FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[Stanley]

Another thing to note on the map above is the course of Calf Hall Beck. It goes underneath the new mill in a culvert and this was to produce a problem in the Flood of 1932.
Remember that the main function of the cooling water for the condenser in a steam driven mill was to extract the heat from the exhaust and produce a vacuum on the back of the engine which increased the overall thermal efficiency by about 10%, the colder the flow the better. This means that the temperature of the tail water from Calf Hall was higher than the inlet and that had repercussions for Butts as it meant their cooling was less efficient.
Remember what I said about Bracewell's plans for augmenting the water supply to Butts being thwarted because Mitchell had bought the water rights on Gillian's Beck right up to the moor? Billycock learned nothing from this and apart from renting the rights to managing Springs Dam higher up the Calf Hall Beck he had either done nothing or was unable to get hold of the water rights on the whole beck. By the tine Calf Hall Shed was built, Bracewell was dead but the mill suffered the consequences of this failure to secure control of the beck. This allowed Calf Hall to be built and over the ensuing years was a constant source of trouble and ill will. The only thing that saved the situation was the balance pond in the Parrock and with hindsight I begin to wonder if Bracewell's main motivation in going to the expense of the agreement with Clough and the building of the pond was more to do with ensuring cold water in the future rather than just quantity. Quantity played a part, Atkinson comments that "Butts was always short of water" but with hindsight there could be more to it.
All this demonstrates what a forgotten corner control and maintenance of the becks was in the hey day of the steam engines. Adequate cold water was essential for maximum profit!

[Wendyf]

Can you explain what a balance pond does please?

[Stanley]

Wendy. It just acts as a reservoir of water available if it is needed. Think of it like a cold water cistern in your domestic water system. Rather than having an uncontrolled flow, it just takes whatever is needed from the source to cater for demand. The point of it is that it is at a high enough level to be an effective supply. It may have had the industrial sized equivalent of the ball cock in a domestic system but I suspect the flow into it was simply regulated by a valve on the end of the pipe from Clough. Any excess would flow out below the mill into the confluence of the two becks. I called it a balance pond because that was essentially its purpose, to balance supply against demand.
Will that do? If not, ask away!

[Wendyf]

Thank you, so would that be a smaller version of a dam or just a different name for It?

[Stanley]

Exactly. And after Calf Hall was built and was sending warm water down to Butts it would have been an even bigger advantage in summer because the Clough water would have been much colder.
Which reminds me of another watery matter. As a general rule, the later mills were built on the side of the canal. Many historians put this down to advantages with transport but if they do so they have missed the fact that canal water was unlimited and cold. If you look at mill build dates you'll see that once the good urban water sites were used up mills were sited on the canal and paid a licence fee to the canal company based on horse power.
The first mill in Barlick to take advantage of the canal was new Coates built in 1865. The man who built it had had a terminal experience when he bought Old Coates but found that Bracewell controlled the water and wouldn't let the mill run. He even took Bracewell to the Chancery Court but lost. By building new Coates alongside the canal he ensured that nobody could do that to him again.
This reliance on water in the old industry is the reason why Harold Duxbury knew so much about it. He was reared in the days when it was vital and in his early years in business learned from the older end whose survival in business depended on water management. It's a genuine forgotten corner!

[Stanley]

I found an interesting fact in the biography of Thomas Cromwell. In the 16th century he instituted a regular service of mounted couriers who carried government papers to wherever they were needed. It was not occasional but a properly organised service so he might have been in at the start of what became the postal system. [The Incas also had a system of runners even earlier]

[Stanley]

Wellhouse Farm on Church Street in 1881 shortly before it was demolished. At that time as well as being a working farm it was the Post Office as well. (That brought it to mind after yesterday's post).
It was an extensive farm before the Green was built on in about 1850. It held land down Butts and behind it as well, that's why we have Orchard Street and Garden Street. In the early days I wondered if there was any connection with Bracewell and Wellhouse Mill, he changed the name during building from New Mill to Wellhouse but later I realised it was because of the well that was on the site.



Some of the older end called this building at Townhead 'The Well House' because it had a public well inside it. It was later a chapel as well.

I think Wellhouse Farm probably incorporated a public well also. The use of the name is an indication of how important wells were in the days before we had mains water.....



Harold Duxbury told me that a few of the older properties on Park Road had their own wells inside the house under the kitchen. He came across them during his work as a builder.

[Stanley]

That picture above reminds me that Park Road used to finish at the turn into Park Avenue. Hills trees and fields in the distance. When you think about it, the local council made a good job of laying out the roads to the south of the town centre which was the late 19th century expansion out into what used to be fields. They got the road widths about right, even now with cars parked on both sides access is still possible.



This old post card (1908) shows the same foresight when Gisburn Road was improved after 1900 when Ribblesdale Terrace was built followed by the other properties that now line the road. Notice that on the card the retaining wall around the Catholic Church property is in the course of being built. They already had a Sunday school on the site and the church soon followed. Notice also that the road was water bound macadam still. Hard surfacing with stone setts had just started in the town centre and eventually reached the peripheral roads.
These old post cards have so much information in them if you take the time to interrogate them.

[Stanley]

Notice also that there is a pavement outside Ribblesdale terrace. This was a new concept at the time.



Mitchell Terrace is one modern example where the pavement was never put in. In 'Old Barlick' William Atkinson was very scathing about this omission in the 1920s when he re-wrote his text.

[PanBiker]

Seems a bit of a crazy decision when you have pavements at both sides down Chapel Hill and along the gable of the row. It's not like the road isn't wide enough at that point.

[Stanley]

Exactly what Atkinson said..... But to this day it's still like that. A nice little Forgotten Corner.

[plaques]

While we are on this section of Manchester Rd, What was the building where No 1 to 4 Cunliffe Terrace now stands and why Cunliffe? Similarly, was was there before No 62 to 76 were built?

[Stanley]

Not sure where you mean Ian, but if it's the infill below where Wild's garage stood, there used to be a modern industrial building there who made automotive drive shafts I think. I have an idea that the man who built it was called Cunliffe but I'm not sure, that name certainly rings a bell. I remember it being demolished and in-filled with housing.



It was where the copper Beech tree is. The new houses on the pic are on the old Wild's garage site of course. The pic was done in 2002.

[PanBiker]

It was Plaques that asked Stanley but wasn't Cunliffe House where Carprint used to be, the Bellman was printed there wasn't it?

[plaques]

Looking at the Pendle planning applications it shows the request as..

Description Of Works New building - Terrace of four 4 bedroom houses
Site Address Cunliffe House Manchester Road Barnoldswick Lancashire BB18 5PR
Valid Date Tue 21 Jan 2003.

There is nothing about Cunliffe House but it may explain why it is called Cunliffe Terrace.

[PanBiker]

I seem to remember the garage was at the back and accessed from Cobden Street. Cunliffe House was a partial red brick jobby and had large pane windows at the front and steps up to it off Manchester Road you could see the printing press in operation.

[Stanley]

You're right Ian and I'd forgotten that. I once had occasion to call about a drive shaft after the Bellman days and remember the steps up from Manchester Road.
I had a furtle in the index.... A Mr Cunliffe paid Land Tax at Lane Ends in 1753 and 1756.
In 'This is my life' Griffin says that in 1919 Mr Baldwin who was post master was the Town Cryer and was called the Bellman. He also says that there was a local paper called the Advertiser which was the forerunner of the Bellman that we remember.
If I went digging further I would find stuff I have on how Norman Fullalove came to own Carr's printers. There was some dispute about it. But he went on to make it a very prosperous firm and I can still remember the shock in the town when it folded after his lads moved from Coates Mill into Calf Hall Shed. I remember there were a few very expensive cars in the car park when they went under..... Lots of hearsay and rumours..... Best avoided I think.

[Stanley]

Funny how things come into your head. Does any one remember when Gibson who used Lower Park Quarry as a scrapyard was killed in a plane crash? There was much speculation at the time about where his money was. At least one bloke in Barlick was convinced that there was a stash buried somewhere, he used to buttonhole me regularly about it. I got the impression he had a bit of an obsession about it. A long forgotten corner now.



This notice used to be on a barn door on Horton Green. Long gone, this was in about 1957. Things were a bit different then!
Not sure which was the older message, 'Stick no bills' perhaps..... A reminder of the days before radio and advertising public notices were the main way of spreading news.

[Stanley]

I can't remember when I did this pic of the Old Vicarage which at the time I did this and for many years had been the Masonic Hall. (I think from the 1950s but am not certain.) I noticed the other day as I passed that there was a 'for sale' sign and when I did a bit of digging I found that it has been sold for £250,000 with planning permission to demolish and redevelop as private housing. The approved scheme provides for seven new dwellings in total; three pairs of semi detached and a single detached,each with private parking and gardens plus additional visitor parking within the site.
I have no strong feelings about the building but am aware of its history. It was built by the rev. Milner in 1845 after a fund raising campaign to build the new church, St James in Church Street and a new vicarage that earned him the soubriquet 'The Best Beggar in Barnoldswick'.
Things that spring to mind.... When Bracewell was building his 'New Mill' (Later renamed Wellhouse) the builders extracted sand from a site across Skipton Road from the Vicarage and Milner's well under the vicarage dried up. It later started flowing again a while later. Newton Pickles told me that at one time there was an outdoor model railway track in the garden, I think that was in the 1930s....
It's a fine building built to a good standard and I doubt if anything that replaces it will be this quality but in today's day and age there is really no use for it. Change happens, and it looks as though it is going to happen here....

[Wendyf]

It looks similar in style to The Gables on Albert Road in Colne which was the library for many years. That has been converted into quality flats with a fine building restored and saved.

[Nolic]

Dr Rankin used to live there in the 1950's and had a surgery at the front. Nolic

[Stanley]

Thanks Comrade! I'd forgotten that.
I suppose the developer looked at that but decided against it Wendy.

[Big Kev]

The old Vicarage is still owned by the masons, they have sold off some of the surrounding land for the housing. Their plans are to demolish the building and build a new lodge to the rear of the plot, the front of the plot will then be used for parking.

The building, although looking fairly sound, has suffered water ingress and woodworm.

[PanBiker]

Aye, quite a debate over in Facebook land. Nick Livesay is encouraging retaining it for historical purposes. Whereas the owners have decided to move on for the reasons Kev gave above. The Masons had an open day the other day which I believe Kev attended with quite a few others so that folk could have a look round.

[Big Kev]

Unfortunately I didn't get there due to other commitments, Nick Livesey was indeed very 'vocal' about retaining the building but didn't give any indication of actually doing anything about it. I did suggest someone made an offer to buy the building, as he was so keen to save it, this seemed to stop the conversation in its tracks