LOOKING down the North Beck from Holme Mills a century or so ago, this photograph shows the bridge below the ‘Cat Steps’ linking Fell Lane with Guard House.
The building on the left was Lower Holme Mill, then disused but subsequently taken over as Stell’s workers’ canteen.
Currently, the land on the right is potentially earmarked as the site for a large care home.
Holme Mills employees were ideally situated to observe the local wildlife, and the men’s toilets became an unofficial bird hide.
The late Jack Walbank, a long-serving worker and keen naturalist, kept a diary recording repeated sightings of kingfishers.
One of the director’s wives, interested in bird-watching, was sometimes telephoned when anything unusual was spotted.
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