The war memorial
Sadly some men did not return from the Great War.
Their families and friends in Knowle Green raised money for a memorial, which was erected in May 1920. Local people helped with some of the work to defray costs but the final bill still came to £144 plus the lettering £14/1/3d, a considerable sum in those days.
The names inscribed on the memorial are:
First World War
Astley Duxbury 28 April 1917; Robert Talbot 13 April 1918; Herbert Forrest 28 September 1918; John Slater 15 November 1918.
Second World War : James Harrison 8 October 1943; Leslie Richardson 8 November 1944; Thomas Crook 9 December 1944.
Apart from work on the farms, opportunities for employment in the mills along Cowley Brook and as hand loom weavers had declined from the 1850s onwards. Many families had to move to the towns especially Longridge, or travel daily to work there. In 1882 the headmaster of Knowle Green School, commented “On balancing the registers I found that the average attendance was just the same as last year (around 80). This result is extraordinary considering the rapidly diminishing population of this district. Many more families are removing to towns”.
Local people can still recall the stories of how, in the early 1900s, workers walked to the Longridge mills to start at 7-3Oam repeating the walk home after 5-30pm. How grim this must have been, especially in the winter months. From the 1920s Ribble Pilot buses provided transport for the workers who were picked up at the Cross Keys.
Duxbury’s grocers and provender merchant business and other grocers shops in Knowle Green seem to have ceased trading by the 1920s. Provender for the Duxbury business used to be collected from the railway station in Longridge and taken to the warehouse in Knowle Green from where it was distributed. This conveyancing became too much and the business moved into Inglewhite road Longridge.
As the numbers of people living in the area declined, cottages fell empty. Even as early as 1881 many dwellings in Dilworth Bottoms and Knowle Green were recorded as uninhabited.
Life was hard and there was poverty, but by the beginning of the 20th century working families in the towns sometimes had enough money at the end of the week to put towards outings.
Knowle Green with its Cowley Brook flowing down waterfalls through pretty woods and by romantic stone ruins became an attractive place for such outings. In the words of a Preston Guardian reporter “the valley below Knowle Green Bridge is clothed with noble trees and verdant under growth. The brook has been dammed and it now forms a picturesque waterfall... Then comes the woodland proper a breathtaking picture of nature unsullied.”
Postcards in the 1920s advertised the delights of places such as “fairy glen and “lovers walk”.
In 1913 as well as the local farm ale houses - The White Cross (New Drop), the Halls Arms and the Moor Cock, there were refreshment rooms owned by a Mr Kenyon in Dutton. By 1918 Mr Kenyon owned apartments and Mrs Critchley ran refreshment rooms. The Moor Cock Inn closed sometime after the Fenton estate was sold in 1919 and was converted to other uses.
In the 20s visitors could stay at “Oak Lea” on the Clitheroe Road where “Board Residence with Teas” was provided.
Ramblers from Blackburn would catch the tram to Wilpshire and walk from there up to Knowle Green. Cyclist Touring Clubs from Blackburn and Preston would cycle to meet at the White Cross; visit Morris’s café in Stoneygate Lane (which did not close until the 1950s); or call in Schofields on Knowle Green Bridge for lemonade, sweets and ice cream.
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Schofields also built the garage and shop across the road shortly after the 2nd World War. These served the many Yorkshire folk who travelled to Blackpool via Knowle Green during the next 20 or 30 years until the A59 was much improved. In 1964 they were taken over by John McDade before being sold to Miniprints in 1978 and then to Peter Guy Antiques in the mid 1990’s.
Community spirit in Knowle Green obviously remained very much alive. In 1923 enough money had been raised to start building a “village institute”, (the recently refurbished “village hall”). Mr James Duxbury was one of the prime movers in this project. He is pictured in the centre of the photograph taken at the laying of the foundation stone in 1923.
By 1926 the Institute was in full use. Billiards whist and dominoes were played regularly. Dances were held featuring such bands as the Apollo Dance Orchestra and the Hurst Green Orchestra, which returned to play at the “Knowle Green Farmers Ball” in February 1927. Events became more exotic and in November 1928 the Empress Syncopated Orchestra from Blackburn was playing for a fancy dress carnival!
On a more serious note there were educational classes under the auspices of Longridge Co-op Education Committee. A social in November of the same year was raising money for the dress making class. The social took the form of a concert followed by dancing with music provided by Miss Alcock and Mr Gallagher. Dances at the Institute were often teamed with domino or whist drives. By the 30s there were even more glamorous sounding bands such as Radiance and Revera. The Revellers Syncopated Dance Band played for the 1931 Knowle Green Farmers Ball.
In 1939 attention again focused on war. Jumble Sales, dances and old-fashioned teas raised money. The Preston Guardian noted in 1940 that Knowle Green had raised £50 to buy knitting wool for the WV S. Mrs Counsell and Miss Greenall, WVS leaders had organised 50 knitters “a remarkably high figure for so scattered a locality”. Perhaps this group later became the basis of the W I formed in 1944 under the leadership of Miss Greenall. Children at the school under the tuition of Mrs Lavisa collected waste and scrap iron to sell and to purchase yet more wool.
Farmers such as Mr Counsell at Bank Top and Mr Duxbury at Knowle Green Farm had to change their methods and plough up their pasture to grow oats and potatoes for much needed food and fodder. But although many of the men had again gone away to the war Knowle Green remained a peaceful spot where in the words of the Preston Guardian reporter “the loveliness of the surroundings made it hard to realise we were at war.”
In the lean post war years, meetings held at the Institute featured talks and demonstrations on how to make the most of the rations and how to make do and mend. The County WI book records in 1947 “The national food shortage being grave, classes in food production and preservation were arranged ... Canning machines were purchased by several institutes”. Knowle Green and Dutton WI was among them.
Despite the shift of workers to the towns the Chapel, the School and the Institute continued to provide a focus for social life in the hamlet with friends and families returning to take part. Gradually life became easier and more fun. For a few years there was an annual field day with the crowning of a May Queen at the Institute. The WI continued to flourish and enjoy the occasional holiday.
One venture which became renowned both locally and further afield was the formation of a Youth Club in 1953 by Mr G W Morgan. It held weekly meetings in the day school room with a varied programme including outside speakers and quizzes arranged by the young committee.
There were outside visits to other clubs and theatres and club holidays to the Isle of Man and Devon - ambitious in the days before foreign travel became easy.
They held an annual Dinner Dance, a splendid affair with guests and partners wearing full evening dress and a five-course luxury meal followed by toasts proposed by the young officers of the club.
The Club disbanded in the mid sixties as members married (often each other!) and some moved away.
The day school closed in 1962. In the words of the HMI inspectors “this isolated country school which has no place in the development plan, now has on roll twelve children”. It was therefore no longer viable and Knowle Green’s children had to travel to Longridge or Ribchester.
