Re: Woodnook mill.
 

Which mill had the tallest chimney in Hyndburn?

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

Eeew good question Morecambe ... sea level or ground level ? ... :D

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

I was thinking about the height above ground level but what dictated the height each one had to be.

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

The tallest chimney I've ever climbed was a 200 footer, at a mill in Heapy Clough Chorley.

The two tallest in Acc would probably be Broad Oak Print Works and Bulloughs. Broad Oak had 6 Lancashire boilers and generated their own electricity.
The bricks used in chimneys are not your common house brick, they were moulded to curve in the diameter of the chimney, starting with the largest diam at the bottom, sometimes 12 or more rows at the bottom, tapering as it went up to 6 rows at the top. 1/2 million bricks.

I worked with Fred Cooper a steeplejack from Blackburn, he could do a five foot rise in a day, two of us stacking bricks and mortar at the 4 corners on the platform while he laid the bricks, and you had to work hard to keep up with him, two more blokes at the bottom loading bricks and mortar on the hoist, operated by Bill Seed, and two more blokes mixing mortar and unloading the bricks from the lorries.
When that was done it was back to Fred's workshop to make the steel bands for the top 50 ft
all the diameters of the chimneys he ever worked on were marked out on the loft floor, and we put the steel plate through the rollers on the bending machine till it had the right curve, then drill the ends for the bolts and then bend the ends to the right angle to join up and pull tight on the chimney at the right place.
Then back to the chimney a week later, after the mortar had chance to set, and fit the bands in place, then give them a final coat of red lead paint

Retlaw.

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

That's really interesting Retlaw ... :)

Seems the mill that I was talking about that is like Woodnook was India Mill at Darwen ... no, not on the outside (although is red brick at the back) .. the windows and some of the internal design.
Now, that is some chimney, isn't it.

Seems that the middle ledge is wide enough to get a horse and cart around it !

Think John Warburton maintains this too ?

Attachment 15108

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

Retlaw.

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

"Seems that the middle ledge is wide enough to get a horse and cart around it !
It will be a very little horse and cart, might get stuck on the corners, YOU could probably push a pram round it."


Well, that was what I was told by a builder friend of mine who was in touch with the steeplejack who told him this ... :p

Oh No !! why am I in blue now like Retlaw, horror of horrors .. :eek:

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

HEY RETLAW! Where the flippin' eck you been? GLAD YOU ARE BACK WITH US!! Happy Christmas to you!

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

Christmas again already, that means library's shut for best part of week, all because of some mythical being whos existence has never been proved.

Retlaw.

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

i dispute that as i once told me daughter i used to play darts wi him in the Black Horse n being 5 yrs old at the time she bought it.:D

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

The widest oversail on the India mill chimney is 4' 9",it was easy for me to remember this because i knew it was an inch more than my grandma was,she was 4'8"

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

Bah Humbug.. http://planetsmilies.net/xmas-smiley-7703.gif

Oversail ..that's what's it's called. Thanks. Suppose if it is a narrow cart and not too obese a horse, could just fit on that oversail. Ah bless, your grandma must have been really tiny.

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

Bah Humbug.. http://planetsmilies.net/xmas-smiley-7703.gifBah Humbug.. http://planetsmilies.net/xmas-smiley-7703.gifBah Humbug.. http://planetsmilies.net/xmas-smiley-7703.gifBah Humbug.. http://planetsmilies.net/xmas-smiley-7703.gif

Thanks Keta, Etak, uh Medusa, any way I
like it so much I've coppied it several times.

Retlaw

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

I have a photo of the India Mill Chimney here
India Mill, Darwen, Lancashire on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

I took a few snowy pics of the site of Woodnook Mill yesterday......Atarah thought they would be good in this thread so here they are.

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

and very nice they look to

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

Thank you Wadey!

I was away last week when the chimney came down and I was praying for rain so that it would not be possible for them to fell it........well.......that didn't work.
To say I was disappointed is an understatement.......and as good as the pictures of the event are(congratulations to those who managed to get pics)....it in no way compensates for missing the 'drop'.

I lived my life growing up on the Hill, the chimney was always a focal point, as was the Mill......and the current views from Ma's place are very strange.

Woodnook mill.
 

Here is a marvellous photo, not as clear as I would have liked, but still good. Thanks to Mr Fred Barratt (ex roofing man) who took this aerial view and gave me permission to use it. It must be after 1992 cos thats when Woodnook St Marys School was being demolished - you can make out the new housing has been built on the site of the school.

I had NO IDEA the factory and other buildings covered such a large area.

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

what a brilliant picture Atarah. I love it!

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

Super photo, was the school just left of centre?

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

Wadey the School was where the new houses are.......just a little right of the centre.

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

Thanks

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

you're welcome.

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

Nipped round today, mustnt forget to keep up to date with the site eh? A few photos showing a bleak looking site.

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

And a few more from today. Before we know it, the proposed houses will be built and lived in!

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

You never know. Watch for those pigs flying about

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

A ha! Me thinks you know something .......... Go on, tell!

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

I know it's got Planning Permission for Housing. I sat on the committee when it came up. The developers had been in a lot of discussion with the Council planners on the number of houses on that site.

There's not a lot of money about I know, but I would think that it's a decent site for housing, and they would probably sell quite well

Don't lay at my door though, if nowt happens for awhile.

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

Re Highams Mill.
For those who keep asking where's such and such.
I've put some names on Atarah's picture and then you can see where places are in relation to Highams Mill.

Retlaw

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

I do not think though, Bernard, that the owners would have demolished Woodnook without an assurance of funding from the banks for a new build.

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

'Owd Coop' .. :D:D:D

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

Yep got it in one Medusa.
Owd Co-op or Thowd Co-op
kall id wad tha wants

At least it shows thas luked ad id un red it,
not like sum, us stil ax daft questuns evun after
theyv bin anserd. Dusti like them culurs

Retlaw.

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

Oh aye lad,
I luvs thee pink,
Showing th'owd Co-op but wear's River Stink ?

Not on this map .. ah'll be bownd,
Just Woodnook watters,
dahn Priestley Cluf.

Tha's wrong wi' Higham's Mill,
Bin called Woodnuck neah for many a wile.
Tha's fergiven tho .. 'cos .. I ..
Just luvs thi style. x :p

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

Id wur calls Iams mill wen a wur a lad,
owd Tum Iam wert gaffer,
ids bi calld allsuerts sin then, bud as am
owder than thee its Iams Mill.
Un dorned gi cheek tu the elders, or thal
gu across me knee an ged pasted wit slipper.
Like thy faythur shud a dun.
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
Retlaw.

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

everyone called it Highams Mill, mid 60s when i did a short spell yon.:confused:

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

Yeh, but it still belonged to Highams then Cashy. Think the Enfield Group bought it around 81/82 .. well, summat like that anyway.

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

Never knew that Kate, worked fer Enfield up ossy late 60s.:) in fact bumped into one of the owd tacklers t'other day.:)

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

You would have thought so Kate. I would have thought also that people who live around there would want the site developed sooner rather than later.

It will certainly look different up there when those houses are built.

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

So what its akin to changing names on pubs,
Hargreaves in Manchester Rd is still refered to
as Hargreaves, no matter what name they put oer door. Highams's is still Highams's no matter what tha ses, so bi teld wil ti.
:theband:

Retlaw

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

It will always be Highams mill to me........and the big old red brick mill was Warburtons.

site of Woodnook mill Jan 2010
 

Latest views - taken today

Nos 1, 2 and 3 show the disappearing mill
No 4 - general view of site
No 5 - the curved doorway with rubble nearby shows what I am led to believe was the entrance to the siting of the water wheel.

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

Well, the old colliery office/Woodnook Bleaching office now gone - they kept the frontage till the very end! Was told the stones were "special" and that someone had bought them.

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

I've been telling my daughter they were waiting for somebody to turn up with the key for the front door. Sort of spoilt it now :D

Woodnook mill RIP
 

I could have sworn there was once a huge factory on this site? :rolleyes:

Re: Woodnook mill RIP
 

When.

Retlaw.

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

This thread has brought a lot of memorise back to me. I lived on Higher Antley St in the 50’s & 60’s and my Mum use to work in a small Mill on the factory bottoms opposite another mill that use to do dying of either cotton or velvet. She use to go to work well before we went to school (St Oswalds) and lock the door then pop the key though the letter box. When our kid and me were ready for school we’d lock up and took the key down to our mum and had breakfast with her in her lunch break.
Attarah, in you last pic. I remember the hill in the back ground leading up to the houses with no trees on the slope. I use to walk right passes those houses to play in the Clough and catch minnows, newts and frogs in the Mill lodge.
Thanks to everyone involved with recording what to me is a sad event.

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

John, the hill you refer to is Riley's Hill.(My mum still lives there)
I lived on that hill and Priestley Clough was where we played.
My Grandma and Grandad lived on Higher Antley St.
You may even have known my brothers.....Peter, Michael and Philip Duxbury.

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

Hi Margaret, the names don’t ring a bell but there again I’m not very good with names. We lived at 157 just in front of a Methodist Church and a bit of spare ground. My sister was called Maureen there was only 11 month between us. I lived there form being about 8 or 9 until I was 28 and got married and move away.
I remember there was another little dell that ran up the side of you hill, just before you entered the cough, it ran up into the Park. I seem to remember as kids with called it Blue Bell Wood, we use to play there at lot and make dams in the little stream.

Re: Woodnook mill.
 

I have just discovered that Woodnook Mill is part of my history as it was run by Broadley, Carter and co. I don't know when they acquired it but in 1861 in the Blackburn Standard one of the members of the board is shown leaving. Thomas Broadley is listed. He was a bookkeeper in the censuses, so I hadn't realized he had another life. He was superintendent of the Sunday school at Christ Church. One of the other Board members is Robert Holt, married to Thomas's sister, Jane. They are not my direct ancestors, because I am descended from John Broadley the postmaster who founded the printers, but Thomas Broadley was the son of James who was John Broadley the postmaster's uncle (or half uncle). Is the 1999 book still in print? bye Marie

Re: site of Woodnook mill Jan 2010
 

[quote=Atarah;778190]Latest views - taken today

Nos 1, 2 and 3 show the disappearing mill
No 4 - general view of site
No 5 - the curved doorway with rubble nearby shows what I am led to believe was the entrance to the siting of the water wheel.[/q

Although I never visited the Mills, I had a long attatchment to them from over 40 years ago when I used to buy all the cotton and flannelette sheets for my 4 shops in Hampshire and Surrey. We sold so many that we used to have our own labels printed for them.
It is a tragedy that our cotton mills have disappeared and the trade is no more! I am glad that I no longer have this responsibility as all our cotton goods now seem to come from abroad. I would find it very hard, when I remember that names like Highams, Horrockses, Dorcas and Sparwick ( later Sparva) have all but disappeared.