Barnbow

[chameleon]

guitar man wrote: I have just had my copy of The Leeds Weekly News delivered ,Look on page five and see the article headed "Barnbow Lasses" tribute approved . The information is wrong ,the site of the explosion at the munitions factory was further east down Manston Lane near to Shippen House Farm. I hope that this error will be corrected soon. prety much the norm for YP publications - you'll find more about it in the Bye-Bye Countryside thread.

[tuskey]

i read that piece in the Y E P wish these reporters would get things right. my grandma worked at barnbow during the first world war, so it's special to me any reports of the factory.

[Stree]

First of all, Hello from a new member. Looks like I am making a start with this thread bump!Browsed this site a few times over the years and noticed some issues remain unclear apart from educated guesswork and I thought I may be able to clarify, or at least shed further light on these.My knowledge is sporadic about greater Leeds in general, more localised to Cross Gates and Barnbow/Barrowby.My family moved to Marshall St in 1964, in fact it was my Mum and Dad that had the Chippy in the middle. Keir`s Fisheries, for those that might remember. The other chippy at the bottom of the street was long gone by then. It used to be run by two elderly sisters and was I believe the last coal fired range in Leeds if not Yorkshire.That chippy then became Terry`s Barbers.........Later East Leeds Windows run by the Gumby family, who I believe had Healds Farm bown Barrowby lane, or at least the elder brothers worked there.The building next door to it which last time I knew of it, became a builders storage along with the yard at the side. Prior to that it was rented out by Marshall St Motors to some panel beaters and before that was storage /light workshop for Marshall St motors and even before that was Steve |Emmots Bookies.The proprieter of M St Motorswas Ronnie Riley, now I believe it is run by the staff who took it on after Ronnie retired.Anyway, hope thats cleared up a point or two.I came to this thread in particular because of my interest in Barnbow, Barrowby which was my playground as a kid, right up to me taking my kids for long walks and exploration around there. We often wandered as far as Barwick or Garforth from there.I have a few snippets about old Barnbow which I think will be useful as well.I eventually left Leeds for good in 2007, and was still living in Marshall St!Now we live in Lincolnshire.

[Jogon]

Have not read the thread, so sorry if this has been covered already:-http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/Hi ... ow-lasses/

[majorhoundii]

At the beginning of this year, the thirty year old goverment secrets were revealed. One of them was that in 1981, the British Goverment had agreed to supply replacement parts for Centurian tanks for Iraq. At that time I worked for a company based in Castleford. We were involved in the bulldozer track repair business - I still am involved in that business.The running rollers of bulldozers have a special type of seal in them called a face type seal, originally designed by Caterpillar. We had access to the Italian manufacturer of replacement seals - not genuine. We were contacted by one of our customers for 1800 of these seals - an enormous number, and then later for 450 of another larger type of seal. As it happened we found out who our customer was supplying - a seal supply company - but not who they were supplying. We suspected that they were going to Barnbow but had no proof, and they wouldn't have dealt with us anyway. From the release of information it seems our guess was correct. The application would be the same and our cost was a fraction of Cat's, in fact so much cheaper there was room for us, our customer, his customer and eventually ROC to make a profit out of them. Wheels within wheels as they say.

[Richard A Thackeray]

I know this thread is a while old now, but I was up at part of the site todayWe were running race 4 of our cross-country series, & were signing-in inside what was (I presume?) the Vickers Social Club?In the area where parked up, there's still a large tank test-hill, some 'elephant feet' ramps & one that looks like it may have been a 'see-saw' at some point.The perimeter road (security?, or testing?) is still in-situ, if very moss/undergrowth covered.And, by the gate, the 'kerbstones' are almost 4foot square!! (to keep tanks from running off-course?)Course here;http://www.pecoxc.co.uk/pages/race4.html

[liits]

A good bit of 1950's British Pathe film [but with an advert first]http://www.britishpathe.com/video/tank- ... uery/lathe

[Leodian]

liits wrote: A good bit of 1950's British Pathe film [but with an advert first]http://www.britishpathe.com/video/tank- ... uery/lathe Fascinating video liits. I was intrigued by the tank 'water wash' (?) pit. I wonder where the shots were taken of tanks running on a road in an area with few buildings (probably heavily built on now). That bit also reminded me of my occasional sightings in Crossgates of up to what seems to be not that many years back of new looking tanks being carried away from Barnbow (I suspect though that may be longer back than I think).    

[liits]

The pit marked as a blue squre on the picture and which lasted until the factory was rebuilt by Vickers [ although not used] was at the end of “East Shop”. It was to test the water-tight integrity of the hull.The sequence [1.48] showing the vehicles running around the factory is [possibly] No. 12 Street and turning right onto the Centre Road and heading past the East Shop, the red coloured arrows on the picture. The water pit would have been just out of view to the left of the camera [2.08 to 2.19].From [3.14], the buildings at the extreme right of the shot are the original WD / MOD Police houses, very utilitarian and with flat roofs , then from [3.21] the vehicles are on the test track proper and the buildings in the background are the row of farm cottages which are still there [Arts and Flowers Garden Centre?].

[Leodian]

Cheers for that liits.Interestingly (well perhaps to my imagination!) the overall shape of the dotted outline is about that of a tank.