ROGER FROST: Cliviger’s Holme from home

The site I suggested was the small garden at the site of the old smithy in Burnley Road but, since my article appeared, I have been reminded that, some years ago, the Forest of Burnley placed an information board on the car park attached to the Ram Inn. As some of you will know, I acted as chairman of the Forest of Burnley Project and I was involved, in a small way, with the information board near the pub. However, the one I envisage for the smithy site would tell the history of the village and inform the visitor about what can be seen there. The Forest of Burnley noticeboard has a little about the history of Cliviger but it is more concerned with its natural environment.

I indicated, last week, that Holme has a long and very interesting history but some of you have pointed out I did not mention our local lonk sheep and the sheep dog trials which take place in the village. My excuse is that, in an article as brief as my weekly offering, I do not have the space to mention everything. I was conscious that the trials had not been included and am also aware I did not mention Dr Whitaker’s largely 18th Century tree planting schemes for which he received the gold medal of the Society (now Royal) Society of Arts.

On the other hand, most of the comments I have received have been appreciative and a number of you have said you were pleased to see the photo published with last week’s article and reproduced today. I realise I am fortunate to have the picture but if any of you want a copy please contact me. I can have reproductions made (in different sizes) at very little cost.

Last week I started to consider South View, the row of property on the left of the picture. I indicated it had been built in three stages, the oldest property (eight of the 16 in the terrace) being that which is furthest away from the camera. These houses were built in 1890 by the Ark of Friendship Lodge, this information being inscribed on a stone plaque attached to the property.

I have to admit I am not an expert on the societies which undertook this type of building work. It is my understanding the Lodge was connected with the Oddfellows but there were a number of such organisations in the Burnley area in the past and, until recently, quite a lot of the property they built survived. There is another good example in a recently restored terrace on the main road in Brierfield but a number of these schemes have been lost in the demolitions which have taken place in the last 50 years or so.

In a time in history when there was no National Health Service, or National Insurance, there were lots of self-help organisations. They ranged from the village sickness and burial clubs to more substantial bodies which built houses for their members. Many of the clubs owned halls for members’ meetings, education and entertainment and one of them survives in Burnley in Lindsay Street where the large building on the even side of the street (now the Top o’ th’ Town Community Centre) was once the Forester’s Club. It must have been confusing, in the late Victorian era, if men agreed to meet “in the Foresters” as there were two others in town, one in Bank Parade and the other in Todmorden Road!

The two houses nearest the camera are clearly the most recently built properties in South View but they are not dated. If you look carefully you will notice their bay windows are more substantial and, at the same time, more pleasing to the eye when compared to the next six. These houses also have two upstairs windows, whereas all the others, at least originally, only had one.

The next group of houses of South View are superficially quite similar to the first two but notice the bay windows are different and they, like the earlier 1890 houses, have only one window on the upper floor. It appears the more recent houses had four chimneys whereas those built in 1890 might only have had three. This means that in the more recent properties there were four fireplaces (one would have been a range) but those built in 1890 would only have had three. My house, though in Harle Syke and built in 1894, is very similar to the 1890 houses having two fireplaces and a range.

On the same side of the road you can see the end house of the next row. Between the rows is the brick built Village Hall (formerly the Victoria Institute) and its new car park but the second row is older than South View. It was built in three sections, two houses to each. Careful analysis reveals this is the case and also that one of the cottages has been altered substantially. This is number 390 and, if you look at the upper floor, you will see there has once been access to this floor from outside the building.

Features like this usually indicate one of two possibilities – the property was once a shop with a storage room above the shop itself, or the house had some other commercial significance when it was first built. The most likely explanation for the only partly surviving feature (the remains of a door way at first floor level) is the property was once used in the textile industry.

If we now go to the other side of the road you can see a short row of four houses (359 to 365) which obscure some quite old farm buildings. One of the most enjoyable aspects of my recent walks in Holme has been my visit to this site, one which I have not studied before. All the buildings were once part of Lane House Farm which takes its name from the fact it lies on the old Jack Hey Lane which used to run from Overtown to Holme before the turnpike (the present road) was built.

The photo we publish today shows another row of houses though these days there is a new house, The Croft, which was built in 1990 just beyond the farm buildings. I mention The Croft because whoever designed it really understood it had to fit in with what was already there. The building is very pleasing and, if this was the architect’s objective, he has succeeded.

The photo does not show any more of the property from here to the church and the Ram Inn but this too is worthy of comment and, in a future article, I will describe what can be seen in this part of Holme. I will finish by asking you a question about the Ram. What was its original name? I will tell those of you who don’t know next week.