+- Leyland Forum (https://leylandtown.co.uk)
+-- Forum: Leyland Forum (https://leylandtown.co.uk/forum-5.html)
+--- Forum: Leyland Talk (https://leylandtown.co.uk/forum-27.html)
+--- Thread: Brook Mill (/thread-2547.html)
Pages:
1
2
Brook Mill - anacortesdamp - 15-Jan-2010
This is a follow-up to the off-topic string we started in the "Welcome" folder.
As I remember it, Noel, East Streeet dead-ended at a set of large ornamental cast-iron gates. There was a dead-end street that went off to the right with more terraced houses. They overlooked the field - nice outlook, may have cost a bit more. My Mum & Dad rented a house on East Street when they were first married. I wasn't born until my Dad was in the RAF, so I'm not sure I was born there or at mom's parent's place on Bent Lane. I think it was East St.
The gates opened up onto the Brook Mill sports field complex. It had maybe 6 tennis courts in the SW corner, a pavilion backs to the northern fence line and I suppose there was a cricket pitch out there too. The field ran all the way from the gates to the foot of the railway embankment just south of Leyland Station.
The mill was maybe a four or five-story brick building just to the north of the sports field, and about the same latitude as the end of the station's platform 1. It was very visible when you were on a train. I'll dig out an historic OS map I have and try to do a .jpg of the area, then post it (assuming the mill existed at the time of the map).
I don't remember where the employee entrance to the mill was, but it had to be somewhere near those gates. I can't remember what was between the east end of the Palace and the sports field boundary, but there must have been something. Maybe someone on here has photos.
BTW, does the Palace still exist? It was a Bingo hall when I was last in Leyland, but that's getting on for 15 years ago. I kept getting lost driving around then - it must be even more confusing now!
It's a bit aggravating not to remember, as Eileen's folks had a greengrocery at 90 Hough Lane, and my Aunt Mabel and Uncle Lloyd (Roberts) had a haberdashery on the corner of a side street right across from the Co-Op (Rimmer's Music). Uncle Lloyd taught piano and violin in the family accommodations over the shop. It became an off-licence, I think. I should be a lot more familiar with the area than I am and should remember better!
More info if I can scan a copy of the map (and it has the mill on it).
Frank
- Alan Marsden - 15-Jan-2010
I seemto recall that leyland paint and Varnish used Brook mill at one time for storage. certainly in the late sixties B&R Taylor's rented the lower floor a least and there they employed approx thirty designers who were working exclusively on the Rolls Royce RB211 turbojet engine for Rolls in Barnoldswick.
There was another large mill very close to Brook Mill but slightly to the south , in the late sixties it was used as an upscale carpet and furniture store, it was owned by a chap who set up his own business after working for Ben pickup.
- noel - 15-Jan-2010
Thanks for the description Frank, I'm not sure about The Palace, I think the building's still there but now I'll have to see for myself and maybe post a photo or two of the area.
I remember the paint storage as my dad used to work at Leyland Paints. But I wasn't sure exactly what the building was or had been as I was only maybe 10 or so at the time.
- accy stan - 15-Jan-2010
Brook Mill brings back some distant memories, as a lad of about 4 or 5 I remember going to a sports day there, sometime in the late 40s. I recall winning something but my elder brother, Jim, came home with an arm full of prizes and my dad won something, I have a photo of it somewhere. I also remember one of the ladies/secretaries called miss Gooby. Don,t ask me what I did yesterday though??
- noel - 18-Jan-2010
I called in East Street tonight as I was in the area visiting Leyland Hotel, but The Palace, or "bug hole" as my charming wife called it when I asked if it was still standing ( she didn't know either but said Lyn Trafford had moved into it after the great flood sometime in the early eighties)
and....it's gone!! Replaced by a place called Cedar Court, a home for the elderly I think though it was difficult to tell in the dark and rain. The estate behind East Street is quite big, I'd no idea it was there. So that's where Brook Mill was.
- accy stan - 18-Jan-2010
Old maps are on line at www.lancashire.gov.uk/environment/oldmap/ scan down to Leyland, 1889 and 1909 are on there, click on an area of the map for an enlargement.
- TonyL - 19-Jan-2010
Aerial view early 1960s
quote:
Originally posted by anacortesdamp
There was a dead-end street that went off to the right with more terraced houses. They overlooked the field - nice outlook, may have cost a bit more.
Frank
Spring Street, Frank
![[Image: springstbrookmillfieldb.jpg]](http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/3867/springstbrookmillfieldb.jpg)
The brick building was the mill canteen, later to be used for a while by B&R Taylor.
Also, on East Street between the cinema and the mill was the Co-op warehouse.
- anacortesdamp - 19-Jan-2010
Thanks, Tony. I had planned to scan in the 1909 map, but discovered that my Lexmark All-in-One has degenerated to just a printer! Just today, I managed to load the Lexmark software on to my wife's net book and got the scan/copy/fax capabilities back when using her machine. I don't need them very often, but it's annoying to lose them from what appears to be a Microsoft faulty update that Lexmark was unable to work around.
It's an interesting snapshot in time, as the Gasworks has all been demolished except for the two storage gasometers, but the roundabout isn't in yet. The old Methodist Church and School buildings are still there, too.
Thanks for that link, Bryan. I have paper copies of the 1909 maps of Leyland and Farington, published by "Alan Godfrey Maps" in Consett.
Frank
- noel - 19-Jan-2010
Superb aerial view Tony, that shows why I was never aware of where the place was. I cycled daily down Chapel Brow on my way to Balshaws, the place is totally hidden from view of the main road. Singleton's depot where we caught coach trips quite often backs onto the mill.
- rocketmanjohn - 20-Jan-2010
I was one of the poor b******s who worked for B and R Taylors at Brook Mill canteen. There was no heating and we each had a paraffin heater which we sat on to keep warm. We all worked on drawing boards wearing gloves with the fingers cut out.
Yes Alan, we were working on the RB 211 which broke Rolls Royce, but turned out to be the forerunner of the most successful engines Rolls ever built. Indeed, the latest engines owe a lot to the 211. It's hard to believe that the 'RB' in the title stands for Rolls Royce Barnoldswick, all design work was carried out there. I'm proud of the fact that I was there at the beginning.
The Leyland Paint storage buliding set on fire some time in the late 60's or earlt 70's, it was very spectacular to watch as cans of paint exploded and flew through the roof like a rocket.
John