Wanted:
Original Euxton Photographs Original photographs of Euxton village and village activities for
use on this site. Mail them to us and we will return them after scanning, or email
them to us.
Source will be posted were required.
Pure nostalgia for glorious times past, living a young care-free life in Euxton Village,
in the finest of all counties.
As a youngster I must have walked, ran and cycled around Euxton more than any one I knew.
My life in Euxton started during World War 2 (~ 1942), when my family moved to Armetriding
Farm
(possibly the second oldest building in Euxton). As a child in Euxton’s green
fields, glorious woodlands, flowing streams and rivers it was a paradise found.
Given the isolation, we had
few folk around us there, but we had neighbours at Armetriding Cottages along the lane and
at Commissary
Farm , of the famous Cromwell fame just across the
Yarrow River (by rickety wooden footbridge up Back Lane) where we collected our daily
water supply from an hillside spring.
Outside of school time, we spent our days playing around Armetriding Farm with all its
fields and barns, or playing along the mill leat that provided water power for Armetriding Cotton Mill. Inside
the mill,
I "still" see the cast iron Pelton
wheel that stood motion-less after a ~century of powering
the old mill.
Euxton Village.
On Sunday it was off to Chapel (Methodist
and Truth!), walking alongside the Yarrow River and its old mill leats with their
drawn-off river water. The old cottage buildings of Pincock still stood then as did
the 'Millwright Arms'. Pubs
It was located about halfway up Pincock Brow.
Having a very spiritual Mum (clairvoyant and more) was daunting! Mum could I know, read my
mind. I recall her describing a number of spiritual visits with us, an interesting one was
the "Spirit" that met Mum on the staircase at Armetriding Farm.
Mum had got us all to bed, Dad was very sick with pneumonia. Mum was coming
up to bed, when down the stairs came the "Lady with the Lamp". The
"Spirit" brushed right past my Mum and went straight out
"through" the front door and down the long flight of stone steps that lead to
Mill Lane. Life was never quite the same again! Ghost Visits
Occasionally, Mum would provide tea and scones (in our Armetriding Farm garden) Armetriding Farm Recipes for the ramblers and history seeker groups, guiding them on
to interesting localities. My Mum was solid on Euxton history.
In the mid-evening they (the ramblers) would hear a choral of church bells
ringing up the valley from Eccleston village,
far away in the beautiful sunsets
Where the date stone (1662) is built into the retaining wall of "our"
Armetriding Farm, we would watch the Blue-Tits nesting in the "gaps in the
wall", it was also a favourite place for bee nests.
The farm house itself dates from 1570, whilst the 1662 date stone was set in the
retaining wall by Bill Carr, who lived at the farm from 1953 to 1989. The 1662 date
stone is from an old cottage, now demolished, that was about 50 metres to the East of the
Armetriding Cotton Mill, just under the old mill leat. My Aunt Jane and Uncle Will
Heffron lived in the old cottage during my farm days, whilst Mrs White lived in the
cottage next door.
Teenage years (~1953) saw us move into a house (pure luxury) in the village proper. For
the first time in our family life, we had running water, electricity, gas and a real
flushing toilet.
There was even a back door that had hinges, and worked!
But, my mystical Mum still missed "our" Armetriding Farm.
My first movies were seen at the Village Institute, Pubs, an old timber building where
films used to be shown one night of the week. It was here, that I learned that I was in
the 20th Century!
Now came responsibilities and industry: three paper rounds for Mr. and Mrs. Webster's
paper shop, delivering groceries for Mr. and Mrs. Tittle's grocery store / post office ,
and child minding and all this and school and studying. These responsibilities took me to
every address of Euxton village.
After a while "chapel" gave way to C of E. One could not attend youth group
unless one attended the Parish Church. I cannot yet understand the reasoning of it.
For at the church, and the youth group, no-one preached Jesus Christ and Him
crucified! (It took The Queen’s Commission in the Royal Australian Engineers, for one to find The Living Christ).
But one still has very fond memories of "our Armetriding Farm".
My very own prayer for belief!
Why did the Ranters stop preaching at the chapel?
Why did the C of E not understand the importance of what the Ranters preached?
Why oh why? Ranters
Why have church youth leaders, who do not know
"The Christ"?
Whilst studying, I would gaze from my bedroom window
(10 St. Mary’s Gate) at Rivington Pike some 10 miles away, longing to
understand what this (life) was all about. I did understand a little of the issues
of invasion, the Spanish fleet
and the early warning system set there upon Rivington Pike.
Whilst delivering papers to the garage (the old Bugle Inn site) the "old"
mechanic, would demonstrate his new form of "continuos power" bicycle, an Euxton
invention was going to revolutionize peddle power! Euxton was not as sleepy as I
thought.
A little further down the A49, near Balshaw Lane, I would deliver papers to Euxton Hall.
My entrance to the hall was through a small timber door set in the high stone
wall that surrounds the grounds. Making about three stops in the grounds at various
premises, I would pass by the numerous old stables and out-buildings that made Euxton Hall
mystifying.
