A full contingent outside of the Court Building Steps on George Street. The gentleman with the bowler is David Halstead
I can remember the old Police Station which was on Hargreaves Street, just lower down than Marsden Square, the reception was about the size of a small front room, and the old Courthouse was on the corner with George Street (see photo above left). The door to the Police Station was a really big heavy wooden door painted black with studs throughout, and I can't be sure which it was, but you either had to duck as you entered the Station because the lintel across the top of the door was very low or it was that you almost fell as you opened the door because there was a step down immediately on opening the door... Also on George St I can remember the Cook Shop and lower down below the Court was Jim Barlow's Cycle & Ironmongers....
The photo above left shows the Haslingden Police contingency (ammended too: probably taken between 1900 and 1904) and the photo directly above is Sgt. Maxwell.
Thanks to David Stevenson who has kindly supplied probable dates for the above photos (received 13th Jan 2010):
Hi Bryan,
Just been looking on the Police Station and Courthouse and Hargreaves st. blog and noticed that you have two photos one of sergeant Maxwell on the right and the other of a group of policemen in front of the police station which the text suggests was taken around 1920 - 1930. If you notice sergeant Maxwell, who was my great grandfather, is also in the group stood at the front left hand side and he died in September 1905 just nine months after retiring aged 46 which means that the photograph must have been taken probably between 1900 and the end of 1904. The policeman stood at the front but on the righthand side is sergeant Pearson, who I believe was a good friend of my great grandfather.
Regards
David Stevenson
Old Court House and steps on George Street, also shows "Cook shop" which was almost opposite George Street Mission.
The photo above shows the old Haslingden Courthouse boarded up prior to demolition. Also the cookshop can be seen higher up on the next row of properties. The photo directly above shows two Haslingden officers which include Tom Braithewaite (left) whom was decorated for his part in the rescue of 5 boys from Pike Law Caves in 1935-1936...(see newspaper article below.
(Click over photos to enlarge.)
1964 floods near to Worsley Park - remember Z Cars
Detective Hickson
1979 - Hargreaves Street with Courthouse and Police Station directly in front and Hargreaves Street Mill chimney showing. On the left was Mr. Cleggs clothes shop (school uniforms) and on the right and out of view was the Duckworth Memorial built into the walls of the terraced properties (see photo below). Also Ivanovics bedspread manufacturers were in the buildings to the right hand side (out of view)
John Duckworth Memorial
Also on Hargreaves Street was Mr. Clegg's Clothes shop (see photo below right and also photo lower down on left) where my mum used to take me to get school uniform clothes. Mr Clegg's daughter Megan was my very first teacher and taught me at St. James C of E School, and I still see her now and again around the town. Also on Hargreaves Street was the firm of Ivanovics (Textile Manufacturers) which was sort of in a part row of terraced houses.. Higher up than the Police Station was Hargreaves Street Mill which was in full production in the 60s producing for the cotton trade... The Mill is still there and owned by Mr. Stanley Hargreaves. Today it is split into various sized smaller units.
Photo: thanks to Michael Mullaney
This photo shows the area of were the old Police Station and Courthouse was and cleared for the new development (Hargreaves Street/George Street junction).
Photo thanks to Derek Woodhall
Another photo of Walsh and Cleggs Clothes shop earlier c1930
This one shows the Duckworth Memorial set within the walls of the buildings on the left hand side, also the area were Ivanovics used to be.
 |
| Newspaper article about the Lost Boys. (Thanks to Jackie Ramsbottom) |
Email dated 8th April 2016 - from Derek Whittaker:
Bryan,
although this week’s "facebook blog" is about the police station and court, the article about the caves brought back memories.
When I lived up t’Shoot we used to enter the caves. At 12 years of age we moved to Coronation St so I must have been younger than this. There are other readers/contributors to your blog who may recall all of the below but it’s not for me to reveal their names.
There were two cave entrances which had at sometime been bricked up but then these walls fell into disrepair and access could be gained. We always used the left entrance and after a downslope of about 10 yards it opened into quite a large circular cavern of about 5 yards in height. If you looked to the right you could see that there was a very similar arrangement inside the right hand entrance with a short passage connecting the two.
Straight ahead the cave sloped downwards and then after a while there was an upward slope. At the summit of the upward slope there was a large slab of slate like rock which we treated as a sort of table (about 5 foot in diameter). Usually this was as far as we went and we had “gang meetings” round it.
On more adventurous (or more stupid) days we carried on down the slope beyond this table. Eventually we came to what appeared to have been a roof fall and there was a solid piece of rock as described in the newspaper article. But we knew different and at the bottom of the obstruction was a gap that we called “the six incher”. Some of our gang decided that this was far enough but some of us were more adventurous (stupid) and laid on our backs and wriggled through feet first. There being no limit to our bravado (stupidity) we carried on. The walls became more and more damp and the air became more and more fetid. I don’t know how far we went (and we did it on more than one occasion) but it was quite a distance before we decided to turn around and emerge from the underworld.
It never crossed our minds how dangerous it was or what our parents would think about it. By the way my Mum is still around at 96 years old and please don’t let her see this or I might have to stay in.
Derek
Police operating a speed trap close to the Holden Arms with the Cemetary in the background
The policemen are Bob Southworth standing and Dave Briggs kneeling. Thanks to Neil Stevenson for names and also thanks to Peter Fisher for kindly sharing this photo with us
Haslingden's Special Constabulary on parade sometime in the early 1960s
(Click over photo to enlarge)
Photo: Kindly shared with us by David Emison
