lancashiretodundee

My great uncle Sgt Thomas Baldwin was one of those lost when HMT Lancastria sank with great loss of life on 17 June 1940. She was anchored off Saint Nazaire about 3 miles from the shore when she took 4 bomb hits from a Ju 88 and sank in 20 mins. The background to these events follows. In late May 1940 the BEF (and Britain) was comprehensively defeated by Heinz Guderian’s blitzkrieg. Everyone has heard of the subsequent Dunkirk evacuation (operation Dynamo) which rescued nearly 340,000 men. Most equipment and stores were lost. A positive spin was put on Dynamo to hide the appalling scale of the disaster. This was followed by operation Cycle, which evacuated from Le Havre, and operation Ariel which evacuated from Atlantic ports, operations which are not so well-known. They recovered a further 190,000 troops. These evacuations were at the cost of heavy losses, but the recovery of over half a million men could be considered worth the cost if the war was to be continued. The Lancastria disa...

In 1851 a report was presented to a Commons committee on non-conformist churches and chapels in England and Wales giving numbers as follows: Wesleyan 4,450 Independent 2,572 Baptist 1,943 Primitive Methodist 1,662 Roman Catholic 597 Calvinistic Methodist 778 Bible Christian 415 Society of Friends 330 Wesleyan Methodist Assn 322 Methodist New Connection 281 Unitarian 260 Church of Scotland 12 Free Church of Scotland 77 United Presbyterian Church 61 Lady Huntingdon's Connection 30 New Jerusalem Church Jews Minor sects 350 There are some interesting conclusions to be drawn from these statistics. Remember that these are churches that are not Anglican, but not necessarily orthodox, creedal Christian, or even Christian in any sense. If you merge together the different flavours of Methodism, you find that 52% of the churches were Methodist. That is an impressive proportion. It may be even bigger, as I excluded Bible Christian as this is ambiguous. It could mean the Bibl...

 On the same newspaper page as the New Jerusalem minister Rev Baylay's advert of 1839 for his private school in Church, there is an advert for a nightly stagecoach from Preston departing 7 pm arriving Newcastle 9 am. This is before the railway came, but after the turnpike roads were built. This timing is very impressive even though there were no hostile injuns or robber gangs with hankies around the nose and mouth. The early 19th C was a boom time for stagecoaches. The idea that there were no decent roads until the 20th C is misplaced. Want to go South? The Defiance will get you from Manchester to London in 30 hours in 1799. Would you like to go sea-bathing at the genteel resort of Blackpool? A new coach service (new in 1836) leaves from the Legs of Man Inn, Blackburn at 6:45 am for Mr Simpson's Royal Hotel, Blackpool, returning at 3 pm to arrive back in Blackburn at 8 pm. I would not recommend this trip now. There were many other adverts for scheduled services.

Where was the first cinema in Oswaldtwistle and what was it called? It seems to be the Empire Picture House of 1915. I checked out a plan of the proposals from the Lancashire archive during our visit in March 2018. There were further proposals in 1920 and 1931 but I ran out of time and could not follow these up. The proposal was to take over and modify the former New Jerusalem Chapel. When new, it was situated off Warren Lane which later became Union Road. Across the road to the East is the 1930 Palladium cinema, long disused. The plan involved building side aisles to allow access and a ticket office. The entrance was the alley between the former pub and bank on the corner of Foxhill Bank Brow. I think I once saw a movie there. The building still stands but you will not be welcomed if you try to view it by going through the gate on Foxhill Bank Brow. I tried. I was confronted by an aggressive get-off-my-property type. I only just got out.  The funny thing is, I saw nothing of valu...

St Matthew records that at the Roman trial of Jesus Mrs Pilate sends a message to Mr Pilate, even as he is dealing with Jesus and the Jewish Leaders, to the effect that she has a bad feeling about this. This detail is only found in Matt. Some Christians have concluded that she was a secret follower of Jesus. This is just about possible but very unlikely. Some sceptics have claimed that Matt made this up (without giving a reason why he should do so). I think there is a better explanation (got from J P Holding). Mrs P was of higher social status than Mr P. In other words, he married up. She would be motivated to maintain her social standing by protecting her husband, so she sends him a warning. Remember that events are moving very fast, giving people little time to think and plan. What could she be warning him about? One possibility could be the threat of assassination, but this seems to be unlikely as Pilate would be well-protected. The other possibility is the threat of a set-up. Thi...

In March 2016 we visited the Lancashire Archive for the first time. I checked out a will for Richard Barnes, miller, of Oswaldtwistle dated 1738. A check of parish records showed that he married Ann Dilworth of Church at Church Kirk (St James) on 4 June 1712 but I was unable to find other parish records. The will made her his executor and provided for his family even though he was of modest means. He also willed his soul to God trusting in the merits of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, the will did not say where his mill was. I have read that there was a medieval mill at Foxhill Bank (originally Fox Hole Bank). If there was, it was obliterated by the print works later that century. This is the only place you would place a mill. Understand that NE Lancashire is very hilly. This place is at the Northern, lower end of town. The town's main water course, Tinker Brook, passes it. It is a modest stream, but has a big catchment area on the moors and the flow is reliable. Over the centuries ...