Spotty's Little Known Facts

[bobo the clown]

The "new" needle type mast went up in the late 19th September...

Bobo's now not-so-new phone is ace!!

tit

[KeyserSoze]

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[TANGODANCER]

Aye, I've walked across there as a kid. Some Sundays we'd walk up Halliwell Road and Smithills Dean Road to Collier Row. Then up to the mast and across to the Pike, down through the Chinese Gardens to Rivington Barn(s) to see the bikes and then back down Chorley Old Road, Church Road and then home.

I feel knackered just thinking about that now.

That's exactly the walk we used to do as kids, mainly in summer after Sunday school at St Joseph's. Later we got lazy and caught the bus up to Moss Bank, Barrow Bridge and started there. Up Sixty Three steps and onwards. Grand times, especially when the boating lake and the tea-shops at Barrow Bridge were open. We used to call for a hot Vimto or saspirilla in the temperance bar opposite Captains Clough Road (opposite the school) on the way home. Much later it was car to Rivington a good walk watching the para-gliders, flask and sandwiches and back again. Happy days.

[Gary the Enfield]

Aye, I've walked across there as a kid. Some Sundays we'd walk up Halliwell Road and Smithills Dean Road to Collier Row. Then up to the mast and across to the Pike, down through the Chinese Gardens to Rivington Barn(s) to see the bikes and then back down Chorley Old Road, Church Road and then home.

I feel knackered just thinking about that now.

That's exactly the walk we used to do as kids, mainly in summer after Sunday school at St Joseph's. Later we got lazy and caught the bus up to Moss Bank, Barrow Bridge and started there. Up Sixty Three steps and onwards. Grand times, especially when the boating lake and the tea-shops at Barrow Bridge were open. We used to call for a hot Vimto or saspirilla in the temperance bar opposite Captains Clough Road (opposite the school) on the way home. Much later it was car to Rivington a good walk watching the para-gliders, flask and sandwiches and back again. Happy days.

plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose TD

[Prufrock]

Why are they known as the Chinese Gardens? I've never heard anyone refer to them as anything but, but on a walk up there with the missus last year I started to point out where we going to her on one of those wooden information maps and saw they were called the Japanese Gardens. Is it just coz they look vaguely oriental so people just went with Chinese, and it stuck?

[LeverEnd]

Why are they known as the Chinese Gardens? I've never heard anyone refer to them as anything but, but on a walk up there with the missus last year I started to point out where we going to her on one of those wooden information maps and saw they were called the Japanese Gardens. Is it just coz they look vaguely oriental so people just went with Chinese, and it stuck?

I think the initial build was based on oriental terraced hillside gardens. I think the trees planted might have originated from that part if the world too.
I've not looked it up do this could be bollocks!

[Bruce Rioja]

Why are they known as the Chinese Gardens? I've never heard anyone refer to them as anything but, but on a walk up there with the missus last year I started to point out where we going to her on one of those wooden information maps and saw they were called the Japanese Gardens. Is it just coz they look vaguely oriental so people just went with Chinese, and it stuck?

I think the initial build was based on oriental terraced hillside gardens. I think the trees planted might have originated from that part if the world too.
I've not looked it up do this could be bollocks!

It was Leverhulme. Bear in mind that that's where he lived until the Suffragettes turned up with a box of matches. I always thought that they were actually called the Oriental Gardens, but anyway, he used to send people out on expeditions all over the world to bring various plants back for his gardens. It's thanks to him and his sort that we're now plagued with Japanese Knotweed, rhododendron bushes and all manner of what-have-you. The philanthropic nice person.

[bobo the clown]

Why are they known as the Chinese Gardens? I've never heard anyone refer to them as anything but, but on a walk up there with the missus last year I started to point out where we going to her on one of those wooden information maps and saw they were called the Japanese Gardens. Is it just coz they look vaguely oriental so people just went with Chinese, and it stuck?

Lady Leverhulme oversaw the creation of a garden in the Chinese style, with terracing and water features as well as Chinese derived plants, largely Rhododendrons and Azaleas.

The Dove Cot, or Pigeon Tower was part of all that also, along with a serious sized bungalow toward the top end.

Always known as 'the Chinese Gardens'. There were stories that wallabies lived up there at one stage, as she had a small exotic animal section. I never knew anyone who claimed to have seen one though, but met many who "knew someone who knew someone" who had.

[Montreal Wanderer]

Why are they known as the Chinese Gardens? I've never heard anyone refer to them as anything but, but on a walk up there with the missus last year I started to point out where we going to her on one of those wooden information maps and saw they were called the Japanese Gardens. Is it just coz they look vaguely oriental so people just went with Chinese, and it stuck?

The original gardens were called the Italian Gardens for a cottage that was burnt down by a suffragette. When the Bungalow was built the more extensive Japanese Gardens were created, called as such by Lord and lady Leverhulme because it was a standard term at the time. Calling them Chinese is simply an error, although Japanese Gardens evolved from Chinese Gardens.

[TANGODANCER]

In World War II the British navy floated a corpse in the sea off the coast of Spain. The corpse was a man who had died of food poisoning. It had a passport, personal papers, letters and photographs etc. It also had details of the invasion plans of Greece and Sardinia. This was a ploy, because the invasion actually took place in Sicily and was a complete success because the Germans got the body and believed it genuine. I just managed to find details of the story I read a long time ago and a film of the same name I saw back then: The Man Who Never Was was the film and book title, although another non-fiction book, Operation Mincemeat, told the actual story. A truly fascinating factual tale and one I thought worth posting about.

[TANGODANCER]

Click the link and guess who?

http://i1334.photobucket.com/albums/w64 ... 7663ff.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[TANGODANCER]

Click the link and guess who?

http://i1334.photobucket.com/albums/w64 ... 7663ff.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

No takers then? That a late sixties pic of Marc Bolan of T-Rex...believe it or no..

[bobo the clown]

Click the link and guess who?

http://i1334.photobucket.com/albums/w64 ... 7663ff.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

No takers then? That a late sixties pic of Marc Bolan of T-Rex...believe it or no..

So it is. Odd seeing him without a bit of tree-trunk attached.

[Bruce Rioja]

Click the link and guess who?

http://i1334.photobucket.com/albums/w64 ... 7663ff.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

No takers then? That a late sixties pic of Marc Bolan of T-Rex...believe it or no..

Now you mention it - yes, of course. Never have got it otherwise though.

[TANGODANCER]

Just looked up an old pub haunt of Palais days, The One Horseshoe down the bottom of Bank Street. Long closed now (1966) it had an interesting history to say the least. :

"The One Horseshoe was situated on Manor Street and was initially known simply as the Horse Shoe. It was a departure point for a number of stagecoaches. The 1824 Pigot Directory stated that the ‘Accommodation’ departed for Manchester every morning at 8, while the 1836 Directory listed coaches for Haslingden and Ramsbottom leaving every Monday afternoon at 4.

In their book of local reminiscences, Anne Bromilow and Jim Power recount the tale of a landlord of the One Horseshoe who became known locally as ‘Elephant Man’ after he stored six elephants in the pub’s cellar after a circus arrived in Bolton. The landlord isn’t named, nor is the story dated and the elephants were obviously not fully grown as their heights are given as being between 5ft and 5ft 6 and only just fit into the pub’s cellar. However, the landlord was worried about the authorities finding out about the elephants – hardly surprising – and he also stated that their arrival at his pub with hundreds of children in tow created something of a stir on Bank Street. [1]

[LeverEnd]

Do you remember one across the junction diagonally opposite the Dog and Partridge Tango? Where the NCP car park is.
My great grandfather was the landlord I'm told. I think it was flattened in the 60s.

[TANGODANCER]

Do you remember one across the junction diagonally opposite the Dog and Partridge Tango? Where the NCP car park is.
My great grandfather was the landlord I'm told. I think it was flattened in the 60s.

Might have been The Saddle L.E? Only one I can think of that I ever went in there.

[LeverEnd]

Do you remember one across the junction diagonally opposite the Dog and Partridge Tango? Where the NCP car park is.
My great grandfather was the landlord I'm told. I think it was flattened in the 60s.

Might have been The Saddle L.E? Only one I can think of that I ever went in there.

I'll ask my Dad, that doesn't ring a bell.

[TANGODANCER]

Do you remember one across the junction diagonally opposite the Dog and Partridge Tango? Where the NCP car park is.
My great grandfather was the landlord I'm told. I think it was flattened in the 60s.

Might have been The Saddle L.E? Only one I can think of that I ever went in there.

I'll ask my Dad, that doesn't ring a bell.

I'm thinking it may well have been The One Horseshoe on Manor Street that I mentioned.

[LeverEnd]

Do you remember one across the junction diagonally opposite the Dog and Partridge Tango? Where the NCP car park is.
My great grandfather was the landlord I'm told. I think it was flattened in the 60s.

Might have been The Saddle L.E? Only one I can think of that I ever went in there.

I'll ask my Dad, that doesn't ring a bell.

I'm thinking it may well have been The One Horseshoe on Manor Street that I mentioned.

It was The Roebuck. Closed in 1960, demolished 1961. Found this link which gives some info on my Great-Great Uncle Stanley. He was the landlord apparently, not his brother my Great-Grandfather.

http://lostpubsofbolton.blogspot.co.uk/ ... treet.html