Reply To: Star Paper Mill (Feniscowles)

I have joined specifically to thank David Lacey for his posts on Star Paper Mill in Blackburn (and Barnsley). I can’t add a great deal to his excellent post on the personnel at SPM Blackburn, but I do have many fond memories, as Bill Crossley, who was the Engineering Director at Star for many years, was my Dad. I used to go into the mill with him on a Saturday morning (I used to sit at his secretary’s desk and play with her typewriter and headed paper which I had never seen before!) while he worked at his desk. We regularly walked round the factory and in particular the boiler shed. The large number of Lancashire boilers were a particular favourite of his. I have some parts of a steam gauge from one of them and one or two great photos – which I will post if there is any interest.  The names Dave mentioned triggered some long-forgotten memories. I remember going on holiday with Albert Berry and his wife (Doris?) and travelling in Albert’s Zephyr (Dad had a Zodiac) , sitting in Alf Renshaw’s old Landrover (probably where my love affair with Landrovers began) and catching perch in the Lodge. Several of the other names are familiar too. Someone not mentioned by Mr Lacey was Dad’s golf partner for many years, Dr Peter ? who worked in the lab at SPM.

Towards the end of his career at SPM, Dad was offered the opportunity to manage an old paper mill in Docelles in eastern France and he and Mum moved over there. At about the same time, the Group acquired a mill in Calais that required considerable renovation and Dad was asked to oversee the engineering works. The constant travelling, and the stress of trying to chair large – and usually very difficult – meetings in French proved too much for him and he suffered a breakdown and retired through ill-heath.  He enjoyed a happy retirement but unfortunately, the many years he spent smoking too many Capstan Full Strength caught up with him and he succumbed to lung cancer on his 70th birthday, 36 years ago.

If this post is thought to be inappropriate, then by all means delete it, but before so doing would you please forward it to David Lacey and with my thanks?