huddersfield no mean city - my birthplace

8/8/2019 Huddersfield No Mean City - My Birthplace

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HUDDERSFIELDno mean city

Whan tha can sey Castle Ill, thatrt ooam, lad!


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Chapter One

YorkshireThe Promised Land

The Setting for the Gem that is Huddersfield

I am a Yorkshire lad, and proud of it. I was born and bred in Huddersfield in the WestRiding of Yorkshire. Riding is an old term derived from thriding or third. When I was a

boy, the term boy was used only to describe a child that had just been born and was male.Thereafter boys were called lad.

There was something special about being a lad because it identified you as part of the nobletribe of Yorkshire folk who were, it is commonly known, a special breed, blessed by God to

possess the broad acres and placed in Gods scheme of things somewhat ahead of theTwelve Tribes of Israel.

We spoke a language of a different order than other mortals. Broad Yorkshire, a true dialect,is derived from Old Scandinavian.

For example,

English Yorkshire Norwegian

Play lake leikeFlea lop loppeFist nieve neveChild bairn barn

Yorkshire folk were different from the rest of the British islanders, having originally comeashore in order to perpetrate a reign of terror among the inhabitants. We managed that allright, and then settled down to plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land, tendsheep and cattle, prettify the place in general, and propagate our unique genes and culture.

Some became jealous of us. This is especially true of those dwelling to our west on thegentle slopes of the Pennines and on the flatlands that reach the Irish Sea. Their envy evenextended to efforts to copy our dialect. They failed in this because they couldnt manage toreproduce true Yorkshire vowels. Yorkshiremen say Ovver thee-ah, whilst Lancastriancan only achieve Ow-vurr thurr. Even to this day, Yorkshire vowels are the shibbolethsthat prevent upstart Lancastrians from passing themselves off as their betters.

Yorkshire has had a lot of history, most of it is too well known to require a second tellinghere. It involves cricket; a game probably invented by Yorkshiremen since no one else playsit quite as well. The sad fact is that for several years now the Yorkshire cricket team has


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gone soft to let someone else have a chance at winning summat. I know that some will havea hard time believing that, in spite of the reputation that Yorkshire folk have for generosity,fair play, and even self-sacrifice, should the cause demand it.

William the Conqueror didnt like Yorkshire people. He considered them rough and

independent. Wed not argue with that. After all, we had managed without a king for a verylong time and things were going well enough for us without him sticking his oar in. But, hehad this unification bee in his bonnet and wanted to combine the British kingdoms into one

big one and call it England. All we wanted was to be left alone. But would he? He wouldnot! He sent his armies up here and they knew they had been in a fight. He took our determined resistance hard and so in a fit of pique went on to decimate our homeland. After slaughtering almost all the Yorkshire folk, he planted sheep on our hills and moors, and went

back down south.

To this day, Yorkshire folk dont trust anyone from London, and that is plainly the fault of King William, otherwise known as William the Conqueror, the Duc de Normandie .

What William didnt know was that we were making a comeback. When he thought of Yorkshire, he thought of sheep. After decimating the population of the Broad Acres , he setsheep loose to graze among the ruins, on the moors, and homesteads. But, whilst his sheepwere foraging among the scrubby grasslands we were quietly breeding and raising newgenerations to think for themselves, to be independent, suspicious, resolute, stubborn to the

point of pig-headedness, dour, and taciturn, unless we had something to say, and intentlyharbouring nasty-minded suspicions about anyone who comes from the South, a throw-back to William who came to Yorkshire from that direction.

Yorkshire folk are well known for being blunt, and are especially helpful if you want toknow your shortcomings, which information is not only delivered as a complimentaryservice, but also with the imperative sense of Divine Mission.

Yorkshire was more or less determined by geographical considerations. Lots of things aboutYorkshire have to be understood against a background of more or less . In spite of someonewriting a book about it, there is no South Riding . Had Sheffield ever been considered asrising to the prominence it did, there would almost certainly have been a place made for afourth riding, even though the arithmetic would not have worked as well.

To the West Riding, whose western boundary lies beyond the western slopes of the PennineChain overlooking Lancashire, a permanent reminder to its denizens that they had overseersof a superior kind, was granted the honour of becoming the finest worsted weavers in theworld, overtaking those who had plied their craft in East Anglia in earlier, less enlightenedtimes.

The chemical industry reached its maturity there also, as many a crumbling building that fellfoul of their foul fumes mutely attest. Net curtains lasted an average of six months in houseswithin a five miles radius of Huddersfields chemical factories. Heavy engineering, made


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possible simply by the strength of back and arm of Yorkshiremen, developed in the growingurban townscapes.

The West Riding is synonymous with hard work. Its towns and village spread in placeswhere there was little room for sprawl, and so they stood shoulder-to-shoulder back-to-back,

and even on top of each other, to fit themselves into too little landscape for too many people,and too many mills and other places of labour. People could not live without them, for breaddoes not grow on trees, but as they helped the folk survive, they exacted a grim toll in return.But the day came when the factories did not need as many workers, and they threw them outcoldly.


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Chapter Two

Description of Huddersfield in 1795From "40 Miles Around Manchester, (Aikin, 1795)

H U D D E R S F I E L D.

WE begin our account of the cloathing country with this, town, which ispeculiarly the creation of the woollen manufactory, whereby it has beenraifed from an inconfiderable place, to a great degree of profperity andpopulation.

The parifh of Huddersfield, fituated in Agbridge hundred, is very extenfive,ftretching from the river Calder on the north and north-eaft, to theborders of Lancafhire on the weft. Its breadth is lefs confiderable. Itcontains, befides the township of Huddersfield, thofe of Q uarmb y withLindley, Longwood, Golcarr, and part of Scamanden, of Slaughthwaite,and of Marfden. The church is a vicarage, in the gift of Sir John Ramfden;and has under it the chapels of Dean- head, and Slaughthwaite.

The town of Huddersfield, except two or three houfes, is entirely theproperty of Sir John Ramfden, who has for fome years paft grantedbuilding leafes renewable every twenty years on payment of two yearsground rent. He built a very good cloth hall fome years fince, and made anavigation, from hence, to the Calder, of which an account is given at p.128. Within the townfhip there are feveral freeholders. The highestofficer is a conftable, who, with his deputy, is yearly chofen at the courtleet held at Michaelmas at Almondfbury, the manor of which alfo belongsto Sir John Ramfden.

The markets of Huddersfield are very well fupplied with beef, mu t ton,veal, and pork, which are expofed for fale in fhambles built by the lord of the manor. The market-day is Tuefday, but mutton and veal may be hadon other days at the butcher's fhops. It is alfo tolerably fupplied for a

confiderable part of the year with fea-fifh from the Yorkfhire coaft. The fatcattle and fheep are brought out of Lincolnfhire and the neighbouringcounties, and generally bought at the fortnight fairs of Wakefield, whichfupply much of the weftern part of Yorkfhire and the adjacent parts of Lancafhire. Butter, eggs, and fowls, are not ufually fold at the marketcrofs, but may fometimes be bought in the neighbourhood. A moderatequantity of corn is brought to the market by the farmers round, and a


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larger quantity is brought by water from the more Southern counties,much of which is carried forwards into Lancafhire.

There are fmall quarterly fairs, at which fome horfes and lean cattle areexpofed to fale; but the principal fair for this purpofe is on May 4.

The progrefs of population in this town will appear from the followingextract from its regifter:

Year. Marr. Chrif t.

Bur . Year. Marr. Chrift.

Bur.

1710 30 113 112 1730 48 178 1491720 33 148 133 1740 41 196 1001750 39 235 120 1790 113 377 2671760 65 190 99 1791 140 381 2701770 100 283 132 1792 119 395 2741780 115 296 135

The chapelry of Slaughthwaite in this parish, which equally partakes of the increased population from trade, has afforded the following lift of births and burials for a fpace of five years

Year. Chrift. Bur.1784 124 531785 135 291786 140 49

1787 140 901788 153 37

From this and the preceding table a very favourable idea may be deducedof the healthiness of this diftrict, and the advantages it offers for theincreafe of the human fpecies. Thefe chiefly proceed from thecomparative healthiness of a manufacture carried on in rural fituationsand at the workmen's own houfes; from the plenty of employ and highprice of labour, encouraging to early matrimony; and from the warmcloathing, good fare, and abundant fuel, enjoyed by the induftrious in thisplace.

The trade of Huddersfield comprises a large fhare of the cloathing trade of Yorkfhire, particularly the finer articles of it. Thefe confift of broad andnarrow cloths; fancy cloths, as elastics, beaverettes, &c. alfo honleys, andkerfeymeres. The qualities run from 10d. to 8s . per yard, narrows ; andbroads as high as the fuperfines in the weft of England. The finest broadsin Yorkfhire are made at Saddleworth the manufactures of which place areincluded in this diftrict, being all fold at Huddersfield market. Thefe goods


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are made from all forts of short Englifh wool, from .6 to .35 per pack,and from Spanifh wool. The loweft priced Englifh wool is chiefly shortwool forted from large fleeces of combing wool bought in Lincolnfliire,Leicefterfhire, Nottinghamfhire, and the neighbouring counties. The fineftEnglifh wool is from fmall fleeces in Herefordfhire, Shropfhire, and other

weftern counties; and alfo from Kent, Suffex, and their neighbourhood. The markets for thefe goods are almoft wholly Great Britain and Ireland,and America. They are bought up by the merchants of the cloathingtowns in a ftate ready for cropping, dreffing, and finifhing, and are thenfent to London and the country towns, or exported from Liverpool or Hull.All the branches of trade here may be confidered as in a thriving ftate,making allowance for the temporary check of the war, which, however,has been lefs than might have been fuppofed, as appears from the annualaccounts of cloths stamped and regifered at Pontefract. It is to beconfidered, too, that kerfeymeres and all other goods carried to the

market at Huddersfield which are white and quilled, are not regiftered andthefe forts are on the increafe.

The new canal planned from Huddersfield to join the Manchefter andAfhton canal, which is expected to be of great advantage to its trade, hasbeen mentioned at p. 131.

The principal gentlemens' feats near Huddersfield are, Whitley-hall., the ,feat of Richard Henry Beaumont, Efq. whofe family poffeffed this place inthe reign of Henry II.; Ki rklees-hall, belonging to Sir George Armytage,Bart.; Fixby-hall and park, the feat of Thomas Thornhill, Efq.; and Mills-

bridge to William Radcliffe, Efq. To the weft of Almondfbury is Caftle-hill,an old fortrefs, fuppofed by fome to be the Roman Cambodunum; but Mr.Watfon conceives it rather to be a Saxon remain, and that Slack, to thenorth of Huddersfield, was Cambodunum.


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Chapter Three

Description of Huddersfield in 1834From, Pigot & Co's National Commercial Directory , 1834

Huddersfield is a populous and flourishing manufacturing and market-town and township; and by the Reform Bill created a parliamentaryborough, in the parish of its name, in the wapentake of Agbrigg, WestRiding; about 189 miles from London, 40 SW from York, 24 NE fromManchester, 16 SW from Leeds, 14 S from Bradford, and 7 SSE fromHalifax.

The town, which derives its name from Oder or Hudder, the first Saxoncolonist in the place, is situated on the high road between Manchesterand Leeds, partly on the declivity, and partly on the summit of aneminence, which is surrounded by others of superior height, while theriver Colne glides through the valley.

The houses are principally built of a light-coloured stone, in a neat style,and the general appearance of the town, which has of late yearswonderfully increased in magnitude, is of a character calculated to inspirethe traveller with the impression that its inhabitants are wealthy andrespectable.

Sir John Ramsden, Bart., is lord of the manor, and the almost soleproprietor of property here. This gentleman holds a court-leet once ayear, at Almondbury; a court of requests for the recovery of debts under40s is held in a neat building in Queen-street, where, also, themagistrates sit on Tuesdays and Saturdays; and a court is held twice inthe year, at the George Inn, for the liberty of the honour of Pontefract, forpleas of debt or damages under 5.

Huddersfield, under the provisions of the Reform Bill, sends one memberto parliament. The number of persons, however, entitled to exercise theelective franchise in the borough, is little more than six hundred, of whom

only four hundred and eighty-nine voted at the last election (January,1834), when the candidates put in nomination were, -

Blackburn, Esq.,M.T. Sadler, Esq., andCapt. Wood.


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The first named gentleman was elected by a considerable majority,having polled 234 votes, Mr Sadler 147, and Capt. Wood 108.

The new Boundary Act (an appendage to the Reform Bill), defines thelimits if the borough to comprise the entire township of Huddersfield; and

the same appoints the town as one of the stations for receiving votes atthe election of members to represent the West Riding.

The manufactures of Huddersfield and neighbourhood are principallywoollens, and consist of broad and narrow cloths, serges, kerseymeres,cords, etc; fancy goods, to a great extent are also made here, embracingshawls and waistcoatings 1 in great variety, besides articles from silk. Thecotton trade is also carried on, although nothing to be compared in extentwith the other branches already named.

Amongst the principal buildings is the cloth-hall, erected by Sir John

Ramsden, in the years 1765. It is a large circular edifice, two stories high,divided, on the one side, into separate compartments or shops, and, onthe other, into open stalls, for the accommodation of the countrymanufacturers of woollen cloths.

There are also two central avenues of stalls, for the same purpose, andthe number of manufacturers now attending there on the market-day(Tuesday) is about six hundred. If to this be added, the great number,(particularly in the fancy line) who have ware-rooms in various parts of the town 2, some estimate may be formed of the immense extent of business transacted weekly in Huddersfield.

The doors are opened early in the morning of the market-day, and closedat half-past twelve o'clock at noon, they are again opened at three in theafternoon, for the removal of cloth, etc.

Above the entrance is placed a cupola, in which is a clock and bell 3 , usedfor the purpose of regulating the time allowed for doing business. Thenames of the manufacturers who attend the market at the Hall, may beobtained of the keeper.

The inland navigation of Huddersfield affords to its trade the most ample

advantages, both to the east and to the west; the Ramsden andHuddersfield canals communicating with others and their branches, anintercourse is kept up with all the great commercial and manufacturingtowns.

1 My great-great-great-grandfather, James Bray of Deighton, manufactured fancy waistcoat materials.2 James Bray had offices in Kings Head Chambers in Cloth Hall Street.3 The entrance, cupola, and clock now stand in Ravensknowle Park, Dalton, having been removed there whenthe old Cloth hall was demolished to make way for the Ritz Cinema, also since demolished.


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There are many streams in the neighbourhood, and the rivers Holme andColne here unite and fall into the Calder, three miles below the town.Upon these streams a number of mills are erected, principally employedin the manufacture of woollens, and fulling and washing the cloth, etc.

The town is chiefly supplied with coal from colleries at Mirfield, EmleyMoor, and Upper Flockton, and is well lighted with gas, the streets wellpaved and cleaned, and their general aspect highly creditable to theinhabitants. The edifices constructed for divine worship and belonging tothe town, are St. Peter's - the parish church, a building of ancient andstately appearance; it was rebuilt in the reign of Henry the Seventh, andsteps are now being taken for its thorough repair.

The living is a vicarage, in the patronage of Sir John Ramsden, andincumbency of the Rev. J.C. Franks, whose curate is the Rev. J. Pope.

- Trinity church, is a beautiful Gothic structure, erected at an expense of 12,000, by B.H. Allen, Esq., of Greenhead, in 1819; the incumbent is theRev. H. Withy; the living is in the gift of Mrs. Davies, late the widow of thefounder.

- St. Paul's church, is a recent erection, having been raised in 1831: in theearly English style of architecture, the patronage is in the vicar, and thepresent incumbent is the Rev. J. Bywater.

The other places of worship in and near the town are two large chapels

belonging to the methodists, and others for the use of the baptists,independents, society of friends, and catholics. The chapel of the latter isa very ornamental edifice, and that of the methodists, in Queen-street,one of the largest in the kingdom.

The principal charitable institution is an infirmary, lately erected on theHalifax-road, and which, in addition to the laudable purposes for which itwas established, is a considerable acquisition to the town in point of ornament.

There is also bible and other societies for the diffusion of religions

knowledge; a mechanics institute, established in 1825; numerous Sundayschools, and one, upon an excellent principle, for the instruction of infants.

Naturally this part of the country is barren and unproductive, but its localadvantages for manufacture from its waterfalls, and having coal minescontiguous, has caused a the assemblage of a great population; and thesoil has gradually yielded to the labours of the agriculturist and


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husbandman, until at length it has become valuable, and available to thewants of those who have established themselves upon it.

The surrounding hills, therefore, are now cultivated to their summits, fromwhich the views are very extensive, particularly that from Castle Hill, from

whence, on a clear day, may be obtained a glimpse of York cathedral. There are many handsome residences in the neighbourhood, and aboutthree quarters of a mile from the town are Lockwood Waters, noticedmore at large in our sketch of that village.

The market-day is Tuesday, which is well supplied with every necessary. The fairs are March 31st, May 4th, and October 1st, for cattle and horses;the May fair is the principal one.

By the parliamentary returns for 1811, the whole parish of Huddersfield

contained 18,182 inhabitants, in 1821, 24,220, and in 1831, 31,041, of which the last number 19,035 were returned for the township, being anincrease in twenty years of upwards of eleven thousand in the township,and of more than twenty-six thousand in the entire parish.


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Chapter Four

HUDDERSFIELD:

STREETS, COURTS, &c.,IN HUDDERSFIELD IN 1853.

* Albert buildings, 57 New street* Albion street, 3 High street* Aspley, Shore foot* Atkin's yard, 73 Upperhead row* Back green, Shore head* Back Queen street, 93 King street* Bath buildings, Newhouse (Newsome?)* Batley's buildings, Leeds road* Batty's yard, 3 Market place* Bay hall, Newtown (Birkby)* Beast market, Kirkgate* Belle vue, Halifax road* B* Belgrave terrace, New North roadBentley street, Bridge end (Lockwood)* Bent's house, Newhouse* Berry's yard, 17 New street* Birkby, 1 mile N.W.

* Birkhouse terrace, Manchester road* Boulder yard, 71 Kirkgate* Bradford road, Northgate* Bradley's buildings, 24 Northgate* Bradley Spout, Swan yard* Bradley street, King street* Bridge end, Aspley* Bridge street, Chapel hill* Brook street, Northgate (by old market)* Brookfield place, Leeds road* Brook's buildings, Market street & Hawk

street* Brook's yard, Westgate* Brunswick place, Newhouse* Bull & Mouth street, 2 Victoria street* Buxton road, New street* Castle gate Lowerhead row* Chadwick's fold, 41 Kirkgate* Chadwick's yard, 60 Northgate

* Chancery lane, Market place (to ClothHall St)* Chapel hill, Buxton road* Charles street, John street* Cherry tree yard, Upperhead row &Westgate (Cherry Tree Pub - Cowling'sCorner)* Clare hill, Oxford road (Cambridge St andSt John's Rd)* Cloth hall street, New street (to MarketSt)* Clough's yard, Newtown* Colne road, & street, Aspley* Commercial square and street, Ramsdenstreet* Cooper's court, High street* Corn market, Kirkgate

* Cowcliffe, Hill house (up the hill from back of Fartown)* Cricket ground, Halifax road* Croft cottage lane, Bradford road* Crofthead, Market street* Cropper's row, Northgate* Crosland moor, Lockwood* Cross Church street, Kirkgate (through toKing St)* Cross Grove street, Grove street* Cuckold's Clough, Bradford road

* Denton lane, Kirkgate* Dock street, Castle gate* Downing's yard, 7 New street* Duke street, Swallow street* Dundas street, Market street* Dyke end lane, Halifax road* East parade, Buxton road* Eastwood's yard, Manchester street


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* Edgerton, Halifax road* Edward's court, 69 Bradford street, & 36King street* Edward's square, Bradford road* Engine bridge, Chapel hill

* Fartown, Bradford road* Fenton square, Longroyd (LongroydBridge up side of St Thomas' Church)* Fieldgate, Lowerhead row* Fitzwilliam street, Leeds road (to TrinitySt)* Fleece yard, Kirkgate* Folly hall, Bridge street* Fox street, Market street (side of Ritz)* Fountain street, Northgate* Freeman's square, Trinity street

* George street, Upperhead row & Springstreet* George yard, Westgate* Gibson's yard, High street* Globe yard, King street* Grafton place, Commercial street* Granby street, Manchester street* Greenhead road, West parade* Greenside, West parade* Greenwood's yard, 29 New street* Grove street, Upperhead row* Halfmoon street, Westgate* Halifax road, Temple street* Hansons yard, 46 New street* Hawk street, Union street* Hawksby's court, New street* Hebble terrace, place, & row, Bradfordroad* Hellawell's yard, Newtown* Helm's yard, Manchester street* Hick's buildings, Green Dragon yard* Highfield, Halifax road* High street, New street* Hillhouse, Bradford road* Horsfall's yard, King street* Ingham's yard, New street* Jagger's buildings, Leeds road* Jagger's yard, Bradford road* John street, Buxton road

* John-William street, Market place (toBirkby/Hillhouse)* Johnson's brigs. Buxton road* Jowitt's buildings, Castle gate* Jowitt's court, Upperhead row

* Kilner's yard, Cloth hall street* King's head yard, Cloth Hall street, &Market street* King street, New street* King's Mill lane, Colne road* Kirkgate, Market place* Kirkmoor street, Northgate* Lad lane, Westgate* Lancaster's yard & buildings, 14 Clothhall street* Laycock's yard, 42 King St

* Leadbetter's yard, Quay street* Lee bead, Bay hall* Leech yard, Engine bridge* Leeds road, foot of Lowerhead row* Lime kiln road, Aspley* Little Bermondsey, Temple street* Lock street, Northgate* Lockwood crescent, Buxton road* Lockwood's yard, 9 New street andWestgate* Longroyd bridge, M(anchester). road* Love's yard, 19 High street* Lowerhead row, Beast market (bottomside of Bradford Rd)* Lucas yard, 7 Newtown* Ludlam's yard, 35 New street* Macaulay street, Market street* Manchester street, & road, High street* Market place, New street* Market street, Westgate* Market walk, Market place* Marsh, Trinity street* Marshall's yard, Westgate & Market street* Mimes row, Castle gate* Milton square, West parade* Mold green Wakefield road* Nelson's brigs. 28 New street* Nether royd hill, Bradford road* Netherwood's buildings, 25 King street* Newhouse, Halifax road


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* Newmarket, King street* New North road, Westgate* New street, Market place* Newtown, Northgate* Northgate, Beast market

* North parade, Halifax New road* North's yard, Northgate* Northumberland street, 99 Northgate* Ontcote (Outcote) bank, Manchester road* Oxford street, Northgate* Paddock, 1 mile S.W.* Pig market; Victoria street (Shambles)* Plough yard, Westgate* Post office yard, Castle gate* Priestroyd, Commercial street* Princess street, Queen street

* Prospect row, South street* Quay street, Castle gate* Queen street, King street* Radford yard, 30 Bradford road* Railway street, Westgate* Ramsden street, New street* Rashcliffe, (Rashcliffe) Folly hall* Rawson's court, 52 New street* Regent street, South street* Rhodes' yard, 17 King street* Riley's buildings, Market street* Robinson's yard, Hebble row* Roebuck's yard, John street* Rose hill, Birkby* Rosemary lane, Kirkgate* Saddle yard, Westgate* Savings' Bank buildings, New Street(Yorkshire Penny Bank)* St George's square, Railway station* St Paul street, Ramsden street (Bottom)* St Peter's street, Northgate (Church Stdissecting, parallel to Northumberland St)* Schofield's buildings, Fn. street* Seed hill, Kirkgate* Sergeantson street, Fox street* Shambles, King street* Shear's court, Beast market* Sheep close, Upperhead row* Shore foot & lid., King street* Silk street, Lowerhead row

* Skilbeck's yard, Lowerhead row* South parade, Buxton road up to marketSt, Greenhead Road)* South street, West parade (to Trinity St)* Springfield terrace, South street

* Spring place, Upperhead row* Spring street, Upperhead row* Springgrove street, South street* Springwood, Longroyd (footpath to Bowst)* Stables street, Engine bridge (Buxton RdFolly Hall)* Station street, Westgate* Sutcliffe's buildings, Cloth hall street* Sutcliffe's yard, 34 Manchester street* Swallow street, Upperhead row

* Swan yard, Kirkgate* Sykes' yard, 35 Newtown* Temple street, Westgate* Thomas street, Northgate* Thornton's yard, Northgate* Threadneedle street, Market street* Towning row, West parade (Trinity St)* Trinity street, West parade* Turnbridge, Quay street* Union row, Leeds road* Union street, Northgate* Upperhead row, Temple street* Vance's buildings, Cloth hall street* Viaduct street, Oxford street* Victoria buildings, Victoria street, & 37

New street* Victoria street, Queen street* Victoria lane, King street* Victoria yard, Westgate* Watkinson's yard, King street* Walker's fold, Swallow street* Watergate, Castle gate* Water lane, Manchester street* Waterloo mill, Leeds road* Wells (The), Beast market* Wentworth street, New North road toFitzwilliam St)* Westfield, Trinity street* Westfield terrace, New North road* Westgate, Market place


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* West hill, West parade* West parade, Westgate* West place, Trinity street* Wilks' yard, 44 King street* Willow lane, Hill house

* Windsor street, 41 Castle gate* Winter's place, Spring street

* Wood street, Bradford road* Woodland mount, Trinity street* Wormald's yard, 58 New street (extant)* York place, Halifax road* York street, Northgate

* Zetland street, Ramsden street

An index to the streets of Huddersfield from White's Gazetteer and Directory , 1853


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Chapter

I Opened My Eyes and Saw

In my childhood, the air was thick with chimneys belching from coal fires and furnaces fromthe teeming houses and from the giant mill chimneys that stood like massive cricket stumpsrow on row up to the skylines. When they were rousing their sleeping coal-fired boilers inthe early morning, clouds of thick black smoke poured out of their tops before sweepingdown onto the houses below to hide them from the days sun still struggling to rise above thehorizon. The sun had its work cut out for it, and never managed to cope too well. It rained a

bit, and the people grumbled and put up with it.

Hills are everywhere in the West Riding. They are especially noticeable if you want to goanywhere on foot or on a bicycle, and always manage to get in the way. It is a rare outing

that doesnt involve climbing at least one steep, long hill. Coming back is no better. There isalways a big hill to go up before coasting down one. Even coming down them makes the backs of young legs with fixed gear cycles ache like Billy-ho.

Life was hard, very hard. How we got through Ill never know, and neither will anyone else.I shouldnt be a bit surprised if universities all over the world had made studies of howYorkshire folk managed to stay alive in such a hilly landscape and in such harsh conditionsthat prevailed in my Yorkshire Ladhood.


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Chapter

In Whom Can We Trust?a sense of community that became legendary

When the country folk trooped into the towns during the industrial revolution, they left behind one kind of poverty for another. While factory work guaranteed economicindependence in a way, it replaced the less certain poverty of agriculture.

Burgeoning towns were ill equipped to cope with the massive influx of workers, but asolution was to build compact, high-density housing adjacent to the mills that swallowed theworkers, including small children, during the daytime.

The beginning of industrialisation with mass production was undertaken with little thought

for the comfort or health of those attracted to the new workplaces. People were reduced to being no more than a pair of hands. Factoryisation drove down the cost of goods formerlymanufactured in cottages across the whole country, rendering cottage industry redundantovernight.

Men resisted inroads into their trades and incomes made by labour-saving inventions,spawned by the seemingly limitless inventiveness of early Victorians. Luddites from thevicinity of Huddersfield smashed machines with a great hammer that they christened Enoch.Enoch was the name of a cropping frame maker, and Luddites shouted their war cry, Enochmakes them, and Enoch shall break them. Some mill owners lost their lives in thestruggles.

In spite of understandable opposition from the noveau pauvre, whose home-based skills wereno longer marketable, they bowed in defeat and trooped passively into factories to learn newways in alien surroundings, and harsh, often dangerous, conditions

Mill workers, having left their primitive villages and cottages, were dependent uponemployers providing dwellings. Later generations, which did not remember their desertedvillages, never rose to financial independence, and so the dependence on provided housescontinued. The mill houses, small, squat, stone-floored terraced dwellings, built close to themills, were little more than hovels. The single downstairs room served as living room,kitchen, dining room, and bathroom. The privy middens were at the end of the row, andseveral families would have to share. Some middens had more than one accommodation sothat families could sit and talk or hold hands whilst taking care of business. Going to the

bathroom was always referred to as going to do ones business or going to see a man about adog.

There was no plumbing in the houses apart from a cold-water tap over a stone sink at the sideof the cast iron Yorkshire Range. Light was by candles or paraffin lamps, until gas became


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more widely available, and then the living room would have a gas light in the centre of itsceiling, and the bedrooms in later houses had a light on a wall bracket.

The Yorkshire Range had three sections: a central fire basket with a manual closing plate atthe opening to the chimney, usually sporting a rod in a closed fist for its control knob, an

oven to the left of the fire basket, and a water boiler at the right. Heat was directed to theoven or boiler by a collection of dampers that pulled the heat from the fire around theselected appliance. Most cooking was done on the hob at the front of the fire, on which castiron pans balanced precariously cooked their contents with their long handles sticking outinto the room. The pot-bellied pans summoned the cook, when they began to boil, by hissingloudly as water spilled out onto the glowing coals.

The first floor was reached by a stone stairway reaching a landing whose floor, like the bedroom or bedrooms, two at most, had, in common with the downstairs room, a slab stonefloor. The living room floor was paved with two feet by three feet slabs, but the upstairsfloors were monolithic slabs resting across the outside walls of the building. These were

beautifully cool in summer, and chilling cold in winter.Windows were small sliding casements. To stop people seeing in, a net mind-your-business curtain was fixed across windows, ensuring a level of privacy in a world thatoffered little privacy.

In a two-bedroom house, the parents had one room and the children would share the other,more often than not all piling into one large bed regardless of age or sex. Modesty wassecured according to the inventiveness of those who needed it, but it was never easy.

Bath night, always on a Friday, was problematic. Water, obtained from a nearby well or spring, before indoor plumbing was common, was heated in the boiler of the YorkshireRange, lifted out with a small jug-like vessel known as a piggin , and emptied into the zinc-

plated tin bath that hung on a six-inch nail on the outside wall. Due to the small capacity of the boiler and the length of time required to heat sufficient for six inches of water in the tub,all the family bathed in the same water, father going first then the rest of the family in order of descending importance. This was amusingly referred to as The Order of the Bath . Some,who were not hard to detect, managed without ever taking a bath.

From the conurbations of these impoverished homes grew a sense of community that becamelegendary in the North. People looked after each other; bore one anothers burdens, sharedgrief, disappointments, joys, and celebrations. Boys married neighbour girls, and developedstrong familial communities.

It was a time of making do, adapting, of doing without, and of having less and less.However, the less necessities became, the spirit of the people and the place increased.Strangers did not pass in the street without a familiar salutation. The times and conditionsnurtured a brotherhood of gritty folk with attitudes to life that saw them through all the hardtimes.


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After the Second World War, England was slow to update manufacturing processes andunder pressure from developing nations, the textile industry was quickly decimated. Textilegiants built in a passion of confidence by Victorian entrepreneurs, who thought they wouldstand forever, fell one by one, victims of a changing world for which they were unprepared.

Close on the heels of factory shutdowns came the clearance of dying communities as bulldozers moved in and people moved out. Neighbourhoods were divided, and thenshattered, the support they had extended was torn away, leaving people lost, dazed, shuntedaway from generations of history, roots, and familiar voices. Neighbours whose families hadlived cheek by jowl since Victoria ascended the throne were separated, never to meet again.Hearts were broken, and some sensitive minds disintegrated in the train of their crumbledworld.

Though their stories are sad, similar ones are repeated generation after generation, as theinstitutions in which mankind places its trust turn aside from what they were, either to

become something else, or to vanish. Well might they ask, "In whom can mankind trust?"

Nephi supplies the answer:O Lord, I have trusted in theeand I will trust in thee forever.

I will not put my trust in an arm of flesh.

When we trust in the Lord, though all human agencies fail, we find him trustworthy, for hewill not forsake us, but keeps his promises down to the least.

As I pass the places where the Titans stood, and picture the ghostly scene of huddled menand women shuffling into the silence of the far away, I remember and contrast thesteadfastness of a Heavenly Father who never abandons his children, and who hears themwhen they call.


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Chapter

Between the Mills and the Starswelcome reminders of the place that was my home, in a time that is gone

When I was preparing to leave my beloved Yorkshire to live in the desert of Arizona, thetreed ridges of Tennessee, and the fir-clad mountains of Montana, I looked lovingly at thescenes of my childhood, hoping to press their images deep into my memory, so that in exile Icould conjure them up in graphic detail, and so that when the lamp of my life shall burn lowin the years of my old age, sweeping me along in the rush towards eternity, I can bask in thefading glory of people, days, and places that once were so real, but which now, phantomlike,grow dimmer, making me wonder if they were ever real at all.

Most of the giant mills are gone, their machinery silent, their workers gone to their graves or

fast approaching them, and their chimneys felled or truncated. Those that remain are turnedto other uses than making worsted cloth whose quality has been seldom equalled and never surpassed. My memory rejoices not only by the images of these stone massives, but alsofrom the recollection of the sound of their rumbling machinery complete with familiar thuds,and from the smells, whose memories, whilst not pleasant, are vivid and welcome remindersof the place that was my home, in a time that is gone.

Into these mills on many a dark wet morning went quiet people wrapped up against the cold,inured to their misery, too familiar with poverty and its attendant ills, but harbouring a secretcheerfulness that their circumstances should have denied them.

Children went to work in the mill, leaving, if they were lucky, some fifty or sixty years later with broken and bent bodies, no savings, and no homes of their own. The factories broketheir bodies whilst distorting and impoverishing their spirits, and not a few succumbed to thecombination of cruel toil and deficient health services..

After the steam whistle blew its last signal of the day, these morning mutes spilledthemselves out onto the streets a little more erect than when they entered the confines of their

place of imprisonment and labour in the dark morning hours, and more vocal.

Flowing from the strangely silent mills at hometime gave workers pause to breathe clear air and leave the din of noisy machinery behind.

Grimy day had no claim on their souls when their hours of bondage ended, and they werefreed until the morning hooter recalled their soulless bodies from warm blankets to athraldom whose release came only with death.

Dinner was eaten at teatime, and passed with some sense of relief. Children were warned to be quiet while father ate, after which some time for them might be stolen from the eveningsration before bed called.


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The stillness of outside nights was broken by occasionally raised voices from those whodidnt know how to behave in public. Shouts of intemperate laughter echoed through emptythoroughfares, ran around courtyards, jiggled down muddy lanes, rattling off the walls of thetiny back-to-back terraced houses, while shared jokes, and quips giggled outside curtained

closed windows, coming louder then softer as they faded into darkness, and the night closedin again on hushed and dim gas-lit streets.

No textile worker got rich. Mill owners and merchants drove Rolls-Royces as big asworkers houses, and lived in houses as large as their mills. They lived different lives andspoke a different language, unaware of the things their workers spoke about, for they were of another world and another culture that denied them insight into the misery of the miserlyworld of their employees.

Mill workers did without essentials as well as luxuries, because they could not afford intereston credit, yet could not afford to live without it, so debt, with all its demands and fears, was

ever present. They lived between the devil and the deep blue sea; tossed between the millsand the stars, but few turned their eyes and minds outward or upward.

Nevertheless, after work, some listened to the radio, read newspapers, magazines and books,and broadened their horizons by attending evening classes at a workers educational institute.These few discovered worlds outside of the circumscribed environment that was the lot of their kind for generations.

In the strange nights that come after long hours of hard labour, while some lost their painthrough drink, these cerebral argonauts and entered realms through imaginations andlongings that refused to accept the limits set upon it by birth and circumstance. Intellectualrebellion was frowned upon, and frequently condemned. The smallest expression of self-improvement was denounced as disloyalty to ones family, community, and class.

Yet, as the minds of those who dared dream of other worlds rose to the stars, wondering whatwas beyond the world of their bodily captivity, their souls were liberated by a sense of freedom that was often no more than an illusion. Yet, it was these almost frivolous reveriesthat eventually opened the doors of their minds and made liberation a reality. If not for them,then for their children and grandchildren.

We owe the opportunities we have enjoyed to those courageous spirits, who in the gut of dark satanic mills dared to dream when others said they could not and must not, ignoring thelimitations of their world to set their minds free to bathe in the sunlight of other places, other times, even from the very bellies of the dark mill-tombs.

And it is these I shall miss most. The gritty men and women of the hard land of the Northwho, though their lives were moulded by the unyielding landscape and by the iron disciplineimposed by their work and culture, harboured esoteric hopes that blazed avenues of escapefor them and especially for those who would succeed them.


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These are my heroes. These, who held fast to their dreams in the face of hostility, who, inhouses made of stone as hard as their own existence, played out their wretched lives anddared to dream their dreams, somewhere between the mill and the stars.


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Chapter

Huddersfield and its Historythe town that bought itself

The town of Huddersfield was pleasant to the refined sensibilities of a distinguished Germanvisitor. Frederick Engels wrote of it in extremely warm terms. He was right to do so becausethe town has much that is pleasant, although I believe that in some respects there was more

pleasantness in 1935 than there is now. But it could be that the longing for what has beenmay be nothing more than the pathological inclination of old people to remember the past asGolden and the present as moth eaten. Whether that is so, I havent quite figured out, but I

believe that some of the things that have gone were better than some of the things that havereplaced them.

The earliest settlement around Huddersfields was at Castle Hill, an ancient place that still bears evidence of Iron-Age fortifications and a Castle dating back to Norman times. TheHuddersfield of today grew through the seventeen and eighteen hundreds, and was grantedCounty Borough status in 1868, due to the industry of the Ramsden Family who were Lordsof the Manor.

Huddersfields reputation and prosperity was built around the textile industry and its finewoollen worsteds are still sent to customers all over the world. The boom created by thetextile industry provided a rich legacy of fine Victorian buildings such as the neo-classicrailway station and the ornate town Hall.

In 1920, the Huddersfield Corporation bought the Ramsden Estate including almost all thetown centre. Because of this, Huddersfield is known as the town that bought itself .

Came the war and on 29 August 1940, bombs fell on Hall Bower. No one is quote sure whatthey were targeting, but the first two bombs dropped did slight damage to houses, severaltownspeople were blown out of bed, and a Mrs O'Shea's jam tarts were devastated. War can

be Hell!

On the night of 14th and 15th of March, fire parties were called out for the first time to dealwith hundreds of incendiary bombs. Twenty high explosive bombs were dropped on andaround Huddersfield, whose anti-aircraft gun encampments were engaged in almost non-stopoperation through the night.

The last air raid over Huddersfield was on the 12th June 1941.

In Roman Times

Earliest information about Huddersfield is from Roman historians who make mention of fierce and warlike Brigantes that occupied all the north of England. Of the 40 nations that


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inhabited Britain at the time these were the most numerous and powerful. They wereeventually made subjects of Rome by Petilius Cerealis c. AD 75.

Evidence of the Roman settlement of Cambodunum situated at Slack, above Outlane, on theRoman road between Tadcaster (Calcarice) and Manchester (Mancunium). The name

Cambodunum may have originated from the Celtic word dun , meaning a high place of strength, and from the name of the British war god Camul.

In 1736, the Rev. Mr Watson discovered a Roman altar at Slack. Other discoveries over theyears, at the same site, suggest that this was the location for a permanent garrison. Findshave included the foundations of buildings and several hypercausts or heating chambers.From markings on the bricks at the site it would appear that the soldiers who built the

buildings were Breuch, a people of Celtic origin who settled in Pannonia, now modernHungary. When the Romans subjugated a race and took their men into the armed forces theywould post them to outposts far from their home country to limit the number of desertionsand revolts in the ranks. Thus, any Britons captured by the Romans would have been sent to

distant outposts.After the Romans withdrew from Britain in 418 AD, caused by the attack on the RomanEmpire by the Gauls, the area became the target of the Picts and the Scots raiders.

Despite desperate please to the Romans no help was forthcoming therefore the Britons turnedto the Angles for help.

In due course, the marauders were driven away by the Angles with the help of the Jutes andSaxons, who then settled in the area. Unfortunately, they also chose to conquer the nativeBritons whom they had come to help.

Evidence of Saxon settlement are indicated by place names that had such endings as Ham,Ley or Ton as well as Burgh, Worth and Stead. Hence, Meltham, Honley, Bradley, Dalton,Deighton, and Almondbury all indicate Saxon settlement.

After the Saxon settlement, the area was an invasion by the Norsemen who affectedsettlements in the area, among the Saxons, by force or by treaty. Birkby, Fixby, Quarmby,Linthwaite, Slaithwaite, Lingards, Upperthong, Netherthong, (from the Danish 'Thing', a

place of military gathering) Kirkheaton, and Kirkburton all have names of Danish origin.

In the time of the Saxons, Almondbury was a place of some importance.

It was then a royal seat and graced with a church, built by Paulinus, dedicated to St Alban.

In the cruel war between Ceadwall the Briton and Penda the Mercian waged upon Edwin, thePrince of these territories, the church was burnt down.

Edwin was the first Christian monarch of Northumbria - made king in AD 547.


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Paulinus, the Companion of St Augustine, first came into these parts having been consecratedBishop of York in July 625.

1066 And Beyond

The earliest mention of the district in which Huddersfield now stands is in the DomesdayBook where Odersfelt is mentioned.

Huddersfield probably means "The Field of an Englishman called Huthhere, or of aScandinavian called Hather.

Also, from the Domesday Book the following place names local to Huddersfield can begathered.

Bradley (Bradeleia)

Lindley (Lillaia)Quarmby (Camebi) CornebiGolcar (Gudlagsare)Crosland (Croisland)Thornhill (Torni)Almondbury (Almondeberie)Farnley (Fereleia)Honley (Haneleia)Meltham (Meltha)Hopton (Hoptone)Lepton (Leptone)Whitley (Witelai)Mirfield (Mirefelt)Dalton (Daltone)Elland (Elant)

According to the Domesday Book 'in Odersfelt, Godwin had six carucates of land to betaxed, affording occupation of eight ploughs.

Now the same has it of Ilbert (Ilbert de Laci) but it is waste.'

In the time of King Edward, it was valued at 100 shillings. (A carucate, hide, or plow of landwas about 120 acres. The pound was the value of a pound of silver.)

The barbarity of the Conqueror can be noted by the word 'waste' , especially as Huddersfieldwas deemed fertile and advanced in civilisation than most of Britain at the time.

It transpires that while William was in Normandy the British subjects rebelled against theoppressive regime of the Normans.


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Whilst under the command of the earls Morcar and Edwin they attacked the city of York,expelling the garrison, slew the governor and killed many of his retainers. The battle, in1069, resulted in 3,000 Norman dead.

William, in his fury, exacted terrible revenge on York and levelled it to the ground.

Still dissatisfied he sent his followers over the whole country of Yorkshire with orders to kill, burn, and destroy. True to his word 100,000 men, women and children were killed and alltheir chattels destroyed.

William then bestowed the Barony of Pontefract on Ilbert de Lacy who became founder of one of the most powerful families of the north (AD 1092).

The de Lacy's founded the religious houses of Nostell, Pontefract, and Kirkstall. They alsoobtained the Earldom of Lincoln, the extensive lordship of Blackburnshire in the county of Lancaster: they had no less than 25 towns in the Wapentake of Morley and the greater part of

150 manors in the West Riding, one of the families is believed to be the founders of theParish Church of Huddersfield.

At the time of the Domesday Book the feudal system consisted of the following hierarchy (indescending order):

Kings

Tenants-in-Chief (e.g. Ilbert de Lacy)

Sub-Tenants (e.g. Godwin of Huddersfield - see above)

Dwellers of the Manor (i.e. Freemen, Socmen, Villeins, Cottars and Bordars

Services, kind, or both, as we understand it, paid for rent. The Tenants-in-Chief gave personal service to the kings in times of war and paid the recognised feudal dues; the villein,on the other hand, worked on the lord's (e.g. Ilbert de Lacy) land (the lord's demesne) somany days a week and also did extra work at such times as harvest (boon work); they couldnot leave the manors where they were born, could not marry their daughter's without thelord's consent, and had to grind their corn at the kings mill.

(One of the earliest mills of this type could be found on Kings Mill Lane at Aspley close tothe confluence of the Colne and Holme rivers and, although the mill has been demolished for many years, following an unfortunate fire, one can still see the damming of the River Colnethat diverted the water towards the mill wheel.)


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The restrictions on the villeins seem to be harsh at first sight and villeins are considered asslaves. But this was wrong. If they were unable to leave their manor it was no greathardship in those days, for all manors were more or less all the same, and feudal tenure wasuniversal, while travelling was difficult and dangerous. The villein had possibly as mucheconomic freedom as the average workman of the twentieth century, for he had his own

holding and was free to cultivate it when he was not working for his lord in lieu of rent

About 1130, King Stephen built a castle at Almondbury (on Castle Hill) which wassurrounded by a triple fortification; this castle was afterwards, somewhere around 1137,granted and confirmed to Henri de Laci.

In 1272 Edward I granted to his successor Henry de Laci, the privilege of holding a market atAlmondbury every Monday.

Mention of the towns market was made in 1294.

There was also a court held there around this time, but bribery and corruption were rifeleading to very little justice being dispensed.

In the reign of Edward II the deterioration of the West Riding had reached its demise with pestilence and famine aggravated by the miseries of feudal oppression and the calamities of war.

In the first year of Edward II a certain foreigner (not named) was murdered in the castle atAlmondbury and then thrown out for the animals to feast upon his body. This is but one of the many deeds of darkness which were committed here.

In 1307, a jury strictly examined the castle and it is probable that after this examination thecastle was demolished.

In the "ABBREVIATIO ROTULORUM ORIGINALIUM" of this reign, occurs the followingentry, relating to Kings Mill at Huddersfield.

"Edward II Extracte claus 8c DE MOLENDINIS R de Huddersfield 8c de Leodes repond 8c Ebor R 24"

This is the sole information contained in the entry and it is thought that it refers to taxes or rights connected with the Kings Mill.

About this time parts of the rents of the Kings mill on the River Colne in Huddersfield wasgiven to the Monks of Whalley and about AD 1200, Roger de Laci presented to WilliamBellomonte, ancestor of the Beaumonts of Whitely, 24 bovates of land in Huddersfield, half meadow and half wood and four marks rent on the mill in the same place.


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The same Roger de Laci also granted 24 bovates of land in Huddersfield, and all his lordship(dominium) there to Colin de Damville.

In the 10th year of Edward II AD 1317, a charter was granted by the king, at the request of John de Warren, Earl of Warren and Surrey, to John de Eland (afterwards Sir John) to hold a

free market on Tuesdays on his manor of Elland, and also two fairs there.

Another deed of this century introduces the name of one John de Gledholt as one of thewitnesses.

In the 9th Edward II, (1315) Thomas, Earl of Lancaster was Lord of Huddersfield; but soonafter his execution it must have been granted out, for, by deed dated Huddersfield, 1333, Sir Richard de Birton, Knt., gave to his son, John de Birton, all his manor of Hodresfield.

How long it continued in the Birton family is not known, but by indenture bearing the dateJune, 1537, John Byram Esq., sold the manor of Huddersfield to Sir Gilbert Gerrard.

When the Ramsden family became seized of the manor has not been documented, though Sir John Ramsden, Knt. purchased the manor of Almondbury, in AD 1627.

In the reign of Richard II, free warren of Huddersfield was granted to the prior and canons of Nostell Priory.

During the civil wars between the houses of York and Lancaster, the whole of the district became the scene of rapine and bloodshed although little or no mention is made of Huddersfield and its localities in the records of battles.

In a 1584 survey of Almondbury in the reign of Elizabeth I the following people arementioned: -

John Kaye of WoodsomeWm BeaumontJohn Cudworth

Nicholas FenayJohn HirsteJohn AppleyardJohn Beaumont of WellheadWm. KayeJohn Kay of ThorpeJohn NorthHumphrey BeaumontJohn Beaumont of NetherthwongeJohn Armitage of the ArmitageEdward Cowper John Kay of the CrossRichard Blackburn younger


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Thos. Brook John LockwoodJohn Armitage.

The report also mentions Edgerton, Huddersfield, Honley, Meltham, South Crosland,

Slaithwaite and Quick, and Warmcliffe.

During the period of the French revolutionary war, a most decided anti-gallican spirit wasfound in the area and 3000 volunteers, under the command of Sir George Armytage, joinedHuddersfield and Upper Agbrigg corps.

Unfortunately, they never had the opportunity to display their prowess against the French.

The most important period of the modern history of Huddersfield was during the Ludditeinsurrection, in 1811-12.

Although this rebellion, against the introduction of machinery for finishing cloth, started in Nottinghamshire, it soon spread to Yorkshire, and Huddersfield was one of the towns mostdeeply involved in it.

A great number of croppers formed themselves into a confederacy with the determinedintention of preventing the machinerys introduction.

They swore oaths and searched for firearms. The centre of Luddism in the area was Wood'sCropping Shop in Longroyd Bridge where several of the ringleaders (including thosementioned below) worked.

On Tuesday, April 21st, 1813 four men, George Mellor, William Thorpe, Thomas Smith andBenjamin Walker (commonly called Ben o' Bucks) decided to take the rebellion one stepfurther than just attacking mills and breaking the machinery. They decided to murder Mr Horsfall, a cloth manufacturer of Marsden.

In the afternoon they made their way to Mr Horsfalls' plantation and lay in wait. Atapproximately 5.30 pm Mr Horsfall was seen riding up the road and, when he reached the

plantation where they were hiding, Mellor and Thorpe fired their pistols (which were eachloaded with two bullets and some slugs).

They inflicted several wounds on Mr Horsfall, the surgeon Mr Rowland Houghton of Huddersfield noting "two wounds in the upper part of the left thigh, another on the lower partof the belly, another on the lower part of the scrotum, two more on the right thigh," besidessmaller ones.

Horsfall died about 38 hours later in the nearby Warren House Inn that still stands onManchester Road by its junction with the road down to Milnsbridge.


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Despite the hiding of the guns and the forced swearing of oaths of silence, the murdererswere brought to justice by the talented magistrate Sir Joseph Ramsden.

Walker turned Kings evidence, thus saving his life, while the other three were condemned todeath and subsequently executed on January 8th 1813.

An eye-witness of many of the doings of these troublesome times stated that Mr Horsfall wasnot the only, or principal, intended victim of the Luddites.

The man they most wanted to kill was Mr Enoch Taylor, the senior partner of E + J Taylor,Mechanics and Ironfounders, of Marsden.

Mr Taylor was a great theorist and practical mechanic and was the chief improver, and for the most part the inventor of the improved shear-frame.

The hatred of Mr Taylor and his brother were so great that the Luddites name their machine-

breaking mallet "Enoch" after him. It is told that the Luddites watchword for frame breakingwas,

Enoch makes them; And Enoch shall break them!


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Chapter Nine

LUDDITESI am, at heart, a Luddite

The Luddite Movement has had a bad press. The name is still applied to those seen tooppose progress by the introduction of labour saving devices into the work place. In the 19thcentury, when working men and women were pauperised, Luddites were shot at andexecuted.

Some historians with no grasp of the human cost of progress have labelled Luddites as backward and irrelevant. Even the revolutionary left, who salute their heroism, has criticisedthem for attacking the machines and not the capitalist system, as if they were able to chooseone over the other. Many details of the Luddite movement have yet to emerge.

The depth of their plight, after being thrown out of work by uncaring manufactures, is darklyhinted in their letter to the manufacturer of cropping frames explaining that there were,

2,782 sworn heroesbound in a bond of necessity

either to redress their grievancesor gloriously perish in the attempt

in the army of Huddersfield

The response was often to send companies of armed troops sent to quell the rebellion andforce the starving demonstrators back to their outcast families with nothing in their hands.

The loss of a job meant that a mans family was condemned into poverty, for which therewas little provision, and little sympathy except from other workers.

Luddites cannot with any sense of justice be labelled as backward looking-for their claim thatcraftsmen made idle by the introduction of machines should be redressed, and thattechnology should not reduce the quality of work or be an excuse to cut wages.

Half a million weavers were casualties of the manufacturers' appetite for higher profits andlower wages during the Industrial Revolution, saw their wages fall from twenty shillings tofive shillings in 30 years, a reduction of 84%!

There was a change of the philosophy of labour in that workers came to be seen as mere cogsin the industrial machinery, subject to tight control, no longer able to fix their own workinghours as had been the case of home based craftsmen in pre-factory days. The factory systemensured that the bosses were very much in charge, and the workers were slaves to their whims. Workers who washed their hands, ate, or even sang or whistled during the bossstime were beaten and fined. Even pregnant women and children at their machines were notimmune from intimidation and brute force to make they remain at their machines when sick or tired.


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Hell was visited on the souls of factory workers, and for this cause, if for no other, I am atheart a Luddite. Against such conditions, and against all the indignities and threats to their lives, the Luddites take their place as heroes, and not, as has been suggested as a bunch of zealots wielding a sledgehammer to assuage their bruised feelings. They may have been

clumsy, at times inept, but this was not what their lives had prepared them for, but now theywere desperate, acting out of dire need.

They broke machinery, burned down mills, some of their enemies were murdered, some of their number were taken and hanged, others were shot in the terror, but they enjoyed thesupport of their communities, even when they swarmed with troops and spies. They weremore than heroes, threatening were, as they did, the birth of industrial capitalism at itseconomic and philosophical heart. Whether they drew any revolutionary conclusions, wecannot say, but they deserve a better memorial than to be remembered only as a pejorative

byword.


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Chapter

ExcursusIn Which a Slightly Different and less Reliable View Surfaces

Its my word against theirs! Ronnie Bray

When I was a boy, the term boy was used only to describe a child thathad just been born and was male. Thereafter it was a lad. There wassomething special about being a lad because it identified you as part of the tribe of Yorkshire folk who were, it was commonly known, a specialbreed, blessed by God to possess the broad acres and placed in Godsscheme of things somewhat ahead of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

I was born in Huddersfield in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Riding is an oldterm derived from thriding or third. One thing was very plain; we spoke alanguage of a different order than other mortals. Broad Yorkshire, a truedialect, was derived from Old Scandinavian. Yorkshire folk were differentfrom the rest of the British islanders having come ashore in order toperpetrate a reign of terror among the inhabitants. We managed that allright, and then settled down to plough the fields and scatter the goodseed on the land, and also to tend sheep and cattle, and prettify the placein general. Some became very jealous of us, especially those dwelling tothe west of us. They even tried to copy our dialect, but couldnt manageto flatten their vowels into true Yorkshire vowels. To this day, the

Yorkshire vowels are the shibboleths that prevent Lancastrian passingthemselves off as their betters.

Yorkshire has had a lot of history, most of it is too well known to require asecond telling here. It involves cricket, a game doubtless invented by

Yorkshiremen since no one else plays it quite as well. The sad fact is thatfor several years now the Yorkshire cricket team have had to go soft to letsomeone else have a chance at winning summat. I know that some willhave a hard time believing that, in spite of the reputation that Yorkshirefolk have for generosity and fair play and even self-sacrifice, should the

cause demand that.William the Conqueror didnt like Yorkshire people. He considered themto be rough and independent. Wed not argue with that. After all, we hadmanaged without a king for a very long time and things were going wellenough for us without him sticking his oar in. But, he had this unificationbee in his war bonnet and wanted to combine the British kingdoms intoone big one and call it England. All we wanted was to be left alone. But


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would he? He would not! He sent his armies up here and we gave them afight. He took this hard and went on to decimate our homeland. Afterslaughtering almost all the Yorkshire folk, he planted sheep on our hillsand moors, and went back down south. To this day, Yorkshire folk donttrust anyone from London, and that is plainly the fault of William of

Orange otherwise known as William the Conqueror, Duc de Normandie .Not all historians agree that Orange and Normandie were the samepeople but I am sure that is what they taught me at Spring Grove School.

What William Who-ever-he-was didnt know was that we were making acomeback. When he thought of Yorkshire, he thought of sheep. But,whilst his sheep were foraging among the scrubby grasslands we werequietly breeding and raising new generations to think for themselves, tobe independent, suspicious, resolute, stubborn to the point of pig-headedness, dour and taciturn unless we had something to say.

Yorkshire folk are well known for being blunt, and they are especially

helpful if you want to know your shortcomings.

The Yorkshire Ridings, or thridings, were more or less determined bygeographical considerations. Lots of things about Yorkshire have to beunderstood against a background of more or less . It is a commonoccurrence. In spite of someone writing a book about it, there is no SouthRiding. Had Sheffield ever been considered as rising to the prominence itdid, there would almost certainly have been a place made for a fourthriding, even though the arithmetic would not have worked as well, but itwould more or less have worked.

To the West Riding, whose western boundary was the lower westernslopes of the Pennine Chain overlooking Lancashire: a permanentreminder to its denizens that they had overseers of a superior kind, wasgranted the honour of becoming the finest worsted weavers in the world,overtaking those who had plied their craft in East Anglia in earlier times.

The chemical industry reached its maturity there also, as many acrumbling building that fell foul of their foul fumes will attest. Netcurtains lasted an average of six months in houses within a five milesradius of Huddersfields chemical factories. Heavy engineering, madenecessary by burgeoning textile and chemical industries, and possible by

the strength of the backs and arms of Yorkshiremen, and fuelled thedevelopment of growing urban townscapes.

The West Riding is synonymous with work. Its towns and village spreadwhere there was little room for their sprawl, and so they stood shoulder-to-shoulder back-to-back and even on top of each other to fit themselvesinto too little landscape for too many people and too many mills andworks.


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The air was thick with chimney smoke from the teeming houses and fromthe giant mill chimneys that stood up like massive cricket stumps onevery skyline. When they were waking their sleeping boilers in the earlymorning, clouds of thick black smoke would belch out of their tops before

sweeping down onto the houses below and hide them from the sun thatwas still struggling to rise above the horizon. The sun always had its workcut out for it, and never managed to cope too well. It rained a bit, and thepeople grumbled and put up with it.

The hills were everywhere. They were especially noticeable if you wantedto go anywhere and always managed to get in the way. It was a rareouting that didnt involve climbing at least one steep, long hill. Comingback was no better. There was always a big hill to go up before you couldcoast down one. Even coming down them made the backs of your legsache like billy-ho.

And life was hard: very hard. How we got through Ill never know, andneither will anyone else. I shouldnt be a bit surprised if universities allover the world had made studies of how Yorkshire folk managed to stayalive in such a hilly landscape and in such harsh conditions that prevailedin my Yorkshire Ladhood.

We were made of stern stuff and just as well because the blows camethick, fast, and hard. Although it is painful to me to have to admit it, inthe interests of truth and blunt speaking, I have to confess to havingforeign blood in me. My maternal grandparents were from Derbyshire

and Staffordshire, and my paternal grandmother came from the eastcoast of Yorkshire, somewhere around Scarborough, but my paternalgrandfather came from Deighton, and so did several generations of patriarchs before him.

I was born in Huddersfield of a possibly Huddersfield born father and aStaffordshire born mother. Its not a good start in life, and it got worseafter that. 4

4 Just to let you know that there will be no footnotes in this volume. Everything you need to know and lotsyou dont will be included in the body of the text. RB


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Chapter

Some Important Influences

Being born in Huddersfield imposed certain cultural obligations. Beingborn at the beginning of 1935 dumped a particular load of culturalbaggage on my tender and impressionable mind. Being born into myfamily inflicted peculiar dimensions to my development, culture, andunderstanding of what the world was really like.

It has been said that at birth I was so ugly and fat that I couldnt get myeyes open and that my mother cried for two whole days at what fate haddropped in her lap, so to speak. Although I was there, I dont rememberanything about it and so I must be treated as an unreliable witness.

When I raised the issue with my mother, she couldnt remember it either,so she has to be an unreliable witness too. I cant even remember whotold me and so I cant determine whether they are reliable, so, gentlereader, you have to guess if it is true. But why would anyone inventsomething like that if it had no truth in it? However, I still think it is worththe telling because it may account for my natural distrust of people.

Nineteen-thirty-five was a year marked off for greatness. It was the yearthat Adolph Hitler seized control of German by burning down theReichstag and blaming it on a poor boy who didnt know what day it was.

The acceptance of his action by the surrounding nations, and by thoseflung further from the focus of greatness, is astounding. Despots are stillgetting away with murder while the civilised nations fling words at them.

The country remembered the Crimean War, the Boer War, and the GreatWar. It was not the First World War yet, but Hitler was taking care of thatand others watched him do it. They had not learned that Hitlers respondto a good slap on the back of the hand. Children of my age grew uphearing tales of these conflicts and became familiar with many strangesounding names, even though I never knew where they were. For all Iknew, Bloemfontein could be next door but one to Ypres.

Greenhead Park boasted a statue of a soldier from the Boer War, but theCrimean seems to have gone unremarked except for a public house onCross Lane, Newsome that bears the name The Crimea. The Great Warhad fared much better with the erection of a huge and impressivememorial structure atop a specially landscaped and terraced hill top inthe park. To save the expense of erecting another memorial, this waslater inscribed with the details of World War Two. Very sensible.


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Thus was war and talk of war part of my indoctrination into the humanrace. I do not recall any talk of war before Germany marched on Polandin nineteen-thirty-nine, but then, I was not quite five.

What is remarkably strange was that I never met anyone who had

actually fought in the Crimean, Boer, or Great Wars. Where were they all?It didnt seem strange at the time, but now it does. Perhaps old soldiersdont talk to young lads. That must be it. They are too sensitive to regalethe lug oyls of sensitive lads with bloodcurdling tales. I do know thatmany of them never spoke of what they saw and did to anyone.

These were the broken ones whose lives changed forever. Commonlaughter seemed to these an offence added to the pain and alienationthey felt in their hearts. Small wonder that they fell silent.


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Chapter

Some Important Facts

The house in the which I was born, 121 Fitzwilliam Street, was a lodging house owned andoperated by my grandma, Margaret Ann Myers (who became a Bennett by marriage) knownas Nanny - or Attila! She was a Staffordshire Terrier. Oh, yes!

STAFFORDSHIRE

"A county of England, bounded by, Shropshire Cheshire, Derbyshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire. It is in length about 54 miles, and varies in breadth from 18 to 36. It isdivided into 5 hundreds, which contain 1 city, 21 towns, 181 parishes, and 670 villages. The

principal rivers are the Trent, Dove, Sow, Churnet, Stour, Penk, and Manifold. The air isreckoned pleasant, mild, and wholesome. The middle and southern parts are level and plain,and the soil is good and rich; the north is hilly, and full of heaths and moors. Staffordshire is

famous for its potteries, its inland navigations, and its founderies, blast furnaces, slitting mills, and various other branches of the iron trade. The mines of coals, copper, lead, and iron ore are rich and extensive; and there are also numerous quarries of stone, alabaster,and limestone. Stafford is the county town. Population, 510,504. It sends 17 members to

parliament." [From: Barclays Complete & Universal English Dictionary, 1842-1852]

Arnold Enoch Bennett was an English novelist, playwright, and essayist who was born in on 27th May1867, at Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Hanley was the real-life model for one of the "FiveTowns" of his novels. Bennett was educated at the University of London and for a time was editor of Woman magazine. After 1900 he devoted himself entirely to writing; dramatic criticism was one of hisforemost interests. Bennett is best known, however, for his novels, several of which were writtenduring his residence in France. Bennett died in 1931.

"In front, on a little hill in the vast valley, was spread out the Indian-red architecture of Bursley - tall chimneys and rounded ovens, schools, the new scarlet market, the high spire of the evangelical churchthe crimson chapels, and rows of little red houses with amber chimney pots, and the gold angel of the Town Hall topping the whole. The sedate reddish browns and reds of the composition all netted in flowing scarves of smoke, harmonised exquisitely with the chill blues of the chequered sky.Beauty was achieved, and none saw it".

(From Bennetts Clayhanger - 1910)

Bennett referred to Longton as Longshaw in his Five Town Novels. It is the least mentioned of thePottery towns in his Five Town novels. Bennett compared the conurbation as being akin to Hell.Pictures of the area during its industrial growth defy belief with smoke pouring from a multitude of chimneys in amongst bottle ovens of various shapes and sizes. The great concentration of theseovens and the situation of Longton being in a slight hollow, made it the most polluted of all the potterytowns.


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Bennett's infancy was spent in genteel poverty, which gave way to prosperity as his father succeededas a solicitor. From this provincial background he became a novelist. His enduring fame is as aChronicler of the Potteries towns, the setting, and inspiration of some of his most famous andenduring literary work and the place where he grew up.

Many of the locations in Clayhanger and other Bennett novels are based in "The five towns" andcorrespond to actual locations in and around the Potteries district of North Staffordshire.

In March, 1865. Longton (Long Town) and Lane End were incorporated as the Borough of Longton('long village').


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Maggies husband, Harold Bennett, was a Derbyshire Ram.

Derby is the only city in England to be given its name by the Danes. If itweren't for the Vikings invading in AD874 the name would have beenNorthworthy . Northworthy was captured by the Vikings to become part of

Danelaw and renamed Deoraby (Deer by), or place of the deer to signifythe great deer-herds that roamed the Derwent valley. This is why theDerby crest is a buck-in-the-park, This crest can be seen all over thebuildings of Derby.

The Saxons recaptured Deoraby in AD917 but the Danish name remained.No one knows for sure when or why the name changed to Derby(Pronounced 'Dar-bee').

Liversage Almshouses London Road Derby - built in 1863Harolds brother Archibald Archie lived in London Road in the 1950s


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Re-enactment of the Arrival of Charles Edward Stuart Bonnie Prince Charlie

in Derby

Derby is the UK's most central city benefiting from the best of both worlds- a great cultural base situated on the edge of the Peak District Nationalpark.


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Two Views of Peak District National Park

Derby is famous for setting in motion Britain's Industrial Revolution withsome of the countrys first factories and spinning mills. It is equally famousfor later factories of Rolls Royce, Royal Crown Derby and Railwayengineering.

Ladybower Reservoir Derbyshire Where A Village Was Drowned


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Friar Gate Derby home of Cattle Market since Medieval Times


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Thomas Cotchetts Mill on the River Derwent - 1702

On the 4 December 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Jacobite armyarrived in Derby, where an important decision in British history wasmade. On the previous day, the prince had been advised by hisgenerals to withdraw and return to Scotland. They were not happybeing so far into enemy territory without the expected support of theEnglish Jacobites, and doubtful that the planned French invasion tosupport the venture would take place.


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An advanced force had secured Swarkestone Bridge and the decision towithdraw was made against the Princes wishes, who wanted to presson towards London. If this course of action had been followed thecourse of British history could well have been changed. Many historiansnow think the Jacobites may have met with little opposition had they

continued their march, and succeeded in recapturing the throne for theStuarts. London itself was in panic with many people fleeing the capitaland King George II had already made his own plans to escape.

For over a century, the Old Silk Mill was the towns largest employerwith a workforce of 300 people. Second in line was the Crown DerbyChina Works. Established in a small way on the Nottingham Road in1756, it grew rapidly and long before the end of the century it hadestablished a national reputation. Today, the factory is sited onOsmaston Road and its products are exported all over the world. TheRoyal Crown Derby Visitor Centre is open to the public daily and factory

tours are available during the week.On the 30 May 1839, the first railway train steamed into Derby. Theexcited crowds watching the trains arrival, little realised how this eventwould change the face of Derby. Initially, three railway companiesoperated from Derby, until 1844, when they amalgamated to form theMidland Railway. This hectic activity attracted swarms of workers fromall over the country and in 1851 records showed that 43% of the adultsin the town had been born outside the county.

Most had jobs in the railway works, but others were employed bycompanies that sprang up because of the railways arrival and theMidlands expansion from a provincial company into the third largest inBritain, before the amalgamation into the LMS in 1923.

Derbys reputation as an industrial town was boosted even further withthe arrival of Rolls-Royce at the beginning of the 20th century.

Early Rolls-Royce Tourer

Motor cars were manufactured from a new purpose built factory inNightingale Road, where production continued until 1946, whenmotorcar manufacture was transferred to Crewe. This left the companyable to concentrate all its efforts on designing and building aeroengines, work that had started just before the outbreak of the First


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World War. Despite going bankrupt in 1971, Rolls-Royce 1971 Limitedemerged, and the company remains pre-eminent in the city.

My mother, Louie Bennett, was born in Uttoxeter Stafforsshire on 20 th May

1915. She moved to Huddersfield with her parents and sister Nora whenshe was a small child, probably a babe in arms.

High Street Uttoxeter in 1955 Talbot Inn Uttoxeter Staffordshire

UT TOXETERA town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Staffordshire. The townstands on the U[nion] canal, at a forking of railways, near the river Dove,13 miles NE of Stafford; was known to the Saxons as Uttocceaster; wasgiven, at the Norman conquest to H. de Ferrers; passed to John of Gauntand to the Talbots; was the scene of some military operations in the civilwars of Charles I.; suffered severely from fire in 1672; had, for natives,the antiquary Sir S. Degge, the famous seaman Admiral Lord Gardner,and the mathematician Allen; is a seat of petty-sessions and a pollingplace; publishes a weekly newspaper; carries on brewing, cork-cutting,glue and leather manufacture; comprises several good streets, with acentral market place; and has a post-office under Stoke-on-Trent, a r.station with telegraph, two banking offices, a town hall of 1855, built at acost of about 4,000, an ancient six-arched bridge, a modern church, withancient tower and spire, four dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholicchapel, a grammar-school, national and infant schools, a workhouse, almshouses, considerable charities, a weekly market on Wednesday, fourannual cheese fairs, and five other annual fairs. Pop. in 1861, 3,645.Houses, 796.-

The parish includes also three hamlets, and is divided into fiveconstablewicks. Acres, 8,973. Real property, 18,699. Pop., 4,847.Houses, 1,047. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield. Value,


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300.* Patrons, the Dean and Canons of Windsor. The p. curacy of Stramshall is a separate benefice.--The sub-district contains 7 parishes.Acres, 24,807. Pop., 8,008. Houses, 1,683. - The district includes alsoAbbots-Bromley and Sudbury sub-districts, and comprises 62,890 acres.

Poor rates in 1863, 6,453. Pop. in 1851, 15,140; in 1861, 14,787.Houses, 3,102. Marriages in 1863, 97; births, 412 -of which 36 wereillegitimate; deaths, 307,-of which 94 were at ages under 5 years, and 12at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 910; births, 3,992;deaths, 3,028.

The places of worship, in 1851, were 19 of the Church of England, with6,747 sittings; 3 of Independents, with 630 s.; 1 of Baptists, with 70 s.; 1of Quakers, with 110 s.; 9 of Wesleyans, with 1,311 s.; 11 of PrimitiveMethodists, with 1,184 s.; 2 of Roman Catholics, with 135 s.; and 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 65 s.

The schools were 26 public day-schools, with 1,410 scholars; 34 privateday-schools, with 750 s.; 31 Sunday schools, with 1,668 s.; and 1 eveningschool for adults, with 5 s.(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

In 1887, John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles describedUttoxeter like this:

"Uttoxeter, market town and par., Staffordshire, 13 miles NE. of Stafford

and 135 miles NW. of London by rail, 8973 ac., pop. 4981; P.O., T.O., 2Banks, 2 news-papers. Market-day, Wednesday. Uttoxeter, known to theSaxons as Uttocceaster, is an ancient but clean and well-built town,situated on a gentle eminence above the vale of the Dove. It containsseveral good streets, with a central market-place, town hall, freegrammar school, and church with ancient tower and spire. The industriescomprise iron-founding and nail and implement making, tanning and rope-spinning, and malting and brewing."


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Years of disinterest in its Local history saw Uttoxeter lose some ancientand highly important sites such as the Celtic Maidens Well and artefactsranging from the town's Market Charter, to a bronze age Palstave axe lost

to the museums of neigh

huddersfield no mean city - my birthplace

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