Bygone Burnley: Harle Syke with historian Roger Frost MBE

Harle Syke, a village within the parish of Briercliffe, is a name of Anglo-Saxon origin, meaning the muddied stream where the flax grew.

The settlement, therefore, has a long history, but our video article looks at its more recent developments, noticeably its two former mills, which were still standing when Roger was a child in the village in the 1950s.

First, we look at Harle Syke Mill, which was built in 1856 and opened two years later by the Haggate Joint Stock Commercial Company.

The mill benefited from a lodge, or pond, in which water from a local stream, the Harle Syke, was stored for the use of the large steam engine which drove the textile machinery used in the mill. An extension to the mill was added in 1904.

A red brick wall still marks part of the original mill, situated now in the midst of a modern housing estate, where we begin our journey.

Roger said: “This area was my playground as a boy. It was a compound of land owned by the mill. People in the village used to call the extension ‘Siberia’. It was opened before the heating system was completed. The weavers complained about the cold, hence its name Siberia.”

A stone compound wall around the two mills still remains, through which the Harle Syke stream passed before ending in the mill lodge. Explaining the etymology of the village name, Roger says the ‘syke’ means a slow, moving stream, and the harle could be another word for flax.

Next we move to a field nearby which had the remains of a mining industry, including a steam engine used for pumping water out of the mines. It was known locally as ‘Engine Field’.

Roger said: “When the new houses were built in the 1970s, the developers didn’t do a proper survey and some collapsed. Officially it is called Briercliffe Park, but was known locally as the ‘Jam Butty Estate’ because the mortgages were so high.”

Before New Taylor Fold was built, the warehouse part of the mill was demolished. However, the entrance to the 1904 engine house was pulled down and rebuilt at the end of Perseverance Works. The engine is located at the Science Museum in London.

Next we move to Lodge Terrace, on Burnley Road, and the row of houses where Roger was born. Here he tells us about his neighbours growing up, the wonderful community spirit and some potent homemade rhubarb wine, courtesy of a Mrs Bracewell.

A corner shop, at the corner of Burnley Road and Cobden Street, of which we have this wonderful picture from the 1950s, was run by the Turner family, and stocked “everything a village needed”, according to Roger.

“It was a perfect place for children to go. It stocked cheap sweets, including my favourite pop, made by a Burnley firm. It was a blackcurrant fruit juice called St Ora,” he said.

Finally, we look at a garage, which was built as Perseverance Works, and originally a smithy, which made equipment for the farmers and the mils.