Holme House Bridge, Luddenden - TWA00227

HOLME HOUSE BRIDGE at Booth in Luddenden Dean was originally a pack-horse bridge but it was widened to the eastward. In 1776 Isaac Patchet, a carpenter, was paid 13s 7d on September 30th, 1795 for further repairs. The following resolution is self-explanatory:- “At a meeting of the Boards for the repairs of the highways for Midgley and Warley, held at the house of Mr Robert Midgley (Woodman Inn, Booth), March 19th, Mr Wm. Appleyard in the chair, it was unanimously resolved that Holme House Bridge be widened and repaired at their joint expense, and that the cost be equally divided. And that Joseph Pickles be paid for the above, agreeable to contract, for the sum of £38, to be completed on or before the 30th June, 1841. Signed on behalf of the meeting, Wm Appleyard, Chairman.” A new bridge was thus built alongside the old one, and since the stone used from the nearby Booth quarry was friable the bridge had to be taken down and rebuilt in 1898 at a joint cost of some £110. The first bridge was a wooden footbridge and carts and pack-horses used to ford the stream here. There used to be two water wheels at Holme House Bridge.

Tom Walker

Olwen Forest

1960 , 1960s

PHDA - Tom Walker Collection

Pennine Horizons Digital Archive

TWA00227.tif