FORGOTTEN CORNERS

[plaques]

by a lad on a red bike

A BSA Bantam, Possibly the biggest attraction of working for the GPO when you left school.

[Stanley]

I was thinking a bit further back P to a pedal cycle but yes, I remember the Bantams as well. That reminds me of those little water-cooled Velocette motor bikes the police used to use......
I had a Bantam once in the 60s. I bought it in the pub for £3. It had girder forks and no kick starter, you had to run it off. Painted green, could it have been ex-WD? Never taxed or insured but I shame to say I went on the road with it occasionally in dire emergencies. It never ever failed to start.

[Stanley]

Albert Road in 1978. I find it fascinating to look back at these old reference pictures and note the changes that 40 years has brought. At this relatively short distance in time (For me!) it looks so old-fashioned. What must it be like for youngsters? We often forget that our frame of reference is completely different to the young and this might be a partial explanation of why at times their attitudes are so alien to us!

[Stanley]

Briggs and Duxbury's plan for the Prisoner of War camp at Horton Road End. This was built and used and at the end of the war Vaux Breweries of Sunderland bought the site and built the Coronation as a handy stop for coaches travelling on the A59 from the NE to Blackpool. It was very successful and run by Bunty ? and her husband. I used to deliver milk there and it was where Vera and I had our wedding breakfast, Turkey dinner and one free drink for 7/6 (37.5p) a head! That's definitely a forgotten corner!

[Stanley]

Dick Lancaster at Paradise Farm Horton in Craven in his office. He's signing a cheque for a load of hay I had just delivered.



This was in 1969. In those days when the dairy industry was profitable a lot of hay and straw was imported from the East Riding. Can't remember when I last saw a load......

[Stanley]

Once a common sight in the town. West Marton Dairy wagons delivering milk to depots and retailers. This was the old depot on Valley Road.

[plaques]

Sorry about being slow off the mark. Here are some picture relating to the Coronation Pub theme which were posted the other day.

coronation003.jpg

This is Bunty Heap on her horse.

bunty heap3.jpg

Her husband Fred Heap as a young lad., Knew him well, a really nice chap who knew his stuff.

fred heap.jpg

[Stanley]

Lovely P! Bunty Heap! I always get her mixed up in my head with Bunty Heaton who worked at the dairy! And you're right, Fred was a lovely bloke. I treasure those pics I hadn't got them. Thank you.

[Stanley]

Thinking about Bunty Heap, Gladys Talbot came to mind. Wife to Jimmy Talbot, she was the landlady at the Craven Heifer in Kelbrook and a lovely woman. She was the daughter of Ayrton who used to be landlord of the Seven Stars. Bob King said that Jimmy Talbot was known as Banana Jimmy as he used to sell them on the market but he didn't like to be reminded of this. Bob told a story about being in the Craven Heifer once and George Ashby came in with a driver of his called Widdup. George had a cup of tea and he asked Jimmy if he had ever seen a flying saucer, Jimmy said no and George tossed the saucer across the bar and it broke a fancy glass window. Deathly silence and George told Jimmy to get it repaired and send him the bill. This was typical of the attitudes of the big manufacturers and factory owners, they made their own rules....
Jimmy was a big man in the Nelson branch of the Licensed Victuallers Association (They had their own newspaper) and in those days the landlord of a pub had status in society. That in itself is now a forgotten corner. When Jimmy and Gladys left the Craven Heifer they took the Station Hotel in Nelson.

[Stanley]

The Craven Heifer at Kelbrook in about 1930.

[Stanley]

It pays to keep your eyes open and interrogate what you see. Any 'normal' person would be hard put to to identify what interested me in this pic.... (But I admit I am not 'normal'!)
Look at the end of the outbuilding at the back of the Cross Keys pub. Notice the line of black corbel stones running across from the guttering at the front. Obviously for a gutter to transport rainwater from the front side of the roof to the yard at the back, the question is, why? Why go to all that trouble? The answer I believe is that the outbuildings at the back were once stables. Remember that in the days when the pub was built there was no mains water. It was quite common to collect rain water from roofs for domestic use. Both the stables and the pub would need water and I think that this is what was going on. All possible water from the roofs was routed to the back where there would be a trough or tank for storage. This would be a very useful asset and save the expense of paying someone to deliver water from the town wells and springs.

[Stanley]

The building at the back of Taylforth's estate agents has gone now in alterations but when I did this pic in 1982 it was still there and note the two large corbel stones in the wall at high level. These carried a tank to collect the rainwater off the roof.

[Stanley]

Mains electricity reached Barlick from Keighley in the early 1920s but only on a small scale for lighting. Long before that electricity had been used in some large buildings like the Cooperative Central building on Albert Road and the Majestic Cinema. They generated their own using gas engines and dynamos. The pic above is in the cellar of the Cooperative building during demolition in 1989. You can see it was quite a large engine. We know about the Majestic because it's mentioned in the LTP, Newton Pickles' transcripts. What is often forgotten is that there were many smaller gas engines running to power machinery, some of them in homes but mainly in small premises like fish and chip shops. With the advent of a more efficient mains that could be used for power in the 1930s all these engines became redundant and were scrapped or sold on.
Incidentally, there were no meters in the early days, both gas and electricity were charged on the number of lighting points used. This soon had to change when both were used for power. Gas well before electricity of course.

[Stanley]

The Crossley gas engine that drove Barry's wood yard and sawmill at Sough from its inception to when it closed. It could run of town's gas but usually ran on producer gas supplied from a small production plant in the yard fuelled by sawdust. In later years this plant failed and they ran exclusively on town's gas as it was more economical than a repair. This strategy back-fired when in the late 60s or early 70s the gas authority replaced the original meter with a modern one and gas costs doubled overnight! They had a horizontal saw built for them by Johnny Pickles. An unusual feature was that all the line-shafting that was the power train was under the floor. When they were closed all the machinery went to a museum.

[Stanley]

1989. Tea break inside Berry's. Notice the absence of overhead belts and shafts. In a small low shop like this it was a definite improvement to have underfloor power.

[Stanley]

I'd forgotten that image and I like it. It reminds me of one of those Victorian industrial scenes captured in oils..... Quite pleased with it.



In 1956 Sough Bridge Mill was a hive of activity. During the war it was taken over by the Ministry of Aircraft Production, modernised and used by the Rover Company as a 'shadow factory' but after the war was de-requisitioned and returned the the shed company. (See steam engines and waterwheels' for details of the process as applied to the Calf Hall Shed Company)
In 1956 Bristol Tractors had the far end.



Kelbrook Metal Products had the nearest end of the mill and the back portion was occupied by the Forecast Foundry. All successful in their time and Sough was a busy place. You wouldn't believe the number of bacon butties mother and I made each morning and then hot dinners for about 30......

[Bodger]

"1989. Tea break inside Berry's. "
The house we live in is an old cottage with a single story attached building that was used as a general goods shop, with the advent of super markets we closed it and converted it into a lounge, it is 9 m X 9m, i fitted a stove as seen in Berrys pic, the brick surround is about 1 .5 m high with a tapered steel canopy appearing to go through the ceiling , the stack actually goes out of the back wall.
It was one of my better investments i got it from a local garage in exchange for a wrecked car, i normally burn coal & peat, but anything combustible goes in there, when fully filled i can achieve 30+ Cent in the room , The brick surround acts like a night storage heater and the room is heated overnight.
We don't use refuse collection, recycle glass & metal , the ash i place in the hedges around our 1.5 acre field, with a donkey, 2 dogs & a cat we have ready source of any waste food, a bit of self sufficiency in an old fashioned manner.

[Wendyf]

There was a stove like that in our village "hall" when we lived in Scotland. The hall was a WW1 wooden hut and the more nervous among us would get alarmed when the wind blew as the stove would glow red. Lighting it was a task and a half, if there was an event on in an evening the fire would need to be lit in the afternoon to warm the place up. You never knew whether you would return at 7pm to find a glowing ball of fire or a cold, black, smoking failure. There were some folk who missed it when it was replaced with central heating.

[Stanley]

I loved those old stoves.



My favourite. The big Jotul wood burner in the Watermill on Eigg. It had a cast iron flue and we were always there in March or October so I used to fire it hard. I have had the flue glowing red hot for the first 6ft when the wind was in the right direction. Snug as a bug in a rug!

[BillHowcroft]

I slipped 'Jotul wood burner' into ebay.
Amazing what you can still buy.

[Stanley]

The Scandinavian countries make the best stoves these days. I have a Morso in the front room, wonderfully effective.



Kev has one as well and we had it in the stove hospital a while since.....





I'm not too sure about this pic but I think it's an old image of the Wesleyan Chapel on Station road shortly before it was demolished. It's the car park now next to what used to be the Liberal club.

[PanBiker]

From memory the chapel had wide stone steps up to the entrance off Station Road.

[Stanley]

When you think about it, Station Road had some pretty impressive buildings down the South side but the standard dropped a bit on the opposite side. Not helped when I saved the little building which is now the taxi office. Here's John Northage doing it up in 1979. It cost me nothing in the end and I am glad I did it, I like that little building!

[Stanley]

Wendy's pic of the yard on Skipton Road behind Croft House. This building used to be a smithy but is now a garage. I wonder how many people realise it is there.....

[Stanley]

The enclaves of old property that still exist in the centre of Barlick from the pre-medieval street plan are one of the hidden treasures of Barlick and contribute much to its character. This group of buildings on the corner of Skipton Road and Station Road bounded at the back by the new cut through of what was the station yard is a good example. Another is the area round Hudson's Yard and the Cross Keys yard. They are reminders of the old Barlick and need to be looked after!