I was reading through my copy of the book on cotton mills of Bolton and realised that it has some excellent aerial photographs of Bolton taken in 1920. In all the pictures the streets are very light coloured, I wondered if the pictures had been edited and the streets highlighted. It got me wondering whether the side streets would be surfaced (cobbles?) at that time or whether they were just basically hard packed dirt in which case the light colour might be dust. I wonder if anyone else has seen the pictures and has any ideas. Martin Briscoe Fort William M&LFHS | Gwynedd FHS

I have a copy of the book too, and have just had a look at the photos. I see what you mean! On some of the photos the streets are so light coloured they almost look like they've been Photoshopped! However, looking at some of the illustrations of single mills, several show cobbled roads in front of them - and light coloured cobbles at that. So I would favour the cobble theory. Slightly surprising that the cobbles didn't get as dirty as the factory walls though, so maybe I'm wrong. Thanks for pointing it out. Just goes to show that we should look more closely at things that at first glance don't seem to contain much new information. Regards Janet C p.s. Maybe Bolton Local Studies would have a more accurate answer? > From: [email protected]> To: [email protected]> Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:40:03 +0100> Subject: [ENG-LAN-BOLTON] Roads / Streets of Bolton> > I was reading through my copy of the book on cotton mills of Bolton and> realised that it has some excellent aerial photographs of Bolton taken in> 1920.> > In all the pictures the streets are very light coloured, I wondered if the> pictures had been edited and the streets highlighted. It got me wondering> whether the side streets would be surfaced (cobbles?) at that time or> whether they were just basically hard packed dirt in which case the light> colour might be dust.> > I wonder if anyone else has seen the pictures and has any ideas.> > > > > Martin Briscoe> Fort William> M&LFHS | Gwynedd FHS _________________________________________________________________ http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/msnnkmgl0010000007ukm/direct/01/

I think there are several possibilities for the streets because there were different road making methods available. I have been looking at the pics in a book I wrote about Jedburgh in the Borders and in some pictures there are setts (the square stones) and cobbled pavements, both of which look quite pale. There is also a picture of the High Street, which I originally thought was completely unpaved, but looking closely you can see the road metal - ie small stones. Jedburgh High St was at that time part of the main route south. So some of the street you are looking at may have been made up that way, either placing small stones on larger ones, or macadamised. With a macadamised road the weight of the vehicles and foot traffic compacts the stones - the tarring came much later. It is easy to see how the gravel could look pale, especially if it was granite. I also have a pic of a motor car on a muddy road and in that case the road also looks very pale. I think in some of these cases the road may be 'burnt' out by the photographic exposure, in the same way that modern photos sometimes have the sky burnt out in order to get the exposure correct on the subject. Getting back to the cobbles, I wonder if where the mills are concerned these were installed by owners to take the load of the heavy waggons. Judy