Lancashire

A new maker to me, seen on a trip around the terraced streets of Oldham. S & J Smethurst, Grimbies Brick Works, Rochdale Road, Oldham. The 1890s OS maps show a works with a Hoffman type oval kiln adjacent to the junction of Booth Hill Lane and Godson Street. In 1869 John Smethurst is listed as owner of Salmon Field Colliery, Royton, Oldham. This was a short distance to the north-east of the brickworks.

The Blackhill brickworks was situated a short distancefrom the railway station at Entwistle, north of Bolton. The 1910 OS map shows the works with nine round kilns and a long tramway from a quarry to the north. There is a second tramway which runs under the main railway to an exchange wharf in the goods yard. By 1929 it had all gone.

Briar Mill Ltd built this mill in 1906 to the design of Philip Sydney Stott. In 1915 the cotton spinning here was undertaken with 96,768 mule spindles and 25,088 ring spindles. IAfter bankruptcy the company was refloated as Briar Mill (1920) Ltd. In about 1955 the Lancashire Cotton Corporation took over, and in 1964 it [assed to Courtaulds Ltd. Converted as a warehouse and distribution centre of catalogue for J.D. Williams Ltd in 1968, it continues in this use along with the adjacent Lilac Mill to which it is now connected by a bridge. Current operations here are by Fulfillment Logistics, a division of J.D. Williams.

The 6 inch OS map surveyed in 1849/50 shows a series of coal pits on the moors north of Edgworth within Blackburn & Darwen. These are marked as comprising Broad-head Colliery and central to these workings are a series of beehive coke ovens to convert the small coal from the workings. By the late 19th century the pits were long abandoned and today can be identified by their collapsed shafts and associated spoil tips. The colliery remains and coke ovens are a scheduled ancient monument but this does not seem to mean that there is much chance of their preservation. What is left of the coke ovens are the fused shell and inner linings standing out of the moor as they slowly decay and disintegrate. A lonely place, which probably accounts for the survival of these few bits.

The use of a mosaic image removed the need to write the name of this Mill on its tower. Built for the Bell Mill Co. Ltd. to the design of the firm of Potts, Son, & Hennings in 1904 this mill has a completely different look to a Stott product.

The terracotta decoration on the Municipal Buildings, Hewlett St, Wigan, is extensive and spectacular. Constructed in 1900 to the design of architects Bradshaw and Gass of Bolton, the building was originally built for the Royal London Friendly Society as seven shops with upper floor storage and private offices.

Many of the cotton mills in the Oldham area have massive iron gates and gateposts at the entrance. This example at Briar Mill, Shaw, has the makers' name attached. Sadly, I have no further information about the Chadderton Iron Works.

Built in 1906, the Carnegie Free Library in Shaw no longer dispenses books to an eager populace. Until recently it was in a derelict state, ut has now been converted to apartments.

Maple No.2 Mill at Hathershaw, Oldham, was completed in 1915 adjacent to the 1904 built No.1 Mill. By 2009 the No.2 Mill was occupied by a kitchen furniture business and on 21st April of that year a disastrous fire occured which destroyed the whole building apart from the tower and one end wall. The site is slowly being reclaimed with thousands of top qualitry bricks being recycled by the demolition contractors.

Moravian School, Main Road, Oldham. Designed by architect CT Taylor and completed in 1906. The building is listed Grade II.

The impressive Facit Ring Mill was built 1904-05 by the Facit Mill Company Limited. Architect was Sidney Stott and Jonathan Partington of Middleton the main contractor.In 1910 a total of 56,000 ring spindles were running , and this increased to 60,776 by 1918. Power was provided by a 1500hp McNaught horizontal cross-compound engine until 1958 when the machinery was electrified. Cotton spinning ended in February 1967 and subsequently the mill has seen a variety of industrial uses. It is currently disused and to let.

The house have been cleared from around, but the Britannia still stands proud. The quality of the building will have significantly exceeded that of the terraces whose inhabitants it once served. The terracotta decoration can be seen here in close up .

George Hargreaves & Co sank the shaft of Grimebridge Colliery in 1851 and soon after a 'ginny road' was built across the moors to transport the coal tubs to the road up the valley from Waterfoot. The line operated for at least 90 years before the coal was routed through the hill to a wharf near Old Meadows on the Bacup to Burnley road. There were three tunnels on the line and this is the interior of one of these. It is about four feet high and would have held a double track plateway for the tubs.

This brick came as a complete surprise as I had no idea that Pope & Pearson, the well known West Yorkshire colliery proprietors, had an interest in brickmaking at Newhey south of Rochdale.

The owner of the brickworks was R.P.Barker. After Blaguegate Colliery, Skelmersdale closed in February 1933 the site was developed by Ralph Platt Barker from c1936 as the Lathom Brickworks. This rather worn dated example was lying on the beach at Crosby.

I was driving along the M62 past Milnrow as I have done many times before, only this time I spotted something. On approaching a bridge carrying a farm lane over the motorway I looked up and spotted a bank of coke ovens on the hillside. How on earth had I managed to miss those for so many years? Moving on a couple of weeks I was back for a closer look at this row of beehive ovens built into the hillside. The stone facing has long been removed for re-use but the back half of the kilns remains. My first thought was that they were associated with Tunshill Colliery which was a short distance downhill from here, but after a bit of research I reckon they were built to use coal drawn from the Tunshill Hey Collieries operated on the north-east side of the hill in the later nineteenth century by Benjamin Chadwick and the Executors of Alfred Wild who also seem to have been involved with the colliery and coke ovens at Schofield Hall, of which more anon. The coal was brought through the hill from Tunshill Hey workings and emerged from a tramming level close to the ovens. By producing the coke here it was closer to the markets of Oldham and Rochdale and may even have been sent down the tramroad linking Tunshill Colliery with Butterworth Hall Pit in Milnrow itself.

Whilst out walking on the moors above Rochdale today this male Common Hawker ( Aeshna juncea ) was busy patrolling a large puddle on the path and this gave me time and opportunity for a few in flight shots. This was one of the better ones. The golden costa on this species is very evident here.

This one took a bit of effort to find any information at all. Out walking at the weekend, the rangers at Hollingworth Lake Country Park told me of a tin church not far away. Having found the building there was no nameboard or information of any sort and it was clear that it had been out of use for quite a while. It turns out to be St Hilda's Mission Church, Syke Road, Hollingworth Fold. The church was founded in 1931 which was surprising as the building is clearly older than that. This is because it was originally the first Catholic Church at Featherstall, Littleborough serving St Mary's RC Parish. On completion of a new brick church the old building was sold to Hollingworth through the Mother church at Milnrow, out of the Hill Charity, and was re-erected with structural modifications in 1931.