During September of 1946 we had severe rainstorms which caused the River Lostock to overflow. Adjoining our home at Crooke Hall Cottage was then a low lying field (It has all now been landscaped). After heavy rain a huge pool would come into existence in that field and on two occasions the Lostock overflowed near where the little pump house is. The water poured into the large pool, which in turn caused the flood water to rush through our garden, which was very frightening. On the second occasion the water overflowed and came into the house, causing quite a bit of upset. It was at the time that mum and I were living with my father, prior to coming to Hillside Crescent. My brother Fred later suggested that the Lostock had probably returned to its original course, as when one studies the course of the river along with some stone embankments, it could be assumed that the river had been re-directed to go around Kem Mill for use as a water supply when the mill lodge (fed by Car Brook and culverted water under Kem Mill Lane) ran practically dry. In fact often during the summer planks would be placed across the brook adjoining the mill, which in turn caused the river level to rise, enabling water to be drawn from the river by suction from the mill, there being a large pipe across the river, which came from the lodge and the water in the brook could be sucked out into this pipe when insufficient water was in the lodge. If what I assume about the river is correct it would have flowed behind the cottages, probably before they were built, most likely at the same time as the mill was built, as this was the way the river took when it overflowed through our garden and the next door’s on its way to where it came out further on, as if one cares to look there is a little tunnel over the wall near the mill into what is now the gateway to Cuerden Valley Park.
Regarding Crooke Hall Cottages, I suspect there had been originally one cottage, for as a boy we knew there had been a door in the kitchen that had been walled up and later an extra part of the house had been added to make two cottages. The new part we called the parlor or the front (best) room. It was obviously a new staircase as the banister was quite attractive and mother was quite proud of it. Unfortunately I marked it sliding down the banister with my scout belt on but mother wasn’t too upset. At the top of the stairs was a very attractive window which looked like a church window and, looking back, I wondered if it had come from the old parish church pre-1880, which would probably make the dates around the same time. It was once suggested to me that some of the windows in the old lodge in Dawson Lane had been installed from the old church as it was demolished, as the owners of Crooke Hall were close members of St. John’s, being wardens over different periods.
The culvert under Kem Mill Lane used to attract us as children, as we could walk through it with our clogs touching the sides. At the lodge side around 1930 a little surround was built in which the Car Brook flowed, which fed the lodge, this was built to catch the sediment from the brook before going into the lodge to save the lodge having to be continually dredged. Sediment would have otherwise got into the main stream of water to the mill engine. Strangely, after many years and only in possibly the 1980s, the Car Brook has been redirected back from the culvert to its junction with the Lostock. The mill lodge, of course, has now been filled in and grassed over. Mentioning clogs, all the boys of my age used to wear clogs for school fastened with a buckle across the top of the foot. The girls had a strap across. The only time we didn’t wear our clogs was Ash Wednesday and Ascension Day, the reason being that all the school children attended a service in St. John’s church and after the service we were allowed to go home and have the rest of the day off. There were just one or two of the girls at school who didn’t wear clogs. I suppose their parents were a bit more “well off” than the average child. Clogs were the standard footwear for people working in the mills. They were safer, drier and warmer; on the soles of the clogs there were two irons, one on the heel and one on the front part. They were known as “cokers” and when they needed replacing one took them to the shoemaker (clogger), of which we had three in the village. The price for new irons I think was one old penny for the heel and two pence for the front. The clogger would take off what was left of the old iron, place matchsticks into the original holes; the matchsticks he always had a supply of and kept them between his teeth, even whilst talking to you. A common practice for the lads was to strike one’s foot against the flag floors and see how many sparks you could make. Our attire as a schoolboy was mostly consisting of short pants, shirt, knee-length socks, a jersey and a jacket and, of course, always a cap. We had one good suit for Sundays, replaced once a year if funds allowed, and for Saturdays a pair of grey flannels and a blazer. One pair of shoes for best (Sunday) and, if you were lucky, you would have the pair which had been replaced yearly to wear on Saturdays or any other occasion e.g. choir practice. The only trouble was, as one was growing, both the suits and clogs etc. became outgrown.