About

Stanley Challenger Graham

A flawed man who has done many jobs in his time ranging from army service, through agriculture, shop-keeping, truck driving, engineer on mill engines running commercially, boiler repairing and boat-building, restoration of old machinery and finally researcher and historian.  He's dedicated to recording and promulgating the lives of ordinary people who for far too long were denied a voice.  His work in this field has recently been recognised by the History Department at Lancaster University who have made him an Honorary Research Fellow.  The big advantage he has in this research is that he has actually worked in the industries and understands them and the workers.

Barnoldswick

The Leeds and Liverpool canal was originally routed south of Barlick but the line was changed to take advantage of water resources available in the district for the summit level.  By 1800 enough of the canal had been opened to open up the limestone quarries of Barlick to Lancashire and the entry of coal as a return load.  This triggered the existing water powered textile industry into development using steam.  The first engine was running at Mitchell's Mill by 1827.

The town is nominally in Lancashire but was originally in the West Riding of Yorkshire before being dragged, kicking and screaming, into Lancashire in the boundary changes of the 1970s.  Known locally as 'Barlick' it actually seceded from the union in the 19th century when it became the highest concentration of cotton weaving in the world, 14 mills, 25,000 looms and less than 10,000 people.  

In 1940 the Rover Company moved its aero engine repair and research facilities into the town to escape bombing in Coventry and installed a man called Whittle* in Bankfield Shed which was at one time the largest single weaving shed in Lancashire.  In 1942 Rolls Royce swapped a tank engine factory for Whittles and Bankfield.  From then on the suffix of the type numbers of the engines was changed from 'W' to 'RB', Rolls Barnoldswick.  The RB211 was the first engine to be tested outside Barlick as new test beds were built at Derby.  Rolls Barnoldswick is still the world leader in wide chord fan blade design and manufacture.

Barlick today is a thriving town and is home to Silentnight Industries, one of the largest bed and furniture manufacturers in the world and many other industries.  It retains much of the old architecture and some of us fight to avoid too much development.  It's a good place to live and I'm dedicated to spending my remaining years recording the history and reminding the youngsters of their roots.

(* Frank Whittle - the famous jet engine pioneer.)

Lancashire Textile Project and Barlick View Articles

In August 2004 the President of the Association for Industrial Archaeology presented Stanley with the Association's 2004 Fieldwork and Recording Lifetime Achievement award. This was in recognition of Stanley's work on the Lancashire Textile Project which involved 188 transcripts of interviews with people who worked in the weaving mills in Barnoldswick and the spinning mills in Haslingden.

All this material and much more from other contributors is available on the www.oneguyfrombarlick.co.uk website. The aim of the site is to act as an on-line local history society. Our view is that the day of the old district-based historian is past. With today's communications, anyone can join in and make a contribution. We have expatriate Barlickers all over the world reading the topics and sending their replies in to the site. Genealogists use us as a resource. Truly, the day of the armchair historian has arrived! Have a look at the site and make it your home page. Like this site, there are no advertisements or pop ups and everything is free to air. Because of the continuous stream of replies and topics the site is constantly updated, it's like a specialised newspaper, there is always something fresh to read.

So log on and register and go for a walk through West Craven. As one woman in Canberra said recently, "Help!! How do I get out of the Lancashire Textile Project. I've been trapped in here for four hours!" For all we know, she is still in there, there is certainly enough material.

The bottom line is that the site is successful because it is all honest prime source material, the product of many hours of hard work. There are also some very funny characters bantering with each other and this throws up some very funny contributions. It's obviously fun, so why not join in?

My Other Website

You can find more of my articles on-line at www.barnoldswick.blogspot.com

Steam Engines

If you have any questions about the practical aspects of steam engines feel free to contact me. Knowledge was given to us to be shared.

Page updated: 25 AUG 2004