Mill / Factory shift sirens - anyone remember them?

somme1916 · Post by **somme1916** » Sat 09 Jun, 2012 12:50 am

grumpytramp wrote: Not exactlyI do remember the bellowing horn at Cleveland Bridges massive works in Darlington, a couple of rows of terraces away at the start of shift, either side of the lunchtime and at the shift end when staying with my grandmotherWhat I clearly remember from both Halton & Templenewsam Primary and Braimwood was sometime around midday on many days there was a preceptable thump ......... which I was thought must have originated from blasting at the opencast sites about Templenewsam Nay,that was the elephant in my back garden after it's dinner(not grammatically correct I understand).......

Leodian · Post by **Leodian** » Sat 09 Jun, 2012 12:59 am

Talking of noises this SL thread may be of interest:- http://www.secretleeds.co.uk/forum/Mess ... ighLight=1

somme1916 · Post by **somme1916** » Sat 09 Jun, 2012 1:09 am

' Leodian wrote: Talking of noises this SL thread may be of interest:- http://www.secretleeds.co.uk/forum/Mess ... ighLight=1 Aye,remember that thread,but can't say it ever got to me.What did though,was the bungalow that exploded last sun am(1.15am) nearby that shook all the street(Thorpe/Robin Hood)......and we're 400m away.GAS BLAST...apparently,deserted house,boarded up,chucking it down,no body parts anywhere.....bizarre....????? Where's the igniter ? Love somebody to explain that one.Think i've got that tin of itis anyway......always hearing summat.Won't be our lasses purse though......night night all.......

jonleeds · Post by **jonleeds** » Sat 09 Jun, 2012 4:46 am

Yes I think 'hooter' might have been the word I was thinking of to describe the noise that used to come from the factories to signal the start / end of shifts, although I'm sure we used to call them something else as well, its on the tip of my tongue, but I just cant remember it as its so long since I last heard them. I think that Springfield Mill was the last large textiles mill in Morley to close down and that was in the late 1980s after which the whole mill complex was empty for a few years before it was sold off to developers who built more of those 'barratt' type mock tudor houses.What I mentioned about the church bells I could hear, is it possible that sound carries better on a misty morning? Or would that actually muffle the sound more? I dunno, it might just have been there was virtually no traffic noise at that hour in the morning that meant I could hear this distant chiming of bells. Perhaps another idea for a thread would be things that go 'bump' in the night, and other noises, I realise the thread mentioned is along those lines.I live very close to the Leeds - Harrogate railway line and some strange sounds - and sights can be observed in the nightime and early hours as thats when they do a lot of maintenance work on the line. I've seen special trains that do welding and all sorts of stuff slowly crawling up and down the track in the darkness, you can usually hear these before they are seen, sometimes the noises are quite unearthly at that hour of the morning.I've also heard strange shuddering loud bangs at night which have made me look out the window but I've never seen anything, I do remember seeing an article in the evening post about a loud unexplained 'bang' that a lot of other people reported, but for which no explanation could be found. Also we get a lot of foxes round here and they make shocking noises that if you didnt know what they were would send a chill down your spine! Owls too which make noises ranging from the usual twooh / twit-twooh sounds to deathly screeching sounds. I used to fancy that I could hear the sound of someone breathing very close to me when I was trying to get to sleep at night and a couple of times it scared the hell out of me..! woooo-ooooh! I think I eventually found out it was the cat though...

Uno Hoo · Post by **Uno Hoo** » Sat 09 Jun, 2012 11:36 am

BIG N wrote: Jon - I was brought up in Huddersfield in a heavy mill area and we always said - there goes mill hooter.As for church bells etc, its a sad affair but many churches have had their bells silenced by the politically correct / noise abatement societys / health and safety brigades.One of the things I like about driving a bus on a sunday is being parked in Leeds bus station when the bell ringers are giving it their all at the Parish Church ( or should that be Leeds Minster these days ? ) I can't think of any churches with proper change-ringing bells in Leeds that have been silenced due to political correctness or health & safety issues. Christ Church at Armley no longer has a regular band of ringers, so the bells sound at irregular intervals as visiting ringers call in by arrangement. Many churches hold communion services at 0800 on Sundays and will chime a single bell - not necessarily the best way to advertise its presence at that time.Leeds Parish Church has a good complement of expert ringers. I know the tower captain there so I'll tell him there's a bus driver who enjoys the sound - I suppose it's a nice change (no pun intended) from the bus bell I have no information about churches with clock chimes which have been turned off during certain hours. I wouldn't want to hear a clock chime every 15 minutes if I lived close to a church.

raveydavey · Post by **raveydavey** » Sat 09 Jun, 2012 5:38 pm

Uno Hoo wrote: I have no information about churches with clock chimes which have been turned off during certain hours. I wouldn't want to hear a clock chime every 15 minutes if I lived close to a church. We went on holiday to the North East recently and where we were staying was close to a church with chimes that did exactly that. Fortunately they were silenced betwixt midnight and 6am, but after a couple of days we hardly noticed them.

jdbythesea · Post by **jdbythesea** » Sat 09 Jun, 2012 6:11 pm

Works sirens and hooters were from a world where workers usually started and finished work at the same time as well as their lunchbreaks.There aren't many left that still do that. In fact, as we know only too well, there aren't many large factories left at all sad to say.One that did produce a regular noise with a steady thud from its massive power hammer was Kirkstall Forge. You got used to the noise it produced but when KF closed for the final time the silence was deafening and that did take some getting used to.JD

Johnny39 · Post by **Johnny39** » Sat 09 Jun, 2012 6:36 pm

I think that sometimes the unexplained loud booms could be put down to RAF jet aircraft breaking the sound barrier but this would neither be confirmed or denied for reasons best known to the RAF.