My Life at Bacup Rd.

An in depth profile of Kenny Barnes

Gentleman & Player with Rawtenstall C.C. 1939 to 1972

by Paul Yates.

One of the best things about a visit to the Worswick Memorial Ground is to chat to one of nature's gentlemen and cricket connoisseur, Kenny Barnes, A member for seventy-five consecutive years and a mine of intelligent cricket information. A conversation with this dedicated clubman can be a frightening experience. Such is his knowledge of the game and his technical expertise, that the insights he gives into the truly "beautiful game" make you realise how little you know yourself.

I chatted with him at his home in Schofield Road, Rawtenstall one Monday afternoon in July as he recounted his experiences and career over a cup of tea and some broken cakes.

Early Days
Ken was born on the 28th January 1925 at Rossendale General Hospital and from that day forward has lived his entire life at various locations in the town of Rawtenstall. In 1925, mild beer was 5d a pint, Benito Mussolini assumed full dictatorial powers in Italy and in Russia, Leon Trotsky was fired by Joseph Stalin. In sport, England's most prolific batsman, Jack Hobbs, scored his record 2,000th test run at the age of 42, whilst Sheffield United won the FA Cup.
Ken was born to one of those traditional working class families that are the backbone of Lancashire communities. His father worked, unsurprisingly, in the traditional footwear trade and his mother was a weaver taking charge of four looms at the height of her career. He had a brother five years younger than himself who tragically died of meningitis when he was just two after being bitten by a stray dog.
These were truly hard times and Ken's early years were spent growing up in the horrendous depression of the 1930s. Dad like so many others was made redundant from his employment at the shoe factory in Bacup and mum had her wages severely curtailed being reduced from four looms to one.
Ken tells the story of how his father had to regularly collect three signatures from factories to verify there was no work, in order for him to collect dole money. As he wasn't allowed to keep using the same signatures he would have to walk to Bury, Rochdale and other towns to get different names to satisfy the government paymasters.
This was a time of outside loos, tippler toilets and the Jarrow marches. Many's the time Ken's mother would be given the remains of a meat joint (used by her sister's family over the weekend) and that had to sustain the family for another few days. Leftovers and bread and dripping were often the order of the day.
Uncle Harold was manager of the old Astoria in Rawtenstall and Ken's dad sometimes worked on the door when he was unemployed. In his youth, Ken would go to the Astoria to see the Ivy Benson Band and regularly visited Bury Palais, so he did manage some social life away from cricket. What a great place the Astoria was! A bit like Blackpool, shabby and full of character. The smell of stale beer, tobacco and the two policemen who stood on the bar entrance to deter us underage drinkers. My claim to fame (the writer) was that Van Morrison ("Them") once pushed me out of his way en route to the stage. He's still the same today; a rude little fat bloke that grunts in monosyllables. But that's a different story for another day.
Ken would go out collecting jam jars from people and take them back to "Maypole" and "Redman's" stores to receive a ha'penny each and then a trip to Shormans Bakehouse on a Friday night for a bag of broken cakes, hoping there might be a vanilla in there somewhere. The family's "Medical Club" was 6d a week (no NHS then) and Ken's first bedroom was the landing of his parents' rented property in Ormerod Street. It makes you think, when today you here people bleating on about being overtaxed whilst running three cars, dining out and taking regular holidays abroad.
Ken's first taste of employment was at the Greenbridge Shoe Factory where he received fourteen shillings and tuppence (approx. 71p today), working 8am to 5.30pm on weekdays and four hours on Saturday morning. The youngsters had to sweep the room after the older workers left and this meant Ken had to run home for his dinner and get his gear together to be at the British Legion for 12.45pm in order to pursue what was to become his lifelong passion……..cricket.
Cricket - The Social Antidote
Surprisingly Ken did not come from a family with great cricketing traditions though his father's sister had married Harold Clegg who played as a batsman for Rawtenstall in the 1920s. Ken's schooldays were spent between Alder Grange Infants' School and St Mary's Junior School where one of his school chums Eric Howarth had a father who would take his son and Ken to "Chapel Hill", when they were nine years old, and did some coaching with them.
This sparked an interest in Ken that was to last a lifetime. He started to watch the Rawtenstall third eleven and was eventually invited to "field out" in the nets with them. He was then given a "little job" on Saturdays to report down to the cricket ground at 1pm to collect a pair of old pads and put them on a seat in front of the pavilion. He had to wait until five to two when the then President, Mr. Harry Whitehead would appear with his sister to claim their seats. Harry would give Ken a "tanner" (sixpence) for his trouble and Ken would feel like a rich man for a while as six old pence could buy quite a lot in those days. In fact, in 1934, Woolworths boasted that "nothing costs more than sixpence."
For his tanner Ken could get into the "pictures" for 2d, buy a comic for 1d and get pie and chips for 2½d. And he still would have a ha'penny left for an iPod.
When he was 12 years old, Ken started playing in the nets and then just before the war he played his first match for Rawtenstall Cricket Club's third eleven at their New Hall Hey Ground in 1939. He remembers the occasion well, with thirty or forty people crammed into sweaty dressing rooms which today are the groundsman's equipment shed. Ken also recalls the match because of a catch he took that he regards as the finest of his distinguished career, dismissing an incredulous opposition batsman.
Ken was also a useful footballer playing inside left and outside left (those were the days) for the Alder Grange Youth Club and Longholme Methodists. He would also later go on to play for Bacup Borough's second team having to cope with little better than ploughed fields and immoveable wet leather balls. In that era talented players could concentrate on both sports as the seasons didn't overlap. Summer was for cricket and winter meant soccer.
The War Years
His first team debut was in 1941 when he was picked, not for his batting, but for his off-spin bowling. Clubs did not have professionals at that time due to the war and it was timed cricket with eight bowl overs and no sixes given on the compact Rawtenstall ground. Ken made 11 runs and was "pleased as punch" with his debut and performance. It would be 1946, when Ken returned from the forces, before he played with his first professional, that being TJ Bartley
Nothing was now going to stand in Ken's way, cricket was a passion, a blissful release from the drudgery of mundane employment in the factories and it gave him a focus, discipline and camaraderie amongst fellow players that he relished.
Ken was enjoying his cricket, becoming established as a batsman and going in at number seven, such was the strength of the team in those days. The war intervened, however, and had a profound effect on local cricket. Ken, none too pleased, was drafted into the Fleet Air Arm and was stationed at Lee-on-the-Solent in Hampshire and was involved in preparations for the D Day landings.
He served on the aircraft carrier, HMS Glory and single-handedly captured the last Italian Cruiser just off the island of Malta. This was a rather grubby little ship that was then taken, with Ken on board, to Egypt, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and eventually Australia. Ken spent twelve months "down under" and managed to play both cricket and football, giving him a variety of sporting experiences to add to his burgeoning talents
Whilst serving on the Glory, Ken experienced 'VJ Day', the end of the Japanese involvement in the war. The aircraft carrier also went to New Guinea where the surrender documentation of all the South Pacific Islands was signed on-board the Glory.
With the war over, some sense of normality and catharsis entered the spirit of local people and their cricket clubs. Television was just starting, there were no computers, few sports centres or athletic clubs and you were a rich man if you had an automobile. Indeed, many people's lives in this part of the world revolved around the church and their local cricket club. A league club using its "noggin" had a captive, willing audience desperate for some weekend entertainment away from the dreary factories and dark satanic mills.

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