Postcards and Pictures

The first picture is a postcard general view of the Loveclough area, all of which would have been all too familiar to the lads named on the War Memorial at Providence.  Top left of this  postcard, is entitled Ivy Mount, the view is along the main road from Rawtenstall towards Burnley, and on the left behind the first row of terraced houses, can be seen the side profile of Providence Chapel. The image on the right in the postcard is that of Commercial Street, looking up towards the main Burnley Rawtenstall road, and the building in the top centre of the Commercial Street picture, is that of the old National School, now a private dwelling, but will most certainly have been attended by some of Providences children. George Miller, the Coldstream Guardsman on the Memorial lived on Burnley Road, and worked at the Print Works at the bottom of Commercial Street.   The central and bottom left buildings, still exist, but the Print Works itself was recently demolished, and is now occupied by a new housing development. The location of Whinn Hill House has yet to be ascertained.

Below is the  second postcard of the Loveclough area, and in the central oval picture, shows the front elevation of the now demolished Providence Chapel, the date stone can be seen above the four upper windows and still exists in the Chapel grounds.  Top left is a shot of the print works bowling green, whilst top right is a picture of  Hope Cottage at Goodshaw Fold.  Bottom left is a picture of Badger Cote Farm, where Thom Harry Spencer (named on the memorial) lived for a while, as did his father, see Thom Harry’s mention in the named fallen. Finally, the bottom right picture is of  a small path, leading up to presumably the Cornfield, at Broading, and shows three young lads from the period posing for the photographer, no doubt in their sunday best. Broading is still in existence today, and can be found on the right of the road to Burnley, not far from the old National Shool.

The Drawing below is of the first Providence Chapel.

Below is a view of the interior of Providence, wonder what happened to  the fabulous looking organ.

Here is a nice bookmark/display card showing the interior of the chapel, red roses (for Lancashire I presume) and a picture of  the Reverend Albert T. Marchant, Minister of Providence in the years 1928-1931. On the rear it says “Wishing you a Merry Christmas”, and is handwritten. The makers were Edwards, Market Hall Bolton.

Another fund raising card for Everybody’s Birthday dated April 5th 1952 to raise money for Trust Funds.

The coloured photograph below of Providence taken on a bright winters day(note the snow on the wall and pavement,) shows the original site of the War Memorial, just in front of the main entrance, partly obscured by the bushes, but you can just make out the top of it. Photograph by kind permission of Wilf, Rossendale Historic Society.

Two cloth badges bearing the colours of France and England that were sold during the Great War period, by the children of Loveclough Cof E School, to raise money to provide what they called “comforts”, i.e. socks, tobacco etc for Soldiers and Sailors at the front.

The above picture is another view of Commercial Street, this time down hill, as opposed to postcard 1, where the view is uphill, at the bottom in this view we see Loveclough Print Works, where some of those on the War Memorial worked.