Photo Album-England
Trawden, Lancashire
In the winter of 1962-63, we had a lot of snow. One morning Trawden woke up
to a very quiet and white landscape. The small road that leads up "t'moor
bottom" was impassable for days, as I remember it. David has provided me
with some pictures showing just how bad the drifts were. He recalls:
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"During
this winter I remember the freeze started in January and went right on
until end of March, ten weeks in all. As you see from the small
photos, which I took at the time with a small box camera, access down Dark
Lane was completely out of the question and all the farmers from the
outlying farms and cottages, namely, Frighams Cottage, Lodge Moss, Lodge
Hill, New Laithe, Mean Moss and Beaver farms and Lumb
Spout cottages had to come through the fields down into the village.
The farmers actually took down the dry stone walls so that horse and cart,
Land Rover and tractor transport could get through.
The council started to cut a way
through, which took a number of weeks, so that motorised vehicles could
move, but within days of starting cutting the snow, the wind drifted the
snow level again with the tops of the walls, either side of the lane. Back
to square one!
Finally, once more, the council cut
out as far as the Frigham's Cottage, but had no sooner done this that one
of their officials declared it unsafe. As the wall of snow was at least
twenty to thirty foot high either side of the cut, they were frightened of
collapse and someone getting buried. It didn't stop us playing up there
anyway!" |
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Frigham's Cottage. Top of Dark
Lane, Winter, January/February 1963. |
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A man and his dog are dwarfed
by the drifts |
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Trawden Urban
District Council workmen cutting a way up Dark Lane. This is the road from
Hollin Hall Mill (what was Bannister's) up to Frigham's Cottage. Again
Jan/Feb 1963 |
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| More recently, in February 2001
the pictures below, shows Gillian Greenwoods son, Neil trying out the snow blower. |
| Neil Shaw had a talented father, Andrew Shaw who was a
wizard with electronics when that word meant valves, crystal sets, hand
wound coils, heavy batteries and much more. I learnt about radio from one
Luke Dyson who lived just a short distance from my home.
Andrew was clearly into state of the art radio sets. Here are
two of his from photographs supplied to me by Neil. Oh, such nostalgia!!
I had talked of a small wooden hut that I
used to pass on my walk to chapel in Trawden from home. Well, I wasn't quite
right on my facts, see below: |
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"The wood hut that you mentioned in your
e-mail was indeed Leonard's Clog Shop and it was across from the Black
Carr Mill's engine house. Yes you would feel the vibrations! but not on a
Sunday ( on your way up to the Zion ) as the mill did not operate on
Sunday!
The rather unique tale I have is, many years
ago I was told by mum or dad, that the wooden hut ( that was Leonard's )
was where Andrew Shaw, my dad, had a business in that very hut about 1919
where he built and sold wireless sets ! It was of course a brand new
consumer item and once the big money companies realized the potential
ahead, it was of course game over for my dad. I was told that he had the
very first wireless in Trawden and Colne. The three valve picture in the
attachment could very well be one of his first "production models " An
interesting story was that the Providence Independent Chapel in Colne
organized a trip up to Trawden to hear dad's wireless. His aerial was
strung out of his bedroom window on Hall Road, across the back street, to
a mast in the opposite meadow. When these folks arrived, they all sat on
the grass under this aerial wire, expecting to hear the sound ! It's hard
to comprehend this occasion, but when you realize it was a brand new
experience for these folks, it is understandable."
So you can say that dear old TRAWDEN was
indeed part of the beginning of commercial electronics. Indeed, even in
the more recent years, how I would liked dad to have shared the magic of
today's methods of communication, photos included. He could not have
really comprehended even in 1982 when he died, how these things would
evolve ! I feel privileged to have been exposed first hand to information
from those early years. What a journey, today's young people take it all
for granted, one can only wonder what they will be experiencing in their
later years."
Gillian Greenwood adds:
"He
(Jack Greenwood) tells me that Leonard’s clog shop was opposite Forest
Shed mill at the side of Black Carr Mill.
The said wooden hut was
burnt down when Forest Shed caught fire in 1938 and Leonard move across
the road to a small brick built building which was at the bottom of Dean
Street, next to the coal store for Black Carr.
When I (Gillian) first
remember it, it was a gents hairdressers and later on an old gentleman
made it into a snug little house. After he died, about 1961
ish, it became derelict and was knocked
down.
There is now a car park
on it but plans have been submitted to build one or two houses there".
(early 2005)
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