Hoddlesden Millennium Green

In 1838 Joseph Place started the Hoddlesden Collieries and hauled coal to the surface for 40 years. In 1878 it was decided to make use of the valuable seam of clay which had been found immediately beneath the coal, being in fact the soil in which the coal plants had originally grown, and so was begun the firm of Joseph Place and Sons, sanitary pipe makers.

In 1892 they extended their business by building the Eccleshill Firebrick and Fireclay Pipe Works, originally designed for making enamelled bricks. Coal was still mined and used in their own clay furnaces. In 1932 Messrs Place and Sons sank a new drift or shaft on the Moors between Hoddlesden and Edgworth, this was connected with the central works in Hoddlesden by a tramway.

In 1876 a single line branch of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway was made from Darwen to Hoddlesden for goods traffic. In 1958 the twin chimneys were felled and on 14th. May 1965 the company was dissolved and officially ceased trading. The council adopted the land shortly after, levelled the area and planted trees. It has been left without further work until 1999 when the Hoddlesden Millennium Green Trust was formed.

In that year Places employed 350 workpeople and produced drainpipes and fittings from 2" to 36" and were contractors to The Admiralty, The War Office, Post Office and Municipal Corporations.

In 1876 a single line branch of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway was made from Darwen to Hoddlesden for goods traffic. In 1958 the twin chimneys were felled and on 14th. May 1965 the company was dissolved and officially ceased trading. The council adopted the land shortly after, levelled the area and planted trees. It has been left without further work until 1999 when the Hoddlesden Millennium Green Trust was formed.

On the felling of the chimney's, a local steeplejack took on the job. Unfortunately it went wrong. The chimney fell onto boggy ground and it acted like the barrel of a gun. Casualties involved included surrounding windows and downspouts, also a man who was hit in the mouth by a sod of earth and swallowed his false teeth! This incident was reported in the national press.