Monday 12 January 2009

Deardengate Shops in the 1950s to 1970s etc (East Side)........plus some nice vintage photos

Deardengate - East Side




Lower and Higher Deardengate, Haslingden and the Shops of the 50s,60s and 70s etc… (Higher and Lower Deardengate - East side only)

Starting from the Old Market Place side of Higher Deardengate (the original home of the Big Lamp), and taking in the left hand side going down Deardengate). There was originally a shop called G. Brierley (Ironmonger) at No.2 which later became Stockdales, but this shop protruded from the corner with Bury Road and was later demolished in a road widening exercise. See the next photo.




I can only remember the shop which starts us off nowadays which is now No.4 Deardengate which is the Big Lamp Chippy (see photo below), but originally in the 50s and 60s it was a Beer and Wines Shop, and then there was a barber’s (Mens Hairdressers) next door called Bob Heap's and later it was Mr. Metcalfe. Next door could have been James Turner (Ladies Hairdressers) and which today is a dentist, or was Jame's next door which was earlier Birch’s Confectioners and who had a sign on their gable end which said “Birch maker of Hovis” …this shop is a Ladies Hairdressers today.






After leaving the small cobbled back before you hit what was the Old Plumbers Shop in times past and obviously when this photo was taken, yet in the 1980s and 90s there was a taxi office for RossTax which occupied the small fronting annex set before the main building..then you had the property itself which was originally a Plumbers Merchants which shows earthenware pipes stacked up in the garden). Today this building has been refurbished and is the Old Victorian Tea Rooms. I guess this property should be attributed in the main to the birthplace of one of Haslingdens sons ALAN RAWSTHORNE famous composer.




Next door to this and we have a building with much history (see old photos). It started off as a Vicarage, and later was a Laundry and then the Empire Cinema (this was my first recollection of the building and the Cinema was owned and run by Mr. Tony Hoyle and his mother, and besides having this Cinema they also ran the Duke of Wellington Pub on Grane Road) and then later it became a Bingo Hall and in more recent times Whitehead’s Supermarket.










Bank Street is next, and this Street contains what was the side elevation to the building which was originally a Woolworths Store, and in more recent times was used by the NHS and is currently boarded up (2009). Next door to this and backed up to theWoolworths was the Co-op Bank, where my mum used to go and collect her Co-op Divi in the 50s. This building was shut down for years and then later reopened as the Bank House Hotel (probably around the 80s) yet since the 90s it was converted and became the Haslingden Conservative Club, their old Club which was previously on John Street, having been demolished and replaced with the Co-op Supermarket..







Then there is the small street called Burgess Street which again runs off Higher Deardengate. Here on the corner is Kath Burgess’s Opticians but originally It was Riggs Clothes Shop. There was also shops up the side of Burgess Street, I can only remember the more recent being a Citizens Advice Bureau, but this is actually closed now. Back to Deardengate and below Burgess’s was Hesmondhalgh Florist Shop, and they made up wreaths etc. I remember little Harry Fitzjohn used to work there, I think he may have been their deliver man or something like that. Next door was the Dearden Cave (see photo below right) a sort of 60s Coffee Bar ran by this guy called Charlie, and occasionally they would have groups on there, before this place he had a coffee bar/shop on Ratcliffe Street, but he moved from there and opened up the Dearden Cave… today what was the old Dearden Cave Coffee Bar is in the main a Hardware/Ironmongery shop, and above this shop they sell power tools etc. I think this shop is hardware and power tools above the shop. Before any of this the shop was originally a Bank called Yorkshire Penny Bank and here is their original blotter memorabilia.







Next is what years ago would have been called the Mechanics Institute in Michael Davitt’s day, but more recently probably better known as the Haslingden Public Lending Library, or Haslingden Public Library.. Today, there is a blue plaque on the wall of the Library stating that this is where Michael Davitt did most of his early studies. To the bottom side corner of the Library there is this old drinking fountain, never worked as far as I can remember, well not in my lifetime. The opening here leads to the Towns Central Car Park behind the Library, but once of a day it was called Back Hindle Street and perhaps some 75 yards up there on the left was our Church Lads Brigade Drill Hall (long demolished) and (originally the building was St. Andrews and also it had been called Hindle Street Mission).


After Hindle Street, there is what I have always found to be a ugly cement rendered building which was many moons ago I believe a Billiard Club, but I can only remember it has a Co-operative Furniture Stores which it was in the 60s and 70s, it has been allsorts over the more recent years. Then there is a small ginnell before you come to the very high three storey shops. The first of these I remember being The Disc Music shop which used to sell vinyl records, and they always used to have the current top ten – I think a single 7” vinyl record them days was about 5s 3d and a album (LP vinyl) was about 7s 6d.. This shop was later taken over and called Soul City Records and was then run by Andrew Riding, the Northern Soul DJ. (Before it was the Disc record shop, it was called “Whitewell Dairies” selling Cheese and ice cream and other dairy products, the manageress was Ada Hacking (my Aunt) and I can remember helping her out during school holidays from Haslingden Modern School - Ian Hacking... Next door to this was the shop known as Ashworths (Confectioners) and especially well known for their Cissy Green Meat Pies. Ashworths was later taken over by one of her workforce Mrs. Hargreaves, and this later passed down to her daughter and a old schoolfriend Lynn. Lynn sold it on in the 90s and in more recent times it has been in the hands of Barrie Haworth whom has renamed the shop Cissy Greens. Next door to Cissys we have the Trustee Savings Bank, which has been there ever since I can remember. I got the job of reslating the roof of this Bank during the 1990s..



Then there’s a opening which is Pleasant Street. The second or third shop up was Hargreaves Cafe, and I can remember half way up the old Pleasant Street on the left hand side there was a general grocers and Jane Elson's parents had it. On the other side of Pleasant Street, almost attached to the Martins Bank (Now Barclays Bank), there was also a couple of shops, one owned by McIntyre's (Painters and Decorators), this was their first shop before they moved further up Pleasant Street, and then they moved yet again to the one on Manchester Road, also there was Clarkes Shoe Shop. Then there was and still is the Barclays Bank (which in the 60s was the Martins Bank). Next door to this was Greenwoods (well known Clothiers) and then at the corner I think was the Relay Vision. This completes the section of one side of Higher Deardengate and I will continue with both the other side of Higher Deardengate together with the Lower Deardengate very soon…. Below are three more photographs 1) is the Old Co-op Building (just below the Library), 2) is a earlier picture of the Vicarage (pre: Laundry, pre Empire Cinema, pre Bingo Hall and pre current Supermarket) 3) A early postcard General View of Higher Deardengate Market... 






Having now reached the crossroads junction with Blackburn Road, we cross over into Lower Deardengate and the first building we go alongside is the side elevation of the Commercial Hotel which in the 60s was a Beverley's House and the landlord was Bernard Eade. Bernard was a great chap and every Christmas would donate bags of coal to some of the hard up pensioners of the town... next down was the Masonic Hall, then we have the Post Office.





Photo: thanks to Dave Rothwell

Next was the "Post Office Buildings" and originally there was a tobacconist and tailors within the first shop and the Post Office was in the right hand shop, as shown in the photo opposite. At some point in time the Post Office section was transferred to the left hand side, and thats how it has remained up until now.  

Next door to the Post Office, they lowered the stone cills and turned it into a shop frontage which eventually became Rothwells.  Mr. David Rothwell took over the premises in the 1940s, after moving from a shop at the bottom of Park Street, which is now a ladies hairdressers called Capelli.  From within the Post Office Buildings, he operated the businesses of house furnishings and also traded as a Undertakers, because Mr. Rothwell was a Cabinet Maker by trade. 

His son Mr. Leslie Rothwell ran the shop as nursery goods, toys, bicycles, prams etc, from the early 1950's (dropping the undertaking side of the business), and he continued with this business until his death in 1990.  So the business had spanned almost 50 years.  The shop still has heavily barred windows to the rear from the time when the back extension was the Post Office sorting Office.  




Next shop down was Harry Kays Plumbers and Electricians.  Harry had his workshop in the basement and you had to climb an outside flight of stairs to reach the shop's front door.  This flight of stairs was identical to the steps still outside the old Cribden Court or old wine bar which is next door, but were removed in the early sixties when the Dry Cleaners shop front was formed by a Mr. Bradshaw, who ran the Dry Cleaners before Tony's dad. The Dry Cleaners today is owned by Tony and here is a picture of how it is today, and then next down is a very old building, which during the 80s was turned into a restaurant called the "Cribden Court" and later for a very short time a Wine Bar. It has been closed now for some 15 years or so..Prior to being the Cribden court this building was two back to back cottages.  

A short gap (the exit to the backs of the Post Office Etc), then you had what was originally Parkinson and sons before it became Messrs Kidd Whittaker - Solicitors, which later became the Huddersfield Building Society and then Statham and Hirst (Insurance Brokers), then the next shop was a shoe shop which later became a confectioners and then for a short period Denis Sheridan owned it as a high class mens clothiers. And next door to here was and still is the chip shop which borders with New Street. this was run in the 1950s by Mr and Mrs.Paine..







Crossing over New Street you came to the Congregational Church Schoolroom, which later became the actual Congregational Church, and finally you came to Cordingley's Car Showroom.. (Photo below Congregation shows from 1902 showing pre Post Office and down Lr Deardengate..)







Photo: Horse Drawn Tanker on Lower Deardengate
c1900.  Photo kindly sent in by Michael Mullaney
.



Photo of Petrol Pumps outside of Cordingleys
(Photo kindly sent in by Jack Pilling (Please click over to enlarge)





Statham and Hirst - Insurance Brokers old office in Lower Deardengate
(Click over to enlarge)
Both photos have been kindly sent in by Barbara Hendry who used to work at the Offices. The Offices where closed in the 1990s and she found them in one of the cupboards.  It is thought that they originally would have belonged to Mr. Statham when he originally bought the property.
Photos: uploaded on the blog on 2nd May 2015.  


King George V Jubilee May 1925
Top of Higher Deardengate/Market Place
Photo: Thanks to Roger Roundell for sharing with us
Archived under Higher Deardengate



Email received 13th June 2014 from John Heap.
Greetings Mr York
Just read the Free Press and the piece about the top of Deardengate The block of three shops
Were No 4 the wine shop owned by Mr and Mrs Burgess
Next came my father’s barbers shop at No 6
And then came the confectioners called Birch’s at No 8
At the age of six I started making rubber powered  model aircraft and flying them at night
Around the big lamp ( no traffic to disturb you then)
Now at the age of 73 I am still making model planes but now with radio control

Cheers John Heap



Email received 16th June 2014 from John R. Edwards


Hi Bryan
Here are some extras to the blog on the East side of Deardengate.

Woolworth's:-
The depth of the shop window was fitted onto a raised area with a small, 9", wall to the front and Burgess St side. The base of the area had patterned diamond shaped tiles, green and red??.

Co-Op furnishings shop:-
This was a bakery for a while, I remember women making what looked like crumpets or pancakes on large black hotplates, with the doors open onto Deardengate. Were they for Appleby's shop on the corner of New St.?

Fire Engine:-
This was a Braidwood design open top fitted on a Leyland chassis, carrying a  wheeled escape ( hence the big red wheels), made by Merryweather of London
There was a name plate in front of the windscreen inscribed WATSON. Who was he? I don't know where it went.
I had the pleasure of having a short ride on it from Regent St. to the Bus depot at the bottom of John St. and back after filling up with fuel. Courtesy of Fireman Robert Wade.

John R Edwards