History Project
1930s
The end of an era
Eleanor Lyne: born Back Temperance St 1907
Farming too seems to have been in a decline. When the Cheetham family came to Hill End Farm in the 1930s, they had to be persuaded to take on the tenancy. The farm had been untenanted for a few years. The old house was an empty shell, though it isn’t clear when it was abandoned. The farm was run from one of the estate cottages next to it. Nonetheless, the land was in good heart, well drained, perhaps a legacy of good husbandry dating back to John Chapman’s time.
At the same time, key members of the Sidebottom and Chapman families died . In the 1930s both Hill End House and Harewood Lodge fell empty and were sold off and only partly lived in or used for other purposes. In the 1930s Hill End seems to have been used for the school meals service. At Harewood, where the Goddard family now lived and farmed, the Hobson family came from Simmondly in about 1935, lived in part of the house and took over the derelict greenhouses as a market garden.
Mr and Mrs Goddard of Glossop were the owners of Harewood and offered my dad, Samuel Hobson, a part of Harewood to live in. My Dad was a very keen gardener and there were 7 big greenhouses, so he jumped at the chance. Dad and my 2 brothers Sam & Jack who were also keen gardeners set to work clearing all the paths and the greenhouses which were barely visible because the place had been empty for a number of years. The greenhouses were fantastic and in good condition. As the years went by Dad, Sam and Jack brought Harewood back to life; they grew hundreds of tomatoes, mushrooms, grapes, plums and chrysanthemums and other flowers. We also made 250 holly wreaths at Christmas. Albert Hobson
Ida George
A new Methodist church had been built in 1920 on Ogden Street, replacing the Etherow Brow chapel, when the railway needed to expand. Some beams in the new chapel show marks to indicate that they were taken from the old building to be incorporated in the new.
In 1937, the Catholic Church was redecorated with murals.
Anglican sermon, late 1920s - (Joyce Powell)
Redecorated Catholic Church - (Clare Hussell)
May procession 1933 at the Catholic Church - (Clare Hussell)
Mrs Smith of Market Street
Waldo's ice cream van: Harryfields 1920s - (Gould family)
'a pretty spot' postcard of cottages on Pingot Lane:- (Gould family)
Outside cottages on Pingot Lane - (Gould family)
Walkers at the pump: Pingot Lane - (Gould family)
Mining coal on the Mudd 1920s - (Gould family)
The end of an era
In this period the remaining cotton mills came to the end of their life.
Nellie Lyne worked in the tape mill at Best Hill until the business was moved to Bolton in the 1920s and then as a ring spinner at Broad Mills until it closed in 1937. Then, like many other workers she had to move out of the village to work and retrained as a glove maker in Hyde.
She describes the cotton coming into the mill in dirty bales, being cleaned in the blowing room and then passing through a series of spinning machines growing finer and finer.
Ruth Lomas (b1907) also worked at Broad Mills and Lymefield Mills as a weaver but never liked working in the mills.
The closing of Broad Mills was the end of an era in
Broadbottom. Though the village was still well
equipped with shops, it was no longer largely
self-sufficient. As nationally, this was another
time of uncertainty in work, where unemployed
workers queued outside mills for a day’s work. Some
people struggled to earn a living selling goods door
to door. Ida George remembers an aunt taking a heavy
suitcase selling books door to door. People had to scavenge to get by, including digging what coal and slack remained in the old drift mines on the Mudd.
Best Hill Mill in ruins - (Gould family)
