The Story of Sam Hill
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
!"!"##$#"%&'($)'#*%"+,(-$.*% " ///01"##$#"2"($3-4"0'(4056" " ! THE SAM HILL STORY – FORTUNES, FEUDS AND SCANDALS AUDIO E- TRAIL SCRIPT Stop 1: “Nice of you to come” Good day to you! I am Sam Hill, and I welcome thee to this fine village of Ripponden. It warms my heart to think that folk are still interested in me – old Sam Hill – after all these years. In my day, the name of Sam Hill of Soyland was known across Europe and as far away as Russia when it came to making good woollen cloth. There was no one could touch me around these parts for kersey, bay and shalloons and I’ll not deny I made a bob or two out of it. But what’s that you say – “what’s kersey and bay”? Well, it’s not the type of cloth you’d make your fancy suits out of, no, but it would make you a stout overcoat or a soldier’s uniform. As for shalloons, well that was much finer stuff, better suited to ladies’ dresses. My roots were humble, my father James was a clothier too, and it wasn’t ‘til I set up on my own at Mecking Place that I began to make a penny or two. Like any true Yorkshire man, I spent it wisely. I bought property and land, built mills and houses and paid my workers not a penny more than the going rate. There was many a family in this valley that owed their living and the roof over their heads to Sam Hill. It would be nice to say that my fortune passed on to my children but you can see from the names on this tomb that five of them went before me (HE SIGHS) – sad times indeed for me and my poor wife Elizabeth. Richard, my eldest, survived but he was not the son I wished for. I went out of my way to make sure he didn’t get his hands on my money! – but more of that later. Those who say that wealth brings happiness should think again. Anyway, enough! It’s about time you were on your way. I hope you enjoy your walk down the lanes I used to tread. Imagine me in my fine house, and my weavers toiling at their looms. You’ll find things changed from my day, but when we meet again at your journey’s end I hope you’ve got a bit of respect for old Sam Hill! Stop 2: Sam's 'empire' – the extent of his land & properties You've already walked across land and past buildings once owned by Sam Hill and you’ll be doing so for most of the rest of our journey. Most of the actual buildings have now gone – demolished or replaced by later ones. You're now in Royd Lane and on the edge of the Brig Royd estate, bought by Sam in the 1750s and one of his most valuable properties. Altogether, Sam owned great tracts of the Ryburn valley, including 3 large estates of land and over 80 other individual properties such as cottages, farms and mills – all these added to his empire as a multi- millionaire. We know this because, in 1759 – the year he died aged 82, he himself wrote a list of them all, with their precise cash values at that time. Sam Hill:!two cottages at Flat Head £50, Ripponden Mill Farm £400, Ripponden Mill House, barn, meadow & paddock £150, Spout & Stubbins Ripponden £250, rent out of Swan Inn Halifax £5, rent out of Parson's Dam Ripponden £4, Brigroyd and Brownhills £1,805, Maud Lane End cottage £50,... Names live on longer than buildings, hence the new Brig Royd Surgery, just visible through the trees next to Lower Brig Royd and the modern Maude House behind you. Sam made his millions from the textile trade, but not through the huge mills of Victorian times – most of his workers produced the cloth in their homes – carding the wool, spinning it, and then weaving it on handlooms set up (usually) in their top rooms where they had rows of mullioned windows to let in as much natural light as possible – to save on expensive candles. They worked for Sam on piecework rates. He paid them per yard they produced, and, being a tough businessman, he would pay them at the lowest rates possible, and then only if the cloth they’d produced was of the highest quality. !"##$#"%&'($)'#*%$*%+,"%-.+"*+%/('0"1+%23%!"##$#"%&"($+.4"%56#7"7%23%+,"%&"($+.4"%8'++"(3%96#7% % !"!"##$#"%&'($)'#*%"+,(-$.*% " ///01"##$#"2"($3-4"0'(4056" " ! Stop 3: A weaver's cottage – an insight into the life of a piece worker The cottages on your left are called Birks. There has been a succession of cottages here since Elizabethan times and the ones in Sam's time belonged to him. Tenant workers lived here and were employed by Sam to take raw wool and turn it into woven cloth. Hundreds of local people, and their families, would be working at home, on piece rates, for Sam Hill. Sam’s business was too large to use only local suppliers so he bought wool in the London markets, had it shipped to Hull, and brought to his mills in Soyland by packhorse trails and over bridges like the one you crossed at the start of our walk. It was then given out to workers like the tenants here at Birks. Between the bale of raw wool and the finished piece of cloth was a long sequence of processes. Some workers specialised in preparing the yarn by untangling and straightening the fibres, and then spinning it. Others wove this yarn on their handlooms, sending the cloth to Sam’s Kebroyd Mill for the final stages of dyeing, fulling (which thickened the cloth by beating it in water) and cropping with shears to improve the finish of the cloth. At your next stop you’ll find out what happened to the cloth which started life here. But to hear what conditions were like for cottage piece-workers, press the next level. LEVEL TWO: The writer Phyllis Bentley, herself the daughter of a Halifax mill-owner, wrote several novels about the Yorkshire woollen industry. ‘Manhold’ is the fictionalised story of Sam Hill and his family, and is a jolly good read! It’s out of print now, but you can order a copy through your library, or pick one up second-hand. Here’s Phyllis herself to tell you about it: Daniel Defoe, the author of 'Robinson Crusoe' and a renowned travel writer, travelled in this area in the 1720s and in my book I imagine Mr Defoe visiting the cottage of one of Sam's workers. On the other side of the stream was a piece of pastureland with a low stone wall around it and a 2-storied cottage. Daniel Defoe: Is anybody about the place, think you? What is that clacking sound? Local man: It's the shuttle, sir. That long row of upper windows looks like a loom chamber to me. Someone is weaving. Daniel Defoe: The clack of the shuttle ceased and presently the door was pulled back and the man of the house stood before us. He had rough dirty clothes and dull tangled hair, but was not unpersonable, being well-shaped though slight and a little bowed from the loom: large clear blue eyes shone intelligently in his handsome face. Phyllis Bentley (READING THE NOVEL):Inside the cottage it was dark and close and pervaded with a choking odour disagreeably compounded of the acid smells of dirt, sweat and wool. Other objects emerged from the darkness – the flagged floor, the fire, the kettle, the creel above the hearth on which hung oatcake, the wooden table, the spinning wheel in the corner. Daniel Defoe: A child picked up the work which our knocking had interrupted. She was carding wool ready for her mother to spin; she moved two boards round and round and up and down with her swollen red hands, patiently, and the wool between the short wire spikes became slowly a soft white sheet. Such were the harsh living and working conditions in cottages like these, many of which are now converted to desirable modern homes in the beautiful Ryburn valley. Stop 4: From Soyland to St Petersburg – how Sam supplied an international market From here, almost all the land you can see below, on this side of the River Ryburn, belonged to Sam Hill. And behind you, about half a mile away, was his base in Soyland. While you enjoy the view, let’s think about the sheer scale of his international business. By 1747, his turnover was equivalent to £4.5 million today. His cloth went, via !"##$#"%&'($)'#*%$*%+,"%-.+"*+%/('0"1+%23%!"##$#"%&"($+.4"%56#7"7%23%+,"%&"($+.4"%8'++"(3%96#7% % !"!"##$#"%&'($)'#*%"+,(-$.*% " ///01"##$#"2"($3-4"0'(4056" " ! Hull, to towns in northern Europe like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Antwerp and Bremen. Also to Spain, Portugal, Italy and even to St Petersburg, and on from there to Iran! So, how on earth did Sam become such a successful and wealthy entrepreneur? Copies have survived of some of his correspondence with customers and they give us real clues as to his character and hard-headed business methods! Here is Sam dictating to his clerk a letter to a merchant in Europe telling him to sell one of Sam's new top-quality brands very cheaply at first, and then put the price up later. Sam Hill:Now then, lad. Mr Van Broyes is complaining he cannot sell my very best shalloon cloth.