Priestly Clough
 

When I was a lad back in the 50s & 60s the Clough was our trip to the country. The last time I was down there was when my old Dad and myself went on one of our last walks together before he passed away, we found it blocked off and a barbed wire fence across it! I always remembered it as a beautiful place even then as a snot nosed working class urchin. We used to get to it, I know there are a few other ways, by going past Rileys farm then taking a right at the bottom. Does anyone know what the ruins were just in front of you there?? In Summer you would find the place full of families enjoying themselves in this area, picnics etc. As kids we would walk all the way climbing across the "pipe" through to Five Arches then back. Is the place still privately owned and blocked to everyone? :mad:

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no

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where is Priestly Clough??

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We spent a lot of time walking around there with our dad when we were younger. He would tell us tales of 'Granny Green Teeth' who lived there and how she would capture small children who did not stay near their parents!!
We used to get to it by going around the back of woodnook bleaching & dyeing on Mount St and we'd walk up to the five arches and come out at the top near Hollands pies.

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it's a sort of valley were the old Accy to Manchester railway ran..we used to go down there long ago with two dogs, ferret and nets after rabbits...at dawn on a freezing January morning..best hangover cure I've know!

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:rolleyes: that really didnt tell me anything at all Mancie, i dont think i was even born when that railway was there ;)

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cant say exactly were it starts or ends..but
it was a track of land than ran from accrington up to baxenden
starting nuttal st /victoria st.and running past king georges playing fields
and up on toward the chemical works at bash passing hollands pies
im sure if im wrong i will be corrected :rolleyes:

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Can remember when I went to school at the Holy Family beechy, sometimes I used to walk up Pendleton Avenue and running up the side was valley with a brook in it. Mates who lived round that area used to call that the Clough, don't know if these two were linked

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Priestley Clough was my playground.......you could enter by the bottom path, near Highams Mill....this took you past the lodge on your right hand side, and the brook on the left side(the lodge had an overflow which fed into the brook).......or you could go via the top path which was alongside the cottage at the bottom of Riley's Hill.
This path allowed you to look down over the lodge.......both paths converged by the bottom of Nelsons Farm.
During our summer holidays we would spend all day in the clough......it was a place where you could let your imagiation run riot.......it could be a wild jungle or red indian country.....in our minds, that is......we climbed trees, made dens, picked flowers......ran played and screeched to our hearts content without incurring the wrath of any adults.......there were none about to disturb. A childhood idyll.

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Very happy day's Mrs Pilkington..although we are a few years apart it was our play ground too...do you remember the Bluebells.

The old place was a coal mine and a Mill, there where also cottages that sat below Nelsons Farm, all gone now apart from the old house that hides in the overgrowth....its was still private land when I was up there a couple of years ago...maybe time for another visit.

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Yes Doug, I do remember the bluebells.....we were forbidden to pick them and take them into the house as my Ma thought it was bad luck to have them in the house.
They were indeed happy days.

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I used to go there too , remember the "Monkey climb" at the top end near fern gore ??
ian

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wasn't that called Nelson's Clough or something like that

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Think you coud be right duckworth

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Ah good memories- We were on the Ossy side of the clough, never knew it's proper name - it was just 'The Clough' to us but what a fantastic playground.
Sliding down from what is now Yew Tree drive on a car bonnet in the snow all the way down to the brook.
The rope swing over the 'gorge' where one guy fell and broke both of his arms.
We made a professional job of damming the brook until someone broke the dam and flooded the allotment by St Mary's School.

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that's the one...the dissused railway followed the same route up to rising bridge.

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Great days .. went past other day and it looks as if know one has played on it for 20 years , its all over grown and there are big trees were there weren't any :confused:
ian

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So it was you then was it:D

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I think you are talking about two separate places.Typical of Ossyer's trying to nick Priestley Clough.
I know it well,I drowned in the lodge when I was five.:theband:

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Well you know us Gobbins Beni, we'll nick out if it ain't nailed down, but excuse me for asking but if you drowned when you were 5, who the hell keeps posing in your name on here:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::D

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hey it takes me back..my first date was behind highams mill on friday night with a lovely girl..a bottle of woodpecker and we were sorted...just dating and maybe get a mini radio listen to the top ten!

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We are indeed talking of two different cloughs but I have spent many hours in both of them.
Sorry about that, did we damage many of your crops?

The flood was not entirely our fault, the dam was a beautiful construction with a steel cable across the valley between two trees and then all kinds of stuff piled against it. It was built over a few weeks and in the end we had a lake over 5ft deep which we could swim in. The Council people came up and decided it didn't have planning permission or some other such nonesense and decided to demolish it. Instead of making a hole in the dam and draining it slowly, Mr Dimwit Council Person arrived with bolt cutters and just cut through the cable. I am glad we were watching from a safe distance because the cable whipped across the valley quicker than an MP can claim expenses. Then the torrent followed and we saw the devastation to the allotment the following day.

Oh to live in those innocent says again.:cool:

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Wasn't it called Black Rock until it got filled in??

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You are posing the same question that I have posed for years.

Who saved me and what should I do with him,Thin line I think.:D:D

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It was indeed, I was on Miller Fold during the time they dumped all the rock and ****e over the edge.......one of the wagons nearly killed me one afternoon......

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The thinnest Beni:D

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Used to take my girlfriend courting up the clough......and.....we were good!!

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Hmmmmm.......wonders if Duckworth is related to me.......

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2 ways to interpet that Tal.:D;)

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Just think about your youth cashy and you'll get it right :D

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If cashy's out like me, youth is a faded memory these days LYNX:D

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I was brought up in the woodnook area and spent lots of summers as a kid swimming in that river and jumping off the pipes. I think the building you are thinking about are the remains of the leather works i think the farm at the bottom of the lodge was owned by the charlesworth family the blocked all access to to pipes

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you swam in that river and your still here to tell the tale...sometimes the water was a bright orange colour...I do recall the Charlesworths having the farm by the lodge, you could fish there for 50p a day.

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There were two cloughs as I knew Priestley Clough - the first went as far as the track to the left to King George's playing fields, and from there to the five arches was the second clough. We use to catch tiddlers and sticklebacks in the lodge close to Highams Mill. Monkey Hill was opposite the entrance/exit to Black Rock (the old quarry), and the rock just off the track back from there towards Bath Street and Highams was known as the King's Throne. We used to build rafts on Shutt's Lodge, and swim in there too. The Red Barn used to mark the beginning of the second clough, and from there one crossed two sets of pipes across the stream before eventually arriving at the higher level pipe crossing the stream closer to the five arches. Here one could either cross by clambering carefully around the spikes, swing across by means of the raail alongside the actual pipe or chicken out and get one's feet wet. I agree with those of you who've said that it was a fantastic place for kids.

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Does anyone know what the Red Barn actually was, I only remember it as a few red bricks and foundations?

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MM My dad saved someone from a local lodge when he was about 13/14 that would have made it about 60 years ago - I found the story from old newspapers an framed it for his birthday years ago - so would have to root it out
I wonder how many people have been savd from drowning and dont know who it is that saved them?

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Don't know what it had been built for, but I knew it as a two-storey brick building and although there were no doors or windows there were internal stairs because I used to climb to the upper floor. The upper floor floorboards were rotting/missing in some parts so one had to be careful where one trod. I suppose that I'm talking of around 1953-54 time.

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Picture of Priestly Clough.

Retlaw.

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That was the other Clough, I used to live on Arncliffe Ave and spent most of my time at that Clough. We used to pick Blackberries from the bushes and make rope swings over the brook.
I also used to go to Priestly clough from the "Factory bottom", Victoria st. and through the lodges that were there, there used to be a big 'drop' on one side were the river ran, used to scare me, then over passed the mill ruin and over the pipe that crossed the water up to the Five Arches, we also picked wild rhubarb that was if you went on the top path.

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I just remembered what the "other" Clough is called. Nelson's.
I had a brain wave last night.

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Was that because there was a farm called Nelsons, seem to remember the Farm near the Holy Family was called Nelson's though I might be wrong:confused:

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Yes, it was at the start of High St. in Ossy I think. Right on the main road, I think it was a continuation of Miller Fold.

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Now I'm confused.. is Priestly Clough the one that starts around Nuttall St and goes all the way up past Baxenden?

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That's the one,end of Nuttall St turn left onto Bath St and just keep going.I think Nuttall St becomes Mount St for the last few yards though just to confuse the matter.

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Your not wrong pete.........Mount st starts where the old bridge was and goes up to the corner where Bath st starts :D

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Bye the way, is the old bridge still there or did they take it down? I remember there was a plaque on the side because someone got murdered there.

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There were two stones on the Mount St side of the bridge, I think they were removed and built into the new wall where the bridge was. Its a heck of a long time since I looked at them.

Retlaw

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Enjoyed looking at the postcard Retlaw, thanks for posting it.

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Been going through some old Observers today for 1936, came across a story that reminded me of when I was 6 years, one day in 1935 there was one hell of a storm in Accrington and the old Woodnook Railway bridge was damaged. In February 1936 issue there is an article about the rebuilding of the New Bridge, it was built of Nori brick, whereas the old one was stone.

Those stone plaques were removed from the old bridge and built into the retaining wall on the Mount St side of the New bridge. I was going to go round there today, but got side track in the library. with other things.
Used to play up on the side where the new line came across the banking putting 1/4d & 1/2d on the track before the train came, had to stick em on wi chewing gum, vibration kept tipping them off.
Retlaw.

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Nelsons clough was at the end of Richmond Road. ran from fern gore to almost Ossy

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Was that road that went up to the clough along Perth street nicknamed the Black Path? Does anyone remember that old barn at the top there that had a small wall around it and carved into 2 stones was a milk bottle and a milkman????

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CHarlesworths owned the house below Nelsons farm.Near the waterfall.The lodge you fished is shutts lodge.Farmer Nelson would never let us fish there.he put the run on use.

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Bye the way, is the old bridge still there or did they take it down? I remember there was a plaque on the side because someone got murdered there.

WHAT MURDER?

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I remember working for him on the school holidays,never understood a word he said to me???

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I think you are refering to one of the farmers who lived up there. If I remember correctly he was always blocking rights of way and threatening people, somebody tied him to his gate and flogged him, don't know if he died or not.
Think he was called Nelson.
Retlaw.

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Once came across a chap who said he used to own Nelsons Farm Retlaw, he was called Colin Nelson, lived in Gt Harwood when I knew him

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Priestly Clough was alway a really special place for me. In the 60's we had picnics there, near 5 arches. In the 70's we'd skive off from Hollins and do the "jumps". this involved leaping over the brook, usually at its widest or most risky point in the name of bravado! The old railway is now a footpath accessible from Nutall St. We used to get to the clough from either the path at the southern edge of King Georges playing field or down Hill Street in Baxenden. Hollins cross country course also used to use the clough to get to Bullough Park and Miller Fold Ave area before returning to school via the riding school near the allotments in that area.

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I read in a book on local history that when the original stone bridge was built,circa 1840??,a local girl was murdered and found nearby.The stone masons erecting the bridge etched a match-stick type picture in memorium.Unfortunately this stone was lost during re-building.Pretty sure theres a pic in maybe Accy Acclaimed or one of Bob Dobsons books.The stone commemerating re-building is still there near to the cycle path entrance but is extremely worn and bare legible.GROOVE

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Old Farmer Nelson never had a problem with us fishing; and there was loads of us from Millerfold, he did have a problem with dogs which he would shoot on site; He lived on Willows Lane during the late 60s early 70s.

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Do you men these two stones, I've posted them before.
The original stone bridge was built 1846
.
Retlaw.

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the chap who owned nelson,s farm was roland nelson, he did live in one of the semis on willows lane, near broadfeild road, the chap who got tied to the gatepost was farmer ernie nelson, he farmed at meadow top farm past gren howarth golf club, he was the milkman around ferngore in the seventies, i used to work on his farm after school.

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I and many of my pals, girls and boys, who use to live on and around Higher Antley Street in the 50’s use to play in the clough all the way from Highams Mill up to the Five Arches. We’d build dens and dams, light fires, climb trees, catch minnows, frogs and newts and go nesting in the spring. We’d leave home after breakfast and not come home until tea time. I remember when the Red Barn had a roof and an upper floor; it even had a few windows left to smash. The trains also use to set the embankment on fire and we’d nick coal from the sides of the track to make fires in our dens. We also use to put pennies on the lines and wait for the trains to come passed and flatten them.
It’s about ten years since I walked in the clough and I was recently told they’ve just demolished Highams’s Mill. I’ve looked on an old OS map and I can’t see any rights of way through the clough other than the lane that runs down past Neloson’s farm over the river then the railway bridge up to the playing fields. I think this road/ track is an unclassified county road and if so will be on the list of streets held by the local or county council.
Also as a young lad, I use to walk up through the Clough to get to Howarth Art Gallery when I was supposed to be at Church on a Sunday morning. My dad and mum didn’t go very much but they use to make me. They eventually found out and we had an almighty row, I’d be about 16 then and the clough gave way to the snooker halls and later the pubs.
I still dream about the clough, happy days.

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Does anyone remember the huge air raid shelter that was placed under Rileys Hill. Back in the late 60's bad weather washed away earth covering a corner so of course we managed to break into it!!!! You had to take candles or a tourch and walked in a huge circle to get back to the entrance. As per normal this onley lasted for a short while as the council came and covered it again!!!!!

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gdm27
I must know you.Spent many hours in the air raid shelters.

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Hey Up:D

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Were you the guy that was always chasing us around to blow out our candles??? Only joking Mick!

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joking aside.Iwas the original candle blower outer.From Fountain Street.

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Yes I remember playing in the air raid shelter at the bottom of Riley’s Hill, we use to put candles in jam jars. But I remember breaking into them in the 50's, but like you said the council always came and blocked them up again. I lived on Higher Antley St between 1952 to 1972, we used to play a lot on Riley’s Hill, Blue Bell Wood, that ran down from the top end of Riley’s Hill to the start of Priestly Clough, and the Donkey Steps. Do you remember the allotments on either side of the Donkey Steps; we didn't call them allotments just 'pens'.

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We always went to Rileys Hill if we didn't have enough time to go further. I remember in Summer we used to play on the area just next to the tennis courts at the top. We would get lots of grass/hay and place it close to the wall there then take turns to see how far we could jump out over the wall getting higher and higher. The winner would be the one that didn't break any bones!!! You tell kids today that that was how you had fun back then etc etc etc. Fresh air, grass, nothing else????

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I thought the donkey steps ran from Perth Street to the Globe Bowling club .Just below Bullough park.

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Those are the ones that I remember.

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I think we are talking about the same Donkey Steps.

To get to Bullough Park from where I lived on Higher Antley St., I walked up Major St. onto Perth St. turning left then up between the end of some terraced houses and I think a row of bungalows. Here you got onto the Donkey Steps (very long steps probably 2 metres with a hand rail running up the middle, very good for swinging on and hanging upside down) On either side of the Donkey Steps where pens (allotments) and on Sundays you could buy cut flowers, eggs and some fresh veg. At the top of the Donkey Steps you came to a very high red brick wall, with the Globe private bowling green on the other side. If you turn left and followed the high red brick wall, which took you across the top of Riley’s Hill, it lead you to the lower part of the wall that gdm27 talked about. If you continued straight on from the top of the Donkey Steps, now a cinder track with the high red brick wall on your left and wooden garages on your right you came to the track/road from Willows Lane that was the main entrance to Bullough Park and the play ground where as kids we were generally heading.

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Yep those are they! Do you remember when the play area was in no way PC. When I was a kid they had swings that you could do the bumps on. A ride shaped like a Christmas tree that went round and round and from side to side. Hands up how many people lent on the sitting area forgetting that their legs where under it only to remember when the whole thing came crashing down on your knees!!!! Happy days OUCH!

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John do you have a sister around your age ?Also I was the first person in the world,to balance on the handrail .Down the donkey steps, from top to bottom.Thank you.

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Yes Maureen, she's now living down in the Norfolk Broads, as is my Mum, she's now 92 and still going strong. My sister is 11 months younger than me. And were as I was in the last year at St Oswalds before they knocked it down, my sister went on the the Holly Family in its first year.

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Just been reading this thread . Does anyone know why they are called the donkey steps ?

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John'
You are quite correct about the donkey steps.What is your point.

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We always called those the 'sharp bonks'....don't ask me why......it was passed down from my Grandma who lived on Higher Antley St......if we went to Bullough Park, we always went by the sharp bonks.

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Perhaps yeh had to be sharp before someone came by?:D

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Referring to the knocks a pram took going down the steps ? Just a thought. :)

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You just might be right there, Son....it was alright going up....but coming down was a real pain.

Cashy........I'm not sure that the word 'Bonk' had that connotation way back in the 50's.......can't remember anyone ever using it in that context, but then I was young and naive until I reached my 20's:D.

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not sure meself margaret, just trying to be helpful.:D;)

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Probably it was the easest way to lead a donkey from the band club to Fern Gore.

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As you do.

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Back to Priestly Clough, can you still walk along the old railway track or is that out of bounds? :cool:

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The railway track is now a country walk with a decent gravel path.

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Fantastic, thanks Margaret.

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Check out this thread

http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/f...ine-57076.html

;)

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gdm'
Sorry i cannot help you.I left Accy in 1976 moved to Canada, lived here last 35 years.Just memories.I spent most of my youth in Priestly Clough and Bullough Park,Jacobs Lodge area.Ilived in Fountain Street.Was home about 3 years ago.Sorry but there is nothing to come home to.The pubs are dead,so are most of my friends.

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sorry this is first message and getting used to it.around 1953 i lived in a cottage at nigher friar hill farm and we spent most of our time playing in priestley clough.i vaguely remember in some part of the clough we came across a sundial quite tall....though i was quite small then ...and it was covered in brambles etc.im sure i didnt imagine it but no one else seems to remember it.thanks

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just reading the messages and i seem to remember someone told me it was some sort of isolation hospital.

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I don't remember the sun dial . As for the Red Barn , we used to play inside it , but I have no idea what it was originally .

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:130::alright:

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Do you rember the lords who lived on perth st

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Brings back memories. Spent many many days with all the Springhill lads up the clough.

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Priestley Clough was also my playground between 1952 and 1960 at which point girls, beer and snooker took over until 1964 when I started travelling to the Yorkshire Dales to go caving and where I now live.

On Friday after walking my dog Peggy, and completely out of the blue, I got the urge to visit Priestley Clough once again.
We, that’s Peggy and I, started out from Higher Antely St, where I use to live, and entered the Clough via “The Donkey Steps” that lead up to Bullough Park, passed the bowling green and cottages then down a footpath to join the old cinder path at what use to be “Black Rock”. From here, the cinder path, now long gone and now just a foot path, took us to another track that use to run down to Nelsons Farm. Here there was a ridding school and a footpath diversion that dropped you down to the lower path and an old bridge. At the point where the track takes you up to and over the old railway line (now a Bridleway/Cycle Track) I kept at river level and picked up the river where the Red Barn was and a small waterfall. Further up is the first of two pipes that cross the river before you reach the final bridge and the base of an old Mill chimney before the Five Arches, now replaced with one bridge. Here I joined the Bridleway/Cycle Track and made my way back to Nelsons Farm and traced my foot steps back up to Black Rock, Bullough Park and Higher Antley Street.

It's over 50 years since I last walk in the clough, but I managed to find all the areas I played in and where we made dens, collected birds eggs and had little adventures. I took a load of pics and very much enjoyed wandering up through the clough with Peggy my boarder collie and we both got home safely tired but happy.

Now I'll read all the post which I probably should have done in the first place <GL

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Never been up the clough for donkey's years

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How did you manage to keep at river level ? The last time I tried to get down to that part of the clough where the Red Barn and two pipes are it was all fenced off and barbed wired off .

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The nearest thing that I can think of which you, being quite small at the time as you describe yourself, saw as a sundial is the wrought iron structure which was fitted on to the exposed pipe near to the Five Arches. This was a semi-circular device intended to prevent we kids from crossing on the pipe, and was like a protractor with metal spikes radiating outwards from where the device was clamped on to the pipe. Of course we managed to climb around it when we weren't swinging hand-over-hand across one of the narrow bars fitted alongside and at either side of the main pipe.