Bulletin Vol 45 No4 2015 V4.Pub
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
addleworth istorical ociety ulletin Volume 45 Number 4 2015 Bulletin of the Saddleworth Historical Society Volume 45 Number 4 2015 Diggle as I knew it in 1867 89 Ben Brierley J.P. Chairman’s Report 2015 96 Mike Buckley A Grim Diary of Saddleworth - 7 100 Paul Fryer Obituary 104 Philip Bagley Obituary 106 Margaret Bagley Index to Volume 45 108 Alan Schofield Cover Illustration: Old Water Wheel Saddleworth Museum Archives: M/P/Dp/184 ©2015 Saddleworth Historical Society and individual contributors and creators of images. i ii SHS Bulletin, Vol. 45, No. 4, 2015 DIGGLE AS I KNEW IT IN 1867 Ben Brierley J.P.1 Here are recollections by eighty-nine year old Mr Ben Brierley, J.P. of what Harrop Dale and Diggle were like in 1867. He has lived in Diggle all his life and has seen many changes. Remarkably fit for a man of his advanced age he still takes pleasure in a walk over the hills and his memory is wonderfully good. I will try and give a rough picture of the place eighty-two years ago. There were no motor cars or motor bicycles in those far-off days, no telephone, no electricity very little gas and no Saddleworth Urban District Council. We were part of the meres and Mr Charles Winterbottom was the overseer. The roads were made from local stone and between the old property at Marslands and Weakey there were no houses by the roadside. Weakey was an important place in the district. The old cottage-smithy was there and children loved to watch old Matthew2 the smith and his striker Watts, who lived together in a flat above the smithy and did their own housework. Adjoining was the old Hanging Gate whose landlord at the time was John Buckley. Diggle's principal shop was at Weakey and was owned by Aaron Schofield and his two sisters Betty and Anne.3 Before finding another house after leaving Weakey we had to go to Low Green, now better known as Near Home and between there and Diggle there were no houses. No co-operative stores or butchers' shops were to be found in the district, although Diggle store had just begun to open at nights on Harrop Green. I can remember being sent to the store as a young boy and seeing James Wrigley and his daughter Lavinia selling in the shop.4 At Diggle station there was a level crossing and the signal box was close to the station. There was a man of the name of John Buckley whose duty it was to open the gates and let the traffic across and to see that the people crossed the line safely. A man with a staff on a pilot engine had to take trains through the single-line tunnel. The station -master was a man named Woolley5 and when a train entered the tunnel at Marsden end the signalman got a telegram and came to the window of the signal box and shouted to the officials, “Train pilot on”. The canal tunnel was in daily use and the man in charge at the Diggle end had to come to the signal box to find out if any boats were entering the tunnel at the Marsden end. 1 The account was published in the Oldham Chronicle 6 August 1949. Notes have been added mainly from census and trade directory records. Ben Brierley was the younger son of Ben and Caroline Brierley. His father was a woollen cloth miller at Warth mill: census 1861 available at http:// www.ancestry.co.uk/ 2 Matthew Slater was seventy-four years old: census 1861. 3 He had been a clothier and his sisters spinners: census 1851. When he died in 1868 he left under £600: National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations) 1858-1966 available at http:// www.ancestry.co.uk/ 4 The Society was founded in 1863 and James Wrigley was a founder member and the Treasurer. The shop was behind Harrop Green: Diggle Industrial Co-operative Society Ltd, Jubilee Handbook & Souvenir, 1913 pp. 17-19. James was a stone mason: census 1861. 5 William Woolley had recently been appointed and lived at Diglea: Slater's National and Commercial Directory of Lancashire, 1865 p. 745, census 1871. He later became station master at Greenfield: census 1881. 89 SHS Bulletin, Vol. 45, No. 4, 2015 Handloom weaving was still common in the district and some of the weavers had a small farm to look after as well as their looms. They produced their own eggs butter and chickens and bacon and earned from £1 to £1 10s a week by weaving. Wrigley mill, owned by Benjamin Sykes and Son,6 was considered an up-to-date place. Flannel was manufactured there and the entire process was carried through, from the raw wool to the finished article. The mill was run by water power assisted by a small steam engine. Manchester Times 24 September 1853 6 He came from Slaithwaite and had previously worked Mitchell mill: census 1851. His son John joined him when he moved to Wrigley Mill in the mid-1850s. They employed twenty-six workers. He lived at Holly Grove: census 1861. John seems to have been the driving force and by 1871 Benjamin had retired: census 1871. 90 SHS Bulletin, Vol. 45, No. 4, 2015 Saddleworth Museum Archive M/P/Dg/9 Wrigley Mill SMA M/P/DgT/1 Thornes Clough Mill 91 SHS Bulletin, Vol. 45, No. 4, 2015 SMA M/P/DgT/3 Mitchell Mill SMA M/P/DgT/2 Diggle Mill 92 SHS Bulletin, Vol. 45, No. 4, 2015 Dobcross Loom Works (Messrs Hutchinson and Hollingworth) was a small place then and Warth Mill was a small finishing place worked by Ben Brierley7 up to 1864, when he sold the business to George Hartley, the top room being let to Edmund Buckley who had a carding engine and a spinning billy and made yarns for the handloom weavers. This mill was also run by water power. Thurnsclough Mill was owned and worked by Henry Buckley and Sons and in addition to water power there was a small engine.8 At Ridge, Thurstons, there was a cotton yarn bleach works, owned and worked by Charlie Lunn.9 Mitchell Mill was formerly a silk mill. Owned and worked by Joseph Monk,10 but at the time I am dealing with, it was occupied by James Stott, who started manufacturing flannel there. Later he built the mill on the new road to Delph. Harrop Court Mill was owned and worked by John Hall,11 a brother of W.D. Hall12 who owned the paper mill at Diggle. The paper mill was a very busy place, which worked from the early hours of Monday morning until late on Saturday night. A blind man William Broadbent, owned and worked Diggle Mill. This mill, driven by the largest water wheel in England, was a very good one producing flannel from raw wool to the finished material.13 The old Stonebottom Mill at Woolroad was engaged in carding and spinning and was owned and occupied by John Radcliffe of Boarshurst. It was worked by water power. At the top of Woolroad there was wool warehouse. This business was carried on by a woolstapler named Buxton. There was also another wool warehouse in the Square at Dobcross and the stapler was a man named Bradbury who, lived at Carr, Diggle. 7 This is Ben, the writer's, father: census 1861. 8 They were flannel manufacturers: Slater’s Lancs., 1865 p. 741. He was a founder member of Diggle Co-op: Jubilee Handbook, p.18. He had retired by 1871: census 1871 9 Charles Henry Lund lived with his father William and the firm went under his name and had a Manchester warehouse: Slater's Lancs., 1865 p.739. In 1861 William describes himself as a linen merchant. Charles was born in Sriven, near York. Both are bleachers on Charles' marriage certificate in 1863. William retired to Southport and Charles went with him becoming a stationer on Birkdale where he died in 1894: census 1871 & National Probate Calendar. 10 A native of Stockport, he had arrived in Saddleworth in the mid-1850s and had previously worked Husteads mill, Dobcross. He was employing twelve men and eight boys: census 1861. Joseph was one of the founders of Diggle Co-operative Society: Jubilee Handbook, p. 18. 11 He bought it in 1859 and was cotton spinner: deed in Bernard Barnes papers, Saddleworth Historical Society Archives H/BB/6/2 & Kelly's… Directory of the West Riding...1861 p. 622. John Sherbrooke Hall is describing himself as a “gentleman” and is employing both a governess and housemaid: census 1861. He had earlier, from the age of twenty, operated the paper mill at Diggle Bridge with his brother William, employing fifty men: censuses 1841 & 1851 and Pigot & Co's National and Commercial Directory … Yorkshire, 1841 p. 293. He subscribed £50 towards the building of Wrigley Mill chapel: The Huddersfield Chronicle and West Yorkshire Advertiser, 3 October 1868. He retired to Birkdale, near Southport, where he died in 1884: census 1881 & BMD available at http://www.ancestry.co.uk/ 12 William Dehown was John's younger brother and until 1853 in partnership with him: London Gazette 25 March 1853. He lived in Green Bank House, which he probably built in the mid-1850s. He was declared bankrupt in 1866: London Gazette, 21 September 1866, but was able to continue as a paper maker employing twenty-eight men in 1871: census 1871.