Title quote: extract from Daniel Defoe, A /Qurthrough the whole island of Great Britain (Harmondsworth, 1971). p. 500

Front cover: depicts a detail from a map of the estate of the Low Moor Iron Company drawn in 1811 by George Leather junior (Metropolitan Libraries/LOW 1811 LEA 12)

Back cover: Inventory of Isaac Denby of Wilsden, dated 6 July 1725 (Borthwick Institute/Exchequer Probate Records/ Pontefract D/August 1725) West : 'A Noble Scene of Industry" The Development of the County 1500 to 1830

by R. C. N. Thornes

WestYorkshire Archaeology• Service JOINT COMMITTEE FOR ARCHIVES AND ARCHAEOLOGY ISBN: 1 870453 02 6

© West Yorkshire Archaeology Service 1987

First published 1981 by West Yorkshire Council Reprinted with corrections and a new foreword 1987 by West Yorkshire Archaeology Service, 14, St John's North, Wakefield WF1 3QA.

Printed by Witley Press Ltd., Hunstanton, Norfolk. iii

CONTENTS

List of contents iii

Figures and plates V

Foreword .. vii

Acknowledgements and Abbreviations ix

Introduction 1

CHAPTER 1. Textiles 7

CHAPTER 2. Iron and coal 28

CHAPTER 3. Minor industries .. 37

CHAPTER 4. Communications .. 42

CHAPTER 5. Working-class housing .. 51

CHAPTER 6. Priorities for future work 54

Notes 55

Bibliography 57 iv V

FIGURES AND PLATES

FIGURES PLATES l. Geology and relief 1. Wade family crest, High Bentley (Shelf) 2. Wealth distribution, 1334 and 1600 2. Peel House, Gomersal 3. Population density, 1379 and 1672 3. Park Mills, 4. Population density, 1831 4. Bingley from Bailey Hills, c. 1830 5. Population increase, 1801 to 1831 5. Factory children, c. 1814 6. Enclosure of the commons, Honley, 1788 6. Midgley Farm, Baildon 7. The deanery of Pontefract 7. Midgley Farm, Baildon 8. Probate inventories: distribution of those engaged in 8. Clothiers taking their cloth to market, c. 1814 the textile industry, 1688-1738 (by parish) 9. Merchants and clothiers in the Leeds coloured cloth 9. Probate inventories: relative wealth of yeomen­ hall,c. 1814 clothiers and yeomen in the parish of Halifax,1688- 10. The Piece Hall, Halifax 1738 11. The Fieldens' cottages, Todmorden 10. Probate inventories:· agricultural interests of the 12. Turkey Mill, Goose Eye (Keighley) principal trade and status groups, 1688-1738 (by 13. Bell pits, Bentley Qrange, Emley parish) 14. Bell pit, Bentley Grange, Emley 11. Distribution of houses with three or more hearths, 15. Bretton furnace watercourse 1672 16. The original blast furnaces, Low Moor (North 12. Schematic plan of an aisled hall Bierley) 13. Worsted mill, Goose Eye (Keighley) 17. The original blowing engine, Low Moor (North 14. Armley Mills Bierley) 15. Distribution of woollen and worsted mills, 18. A typical cottage of the type built for colliers, North 1831 (by parish) Bierley 16. Woollen cloth production, 1770-1820 19. Newlay Bridge, Horsforth, 1819 17. Loomshop, Addingham, c. 1797 20. Bierley Ironworks 18. Nineteenth century weavers' cottages, Golcar 21. A Middleton collier, c. 1814 19. Nineteenth century weavers' cottages, Golcar 22. The Leeds Pottery 20. Weavers' cottages, Gully (Wooldale), 1794 23. Bottle cone, North Bierley 21. The distribution of textile manufacturers, 1821 24. Packhorse bridge, Marsden 22. The distribution of the principal branches of the textile 25. Toll bar, Bradford industry, 1821 26. Aire and Calder Navigation warehouses, Leeds 23. Trade token issued by Richard Paley in 1791 27. Sowerby Bridge basin, Calder and Hebble Navigation 24. Low Moor Iron Works (North Bierley), 1811 28. Waggonway embankment, North Bierley 25. Field-names with leather elements 29. Coal staithes, Middleton Railway, Leeds 26. Distribution of potteries 30. Single storey cottage, Adel 27. Field-names with brick elements 31. Terrace row, New Longley (Norland) 28. Milepost, West Bretton 32. Dwellings of the urban labouring-classes, Leeds 29. Turnpike roads 33. Dwellings of the urban labouring-classes, Leeds 30. Navigable waterways 34. Iron worker's cottage, North Bierley, c. 1791 31. Broken stone waggonway sleeper, Shitlington 35. Estate workers' cottages, West Bretton 32. Some of the principal waggonway and railway systems of West Yorkshire, 1758-1836 33. Ironworker's cottage, Low Moor (North Bierley), c. 1791 34. Estate worker's cottage, West Bretton 35. Single storey cottage, Lepton vi vii

FOREWORD

Between 1977 and 1980 a survey of the post-medieval Workers' Housing in West Yorkshire 1750-1920, by Lucy archaeology and history of West Yorkshire was carried out Caffyn. A third important survey, covering textile mills in by the former Metropolitan County Council Archaeology the County, is currently in progress, again a joint venture Unit. This volume, first published in 1981 records the prin­ by the Archaeology Service and the Royal Commission on cipal findings of the survey. As the title implies, it is con­ Historical Monuments. cerned mainly with the industrial development of the At a time when the face of West Yorkshire is undergoing County: it outlines the origins and growth of both major a dramatic transformation, when the remains of the Coun­ and minor industries, and of what these days would be call­ ty's older, traditional industries are being erased from the ed the infrastructure - the associated housing and com­ landscape, it is vital that such studies take place. They will munications. It also traces the impact of this development enable future generations to understand the ·processes upon the region's rural society and agrarian economy. which formed the modern character of West Yorkshire, The publication was not designed to be a definitive and and they will indicate which monuments to past industries final account of West Yorkshire's industrialisation. Rather, should be preserved in the present and future landscape. In it sought to establish a context for more detailed studies of the meantime, this volume still provides an indispensable the relevant historical documents and archaeological introduction to the industrial history of West Yorkshire monuments. Two such studies have already been com­ and to its archaeological monuments. pleted, both of them undertaken jointly by the former County Council with the Royal Commission on the John Hedges Historical Monuments of . They are Rural Houses County Archaeologist of West Yorkshire 1400-1830, by Colum Giles and PREAMBLE TO THIS DIGITAL Those interested in pursuing the content of this volume in more depth, should be aware that EDITION copies of all the cited reports, and a lot more West Yorkshire: A Noble Scene of Industry - besides, are available for consultation by The Development of the County 1500 to 1830 appointment (free to personal researchers), at the by Robin Thornes, was first published by the West Yorkshire Historic Environment Record. West Yorkshire Metropolitan CC in 1981, with a I welcome this digital version of A Noble Scene second edition (with minor corrections) of Industry by the Yorkshire Archaeological and published by West Yorkshire Archaeology Historical Society. I hope that it will serve as an Service in 1987, of which this is a scanned copy. introduction to West Yorkshire’s industrial past, Since the publication of the first edition, there for a new generation, with changes having taken has, not surprisingly, been significant additional place that few could have imagined in 1981; work on key aspects of West Yorkshire’s perhaps the biggest of all being the end of coal industrial past. This work has significantly mining and its use in large scale industries and supplemented, rather than superseded, some of power generation. Interestingly, water power is the content of A Noble Scene of Industry. Notable returning, with two major schemes now in place. are the RCHME/West Yorkshire Archaeology However, transport was a foundation of the Service volumes on Yorkshire textile mills (Giles industrial revolution and continues to dominate and Goodall 1992), workers’ housing (Caffyn the county, and Chapter 4 of A Noble Scene of 1986) and rural houses (Giles 1986). Industry remains the best general survey on this subject. Significant archaeological work has also been carried out through the planning process as a Ian Sanderson result of Planning Policy Guidance Notes 16 and West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Service 15 (1990; 1994), and their successive iterations Nepshaw Lane South (PPS5 and currently the National Planning Morley Policy Framework), where the concept of Leeds LS27 7JQ developer-funded archaeological recording in advance of destruction by development, was February 2020 applied at a national level. This has resulted in https://www.wyjs.org.uk/archaeology-advisory/ significant gains in knowledge for specific industries, some of it published as monographs, E: [email protected] such as that on the Monk Bridge Ironworks (Davies and Barker 2011). Other investigations References have been published as papers in the Industrial Caffyn, L., 1986, Workers’ Housing in West Archaeology Review, and many more have been Yorkshire 1750–1920 (RCHME & West reported as ‘grey literature’, with copies lodged Yorkshire MCC) in the West Yorkshire Historic Environment Record (held by the West Yorkshire Archaeology Davies G. and Barker, D., 2011, Monk Bridge Advisory Service (WYAAS). Ironworks, (ArcHeritage, York Archaeological Trust) The comprehensive research agenda for the Industrial Archaeology of West Yorkshire Giles, C., 1986, Rural Houses of West Yorkshire (Gomersall 2005; reviewed 2009), available on 1400-1830 (RCHME & West Yorkshire MCC) the WYAAS website, has naturally replaced Thornes’ one-page Chapter 6 (‘Priorities for Giles, C. and Goodall, I.H., 1992, Yorkshire future work’) in A Noble Scene of Industry. Textile Mills: 1770–1930 (RCHME & West Guided by this research agenda, significant Yorkshire Archaeology Service) recording on a range of industries has taken Gomersall, H., 2000, ‘Departed Glory; the place initiated through the planning process, archaeology of the Leeds tanning industry 1780 perhaps most notably in the textile industry, but to 1914’, Industrial Archaeology Review 22, also in coal mining and others. Important Issue 2, 133-44). research on nationally significant local industries, based on personal research, has also Gomersall, H., 2005, rev. 2009, WYAAS, been published in the intervening years, for Research Agenda: Industrial Archaeology example Helen Gomersall’s work on the Leeds https://www.wyjs.org.uk/media/1273/industrial- tanning industry (Gomersall 2000). archaeology.pdf ix

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The post-medieval survey has been conducted over a period Borough Archives; the Colne Valley Museum Society; Mrs of three years between 1977 and 1980. For the first two years E. A. H. Haigh, Archivist, DistrictArchives;J. M. Dr P. W. Lock gathered a great deal of original material Collinson, City Archivist, and the staff of Leeds City through fieldwork and research into both primary and Archives; P. C. D. Brears, Director, and the staff of Leeds secondary documentary sources; much of this information City Museums; C. P. Giles, Royal Commission on was incorporated into the County Archaeology Unit's sites Historical Monuments (England), London; J. F. and monuments record. He was also responsible for the Goodchild, Archivist, Wakefield District Archives; West planning and gathering of a sample of 1200 probate Brothers Builders, ; Mrs E. K. Berry, County inventories. This sample has been used extensively during Archivist, and the staff of the West Yorkshire County the course of the survey. Record Office; and Mrs K. Johnson, Librarian, and Mrs S. The direction of the initial work on the survey was guided Thomas, Archivist in Charge, and the staff of the Yorkshire by D. W. Crossley (Sheffield University), Professor B. Archaeological Society. Jennings (Hull University) andJ. F. Goodchild (Wakefield Many of the plates used in this volume have been Metropolitan District Archives). reproduced by courtesy of a number of organisations: A number of individuals have assisted the work of the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, inventory on survey (both in original research and in preparing the the back cover; Leeds City Libraries, Pls 3, 30, 32-3; volume for press): H. Bamforth; M. Cassidy; Dr P. Metropolitan Bradford Libraries, Pls 16-18, 23-5; and the Corfield; M. J. Gallagher; Mrs V. A. Hall; D. E. Hogan; S. National Monuments Records, Pls 1-2, 6-7. All others are Kerry; Dr J. D. Marshall; A. Saul; J. Scarfe; R. Sewell; M. copyright of the West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Throstle; S. J. Whittle. D. J. H. Michelmore and S. Council. Moorhouse made the results of personal research available I wish to express my gratitude to all these people and to for use in this survey. the countless others, too numerous to acknowledge The survey could not have been conducted without the individually here, who have assisted in the preparation of goodwill of a number of institutions and organisations: the this publication. Director and staff of the Borthwick Institute of Historical The design and production of the text figures are the work Research, York; D. James, Archivist, and the staff of of Mrs S. A. Nelson. Bradford District Archives; the staff of Metropolitan Finally, thanks are due to the Department of the Bradford Libraries; the staff of the Brotherton Library, Environment for financially supporting the work of the University of Leeds; A. Betteridge, Archivist, 7Calderdale survey and its publication.

ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviated references to record repositories

c. circa, 'about' Borthwick Institute Borthwick Institute of Historical Re­ d. denarius, 'penny' search, St Anthony's Hall, Peasholme Green, York ed. edited by Bradford District Metropolitan District of Bradford fig. figure Archives Archives Department, Central Library, ibid. ibidem, 'the same' Princes' W~y, Bradford 1 km kilometre/kilometres Leeds City Archives Archives Department, Leeds City pl. plate Libraries, Sheepscar Library, pls plates Chapeltown Road, Leeds 7 s. solidas, 'shilling' Metropolitan Bradford Metropolitan District of Bradford Libraries Library Department, Central Library, ser. series Princes' Way, Bradford 1 unpubl. unpublished Wakefield District Department of Archives and Local vol. volume Archives Studies, City of Wakefield Metropolitan vols volumes District Libraries, Balne Lane, Wakefield X Introduction 1

troduction

Geologically the county of West Yorkshire is one of south oyer the county boundary into Derbyshire. The contrasts. In terms of solid geology it can be divided into impervious nature of the rock, coupled with the altitude of four areas, the Millstone Grit, the Lower and Middle Coal the area and its high average rainfall, have created Measures, and the Magnesian Limestone. 1 conditions which militate against intensive arable farming. The Millstone Grit area in the west of the county forms Between the Millstone Grit of the Pennines and the the central Pennine plateau. This anticlinal structure, rising Magnesian Limestone lie the Coal Measures, which are to a maximum height of approximately 520 metres O.D., composed of alternate strata of sandstone and shale. has a westward-facing scarp and a gentle easterly dip slope. Towards the west of the area the proportion of sandstone is It extends in the north as far as the A.ire gap, and in the higher; this, combined with the position on the Pennine dip

(_LIMES ·-:..} ...... •·····: .. : ...·.:·....

f:?.,4ire LEEDS

L j 198 - 320 metres*

Over 320 metres*

0 10km -==-c::::JI-==== *Heights above sea- level

Figure 1. Geology and relief 2 West Yorkshire: 1500-1830

1334

* shillings per square mile

value unknown

1600

□ o-3* Mill3-6* ~ 6-9* * pence per 1000 acres - g;* 0 10km [2] value unknown -==-==-===

Figure 2. Wealth distribution, 1334 and 1600 Introduction 3

1379

Do-so*

[tt] 31-60* * persons per square mile ~ 61-90*

- 91 and over* C2:Junknown

1672

0-74*

75-149*

150-249* * persons per square mile 250 and over*

unknown

3. 4 West Yorkshire: 1500-1830

1831

□ o-499* fH~HM500 - 999 * * persons per square mile ~ 1,000-1,999* - 2,000 and over* 0-==-==-= 10km

Figure 4. Population density, 1831

slope, produces a more elevated and dissected landscape scarcely wealthier, and sometimes poorer than the than that found in the east. The soils of the Coal Measures surrounding countryside; Bradford, for example, was vary considerably in quality, those in the west being suitable assessed at 7 .6s. per square mile and Halifax at 1.1s. In for pastoral farming, whilst in the east there are to be found agricultural terms the land in the west of the county was best some of the richest soils in the county. suited to grazing, and to this end sizable parts of it were In the extreme east of the county, the Coal Measures are reserved for hunting parks and particularly for vaccaries 3 overlain by the Magnesian Limestone, which forms a ridge ( cattle farms). running approximately north-north-west to south-south­ Between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries there east. The soil on this well-drained Permian rock is fertile occurred a gradual but marked geographical redistribution and ideally suited to arable farming. of population and wealth within the county. By the latter The agrarian nature of West Yorkshire society in the century, both had ceased to be so heavily concentrated in Middle ages is reflected in the close correlation between the the east, the intervening centuries having witnessed a higher fertility of the land and the distribution of population and relative rate of growth in the central and western areas. The wealth. 2 In this period the majority of the county's increase was particularly pronounced in the wapentakes of inhabitants lived where the best farming land was to be Agbrigg and Morley. In 1334 these wapentakes, which found i.e. on the Lower Coal Measures and the Magnesian between them took in most of the county south of the river Limestone ridge. Wealth, too, was concentrated in the east Aire, were assessed for only eleven per cent of the total for of the county. In the Lay Subsidy of 1334 the townships with the West Riding, whereas by the 1540s the figure had risen the highest assessment to area ratio were Wakefield and to thirty-four per cent. Pontefract: the former being assessed at 122s. per square The agriculturally impoverished upper Calder valley mile and the latter at 58.6s. By way of contrast the manorial experienced a rapid growth of both population and wealth. and parochial centres of the western areas were often This increase was accompanied by an enlargement of the Introduction 5

area of land available for settlement. In 1449 Richard duke township), Colton and Skelton (), of York (later Richard III) dispaled his lands in Erringden Oglethorpe (Bramham) and Chevet. 4 and leased them out to tenants. Similarly, a document of In the e'ighteenth century there was a considerable 1545 shows that much new land had been enclosed from the increase in the population of West Yorkshire with the king's waste in the manor of Wakefield. Between 1521 and central and western areas again growing the fastest. The 1537 the steward of the manor, Sir Richard Tempest, sold large parish of Halifax continued to maintain a rapid rate of 1,000 acres to tenants, whilst in the same period a further growth well into that century. Writing in 1725, Daniel 220 acres were said to have been encroached without Defoe noted that: licence. There is, on the other hand, no parallel to this process in . .. it is the opinion of some that know the town and its bounds very well, that the number of people in the the east of the county; on the contrary, rather than the area vicarage of Hallifax, is increased one fourth, at of land available for settlement increasing, it seems, if least,within the last forty years .. .5 anything, to have contracted. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries a number of settlements in the east were Travelling through the centre of the county (between deliberately depopulated when the land upon which they Birstall and Leeds) he found that area, too, thickly stood was emparked; among these were Potterton (Barwick populated, but with a different pattern of settlement:

D -% to 33Ola CJ 33%to 66 % ~ 66% to 100% 0 10km 100%+ ---==--:=-w=::_= - Figure 5. Population increase, 1801 to 1831 6 West Yorkshire: 1500-1830

township boundary

~ woodland

- enclosure

Figure 6. Enclosure of the commons, Honley, 1788

... the country appears busy, diligent, and even in a two per cent. The populations of the old market towns of hurry of work, they are not scattered and dispersed Wakefield and Pontefract, in comparison, grew by only fifty as in the vicarage of Hallifax, where the houses and fifty-six per cent, respectively. stand one by one; but in villages, those villages large, full of houses thronged with people, for the whole Why then, between the fourteenth and nineteenth country is infinitely populous. 6 centuries, did the main centres of population shift from the fertile east towards the barren uplands of the west of the In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the amount of county? The answer is to be found in the gradual evolution land available for cultivation and settlement was further of West Yorkshire from an agrarian into an industrial augmented by the enclosure of cominon land. These society. In the fourteenth century the majority of the parliamentary enclosures often transformed the appearance inhabitants gained their subsistence directly from working of the landscape in the areas in which they occurred. In the land. The importance of agriculture, however, waned in Honley, for example, the enclosure of the commons the course of the following centuries as industries developed approximately doubled the area of land able to be utilised in which employed an ever-increasing proportion of the the township. The resultant regular field pattern contrasted population. The coming of industry and its subsequ~nt strikingly with that created by the earlier piecemeal expansion made it possible for areas which in a purely enclosure of medieval fields (see Fig. 6). agrarian economy would have remained poor and thinly In the early nineteenth century the fastest expanding settled to grow in terms of both population and wealth. The towns in West Yorkshire were those of Bradford and story of the development of West Yorkshire in the period . Between 1801 and 1831 the population of 1500 to 1830 is therefore very much the story of the growth Bradford increased by two hundred and sixty-three per of its industries and the social and economic consequences cent, and that of Huddersfield by one hundred and sixty- of that growth.