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Cow Ark

Cow Ark maps

Historic maps of Cow Ark and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis.   View all Cow Ark maps

Cow Ark area books

Displaying 1 of 17 books about Cow Ark and the local area.   View all books for this area

Memories of Cow Ark

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Lancashire memories

Seedhill Cottage

The house in the foreground is known as Seedhill Cottage.  My family lived there from the mid sixties to late seventies. My father was the gamekeeper for the local shoot and water baliff for Whitewell area. My mother was the school cook at Dunsop Bridge. My sister and brother attended school in Dunsop. The family moved to Hellifield when the shoot closed in 1979. I've been back a number of times and it is still a beautiful place.

Early Years

I was born 1945 at Mason Green Farm and attended the little school from 1950 until 1954 when my father moved on to other employment away from the area to Furness in north Lancs. My sister Barbara who is 4 years younger than me only briefly attended the school. My memories are of a small happy group of kids in 2 separate classes with a very loud but firm Headmistress, Miss Arms, followed by a Miss or Mrs? Leeming and another teacher, Miss Doris Stanley. When I visit the old place now I notice the Reading Room and Assembly Room are now private houses and the shop/post office has gone, the school also, as did the chapel, the filling station came and went too. I remember "Pop" Chew on a chair in the reading room and Mr and Mrs Wilson who ran the shop/post office. On certain Sundays the school doubled as the church and the minister from Mitton, Canon Calderbank, officiated. I recall the trips by the bus on... Read more

Home Sweet Home

1981 The year we moved into West Bradford, to Gable Cottage, built about 1790. For 28 very happy years we lived here. Aunty Nancy the cottage ghost showed her present sometimes! No gas, no lights overhead electric wires and telly pole in back garden! Well, in 28 years on we had gas lights etc etc! Well, it was time to move on. We settled on Portugal! Now we live in a village with no gas, sort of street lights, and a telegraph pole on front garden! We miss west Bradford!

The Old House

The Old Mill House c1950
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This is a picture of the house I lived in as a 8year old boy, I used to catch trout and eels by hand in the stream/creek. It was called the old mill house, to the left was the old bobbin mill. The driveway was directly opposite to the Bayley Arms.

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

Happy Memories of Slaidburn

My first introduction to Slaidburn was in the middle of the very cold and snowy winter of 1949-50. I had just driven down from Inverness to this charming Lancashire village with my Dad. It had been a long, cold drive in a 1938 Morris roadster car, loaded with luggage and a big tool box. I was to begin a new job working for Cementation Ltd where my father also worked. The contract was to drill a tunnel from Ellerbeck to supply water to Manchester. I was to continue my apprenticeship as a heavy duty mechanic. We arrived at 23 Church Street Slaidburn late in the day, tired and hungry. Our landlady, Mrs. Waterworth welcomed us with open arms and a nourishing hot meal. After a good sleep we drove up to the Site at Ellerbeck for me to see just where I would be working. Dad showed me around and introduced me to several of the engineers and workers. I would enjoy working here!  Back at our lodgings I was... Read more

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