Dawn Beaumont, Chair of The Friends of Pendle Heritage welcomed about 40 guests to the launch of our Blue Plaque Project.
She recalled that, several years ago, three FoPH members: Jean, Andrea and Alan suggested placing blue vinyl plaques in the windows of shops and houses along Gisburn Road, Barrowford, similar to ones they had seen in Hebden Bridge.
After much discussion and some false starts, it was decided to use data from the 1911 Census – mainly because it was detailed and was readily available. Members walked the route to familiarise themselves with the layout of the street and data was collected from the ‘Ancestry’ website for properties from the ‘George and Dragon’ down to Newbridge and back on the opposite side to the Toll House.
Members then heard that Terry McGinn was undertaking a similar project for The Friends of Barrowford Library. Terry graciously agreed to share his research into the census returns, which enabled our members to link names with the properties that still existed on Gisburn Road. 100 names were selected and an order was placed for the plaques with the printer in Hebden Bridge.
Meanwhile, Terry was copying and printing the census returns to be held in a file at the library. These he passed on to Pete Booth who transferred them to the FoPH website.
On Saturday, 25 July, letters and the blue plaques were delivered to the 100 households. The response has been very positive and slowly the plaques are appearing in the shop and house windows.
Dawn finished her address by expressing her sincere thanks to the people who had helped with the project: Jean and Alan, Andrea and Peter, Pete & Susan, Terry McGinn and the staff of Barrowford Library; also, Lewis Ashworth and Andy Pritchard for the display of photos used at the launch.
Members and guests enjoyed tea and ‘heritage cakes’ prepared by Andrea Smith.