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Barrow memories

Here are memories of Barrow and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Barrow or a Barrow photo.

Langho Hotel

Hi I've been doing my family tree and found out that my grandparents and great-grandparents and my great great grandparents lived and worked in the police in Blackburn. My great-grandfather William Whalley was married to Betsy and lived in the Langho Hotel. But I cannot find out any information about the Langho Hotel! Please can anyone help with any information on the Langho Hotel, or was it a place at all? In the 1911 census it said he lived there with his wife Betsy and their children, at the Langho Hotel, Langho! Please can anyone help?

Schoolboy Memories

Born at the Risedale Maternity Home in 1933 we first lived in James Street. I think it was 1937 when we moved to Clevelands Avenue in the new Beacon Hill estate. Barrow was bombed in May 1941 but it was the older part of the town that suffered the most damage. I recall, as a boy, going round the streets looking for shrapnel from the AA guns I suppose. It didn't half tear holes in our pockets. Of course it was the shipyard that was the main target, but we could also see the flames from Liverpool on tha horizon.
In 1945 I started at Barrow Grammar school under Mr SM Price the headmaster. Very strong on discipline, I remember being scared stiff of him but he was probably fair.
I left Barrow in 1947 as my dad decided to move to Rugby.

Memories of Lancashire

The Best Weeks of Our Lives

During the 1950s my brother Brian and I (Peter) were what can only be described as whisked to paradise in Wiswell. We left the slums of Hulme on a vacation that has stayed with us forever, it was like taking part in our own fairytale. We went to stay with Mr & Mrs Wearing in the big white house across from the farm on Back Lane, they were very kind and caring people, who opened their home to two boys giving us an experience that would stay with us for a lifetime. We worked on the farm with the lads, hay making, sheep dipping, not forgetting going out on the country lanes in the Wilis jeep, every moment was a treasure, it was our holiday in paradise. The big black and white horse Rodger who I will never forget bit me on the arm. As I look back on the time spent in Wiswell, if I had a time machine it would be my first stop, and probably I would stay there. I... Read more

The Place Where I Was Born

I was born in Whalley, in the second cottage opposite the Catholic Church in the Sands, in December 1924. Next door to us was Mr Sutton who was well known around Whalley for his ice cream. He used to stand outside the abbey gates with his ice cream and he always had raspberry vinegar to put on top of the cones. I went to Whalley C of E School.  Mr J Chew was the headmaster, Miss Edith as we knew her was my kindergarten teacher, other teachers I remember were Miss Forster, Miss Baxter [ who I was in Love with], Miss Roberts, Miss Dyson. I was in the church choir when I was 7, also the Boy Scouts when I was 11, and a bell ringer, when I was 14. In 1932 my parents opened a greengrocery and wet Ffsh business in Park Villas, next door to the Post Office where my grandfather was the Postmaster. In 1935 for King George's Jubilee the Whalley Scouts camped on Kemple End... Read more

The Derbyshire Family - Park Villas

My cousin Eileen Vera Derbyshire was born in Blackburn in 1905 and was adopted by the Derbyshire family, when she went by the name of Nelly / Nellie Swales Derbyshire. She was apparently taken in by Nuns at a convent, so I don't know how she came to live with the Derbyshire family. The family lived at Park Villas for some years, and her adopted father was Samuel Derbyshire, who was a joiner (carpenter), and her mother was Mary Elizabeth Haydon.

From what I can remember Eileen had several siblings - Clare Cecilia, John William, and James. Eileen married in 1934, to Clarence Walton, and I believe there is a line that follows on from them to the present day. Eileen was a school teacher when she married, but I don't know where she taught - probably nearby where she lived in Whalley. Later on, she lived in Mellor, but died in Coventry in the 1990s.

You may remember her as Miss Derbyshire,... Read more

Paddling Pool, Castle Field

Recreation Ground c1960
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I remember this pool vividly! One day I was riding my tricyle round the outside of the pool, which wasn't filled with water at the time. Unfortunately I happened to fall in and I cut my hand on a broken glass. After 34 years I still have a scar to prove it.

Morris Dancing With The Clitheroe Morris Men

From Castle Street 1921
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This was a weekend to remember!

The Clitheroe Morris Men invited several other dance "sides" to join them for a weekend of dancing, music and - of course - beer drinking! By a lucky chance I was included in this invitation due to a strange set of circumstances...

Just the Autumn before, in 1979, I had begun to play my piano accordian for the Whitethorn Morris team in Harrow, Middlesex. After a month or two of enjoyable music I spotted an advertisement in the Watford Observer which said that the Pumphouse Women's Clog Morris urgently needed a musician to play for their practice evenings on Monday nights. Well, I lived in Watford, and I badly needed the extra opportunities to practise playing for dancing on my accordian myself. So I got in touch and found myself twice as busy: Mondays nights playing in Watford for the Pump House Clog Morris and Thursday nights playing in Harrow for Whitethorn Morris. This worked well and my standard... Read more

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