Industrial Ossy

T

Tetti

Settlin' In
Weaver
Just browsing through an old book (monthly diy magazines, bound) found this and thought it might be of interest to our Ossy historians. Under the heading of "Model Engine Making", Introduction- where to buy castings. "Mr, R.Thompson, 2, Brookside Lane, Oswaldtwistle, Lancs. supplies drawings of half-horse power steam engine, 2-1/16" bore x3-1/4" stroke. He charges 12s.6d for a set of castings, and 2s.6d extra for the forgings." Magazine dated March 1886. What I'd like to know is what was at no.2 Brookside Lane in those years? Was it a foundry or a blacksmiths workshop? Who was Mr. R Thompson? I spent alot of time up Ossy but never ventured beyond the Black Dog (was there anything beyond the Black Dog?:D )
 
Tetti said:
Just browsing through an old book (monthly diy magazines, bound) found this and thought it might be of interest to our Ossy historians. Under the heading of "Model Engine Making", Introduction- where to buy castings. "Mr, R.Thompson, 2, Brookside Lane, Oswaldtwistle, Lancs. supplies drawings of half-horse power steam engine, 2-1/16" bore x3-1/4" stroke. He charges 12s.6d for a set of castings, and 2s.6d extra for the forgings." Magazine dated March 1886. What I'd like to know is what was at no.2 Brookside Lane in those years? Was it a foundry or a blacksmiths workshop? Who was Mr. R Thompson? I spent alot of time up Ossy but never ventured beyond the Black Dog (was there anything beyond the Black Dog?:D )
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More than likely an Ironmongers shop, there use to be one in Rishton on the left, about 300 yrds back from the traffic lights. I used to get quite a lot of special screws and materials from him, when I was into Model Engineering. If you want to see some good Model Engineering, go to Ossy Mills, bloke from Clayton made some great models, which are on display, just think of the hours of work he put into them.

Retlaw.
 
There must have been some cottages there at the beginning of the lane, which aren't there now.

On the 1871 census the address you gave had different occupants.

2 Brookside La., Oswaldtwistle

John YATES/head/m/32/Labourer in Cotton Mill/Oswaldtwistle
Jane YATES/wife/m/30/Oswaldtwistle
Elizabeth YATES/daur/7/Scholar/Oswaldtwistle
Sheppard YATES/son/1/Oswaldtwistle
 
Retlaw said:
More than likely an Ironmongers shop, there use to be one in Rishton on the left, about 300 yrds back from the traffic lights. I used to get quite a lot of special screws and materials from him, when I was into Model Engineering. If you want to see some good Model Engineering, go to Ossy Mills, bloke from Clayton made some great models, which are on display, just think of the hours of work he put into them.

Retlaw.
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The man from Clayton who made the models might be an old uncle of an ACCYWEB MEMBER STEELJACK!
Do you know his name?
 
south aussie said:
The man from Clayton who made the models might be an old uncle of an ACCYWEB MEMBER STEELJACK!
Do you know his name?
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Sorry, can't remember his name, but theres a photo of him on the wall behind some of his models, there are in the same room as the Accrington Pals display, which Bil Turner and I put up about 5 years ago.

Retlaw.
 
south aussie said:
The man from Clayton who made the models might be an old uncle of an ACCYWEB MEMBER STEELJACK!
Do you know his name?
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Thurston Smith made the models , he worked at the Brickworks and had a workshop in the pen behind his house , did all the parts himself including the castings , I'm thinking one of the models is a "beam engine" typical of the power units used to drive the loooms in local mills . Think the last one he made was copied from the Cotton Mill on Bridge st. in Church ,
 
steeljack said:
Thurston Smith made the models , he worked at the Brickworks and had a workshop in the pen behind his house , did all the parts himself including the castings , I'm thinking one of the models is a "beam engine" typical of the power units used to drive the loooms in local mills . Think the last one he made was copied from the Cotton Mill on Bridge st. in Church ,
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Thats him. One of his mdels has a part of the original engine underneath the display.
He also made a model of a brick making machine, that can actually make miniature bricks, that one is supposed to be on display at the brickworks where he used to work.
He may have made a lot of the castings himself, but I don't think he could have done the cast iron ones, I tried it once, could'nt get the temperature high enough, could manage brass, aluminium and copper, but cast iron no.
I used a 5 gallon oil drum lined with fireclay for my furnace. My mother used to play ell when I cracked it up, made a hell of a racket when you got the blower going to raise the temp.

Retlaw.
 
steeljack said:
I'm thinking one of the models is a "beam engine" typical of the power units used to drive the loooms in local mills . Think the last one he made was copied from the Cotton Mill on Bridge st. in Church ,
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For some reason I'm thinking the name of the mill on Bridge st. Church was " Primrose Mill' , or am I begining to go senile :confused:
 
Retlaw said:
Thats him. One of his mdels has a part of the original engine underneath the display.
He also made a model of a brick making machine, that can actually make miniature bricks, that one is supposed to be on display at the brickworks where he used to work.
He may have made a lot of the castings himself, but I don't think he could have done the cast iron ones, I tried it once, could'nt get the temperature high enough, could manage brass, aluminium and copper, but cast iron no.
I used a 5 gallon oil drum lined with fireclay for my furnace. My mother used to play ell when I cracked it up, made a hell of a racket when you got the blower going to raise the temp.

Retlaw.
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A great chap , not one of many words and didn't suffer fools , but if you showed an interest he would spend the time making sure you understood .
Definatly know he used to cast Brass and Bronze because he once made a Bell which had a good sound , also remember him turning one of the flywheels on his lathe and explaining at the time the different charactistics when machining Cast Iron and Mild Steel , was only a little lad at the time but some stuff sticks in the mind .
 
steeljack said:
For some reason I'm thinking the name of the mill on Bridge st. Church was " Primrose Mill' , or am I begining to go senile :confused:[/quote
You are not senile just yet,we walked or rode past it every day for a number of years.
The mill on Commercial St was known as the SHODDY,so called because of poor quality products.
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south aussie said:
You are not senile just yet,we walked or rode past it every day for a number of years.
The mill on Commercial St was known as the SHODDY,so called because of poor quality products.
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You got me thinking now ,was "shoddy" as a product not something different ? something like "fustin " or "fustian" some kind of felt material , it wasn't exactly a woven cotten fabric but made of some kind of chopped up rags or raw cotton rolled out on presses similar to paper manufacture ? similar to a thick flannel ( kind of stuff used for slipper insoles before Dr Scholl )

Sure one of our 'older'/senior Accy web users can straigten me out , thanks
 
steeljack said:
Definatly know he used to cast Brass and Bronze because he once made a Bell which had a good sound , also remember him turning one of the flywheels on his lathe and explaining at the time the different charactistics when machining Cast Iron and Mild Steel , was only a little lad at the time but some stuff sticks in the mind .
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Found a couple of pictures of Thurstons work, must have taken them about 3 years ago. Thats Model Engineering at its best, pure dedication.
Retlaw
 

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Shoddy was a sort of felt material made from recycled, rewoven wool. It was used for cheap clothing in the 1800s.

Fustian was what velvet was made from. It was a cloth woven with rows of tiny loops which were cut with long thin knives along very long tables. It was the local industry, mainly done by children, here in Lymm in the 19th century.
 
I just want to thank you all for replying to this thread. Retlaw, the shop in Rishton was Dave Goodwin's (half grocers half model engineers supply's). Another model engineering company took over his drawings and patterns when he retired a few years ago. I'll make it a "must" to visit t'Ossy Mills next time I'm over I hope they will still be on display. From those photo's they look superb. If anyone would like to see a full size version running under steam power there is one in the Manchester Science Museum (old railway station) and it's a good day out for the family, theres also one at Wigan Pier, and there maybe one in the museum at Bolton, near Sainsbury's supermarket.
Tetti.
 
I remember Giron but I think that was automated velvet cutting. A friend's father, Mateus Gijsbers, was the manager there for many years. As you'd guess, he was Dutch.

Actually in Lymm it was only the fustian cutting, no weaving etc. The cloth came from Manchester, on the Bridgewater Canal, and was sent back when the cutting was done. Children used to end up with deformed spines from having to bend sideways all day to cut the loops and the cutting rooms ran the length of the top storey of rows of small cottages.
 
West Ender said:
I remember Giron but I think that was automated velvet cutting. A friend's father, Mateus Gijsbers, was the manager there for many years. As you'd guess, he was Dutch.

Actually in Lymm it was only the fustian cutting, no weaving etc. The cloth came from Manchester, on the Bridgewater Canal, and was sent back when the cutting was done. Children used to end up with deformed spines from having to bend sideways all day to cut the loops and the cutting rooms ran the length of the top storey of rows of small cottages.
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Good grief West Ender Gijsbers rings a bell with me nearly sure I went to school with one of is sons, he was called Gerca (that's not the right spelling though, I'm not fluent in dutch:D)
 
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