[Alan Gilmartin]

Very sad to hear about Lyn Birtwistle, they were lovely girls, Mrs Birtwistle, well, 96 yrs, her favourite saying was I cant see wood fer trees, I remember there council house in Barrow. I remember david Currie, Mez, I sold him a fishing rod.I remember Gordon and Janette's funeral. Can anyone recall the name of the steward in the soical club, he used to run a pub in Blackburn, I think his name was Harry, he ran it with his daughter. Other names, Pat Price, Mr Lawrence, ( the top man ) At that time there were a lot of Spanish workers there, I believe Manual, one of them works at the dog Inn, in Whalley still. Roy Howarth, and his dad worked and lived there. The Christmas's at Brockhall were fantastic, they went to a lot of trouble, with the decorations and the food, big buffets, mainly for the nobs, mayors of local councils and all that. In those days money was no object, I dont think they had heard of budgets, as for staff, well, probably three times as many than today. It was a happy place. When I finaly left, a chap called Harrey Hargraves, could'nt believe it, he said why would you want to leave Brockhall, you Have a job for life here, a lot of the staff though that way, they were very insituionalised.I lernt a hell of a lot there but it was time to move on, or get like them. But as it turned out they closed it anyway.