THIS part of Fell Lane has essentially changed little since this photograph was taken in the early 1900s.

Described in the mid-nineteenth century as having presented "the gloomy appearance of depopulation and decay", Fell Lane revived largely due to the employment offered by John Stell and Sons, paper tube manufacturers at Holme Mill, and Joseph Town and Sons, paper manufacturers at Turkey Mills, Goose Eye. The 1851 census records a hundred Irish immigrants in Fell Lane and Goose Eye, the majority working as rag-cutters in the paper mill.

The relatively self-sufficient nature of this community is suggested by the two small shops, distinguishable by their tin advertisements, in the centre and the left-hand background. The photograph is taken from the site, at the bottom left, of what was to be a bigger store set up by Fred Greenwood and his wife - "Fred's" - in 1928.

This locality was to be immortalised in the 1970s by the late Stanley Boardman in his legendary series of paintings, 1920s Boy.