 when the stone chimney had been reduced to a stump and replaced by a tin chimney. The boiler houses were in the single storied saw toothed buildings. The building between the chimney and the engine house is what was always called 'The laundry'. It was originally a bobbin mill, then became a joiner's shop, then a laundry when Barrat's Steam Laundry rented it and finally during WW2 part of Brown and Pickles' shop where they installed some heavy machinery.
All this has gone now of course....

[Stanley]

Stanley fisher working on the shafting at Wellhouse mill in the mid 1920s I think. It gives an idea of the scale and complexity of the transmission system but there is another small detail in this pic which caught my eye. Look carefully at the pendant lamp in the foreground and notice that it is suspended on a spring. This is very early DC electric lighting and the filaments of the bulbs were very fragile, some of them were carbon. The spring is to damp any vibration caused by the gearing.

[Stanley]

This is a very personal forgotten corner for me and I love it. The washing line at Hey Farm in the 1970s when the kids were growing up. I've always thought that washing lines could tell you so much about a family and once of a day they were so common on Monday that coal merchants didn't bother trying to deliver in the town because so many streets were blocked by washing.

[Stanley]

Richard Bell delivering kit milk in Thornton around 1890/1900. A modern milk chap still operates in Barlick but once of a day they were an every day sight early in the morning. Before the advent of refrigeration they delivered in the evening as well as the milk wouldn't keep for more than 12 hours. Today the supermarket plastic bottles last more than 7 days and it has killed the daily delivery to the door. I suppose it's progress but we shouldn't forget that we have also lost a valuable social service in that the milk chap was a friend and visitor and could often flag up any problems with older people.



I came across this in Salford in 1979...... I like it!

[Stanley]

The postal service is another example of a deteriorating service. I have good evidence that in the 1930s there were two deliveries daily and the first was early enough for the office boy to run down to the station with the morning's orders in time to catch the Manchester Man before his train left at about 8AM. He could place his orders for yarn with the spinners and sometimes it was delivered by rail to Barlick before he arrived home in the evening. This was super efficient and I doubt if it could be matched today even though communications have improved so much. Then there were the telegrams. If you sent a telegram it was delivered immediately it was received at the Post Office by a lad on a red bike who would always ask if there was any reply. I can still remember seeing those bikes when I was a lad.....