THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Stanley]

Good images Tiz. Road giving way is still a problem on some country roads.....

[Stanley]

Thinking of roads giving way..... I used to deliver cattle to a farm at Summerseat near Bury and the first time I went there the farmer, Bill Robertshawe, asked me which way I had come in and when I told him from the main Manchester road he said that the high stone bridge over the river I had crossed had been limited to 3 tons because of lack of use and maintenance. I was about 14 tons..... He said the sign had been taken off and thrown in the river and they had been complaining for months about it to the Council. I went in from Helmshore after that!
I have a good story about Bill and I'll save it until tomorrow.....

[Tizer]

`When council estates were a dream', by Ashley John-Baptiste. LINK

[Stanley]

I did a series of articles about Council Housing and some of us believe that the reason why the housing began to be described as 'sink estates' was because they were used as a dumping ground for 'problem families' and that dragged the reputation down for everyone else. The council do the same now with privately rented accommodation, we have one in our back street and the sooner they move on the better!

[Stanley]

It's worth looking back to the immediate aftermath of the Great War. The government were running scared after the 1919 Revolution in Russia and this was one of the main spurs to the 'Land Fit for heroes' movement. One of the immediate results was the Addison Housing Act brought in by the Minister of Health (The MOH were in charge of Housing). It was possibly the most generous housing measure we have ever seen and produced immediate and far reaching results, this was the real start of Council Housing because it gave local Councils powers to raise money for housing by borrowing and Central Government matched the funding.
However, by 1920 it became obvious that there was no revolutionary fervour in the UK and so this act was dropped and severe austerity measures were started. It was this and subsequent events which led to the Inter War depression which persisted until the economy was stimulated by rearmament in the 1930s.
That's far too brief a description but is what happened. The politicians ignored men like Keynes who told them that they should be pursuing deficit financed policies like the ones that had succeeded in the war. Remind you of anything?

[Tizer]

The council house that I was brought up in was built in the 1930s, one of six located together at the interface between Blackburn's urban terraces and the open fields. It had large rooms, large windows, indoor bathroom and loo, large gardens front and back, and an open aspect on a hill with distant views. My mates lived in small, cramped terraced houses with no gardens and no views. Not surprisingly, they all came to my house to play in the garden and in the fields behind it. My mum would make jam butties for us all which was an added incentive - no wonder I had so many friends!

[Stanley]

That was the era which saw the production of standard 'Ideal Worker's Cottage' designs by architects and the inception of the 'Garden City Movement' which resulted in developments like Welwyn and Port Sunlight. Was Letchworth one as well?
Bevan's Council houses were the same standard and many historians put the greater number built by the ensuing Tory government down to the them reducing standards of design and spacing. Was Macmillan in charge of that? Memory fails.... 'Never mind the quality, feel the width!"
All this started with the private housing developments in London by charities spurred on by the same Physical Efficiency Debate that gave us public parks in the late 19th century.

[plaques]

It was Harold Macmillan who reduced the house size by 20% on what was previously being built. The total numbers built were more than Bevan built post war. Thse numbers were also helped by the fact that construction timber had become more available than immediately after the war. At least they were building public housing which is more than can be said for today's governments.

[Stanley]

Thanks P. That's as I remember it and as you say a great deal better than the present government's record which was made worse by swapping the emphasis of support from renting to 'first time buyers' although they even cocked that one up as many people already owning houses have upgraded under 'help to buy'. The main beneficiaries have been forms like Persimmon....
It wasn't just in Council Housing that the lot of the poorest was made better. Due to war damage and the deterioration of much slum housing because of lack of maintenance, for a short while slum clearance which had started in the late 1930s went on apace but from the late 1950s onwards this slacked off and the emphasis switched to high rise accommodation that needed less land. Many of these developments became the slums of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. We are still suffering from the effects today. The bottom line is that the provision of social housing never regained the excellent standards that followed from the 1930s Garden City movement which attracted some of our best planners and architects. Where they were well done and looked after they have become some of our most attractive urban housing and have never been bettered. There's a lesson in there somewhere!

[Tizer]

A lot of the blocks of modern apartments in UK cities are now owned by foreigners living elsewhere in the world. Often they don't have any residents - the owner simply wants to park his/her money there - or launder money.

[Stanley]

So I am aware of from the articles in Private Eye on off-shore ownership and brass plate Llps. A scandal and yet we still lecture others about financial probity.
I can remember a time when we all had access to a doctor, solicitor and bank manager and in my experience the service was impeccable and utterly trustworthy. Compare and contrast with the situation today.
High rise flats.... There were seven blocks in Rochdale centre and they were known as the Seven Sisters. Well maintained then and always fully occupied. A lot depended on the way they were designed in the first place and how they were managed.
[I wrote that and then found this article..... LINK. That's a pity!]

[Stanley]

The nearest we got to 'high rise' in Barlick was these three storey cottages in Walmsgate and the Greyhound Hotel. Both driven by the same aim, to produce lodging spaces for itinerant weavers. (Come to think, include the Model as well!



The Model Lodging House in Butts in 1920.

[PanBiker]

And the ones below the Dog on Manchester Road.

[Tizer]

They had high-rise apartment blocks in Ancient Rome - but they tended to fall down!

[Stanley]

No collapses in Barlick but here and there some terraces have to have rebuilt end walls because of subsidence. They were built to quickly in the 19th century boom!



We mentioned Bodycare a few days ago. I tripped over this in the archive, 2009.



King Street in 2009. My interest here wasn't no. 12 where I used to live but the road repair. I noticed that the contractors were tarmacing the gutter instead of replacing the large gutter stones so I rang the Council immediately and it worked. The following day the stones had been returned and relaid. Result!

[Stanley]

Love trying to work out the patterns of build in two adjoining houses like this. I'd say the end one, No. 12 was first because when they built the next one the doorway had to accommodate the stonework of No 12 and not the other way round.

[plaques]

I would have said number 10 was built first with a coal hole or something like that where the 'no waiting sign' is. In plan view Number 10 would then line up with No 13 on Market st. As it is No 12 creates a dog leg in Brook st. Of course this is Barlick!

[Stanley]

The infill was the original front door of the cottage next door P. At some time the two were knocked into one. Otherwise you could be right and it would make sense for No. 12 to be the addition. Complicated by the fact that there were other buildings across the ginnel to Brook Street.



Here's the 1892 OS survey of the street. The existing ginnel to Brook Street was created by knocking down two existing small buildings. Something at the back of my mind says the larger one was a stable.

[Stanley]

I've seen all sorts dropped on the roads during my millions of miles, some of them useful. I still use a pair of large scissors I found near Ripley, once it was a set of drain rods that had a useful life at Hey Farm and then there was the 1cwt sack of spuds on the road near Halifax.... They went to a good home! Vera was very glad to have them.
I once found a beautifully wrapped small package on a roundabout at Doncaster and thought I might have hit the jackpot but a bit further I saw a man and a van at the side of the road and he was scratching his head. I pulled up, the package was his, he was delivering and had forgotten to close the back door securely. The package wouldn't have done me any good, he worked for a printer and it was a delivery of business cards!
One morning as I set off to the east with a load of milk early in the morning I found a trail of packages from Broughton roundabout into Skipton. I picked them all up and had a cab full. At the corner in Skipton a laundry van was stopped and once more the driver was scratching his head. He was a very happy man and gave me a couple of the parcels. They were all small tablecloths from an Indian Restaurant. I could tell it was Indian because even though they had been washed they stunk of curry! I used them as dust-sheets for years.
All this came to mind after I saw a young lady run over what looked like a plastic bag in the road this morning but had to pull up at the end of Albert Road because of the scraping noise. It was a large rear light cluster from a vehicle, God knows why it dropped off!

[Stanley]

Johnny Pickles in his shed at Federation Street with the clock he was making for Holy Trinity church in 1960.

Looking at this pic reminds me of a story Newton told me about the making of the clock. Contrast this with today's traffic conditions.
Johnny had decided he wanted to fit a 'maintaining' mechanism on this clock and knew where there was just such a clock movement from which he could take particulars. (It was a way of ensuring the clock didn't stop while being wound)
One Friday evening he asked Newton what he was doing the next day and informed him he wanted to be taken to the Science Museum in South Kensington on Saturday morning in the works van. They set off early in the morning and Newton was told to park in Exhibition Road and wait while Johnny popped inside and took his particulars. After about twenty minutes Johnny returned, go in and said that they could get to Bury market in time to get black puddings for tea. Off they went, got their black puddings and were back home in time for tea.
Remember this was in an old van, doubtful if it could do more than 50mph and all on the old roads, it was 1960. Question is with all the 'improvements' we have seen since, could it be done now?
This was the time I was on the tramp with my 'A' Licence and I can remember those days when there was hardly any traffic on the roads and driving was a pleasure. Those were the glory days and we shall never see them again.

[Stanley]

Funny how things pop into your head. This morning it was memories of Mr and Mrs Walker and the Sunset Cafe at Ingleton. That set my mind rolling round transport cafes I have known and the funny things that happened in them. I'll not bore you but the one I always remember is in the toilets of a cafe in the east midlands. Someone had ripped the condom machine bodily off the wall and scrawled a message; "Somewhere someone got a letter!", a reference to a Post office campaign running at the time.
They were a welcome respite after too many hours on the road, no wonder I have good memories......



Full marks if you know the origin of the name.....

[chinatyke]

The Silent Seventh gear!

[Stanley]

Dead right China..... Although in my case with the old Mercury, it was 'Silent Sixth'.

[Whyperion]

What make was the Van ?
Biggest problem is getting out of Barnoldswick I suppose - If early in the morning Keighly, Bradford, Barnsley onto M1 (problem was for 3 bearing engines where sustained running wore things out quickly), 3 hrs then into North London - so at say 10am on a Saturday London would be fairly quiet, so about 45mins max into South Kensington. So a 11am Departure would allow a 5hr return journey if Bury was still open at 4pm. Its about 5 hrs by car to north of manchester allowing for comfort breaks with just over an hour back into Barnoldswick if you get the timing of the traffic lights and the vehicle can cope with the hill undulations- I think most of the M6 was in place by 1960 as bypasses if not full motorway standards.

[Stanley]

Overland van.
In 1960 the best way to London was out through Burnley, Rawtenstall and Prestwich, through Manchester centre to White City and out on the Chester road to Mere Country Club then a short cut to the left out on to the A34 and follow your nose to the Watford By pass calling in for breakfast at the Lodge café at Talke on the way.
That reminds me of a story....
I was in Middlesbrough looking for a load and was sent, along with another four wheeler man, to Dorman Long where there were two 8 ton steel ingots hot out of the mould to go down to Trafford Park at Manchester as soon as possible. They asked me when I could get there and as it was early morning I told them mid-afternoon. The ingot was so hot it charred the 3" square spacer dunnage I had on the flat to free the lifting chains. Nice load, two chains and no sheet and it would never move! While we were loading I was talking to the other driver who was a bit of a character, he was dressed like a caricature of a driver. He told me he would stay at Hill Top Cafe at Blythe below Doncaster overnight and would deliver the next day. He said that was the best way to Manchester from Middlesbrough. I told him that if were to pop into town and tell Riley's Motors that they would be very interested as they had been going the wrong way for 30 years, they had a depot at Longridge and had been running that route for a long time. I got to Old Trafford at about 15:00, they were waiting for me and asked where the other one was and I told them, parked up at Doncaster overnight! They weren't best pleased, slipped me a quid because I had helped them and I went down into the docks at Salford and picked up ten tons of Linseed meal for Green's at Gargrave and was home for tea and unloading the following morning. Never make the assumption that 'professional drivers' know all the routes. Many of them are lost most of the time!