Saturday 24 October 2009

East Lancashire's Industrial Past in Water Colour

When growing up in the fifties this scene was typical of the tired old cotton towns.
Before leaving school, I use to deliver meat for the local butcher. When the clocks were
turned back, and the shops were still open, the whole place was to my eyes transformed
into a magical place as I pedalled on my delivery bike. Of course every house and
factory was belching smoke, which trapped the mist.
As far as the painting goes, the technique is perhaps the most difficult, Wet in Wet.
The location is the hilly town of Colne on the north of Pendleside



         This is another example of Wet in Wet
  My painting 'The Entrance to Gannow Tunnel'. The
      horse that towed the barge, was led over the hill here in Burnley, while the man legged 
it on his back through the tunnel
                       






The Leeds and Liverpool canal was opened here in 1804, cutting right through
Burnley, this area is well preserved, and remains more or less just
as it was when I painted it in the eighties. Cotton mills were
built all along the banks, this part is known as the
Weavers Triangle



The old from the new, the new was a multi storey car park from where I first got this
view of the town. The old has now gone, the river Brun as been cleaned up 
after its pollution from iron ore deposits.
The viaduct is where the railway crosses Burnley, A little
known fact about Burnley, is that at the begining of 
the nineteen hundreds, more cotton was woven
here than any where else in the world.
Back in the sixties, the town was a forest of factory chimneys

1 comment:

  1. Sad that they have gone - movement of time, but captured so beautifully in your pictures. Always so much enjoyed - Steve ;-) (Hi to Dot!)

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