West End Memories

[West Ender]

I grew up in West End in the 40s and 50s. It was a village then and only connected with the town by Thwaites Rd., which had just a few houses on one side. There were the remains of what I think had once been a pickled onion factory on Thwaites Rd., just the "footings" still there and a large pond that, for some reason, we called "the Swanee". I can remember sliding on the ice there in the days when we used to get bad Winters and REAL snow.

I lived on Blackburn Rd. and behind our house were our gardens, then fields, the golf course and the railway line. The canal ran through the fields and my mother had me taught to swim at the age of 5 because I used to play round there and she was terrified I'd drown! Opposite us was St. Thomas' church and a petrol station, then just fields again until Stanhill village, with West End School sitting on top of the hill - with nothing around it.

At the bottom end of Blackburn Rd., where the canal runs parallel with the road, there was a lovely old rectory with wooded land all around it. My brothers and I used to play in the grounds but it was demolished to make way for houses in the early 50s. The old, cobbled coach road used to run alongside it. That ran across Tinker Brook (the old bridge) to White Ash. I recall a bitter feud between the White Ash kids and the West End kids and "gang warfare" when one lot or other used to charge along Thwaites Rd. for a fight. I never knew what it was all about.

I left West End in 1962, when I got married and moved to Rutland - then to the North East, and 2 years later my parents moved to Feniscowles. The last time I saw the place was about 10 years ago when I drove from Accrington (where I'd been to a funeral) to Feniscowles. There didn't seem to be any "gap" left between West End and Stanhill and it all seemed to be getting very built-up.

I believe even the Spinning Mill has now gone. Does anyone remember the village the way it used to be when I lived there?

[WillowTheWhisp]

I don't go back that far but thanks for the superb vivid description. It sounds like it was a lovely place in those days.

[West Ender]

Thanks Willow. It was a lovely place (probably still is - I don't know) and I was very happy there. I often used to walk home from school through the fields between White Ash and West End, along part of the "coach road", but I saw that it is all built on now. My brothers tell me that my old school, Paddock House, has also become a housing estate.

We have the same thing here in the village where I now live. This is a rural area but a lot of green-belt land gets "acquired" by developers and every open bit of the village gets a couple of houses sooner or later. You can't stop progress but it's a shame when the countryside starts to disappear.

I'll just keep my memories of West End and the rest of Ossy the way it was, along with all the lovely people I knew and grew up with.

[JohnW]

Sorry to say that Baxenden has basicly gone the same way. I was born there in 1943 and lived there until I was ten. Manchester Road was almost the whole village then. There was always Hollins Lane (no school) leading down towards the Woodnook area and there was Hill Street with about 20 or 30 houses. The only other road running parrallel to Manchester Road was Ashworth Street. I remember them building the "Old folks bungalows" on Ashworth Street and my maternal grandparents were the first to move in. "The Laund" was my favourite place where I had my own tree to swing on etc but that is all built out now. North of what is now Southwood Drive and east of Back Lane was nothing but fields and was in fact a farm owned by the Marshall family. I went to school with their daughter Olwyn. I remember a terrible fire at the farm outbuildings around about 1951 or 1952 when all their pigs died caught in the fire. On the other side of Manchester Road there was Whitecroft View, but their front doors opened on to Whitecroft Farm's fields, there was no roadway and there were no other houses at all. It is totally changed and, I'm afraid, spoiled for me. I used to love the openness of the area. Sadly, Britain has become a very overcrowded little island now.

[West Ender]

JohnW, is the Hollands pie factory chimney still there? In the days when few of us had cars I worked in Bury and I used to travel to work by train. The chimney was a landmark, with H-O-L-L-A-N-D-S written down the side of it, and I was always glad to see it, on my way home, because it meant I was nearly in Accrington then only a 10 minute bus-ride back to West End and one of my mum's wonderful meals.


When, later, I lived in North Yorkshire we used to visit my parents in Blackburn and take home a couple of dozen Hollands meat pies and steak puddings for the freezer. You couldn't get anything like that up there.

Please, don't tell me they've knocked the chimney down.

[Bagpuss]

Originally Posted by West Ender

Please, don't tell me they've knocked the chimney down.

Oh dear it looks like another of your memories will have to stay just a memory, the chimney is no longer standing I'm afraid, I think it was demolished about 8 years ago.

[Bagpuss]

Just for you West Ender the chimney was demolished in the 80's.

[West Ender]

Originally Posted by Bagpuss

Just for you West Ender the chimney was demolished in the 80's.

Shame!

[bargee]

saw your comments I lived at 357

[JohnW]

Originally Posted by bargee

saw your comments I lived at 357

Sorry Bargee, but whose comments? Which road at number 357?

[West Ender]

In reply to your question, JohnW. He knows - and I know - and he knows I know - and I know he knows I know!

God, that was difficult.