OneGuyFromBarlick

Internal lightning conductor inside Swabs chimney bottom. 1976. The liner wall extended to about 30ft high and the stack had internal lightning conductors. This was the only instance of this I ever found.
Long gone now of course......

January 1976. The first attempt to get rid of a 340ft stack.....

Butts chimney being demolished in 1980 by Peter Tatham and I think Tom Philips was helping him.....

Higgy on that job Stanley

Clough Mill in 1963.

George Howarth at the steam valve of the new Burnley Ironworks engine in Clough Mill in 1913. Newton reckoned this was his favourite engine in Barlick.

The second-hand Musgrave engine installed at Butts Mill in 1899. The engineer is George Hogarth

Billy Webster, engineer at Brook Shed.

Ernest Marshall stopping Wellhouse engine for the last time in 1965. I think the man with him may be his father Tom Marshall.

The Padiham engine (Jubilee) installed at Masson Mill. A big job....

The Whitelees engine in 1991. Biggest jigsaw puzzle in Rochdale.....

Just one example of what we faced at Ellenroad. We needed a large Pit dug in the floor of the boiler house in which we could build the foundation of the Whitelees engine. It took months to plan, do all the drawings and find a contractor to do the job.... We eventually got everything in place so I left my mate Graham in charge and went off for a week's holiday on the Isle of Eigg where I couldn't be contacted, this was before the days of cell phones.
I came back a week later and found this. The contractor had started, hit running sand, panicked and stuffed anything he could find into the hole and abandoned the contract. Graham was distraught but I managed to persuade him it was not his fault and together we would fix it. We did and eventually succeeded but that is all a forgotten corner now. Seek out 'building the Whitelees on the site, it's a good story!

Six months later this is what the Whitelees Pit looked like. We have found men who knew what they were doing and have reached the stage where we are pouring concrete in the base of the pit. A long way to go yet but we were on the right track and working within the budget!

Later still we are ready to start to build the engine. The concrete pier which supports the crankshaft had to be within an eighth of an inch accuracy and was successful. Such a difference from the start of the job.

In 1979 I was in San Francisco and saw this house moved to a better location about ten blocks away. These houses were timber construction and so could be treated like this. Very impressive and strictly speaking not a forgotten corner as I am sure it still happens.

Moving house in Northfield MN in 2002. The house had become embedded in an industrial estate and was bought for $100 then moved to a residential lot.

In 1982 BUDC were considering doing something to tidy up this little corner. What looked like a simple job soon proved to be a bit of a problem. If the small triangular shaped hovel was demolished a substantial retaining wall would have to replace it to ensure the ground above didn't slip weakening foundations.
It was decided to recognise the hovel as a historic squatter's house, refurbish it and retain the telephone box as this would be the much cheaper option.

Well, its still there but the telephone box has gone along with the majority of others in the town.

I wonder how many people realise that the smallholding that the Capstick family have built on Colne Road started life as a tannery.

The teagle or cat head hoist at Bancroft Shed. It was used for lifting in the taper's beams to the second floor.

This is a replica of the coal jetty at Wigan which was thought to be the original Wigan Pier as made famous by George Orwell.

Sough Mill yard in 1978.

Nice pic !
My ex father in law, Tommy Watson, worked the furnace there in the 1960's.

I wonder what year the chimney came down?

Peter Tatham demolishing the stack in 1979.

Stanley and john Plummer cleaning up after an all-nighter repairing a burst blow down main at Bancroft. I enjoyed working with John, no back chat, he just got on with it and did a good job. A forgotten corner...