Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

I have asked Accrington Library and the Family History Society if anyone is researching the branch of Whittakers who ran the works in Dowry St. In 1892, Thomas was mayor of Accrington and was a 'mover and shaker' in the town.I have something to tell them about Thomas, and will be giving something about him to the library. I am aware of a chap in Whalley who is interested in the various Whittakers who had businesses in the town a century ago, but don't know his name.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

me dad worked yon from after the war until early 70s when poor health took its toll, he also used to go down every night about 11-45 ish wi the dog n me when i was little,to start the furnace ready fer the mornings work.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

Was that the Whittakers which burnt down many years ago Bob, I think one side was on Burnley road.
If so I posted a few pictures of it burning down a while ago.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

nah mate whittakers foundry was between Dowry St @ Maudsley St,;) i was brought up on both of those.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

OK cashman,
the photos I took of the fire from our house on Hood street must have been Whittakers then, I know the fireman had to shift a car outside the New Brewery to get the big turntable past. I had it in my mind that the building went right up to Burnley road.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then and a lot of grog passed my lips.

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...sden/fire1.jpg
Is that Whittakers burning?

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

It was the Hydraulic platform not the turntable ladder, It were me who set it up and Fm Pickup was operating the monitor at the top, you can just see the rear end, before I put the stabalisers down.
Retlaw.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

Great photo gremlin, thats the Maudsley St side, me mams house was 3 doors up on next block Dowry St side,;) bungalows are yon now. pub yeh can see from area photo was took was the Royal Oak, the New Brewery was opposite end of that block.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

What year was that????

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

aint sure mate,early 80s rings a bell? retlaw will probably know fer sure,he attended it.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

Sorry about that Walter.. I remember well that when the water was turned on the bit at the end of the hose fell off into the fire.
A friend of mine had just gone off watch and decided to have a few pints instead of rushing back, remember Jerry Finch?

I posted more photos earlier on in another thread about Whittakers and the dates are on it.

The "turntable" as I called it is pictured below, it did swivel round on the base though.

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...sden/firex.jpg
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...sden/fire4.jpg

You are welcome to any photos I post Walter, as is anybody else.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

I don't know the year of the fire. I do know that the firm closed down in 1972. There is a very good essay on the family and the firm by Martin J Crossley Evans in the book 'An Accrington Mixture' which I edited and published in 1995.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

[quote=Gremlin;933145]Sorry about that Walter.. I remember well that when the water was turned on the bit at the end of the hose fell off into the fire.
That were Penny Lickup, he didn't attach the monitor properly before he opened the valve. We recovered it intact after the fire.
A friend of mine had just gone off watch and decided to have a few pints instead of rushing back, remember Jerry Finch?
I wish I could.
Retlaw.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

On the Lancashire Family History Society's Yahoo forum, a lady is telling about Thomas Whittaker's sons, Christopher & Thomas, who both married Haworth lasses from Ossie. I don't know if they were sisters.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

Was speaking to mr finch last night at the spar i was asking how is gout was:D:D:D Thanks cashy i remember it happening when i was but a lad:D

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

Why does the name HAWORTH spring to my mind? Maybe I am just imagining it Bob? I bet Cath, ex Librarian, would help you on that.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

That's where I saw him last, he was hobbling back to his car.
Previous to that we were sat at the same table at a Wedding, he kept us amused as usual.

When he left the Accrington Fire Station he went to Chorley as a fire person instructor, he has been retired a while now.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

It's not Mr Haworth from Whalley - he is a Lightfoot. I've already tried Cath - no joy. I have found a couple of people oin the Family History Society's Yahoo forum who have an interest in Whittakers. I have asked the Family History Soc if there is any member who is researching the Whittakers, but had no definite response as yet.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

Hi Bob Doug kellett here enjoyed the reunion very much sent some pictures to Jeff Taylor taken during the evening if you would like the same email me [email protected] and will send them to you.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

Reyt. Will do, though I suspect that you have popsted on the wrong thread

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

I was looking for something else about Whittakers and found this! My dad - Tom Barnes - was a senior clerk at the Dowry Street works until he died aged 49 in 1969. The firm made brick making machinery. I now live in North Yorkshire and was at Ravenscar yesterday where there was a Whittakers plant making bricks for the "town that never was". I wondered if they were the same Whittakers? We found a NORI brick there years ago

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

Me dad worked yon from after the war until around 72, when ill health knackered him up, Don't think the firm oer yon would be the same one,as well as brick making stuff, they made stuff fer the Mining Industry,

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

Two clues might guide Gill as to whether this was Whittakers of Dowry Streeet - Was it made by C.(for Christopher) Whittaker & Co Ltd? Did it have the wording 'New Era' on it. If yes to either of these - it's ours.
I think it unluikely that there would have been another Whitakers involved in brick making,although there was a company called Thomas Whittaker , Canal foundry,. Church which was a rival founded by an unsettled member of the founding family. It went bankrupt. I will enquire as to a Ravenscar connection.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

Thanks Bob - we need to go searching for bricks again properly; I imagine the most likely place for Accrington brick was the chimney attached to the works. We know that they made bricks for Ravenscar from the local shale waste which seemed to go soft as clay when wet, after processing to retrieve the alum. It was quite an effective industrial circular process using the waste for bricks to build the town

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

From being a nipper I recall the name Mary Howarth. My Great Grandad's sister maried a Whittaker (he worked at an "ironworks" most likely Whittaker's,) but I don't know if her Whittaker was connected with the owners.

Our Whittakers also married a Westall, another name I remember from my childhood.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

Thomas Whittaker of C. Whittaker and Co. was my great, great, great grandfather. One of his son's, James, married Mary Jane Haworth from Oswaldtwistle. They had five children:- James Haworth, Mary A (Marie), James, Jane and Gladys Ellen.
Jane Whittaker was my grandmother. Jane married Donald Ryden and their daughter, Pat, was my mother. She married Harry Crossley.
I believe Mary Jane Haworth's parents were John Haworth and Jane (nee Tattersall).
My mother held some shares in C Whittaker and Co. and I remember attending a shareholders' meeting with her around 1972. The meeting was chaired by Norman Whittaker wearing a bright blue blazer with brass buttons. He announced that the company could no longer carry on and proposed it be voluntarily wound up. The shareholders put their
hands up and approved the motion - and Whittaker's was no more.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

My great grandfather, James Whittaker (son of Thomas Whittaker of C. Whittaker and Co.) married Mary Jane Haworth. Her parents were John Haworth and Jane (nee Tattersall) from Oswaldtwistle. I believe John Haworth's parents were Dennis Haworth (b 1802) and Ellen (nee Grimshaw).
Christopher Whittaker (James's brother) married Catherine Haworth. Catherine's father was also a John Haworth from Oswaldtwistle but his wife was Elizabeth (don't know her maiden name). Catherine Haworth and Mary Jane Haworth may have been related in some way but they were definitely not sisters. Catherine Whittaker was the mother of Norman and Hugh Allen Whittaker. She pre-deceased her husband, Christopher, who later married a Polly Mitchell in 1905 and had two further children, Duncan and Irene.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

There's a book to be written about the various Whittakers and Haworths of Accrington & Ossie. Inter-marrying and combining together in business.The odd fall-out. How they linked up with Haslingden branches and played their parts in various industries and organisations such as the Co-op. At present, there are at least half a dozen people collecting family history data.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

Happy to contribute anything I already have researched.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

I am related to CJ Whittaker through his wife a HAWORTH of Oswaldtwistle.

IS there any way I could get a copy of the book?

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

The book has not been written - I meant that there was enough material to write one.

One of the Whittakers patented a method of treating sewerage, and for a while, Accrington was a world leader in this field. Other corporations sent parties to inspect the Copy Nook plant.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

There is definitely a book if not a TV series on this family!

I am naturally more 'into' the HAWORTH side, but the story has the lot...

Religious persecution, rags to riches and back again, company wheeling and dealing, disinheritings, sewage treatment, tomatoes, Jack the Ripper, Indian railways, Spies (or maybe not), Nazis, Scott of the Antarctic, Edward Elgar and any other composer and musician you can think of in the 19th Century, Ruth Ellis (last woman hanged in the UK), fraud, railway building in Sussex, infanticide, improvements in public health, mayors and public servants, multi-millionaire bankers, War time exploits, ocean voyages, National scandals, the Pulitzer prize, sweet factories, brick factories, chemical factories, Henry Wood and the Proms...

How long have you got?

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

So if definitely a book, do yeh happen to know its name? or Author?:confused:

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

For clarification - there isn't a book. Just the material for somebody to write one.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

Hello all
I have found this old thread while researching family history so thanks for some useful information. I am related to Margaret Catterall, 3rd wife of Thomas Whittaker and would be grateful for any information on the family, I would love to see a picture of them and in particular Janie Whittaker one of their daughters.

I have found the article on Janie possess of Accrington on the internet so that have provided a lot of INFO and some images. I have also found out that Janie and Margaret her Mum were suffragettes, an interesting family!

My ancestors were poor shoe makers from Croston and used to get clothes sent from their wealthy relatives, so nothing to eat but really well dressed!
Anyway, great local information, thank you forum.
Amanda

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

Hi
I am researching my family Tree and my relative is Christopher Whittaker who is the brother of Thomas and founder of the Dowry St Works. Would love to find out more about him and share information. Thanks

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

I have two Whittaker families in my tree, they seem to be remotely related and possibly connected to the Dowry St Works. FYI they are

Christopher - not found
Thomas - #910 - b1843, Hapton to George & Mary
Thomas - #916 - b1880, Accrington to Edmund & Mary Ann Westall
Tomas Henry - #1024 - b1864, Accrington to Robert & Elizabeth

The # numbers are my RootsMagic record numbers. In the unlikely event that some of these fit in with your research let me know and I can provide further details.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

Send me a private message with your email address ( or just send it to me - [email protected]) and I will contact someone who may be related to you and knowledgeable on the Whittaker family.

This thread has been going for 8 years.

Re: Whittaker's of Dowry Street Works
 

I remember Whittakers in Dowry St, as I worked in the office there. I also remember Tom Barnes as we used to walk to and from work together with Eric Roscoe. The company secretary was Jim Barrett (Mrs.Barrett had the sweet shop at the corner of Broadway and Whalley Rd) works manager was Ernie Millington and two draughtsmen were David Clark ( Mrs. Clark taught me at Rhyddings school) and Maurice Brindle who sadly died suddenly in about 1967/68. I also recall a lot of the workforce names and even the clock numbers of some of them. I left Whittakers in 1970 to join the Lancashire Constabulary until my retirement in 1999.