Daubhill Miscellany
items from readers, contact us, etc
Front and back of a postcard from David Whenlock's collection.
This company was at the lowest point of Adelaide Street in the building later used by Rutland Mills.
GT General Traffic is now on the site.
From M Nealon, nee Ridings, April 2017
I was born at 506 St Helens Road, middle Hulton, corner of Brampton Road (up dobble!) in 1942. The house was rented by the owner Maggie Dearden who resided at Plane Tree Farm although she didn't run it as a farm. I played on Hulton Lane playing fields which was then a farm with Dobbin the grey horse and cows that regularly escaped running up the side of our house to St Helens Road.
In those days Brampton Road was made of railway sleepers spaced about two to three feet apart all the way down. St Helens Road was easily and cobbled. Longfield Road from Brampton Road up to Hulton Lane was the only stretch where the road was made up. The rest was dirt track.
///In fact from Edgehill Road to the bottom it was cobbled. Rothesay Road joining Longfield Road and Longfellow Avenue remained dirt track until very recently and even now is rough tarmac with odd patches of dirt showing through.///
As a child we'd play on the field running down to the railway line and put our ears to the track listening for the trains coming from Daubhill station. We'd put pennies on the line so the trains would make them bigger. I remember the station at the corner of Deane Church Lane.
Have you any memories of Daubhill?
Can you correct any of my "facts" or dates?
Do you have any better source for information about Henry Lee and his association with Tootal, Broadhurst and Lee's?
Do you have any pictures?
I have searched without success for pictures of The Majestic Cinema, Higson's Brickworks, the cottages opposite the Majestic demolished to make way for a petrol station, Boyce's pet shop and the rest of that block including Mr Latham's Post Office.
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Anything included on the site will be gratefully attributed to its supplier.
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On going to school and work you couldn't be late as sometimes the buses and traffic would be stopped whilst the trains crossed over the road from down by the side of the Stags Head pub.
There were a few farms in the area who would deliver milk by horse and cart Houghtons was one.
On St Helens Road near the corner of Hulton Lane you can still see a ramp which was where the tram shed used to be. It was later turned into a garage.
///Most of this building is still the original tram shed. The ramp was installed after it became a garage so that the full height of the building, originally needed for the height of the tram and the electric wire, could be used for cars. ///
There was a brick making company that we also knew as Daubhill brick makers and where Park Cakes is now my uncle used to take me to one of the cottages up the steps near the railway crossing to visit a workmate of his.
Daubhill was a happy, vibrant place to live. Middle Hulton just past Daubhill Station was thought to be where posh people lived-even posher if you lived at Over Hulton. It was busy, full of shops pubs, temperance bars a cinema where on Saturday afternoon you could see Kit Carson and the mystery riders (cowboys).
Also from M Nealon
At the side of the field ///Hulton Lane Playing field/// there were grassy hollowed out areas where as little girls we played house.
I used to catch the bus that took me to work at De Havilland Propellors Lostock, at the back of where the station was.
Do you remember somewhere near Bella Street a row of shops set well back from the road one of them Lindops I think was grocery and bakery shop. I know there was a shop up some steps near Bella Street where there was a bus stop outside. I've been racking my brains picturing exactly where. I also remember a row of tiny cottages with a railing running the length in front. A chip shop on the corner. I think this was just before you came to the oddfellows magees pub.I don't think they are there now.
I went to Sunning Hill School from aged 11 and moved on to Bolton Technical college agreed 14. Daubhill sadly is no longer the same now. I had a very, very happy childhood there. My aunt lived in Joseph street the train travelled across the bottom which I believe was the steepest rail gradient in the country. I'm certain you will have information also about an unmanned train speeding down a steep gradient and crashing into Crook Street could have been in the thirties before our time.
///Going down from Daubhill station we had Deane Church Lane, a small block of houses and shops (still there), Doris Street, the coal yard (now ASDA), the Stag's Head (now not a pub), the railway, the wall containing Daub Hill with steps at the first end and cobbles at the other leading down to Bella Street (now Park Cakes on the hill), the shop on the opposite corner of Bella Street was Miss Boyce's pet shop and the block had Mr Lathom's Post Office in the middle, quite likely a bakery as well but I do not remember (a medical centre here now), we then had a row of cottages well set back off the road with long gardens with flag-stone walls between them (the flag-stones were supported by a long length of piping) I am just about certain that this is where the Total garage was built (Esso on the other side of the road, the Total garage did not stay open long but the site now mends cars, washes cars and has another commercial unit), then Prescott Street, then a short row of houses - the pavement was a litltle lower that the road and had pedestrian railings along its edge - and there was a chip shop at the town-ward end (I do not remember it) (the Labour Club aka Rumworth Hall is there now) then Blackledge Street and the Oddfellows Arms (still there and the only pub still left).///
/// The railway was quite level at the end of Joseph Street. The steep incline was from Adelaide Street to High Street and was 1 in 33. The incline from Chequerbent to Atherton was steeper at 1 in 30. There was at least one steeper incline in the country (see earlier railway page).///
From Howard Hampson, April 2017
Brilliant. I was born on Daubhill as was my father, grandfather, and great grand father. On my great grandfathers birth certificate born 1855 he is described as being of Adelaide Street Rumworth. No mention of Bolton. I have not found on your website a mention of the Pretoria Pit disaster Dec 1910. In fact 66 men were killed who lived on Daubhill. Their details.are given on website www.bolton.org.uk/pretoriapit.html. On you educational page you show a photograph of St Bede's School with headmistress Miss E (Nellie) Hulme. Her father Stephen Hulme was killed in the disaster and is on the list. Thanks for a great website I can identify with every word of it.
From Howard Hampson, April 2017
I have more information which could be of interest.
Miss Nellie Hulme the head mistress of St Bede’s Primary school was also organist at St Bede’s church for many years.
The vicar of St Bede’s for many years up to about 1960 was Rev Craster Pringle. His son Bryan Pringle attended RADA where he won the gold medal for his year. Bryan later became a well know TV and film character actor regularly seen on both media (see Wikipedia).
Haynes Street Mission was originally part of St Bede’s a sort of outpost chapel, a properly built rendered brick structure which looked like a chapel should, sadly now demolished. The parent church St Bede’s decided to close the chapel probably for financial reasons at some time before my time. However many of the congregation of Haynes Street decided against joining with the congregation of St Bede’s and kept their independence by moving to a wooden building on Aldred Street. The long term vicar of Haynes Street Mission was a Rev Povey a former coal miner who was regularly seen around the area in the 1950’s.
I will dig around for more information and photographs if I can find them.
My father was born on Blackledge Street. I was born on Hulton Lane and later moved to Edge Hill Road after a short excursion to Higher Swan Lane (foreign territory). My first school was Sunning Hill but I later moved to Brandwood Street, my father’s old school. And finally I progressed to Hayward School.
I was born in 1943 and left Bolton for University never to return in 1962.
I attended Sunday School at both St Phillip’s and St Bede’s.
Also a lifelong Wanderers supporter and rail transport enthusiast.
If you think I may be able to help with information you are looking for please don’t hesitate to ask.
The next few pages look at the life of Samuel Crompton, inventor of The Mule and effectively the creator of the Cotton Industry.