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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted -  21/10/2011  :  09:38

HORSE POWER PART ONE

The First World War from 1914 to 1918 is ancient history to most young people these days but, as I have pointed out in the past, very few of those youngsters come from a family that wasn't changed forever by the consequences of the deaths on the Western Front, the Spanish Flu epidemic that struck in 1918 and a host of other changes that were triggered by the war. The biggest change for Barlick was the decline in the cotton industry which started in July 1920 as a direct consequence of the disruption of trade caused by the conflict. These massive events left scars on the town that are still with us today. On November 11th we will focus again on the list of names on the War Memorial and remember the fallen. The more informed citizens will also remember the other effects of the Great War as it was called then.

This week I want to look at one of the lesser known but significant changes that cast a long shadow. When the British Army went into Belgium and France in 1914 it relied totally on horses for transport and of course, as mounts for the cavalry brigades. It is often said that when we go to war we are always behind the times because we are using the technology of the last conflict. This was the same all over the world. A friend of mine in America once told me that when his father volunteered for the American Army in 1939 because 'he thought there was going to be trouble with Hitler', he was disgusted to find he was sent to Oregon for intensive training as a cavalry man. The problem was of course that the generals had not moved on and recognised that the technology of killing had changed.

In 1914 the first reaction of the generals was to recruit men as volunteers. At the same time, contrary to general perceptions, they introduced conscription but it was called by a different name. They scoured the country for horses, hay and oats and 'requisitioned' them for the duration. They knew that any increase in the size of the army had to be matched by an increase in the number of horses and feed for them. It's very difficult to find any numbers in order to get an idea of the scale of this problem. The first German army to enter Belgium in 1914 had 84,000 horses which ate 900 tons of fodder a day, remember that all this feed had to be transported by horse drawn transport as well. This gives us an idea of the size of the problem.

Of course, by 1914 motor transport was available but in its infancy. Apart from a few staff cars, civilian vehicles had to be requisitioned for general transport. I think we have all seen pictures of London buses and taxis being used on the Western front to ferry troops around and we have records of steam traction engines being taken as well. The Germans had the same problem and Kluk's first army in 1914 had about 1,300 motor wagons, mainly used in civilian life for carting beer! Despite these imaginative measures, horses were the main form of transport in the early years of the war.

The fact that these enormous numbers of horses could be requisitioned at short notice tells us that they were available. I'm afraid I haven't a clue about the horse population of England in 1914 but it must have been enormous. However, my research into Barlick has produced enough information to give us an idea of how common they were here. This is where we start to get some idea of the scale of one of the changes caused by the war. On average, one ton of coal ran 35 looms for a week. We know that just before the war there were about 20,000 looms in the town so we can take a rough guess that the coal consumption in the mills alone was about 600 tons a week. All this had to be carted by horse-drawn tipping wagon from the railway yard or the canal wharf. The carts held about one and a half tons so this means a minimum of 400 journeys a week to the mills loaded and the same number empty back to the yard, over 800 trips a week. On top of this we have to add all the other horses used for domestic coal, carriers, local traders and personal transport. I admit that it's pure guesswork but I reckon there was a minimum of 2,000 horses at work in the town every day. They all had to be stabled, fed and cared for, many would be on the local farms but a large number had to be accommodated in stables in the town. We know that there were stables in Butts and at all the mills. One of the things that the Calf Hall Minutes made me aware of was that if a horse was ridden to work by a manufacturer it had to be accommodated for the day, in summer it was easy, just turn it out in an adjacent paddock but in winter it had to be under cover. Using the German army figures, these horses were eating about thirty tons of feed a day, over 200 tons a week, and all this had to be provided from the local farms and corn merchants.

There is also the question of the horse muck and bedding. 2,000 horses would produce about 500 tons a week, all of which had to be carted to local farms or market gardens where it would be used as fertilizer. Bear in mind that horses aren't house-trained, quite a lot of muck was dropped on the streets. When I was a lad it was a golden rule that if a tradesman's horse dropped any muck on the road outside the house it was shovelled up and put onto the garden. I think there must have been a lot of well-manured gardens in Barlick right up to the 1920s!

I think we have done enough to demonstrate that until after the First World War any notions we have about a quiet town with people walking about in the street have to be modified. Over 2,000 horses were going about the town, many of them hauling carts and wagons. Towers Singleton in Commercial Street was hiring out carriages and even in death, we went to Gill in a horse-drawn hearse. Horse power was King and if we could bring an old Barlicker back to look at today's streets one of the first thing they would ask is “where are the horses?”. All this was to change and next week we'll look at how this came about.

Hacking's oat cake bakery in Westgate in about 1890. Every trader needed transport.


Stanley Challenger Graham




Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk

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Callunna
Revolving Grey Blob


3044 Posts
Posted - 21/10/2011 : 09:50
Click here: Hacking 's bakery in context of today.




Edited by - Callunna on 21/10/2011 09:53:43 AMGo to Top of Page
Tardis
Regular Member


453 Posts
Posted - 21/10/2011 : 10:43
R4 was on about horses in WWI recently.

Something like 2,000,000 went and only 65,000 came back


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Another
Traycle Mine Overseer


6250 Posts
Posted - 21/10/2011 : 11:04
Nice piece Comrade. Thanks. Of course the Germans relied heavily on horse transport in WW 2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horses_in_World_War_II

Speilberg's latest film, War Horse is all about horses in WW1. See link below.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568911/    Nolic 


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wendyf
Senior Member


1439 Posts
Posted - 21/10/2011 : 11:31
Thanks Stanley, a good read.


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moh
Silver Surfer


6860 Posts
Posted - 21/10/2011 : 13:56
When hubby's father began his fish & fruit delivery in Colne he had a horse and cart.  Will try and scan a photo and ask Stanley to put it on here.


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panbiker
Senior Member


2301 Posts
Posted - 21/10/2011 : 14:12
A good piece as usual Stanley. When my grandfather came down to Barlick from Dent in the early 1900's he came with his horse. He had been a wagonner, horseman and general carter up in the dales before he came to Barlick shortly after his marriage, he was 50 years old. The family lived on George Street and grandad used to keep his horse on Coates field in front of the hall, not sure what he did in winter but the horse was used for his milk round and any other business he could get that needed 4 legs and two wheels.


Ian Go to Top of Page
handlamp
Senior Member


1100 Posts
Posted - 21/10/2011 : 15:54
Another quality item, Stanley.  Horse droppings were were diewed as a bonus item on the streets of Earby right up to the end of the second war. My brother in law,  the late Tom Mason, of Thornton, used to relate how is father toured the country buying horses for the Army during the the first war.


TedGo to Top of Page
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 22/10/2011 : 04:46
Thanks for commenting. The BBC piece was sayining that about 2,000,000 horses  were imported from the US in WW1.

Moh sent me this pic of her husbands father, Alfred Harrison on the back of the horse pulling the fruit cart.




Stanley Challenger Graham




Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk Go to Top of Page
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 22/10/2011 : 06:11
Ted, one thought that struck me was the number of horses the railways had and their replacement by the Scammel Scarab. My mate John has bought one and refurbished it.....


Stanley Challenger Graham




Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk Go to Top of Page
wendyf
Senior Member


1439 Posts
Posted - 22/10/2011 : 08:22
Love the pic Moh, isn't the horse in beautiful condition? I'm always struck by the pride people obviously took in their horses. Their livelihoods depended on a sound, healthy horse.
The horses that worked in towns were all shod with what looked like high heeled shoes to give them a grip on the cobbled streets. It makes you wonder what  it did to their feet and legs over time.


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moh
Silver Surfer


6860 Posts
Posted - 22/10/2011 : 11:39
Thanks Stanley - the man holding the horse is Alfred Harrison, we have no idea who the child is on the horse nor the lady standing by.  Must be someone from the Colne, Trawden, Laneshawbridge area.


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handlamp
Senior Member


1100 Posts
Posted - 22/10/2011 : 15:55
Stanley, quite a number were also engaged on shunting in numerous goods yards and sidings until being replaced with tractors in the 1950's.

Edited by - handlamp on 22/10/2011 3:55:59 PM


TedGo to Top of Page
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 23/10/2011 : 05:18
It's a pleasure Moh. You know where I am....

Ted, yes, I'd forgotten that. I remember seeing an estimate somewhere that a young Clydesdale horse could pull forty tons on the level. Made sense, that was almost the weight of a loaded broad canal boat. Co-op were big horse users as well. I remember being taken to the multi-storey Co-op stables in Stockport once during the war and seeing an enormous black horse they had named Hitler! Fuel shortages meant they were very useful. The breweries and Nelstrop's Flour Mill used steam wagons, a common sight on the streets until the end of the war.


Stanley Challenger Graham




Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk Go to Top of Page
moh
Silver Surfer


6860 Posts
Posted - 23/10/2011 : 10:09
I had wondered about sending the picture to Geoffrey Cranbie in Colne, he does a column in the Colne Times.  I thought if he printed it we may discover who the young boy is.


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Lancsbabe
New Member


2 Posts
Posted - 23/10/2011 : 13:41
Henry Hartley Whiteoak

Henry Hartley Whiteoak.
Born: 1878 Carlton, Yorkshire.
Died: 1971 Colne, Lancashire.
Worked for Samuel Smith Waterside Colne.
Seen here with his two working horses at his home at Bank House Colne Lane where he lived and kept the horses.
He used to go to collect dog dirt to treat the cow hides at Leather works, Samuel Smiths Tannery . It would have taken him a full day to go to Liverpool and back.


Edited by - Lancsbabe on 23/10/2011 2:12:53 PM


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