Why is Church forgotten?

[WillowTheWhisp]

No, on the other side of Blackburn Road, just at the crossroads, bottom of Market Street, directly opposite the Commercial.

[Royboy39]

Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp

The coke ovens were before my time Mick, but it was a busy little place when I worked there.

Anybody know when the coke ovens ceased to be used?

Coke ovens........late forties early fifties

[WillowTheWhisp]

That's before my time

[lillypad]

[quote=Infinitus;436548]Greetings,

The Observer's website, I (directly) quote: "All the latest news for Accrington, Great Harwood, Rishton, Altham, Clayton le Moors, Huncoat, Baxenden and Oswaldtwistle, England". Oh yeah, every local place is listed there, even bloody Altham (which is less significant than Church in my opinion) but Church, the oldest place, is missing. [quote]

In the observer we are put with oswaldtwisle for local news, there is never anything to do with church in there unless its bad news nothing ever good!!! I have lived in church all my life which is 30yrs i remember all the shops on church street we used to have a police station also two butchers and plenty of other things plus stockleys sweet factory!!! i agree with another quote people selling houses and renting them out to numptys that give church the bad name. Landlords need to start vetting people before they put them into houses I call church with the best of them but i,m entitled to when i live here, but i don,t think i could live anywhere else People need to stand up for what they believe in , we need to start making a stand for church so no one ever forgets us and for the right reasons that it is a great place to live


great thread

[mallard]

it was a good place to go to at one time but the council let it get so run down there is nothing down that place now but it could be made in to a good place if the council would spend some money down there and put life back in to part...lets see what happen,s?

[Infinitus]

First and foremost, I'd like to thank everyone that has contributed to this thread, it's made a very interesting read.

There are some very good suggestions for the "demise" of Church and they probably all contributed to making it the place it is today. I thought the building of the motorway was particularly interesting. If I was to guess I'd have said that it would have been beneficial to Church to be linked with (eventually) the whole of Lancashire, but it seems this wasn't the case. Even the building of the Leeds and Liverpool canal was probably more beneficial if you look at why it was used at the time it was built. Although it doesn't really offer anything other than a walk for ramblers in today's world. I still think whatever caused all this happened way back though and probably festered for a few decades.

The fact that this is and was a working class area strikes me as probably the most distinctive reason I can fathom being a major factor in all of this. I've been doing some more digging myself and talking to the older generation it seems there were 2 areas of employment which kept most of the population of Church (and other local districts) afloat; these are obviously the cotton industry and the mining industry. I don't know exactly when the cotton mills were all closed down, but I do know it has had a knock on effect to the town/village and Lancashire. Seeing all of our cotton products are imported from China these days this will never happen again and our local heritage has probably disappeared forever. I don't really need to go into the mining thing, we all know what Maggie Thatcher did; it seems she took the only major industry we had left after the mills and left us with nothing. Now if you want to pay the bills it seems you're going to have to travel a lot further than before. Not really a problem with cars, but there's not really any money being injected into this area, well not that I can see. At least none that I can see will have a positive, long-lasting effect on Church. To me it looks like Accrington is "the beloved" and is the place being invested in. It's also local businesses that used to inject money back into the community and it seems that express gifts is the only place that offers mass employment around these parts. I think, due to health reasons, it's probably better that the mines are no longer, but from the other perspective there are no places that offer the amount of jobs that the mines did. I can't really see a way that Church can be what it once was and if the council/government thinks the same way, it's no wonder we've been forgotten. This is not really a convenient excuse considering they are the ones who are supposed to resolve problems and to invest locally, in housing, businesses and people. This being said, it seems most of Hyndburn was doomed to failure from the start and it seems Church has been hit really hard by this, my guess is it's probably hit other districts just as bad. It's no surprise the council wants to change the name of Hyndburn considering its legacy.

Still, it's not all bad, we still have some decent people around these parts who have to endure the ones who are making this place a bad place to live. We have a lot of schools around here being invested in. That's a start. Hopefully, they'll do a good job in Accy town center. I still can't help but think; I wish Church was still a town in it's own right.

By the way, I've lived here all my life too, only 22 years, but long enough to see how much it's gone downhill. I dread to think how much it's gone downhill since even further back; from the 1930s or even earlier. It makes me wonder, what I'm trying to do is find out these things from the people who know, whilst they're still around to tell the story, otherwise it will be forgotten.

John

[WillowTheWhisp]

Although the main industries are gone there is absolutely no reason why Church couldn't be developed into a wonderful area - there keeps being talk about the canalside area round the now derelict Commercial Hotel. There is such potential there but nothing ever gets done.

[steeljack]

I think one thing to realize is that there is nowhere in Church for the "nobs" to live , other areas of Hyndburn have 'better' class areas , ie the Esplanade in Rishton, Park Lane area in Gt. Harwood , New Lane in Ossy, up Manchester rd. in Accy , etc . probably the only " big" house in Church I can think of is the house overlooking Gatty park,

[MargaretR]

Originally Posted by steeljack

I think one thing to realize is that there is nowhere in Church for the "nobs" to live , other areas of Hyndburn have 'better' class areas , ie the Esplanade in Rishton, Park Lane area in Gt. Harwood , New Lane in Ossy, up Manchester rd. in Accy , etc . probably the only " big" house in Church I can think of is the house overlooking Gatty park,

That big dressed stone house in Gatty Park was divided into rented out flats ages ago. I knew the barmaid at the Cross Guns in the 1980s lived there (she said it was haunted)
PS Fielding Lane is posher than New Lane(Cockers spoiled that area-but it is now shut down-so might get better)

[cashman]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

That big dressed stone house in Gatty Park was divided into rented out flats ages ago. I knew the barmaid at the Cross Guns in the 1980s lived there (she said it was haunted)

if shes who i think it is margaret that was bacardi n coke talking lol, know a couple of guys who live there n will ask em, but theve never mentioned it.

[MargaretR]

Originally Posted by cashman

if shes who i think it is margaret that was bacardi n coke talking lol, know a couple of guys who live there n will ask em, but theve never mentioned it.

Marge (scottish girl who worked at Lightfoots ar one time)- went to her wedding do at Church Con club - not seen her since
PS she was scottish - curly hair and big glasses

[jimlin]

I am from out of the area, but I am working on renovating a property in Church, the area inside the Blackburn rd,Henry Street and canal triangle. And I think some of the posters want to be a bit more positive, from what I can see, the propertys are well built , there is a good community spirit and most of the people speak English.
I work in most of the locals towns and there is a lot lot worse and I honestly cannot say that there is much better. ok so there are no big houses where the nobs live! so what. so there is no one looking down there nose at you because they have a bigger house than you.
I work for landlords and the ones I know do not want to rent out to problem tenants, whats the point! If you know of any potential good tenants that want a nice 2 or 3 bed home in the area let me know and I will pass there details on.
One thing I have noticed is that some people look on the back alleys as a dumping ground, even when we are renovating houses we do not put any rubbish in thes public areas.
So come on, dont expect everything to be done for you, do it yourself. if its only picking up a bit of litter or puting some plants and baskets out, it all makes a difference.

[WillowTheWhisp]

Totally agree about having a positive attitude - I think the original question was more in connection with why the borough council seems to forget that Church even exists when mentioning the towns which go to make up our borough.

It would help too if that ugly great eyesore that used to be the Commercial Hotel wasn't right there staring at you on the main road junction.

[jimlin]

Eyesore between Church st and York street.
Whats with this waste land, I believe its been like this for over 12 years! when I was a kid it would have had goal posts put on it.


just do it!

[Neil]

Originally Posted by steeljack

I think one thing to realize is that there is nowhere in Church for the "nobs" to live ...... New Lane in Ossy

New Lane, you would have to pay me to live on New Lane. Ever since the M65 completion it has become one of the busiest roads in Ossy with cars and HGV's whizzing up and down all day and night.