Colne's Stocks on Wheels

In March 1985 I was trundling around East Lancashire looking for a few curiosities I had read about in Arthur Mee's wonderful series of books The King's England.

Each county had its own book - and they were slightly different counties when the books were written in the 1930s. Westmorland and Cumberland, Rutland and perhaps a couple more were still to be found on a map of England. Other modern county or administrative names such as Merseyside or Greater Manchester were absent. Both Manchester and Liverpool, as well as Windermere, were to be found in Lancashire.

Anyway, I wasn't in any of those places, I was in Colne. You hardly ever hear the name on its own. It's normally the final part of a string - "Burnley, Nelson and Colne"! But Colne had something exciting to show me that day in 1985.

In the churchyard, protected by a slate roof on a timber frame, were a set of stocks mounted on a little cart on metal wheels.

There's not a lot to say about them except that I have never ever come across another set of stocks like them. They would have been dragged round to the local markets so that miscreants could be imprisoned in them for people to mock or throw things at. Stocks were therefore a less harsh punishment than the pillory where the head and hands are shackled, making it impossible to protect the face.

I went back to Colne not all that long after these were taken, hoping to take colour photos in better weather, but the stocks had disappeared. What a shame.

London Postcard

I love this postcard of Regent Street, London.

It's a great photograph for one, which shows a snapshot of the past with many bits of interest. There are the old cars, the early motor bus, the window blinds advertising the London Stereoscopic Company and the fantastic hats of the two ladies in the bottom left hand corner. Unfortunately this postcard was never posted, so there is no postmark to give us the date. But it looks from the style of the motor cars (you can't just call those motorised carriages "cars" can you?) that it must be somewhere around the end of, or just after, World War I.

It was bought by a man from Colne in Lancashire, to take back home for the collection of his son. Whilst it has a message and is fully addressed on the reverse, there is no sign of a stamp having ever been attached and, as I mention above, no postmark. The message is lovely though, as it gives another snapshot, this time of language and sentiment that would sound very out of date to us now.

Dear Harry, just another PC of London for you. I hope you like it. My word, you will be a swank when you get your new suit on. I hope you are a good boy for Mammi and pals to Jack. From your dear old pal Daddy.