Haslingden Old and New...

Haslingden derives from Hazeldean or Valley of the Hazels. It lies 19 miles north of Manchester in the County of Lancashire. A area at one time noted in particular for its Stone, it also played a big part in the Woollen and then later Cotton Industries from the 18th and through the 19th and early to mid 20th Century... It is steeped in Local History and can also boast to have one of the most beautiful Natural Valleys around, where thousands come and visit annually

Wednesday 27 July 2022

This site is dedicated to the memory of it's founder Bryan Yorke.

3rd January 1948 - 28th May 2022

A Haslingden lad who created a unique source of historical information on his home town for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations.

Thank you Bryan for the memories.

Shortcut to BLOG INDEX CLICK HERE

Photos will be headers here for approx 1-2 weeks before being uploaded to the No.10 album (2022) which can be accessed using the link below:

New Jerusalem Methodist Church - Great War Memorial.

King Street Methodist Walking Day - 1953
area: Sandpits

Cast of the Magic Sleigh at King Street Methodist

January 1962.

(above) A fabulous before and after of houses on Helmshore Road
Photos thanks to and copyright Chris Kirby

(above) A fabulous before and after of houses on Helmshore Road

Photos thanks to and copyright Chris Kirby

PLEASE NOTE:

If you want to go directly to our latest blog which is called HASLINGDEN WORKHOUSE, WORKHOUSE INFIRMARY, MOORLANDS AND ROSSENDALE GENERAL HOSPITAL then click over this link.

If you want to go directly to our last finished blog which is called HASLINGDEN MEMORIES then please click over this link

If you want to go directly to our new blog called OUR RESERVOIRS then please click over this link

If you want to go directly to our new blog
called NUTTALLS TUNNEL (Rising Bridge to Brynbella - Haweswater aqueduct) then please click over this link

If you want to check out our revamped blog HASLINGDEN'S DISAPPEARING CHURCHES

then please click over this link

or if you still want to check out

After one week the above photographs or text will be moved over to their appropriate blogs and will also be transferred over to

PHOTO ALBUM NO.10 (YEAR 2022) Which can be accessed by clicking here

PHOTO ALBUM NO.9 (YEAR 2021) Which can be accessed by clicking here

PHOTO ALBUM AND SNIPPETS NO.8 (YEAR 2020) which can be accessed by clicking here

PHOTO ALBUM AND SNIPPETS NO.7 (YEAR 2019) which can be accessed by clicking here

PHOTO ALBUM and SNIPPETS NO.6 (Year 2018) which can be accessed by clicking here

PHOTO ALBUM AND SNIPPETS NO.5 (Year 2017)

which can be accessed by clicking here

PHOTO ALBUM AND SNIPPETS NO.4 (year 2016) which can be accessed by clicking here

PHOTO ALBUM and SNIPPETS NO.3 (year 2015) which you can access by clicking here

PHOTO ALBUM and SNIPPETS NO.2

(Does not exist)

PHOTO ALBUM No.1 (year 2013 and earlier) which you can access by clicking here

Dont Forget! HASLINGDEN ON FILM is accessed from the title further down on the left hand column - please enjoy the films.

Shortcut to BLOG INDEX CLICK HERE

Monday 31 January 2022

Dr. John Dunleavy

Dr. John Dunleavy (to the right) with Bryan Yorke at the Davitt 100 years celebrations (2006)

photo taken by our mutual friend the late Father Peter Knowles.

It is with much sadness to have learnt of the passing of Dr. John which was last November (2021) down in his home at Abingdon, Oxford.

Dr. John helped me so much especially with the research on Davitt of which he was an authority. He also made regular contributions to the Haslingden Old and New blog with articles from his early days when he worked at the Haslingden Printing Works and stories about the Borough News (or selling news). He will be sadly missed.

I found this lovely piece that Michael Cruise of Bury Road, Rawtenstall, wrote about him:

JOHN GAVE HIS TIME FREELY

I THINK it appropriate that tribute be paid to Doctor John Dunleavy who has died recently.

A historian, formerly from Haslingden and living more recently in Abingdon, Oxford, John's contribution to the local and, indeed, wider community is of significant value and will remain a continual source of reference.

He produced a number of publications including, Haslingden Catholics, Dr. John Binns, Haslingden's forgotten reformer.

Remembering Michael Davitt; The Organ at St. Mary's Haslingden, The Fall and Rise of Haslingden Library, from White Elephant to Town's Museum, The Changing fortunes of Abingdon County Hall and a History of St. James the Less Church, Rawtenstall.

His career began in the local printing industry, working for the Haslingden Borough News, later, he won a scholarship and entered Plater College, Oxford. During this period he developed an interest in politics and, for a while, shadows the then MP for Rossendale, Tony Greenwood, who used the family home as a committee room during election periods.

Throughout his younger days John was a member of the Young Socialist.

One of his greatest works was the study of Michael Davitt, who migrated to Haslingden in 1850.

Davitt worked earnestly for the rights of many impoverished groups, and was instrumental in the formation of the Land League, the first collection point being the Irish Democratic League Club in Haslingden.

More recently John was pivotal to the celebrations organised to commemorate the centenary of Davitt's death in 2006, when the then president of Ireland, Mary McAleese, visited Haslingden.

A most unassuming person, he gave freely and humbly. He simply wished to be a curator and disseminator of facts to pass on for the greater good.

(Michael Cruise, Bury Road, Rawtenstall)

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Request for Photos and Sending photos for the Blog

We are constantly struggling to find photos to fill the header on the front page and so your photos would be a absolute delight to receive and as long as they are yours and of historic value, we have no problem showing them on the blog, so many people get so much pleasure from these. The feedback has been quite remarkable. So please send your scans of the photos in so they can be put on the blog and subsequently filed within the blog, and can then be seen by the thousands who are watching on a regular basis. This way hopefully the photos will be preserved for not just us but also for the future generations of Hazeldeners, Haslingdonians, Ex pats and friends. Thank you.....

Also just as important as photos are memories or stories of the past and other snippetts of information which may give pleasure together with any posters, programmes and scans of memorabilia pertaining to Haslingden.

If at all possible can photos being submitted to the blog as jpeg images (or another image type file if preferred), and be sent to me in a "full" or at least "large" resolution size (eg: the original size which they are scanned at) and without any reductions in size, before sending through to me. If I have them in full resolution I can do far more with them especially when it comes to showing enlargements etc eg "click over the image to enlarge" etc.

Don't worry should this be a problem, I can still show them in smaller resolution sizes, because even small photos are better than no photo.

Thank you.

Bryan.

Preserve the past in words and pictures

Over the many years there must be lots of interesting facts and tales what have gone on within our Haslingden and Helmshore, some vintage, some old and some new....

And here in our blog we are trying to re-introduce some of this precious information and where possible also offer photographs...

As they say its probably only the tip of the iceberg, but its got to be worth "Passing it on or sharing it before it gets lost forever" ... Have you something you want to share? If so please let us know.

Description of the Arms of the Borough (shown above) - The Arms and Crest of which the following is a description, were assigned to the Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the Borough of Haslingden, by grant from the Herald's College, dated 25th March, 1892 and are therein described as follows: Quarterly Or and Argent on a fesse wavy Azure between a Lion rampant purpure, holding between the paws a Quatrefoil ermine, in the first quarter; six Eagles displayed three, two and one; Gules in the centre chief point a Rose of the last barbed and seeded proper, in the second; a Cog-wheel Sable, in the third; a Pick-axe in bend surmounting a spade in bend sinister, entwined by a Chain in arch all proper in the fourth; a Shuttle fesswise of the first tipped and furnished with thread pendant of the second and for the Crest, on a wreath of the colours upon a Mount a Rock thereon, a Moorcock holding in the beak a Sprig of Hazel, between two branches of Hazel fructed all proper.

Haslingden in its own right was incorporated as a Municipal Borough in the year 1891 and ran most of its affairs from the Municipal Offices, Bury Road (now Car Park) - see photo below. Sadly in 1974 it lost most of its former Independance by being swallowed up to form part of the (then) new Rossendale Borough Council...

The government of the place in 1825 was thus described: 'The district is formed into six divisions called posts or stations, and the executive consists of a constable and six churchwardens. Each churchwarden is charged with the care of a station and is made responsible for its good order.' The system appears to have been successful at the time. It was not till 1875 that a local board was formed. The district ruled by it was extended in 1883 so as to include parts of Haslingden, Henheads, Higher and Lower Booths in the parish of Whalley, and also Musbury and part of Tottington in Bury. In 1891 a charter of incorporation was granted, the council consisting of a mayor, six aldermen and eighteen councillors, chosen by six wards named Town, Acre, Syke, Helmshore, Holden and Grane. The borough area was consolidated into a single township, called Haslingden, in 1894.

The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company's (later LMS) line from Clifton to Accrington did run northward through the township, having stations at Helmshore and at Haslingden, it was opened in August 1848.

Dr. Aikin, writing in 1795, says:—Haslingden has been greatly improved within the last twenty years, chiefly from the increase of the woollen manufacture, though much of the cotton trade has likewise been introduced within a few years, particularly the branch of making twist for warps, for which purpose alone several factories have been erected in its neighbourhood. . . . The people were (forty years since) chiefly employed by moneyed men at Rochdale; but now the trade is supported by capitals acquired on the spot by the industry and enterprising spirit of the manufacturers, who have erected inns for the entertainment of travellers, shops and handsome houses for their own residence. A square is lately planned here, and some capital houses are already built in it. . . . A number of mills for carding cotton and sheep's wool and spinning them into cotton twist and woollen yarn for the flannels made here, are erected upon the Swinnell. There is also a corn mill on the river, formerly belonging to the Holden family, now extinct.

Haslingden was one of the chapels existing when Whalley was bestowed on the monks of Stanlaw, and in 1296 it was found that its tithes were worth 5 marks and the altarage 4 marks; the chaplain had a stipend of 4 marks, and the chapel had an endowment of 1 oxgang of land. The church, which is now called St. James's, was rebuilt in the time of Henry VIII and again in 1780, after having fallen down. There was no regularly founded chantry, but in 1548 the names of two priests were recorded in the bishop's visitation list, and the same in 1554; later there was only one minister, the curate. His fixed income was £4 a year out of the rectory of Whalley. The Commonwealth Church Survey of 1650 fails to give any account of the income of Haslingden Chapel, but in 1717 it had £17 8s. 7¾d. a year, including £11 10s. out of the rectory, various fees and the Easter roll. There were six chapelwardens. In 1719 George Hargreaves and others gave £200 to augment the endowment, and with later increments the net value is now £368. The vicars of Whalley formerly presented the curates, but about 1848 the Hulme Trustees acquired the patronage. The benefice is styled a vicarage. In the 16th century the north chapel was acquired by the Rawstornes of New Hall in Tottington. The south chapel belonged to the Holdens of Holden. 'In 1857, during alterations, there were found in a cavity under the floor of the church where the altar anciently stood a skull and crossbones with traces of gilding upon them, and therefore believed to be the relics of St. James, the patron saint.' A large 'plague stone,' with two holes in it, was found in the churchyard. The entries in the registers begin about 1620, but are only fragmentary until 1653.
From: 'Townships: Haslingden', A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 6 (1911), pp. 427-433. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=53147

Haslingden On Film

St. Mary's Class of 1951 at a 1991 re-union - kindly sent in by John McGuire.

St. Marys Class of 1951 (1991 Re-Union)

Films kindly given to us by Bernard Rostron - Chairman of the Friends of the Higher Mill Museums - Three films which were filmed by the late Maurice Edmundson:

Green Valley and part of the Walking Day (St. Thomas)

Walking Day (St. Thomas and also Mayor's Sunday

Films kindly sent in by Dave Rothwell (copyright: D. Rothwell)

HGS Staff versus Pupils Hockey Match 3:48

1964 St James Sports Day 3:50

HGS Camp 1965 31secs

HGS Rag Day 12secs

A film by the BFI

Haslingden Peace Celebrations July 19th 1919

Check out DJ Drone on Haslingden Grane (You Tube)

Haslingden Carnival 1950s - Shows Willie Horam and Georgie Berry as the King and Queen.

Click here

"Old School Ties" (Haslingden High School) first broadcast on Radio 4 in 1988 -

Images added by Chris Kirby.

Click here

"Old School Ties" Programme 2 - BBC (period of students 1940s to 1960s) Images added by Chris Kirby.

Click here