West End Memories
 

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. :D

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?

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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. :)

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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.

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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. :eek:

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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.

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

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Shame! :(

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saw your comments I lived at 357

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

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

God, that was difficult.

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hello I my parents moved from Blackburn to the then new houses just off thwiates road in the mid 60's when I was about 6ys old.. I remember the biulding of the pub on thwiates road but can't recall the name. not the most exciting time for kids at that time.. spent most of our time throwing pebbles at each other with the "stanhill mob" lol. do you recall the council houses just stuck there on thwiates road? central avenue? always thought it was funny.. a street with nothing around it (is it still there?)

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The pub is called The Thwaites Arms and still stands as a monument late 60's architecture.
As a then Stanhill kid,[ l think l'm a bit younger than you so l won't blame you,] it was probably your younger siblings who stoned us if we ever had to go down Cardigan Avenue. God they were aggressive!

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I feel so old reading the latest posts . :(

When I lived in West End the only pub was the Hare and Hounds. I had no idea there was one on Thwaites Rd.

The fights with the Stanhill mob must have taken over from the White Ash feud. In my day I only knew 2 boys (brothers) who lived in Stanhill and they were ex-West Enders who I had grown up with.

Central Ave. was strange, I agree. I never knew if it was part of West End or not as it was nearer to Stanhill - but, then, so was West End School.

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Yes Westend's strange as it stretches so far, from Blackburn Rd. right up to Stanhill nearly. l just about remember the Swanee- was great for Blackberry picking, but was always warned people had died in there and were sucked under by the mud. The best bullrushes were always too far to get because of the mud.

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I never knew of anyone who died at the Swanee though a little boy, who I knew very well, drowned in the lodge of Stanhill Spinning Mill. Strange that the mill, which was in West End, was called Stanhill Mill.

I remember the mud at the Swanee. One of my brothers once fell in it and we had to walk home with him covered from head to foot in sludge and reeking of the stuff. I was supposed to 'cover' for him, at home, while he dashed straight up to the bathroom. I was only about 7 and walked into the sitting room trailing his stinky pullover behind me so the cover was blown. He didn't get into the trouble he thought he would. Neither did I, the day I fell into the pig-muck at Feathers' farm, but that's another story.

I don't suppose Kemp Delph still exists, does it? It was an old quarry, full of water, in a field behind the main road in Stanhill and right at the edge of Ossy Moors. It had a steep 'cliff' at one end and a sloping 'beach' at the other. We used it as the local lido in the Summer, for swimming and sunbathing, and people used to take picnics up there at weekends.

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Kemp Delph is still there, though the last time l walked past it was completly fenced off. lt must have been the most dangerous place in the world to swim in on a hot day, it's a sheer drop. l remember lots of cows falling in and drowning in it. l was a softy and never dared to.

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I never dived off the 'cliff', though I used to dive into Stanhill Mill lodge - God knows how I survived my childhood, that lodge was full of rubbish. :D

Lots of people did dive at Kemp Delph, it was the place for teenaged lads to show off to the girls. I swam there many a time and the water was freezing cold. We probably weren't as aware of Danger as people are today and, of course, there weren't the facilities that are around now. It was either a delph or Accy Baths if you felt like a swim on a hot day. Accidents used to happen, occasionally, but it was just part of Life. I wouldn't like to say whether things have changed for the better or not but they've certainly changed.

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I remember a man called David Young but he was about my parents' age and would now be in his 90s. I guess that wasn't your dad?

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The Thwaites Arms is now called The Brewers Arms

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Where is/was the Thwaites Arms, JMJ? There was only one pub when I lived in West End and that was the Hare and Hounds, on Blackburn Rd. almost opposite the junction with Thwaites Rd. That was in the days when Aspden Lane was just a cinder-track through the fields up to West End School.

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The pub Thwaites Arms now renamed The Brewers Arms is situated on Thwaites Road at the bottom of Banbury Avenue

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We lived on White Ash Lane in one of the old cottages right on the bend. We were back in May and walked by the Kemp Delph, it was full of rubbish and styrophone. The landlord of the Thwaites Arms during the late 60s was Niel Franklin ex Portsmouth and England center half, he used to play occassionally on sunday mornings on the Whiteash. The old mill at the bottom of Roe Greave Rd has gone and is now new houses.

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I can remember the old dairy opposite the cricket ground. I used to be fascinated by the bottles coming down the chute to be packed in crates. And they made wonderful ice cream. I know people have to have houses, but it does seem a shame sometimes that it's so built up now.

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One piece of trivia - Oswaldtwistle is/was the largest urban district in England. Church was the smallest.

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people still go in kemp delph swimming and jumping off cliffs and the brewers arms in situated next to the SPAR on Thwaites road across from wordworths close.

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I used to live on central avenue we were'nt part of stanhill or west end I can remember bonfire time and the running battles with the westenders I can remember the swanney and the pickle onion factory and i can remember the fields all round before they built cardigan ave

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I used to know a girl who lived on Central Ave whose name was Pat Byrne (or maybe Burns, I'm not sure). I haven't seen her for about 55 years! :eek:

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the "Dunnes" also lived on yon, quite a big family, i knew a couple of em.:)

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One of the lads was a very good footballer cashy

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I know her sister kath and Christine & Bernadett see them every day pm me if you want to send message . Will put them in touch with you if you like.

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A few names that I can recall who lived at West End.
David Harker, Harry and Ambrose Mitchell, Kieth Thornley, Donald Eddleston.
Any know them?... Donald I know still lives there and is a member of this forum but have no details of the rest?

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I knew Harry and Ambrose very well, they lived 3 doors from me and Ambrose and I are the same age. Knew Keith Thornley, who my great aunt used to child-mind, and the Eddleston family but I can't place David Harker - didn't someone say he lived at the pub?

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You might know i do but you are wrong about Donald Eddleston he dont live there he has Rest home for the Elderly down Clayton which his wife Pat runs but he is still working with his haulage company .
David Harker married Brenda Bewley
Harry Mitchell retired lives next door to Hare& Hounds
Ambrose just lives up the road from me
Cant remember Keith Thornley

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Yes he did... he was the son of Willy Harker who played for Burnley and in his own right was a hell of a footballer who played in the Rhyddings first team at the time.....David will be around 68/69 if he is still with us?

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I was pally for a time with Martha Cross who lived on Spread Eagle St
Anyone know what happened to her?

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I was friendly with Martha. We weren't "mates" but we used to knock around together occasionally. I have no idea where she is now.

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I know Harry Mitchell very well, think his wifes called Corine, There was a Chap called Harker was Landlord of the Hare and Hounds in the sixties West Ender, but I'm nearly sure he was called Billy, might have had a on called David, Billy's Nephew was called Brian Philips was Steward at Ossy Con at the same time and a few of us went over there with Brian quite regularly

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Just got up John? Have a look at post 36. :)

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Harry, Ken & Steven ,& a sister [sheila].

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Sorry Roy, its happen because Burnley was mentioned that I didn't read it properly Roy:D

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If i am on the right person last time i saw her she was living on alleytroyds down church .

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Thanks - will watch out for her
I haven't seen her since 1955, but I never forget a face
especially ones without eyebrows which is what she did to mine :D

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i knew Glynis n Bacca, never did know his real name.:D still he never knew mine.:D

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i lived in percy street no 10 i can remember ,,youngs crabtrees irelands pen on the spare ground dairy and the wreck at top of percy street can you?

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I remember the rec. but it was demolished when I was quite young. I also remember the Crabtrees and Mr Ireland.

Are you Hazel Morris, by any chance?

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yeah .who are you/

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Hazel, I've PMd you. :)

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martha cross lived on percy street,,,when i did not spreadeagle street

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I worked with a lad West Ender who lived on Percy Street, he was called Raymond, can't think of his surname, he had a beard wasn't very tall but was stocky

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I went to those Saturday night 'hops' at the West End Methodist hall
.....think that would be about 1954/55

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yeah they were good ,,the dances..you must be getting on ha ha

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i know who you mean but cant think of his last name either

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I am 66 and a bit:D - we may well have met

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hello again ,,,good age,,yes i most possibly do know you....

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This was me at 15/16

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I went to those dances too from being about 13, so 1956/57 - ish, they were good fun.

I don't remember a Raymond on Percy St. The only Raymond I knew was my eldest brother. :D

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its now called trickys very popular pub these days

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i grew up next door to the hare and hounds pub in west end my dad used to sing elvis in hare most weekends.the used to be pens at the back the where i used to go feed the goats chickens and horses. always went with our nets and a bucket in the summer time to try catch little sticklebacks on the canal that was just down the lane :) it was a nice place to grow up for 10 years. the park was great it had the biggest slide and the fastest round a bout and a big field i spent most of my days on there no worrys. then moved on to percy street a street down side of the daisey dairy used to camp out on the fields at the top and go in the closed down dairy when secruity man wernt watching there was always something to do if not on park in dairy or on fields we on the lodge skimming in stones and looking for tadpoles and frogs then climb the trees in bluebell wood as i typed i relise i had a great child hood in west end good memories that will stay with me a long time :)

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Sounds like we had a similar childhood, Bluebell wood, the lodge, dairy fields (the dairy was still going when I was little), taking a fishing net and bucket down to the canal to catch sticklebacks. Oh, and the roundabout really was vicious when the older kids started pushing it really fast. The slide seemed enormous in those days. I also remember Ted the butcher ( he retired a couple of years ago), Harry Hazely's paper shop that later became Clarey's, and the little Methodist church where our street had its Silver Jubilee party in 77 because it was raining on the day! Happy days indeed.:):):)