LAN Sep17 70 objects proof

LaAnhciastsohriyreofin

objects

We reveal the first items to appear in
our ambitious project to mark the 70th

anniversary of Lancashire Life

116 lancashirelife.co.uk

a history of lancashire

Tin rocking horse toy
at the Smithy Heritage
Centre, St. Helens

Horsing around
This rocking horse toy was found during an archaeological dig at the side
of the former smithy building. Although the horse is corroded, it is a lovely
example of a rustic home-made toy, made from two pieces of waste sheet metal
hammered and shaped to form the contours of the horse’s head and body.
As well as tools and horseshoes, the blacksmiths who ran the smithy would
make hoops for local children to play with using leftover bits of iron. Often these
would get broken and the blacksmith would repair them, each time making the
hoop a little smaller, until they ended up with very small versions of the original.

Smithy Heritage Centre, Kiln Lane, Eccleston, St Helens, WA10 4RA.

Limited opening times, go to smithyheritagecentre.org.uk for details.

Angelic vision
The ‘Angel of Purity’

takes pride of place

among the stunning

stained glass in the

Turkish Bath Restroom

at Manchester’s Victoria

Baths. With butterfly

wings, the figure is

surrounded by white

lilies, signifying purity.

It is perhaps one of

the finest examples of

art nouveau stained The Peterloo Handkerchief at the Peoples History Museum

glass in the building.

The figure may be Cotton commemoration
On August 16 1819, people from Lancashire’s mill towns
Minnehaha, a fictional came in their thousands to see the famous orator Henry
Hunt talk about reform. It was a peaceful and organised
Native American protest but despite this, the local magistrates sent in the
yeomanry to break up the crowd. The cavalry charged into
woman found in

Henry Wadsworth The Angel Window at Victoria
Longfellow’s Baths in Manchester

poem ‘The song of the masses, killing 18 people and injuring hundreds more.

Hiawatha’ written in 1855. At the beginning of the This handkerchief was produced and sold following
the massacre, possibly to raise money for the hundreds
20th century, when Victoria Baths was built, Samuel of defenceless people who were attacked at Peterloo.
Radical supporters also carried the handkerchief as a
Coleridge Taylor’s orchestral version of the poem, sign of solidarity to the cause they were protesting.

Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast was very popular.

Victoria Baths, Hathersage Road, Chorlton-on-Medlock,

Manchester, M13 0FE. Limited opening times and admission Peoples History Museum, Left Bank, Spinningfields,

charges apply, go to victoriabaths.org.uk for more details. Manchester, M3 3ER, phm.org.uk. 4

LANCASHIRE Life September 2017 117

The Daisy Table at leighton Hall

Mystery table Above and right: Potion pots
Leighton Hall is Earthenware These four small earthenware vessels are believed to
renowned for its pots at the have been used for dispensing potions made from local
collection of Gillow Whitworth plants and herbs by the ‘Taylors of Lancashire’, the original
furniture which has Heritage Centre Whitworth Doctors. They were famous as bone-setters but
been passed down also straightened twisted and contorted limbs and even
the generations since professed to provide cures for certain cancers. John Taylor,
ancestor Robert Gillow a blacksmith and farrier, came to Whitworth around 1750
founded the famous and soon gained a reputation for ‘mending’ horses that had
furniture making firm, suffered broken bones while working in the local stone quarry.
Gillow & Company Taylor quickly extended his skills to the human population
of Lancaster in the and, over time, gained the attention of the clergy, gentry
early 18th century. and even Royalty but, despite relative success, they
never deserted their original ‘customers’, the horses. The
As well as having a Taylor family continued to attend the needs of Whitworth
reputation as brilliant
furniture designers and until Dr James Eastwood Taylor died in 1876.
craftsmen, Gillows were
well known for making Whitworth Heritage Museum, Brookside Mill, North Street,
unusual, often one
off pieces, such as the Rochdale, OL12 8RE. Limited opening times, go to visitlancashire.
so-called Daisy Table.
It’s a bit of a mystery, com/things-to-do/whitworth-heritage-museum-p75500 for details.
too, shaped as it is, like a
flower, with eight leaves Model of Ahmedabad Mosque at the Mosque model There were seven mills
or petals, each supported British India Museum at Nelson The model of a window in the group and he
by a bracket which when from a Temple in spent 31 years in India.
pushed in, allows you Ahmedabad, Gujerat, Accompanying the model
to fold the petals down, was given as a gift to Mr window is a photograph of
leaving a small octagonal and Mrs Jarrett, late of the full size silver filigree
table. It was probably Euxton, on the occasion window in the temple.
made for gambling – if of their wedding, by
you were playing cards Gujerati businessman British in India Museum,
and lost all your money, and friend of Mrs Jarrett’s
or simply didn’t want to father, Mr Wilson. Hendon Mill, Hallam
play anymore, you folded
your petal down and left. Mr Wilson went to India Road, Nelson, BB9 8AD.
in 1938 as a Spinning
Leighton Hall, Carnforth, Superintendent at Arvind Limited opening times and
Mills, Ahmedabad.
LA5 9ST. Admission admission charges apply.

charges apply. Go to Go to visitlancashire.com/

leightonhall.co.uk for details things-to-do/british-in-india-

and more information. museum-p7152 for details.

118 lancashirelife.co.uk

a history of lancashire

Fit for a king The Tree of Life pelmet at Gawthorpe Hall
Hoghton Tower was built in 1565 and during construction
of the magnificent banqueting hall, a banqueting table Exotic embroidery
was to be built. An oak tree was felled in the woods The ‘Tree of Life’ pelmet was created in the early 20th
around the Tower and its trunk brought to the room century by Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth, who lived at the
where master craftsmen created what we now call the house until her death in 1967. She made the pelmet as part
Beef Table. This heavy oak top table has occupied its of a set of bed hangings for a Jacobean bed given to her
current position in the banqueting hall ever since. by her parents as a 21st birthday present. It’s a beautiful
piece of embroidery, with the design based on traditional
400 years ago, in August 1617, when King James I of Tree of Life Jacobean crewel work, influenced by Indian
England, son of Mary Queen of Scots, was returning imported fabrics. The pattern features exotic plants and
from his only visit to Scotland, the King and his flowers but also has an English twist – the addition of
retinue stayed and were entertained at Hoghton Tower insects and native animals. Her interest in the Arts and
by Richard de Hoghton. During one of the many Crafts movement inspired her to create, share and assemble
banquets, and while sitting at this table, King James one of the finest collections of textiles in the country.
I is said to have knighted a joint of beef ‘Sirloin’.
Hoghton Tower, Hoghton, Preston, PR5 0SH. Admission charges Gawthorpe Textile Collection, Gawthorpe Hall, Burnley
apply. Go to hoghtontower.co.uk for details and more information.
Road, Padiham, Burnley, BB12 8UA. Limited opening
The beef table at Hoghton Tower
times. Admission charges apply, go to nationaltrust.

org.uk/gawthorpe-hall for more information.

Revealing writings Elizabeth Parker diaries at Browsholme Hall at Bashall Eaves, Clitheroe 4
These diaries document the extraordinary
story of Elizabeth Parker in her own 119
hand and give an insight into the
expectations and family relationships
of a member of the Lancashire gentry.

Elizabeth was born at Browsholme
Hall in 1726 and, against her family’s
wishes, married her second cousin Robert
Parker of Alkincoats. His premature
death in 1758 left her a widow with
three small sons under five. After seven
years she eloped, sensationally, to
Gretna Green with John Shackleton, a
wool merchant 17 years her junior who
was known for his loutish behaviour.

In her diaries, written in 19 pocket
books and spanning over 20 years, she
details the trials and tribulations of
her marriage, her love of Browsholme,
of Alkincoats (the Parkers’ other
family home near Colne), and of her
children. Her writings form a unique
piece of Lancashire’s social history
documenting her daily encounters
with friends, neighbours, business
associates, relatives and social inferiors.

Browsholme Hall, Clitheroe Road, Cow

Ark, Clitheroe, BB7 3DE. Limited opening

times and admission charges apply.

Go to browsholme.com for details.

LANCASHIRE Life September 2017

Bluebird at the Fastest flier
Ruskin Museum Speed Ace Donald Campbell’s hydroplane
Bluebird K7 broke seven world water speed
Mini big wheel records between 1955 and 1964, four of
The Great Wheel was a famous them on Coniston Water. On January 4 1967,
Blackpool attraction and when Donald Campbell was in search of
Lancashire landmark which unprecedented eighth record, his jet-propelled
stood for 32 years. It opened Bluebird K7 crashed, killing him instantly.
in 1896 at the Winter Gardens
as a rival to Blackpool Tower, Bluebird K7 was the most advanced hydroplane
offering great views across of her time. Built of aluminium, she resembled a
Lancashire. It was 67m high and fighter aircraft, and was powered by a turbojet
had 30 carriages, each could hold engine, proudly engineered in Lancashire.
40 passengers. It was driven by
two powerful steam engines. A ride She is now being conserved and rebuilt
cost sixpence and there were four rides to full operative order by volunteers.
an hour. This miniature wheel was Completed parts are displayed in The Ruskin
made in Stoke-on-Trent in the 1920s. Museum’s Bluebird Wing, her future home.

When it was taken down in 1928, the metal was used to make The Ruskin, Yewdale Road, Coniston, LA21 8DU.
medals in memory of the wheel. The carriages were sold off.
Blackpool Museum Project, Winter Gardens, 97 Church Street, Admission charges apply. Go to ruskinmuseum.
Blackpool, FY1 1HL. Go to blackpoolmuseum.com for details.
com for details and opening times.

Bits and bobbins Thieves album at Greater
Stott Park Bobbin Mill was one of over 65 bobbin mills in the Manchester Police Museum,
Lake District, producing millions of bobbins for the cotton Newton Street, Manchester
and textile industry in Lancashire towns and further afield.
Although a small mill, there were 25 men and boys working Police record
there in gruelling conditions who could make up to a quarter of The Bolton ‘Thieves Album’ dates from 1913 and
a million bobbins a week. Visitors can still watch how a bobbin documents people arrested in the Bolton area,
was made on the original Victorian belt driven machinery. their occupations, alleged crimes and punishments
Stott Park, Finsthwaite, Newby Bridge, Ulverston, LA12 8AX. (if found guilty). Not many books like this survive,
Limited opening times and admission charges apply. Go to english- but this example was saved by a Police Officer
heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stott-park-bobbin-mill for details. while working in Little Lever or Farnworth.
Greater Manchester Police Museum, 57A Newton
120 Street, Manchester, M1 1ET. Open Tuesdays
10.30am-3.30pm, gmpmuseum.co.uk.

lancashirelife.co.uk

Words of protest a history of lancashire
Born in Old Trafford, Sylvia Pankhurst
Coining it in
was one of Manchester’s most The gold solidus of Emperor Gratian (emperor
between 367 and 383) was at the end of the
disruptive of daughters. Daughter of 19th century. It dates to AD373 and is one
of the only gold Roman coins to have been
the Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader found in Bremetennacum Veteranorum, the
Roman Fort which lies beneath Ribchester.
of the British suffragette movement, It is in almost perfect condition and it is the
latest Roman object to have been discovered
she was introduced at the age of 14 at the site which means that Ribchester must
have been occupied until at least AD373.
to the women’s suffrage movement.
The museum and archaeology department
She was an artist, activist and of the University of Central Lancashire are
currently excavating close to the findspot to
writer and was imprisoned for her learn more about the later Roman history of
this extremely important site. So far they have
involvement in the militant Women’s discovered the North Gate of the fort, some late
Roman structures and about 50 Roman coins, but
Social and Political Movement, formed none as well preserved as the one shown here.
Ribchester Roman Museum, Greenside, Ribchester,
in 62 Nelson Street, Manchester. Preston, PR3 3ZJ. Admission charges apply, go
to ribchesterromanmuseum.org for details.
She is also recognised on an Sylvia Pankhurst’s typewriter

international level as a committed

anti-fascist and campaigner for peace and social justice

She used this typewriter to write The Suffragette Movement

- An Intimate Account Of Persons and Ideals 1931.

Pankurst Centre, 60-62 Nelson Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock,

Manchester, M13 9WP, thepankhurstcentre.org.uk.

Motoring milestone
The Preston Bypass was opened

by Prime Minister Harold

MacMillan on December
5, 1958 and was the first
section of motorway in the

country. The Preston Bypass

ran from Bamber Bridge to Preson Bypass model at British
Broughton but its most famous Commercial Vehicle Museum, Leyland
feature was the Preston/
Blackburn junction crossing

the A59, now M6 junction 31. Originally the motorway only
had two lanes but the layout has changed over time to deal with
increasing traffic and was expanded to four lanes in the 1990s.

British Commercial Vehicle Museum, King Street, Leyland, PR25 2LE.

Admission charges apply. Go to britishcommercialvehiclemuseum.

com for details and more information.

Seams like hard work 121
This model shows a man working in an 18
inch coal seam typical of the seams in the
Burnley Coalfield. The roof is supported
by an iron girder and held up by pit props
exactly as it would have been, the man lays
partly on his side and his leg moves from
side to side at the knee which in turn moves
the arm holding the pick which is cutting
the coal previously undercut by the cutting
machine on the previous shift. He would
have spent up to eight hours a day in this
position, stopping only for his “bait” and a
drink. This method was still in use in 1999.
Woodend Mining Museum, Smithson
Farm, Woodend, Reedley Hallows, Burnley,
BB12 9DR. Limited opening times. Go to
woodendminingmuseum.org.uk for details.

LANCASHIRE Life September 2017

Smithills
Bear from
Smithills Hall

It’s plane to see The Douglas C Skymaster at RAF Burtonwood
This is a genuine front end, including the
cockpit, of a Douglas C-54 Skymaster, to keep the airlift going. It involved
the predominant aircraft involved in the approximately 5,000 mechanics working
vital airlift to supply Berlin during the 24 hours a day seven days a week.
Soviet siege. The four-engined transport
aircraft required maintenance every The base continued as the major
200 flying hours and RAF Burtonwood supply, support and maintenance centre
was used for the maintenance of for the USAF in Europe until 1959.
USAF aircraft taking part in the airlift. RAF Burtonwood Heritage Centre, Gullivers
Approximately 1,200 overhauls were World Theme Park, Off Shackleton Close,
undertaken here in 1948 and 1949 Old Hall, Warrington, WA5 9YZ. Go to
rafburtonwoodbase.org/heritagecentre.html
for opening times and more information.

Refugees’ reflections The Harris House diaries at the Edward’s coming home
In February 1940, 15 young girls wrote the Manchester Jewish Museum This characterful bear, called
Harris House diary in a hostel in Southport. Edward, is one of a pair that stood
In the previous year they travelled from Manchester Jewish Museum, 190 either side of the grand staircase at
Germany and Austria with their matron, Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester, M8 Smithills Hall. In the early 1900s
Dr Margaret Steinberg, as part of the 8LW. Admission charges apply. Go Smithills Hall was owned by Colonel
Movement for the Care of Children in to manchesterjewishmuseum.com for Richard Henry Ainsworth, whose
Germany which became better known opening times and more information. wealth derived from his family’s
as Kindertransport. The girls wrote the successful bleaching business.
diary as a ‘token of gratitude to all those
kind people’ who had funded the hostel The bears were part of family life
and provided for them during the year. at the hall and were used to hold hats
and umbrellas. They left Smithills
The girls and Dr Steinberg paint a vivid Hall in 1938 after the Ainsworth
picture of the life of a young refugee in family sold their country estate
1930s, describing their parents, their life to Bolton Council, but, following
back home and their personal experiences conservation work, one of the bears
of the impact of National Socialism. will make a return journey to its
Most refugee testimonies are recorded former home in late summer 2017.
long after the war with hindsight and
with the passage of time memories have Smithills Hall, Smithills Dean
changed, influencing the retelling. When
writing this diary the girls were aware of Road, Bolton, BL1 7NP. Go to
the persecution being suffered by their
parents back at home but they could not friendsofsmithillshall.co.uk for opening
imagine the horrors of the ‘Final Solution’.
times and more information.

Spotter’s guide

Young visitors to the county’s enough objects, you can posting them on twitter with
museums and heritage download a certificate from the hashtag #Spottythebear.
venues can to tick off the our website.
objects as they see them in a And be sure to let us know
free Spotter’s Guide. You might also spot how you’re getting on too –
Spotty. He’s a little bear with share your selfies with the
The guides are available a big plan – he wants to see objects at @70_objects
from all participating venues all the 70 objects before #Lancashire70.
and you can download a Lancashire Day on
copy from our website, November 27. He has already Please check opening
lancashirelife.co.uk/topic/ visited a number of venues times and prices before you
Tag/Lancashire70. and he’s taking a selfie with travel. And don’t forget you
each object he spots and can download a map of all
And once you’ve spotted the venues from our website.

122 lancashirelife.co.uk