Arthur Barraclough - b. 1913 (Cleckheaton, Yorkshire)

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Arthur Barraclough, who was a good father to all three of us, was born in Cleckheaton, Kirklees, Yorkshire, in 1913, the son of Fred Barraclough and Mary Elizabeth Dowson. Fred, a heavy battery gunner was killed on 2nd August 1918 in Salonika (now Thessaloniki), Greece and he is buried in the military cemetery there. Mary (Arthur's mother) was born in Worksop, Nottingham and she had one brother George and a number of sisters. Her father, also called George, was born in Grosmont, near Whitby, North Yorkshire and her mother, Eliza Louisa Cooper, the daughter of Luke and Elizabeth Cooper, was born in Drighlington, West Yorkshire. The Cooper graves can still be found there. George Dowson was well known for his ability with horses. He was a 'horse whisperer' and worked solely in an equine environment until his death from typhoid in 1902.

Arthur loved his time as a young boy in Cleckheaton and spoke fondly of his uncles Victor and Vernon Barraclough. He had numerous aunts and uncles including an aunt Lily Barraclough. Arthur's grandfather was Breaks Barraclough and his grandmother was called Sarah. Some of his relatives had emigrated to Australia in the 19th century. Because of this, Arthur Barraclough spent much of his time during the Second World War attached to an Australian airforce regiment.  He even had a 'bush hat' which still hung in our garage very many years later.

Arthur Barraclough spent most of the war in the middle and far east, stationed in India, Egypt, Beirut - the Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq and Singapore to name but a few places, amongst others. He was trained as both a wireless operator, sending and receiving Morse code and an aircraft mechanic. Arthur would service the aircraft after their flights and check that the aircraft fleet were in working order and electrically sound.

In peacetime, Arthur was an electrical sales representative/area manager and worked for both Swan Electric and Falks Stadelmann. His 'patch' was Leeds, West Yorkshire and he originally called door to door (company to company) carrying a case before being given a company car in the 1930s.

In later years Arthur worked for Newey and Ayre as an electrical sales representative and for his friends, the 'Miller Brothers', electrical retailers, as well as being a part time security guard for Jeromes Manufacturing at Victoria Works, Dock Lane Shipley, West Yorkshire, where Arthur worked right up to up to the day before his death in April 1984.

The above photographs, many taken by Arthur himself (although some photos are actually of him), display a poignant slice of modern history. His mother, Mary, and father, Fred, along with other relatives are also shown.

Arthur Barraclough and his bride Sheila Walker were married in April 1940. Both voluntarily joined the RAF - Arthur was later seconded to the Royal Australian Air Force, No. 454 Squadron.  We salute past and present, all the brave men and women who carry on vital work in the armed forces, right up to this day.

Ordnance Filling Factory Number 8 - Whynns Farm Stolen By Wartime Political Squabbles

The travesty of the demi mode apocalypse - all that is left of the fields once belonging to Whyns Farm (various spellings) at Thorpe Arch, Yorkshire. Someone put this trust farm forward for demolition - see previous post, so that a dangerous war time factory of destruction could be built on the site of peaceful and diligent commerce.

The power squabbles of a handful of politicians and the downfall of millions also resulted in the ruined livelihoods of the unseen.  Those who were deemed so insignificant  to the war machine that they did not even count.  Two hundred and fifty years of a local farming family and their homestead removed in 1940, by a Ministry of Defence compulsory purchase order.

I am an avid follower of Urbex Forums and Derelict Places and the link below tells the story well enough.  No need for me to add to it. All I can say is what a waste! The Hornshaw family's home and profitable farming business taken away to build a world war two munitions factory and what is left today? A pile of old junk!

See up-to-date images of the Royal Ordnance Filling Factory Number 8 at Thorp Arch on Derelict Places

Moon Over Frizinghall, Bradford

 I have always been interested in anything occult or paranormal since I was a small child growing up in Heaton, Bradford with my parents and much older brother and sister (my sister was actually nearly old enough to be my mother, being virtually 16 years further on from my age), whilst my brother was almost 14 years older than myself.

My grandparents were both Victorians and very strict and as my sister was ill a lot when I was a small child, I was expected to behave like an adult from a young age.

The paranormal has always always a great adventure for me, right from from being a young child.

Visit the Hermetic Order of the Silver Luna Mist

Visit the New Society of the Golden Dawn in Bradford

Milner Field House

Margaret and Eileen Gomersall were the granddaughter's of Frederick Walker Gomersall, who was the first cousin of Charles Frederick Walker of Duchy Drive, Heaton Bradford.  Both Charles Frederick Walker and Frederick Walker Gomersall shared the same grandfather- Robert Walker, a farmer of High House, Goldsborough North Yorkshire.

Margaret and Eileen as children played in the ruins of Milner Field, they actually entered the ruin through a window at one point.  Their mother knew old Mr Lister who lived in the South Lodge gate house in the 1950's before being re-located to Baildon Green.  This gatehouse still had a well for water in the 1950s and Mr Lister was most excited about getting running water in the new house he was moving to.

Margaret and Eileen had a further connection, they once lived in with their parents and later owned the home farm which had once belonged to another house - The Knoll, originally owned by Charles Stead and later by James Roberts, Managing Directors of Salts Mill, Saltaire, Shipley, Yorkshire.

 Charles Stead lost The Knoll, in Baildon which he built around 1859, when Salts Mill was taken over by a consortium, headed by James Roberts in the early 1890's.  At the same time Edward Salt lost his house Ferniehurst, also in Baildon. All these houses have now been demolished though some gatehouses remain.

I started having dreams about Milner Field back in 2011 and soon after, mysteriously, I was contacted by a lady called Ria, who is one of Margaret's daughters and Ria herself is a third cousin of mine.  She put me in touch with her mother Margaret, a former Bradford headmistress who lived in France and Margaret relayed the tales of her first hand experience of Milner Field, which can be found on the website Milner Field House, via the link below.

Visit the Milner Field House website

The South Lakes Wild Animal Park Flyer

The above flyer came yesterday in my free local adversing paper.  It was of interest to me because of the family connections in the area.  Lakeland is attractive and desolate in parts, but not as good as Yorkshire.

Kendal is not bad, but it can't beat the gritty northern towns of West Yorkshire, where there is beauty in every brick and pore of the old mills.

The animals on this flyer look amazing though!

Visit Critters Anonymous

Thorpe Arch, Yorkshire, - Whyns Farm Line-Up Circa 1899

Here we have Great Aunt x 3, Isabella Hornshaw aged 69, middle seated, our not very distant cousins, Leah Hornshaw, aged 27, left, and Rachel Hornshaw aged 27, right of their mother. Standing we have Walter Hargrave aged 27 who married Leah and Henry Hedley Hornshaw aged 32.

Whyns farm (various spellings - Whynns and Whinns) was a trust farm, tenanted by the Hornshaws since the 17th century.  Ordinarily the eldest son took the farm over from their father,so John Hornshaw, who at the end of his life lived at 7, Athol Road, Manningham Bradford, West Yorkshire, would ordinarily have taken over the farm. He didn't want to, becoming a sadler instead.

The farm was run and taken over in John Hornshaw's absence, by his younger brother Thomas, who married Isabella (also known as Isabel) Hedley.  Thomas drowned in the river Wharfe on Good Friday, April 1874, after falling through the trucks in a bridge used by workmen who were building the current bridge near Collingham. His body was found on Easter Sunday.

The supernatural part of this story is that his wife Isabella firmly believed that the spirit of Thomas Hornshaw was guiding her and indeed telling her what to do in all her farming dealings and she prospered and became rich taking the advice given by Thomas's spirit, whilst other farms failed.

Isabella left enough money for her son Henry Hedley Hornshaw, (cousin of Elizabeth Mary Hornshaw, who married Frederick Walker of Goldsborough, and Lister's Mill Director Richard Hornshaw), to travel to both Australia and New Zealand, before buying and settling down at Killerby Grange, Cayton Bay, Scarborough, now a public attraction that is now called Playdale Farm Park.

Isabella's money was amassed solely on her belief in Spiritualism and her guidance from her husband Thomas in spirit. She took his advice on all matters concerning the running of Whyns Farm as well as all her business dealings.

Of course, had John Hornshaw taken his rightful role to claim the tenancy of Whyns farm, Thorpe Arch, Yorkshire, from the trustees, as the eldest son, instead of taking up residency, first in Knaresborough and then Bradford, so giving the rights of Whyns farm  to his younger brother Thomas, the story here would have been quite different.

As it was, Whyns farm was commandeered by the Ministry of Defence in March 1940 and pulled down in order to build a wartime munitions works, known as Ordnance Factory Number 8.

 Thorpe Arch Trading Estate and the British Science Lending Library were later built on part of the land previously belonging to Whyns Farm. The Hornshaw family had run the farm for 250 years as at March 1940. It was the end of an era.

A Medley of Old Greetings Cards - RAF 454 Squadron Christmas Dinner Menu 1943

Musical composition by Alex Khaskin, entitled 'Moving Forward'

The cards shown above range from 1904 to the 1940s. One is a Christmas postcard from 1904 and another is from a Spenborough group in 1917. Another card is from a member of the Prince of Wales Regiment and there are two personal birthday cards complete with dried flowers, sent from Palestine in the 1940s, as well as a 454 Squadron Christmas Dinner card from 1943. In addition to this, the collection includes an RAF Christmas card from the 1940's.

All are personal to the family, but at the same time give an historical view of greetings cards, especially in climes of war, although the 1904 postcard was sent in peacetime.

Arthur Barraclough, father of Peter Barraclough and his siblings, served with the RAF (RAAF) 454 Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force. He also trained at RAF Compton Bassett.

No. 454 Squadron RAAF

RAF Compton Bassett

Charles Frederick Walker - Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes

Charles Frederick Walker, son of Elizabeth Mary Walker, nee Hornshaw and Frederick Walker, also cousin of Frederick Walker Gomersall and nephew of Sarah Ellen Gomersall nee Walker, was an initiated member of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes, as this certificate shows.

Charlie Walker was apparently a member of Lodge Number 217, the name of which is shown above, in Bradford, West Yorkshire.  The date on the certificate is February 1909.

Charles Walker was the grandfather of Peter Vivian Barraclough and his siblings.

Read more on the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes

Doctor Dorothy Parkin, Cousin Of Arthur Barraclough, As A Young Child

Dorothy Parkin was the daughter of Arthur Barraclough's 'Aunty Louie.' As Arthur's cousin, she was also Peter Barraclough's cousin once removed.

When Arthur Barraclough had left Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire, with his mother, Mary, a war widow, they briefly had lodgings at a house in Grosvenor Road, Manningham.  The pair were obviously living there in September 1923, when this postcard was sent from Mary's sister, Louise to her nephew.

Dorothy grew up to be a doctor who specialised in blood disorders, however in this photo, those days were still far away as she plays happily on the beach at Great Yarmouth.

Read a brief history of the International Blood Group Reference Laboratory

Walkers of Goldsborough - More Relatives

These minature pictures are from the photo album of Sarah Ellen Walker, who became on marriage, Sarah Ellen Gomersall, the great great aunt of Peter Barraclough.

There is even a cute little dog in one of the photos!

RAF Habbaniya - Iraq - 1940's

Arthur Barraclough, father of Peter Barraclough served at RAF Habbaniya, in Iraq. He took the above photo of which the writer has the original copy. The link below gives further information about the base.

Read about RAF Habbaniya

Richard Hornshaw, Lister's Mill Director

Richard Hornshaw was the brother of Elizabeth Walker (nee Hornshaw) and the brother-in-law of Frederick Walker of Athol Road, Manningham Bradford, formerly of High House Farm Goldsborough, near Knaresborough North Yorkshire.

Richard Hornshaw  himself married the daughter of Goldsborough school teachers, who ran the schoolhouse there.  When Richard died in September 1918 he lived at a house called Woodbrow in Heaton, that he had extended, as plans from the time show and was a director of the then famous Lister's Mill, also known as Manningham Mills, a large mill complex with a chimney that was so wide at the top a horse and cart could be driven round it, so the story went.

Richard Hornshaw was originally a silk salesman, who became manager of the Lister's Silk Mill and then finally he was appointed a director of the entire Lister group.  His nephew Charles Walker (Frederick's son) later became manager of the Lister's Mill dye house.

Peter Barraclough's great great grandfather, John Hornshaw, who was also Richard and Elizabeth's father, attended Sanuel Cunliffe Lister's funeral.  Mr Lister was by that time known as Lord Masham. as he has been knighted.

The above motion book shows historical extracts taken directly from 'The Lister Letters', including one which is a copy of the original.  These show life at the mill in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and also frequently mention Richard Hornshaw and his colleagues.  The hand written letter is from the pen of Jose Reixach, who's son Reginald was a friend of Richard Hornshaw.

Manningham Mills as it stands today, refurbished to provide residential accommodation

Walker Hornshaw Makepeace Nolan Craven Connection

The sildeshow above contains rare photographs which include the Walkers of Goldsborough, North Yorkshire, including Hornshaws from Thorpe Arch, Louisa Makepeace from Huntingdon, London and Thorpe Arch, North Yorkshire, Doris Craven Richardson from the Nolan family of Bradford and the Nolan clan, of County Wicklow, Ireland and Bradford.

We see John Walker, a Hussar and his wife in Goldsborough,mid 19th century, Robert Walker of High House Farm Goldsborough, his daughter Sarah Ellen Gomersall, nee Walker, Frederick Walker, his son, both of Goldsborough and Bradford, Elizabeth Walker, nee Hornshaw - the Hornshaws were farmers at Whynns Farm (various spellings) Thorpe Arch, the Walkers as a couple in their 40s of Manningham Bradford, Louisa Makepeace Hornshaw as an 84 year old, with baby Geoffrey Hornshaw of Manningham Bradford, Doris Craven Richardson of Heaton and Manningham, Bradford, the Nolans, Bridget, Johannah, Doris Walker and Sheila Walker (later Barraclough) as a child, photo taken either in West Bowling or Great Horton, Bradford around 1924.

The photos range from the mid 19th century up to around 1924. Both the Walkers and the Hornshaws were farming families and they also had a farm at Tickhill near Knaresborough, in fact the families had been farmers for many years.

Some family members did not wish to farm and instead took other jobs or learned other trades, coming to Bradford in West Yorkshire and living in Manningham and Heaton districts. They were all close relatives of Peter Barrraclough, after whom this blog is named and their history is an interesting tapestry of intermingled events,many with connections to Bradford.

Saltaire Vampires, The Resurrection

This book is a work of fiction, however all the characters are based on real people.  The idea of a vampire really is about eternal life and there are many factual accounts of vampires having existed throughout history.  This has been capitalised upon recently and vampires are experiencing a notable revival, the biggest exploitation since the days of Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Hammer Horror films.

Vampires are needy, greedy, alluring, hateful and the rest. My mother mentioned watching a very scary vampire film in the early 1930's when she was 11, as films weren't censored in those days like they are now and it had a lasting effect on her which is why they have always been an interest of mine.

My brother Peter actually looked like a classical vampire in his younger days. He had thick black hair and porcelain skin. If he had put on a cape and some fangs he would probably have frightened people silly, especially as his heyday was the 1960s when Hammer Films were big box office business.

The Saltaire Vampires: Milner Field Resurrection

Netta Fornario, Scotland and Peter Barraclough

Peter Barraclough had a connection to occultist Netta Fornario in the fact that he was originally religious and latterly, when he lived in Cumbria, he was near enough to Scotland to visit regularly.

Peter had always wanted to go to St Andrew's University in Scotland to read classics as he was fluent in Latin and Ancient Greek.  Instead he became a customs officer. However his elder daughter did attend St Andrews University and his younger daughter attended the Heriot Watt school of Art and Design, Edinburgh, getting closer to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at every turn.

The family went to Glasgow on shopping trips and when not engaged in these activities Peter Barraclough enjoyed sailing his boat on Lake Windermere.

He is similar to Netta because he died mysteriously of a brain tumour and many people who used Lake Windermere for recreational sports had health problems thought to be caused by a leak in to the lake system of radioactive material from the nuclear power plant, Sellafield.

The Netta Fornario Experience

Peter: The Eternal Bird of Fire

Born from the flames of this February ritual of fire, is the bird shown in the photograph, who we feel represents the Phoenix, the bird of legend that rises from the ashes of its own destruction and becomes whole again once more. The bird soars on golden wings, using fire and air to appear from the Ether and to cut through the realms of spirit to manifest in physical reality once again, if only for a brief period.

The New Society of the Golden Dawn in Bradford

The Hermetic Order of the Silver Lunar Mist

Critters Anonymous

Peter Barraclough's Former Home at Fyfe Grove, Baildon

Fyfe Grove, Baildon, West Yorkshire

Peter Barraclough bought the house pictured at Fyfe Grove, Baildon, Shipley, when it was no more than a plot of land in late 1972, early 1973. I remember seeing the grey breeze blocks of the house's foundations on a particularly cloudy day. peter and his wife moved in to the house around September 1973, when he was 26 and his wife 24. The house was sold in the early 1980s when Peter and his family moved due to his job location change.  Himself and family lived with his mother-in-law in Heysham, near Morcambe, Lancashire for a few months, before buying a house at Windermere Park, in Windermere, Cumbria.

Peter was active in Baildon Round Table and Baildon Players,whilst living at the above address and was well liked in the area. As well as having a car, Peter and his wife both bought motorbikes which they went to work on.  When his wife gave up motor biking,  Peter carried on, riding his motor bike from Morcambe to Bradford on numerous occasions, even in bad weather .The bike stayed with Peter for a long time.

The nearest bedroom with the open window in the photograph was originally painted pale green and was used as the spare room.  The far open window in the photograph was Peter and his wife's bedroom which has dark pink wallpaper and Stag furniture, fashionable at the time.