FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[Stanley]

You all know how old photos fascinate me. Here's Clough Mill in 1960 when Silentnight was based there. You can see one of their old vans in the yard. I don't know about you but I can easily spend an hour with a pic like this identifying the buildings that are no longer there. For instance, on this one, have a furtle for the North Street Chapel and the old Co-operative store...

[Kingkevin66]

Hello everyone, first post onto the site in quite a while - I have posted using an old account which I cannot remember the details for quite a long time ago! I am researching my family history and the 1905 election records list one of my ancestors living in Hartley Cottage on Hartley Street. I cannot seem to find a Hartley street in any of the old maps of Barnoldswick and wondered if anyone has any information on this? I have attached an image of the record onto this post!

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[Stanley]

The reason you can't find it is that it was demolished in the 1950s when most of the property on the south side of Wapping up to Town head was taken out. I think you'll find Hartley Street was there at Townhead.



This map is dated 1892. If I remember right, Hartley street is the street behind the chapel at Townhead. It leaves Colne Road as though it is cutting the corner off. All that property including the chapel was demolished to widen the road.

[Kingkevin66]

That makes sense - such a shame that it was demolished. I had a look on google maps and can picture whereabouts it would have been. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction it has been bugging me for days!

[Stanley]

You're lucky Kevin, It bugged me for years and in the end it was an old postman who put me on the right track.

[Kingkevin66]

Been prowling the internet for some more information on the demolition with no luck only thing I could find was a clearance order for Manchester road in December 1955. I then thought about searching for Pendle Councils planning maps and low and behold I found Hartley Street on the 1947 Map.

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[Stanley]

Good, the old postman was right!



Club Row was scheduled to share the same fate as Hartley Street, they were all marked for demolition or 'clearance' as it was called in the 1950s. My mate Ernie bought one for £500 despite the shadow of demolition and was proved right. They are now 'desirable town houses'.

[Stanley]

We were so lucky in the 1950s. We seemed to be a forgotten backwater as far as redevelopment was concerned and once the houses on the side of Wapping up to Townhead had been taken out and the road widened, further initiatives, even those already flagged up like Club Row, didn't happen. Looking at what happened in Colne and Nelson this was 'a good thing'. Many small houses survived like those round Brook Street and little enclaves like Hudson's Square and they are all highly valued properties now. Many back to backs have survived and have been brought up to standard. They are ideal starter homes or retirement pads for singletons.

[Stanley]

This tiny back to back house was home to My mate Ernie Roberts, his brother and his parents in the inter-war years. This too was marked down for demolition and like Club Row it escaped. It makes you wonder about 'planning'.

[Stanley]

1977 at Hey Farm. The chimney brush is a rare sight these days but what I'm calling my ill-gotten corner this morning is the array of aerials. I think there are two for TV, if I remember right we got a signal out of Lancashire and one from Yorkshire at the time. The other aerial is for the radio I think but I'm not sure about that. Today I just have a dish, a lot tidier!

[PanBiker]

Old and new, (for the time) aerial systems there Stanley. The large crossed array is Band1 Channel 2 aerial for 405 line BBC1. The 3 element horizontal job is a VHF FM radio antenna that would get its signal from Holm Moss. The short 9 element aerial is for 625 line UHF TV, it's vertically polarised so is on a relay station, for Barlick that's the Skipton transmitter at East Marton, that would give you all three (four) channels depending when the picture was taken.

[Stanley]

I have an idea the cross array was giving us a fuzzy Emley Moor.



This is the access point in Eastwood Bottoms that enabled Wellhouse Mill to draw off the water that kept the mill running. I did this pic in 1982 but since then the access has been covered by the landscaping that has been done there. Such an important resource and now completely forgotten.

[PanBiker]

If the picture is of Hey Farm it's not in the best location for Emley Moor, much better a bit further over into town. No channel 9/12 aerial for ITV unless it had been removed. Pre UHF days you usually had both VHF arrays unless you were on the "pipe". That system of cabled TV was installed to get round the pitfalls of the topography of the town. The antennas for that were down just off Salterforth Lane at Rainhall, from a signal point of view you could get all the transmitters. Another forgotten corner apart from the remaining festooned cables around the town. I used to get a way leave payment for having a junction box on my gable at York Street.

[Stanley]

"the remaining festooned cables around the town"
And it's amazing how many there are if you take the trouble to look. There's even a pole on the green near where Stanley's Crumpets used to be and a long cable going off towards the East. If that was fastened to my chimney stack I would be having it down. The occupants of the house must never look at the roof.

[PanBiker]

The cable is multicore copper and must have scrap value I would think. An enterprising person with a ladder and nothing else to do could maybe make a bob or two recovering it all. Would do a favour for lots of home owners too.

[Stanley]

I reckon it's the armour that puts people off Ian. I once tried cutting some with a hacksaw, forget it! The best way is an angle grinder with a cutting disk.



Bank Street in 1979 before the play area was installed on the green.



At that time David Hoyle's joinery shop was still there. Time for an up to date picture I think because the street has changed since then!

[PanBiker]

20 years before that what is now the play area and all the way down to the bottom were cleared hen pens. There were three 60ft trees in our adventure playground. Still only a cinder path through to Long Ing as well, good noggins for marbles.

[Stanley]

Here they are Ian and the cinder path. This was 1963.



And for a bonus, also from 1963, Trinity church with the original tower.

[PanBiker]

This aerial series was taken on a Monday. My mum has the washing out on Craven St along with everyone else on our street and around town. No coal deliveries that day!. The short extra row on St James at the top of Robert Street before the area was redeveloped is also visible. I am amazed that I have never come across a picture of that as it was only knocked down in the last half of the 60's.

[Stanley]

I noticed the washing as well Ian.

Funny how you always see something new every time you look at the old pics. I had never noticed until this morning the two cottages below Foresters' Buildings. (And note the super correct use of the apostrophe there which I noted from the 1892 map!)



In case anyone is wondering, yes the sidings hadn't been extended down to Skipton road in 1892 and WB in the yard means Weigh Bridge. SP over the road is Signal Post, there was a railway signal there for the crossing.

[Stanley]

Standridge Farm on Folly Lane in 1977. Robinsons farmed there then. The collie is my old cattle dog Fly he was getting to be an old gent then. I was still running Bancroft engine then and I like the way the chimney head peeps up at us.

[PanBiker]

Not a forgotten Corner to me Stanley on lots of my routes and Lower Standridge now of course if you want get out into the heather or over to Lister Well

[Stanley]

I used to go up Folly once a week with my van delivering orders when I was Open All Hours at Sough.



I delivered at every farm right up to Duck Pond. It was the roughest piece of road I had to traverse during the week. In later years, the 1970s, a strange family moved into Higher View. I wasn't delivering groceries by then and so don't know their name. There seemed to be a father and two sons and they appeared to make a living doing a bit of dealing and running a small seven ton cattle wagon. There were always three of them in the cab and we called them the Thunderbirds. I don't know about other markets but they attended Gisburn twice a week and got some work there delivering beasts locally. The thing that always intrigued me was how their wagon stood up to a daily trip down Moor Gate Lane (The official name for Folly Lane which got its by name from the cottages at the foot near Newfield Edge.) and back up again, it really was horrendous at that time. That was the reason why Duck Pond changed its access in the 1970s from Moor Gate Lane to Lister Well Lane because the latter was a better road.

[PanBiker]

You would need a quad bike or a high chassis 4x4 to get up above Higher View now. You could loose yourself in some of the ruts or take the sump out if you haven't got the clearance.

[Stanley]

The last time I went down that track to Duckpond was with Doc in his natural gas powered Range Rover. It was definitely not for normal vehicles.
Going back to the 1960s I seem to remember the farmer was Wilbur Duxbury and he lived there on his own. I remember in particular that he had a very high pitched voice. I delivered his groceries every week, I don't think he ever left the farm.



Doc's pic of Duck Pond in 2005.