WALKING BEHIND DAVID. (PART TWO)
Posted: 31 Jan 2026, 03:00
WALKING BEHIND DAVID. (PART TWO)
First published 28 August 2000
We rejoin David this week on Calf Hall Road. I have a feeling we might be here for a while, there is much to talk about! The first thing to recognise is that what we now call Calf Hall Road started life as Calf Hall Lane. It turns in towards Weets down the far side of the shed and connects into a network of mediaeval lanes that stretches across the countryside to Gisburn. If you walk down the side of the shed following the lane you pass what is reputedly the site of the monastery founded in 1147 by the monks from Fountain’s Abbey when Henry de Lacy gave the Manor of Barnoldswick to the them. Nobody is certain about the exact position of the site but one thing is clear on the first OS map, where Pickles Hippings (Shitten Ginnel to older Barlickers) meets Calf Hall Lane was the site of St Mary’s Well, this name might have been bestowed on the well by the Cistercians who named all their houses after St Mary.
In both Pagan and Early Christian times, all wells were venerated as sacred places. This must have been quite an important well as it has been given a saint’s name. On this evidence alone we can be fairly certain that, monastery or not, this was regarded as an important place. As for the name Pickles Hippings, all I can tell you is that ‘hippings’ is a word associated with stepping stones and it may be that these preceded the footbridge which was marked on the first OS map and still carries you across Springs Beck. As for Shitten Ginnel, this must date to the time before it was paved.
Walk down Shitten Ginnel and over the footbridge, and then look out towards the back of Calf Hall Shed. You’ll see a landscaped car park that extends inside the extension to the weaving shed. If you’d looked down here in 1887 there would have been nothing but a green valley stretching down to Butts Mill (1846). In 1888 the Calf Hall Shed Company was formed, more about that in a moment, and the space at the back of the shed was taken up by a mill lodge that extended under the weaving shed. If you go round the front of the mill you will see where it re-emerges and goes under the road. Calf Hall Shed was very important in the development of Barlick and we need to take a closer look at it.
In 1885 Billycock Bracewell died and the bank took control of his assets to make sure they got back the capital that they had lent him. Their attitude wasn’t to continue trading but to close everything down and realise the assets, this was a terrible blow for the town as Bracewell was the biggest employer. The Craven Herald reported at the time that ‘grass was growing on the streets’. What we have to remember is that most of the houses in the town were rented and if a worker lost his job and found one in a nearby town it was very easy to find a house to rent and move. This was bad news for the traders in the town and professional people whose businesses or occupations were established and hadn’t the same freedom of movement. In 1888 a group of these people got together and founded the Long Ing Shed Company which built a new mill at Long Ing, installed an engine and let out space for tenants to install their own looms. The Room and Power System had arrived in Barlick.
Long Ing never developed beyond a single shed but in 1888 another group of capital owners met in the Old Baptist Chapel under the chairmanship of the Rev. E. R. Lewis to consider forming a company to build a shed for letting out as room and power. By 1889 the Calf Hall Shed Company had been formed and had its first annual general meeting in the Seven Stars on the 27th of April. On the first board of directors were a jeweller, a doctor, a baker, a farmer, the postmaster and a house furnisher, all people who had a stake in the town. By December 5th that year the shed was finished, the tenants in place and the engine started. By 1905 the CHSC owned four mills, they had bought Butts and Wellhouse, two of Bracewell’s old mills and another one in Colne.
This company breathed new life into the town, houses were rapidly re-occupied and many workers put their spare money in the CHSC as loans or bought shares. There was no bank in the town until the Craven Bank opened in 1905 and it made sense to invest and save with the people who were giving you employment. The system was wonderfully successful and the tenants of the mills, while continually complaining about high rent levels, made so much money that they could finance another wave of shed building in the early years of the 20th century that gave us the later mills. My point is that when you step out into Calf Hall Road, look across to what is now the new home of Carrprint and reflect on the fact that it was this mill that saved Barlick in 1889.
One other thought for you before we leave Calf Hall. It was the Springs Beck that fed Calf Hall and Butts mill before it joined with Gillians Beck. Both of these were steam driven mills and steam engines need plenty of water, not for the boilers but to cool the condensers that made them efficient. There was a big problem here in hot weather, the water that Calf Hall discharged into the beck was warm and hadn’t cooled down before it reached Butts. This meant that Butts Mill was less efficient and this fact caused much friction between mill owners on the same watercourse. This was one of the main reasons why the later mills were built on the canal as this source of condenser water was much more reliable. The Calf Hall Company tried to improve things by taking over the lease of the existing Springs Dam in 1889 for £9 per annum and diverting all the water they could find into it.
Walking to the end of Calf Hall Road we follow David into what is now known as Clough Park. The first thing to say is that we are looking at a different watercourse here. The valley which you see stretching away behind Manchester Road is the course of Gillians Beck which rises on the moor above Bancroft. This beck fed Bancroft and then provided water for Ouzledale Mill. The ‘waterfall’ at Forty Steps is actually the old mill dam but the reservoir behind was silted up well before I lived at Hey Farm in the 50s. (By the way, I think I made a mistake in an earlier piece when I said that ‘Ouzle’ was an old English name for blackbird. I should have said thrush.) From Ouzledale the water flowed into a lodge at the top end of what is now the park and in the early days this water drove the waterwheel at Mitchell’s Mill. From the mill it flowed in a culvert down the side of the chapel and under Walmsgate where it reappears briefly as it flows down the back of the club. I think that the stream was culverted round about 1825/30. The existing histories are a bit vague on this point, what they all agree on is that selling the village green where the Commercial (Now called 'The Barlick') and Green Street are now raised the money for the improvement. If you look at the older buildings on Wapping you will see that the road level has been raised about five feet. There was a ford and a footbridge here originally and the slope down from the main road (Lamb Hill) must have been very steep.
As regards Mitchell’s Mill, I have to admit that there is much to learn. I know that there was a William Mitchell, spinner in Barnoldswick in 1807 and it looks as though a John Mitchell was a wood turner at Ouzledale mill in 1822. This could point to the Mitchell family owning the water rights on Gillians Beck. The end of the 18th century saw many water spinning mills built to help make the hand-spinners more efficient so this is the likely date for the building of Mitchell’s Mill. By 1846 (Later research put this date back to before 1827.) William Mitchell had done well enough to be able to afford to build a new steam-driven mill to hold 300 looms alongside the old watermill. Barlick masons built the new mill but the chimney was erected by David Carr of Gargrave. Mitchell may have had some looms in the new mill but the main tenants were William, Thomas and Christopher Bracewell. These were the Bracewell’s of Coates who owned and ran Old Coates Mill.
William Bracewell of Newfield Edge, ‘Billycock’, was building Butts Mill at the same time so the quarries in Barlick must have been busy. Billycock had connections with an iron foundry in Burnley which manufactured engines, and it was most likely a Bracewell Beam Engine that powered Mitchell’s new mill. The boilers came from Keighley.
In 1860, the Bracewell Brothers ceased trading and vacated the mill. John Slater and his sons who also owned a silk mill at Galgate took their place. The early 60’s was a hard time for the cotton trade because of the American Civil War, cotton supplies from America stopped and the industry was hit by the ‘Cotton Famine’. Slaters had experience with other fibres and moved away from cotton to concentrate on cloths containing wool and flax. They were also cushioned by the fact that John Slater had several loom shops in the town, employed out-workers and had a carter’s business. For whatever reason, by 1867 Mitchell sold the mill to John Slater and Sons for £3,000, a lot of money in those days. As soon as Slaters bought the mill they renamed it Clough Mill and extended it, and by 1879 were building even more space. There was a slight setback in 1880 when one of the brothers, Clayton Slater, emigrated to Canada and took his share of the looms with him. This space was soon taken up by other tenants amongst whom were Stephen Pickles, James Nutter and Edmondsons. All these later became mill owners in their own right.
In 1913 a new Burnley Ironworks engine was installed to replace the old beam engine and this powered the mill until it closed. In later years, Tom Clarke used Clough in the early days of Silentnight and if I remember rightly there was a disastrous fire in the late fifties that destroyed most of the buildings. I don’t think it worked again after that but as I say, I have much to learn about this site yet.
I told you we wouldn’t get far along David’s walk this week, there is far too much interesting stuff to look at. We’ll carry on with our walk up the hill to Ouzledale next week.
28 August 2000
First published 28 August 2000
We rejoin David this week on Calf Hall Road. I have a feeling we might be here for a while, there is much to talk about! The first thing to recognise is that what we now call Calf Hall Road started life as Calf Hall Lane. It turns in towards Weets down the far side of the shed and connects into a network of mediaeval lanes that stretches across the countryside to Gisburn. If you walk down the side of the shed following the lane you pass what is reputedly the site of the monastery founded in 1147 by the monks from Fountain’s Abbey when Henry de Lacy gave the Manor of Barnoldswick to the them. Nobody is certain about the exact position of the site but one thing is clear on the first OS map, where Pickles Hippings (Shitten Ginnel to older Barlickers) meets Calf Hall Lane was the site of St Mary’s Well, this name might have been bestowed on the well by the Cistercians who named all their houses after St Mary.
In both Pagan and Early Christian times, all wells were venerated as sacred places. This must have been quite an important well as it has been given a saint’s name. On this evidence alone we can be fairly certain that, monastery or not, this was regarded as an important place. As for the name Pickles Hippings, all I can tell you is that ‘hippings’ is a word associated with stepping stones and it may be that these preceded the footbridge which was marked on the first OS map and still carries you across Springs Beck. As for Shitten Ginnel, this must date to the time before it was paved.
Walk down Shitten Ginnel and over the footbridge, and then look out towards the back of Calf Hall Shed. You’ll see a landscaped car park that extends inside the extension to the weaving shed. If you’d looked down here in 1887 there would have been nothing but a green valley stretching down to Butts Mill (1846). In 1888 the Calf Hall Shed Company was formed, more about that in a moment, and the space at the back of the shed was taken up by a mill lodge that extended under the weaving shed. If you go round the front of the mill you will see where it re-emerges and goes under the road. Calf Hall Shed was very important in the development of Barlick and we need to take a closer look at it.
In 1885 Billycock Bracewell died and the bank took control of his assets to make sure they got back the capital that they had lent him. Their attitude wasn’t to continue trading but to close everything down and realise the assets, this was a terrible blow for the town as Bracewell was the biggest employer. The Craven Herald reported at the time that ‘grass was growing on the streets’. What we have to remember is that most of the houses in the town were rented and if a worker lost his job and found one in a nearby town it was very easy to find a house to rent and move. This was bad news for the traders in the town and professional people whose businesses or occupations were established and hadn’t the same freedom of movement. In 1888 a group of these people got together and founded the Long Ing Shed Company which built a new mill at Long Ing, installed an engine and let out space for tenants to install their own looms. The Room and Power System had arrived in Barlick.
Long Ing never developed beyond a single shed but in 1888 another group of capital owners met in the Old Baptist Chapel under the chairmanship of the Rev. E. R. Lewis to consider forming a company to build a shed for letting out as room and power. By 1889 the Calf Hall Shed Company had been formed and had its first annual general meeting in the Seven Stars on the 27th of April. On the first board of directors were a jeweller, a doctor, a baker, a farmer, the postmaster and a house furnisher, all people who had a stake in the town. By December 5th that year the shed was finished, the tenants in place and the engine started. By 1905 the CHSC owned four mills, they had bought Butts and Wellhouse, two of Bracewell’s old mills and another one in Colne.
This company breathed new life into the town, houses were rapidly re-occupied and many workers put their spare money in the CHSC as loans or bought shares. There was no bank in the town until the Craven Bank opened in 1905 and it made sense to invest and save with the people who were giving you employment. The system was wonderfully successful and the tenants of the mills, while continually complaining about high rent levels, made so much money that they could finance another wave of shed building in the early years of the 20th century that gave us the later mills. My point is that when you step out into Calf Hall Road, look across to what is now the new home of Carrprint and reflect on the fact that it was this mill that saved Barlick in 1889.
One other thought for you before we leave Calf Hall. It was the Springs Beck that fed Calf Hall and Butts mill before it joined with Gillians Beck. Both of these were steam driven mills and steam engines need plenty of water, not for the boilers but to cool the condensers that made them efficient. There was a big problem here in hot weather, the water that Calf Hall discharged into the beck was warm and hadn’t cooled down before it reached Butts. This meant that Butts Mill was less efficient and this fact caused much friction between mill owners on the same watercourse. This was one of the main reasons why the later mills were built on the canal as this source of condenser water was much more reliable. The Calf Hall Company tried to improve things by taking over the lease of the existing Springs Dam in 1889 for £9 per annum and diverting all the water they could find into it.
Walking to the end of Calf Hall Road we follow David into what is now known as Clough Park. The first thing to say is that we are looking at a different watercourse here. The valley which you see stretching away behind Manchester Road is the course of Gillians Beck which rises on the moor above Bancroft. This beck fed Bancroft and then provided water for Ouzledale Mill. The ‘waterfall’ at Forty Steps is actually the old mill dam but the reservoir behind was silted up well before I lived at Hey Farm in the 50s. (By the way, I think I made a mistake in an earlier piece when I said that ‘Ouzle’ was an old English name for blackbird. I should have said thrush.) From Ouzledale the water flowed into a lodge at the top end of what is now the park and in the early days this water drove the waterwheel at Mitchell’s Mill. From the mill it flowed in a culvert down the side of the chapel and under Walmsgate where it reappears briefly as it flows down the back of the club. I think that the stream was culverted round about 1825/30. The existing histories are a bit vague on this point, what they all agree on is that selling the village green where the Commercial (Now called 'The Barlick') and Green Street are now raised the money for the improvement. If you look at the older buildings on Wapping you will see that the road level has been raised about five feet. There was a ford and a footbridge here originally and the slope down from the main road (Lamb Hill) must have been very steep.
As regards Mitchell’s Mill, I have to admit that there is much to learn. I know that there was a William Mitchell, spinner in Barnoldswick in 1807 and it looks as though a John Mitchell was a wood turner at Ouzledale mill in 1822. This could point to the Mitchell family owning the water rights on Gillians Beck. The end of the 18th century saw many water spinning mills built to help make the hand-spinners more efficient so this is the likely date for the building of Mitchell’s Mill. By 1846 (Later research put this date back to before 1827.) William Mitchell had done well enough to be able to afford to build a new steam-driven mill to hold 300 looms alongside the old watermill. Barlick masons built the new mill but the chimney was erected by David Carr of Gargrave. Mitchell may have had some looms in the new mill but the main tenants were William, Thomas and Christopher Bracewell. These were the Bracewell’s of Coates who owned and ran Old Coates Mill.
William Bracewell of Newfield Edge, ‘Billycock’, was building Butts Mill at the same time so the quarries in Barlick must have been busy. Billycock had connections with an iron foundry in Burnley which manufactured engines, and it was most likely a Bracewell Beam Engine that powered Mitchell’s new mill. The boilers came from Keighley.
In 1860, the Bracewell Brothers ceased trading and vacated the mill. John Slater and his sons who also owned a silk mill at Galgate took their place. The early 60’s was a hard time for the cotton trade because of the American Civil War, cotton supplies from America stopped and the industry was hit by the ‘Cotton Famine’. Slaters had experience with other fibres and moved away from cotton to concentrate on cloths containing wool and flax. They were also cushioned by the fact that John Slater had several loom shops in the town, employed out-workers and had a carter’s business. For whatever reason, by 1867 Mitchell sold the mill to John Slater and Sons for £3,000, a lot of money in those days. As soon as Slaters bought the mill they renamed it Clough Mill and extended it, and by 1879 were building even more space. There was a slight setback in 1880 when one of the brothers, Clayton Slater, emigrated to Canada and took his share of the looms with him. This space was soon taken up by other tenants amongst whom were Stephen Pickles, James Nutter and Edmondsons. All these later became mill owners in their own right.
In 1913 a new Burnley Ironworks engine was installed to replace the old beam engine and this powered the mill until it closed. In later years, Tom Clarke used Clough in the early days of Silentnight and if I remember rightly there was a disastrous fire in the late fifties that destroyed most of the buildings. I don’t think it worked again after that but as I say, I have much to learn about this site yet.
I told you we wouldn’t get far along David’s walk this week, there is far too much interesting stuff to look at. We’ll carry on with our walk up the hill to Ouzledale next week.
28 August 2000