Mellor Brook - The Bridge Inn

The Bridge Inn at Mellor, with a nice advertisement painted on the gable for Whewell's High Class Ales & Special Nourishing Stout.

Thomas Whewell's Victoria Brewery was on Adelaide St (Montague St area) in Blackburn.

Courtesy of the CP collection

Mellor Church Cricket Club - 1929

As you can see from the text, this is the Mellor Church Cricket Team in 1929.

It's a photo from an old book I used to have from that year. Sadly I can't remember the title or the author, so this one will have to go uncredited until I can find out :-)

The Red Lion at Whitebirk - Early 1920's

Taking a brief break from the Eddleston collection, here's a nice 1920's shot of the Red Lion at Whitebirk, with the road to Rishton winding away top left.

A little difficult to read, but note the ''Nuttall's Ales & Stout'' sign along the top of the pub. In fact that could quite feasibly be a Nuttall's dray driving away from the place (heading in the Blackburn direction), while the single decker bus behind it, heads off to Burnley or somewhere.

A very old building, dating from circa 1680, the Red Lion was originally just a private residence and remained so until the early 19th century.

The building to the left of the pub and the ones at the other side of the road, were the premises of Davies Bros (horse dealers / slaughterers) as far as I can make out. In my 1925 directory, they appeared to own properties at either side of the pub, as well as dwellings in the close vicinity.

Below is a nice old pane of etched glass from Nuttall's. Not from the Red Lion, but from the Bowling Green Inn, in Darwen.  A very rare sight these days and seeing as the Bowling Green has recently been refurbished, I doubt this pane is still in situ (I took the photo back in 2010).

Below is a closer view of the Red Lion and by the time of this image, it was  bearing the Lion Ales (Matthew Brown) signage, so got to be post 1927. Looking at the car just to the left of the pub, it's probably a photo from the 1940's or 50's.

I was last in there, one Saturday afternoon about 12 months ago (summer 2012). It's still a nice pub and always worth a visit.

Top photo and glass pane, courtesy of the CP collection.

Bottom photo courtesy of Cottontown.org.

Glendene and the church / chapel in Wilpshire - 1907

Just for a break from the John Eddleston photos from the 1960's, here's a couple of postcard images of Wilpshire from 1907.

The upper photo is of Glendene, which stands towards the Ribchester Rd end of Knowsley Rd and was built and lived in by a local (Blackburn) mill owner, whose name escapes me at the moment and the lower photo is of the little church / chapel, which stands almost opposite Glendene on the other side of Knowsley Rd (though its front is on Ribchester Rd).

Neither of these buildings has changed much in appearance over the 106 years since the photos were taken.

Courtesy of the CP collection. 

Feniscowles - Rose Cottage - c1900

All I know about this photo, is what it has printed on it, Rose Cottage, Feniscowles.

Does anyone recognise the house, know where it is and if it's still standing?

My date is only an estimation, based on the clothes the women are dressed in.

COURTESY OF THE CP COLLECTION 

Cuckoo Hall - Lammack Road

Last weekend someone asked me about Cuckoo Hall (sorry, I accidentally deleted your comment instead of publishing it). I think you were asking how large it was and where it was or something along those lines ???

Well as far as I'm aware, there was never a hall as such, it was just a name given to a row of four cottages that were just off the sharp bend, towards the top of Lammack Rd.

The top photo here, is the only one I know of, that shows the cottages. It dates from 1907. 

To give you some perspective, the photographer would have been stood on the bottom slopes of the huge embankment that takes you up to the 'Tank'.  The cottages fronted / faced the hill that the 'Tank' is at the top of (Revidge Hill is it?). If you could see through the trees above the rooftops in the old photo, you would probably be able to see the QEGS playing fields and Mellor / Ramsgreave beyond.

The lower photo is one I took back in May 2010 for a Facebook group (the 'name this place' group). When taking my photo, I was stood on the bend of Lammack Rd, looking  into Cuckoo Hall (I would be to the far right, just out of view in the older photo). The cottages would be on the right hand side of my view. The gatepost you can see in my photo, would be one of the posts in the wall to the right of the cottages in the older image. 

Robin Whalley and Peter Worden, in their postcards book, tell us that between the Jolly Dragoon at Four Lane Ends (opposite side to the Sportsman's) and the Hare & Hounds (facing Whinney Lane), these cottages were the only houses in 1848. Either side of them, in either direction, there would just have been fields. In fact, as you can see from the OS map, even as late as the 1930's, there was only the farmer's field between Cuckoo Hall and the cottage on the corner of Whinney Lane.

I used to deliver newspapers along both sides of Lammack Rd around 1970 - 71, when I was 12 or 13 years old and the site of the old cottages wasn't as overgrown, as they had only been demolished a couple of years earlier. Nowadays, there's virtually nothing left to see.

But sorry to disappoint you 'anonymous', as there wasn't a ''hall'' in that sense of the word (unless someone else knows differently).

This small section of an early 1930's map shows you exactly where the cottages were. The 'Res' (marked on the map) just over Revidge Rd from the tennis courts is the 'Tank' and as you can see, Cuckoo Hall was at the bottom of the same hill (just off Lammack Rd).

TOP PHOTO COURTESY OF COTTONTOWN.

LOWER PHOTO COURTESY OF CP.

MAP SECTION COURTESY OF THE ORDNANCE SURVEY. 

Knowsley Road - Wilpshire x 4

Four old postcards, looking along various points of Knowsley Road in Wilpshire. I know the top one dates to 1903, but not sure exactly when the others date to. I'm calling it's Knowsley Road, but I think along its length the various terraces have names of their own, but sure we all know the road I mean (first left after the Bull's Head).
And if you look to the right when you get to the other end of it (Clayton le Dale end), you see the church below and then not far beyond the church, the view below that, with the Wilpshire Hotel on the corner in the far distance.
 .

All courtesy of the CP collection

Trinity United Reformed Church - Brownhill

Another past and present exercise. This is Trinity United Reformed Church at Brownhill. This little building was once one of the three chapels that stood in the old cemetery off Whalley New Road. They dismantled it stone by stone, brick by brick and rebuilt it on its present plot. I haven't been able to determine whether that happened in the 1930's or the 1950's (probably the latter).

The early photo shows it being rebuilt, whichever decade it was.

If you were stood at the main gates of the cemetery looking towards the War Memorial, I think this chapel would have been somewhere to the right of the memorial, a bit further up in the cemetery. I've arrived at that conclusion, as looking on an old map, the chapel to the left was the RC chapel, the central chapel was the wrong shape and the pitch of the roof ran the wrong way, but the nonconformist chapel, at the Clarendon Rd side, looks about right.
I know that conflicts with what I originally wrote, but I've studied the map again and also looked at a 1940's aerial view of the cemetery and surrounding area and now pretty convinced I have the right one. Also, as the aerial map is from the 1940's, it can't have been removed in the 1930's, so the old newspaper article, is probably from the 1950's.
DOH !  I have just read the newspaper clipping in the top left corner of the older photo and it actually tells us it was indeed the Nonconformists chapel. Dear oh dear, I must get myself to the opticians soon ;- ) 

Top image courtesy of  T. Griffiths and the Blackburn Times newspaper.

Bottom image taken by myself in April 2012

Pleasington (New) Hall

Following on from the posts of Woodfold Hall, Feniscowles Hall and Livesey Old Hall, here are a few images of Pleasington Hall, often referred to as Pleasington New Hall, to distinguish it from Pleasington Old Hall, which still stands to this day.

Pleasington Hall was built in 1805-07 by John Francis Butler and it was occupied right through until 1914 (Sir Harry Hornby being the last to occupy the place), but sadly, as seems to be the case with many of these large mansions, it fell into disrepair over the following 18 years and was finally demolished in 1932 by Blackburn Council, after they had purchased the hall and the surrounding 170 acres of land in 1931 to use as the new public cemetery.

It took me a while to figure out just where within those 170 acres it actually stood, but after overlaying the old OS map (part of which is included here) over later maps, I came to the conclusion that it was only a stones throw from the old hall, but on the other side of the main cemetery drive. If you take a look at the coloured cemetery plan below (courtesy of BwDBC), I have drawn a rough black line in the top left corner of approximately where the ''new'' hall stood.

The top two photographs, show the front entrance, with its curved porch, which would have faced west (kind of) towards Pleasington. I have marked the porch with a red squiggle on the OS map. The third and fourth images both show the same south facing, side elevation (marked in light blue on the OS map) and the bottom photo / postcard shows the lodge, which stood down at the bottom of the cemetery drive, where the entrance gates are today. In fact they may even be the same gate posts (I'll have a look next time I'm up that way).

You can see by comparing the two halls on the OS map section, that the ''new'' hall was substantially larger than the ''old'' hall (marked with a pink dot), though not quite as grand as Woodfold Hall.

The banked gardens in the third image, with the donkey pulling the lawn mower, and fourth image, would mirror the incline of the driveway, which is still, between the gates and the duck pond, a bit of a climb today. 

 
Map section courtesy of the Ordnance Survey.
Cemetery plan courtesy of BwDBC.
The grainy image / photo / etching courtesy of Stephen Barrow.
The rest courtesy of the CP collection.
The bottom image is Pleasington Old Hall
Information courtesy of Blackburn Reference Library, Eric Leaver & CP.

Mellor Brook - Circa 1920

As it says on the card, this is a view in Mellor Brook. On the right is the Feilden's Arms and just to the left of the parked cart, you can see the sign above the Post Office door.

Unsure of the decade, but at a guess, I would say the1920's.

COURTESY OF THE CP COLLECTION

Pleasington Priory x 2

A couple of shots of Pleasington Priory. The upper one looks to be early 20th century and the lower one, possibly a few decades later, 1950's maybe? 

COURTESY OF THE CP COLLECTION

Church Lane - Mellor

This is Church Lane, Mellor. Possibly taken at the same time as the other, similar photo on here. Just a little further down the lane.

COURTESY OF THE CP COLLECTION

Lower Darwen Railway Station

Early 20th Century

The signal box c1950's

The engine sheds, which were I believe, closer to Highercroft, kind of behind the Manxman pub.

I believe this photograph is from the 1950's, but if you know different, please let me know and I'll happily amend the post. I don't personally remember this little station, but I know you accessed it somewhere down by Rakes Bridge (I think the steps to the platform are still there, even though the platform has long gone). I'll bet that sign is worth a few quid today.

COURTESY OF THE CP COLLECTION

Mellor - The Waterworks

I don't know anything about this one really, other than what it says on the image, the waterworks at Mellor.

COURTESY OF THE CP COLLECTION

Elswick Terrace - Balderstone c1890 (?)

Born in the heart of the town, as I was, Balderstone was one of those rural areas that I always associated with the more affluent, prosperous folks of Blackburn. Though looking at these two black & white images from the 19th century, it obviously wasn't always the case.

The modern day photo of Elswick Terrace (compare & contrast) was taken by myself on Jan 16th 2012

COURTESY OF THE CP COLLECTION

St Mary's Church - Mellor

Opened in 1829, this is St Mary's in Mellor. This church had close ties with the Thwaites family. Daniel Thwaites II (lord of the manor of Mellor) is buried here and I believe there's a memorial window to John Thwaites.

In 1878, Daniel paid for the clock in the tower and the bells. Later, Mrs Yerburgh (D. Thwaites daughter) paid for an organ.

At a guess, I would date this photo to the 1880's or 1890's

COURTESY OF THE CP COLLECTION

Witton Stocks - c1905

Witton Stocks in the first decade of the 20th century.

The second photo, is one I took in August / September of 2009.  It has changed a little over the century between the two shots, but is still more recognisable than lots of other areas of Blackburn now are.

Below is an earlier photo, taken from the other side of this (now) busy crossroads. It shows some of the same properties, the shop on the left for instance, before the road that became Buncer Lane was constructed.

COURTESY OF THE CP COLLECTION

LOWER PHOTO COURTESY OF BLACKBURN LIBRARY REFERENCE DEPT.