FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[David Whipp]

Ghyll Brow - the old road left after the new road was put in.

[Thomo]

Later to become the Coronation Hotel.

[Stanley]

Click to enlarge. Briggs and Duxbury drawing of the proposed POW camp at what later became the Coronation Hotel.

[elise]

One for you Thomo:
POWs at White House farm, Elslack

[Stanley]

The POW camp at West Marton. One of the prisoners here was known as 'Yup' and worked for Wallace Metcalfe at Stainton Hall for many years. He may have stayed on there after the war.

[Thomo]

According to my research for the book, it was 1948 before the majority of the PoWs were returned to their homelands, a fair number did not desire to return, mainly the single men. In the case of the local camps at least 100 were given the chance of remaining for a further 12 months to help to dismantle the camps and return them to civilian use. The German youth who's story I now have did not get his name down fast enough and all of the places were taken. He had been born in Silesia which was in 1948 in Eastern Germany and had no desire to go there and went to live with an uncle in the west of the country. A number of those who returned home were back here as soon as they could get here having found this a very pleasant place to live, and these were not economic or welfare immigrants, and having made friends in this area were readily accepted into the communities. From the beginning of 1946 the inmates of the camps were given the freedom to move outside of the camps, either on foot or by bus on a regular basis, previously it was by arrangement with the men having given pledge of good behaviour. The man who came from Silesia recalls the sadness of saying farewell to his "Foster Mum" a Mrs Sheldrick of Barnoldswick who had a Son of the same age, "Billy" Sheldrick whom I remember as working at Barnsey Shed.




Two of the German POWs at the front of the Corner Café. The Man on the right is the subject of the story.

[chinatyke]

My Aunty married a German POW in Grassington, I bet that gave the village gossips something to talk about at the time. He was a nice man but sadly he died some years ago, she still lives in Grassington. I think the pow camp later became the TB sanatorium, or perhaps it was that before the war also. I didn't know there were so many pow camps locally.

[Thomo]

The TB sanatorium, or open air school was indeed there before the War, my Uncle Bernard who was registered at medically unfit for Military Service had been there pre 1939. My Paternal family all came from Grassington.

[Stanley]

The band stand at Letcliffe in 1920

[David Whipp]

Taylor Street steps (from The Butts up to the top of Taylor Street). Picture taken early 1980s (I think) before the steps were relaid as part of a re-employment project.

[PanBiker]

This field below the sharp bend on Folly Lane is called Causeway Carr. You can see the line that the road up to the Weets used to follow through the field before it was diverted to give less of a slope on the track. This follows the line of the original track that ran through Barlick joining the west coast to the East coast and was the M62 of the Bronze Age. When I enquired about it the Lancashire Archaeologist told me it was a major route for transporting gold from Ireland to the Baltic states. It passes through the huge hilltop earthworks at Middop,

Here are three pictures from my walk around Weets yesterday, the first and second are from the field through the stile at the top of the first pasture off Folly Lane where the paths starts up the hill. All three show a field feature which I assume is evidence of a continuation of the former track in the previous picture and part of the "Bronze Age Highway" mentioned in a number of Stanley's research topics.



Second and third images are further up the hill.



Last one before the feature is lost in the landscape



The line of the field feature runs parallel to and about 10 feet away from the dry stone walls that enclose Whitemoor. I have always thought that the feature pre-dates the walls although I could be wrong. The stones that are integrated into the soil that make up the banked feature do not look to be spoils from the walling.

[Stanley]

Definitely pre-dates the walls Ian. The track was in regular use over 4,000 years ago.

Here's another part of it....

[PanBiker]

Longfield Lane, I assume that there would have been a ford around the forty steps area in the days before the industrialists started to manage Gillians beck. From here I suppose continuation down Blue Pot Lane, Barnsey, Rainhall on past Ghyll, Thornton, Elslack and on to the the Aire. This line is not far from straight as a die. no point deviating if you don't need to. The Romans picked up on the best of the ancient world and applied their later technology and building skills. Some of their efforts on the same route.

[Thomo]

When you look at Weets Hill from the North East and at a distance, if the Sun is just right. you can see the full length of the track running diagonally from the summit to the base, and it is a very straight line. I may have a pic of this somewhere.

[David Whipp]

After Ian and Stanley's posts, I popped into the attic and took this photo just as the first rays of sun were catching the hillside. I don't think it captures the line as Peter describes, but you can see part of the old track in the field.

[Stanley]

David, please email me the full res image of that pic. I'd like to play with it and have a closer look. There are some intriguing lumps and bumps....



Coates Mill in 1985 when it was Carr's Printers.

[David Whipp]

David, please email me the full res image of that pic. I'd like to play with it and have a closer look. There are some intriguing lumps and bumps....

Will do Stanley.

My dad worked at Coates Mill when it was Dobson's Dairy. I remember going in as a young lad and feeling how cool it was.

[Thomo]

The track in question is off to the right of the picture and is best seen when the Sun would be to the left, it then casts a visible shadow of the track.

[Whyperion]

After Ian and Stanley's posts, I popped into the attic and took this photo just as the first rays of sun were catching the hillside. I don't think it captures the line as Peter describes, but you can see part of the old track in the field.

Re Stanley's lumps and bumps .does Barnoldswick ever get a dry enough summer to show up under topsoil features of occupation or is that phenomena applicable only to the more southern counties of England ?

[Stanley]

Barlick can have droughts just like anywhere else and is close to the rock so yes, of course we can get scorch marks.



John Clayton's pic of the continuation of the Bronze Age track on the far side of Weets.

[Stanley]

This is what I think the track is heading for before going onward into the Ribble valley and the coast en route to Ireland. It's a feature that has all the characteristics of an Iron/Bronze age camp/trading post or even defensive position. Never been properly investigated but certainly an important component of the landscape.

[Stanley]

Click to enlarge. This is my interpretation of the 1580 Whitemoor Map. I took the original down to Doreen Crowther and between us we puzzled out most of the obscure markings I hadn't been able to understand. Look up the Chancery court case between the manors of Foulridge and Barnoldswick for the context. This was a land dispute in the era following the Dissolution of the Monasteries when there was a wholesale revision of land ownership and rights as the old monastic lands were disposed of in Henry VIII's fire sale.

[David Whipp]

Almost all of Barnoldswick can be seen in this picture taken from a balloon by John Hartley at the first Balloons Over Barnoldswick event (in 2005, I think).

The picture below is one of mine from the same day.

[Stanley]

Church Street in about 1900.

[David Whipp]

Hardly a forgotten corner, here's Barnoldswick's Town Square when it was new - about 1990.