FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[PanBiker]

I could not see any reason for removing the iceboat from the bend. It made an idyllic picture on the far bank of the curve nestling under the willow tree. It was not a navigational hazard and the area has not been used for a landing jetty or anything like that so what was the reason, I have often wondered. I have a pen and ink drawing that my dad did in 1936 of the scene as viewed from Coates Lane. I bet he wasn't the only local artist that drew or painted it either.

[barlickrog]

Can someone tell me if this is true, i was reading somewhere that Barlick had thirteen mills at one time, my memory is dimming but i remember Clough Wellhouse Fernbank, and others i know where they were, but i cant remember what they were called, can someone name the other ten ???

Roger

[Stanley]

Thirteen plus Salterforth and County Brook. Butts, Bancroft, Calf Hall, Fernbank, Westfield, Wellhouse, Bankfield, Coates, Long Ing, Barnsey, Moss, Crow Nest, Clough., Almost 25,000 looms, more than could be worked by Barlickers hence the Model Lodging Houses and weavers staying in rooms all over the town during the week. Heaviest concentration of looms per head of population in the NW.



Greyhound in 2002. Built this big for lodging weavers.

[Stanley]

The ginnel through the terraced houses between East Hill Street and Hill Street. A handy short-cut.

[elise]

The part of the building above the ginnel, which looks like it belongs to the house on the right, is called in legal terms a "flying freehold".

[Stanley]

Commercial Street/Butts ginnel.

[David Whipp]

Curiously the ginnel from Commercial Street to The Butts isn't on the definitive map as a public right of way (PROW). (I found this out when the path was put forward as a potential 'urban ginnel' improvement scheme.)

The process of getting it added as a PROW requires evidence of 20 years unchallenged use and going through a process called a definitive map modification order (DMMO).

I can personally vouch for several decades unchallenged use. Any others willing to provide a statement to that effect?

[PanBiker]

Well I have been using it for well over 20 years. As a born Barlicker I can't recall it ever being blocked off and that's nearly 60 years. I would have thought this would have been established originally as access to Butts mill from the terraces on the Croft where a good proportion of the workforce would have lived. No point in having to walk round "Top of Butts" if you could cut through.

[Stanley]

It's been in use to my personal knowledge for over 50 years and when Briggs and Duxbury had their workshop in the end unit in Commercial Street (Now demolished after a fire) they put a connection over the top of the ginnel to the back of the Model Lodging house (now the Model Garage) so as not to block the ginnel so it was in use than almost 100 years ago. It is also marked as a footpath on the 1892 edition of the 25" OS map. I'll do a statement any time you ask for it.



Butts stables in 1982 with the paved road right through to Commercial Street.

[Stanley]

It struck me later that the fact that the road is paved with setts right through to Commercial Street is a good piece of supporting evidence and at some time a cast iron post has been put in to prevent wheeled traffic.



The small hut housing the Hall Spout hydraulic ram at Salterforth. Harold Duxbury told me it was installed by Roundell of Gledstone Estate to supply water to their properties in the Salterforth area.

[Stanley]

Philip Street (Back Lane) as it is today. This used to be the main route into the town from Colne.

[Stanley]

We know this as Park Avenue but on the First Edition OS 6" map of 1853 it is called Blue Pot Lane.

[Wendyf]

I was looking at the map yesterday and noticed Blue Pot Lane for the first time. Any ideas how the name came about?

[PostmanPete]

I was looking at the map yesterday and noticed Blue Pot Lane for the first time. Any ideas how the name came about?

Wendy, I think that blue pots refer to bilberries which probably covered the area before the houses were built.

[Stanley]

That sounds feasible! I've often wondered about the origin of the name but never hit on that one.



Park Road in 1900. Marked on first edition OS as continuation of Blue Pot Lane which seems to have been a main route into Barlick from High Lane. Originally it connected with Back Lane which was the Colne route before the Green was done away with in 1816 and the ford in Walmsgate culverted making what is now Church Street the main route.

[Stanley]

What is now a narrow ginnel behind the hovel in Walmsgate was originally the route from the ford to Back Lane and a main route into the town. From the road level the hovel was built after 1816 when the Town Bridge over Gillian's Beck was installed and at that time the route was cut down to what we see today.

[Stanley]

The by wash clow for the lodge which used to serve Old Coates Mill. It can still be seen in Victory Park in the bank of the beck below Rolls car park.

[Stanley]

Old Coates Mill in 1890. Derelict and used as a hay barn.

[Stanley]

Another view of Old Coates in 1890. They had a gas making plant there for lighting. Reports of illicit whisky being made in the 'gas house' at about this time.

[Stanley]

[PanBiker]

My Uncle Bob's (Robert Lambert) workshop is shown on here just in front of Forresters Buildings. They were in the embankment, you can see the gates marked on Skipton Road. I can't quite make out what the legend says though Barnoldswick Machine? Works perhaps. It would be part of the outbuildings for the goods yard then. Bob was in here when the firm was Lambert and Newbould. It was a wooden building that eventually burnt down in the late 50's. Not sure if this wasn't linked to the mills being torched around the same time? Firm moved to the Gasworks site then until closure.

[Stanley]

Forester's Buildings in 1892. At that time the sidings hadn't been extended to Skipton Road. WM in the station yard is I think 'weighing machine'. The trough marked at Skipton Road junction is the town well embedded in the wall of Gisburn Road school.

[PanBiker]

I love old maps, two more interesting features of the 1892 edition. Number 15 East View Terrace is clearly visible and shows the ginnel between the gables through to what will become the top of Ash Grove. Not built on that side of the Croft then, still open field. Number 15 was removed completely from the row at some later date. Down on Commercial Street you can see that the path through to Butts discussed in another thread is already marked on the O.S. map. I think this should suit as evidence of an established route.

[Stanley]

So much can be gleaned from them Ian. The 1892 25" survey is a cracker.



Aftermath of 1932 flood in Butts.

[Stanley]

Bit off piste I know but I found this old postcard in one of my books. Halifax Piece Hall in the 1920s.