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The 1960s

11/ 6/2003

Tweedales and Smalley closure shock

NEARLY 1,100 jobs were under the axe after Rochdale suffered one of its biggest employment shocks of the century when the closure of Tweedales and Smalley was announced on Thursday 11 October 1962.

The Royle Barn Road, Castleton, factory made machinery for cotton spinning, but was set to close at the end of the year because of falling orders. Its owners, Textile Machinery Makers Ltd (TMML) planned to move production to their other premises, Howard and Bullough's in Accrington and Platt Brothers in Oldham.

People living in Castleton were stunned and dismayed by the news, as the firm had been a major employer in the area since it opened in 1891.

There had been rumours that the factory might go on short time, but these were always denied by TMML.

Fans don't get no satisfaction

THE Rolling Stones concert at Rochdale's Cubi Klub was cancelled after trouble broke out among nearly 1,500 youngsters trying to get into the gig in April 1964.

Queues were forming outside the Slack Street club for hours before the show and over 800 people were eventually packed inside waiting for the pop stars to appear.

Two of the Stones had arrived but the other three were delayed in travelling from Knutsford after their car had a puncture.

Outside hundreds of disappointed youngsters were trying to get in and police made four arrests after eggs started being thrown and a metal object narrowly missed a police officer.

Inside the atmosphere was just as restless as people surged forward towards the stage in anticipation of the event. Club managers Clifford Kelly and Paddy Jones asked them to move back for fear of people getting crushed but to no avail.

More than 20 teenagers fainted, and 13-year-old Irene Barber had to be taken to Rochdale Infirmary after she passed out.

Considering the problems inside and outside the club the Stones travelling to Rochdale were advised to go to Manchester for the night. The other two members were smuggled out and joined their colleagues later.

Mr Kelly said the band had been willing to put in an appearance, but in view of the trouble at Wembley Pool a few weeks beforehand when 8,000 youngsters manhandled them, their manager thought it unwise for them to appear.

They said it would be an 'all-weather' motorway

WORK began in October 1966 on the £1.2M engineering project that would become part of the new Lancashire to Yorkshire motorway.

The M62 would provide an all-weather road link between the two counties.

Once completed, the road would stretch for 54 miles between Worsley and Leeds, linking all the major industrial areas and the West Riding of Yorkshire.

One of the biggest challenges facing engineers was traversing Longden End Valley - a problem solved by building the 800ft-long Rakewood Viaduct.

Builders were putting in foundations for the structure, which would carry vehicles at a height of 130 feet above he valley on concrete columns. Reinforced concrete was sunk 100 feet down into an embankment at Castle Hill at the west end of the viaduct, while a similar embankment went 62 feet down into Schofield Hall at the east side of the valley.

The viaduct would take two years to complete.

School's out - for ever

ART students watched with tears in their eyes as years of work at Rochdale College of Art went up in smoke.

Fire swept through the Fleece Street college in the early hours of Thursday 6 March 1969. Flames shot dozens of feet into the air lighting up the night sky as flames engulfed the college's studios. The wooden tower at the King Street end of the building tottered under the strain and fell into the building.

Firemen battled to save the three-storey building and managed to stop the flames reaching a dozen acetylene cylinders used for metal sculpture. College principal Leo Solomon said: "If the fire had got to those cylinders the whole building would have gone sky-high."

College officials feared about a dozen students had lost work that they needed for pre-entry interviews at other colleges. One of them, Stephen Mackwell, of Melnott Street, Rochdale, said: "I have lost three years' work in there and I only have three more weeks before I go for interview. It is a shattering experience."

Dale promoted into history books

ROCHDALE FC created history on Saturday 10 May 1969 by gaining promotion for the first - and only - time in their history.

They clinched a place in Division Three (now Division Two) in emphatic style with a fine 3-0 victory over Southend at Spotland.

The club had a great run after Christmas and only lost two out of their last 24 matches. They still needed a point in their final game of the season to ensure promotion, and a bumper 9,095 crowd saw a confident Dale put in a fine performance.

Steve Melledew opened the scoring after 15 minutes by heading in a Butler cross which was headed on by Jenkins and Whitehead. Nerves in the Spotland fans were eased on 67 minutes when Reg Jenkins scored from the penalty spot. The big forward wrapped up the two vital points with 10 minutes to go when he smashed home a Smith cross.

Delighted managed Len Richley said: "I was tremendously proud of them. You could sense they didn't want to let me or the club down."

Chairman Fred Radcliffe said: "We're up and we mean to stay there. With the team we have and a few more players we shall be able to hold our own."

Key events - 1960 to 1969:

1960 - Eddie Gomersall collapses just six miles from the end of an attempt to break the record for walking from Edinburgh to London; Man dies in blaze at Dunlop Mills which caused damage running into several millions of pounds; Changes in timing of Wakes holidays proposed.
1961 - Bingo craze hits Rochdale; Joint Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Housing, Earl Jellicoe, inspects some of Rochdale's remaining slums; Hornets make history by introducing first Fijians, Orisi Dawai and Joe Levula, to play professional rugby in England.
1962 - Cotton workers take part in protest in London organised by the Textile Action Group; Hornets chairman Arthur Walker made assistant manager of Great Britain team touring Australia.
1963 - Teenagers' committee set up by Rochdale Council to have a say on council-organised entertainments; Pupils at Rochdale Technical School protest at possible closure of school; Rochdale schoolboys and two teachers escape with minor injuries after coach they are travelling to Liverpool in crashes into a lamp-post.
1964 - Hand-winding mechanism on Town Hall clock changed to electric mechanism; About 70 tons of hay and straw were destroyed but 70 animals saved when fire swept through a shippon and store at Gorrell's Farm, Queensway.
1965 - Rochdale expelled from Federation of Municipal Transport Employers for giving pay rise to people working on buses; Councillor Cyril Smith performs topping-out ceremony for first block of town centre flats.
1966 - Plans unveiled for new shopping centre and market at combined cost of £3.646M; Announcement that Garfield Mill was to close with the loss of 200 jobs; Half of Lower Lane Mill destroyed by fire, causing £100,000 worth of damage.
1967 - Crime rates rise 12.5 per cent; Residents of partly-demolished Fern Street and Church Street claim they are living in hovels, but Rochdale Council claims they can't rehouse them; Observer launches appeal to buy heart monitoring machine for Birch Hill Hospital.
1968 - Fire destroyed roof of Littleborough Parish Church School; Auxiliary Fire Service disbanded by government after assisting fire brigades since before the war; Arthur Keane celebrated Christmas by having artificial elbow put in his right arm.
1969 - Workers at Cornbrook Resin Company, Wardle, had a narrow escape when the boiler room they were working in caught fire; Rochdale Council turns down idea for corporation-owned civic theatre.