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EARBY CHRONICLES Edition 27 £1.50 free to members of the society NEW ROAD CENTRE AUTUMN FAIR A lovely warm autumn morning brought out the crowds, to New Road Community Centre, Earby, for a bumper Autumn Fair, this year themed on the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. The Society used the occasion to launch its The Society aims: latest publication ‘Earby in Bygone Days’ by James Lindley and was to raise awareness, delighted when it sold the whole of the first print run before the end of the foster an interest and facilitate research event. into the heritage of Earby and district The local papers covered the event and our launch and we were delighted including Thornton in Craven, Sough, that Squire Firth agreed to be photographed. Squire is a descendant of Kelbrook, Harden, James Lindley Hague and and has Salterforth. contributed a OFFICIALS lot to the Chairman : Society as a Bob Abel phone 01282 843850 member of the committee. Secretary : Margaret Brown The new book phone 01282 843932 made £181.50 Treasurer : and the pick a Helen Horner stick game at phone 01282 843850 10p a go a Programme Secretary welcome £13.80 Sue Janion for the coffers. phone 01282 843992 Squire Firth, a descendant of James Lindley, at the launch of the book Photograph courtesy of Craven Herald and Pioneer Liaison Officer: Trevor Tattersall phone 01282 842819 One further success on the day was for our Chairman Bob Abel, who won Archivist: Margaret Greenwood phone 01282 843394 recent talks & features NRCC & Parish Rep: Page 3 Burnley, Colne & Nelson Joint Transport - October talk by Alan Catlow Lucille Mitchell phone 01282 841325 Page 6 Wilsons of Thornton-in-Craven - Part II Committee: Page 12 Earby Evacuees 1939-1945 Squire Firth phone 01282 817126 1 EARBY CHRONICLES the first prize in the raffle, a golden bag containing 100 pound coins. We congratulate Bob and hope he remembers who his friends are! DIXON’S ICE CREAM Do you remember Dixons Ice Cream ? Here is a recent photo of the van, still travelling around Barnoldswick. Photograph courtesy of Ken Ranson FIRST LOCAL HISTORY SEMINAR The first Local History Seminar held in conjunction with Barnoldswick History Society was hailed a huge success. The Lady Mayor of Pendle, Chairs of Earby Parish Council and Barnoldswick Town Council all attended and 100% of the 91 attendees were very pleased, according to the excellent feedback. Speaker Eric Higham gave a detailed account of how the Census Enumerators returns for Burnley highlight the vast Bob Abel, Dennis Cairns (Barnoldswick History Society), Chris Tennant (Chair Earby Parish numbers of people coming into the Council), Maureen Blackwell (Chair Barnolds- industrial town form the Dales and wick Town Council), Mayoress of Pendle Gillian elsewhere. Caradice, Mayor of Pendle Pauline McCormick His in-depth study also managed to show (photo courtesy Barnoldswick & Earby Times) that when copies of the census were sent 2 EARBY CHRONICLES to Burnley that one district was missing and this was subsequently found by the Public Record Office. Sue Wrathmell followed with a talk on traditional buildings. We learned to look for distinctive features which could easily be missed by the untutored eye. Examples of houses, inns, shops, mills and factories were featured and the importance of conserving them for future generations was stressed. The talk was well illustrated by excellent slides. We were given food for thought and hopefully can now look at old buildings through new eyes. The afternoon provided a choice. A family history workshop expertly led by Jean Ingham, assisted by the Lancashire Family History & Heraldry Society, with their displays, computer technology and extensive records. The other option was a tour of Bancroft Mill with engine specially in steam. Both options proved to be very popular. It has subsequently been decided to continue the joint venture with Barnoldswick History Society and another seminar is being planned for Spring 2004. MORE DONATIONS Local video producer Michael Crewdson has donated to the society two files containing copies of all the Earby May Day programmes from the start in 1947 to the last event in 1992. That is except the one for 1981. This programme has remained elusive for some time and it would be marvellous to complete the set. If you know where there is a copy of the 1981 programme, which the society could make a copy of, our archivist Margaret Greenwood would be delighted to hear from you. Michael has also given two Earby Urban District Council year books, 1959/60 and 1963/64. Many thanks to Michael for these donations. BURNLEY, COLNE AND NELSON JOINT TRANSPORT Our guest speaker at the October meeting was Alan Catlow whose talk related the history of local bus transport. Alan’s wonderfully illustrated talk took us back 121 years to 1881 when the first steam trams came into operation in Burnley. These trams didn’t get off to an auspicious start when on the first run the tram exploded causing several injuries. They were also prone to causing a smoke nuisance which led to several prosecutions by the local council. In 1901 Burnley Corporation took over the company and electrified the system. They also reduced the track gauge from the railway standard of 4ft 8½ns to 4 ft to match the gauge of 3 EARBY CHRONICLES neighbouring tram systems with a view to future through running of the trams. Both Colne and Nelson had tram companies, the former owned by the Colne and Trawden Light Railway company and the latter by Nelson Corporation. By 1924 Burnley Corporation started a limited bus service linking up with the tram routes. The first buses were built on a design very similar to the trams and had a speed limit of 12 mph. Burnley, Colne and Nelson Joint Transport came into being in 1933. Alan explained that the order of the names in the company title obviously was not based on geographical location but on the size of the individual fleets of vehicles at the time. By 1934 Colne and Nelson trams had ceased to operate and Burnley followed suit in 1935. A rare photograph of a war time bus was shown, with Alan reminding us of the austere vehicles with wooden benches and no heating. 1958 saw the first experiments with one man operation of buses with All aboard for Colne - an early bus (date unknown) rear access buses being outside the Station Hotel Earby converted to front access and in 1959 the first purposebuilt one man operated bus was purchased. There were three bus depots, Colne had Heifer Lane depot, Burnley Queensgate Garage and Nelson had Charles Street which closed in 1959. 1963 saw the first delivery of new modern double decker buses. However the basic design had not altered much. Leylands were the main stay of the 1960s. The company was not for great innovations and for a long time stuck with tried and tested vehicles. 1969 saw the building of the new Nelson bus station. In 1974 a 41 year era came to an end with local government reorganisation and Burnley Colne and Nelson Joint Transport was reformed as Burnley and Pendle Transport. 4 EARBY CHRONICLES In 1997 the company was taken over by Stagecoach who, after failing to make sufficient profit, sold out to Bracefield Holdings of Harrogate the current owners.They immediately invested in 40 new vehicles. Alan worked for BC&N JointTransport for 32 years starting in 1961 as a conductor before graduating to driver and inspector. He also spent some time as a driver instructor. Alan belongs to a Society with special interest in BC & N Joint Transport which has 80 members throughout the country. There are also 10 vintage buses from the fleet in preservation. Thanks to Alan Catlow for his well presented talk. ANOTHER LOCAL ARTEFACT Who can remember Grove Street in Earby? Local historian and member of the Society Michael Crewdson certainly can as he was born in Grove Street which ran along the side of Grove Mill (currently occupied by Wardle Storey). In fact when Grove Street was demolished, Michael recovered the street’s name plate which he has recently donated to the Society for safe keeping. It needs some minor repair work, but will be an excellent addition to the Society’s ever growing collection. Many thanks to Michael for entrusting its safe keeping to the Society. EVEN MORE ARCHIVES At the October meeting we were pleased to welcome an ex Earbyer and his wife, Mr and Mrs Geoffrey Lumb. Geoffrey brought along a set of Earby May Day Programmes dating from 1948 to 1958, 1960 to 61 & 1964 to 1976 which he has kindly donated to the Society’s ever growing archive collection. The programmes were in the possession of Geoffrey’s mother, Winnie Lumb. Geoff’s father, Herbert Lumb, was a member of the Earby District Social and Festival Committee, whose task it was to organise the annual May Day Festival. The programmes are a wonderful snap shot of Earby in those years. They contain many adverts for local Mary Ward - 1952 May Queen businesses, mills and shops and also include many photographs of the May Day Queens and their retinues. 5 EARBY CHRONICLES Geoffrey left Earby when he joined the Airforce. After serving his time in the forces he moved to Ellesmere Port where he was employed as a Youth and Community Worker. Eventually he moved to Nottingham in 1981, where he still lives, to run a sports and community centre. Geoff is a keen football fan and may be remembered as a referee in the local West Craven leagues. He continued refereeing in the Airforce, on one occasion being asked to referee the Airforce vs London University match.