Saddleworth Historical Society Bulletin

Volume 50 Number 4 2020

Bulletin of the Saddleworth Historical Society

Volume 50 Number 4 2020

Acting Chairman’s Address 103 David Harrison

Managing the Roads in Saddleworth: The Work of the Saddleworth Highways Committee, 1900-1930 106 Michael Fox

The Great Saddleworth Exhibition - As Reported in Household Words 119

Saddleworth’s Spitfires 124 Peter Fox and Colin Watt

Index 128 Alan Schofield

Cover Illustration: Uppermill Square, c.1905. The ornamental trees were planted in 1903. (Peter Fox Collection)

Edited by Mike Buckley Printed by Taylor & Clifton, Uppermill

© 2020 Saddleworth Historical Society and individual contributors and creators of images.

i

ii SHSB, VOL. 50, NO. 4, 2020

ACTING CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS - 2020 David J.W. Harrison

We must sadly report the death of several members of the Society during this past year. We lost two stalwarts of the Society. Barbara Booth of Greenfield, Secretary for many years and, with her husband Ken, then Treasurer, both of whom provided much energy and enthusiasm in the management of the Society in its early days, and sadly, James (Jim) Carr of Uppermill, Chairman for fifteen years and until recently a committee member, fell victim to Covid 19. We are also sorry to hear of the death of members, John Crewe of Oldham, and Prof. Harold Townson of Irby, Wirral. We extend our deepest condolences to their families and friends. It has been, I assume for all of us, a strange and lost year. The Covid-19 pandemic has struck many, not least our membership; there have been a few who have unfortunately contracted it and at least one death advised to us. Let us all sincerely hope that the recently reported successes of vaccination trials lead to approval for wide use and bear fruit in alleviating the debilitating effects of this terrible virus. I am delighted to report that committee resignations this year have been notable by their absence, and indeed we may soon be blessed with additions to augment our ranks. Any such additions, and indeed the continuing service of current members, will have, of necessity, to be conducted by carrying-on as before and by co-option to the committee until such a time as we can gather at a virally safe AGM to formally ratify committee membership. Firstly let us thank those lay members who offered to head up various aspects of the Society’s business this year: Charles Baumann, who though not a trustee, has continued to assist us by advertising our events and keeping the local media appraised of the Society’s functions. Meg Langton, likewise, continues with the editorship and provision of contributions to the Newsletter and her invaluable work with the sale and distribution of our publications. Mike Buckley, also a non-trustee, has been a major force in the Society with his many contributions of articles for and his editorship of the Bulletin and his efforts keeping track of membership and subscriptions. However, Mike’s time has been heavily slanted towards his stewardship of the reconstruction work to the Society’s new premises, Holly Bank. Apart from his almost daily oversight of the work, managing those contracted to carry out the work, he has been instrumental in researching and procuring the means to invest the premises with the measures and latest environmental benefits to ensure its economically secure future. Underfloor heating, heat pumps, suitable insulation procedures, disabled access matters, etc., come to mind. We should be eternally grateful to Mike for all the care and effort he is putting into this project to ensure its eventual success. Continuing this theme I would turn to committee members, in particular the trustees, Keith Lucas and Lily Hopkinson, who, aided by our specialist funding facilitator Nickala Torkington of ‘flourishtogether’ have been instrumental in raising much of the funding to finance the conversion of Holly Bank without which we would be nowhere. Their efforts, sadly not without knockbacks (due, understandably, to many grant bodies currently favouring funding of Covid related charities), are greatly admired and appreciated. This work continues. Also, regarding funding, we are most grateful to one of our distant members who has donated a major sum towards the financing of the conversion of Holly Bank and, although such a handsome gift as was made is unlikely to be surpassed, we would welcome any

103 ACTING CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS donations and any ideas that members may have that may incentivise gifting would be welcome. The day to day work of the trustees continues as well as is possible under the restrictions placed on us by the pandemic; Ivan Foster, treasurer, not only shepherds the Society’s general finances but also, separately, the budgeting and accounts relating to Holly Bank. In addition he remains active with the management of our website and together with Mike Buckley slowly but surely enhancing its capabilities. This has not been as swift as we would like as meetings with our software developer in distant Hebden Bridge are far from easy in this current climate. Lily Hopkinson, minutes secretary, in addition to her work with submission of funding bids keeps an excellent record of the discussions and resolutions of your committee. Keith Lucas is an endless source of innovative ideas and ways and means of fund raising. John Curnow organised the lecture programme for the year which, of course had to be curtailed after the first few talks. However his work continues in planning events for when better times allow. Duncan Anderson in the past has helped with the organizing of lectures by ensuring the speakers’ presence and their presentation requirements and gatekeeping such meetings but since the onset of Covid has had to self-isolate. But we welcome his continued interest and involvement. Lesley Brown and Christine Barrow have been managing the culinary side of our events but again, since March, this has not been necessary. They both however continue with the packing and local distribution of the Bulletin as issues are produced. On a personal level I am still upright and standing in as acting chairman and occasional secretary of the Society, roles which do not really suit my character nor age profile. Officers for these two positions are urgently needed. Further, I would thank our redoubtable band of postal distributors who, together with some of the trustees as mentioned already, turn out to deliver Society material, as and when required, thus saving us much in the way of postal costs. I only need to post around 110 copies of the Bulletin each time as the deliverers cope with a similar quantity locally and 35 of you have elected to receive these by email. Finally, thanks must be offered too to the Saddleworth Museum staff, Curator Peter Fox, and Janet on reception who is always ready to assist us as necessary. The trustees and Friends of the Museum too have been most helpful as they always ensure that someone is available to assist on lecture nights, opening up and placing chairs. Thanks to you all, Charlie, Oliver and Steve. Indeed, thank you all whose efforts keep the Society going and viable. Our programme of talks continued only up to March this year, for obvious reasons, but with the usual high quality presentations. At the last AGM in October 2019 Mike Buckley presented findings from his latest research into local celebrity George Shaw, ‘Architect, Antiquarian and Creator of Antiques’. This Victorian still surprises us with evermore revelations of his very active and fulsome life which Mike vividly brought to our notice. November brought us a presentation from the redoubtable Jack Schofield, when he spoke of ’The Kenney family’. Most of us locally are very aware of Annie Kenney of Springhead, one of Christabel Pankhurst more militant disciples and, though Jack’s talk did feature her and her ten surviving siblings, his main thrust was on his personal favourite, Annie’s brother Rowland. Rowland graduated from being a tramp, railway labourer to journalist, was the first editor of the Daily Herald and, during WWI, a propaganda agent for the British Government in Norway, finally being Director of the Northern Section of the Foreign Division in the Ministry of Information. He died in 1961 aged 79. A fascinating man and a revelation to all who heard Jack’s story.

104 ACTING CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS

December’s lecture by John Fiddler, entitled ‘Oldham’s Health or Lack of it in the 1890s and the link with Moscow’ gave us an unexpected insight into the foresight and care exhibited by the authorities in late Victorian Oldham and their advanced ideas with the provision of facilities to combat the prevalent diseases of the time, particularly ‘consumption’ (TB) when sanatoria were built at the periphery of the town, one being at the hamlet called Moscow! Our January talk ‘Hathershaw Hall’ was by Carl Gannon. Carl, a retired police detective, brought his forensic experience to bear on researching the history of this ancient property located in the southern reaches of Oldham and though he suggested his investigations were as yet incomplete - when are historical investigations ever complete? - nonetheless gave us a rare insight to an overlooked establishment of medieval origins, still extant, but in private hands. His research is still ongoing. The February talk ‘Oldham’s Seven Crosses’ by Roger Ivens, Oldham’s Local Studies and Archives Officer, considered the likely locations for the seven monastic crosses making out the ancient estate of the Knight Hospitallers but admitted many answers are still outstanding as to this aspect of the town’s history. The March offering by Andrew Bibby ‘Working Co-operatively from Rochdale in 1844 to Hebden Bridge in 1870’ detailed the history of the early days of the Co-operative movement in those two towns. Since then Covid-19 has prevented the rest of our programme continuing from April to date! As for the Society’s main publication, the Bulletin, we trust that members have found the content to be of interest throughout the year and that the mix of academic and lighter articles appeals to all persuasions. I would conclude again with a big thank you to you, the members, whose support by your participation and financial contributions help us with the advancement of the Society. Your committee would also ask that members encourage their friends and acquaintances to join the Society and that members bring forward ideas and suggestions how to promote our activities, facilities and appeal to all who are interested in Saddleworth’s past. This would greatly help the trustees to improve the Society’s impact on the populace at large, extend our membership and expand our collective knowledge of Saddleworth and its environs.

105 SHSB, VOL. 50, NO. 4, 2020

MANAGING THE ROADS IN SADDLEWORTH: THE WORK OF THE SADDLEWORTH HIGHWAYS COMMITTEE, 1900-1930 Michael Fox Some of the most illuminating historical records are those which detail the routine, unglamorous but essential activities without which a community cannot function. Coming under this heading are the minutes of local government committees. One such body in Saddleworth was the Highways Committee, a part of the Saddleworth Urban District Council (SUDC) which came into being in 1900. Focusing on the period between 1900 and 1930, this article will use excerpts from the minutes of the monthly meetings of this committee to shed light on how a vital component of the life and economy of Saddleworth, its network of roads, was administered and maintained. The prime role of the Saddleworth Highways Committee (SHC) was to oversee the efficient and safe functioning of a network of ‘district’ roads that totalled 45 miles.1 While the main roads in the district, the former turnpikes, also came within the SHC’s purview, these were under the ultimate control of the Wakefield-based West Riding County Council (WRCC), which paid Saddleworth an annual fee to maintain them on its behalf. The SHC was not automatically responsible for every road in the district that was not a main road. Whether they had a duty to maintain a particular road could be hard to determine, however, as the answer depended on satisfying a somewhat vague set of criteria in which considerations of law might have to be balanced against local custom and tradition. Sometimes the issue was clear-cut and easily resolved. In 1900, for example, the complaint by a Mr Wall as to ‘the shocking condition of Waggon Road leading from Bank Top’ (above Saddleworth Church) and his insistence that ‘the Council put it in repair’ were readily dismissed on the basis that the road was in the area covered by the Saddleworth Enclosure Award of 1834 ‘and that therefore the repair of the road should be borne by the (land)owners.’ 2 Other complaints required closer attention, however, such as that received in 1906 from the Saddleworth Farmers’ Association about the poor state of the road ‘leading from Crowstone Gate to Top of Noddle, Heights.’ The accompanying demand that the SHC arrange its repair was rejected after the Committee had received a report from the SUDC Surveyor that ‘he had examined the road and made enquiries and found it was seldom a vehicle passed over it and that it had never been repaired at the public expense.’ 3 Disputes over who had the liability to repair a particular stretch of road could drag on for long periods. An instance is provided by the minor road leading from Saddleworth viaduct at Brownhill to Ward Lane, by way of Brownhill, Butterhouse, Hollygrove and Moor Lane. Repeated complaints to the Council from owners of the adjoining land that the road was in poor condition were met with the equally stubborn response that the responsibility lay with the landowners. In an attempt to clarify matters, eventually the SHC obtained a legal opinion from a barrister. The most significant points that he gleaned from interviews with the landowners involved were that ‘There is evidence that repairs have been carried out by the adjoining owners; no repairs have ever been done by the public authority.’ Citing the Highways Act of 1835 the barrister added, ‘The road seems to be an ancient one and thus there is prima facia evidence of immemorial liability on the owners to repair.’ 4 Bolstered by

1 Oldham Local Studies and Archives, Minutes of the monthly meetings of Saddleworth Urban District Council Highways Committee, (SHC), 26 February 1923. 2 SHC, 19 November 1900. 3 SHC, 15 October 1906. 4 SHC, 19 July 1909.

106 MANAGING THE ROADS IN SADDLEWORTH

Peter Fox Collection

Figure 1. A repair gang at work on the macadamised surface of The Sound

in Delph, circa 1910.

Peter Fox Collection

Figure 2. The Sound, Delph. The muddy and manure-strewn surface would have been typical of the local roads before they were tarmacadamed

107 MANAGING THE ROADS IN SADDLEWORTH this the SHC renewed the proposal for a compromise that it had first made three years previously, namely that if the landowners agreed to pay the SHC to repair the road then the Council would assume responsibility for its future maintenance. The offer of £200 towards the cost of the repairs that William Broadbent of Ryefields, who would appear to have been the chief of the landowners, made soon afterwards was accepted.1 That it had taken at least three years of enquiry, negotiation and wrangling to resolve what on the face of it seems a relatively small problem is a measure of the practical difficulties with which the SHC had to grapple. Of course, many of the complaints with which the SHC had to deal related to the condition of roads which were unquestionably its own responsibility to maintain. Typical was the angry letter received in 1921 from one Fred Hopkinson: ‘… that whilst their 5 ton lorry was damaged through the disgraceful condition of the road below the viaduct at Saddleworth station (they) held the Council responsible.’ 2 Also representative was the claim for £9 15s (£9.75) that was made the following year by a tripe dealer, the window of whose shop on High Street in Uppermill had been broken by a stone flicked off the surface of the road by a passing car.3 The most persistent cause of complaint was dust. In periods of dry weather wheels would throw up large quantities of this from the macadamised stone that was used to form the surface of roads, main roads in particular. An especially unpleasant constituent of these clouds was the dried dung that was the by-product of the large amount of horse-drawn traffic that used the local roads throughout the period covered by this article. The usual means employed to tackle the problem is indicated by the following representative minute entry from 1900: ‘A letter of complaint from Mr John Bottomley of Marslands as to watering the roads in cases of recent dust was read and the Surveyor was instructed to use the water cart whenever he found it necessary.’ 4 Exacerbating matters was a phenomenon that was to have an impact on all aspects of the activities of the SHC, the ever increasing quantity of vehicles that were powered by the still relatively new technology of the internal combustion engine. As early as 1905 the Council Surveyor was forced to report to the SHC that the various methods and appliances being used to combat road dust could not cope with the amount that was being produced by motor vehicles.5 The solution was to be found in the application of a completely new material to the road surface. Although the SHC minutes make no mention of the matter, a local newspaper report records that the initial spur came from the WRCC in 1906: ‘The County, we understand, have offered to pay the cost of making dust proof a certain length of road in the district by setting macadam in tar, their intention being to conduct an experiment to meet the motor car nuisance.’ 6 According to the report, the SHC had identified a stretch of road in Uppermill for the purpose. Perhaps this initiative was either not pursued or deemed a failure as four years were to elapse before the first reference to the subject appears in the minutes: ‘It was resolved that the Surveyor be authorised to spend £10 on tar-spraying such length of roads as he may select in the district as an experiment.’ 7 Clearly this new attempt was judged a success as over the ensuing twenty years the great majority of the roads in Saddleworth would receive a coating of tarmacadam. Financed by the WRCC, a programme of spraying the main roads was instituted in due course. It was well under way in 1918, the Surveyor reporting in April that ‘a tender had been accepted from the British Tar-Spraying Company Ltd for 5,000 yards

1 SHC, 13 September 1909. 2 SHC, 5 December 1921. 3 Oldham Chronicle, 16 September 1922. 4 SHC, 16 June 1900. 5 SHC, 24 July 1905. 6 Oldham Chronicle, 5 May 1906. 7 SHC, 20 June 1910.

108 MANAGING THE ROADS IN SADDLEWORTH spraying (of) main roads’, and in May (that) ‘tar-spraying was proceeding on the main roads in Diggle and Uppermill.’ 8 The spraying of minor roads, which the SHC had to fund from its own resources, was done in a much slower and piecemeal fashion. The usual practice would seem to have been to deal with short sections of road as and when necessity dictated. When, for example, in November 1921, an urgent need was identified to repair Church Road in Uppermill ‘from the Council’s yard (by Smithy Lane) to the railway bridge’ it was resolved ‘that the length be repaired with macadam.’ 9 In this instance, as in so many others, the surface to disappear under tar was made up of stone setts. Many stretches of road were allowed to retain these, however, as they were well-suited to the horse-drawn traffic that was still prevalent in the district. Nevertheless, it would be only a matter of time before making special provision for horses would be regarded as an unnecessary expense. A step in this direction was taken in 1922. A complaint from the manager of the County Bank on High Street in Uppermill over ‘the dust arising from the loose surface of the Main Road [High Street]’ was referred by the SHC to the WRCC whose Surveyor advised that whilst resurfacing was the solution only the centre of the road should be tarred, the sides being paved with setts ‘to help horse traffic.’ 10 It would appear that this recommendation was ignored as three months later the SHC heard that ‘the laying of asphalt-mac [sic] on the Main Road from the Picture Palace [near The Square] to the river bridge has been completed,’ no mention being made of setts.11 Perhaps the clearest indication of how opinion within the SHC was changing against the horse was the outcome of

Peter Fox Collection

Figure 3. High Street, Uppermill, c.1905. The setts here were overlaid with tarmacadam in the early 1920s

8 SHC, 29 April 1918 and 27 May 1918. 9 SHC, 7 November 1921. 10 SHC, 22 May 1922. 11 SHC, 14 August 1922.

109 MANAGING THE ROADS IN SADDLEWORTH a meeting of the Committee in late 1925. It was ‘moved that the County Council be asked to provide a sufficient width along the sides of County [i.e. main] roads suitable for horse traffic. After considerable discussion the motion was defeated, 4 voting in favour and 7 against.’ 12 Councillors may have been influenced in their voting by the results of a census of traffic through Uppermill that had been taken in the summer of 1922 at the request of the Ministry of Transport. Of the total of 4,837 vehicles which passed along High Street over a period of seven days, only 650, or about one in seven, were horse-drawn.13 Maintaining the district’s roads required large quantities of materials. Whilst some of these were brought in from outside, the most important, stone, was abundant locally. To exploit this source the SUDC had acquired or leased several quarries. Among those to which reference is made in the SHC minutes are Oak Hole and Wild Cat Low, both alongside the Greenfield - Holmfirth road, Yarns Hill, to the east of Greenfield village, and what would appear to have been the most important site, Nab End, by Sandy Lane in Dobcross. Other, privately-owned, quarries were also used when a favourable opportunity or sudden need arose. In 1907, for example, a meeting of the SHC heard that John Sugden, the proprietor of the quarry at Heys near Delph, was ‘calling attention to macadam he could supply at 6/- per ton and its advantage for road repairing. The Surveyor was instructed to use the stone wherever suitable.’ 14 Three years later the need for kerbing and setts to service major repairs to Dobcross New Road was satisfied by inviting tenders from private quarries, the large site at Den in Uppermill, operated by Chattertons, winning the contract.15 Obtaining products at the lowest attainable cost was, of course, a prime consideration in such tendering and in 1928 the same desire to minimise expenditure gave rise to an interesting contest at Nab End quarry. When a member of the SHC questioned whether the setts being produced there might be

Peter Fox Collection Figure 4. Wade Lock, Uppermill, circa 1910 - a typical stretch of main road paved by setts

12 SHC, 13 November 1925. 13 SHC, 11 September 1922. 14 SHC, 4 February 1907. 15 SHC, 24 May 1910.

110 MANAGING THE ROADS IN SADDLEWORTH made more cheaply by an outside supplier, the Surveyor was asked to investigate. The Council’s workmen emerged triumphant: ‘The Surveyor reported that the cost of getting the setts in the week under consideration was £3 0s 2d and if purchased from a private source would have been £3 8s 3d.’ 16 To carry out its work on the roads the SHC possessed a small but varied fleet of vehicles. Perhaps the most useful were the road-rollers. The oldest of these was a horse-drawn example which had been purchased in 1887 by the Saddleworth Justices for use on the former turnpike roads in the Delph area. The SHC decided to buy this vehicle when, in 1901, the WRCC offered it at the knockdown price of £6 10s 0d. The object was to complement the steam-roller that was already in the possession of the SUDC but which had proved too heavy for some sections of main road in the district.17 This large and lumbering vehicle was to cause the SHC some other problems. In May 1906, for instance, we hear of a claim being made by Mossley Corporation ‘for £2 2s 2d for repairing gas mains damaged by the Council’s Road Engine near the Ramsden Memorial Lamp at Dobcross.’ 18 The vehicle had only recently returned from the Lancashire Road Roller Works at Broadheath where it had received emergency repairs costing £23 15s 0d.19 The roller’s main drawback, however, was its tendency to emit large volumes of smoke. In 1910 a possible solution was put forward: ‘Councillor Winterbottom called attention to the nuisance from Black Smoke from the steam road roller and the Surveyor was instructed in future to purchase smokeless coal for it.’ 20 The water carts used for dust control receive occasional mention in the minutes. In 1908, for example: ‘It was resolved that the Surveyor purchase a new street-watering cart for Delph from C. Baker & Coy, Compton, Berks at a cost of £28 0s 0d.’ 21 Another purchase, two years later, was of a snowplough, a councillor on the SHC having persuaded his colleagues that such was a necessity for the Denshaw district and should be stationed there to clear blockages on the several main roads passing through the village.22 The SHC was slow to motorise its operations. It was not until 1926 that a meeting of the full SUDC approved the recommendation of a sub-committee that it acquire ‘for highways work’ what would appear to have been its first motor vehicle - a 30 cwt Ford lorry from the Oldham Motor Company Limited. Albert Peters and Wallace Wragg were hired as, respectively, driver and assistant for the new vehicle.23 The men whom the Council employed to maintain and repair the local roads receive little mention in the SHC’s minutes; a summary of the main references follows. In November 1918 the Committee marked the end of war with a generous gesture to its employees: ‘To celebrate the signing of the Armistice by Germany this morning, it was decided that the workmen should have holiday tomorrow with full pay.’ 24 A very different spirit had been shown in 1909 when a long-standing tradition was stamped on: ‘Cllr Brierley called attention to the custom of allowing the road workmen to go on the moors during the shooting season and he moved that the practice be prohibited in the future… It was resolved that the men be not allowed to go grouse-driving unless permission be granted by the Surveyor personally.’ 25

16 SHC, 11 June 1928. 17 SHC, 11 March 1901. 18 SHC, 28 May 1906. 19 SHC, 19 March 1906. 20 SHC, 20 June 1910. 21 SHC, 10 August 1908. 22 SHC, 3 January 1910. 23 Oldham Local Studies and Archives, Minutes of the monthly meetings of Saddleworth Urban District Council, (SUDC), 12 July 1926. 24 SHC, 11 November 1918. 25 SHC, 13 September 1909.

111 MANAGING THE ROADS IN SADDLEWORTH

The nature of their job meant that the roadmen were highly visible to the public. Not everyone was satisfied with their efforts: ‘Slackness of road men. Cllr Wood informed the Committee that he had received complaint from rate-payers that some of the road men were not doing their duty but were wasting their time and whilst not desiring to make slaves of the men they ought to know members of the public notice their slackness. The Surveyor was requested to point this out to the men.’ 26 A number of employees were transferred to the WRCC when, in March 1920, that body assumed full responsibility for control of the main roads within Saddleworth. Henceforth SUDC staff would work primarily on the district roads.27 Throughout the period covered by this article the main problem that the SHC faced was how, in an age of rapidly increasing mechanised traffic, it could maintain safely and efficiently a network of roads that had evolved to carry only horses and people on foot. Narrow roads, with frequent and often sharp bends, and sometimes impeded by buildings, were hard to adapt for the motor vehicle and, to a lesser extent, the steam lorry. In addition, as more and heavier vehicles took to the local roads so their surfaces required greater maintenance and repair than previously. One of many indications of this is a complaint made at a meeting of the SHC in Spring 1916 about ‘the number of heavy motor wagons now using the public roads [and] causing a great amount of injury to the roads.’ 28 Much of the Committee’s frustration and sense of impotence at these various difficulties lay in the knowledge that both their powers and their financial means to tackle them were limited. This was especially the case from 1920 onwards, after the WRCC had taken full control of the main roads in Saddleworth, as mentioned above. Thereafter, unable to act on its own account to resolve problems on what were by far the busiest roads in the district, the SHC could only request and cajole the WRCC to do the work instead. Typical was the following plea made in the summer of 1920: ‘It was resolved that the Clerk write pressing the County Council in view of the heavy motor traffic passing through Delph that they should see to the repair and widening of Delph bridge and the main road through the village.’ 29 There is nothing in subsequent entries to suggest that this plea was acted on. The reality was that requests from the SHC might well be low on the WRCC’s own list of priorities, a situation that was liable to cause some friction between the two. There had certainly been disagreements in some previous years. Perhaps the most bitter and protracted was that sparked by a rise in the claims that the SHC made to the WRCC for compensation for extra work on the roads arising from ‘extraordinary traffic', an aspect of the arrangement whereby the WRCC delegated the routine maintenance of main roads in the Saddleworth to the SHC in return for an agreed fee. If the SHC found that through an increase in traffic or other causes it had to spend more on maintaining the main roads than had been agreed with the WRCC, the latter might be hard to convince that such claims were justified. In early 1909, for example, the WRCC flatly refused to reimburse £1,000 of the total of £2,593 that the SHC had claimed for repairing the main roads during 1908.30 In this instance, a single user of the roads would appear to have been the main cause of the SHC’s extra spending: the large and very heavy steam lorry which the Denshaw Vale calico-printing works had acquired to transport coal from Delph station to its works at Junction was playing havoc with the road surface. The dispute over who should pay the extra costs arising was still unresolved several months later. In a move that savours of desperation, in October 1909 the SHC resolved to

26 SHC, 13 October 1919. 27 SHC, 26 April 1920. 28 SHC, 29 May 1916. 29 SHC, 19 July 1920. 30 SHC, 4 January 1909.

112 MANAGING THE ROADS IN SADDLEWORTH

Peter Fox Collection

Figure 5. A Foden steam wagon operated by Denshaw Vale Printworks, on Denshaw Road, Carrcote, Delph

Peter Fox Collection

Figure 6. High Street, Delph, in about 1900. Prominent is the dog-leg which would be removed in 1909 by demolition of the 'Mechanics Arms' and cottage on the right.

113 MANAGING THE ROADS IN SADDLEWORTH write to the WRCC ‘pointing out the large expenditure on account of the extraordinary traffic between Denshaw Printworks and the railway station at Delph [and] suggesting that they recover the cost thereof from the persons causing the extraordinary traffic.’ 31 How this suggestion was received is not recorded. Another consequence of rising levels of traffic that the SHC had to tackle was deteriorating safety on the local roads. The problem was especially evident at some junctions, a particular blackspot being the crossroads by Delph station, where the Oldham - Huddersfield and Uppermill - Delph roads intersected. This location was a regular item on the agenda of meetings of the SHC, who sought advice from a variety of sources: in 1921 an inspector from the Royal Automobile Club was called in to make a report, representatives from the police, up to the level of the Chief Constable of the West Riding, were consulted at intervals, and there was frequent communication with the WRCC on the subject. Giving the greatest spur to the SHC’s continual pleas for action, however, was the fatal accident that befell a young cyclist at the crossing in 1922: ‘The Coroner at the inquest suggested that the place was so dangerous as to require a man stationed there to direct traffic. The Clerk was requested again to call the attention of the County Council to the urgency of the matter.’ 32 The Coroner’s remarks would seem to have prompted the SHC to make a direct, and successful, appeal to the public for help: ‘It was resolved that the thanks of the Council be given through the press to those civilians who have acted on point duty directing traffic at the dangerous crossing near Delph station.’ 33 The WRCC who, as the roads concerned were main roads bore the greatest responsibility to act, ultimately addressed the problem by purchasing and, in 1927, demolishing the large building called Tame House which, as it stood hard by the crossing, badly obscured the view of drivers arriving from the direction of Delph village.34 This demolition echoed that of the ‘Mechanics Arms’ and adjoining cottages in another part of Delph around twenty years beforehand. Instigated by the SHC, the objective of this project was to eliminate a narrow dog-leg on High Street that though merely awkward for horse traffic to negotiate, was dangerous for mechanically-powered vehicles. The scheme was carried out between 1906 and 1909.35 The largest road improvement scheme in Saddleworth in this period was the widening of the Uppermill - Oldham main road from near the Farrars Arms, through Grasscroft to Lydgate crossroads. The start of this project, carried out in the late 1920s, was delayed by friction between the SHC and the WRCC. Whilst the former repeatedly urged the latter to execute the improvements to a road that was too narrow and sharply-curved for the growing volume of traffic using it, the WRCC was initially adamant that the SUDC must first purchase the land that would be needed to allow widening. Eventually, the WRCC relented and in late 1926 took the decision to undertake the work, meeting the whole cost of £30,000 itself.36 The strikingly modern stretch of road that resulted, 60 feet in width and with sweeping curves, was a testament to the fact that the motor age was now firmly established in Saddleworth. To judge from the frequency of references to the subject in its meetings, a problem that the SHC found just as difficult to manage as the growth in the number of motor vehicles was the speed at which these were being driven. Clear from minute entries on the matter is the frustration of Committee members at their very limited ability to take any effective action. An instance is given by their concerns over the Greenfield - Holmfirth road. As early as the Spring of 1905 we are told of ‘the danger to the public of the excessive speed of Motor Cars and Bicycles coming down the road from Bill’s o’ Jack’s’ and of the Committee’s intention to

31 SHC, 11 October 1909. 32 SHC, 14 August 1922. 33 SUDC, 6 November 1922. 34 SHC, 30 April 1927. 35 SHC, 23 July 1906 and 29 March 1909. 36 Oldham Standard, 9 October 1926.

114 MANAGING THE ROADS IN SADDLEWORTH inform the local Superintendent of Police of the fact.’ 37 Three years later unanimous approval was given to a resolution ‘to call attention [to] the driving of motor cars at an excessive speed and to the common danger, down the main road from Bill’s o’ Jack’s…’ It ended with a plea to the police to take action against offenders.38 Going forward a further thirteen years, to 1921, we learn that ‘Cllr Dransfield again referred to the excessive speed of the motors on the Bill’s o’ Jack’s road and to the fact that they were still continuing the nuisance…’ Once again the police were to be informed, but now, significantly, there was little expectation of any practical result: ‘The Clerk was requested to point out to the police that these dangers had not been abated.’ 39 After a total of 16 years the problem remained unresolved with the SHC feeling itself as impotent to do anything about it as it had at the outset. Another approach tried by the SHC was urging the WRCC to impose speed limits at the most dangerous locations. In 1919, for example, a meeting had resolved to write to Wakefield ‘stating that the speed of motors in and approaching villages should be limited to eight miles an hour.’ 40 Two years subsequently a further appeal related specifically to the crossroads at Delph station, the SHC maintaining that to ensure safety there a speed limit of six miles per hour was necessary. 41 The response of the WRCC to these demands was that it did not have the power to act and that ultimately it was a matter for the Ministry of Transport. Especially as the Motor Car Act of 1903 had set the speed limit for cars at 20 miles per hour, it might be argued that the councillors on the SHC were out of touch with the changing times and that their fight against speeding amounted to a hopeless rearguard action. There is a hint of this attitude in the way in which the Committee responded to the use by the Belsize Motor Company of part of the Greenfield - Holmfirth road for trialling new cars built at their plant in Clayton, Manchester. During the early 1920s the SHC frequently alleged that the speeds at which the tests were being carried out were posing a danger to other road users and pedestrians. Although the SHC finally persuaded the police to investigate they cannot have been pleased at the outcome: ‘A letter was read from the Superintendent of Police at Huddersfield in reference to complaint of excessive speed of Belsize Motors trials (at) Bill’s o’ Jack’s, Greenfield… repeated observations had been taken and no exception could be taken to either the speed or manner of driving.’ 42 Significantly, perhaps, the matter does not appear in the minutes again. It was not just the speed of vehicles that exercised the SHC but also the carelessness with which many were being driven: a national driving test would not be introduced until 1935 and the competence of drivers varied enormously. The minutes make frequent reference to instances of poor driving habits and practices. A typical example comes from the summer of 1922, when action was taken against the use of the precipitous and narrow path between Brownhill and Dobcross village by motorists seeking a short cut: ‘Attention was called to the use being made of Nicker Brow by motor cycles and other vehicles, to the danger of foot passengers using the way.’ To resolve the matter the decision was made to erect at the top and bottom of the hill the posts that remain there today. 43 Later in the same year the focus was on the lamentable standard of driving along the main road between Saddleworth viaduct and Uppermill village, a reporter who had attended a meeting of the SHC relating in a local newspaper that ‘so many gas lamps have been smashed along this road by motor cars and

37 SHC, 29 May 1905. 38 SHC, 12 October 1908. 39 SHC, 20 June 1921. 40 SHC, 13 October 1919. 41 SHC, 7 December 1921. 42 SHC, 18 July 1921. 43 SHC, 11 September 1922.

115 MANAGING THE ROADS IN SADDLEWORTH wagons that the [SUDC] Lighting Committee were asked [by the SHC] if it would be possible to put the lamp pillars next to the wall instead of next the kerb.’ 44 To warn road users against speeding and carelessness, the SHC would sometimes erect what were termed ‘danger’ boards. In the earlier part of our period many of these were aimed at cyclists, this form of transport having become very popular in the district. At a meeting of the SHC in 1901 ‘attention was called to the recent accidents to cyclists in the district and it was resolved that the Surveyor and the district representative for the Cyclists’ Touring Club meet with a view to the erection of danger boards at Gatehead toll bar, Church Road, Wall Hill and other places where accidents might be averted.’ 45 It is clear, however, that in this instance the Committee had merely granted permission for signs to be installed, as four years later the Cyclists’ Touring Club were threatening to remove them unless the Council took over their upkeep: the SHC agreed. On occasion signs were provided against other hazards, as occurred in Greenfield in 1917: ‘Councillor Dransfield called attention to the fact that during the recent snow storms vehicles had been unable to pass through drifts near Bill’s o’ Jack’s and Upperwood… He suggested a notice board should be erected at the foot of the hill to warn drivers.’ 46 A board marked ‘Road Blocked at Upperwood’ was duly installed near St. Mary’s Church. Another task for the SHC was checking that the condition of the stone walls which lined the majority of the roads in the district did not constitute a hazard to traffic. The main cause of damage to the walls was repeated vandalism. In spring 1904, for example, ‘several members complained of visitors from neighbouring towns breaking down walls in this district.’ 47 A year later we hear much the same: ‘Mr Radcliffe called attention to the damage continually being done throughout the district to walls. It was resolved that the Clerk write to the Superintendent of Police suggesting that he should employ 2 or 3 officers in plain clothes to keep watch’ 48 It would be interesting to know what the reaction of the Superintendent was to this substantial call on what were likely to have been his slender resources. Another aspect of the SHC’s activities which was undermined by vandalism was the planting of ornamental trees along some stretches of road. Whilst the six trees ordered to be planted in Uppermill Square in 1903 would appear to have been left alone, numerous others elsewhere were not. At a meeting of the SHC in 1909 ‘a letter was read from the Superintendent of Police that the police were making an exhaustive enquiry but up to the present had failed to obtain any clue as to the persons who had recently broken a number of trees on the main road near Bleak Hey Nook.’ 49 In Greenfield, criminal damage to trees was as persistent as the SHC’s efforts to eradicate it were ineffective. The trees that were put up alongside Manchester Road near Oak View in September 1900 were soon being targeted, despite the wooden guard with which each had been surrounded, and by May of the year following a large proportion had had to be replaced. The problem resurfaced in 1903: ‘It was reported that another of the trees had been broken in two and the guard thrown into the road at Fern Lee Vale recently. The difficulty was in detecting the offenders.’ 50 Lack of respect for public property could manifest itself in other ways. In 1901 a local farmer found a new use for one of the roadside forms that the SHC had installed around the district: ‘It was reported that the seat placed near the Cross Keys Inn at Thurston Clough had been removed and was being used as a gate.’ 51

44 Oldham Chronicle, 23 December 1922. 45 SHC, 11 July 1901. 46 SHC, 5 March 1917. 47 SHC, 27 June 1904. 48 SHC, 29 May 1905. 49 SHC, 21 June 1909. 50 SHC, 14 December 1903. 51 SHC, 1 July 1901.

116 MANAGING THE ROADS IN SADDLEWORTH

Peter Fox Collection Figure 7. Tame House, Delph crossroads, circa 1910, about twenty years before its demolition by the WRCC

Peter Fox Collection

Figure 8. Oldham Road, Grasscroft, circa 1930, shortly after widening

117 MANAGING THE ROADS IN SADDLEWORTH

A peripheral but still important task undertaken by the SHC was ensuring that rights of way remained free and unobstructed. The vagueness of the law relating to public footpaths, and the exclusion of the public from large areas of moorland which were preserved for grouse- shooting, caused the SHC to become embroiled in disputes over access that were often protracted and sometimes bitter. One such was centred on the hillsides to the east of Uppermill, in the vicinity of Pots and Pans Hill. This was the revival of a long-standing issue: indeed, in 1894 blood had been spilt when members of the newly-constituted Saddleworth Footpath Preservation Society decided to assert their right to use a footpath at this location that had been blocked by the landowner. A pitched battle resulted between members of the society and a body of gamekeepers.52 Thereafter the issue smouldered, those who ventured onto the hillside remaining under constant threat of challenge. Typical was a letter that the SHC received in late 1901 from a member of the public who had been angered at having been stopped by a gamekeeper when walking along Shaw Gate, part of an occupation road and bridleway leading from Rye Top to Whitebrook Head.53 The sub-committee of the SHC which investigated this and related complaints that public footpaths across the hilltop to the Greenfield - Holmfirth road were in danger of being lost through neglect by the landowner, now made contact with the latter, one Mr Brook. After lengthy negotiations, Mr Brook’s solicitor put forward a compromise. The substance of this was that if the Council did not assert there to be a public right of way along Shaw Gate past Shaw Rocks to Slippy Gate (a location to the immediate east of Pots and Pans) ‘and should discountenance all endeavours by other persons to assert a public right in future (then) in consideration for this Mr Brook will dedicate to the public use for ever the road over Whitebrook Head around Alderman as a footway.’ Significantly he added ‘that in further consideration the owner will give to the Council for the public use a long lease at a nominal rent of say 5/- a year Pots and Pans and the surrounding lands, but Mr Brook attaches the condition that in the event of any person afterwards attacking him upon his right to Shaw Gate and Slippy Gate he is to be at liberty to determine the lease.’ 54 By this means was established the ‘public pleasure ground’ at the summit of Pots and Pans Hill, which remains today one of Saddleworth’s best known and most visited locations. To read the minutes of the meetings of the Saddleworth Highways Committee is to gain a vivid sense of a world that in its concerns and perceptions is very different from our own. Here and there, however, past and present do not seem so far apart. For today’s reader the following extracts from the SHC minute books may well have a strangely familiar ring: ‘There are large numbers of holes in all the roads and all that can be done is to patch the roads. The traffic on the roads is increasing very much and much more repair will be required in the future’ 55 ‘It was pointed out that although repairs to the main road through Delph had been completed only two or three months ago it is now being taken up for laying water mains.’ 56

52 Huddersfield Chronicle, 25 May 1894. 53 SHC, 16 December 1901. 54 SHC, 22 July 1902. 55 SHC, 10 November 1919. 56 SHC, 6 November 1922.

118 SHSB, VOL. 50, NO. 4, 2020

THE GREAT SADDLEWORTH EXHIBITION As Reported in Household Words1 Last week my friend, Miss Clytemnestra Stanley, asked me to go with her and her sister Miss Cordelia, to the Saddleworth Exhibition, and to have a day’s holiday upon the moors to gather bilberries. As I am rather proud of Miss Clytemnestra’s regard, I felt flattered by her invitation, to say nothing of wishing to see the Exhibition, of which I heard wonders. One fine day last week we started early, to have a long day before us. The railway would have taken us within half a mile of the place, but we preferred going in our conveyance - a light butcher’s cart, drawn by a mare of many virtues, but considerable more spirit than was desirable. Clytemnestra and her two sisters are dealers in fish and game; fine high-spirited women, who live by themselves, and scorn to have the shadow of a man near them. They have lived together for years. Miss Cordelia was taught to groom the mare and stable it down when she was so little that she had to stand upon a stool to reach its neck. She is grown in a fine tall young woman now, and nobody to look at her would suspect that she can not only groom her horse, but build a stable with her own hands if need be. They are three very remarkable women, but they would require an article all to themselves. How they came to be christened such magnificent names is a mystery I was never told. Well we started with many injunctions from the eldest sister to take care of ourselves. Miss Adeliza seemed to consider us as giddy young creatures who would be sure to get into mischief - after stuffing an armful of cloaks into the cart behind us and enquiring we had recollected to take money enough, she allowed us to depart, watching us all the way down the street. Clytemnestra drove. She was accustomed to it. ‘The Saddleworth district,’ as it is called lies on the confines of Yorkshire and Lancashire. The high road runs along the edge of a deep valley, surrounded on all sides by a labyrinth of hills, the ridges forming a combination of perspective which seems more like the clouds at sunset, than things of solid land. Above the high road, along a steep embankment, is the railway, and the hills rise steep on either side of it. The railway with the electric telegraph, the high road, the canal, and the river, all run side by side within the breadth of a hundred yards of each other. The country is very thinly populated, and except when the mills are loose, there is an oppressive sense of loneliness. At every turn the hills shut out the world more and more, until it seems a wonder how we ever got here, or how we are ever to get out. The road is not level for a yard together, and every step brings us deeper amongst the hills. It is an intense manufacturing district, the streams from the hills making a splendid water power. Magnificent cotton mills, looking more like palaces than places to industry, with beautiful villa like residences at short distances from them, belong to the proprietors, are to be seen in all directions; is the most picturesque situations, and often in places where it would seem impossible for a mill to stand. These mills as well as the residences are built of white stone, and are five or six stories high, with tall spire like chimneys; they are all full of costly machinery. Clusters of grey stone cottages for the workpeople are scattered about; but neither the mills nor the cottages seem to take up any room, nor do they break the loneliness and silence of the scene. The amount of capital invested within a compass of six miles round Ashton and Stayley Bridge is something wonderful. We passed through the village of Mossley, which seems cut out of the rock, and is inhabited entirely by work-people - ‘hands’ as they are called. One small village rejoices in the name of ‘Down-at-the-Bottom,’ another is called ‘Herod,’ (Heyrod) consisting of scattered houses, above our head and below our feet. The changing shadows on the hills and the deep clear purple mist that filled the valley, did not hinder the view, but gave it a strangely solemn

1 Household Words, A Weekly Journal, Conducted by Charles Dickens, Vol. VIII, 1 October 1854, pp. 109-112.

119 THE GREAT SADDLEWORTH EXHIBITION aspect. No human life or human bustle seemed able to assert itself - the silence of nature swallowed it up. Our plan was to go to ‘Bills o’ Jacks,’ about three miles from Saddleworth, dine there, then walk across the moor to the Exhibition. Gradually all signs of human life disappeared, and after ascending a steep hill, overhanging a precipice without any parapet wall to keep us from falling over, we came upon a wild tract of moorland, with steep crags towering high above our heads, and huge blocks of grey rock lying about, like masses of the solidest masonry overthrown; not a habitation in sight, only the hills shutting us in more closely than ever. It looked the very spot where a murderer might take refuge to hide himself. A sharp turn and a sudden descent brought us top a little wayside house of entertainment lying in a hollow under the high road, and not to be seen before. This is Bills o’ Jacks a place of great resort, in spite of its loneliness. Some years ago it was the scene of a ghastly murder. An old man and his son lived there together. It was then, as it is now, a wayside inn, and was their own property: it had been in their family for generations. The son was married, and had two children, but he did not live with his wife, as he had a romantic attachment to his father, and would not live away from him. They kept no servant. One day the son went out to buy some flour and groceries. Some acquaintance in the town asked him to stay awhile and rest. He said, ‘No he had met some Irish tramps on his road, going towards their house, and he was afraid the old man might be put about with them - he must make haste to help him.’ The next day, people calling at the house found the son lying just within the doorway with his head all beaten to pieces, and the things he had brought home with him saturated in blood. He had been killed, apparently as he entered. The old man was lying dead upon the kitchen hearth, covered with frightful wounds. The murderers have never been heard of; and now most likely, never will be. The house still belongs to the same family. The first person we saw on arrival was the widow of the son, now an old woman, but erect and alert. She was extremely kind and friendly; but I fancied that she looked as if she had seen a horror which has put desperation between her and the rest of the world. She lives with her son and his wife; the son a handsome, sensible looking man, and his wife the very idea of a comely matron - calm, kind, sensible, with a mellow beauty; she seemed to spread a motherly peace and comfort around her. There was much bustle going on, for parties of country holiday-makers were there; but nothing seemed to disturb her calm hospitality. She was very fond of Clytemnestra and her sisters, whom she had known for years, so that our coming was hailed with delight. The best of everything was set before us to eat, and though I could not suppress a shudder at finding myself on the very spot where the old man had lain, yet as the kitchen looked bright and cheerful, and no traces of the tragedy were visible, I tried not to think of it. After dinner, we set off over the hill-side, which was in full bloom with the heather. Numbers of children and country people who had come from many miles round were swarming amongst the rocks, picking bilberries for sale. As far as the eye could reach there was not a habitation in sight; a deep valley lay at our feet, and across it were the hills rising in long ridges, the breaks in them disclosing further ridges of other hills beyond, and again beyond those, form a singular series of perspective distances, over which the deep blue shadows shifted and varied continually. It was hard to believe that such things as a town, or any other congregation of human dwellings had there an existence, and it was certainly a most unlikely locality in which to seek for an EXHIBITION. After descending the hill, at the foot of the rock called ‘Pots and Pans,’ we saw a little island of stone houses lying away before us, in the hollow of some hills, which rose in an amphitheatre above them. This was the village of Saddleworth; and, after a quarter of an hours further walking across some rough fields, we had reached the end of our journey. Saddleworth is two straggling streets of shops and cottages; the ground so abrupt and irregular that the back door of one house will be often on a level with the top of another. It is

120 THE GREAT SADDLEWORTH EXHIBITION chiefly inhabited by the work-people of the neighbouring mills. A railway station has, within the last few years, brought it into the direct line from Manchester to Leeds. EXHIBITION, in great letters over a door, told us we were before the object of our search. Ascending a dark, narrow, wooden staircase, we paid our shillings on the topmost step, and found ourselves plump face to face with the wonders of the place. I felt curious to see the sort of people who would be gathered in that out of the world spot. They were not ‘mill-hands,’ but quite a different class; people who most likely, had cloth looms of their own at home - for in Yorkshire there is still very much of this domestic manufacturing going on. The men buy their yarn, get it dyed for them, and weave it up in their own houses. They then take the web of cloth on their shoulders, and either go with it about the country to sell it, or else take it to the Cloth Hall at Leeds or Huddersfield, and dispose of it there on market-day. There was something touching in the good-humoured stupidity with which they looked upon the objects they had never seen before, and the intelligent greeting they gave to whatever was familiar. The Exhibition had no specific feature; but, in the care and taste with which the various objects were arranged, it gave evidence that those who had presided over the setting up had not grudged trouble. The articles had chiefly been contributed by families connected with the district, who must have dismantled their houses and drawing rooms of some of their most valuable adornments; and this gave a certain spirit of good intention and kind-heartedness to the whole affair, which was the real charm of it. The object I was told is to recruit the funds of the Mechanics’ Institute, which (as is no wonder) are in a very languishing state. The first room contained several plaster casts and busts of every species of phrenological development - great men, murderers, and criminals of every degree; and there was also the cast of that unhappy youth with the enlarged head, who seems to have been sent to die of water on the brain for the especial interest of science; for this effigy is to be seen either cast or engraved in all places where the ‘human skull divine’ is treated of. Clytemnestra was much attracted in this room by the bust of Sir Isaac Newton, and the anatomical preparation of a horses head; but the real interest of the party was not excited until we entered a room where there were some cases of stuffed birds, not very rare ones; but such as may be seen in England. Here the little girl whom we had brought with us from Bills o’ Jacks, came beaming up with the exclamation that ‘she found some real moor-game in a glass case and a fox, that looked as if he was alive!’ This sharp, bright little child of twelve years old-who had lived on the moors all her life, and had never been further from home than to Ashton, which to her seemed a great metropolis-took no sort of interest in the pictures, and bronzes, and statuettes, and other fine things, but greeted the objects she knew, with a burst of enthusiasm. The only novelty she seemed to care about, was an ostrich egg, which she spoke of just as the people in the Arabian Nights spoke of the roc’s egg. Clytemnestra - an excellent judge of game - pulled me to come and look at some lovely ptarmigans, and the most beautiful grouse she ever saw. Certainly they were excellently well preserved and stuffed; but amongst so many novelties I did not expect they would have attracted one who sees grouse professionally every day of the season; I suppose it was like recognising the face of a friend in a strange place. One room was filled with electrical and philosophical apparatus. A crowd of people were looking at them as if they had been implements of sorcery; whilst one, a placid goodnatured countryman was preparing to be ‘electrified;’ his ‘missus’ sitting by with an air that seemed to say he deserved whatever he might be bringing on himself. In the machinery-room there were a few beautiful models: a knitting-machine in full force, which turned out beautifully knitted grey stockings: and a sewing-machine, which was even a greater innovation than the other. This seemed to be an attractive room. There were some intolerable pictures, which the people admired when the subjects were things they understood or had seen before - whatever was absolutely new, nobody appeared to care about. A hall was filled up with curious old furniture, carved cabinets, old armour, tapestry, &c. - all arranged in a very tasteful manner - whilst an organ or seraphim, which was constantly played, made this the centre of attraction. Articles for sale were laid out in the centre of one room, and a collection of what some think curiosities, and others rubbish was arranged along one side of

121 THE GREAT SADDLEWORTH EXHIBITION the room. Amid the medley of carved ivory boxes, Chinese mandarins, and black-letter books, one pair of curiosities elaborately labelled attracted me; the shoe and pattern of a certain Mrs. Susannah Dobson, or some such name, the daughter of her father and mother, whose names were inscribed. She died - the label told us how many years ago, and also that a monument to her memory had been erected in her parish church! the old lady was doubtless a notability in her day and we saw how people walked in pattens when they were ingenious inventions. By this time we had gone pretty well through the Exhibition, and prepared to retrace our steps over the rocky moor. That strange wild district seems to lie apart from all the world, but in some of the scattered cottages there are histories going on, besides the which the incidents in a French novel are tame. There are men and women, too, who go about looking quite rough and natural, who have had incidents in their past lives that one would have thought most inevitably have wrecked any existence for ever - but it seems that fancy goes for a great deal in these matters. The matter of fact prosaic manner in which I was told some of the most startling incidents one could well listen to, astonished me even more than the things themselves. When we once more reached Bills o’ Jacks, we had only time to have tea; for the evenings soon begin to close in, and our road home was not made for travelling in the darkness. Our return home did not seen likely to be as successful as our coming out; for the little jade of a mare - who had nothing to do but eat corn and enjoy herself - chose to be excited at finding herself in a strange place, and to be startled by the sound of the falling water, and begin to plunge and dance in a way that Clytemnestra called playful. She made as many excuses for her as a mother might spoil her child; but the two facts remained - that I was a rank coward and that the road for the first two miles was down a hill that was awkward enough when we came up it in the morning. So Cordelia good-naturedly walked with me to the bottom; although I am sure it must have tried the patience of both sisters to see me frightened at what they did every day. When we were once more fairly seated in the cart, I was told that the mare had been kept without work and on an extra allowance of corn for three or four days, in order that ‘she might be quite fresh for us!’ It was ungrateful of me, but how thankfully would I have changed her for a sedate cart-horse without any imagination, and with much less corn! The lights were gleaming on the hillsides as we passed along, and the dusk had long set in before we arrived home, and found Adeliza looking anxiously up the street for us, for she had begun to feel some misgivings about our capabilities of taking care of ourselves. She had a comfortable supper ready for us, and when she had heard our adventures, she declared, with an emphatic shake of her head, that the little Jezebel of a mare should go through a course of hard work before she trusted her to go anywhere without her again. Thus we accomplished one object of our expedition. We had seen the Great Saddleworth Exhibition; but the pranks of the mare had prevented us from bringing back a single bilberry.

EDITOR’S NOTE Although Charles Dickens was the editor of Household Words, he did not write all the articles himself. It is now generally accepted that this account was written by Manchester author and writer, Geraldine Jewsbury. For a full account of the Exhibition and evidence of Jewsbury's authorship see Terry Wyke, ‘The Early Years of the Saddleworth Mechanics’ Institute and Literary Institution and the Exhibition of 1853’, SHSB Vol. 9 Nos 2 & 3 (1979). Joseph Bradbury in Saddleworth Sketches (1871), p. 167, wrongly states Mrs Gaskell as the writer and Brian Law in Oldham Brave Oldham (1999), p. 44, perpetuates the belief that Dickens was the actual author. Although the writers of pieces in Household Words were not acknowledged we know that the article on a The Great Saddleworth Exhibition was written by Geraldine Jewsbury. Born in 1812, daughter of a prosperous cotton merchant, she had moved to Manchester in 1818. Her mother had died the following year and the daughters Maria, aged eighteen and then

122 THE GREAT SADDLEWORTH EXHIBITION

Geraldine, following Maria's marriage in 1832, became the family housekeepers. Moving in both Manchester and London literary circles she had already published two successful novels by 1850 when Charles Dickens approached her to write for his new weekly journal Household Words. ‘…I don't know whether you know that I am about to commence a new, cheap, literary journal, intended to displace some of the offensive matter in that form now afloat … if I could induce you to write any papers or short stories for it, I should I sincerely assure you, set great store by your help, and be much gratified by having it’. 2 Over the next nine years she would write seventeen contributions to Household Words. After her father's death and in 1853 she was living with her youngest brother Frank, as insurance agent at 2, Birchfield Place, Stockport Road, Ardwick.3 In 1854 following Frank's marriage she moved to London. Living in Chelsea near to Thomas and Jane Carlyle with whom, she had from the early 1840s, formed a close relationship. She remained in London, writing three more novels, numerous reviews for The Athenaeum and mixing with the Victorian cultural elite until Jane Carlyle's death in 1866. She died in 1880.

2 Letter February 1850 in (eds) Graham Storey, Kathleen Tillotson, and Nina Burgis, The letters of Charles Dickens, Volume 6: 1850-1852, (Oxford, 1988), p. 44. 3 W. Whellan & Co., Directory of Manchester & Salford, 1853, p.175.

123 SHSB, VOL. 50, NO. 4, 2020

SADDLEWORTH’S SPITFIRES Peter Fox & Colin Watt

The Second World War started on the 3rd September 1939, such were the demands on the war effort there were soon many schemes to raise funds and these included ‘Salute the Soldier’, ‘Warship Week’ and adopting things which in Saddleworth included H.M.S. Pegasus. In just under a year after the start of the war the Battle of Britain was being fought in the skies above southern England in the Summer and Autumn of 1940. The outcome of the battle was to be one of the most important victories of the Second World War. The requirements to support the war effort were such that the government prompted the idea of communities supporting the war effort by buying a Spitfire. Saddleworth was no exception to this and in August 1940 the Saddleworth Council launched the scheme

SADDLEWORTH TO BUY A SPITFIRE - CAMPAIGN TO BE LAUNCHED ‘Sponsored by the Chairman of Saddleworth District Council (Councillor A. Wild. J.P.) a campaign is to be launched in the district for the purchase of a Spitfire. This will necessitate the raising of between £5,000 and £6,000. ‘The scheme was launched at Saddleworth Finance Committee, on Monday when Councillor Wild mentioned that he had been approached by Oldham to join in raising to purchase a Spitfire but he preferred that Saddleworth should do so itself. ‘“We have already raised £80,000 in War Savings, and I think after careful consideration that the £5,000 for the purchase of a Spitfire could be raised in Saddleworth,” he said. ‘Councillor Dronsfield and Holmfirth Council were endeavouring to raise a sum of £200,000 in war loan between now and the end of the year. This was a large sum but he reminded the Committee that in Saddleworth during the last war a quarter of a million pounds was raised in less than a week. ‘Councillor Dronsfield also stated that it had been suggested that the whole of the Authorities in the Upper Agbrigg area - Holmfirth, Kirkburton, the Colne Valley, Meltham and Saddleworth - should be approached in regard to raising funds for the purchase of a Spitfire.’ 1 At the same time an appeal was advertised in the press:

SADDLEWORTH SPITFIRE FUND GIFTS OF £6,000 REQUIRED ‘Saddleworth Spitfire Fund - Gifts of £6,000 Required - As Chairman of the Saddleworth Urban District Council I am initiating the movement on behalf of the people of Saddleworth to present a “SPITFIRE” to the nation. ‘Our Airmen and Sailors and Merchant Seamen are holding the enemy whilst the equipment of the Army is being carried forward preparatory to the great offensive by our combined forces. ‘I feel it will be the desire of every person in Saddleworth to help the nation in this time of need, and I know that out of gratitude and thankfulness you will subscribe liberally to the “SPITFIRE” FUND. ‘A Committee representative of all sections of the industrial and social life of Saddleworth is being formed to organize the effort. ‘Will you please send your subscriptions to me at the Council Offices, Uppermill, or to Mr. H. Gartside, Hon. Treasurer, District Bank, Uppermill. ALBERT WILD - Chairman of the Council - Uppermill, 21st August, 1940.’ 2

1 Mossley and Saddleworth Reporter, 21 August 1940. 2 ibid.

124 SADDLEWORTH’S SPITFIRES

The raising of £6,000 was a substantial amount for a relatively small community compared to that of a town such as Oldham, especially when you look at the comparative value of today being nearly £350,000. The local papers carried numerous articles, letters and adverts to support the project and in the first week had raised £730 which included a generous gift from Sir Gilbert and Lady Tanner. By the end of the first month the people of Saddleworth had raised just over half of the money. Fundraising took many forms and the local papers recorded the amounts raised as they neared the total goal

Peter Fox Collection

Figure 1. Fund raising football match

SPITFIRE FUND NOW REACHED £3,000 - APPEAL TO HOUSEHOLDERS ‘Stating that the Saddleworth “Spitfire” Fund had reached a total of £2,704 by Tuesday noon, Councilor A. Wild, presiding on Tuesday over a meeting of the “Spitfire” Committee, held in the Mechanics Hall, Uppermill, said it was very satisfactory indeed. ‘He hoped by this week-end they would have reached the half-way line and got £3,000. It showed that the people of Saddleworth had the fund at heart. He quite realized that the second £3,000, raised was a success at the same time acknowledging the fine start contributed by Sir Gilbert and Lady Tanner. They had had very good support too from the employers of the district and he wished to thank them for the support they had all given all round. ‘It was unfortunate that the Saddleworth appeal was a bit late and that some people had already subscribed to the fund in other districts. Messrs. Hutchinson and Hollingworth, Dobcross, for instance, had given £250 to the Huddersfield Spitfire Fund before Saddleworth’s was launched, but they had very generously given £50 to Saddleworth. ‘They were receiving sums from individuals but he thought they had about exhausted their big contributions and the rest of the money would come from social functions and through organizations in the district.

125 SADDLEWORTH’S SPITFIRES

‘APPEAL TO HOUSEHOLDERS - He had been all round the district that day to see what was being done, and everywhere he found something was going on for the fund. ‘When they thought of the services given by the British Legion, Special Constables, A.R.P. men, W.V.S., Ambulance bodies and Home Guard and others it was gratifying to know they were helping so well with the Spitfire Fund. The Home Guard would be making a substantial contribution.’3

The local papers continued to give updates on how the fund raising was going but in just under 6 months it was able to report in mid January it had raised £5,099 to fund the purchase of a Spitfire to support the war effort.

Figure 2. Newspaper Appeal

The February 1941 papers carried the announcement of the possibility that Saddleworth fine achievement in raising funds to purchase a spitfire would be broadcast on the radio. The government certainly was not going to supply details of where the aircraft served but did present a plaque to mark the effort carried out by the people of Saddleworth.

SADDLEWORTH U.D. COUNCIL, FINANCE COMMITTEE ‘SPITFIRE’ PLAQUE ‘It was moved and seconded that the plaque presented to the Council by the Minister of Aircraft Production to commemorate the gift of a “Spitfire” aircraft to the Country be placed in a suitable position in the Public Offices, Uppermill.4

3 Mossley and Saddleworth Reporter, 20 September 1940. 4 Oldham Local Studies Library and Archives, Saddleworth UDC, Finance Committee Minutes, 17 May 1941.

126 SADDLEWORTH’S SPITFIRES

The records show that at least two spitfire’s were purchased by the people of Saddleworth and these were given the serial numbers R7253 (model VA with M45 engine) and W3647. The first to be flown was R7253 on the 29th March 1941 had a very short life as less than a month later when searching for a damaged aircraft it crashed on Shripney in Sussex and was a total wreck. The second plane, W3647 was first flown on 1st August 1941.5 More information on the squadrons and pilots that flew the two Spitfires can be found a www. allspitfirepilots.org

Peter Fox Collection

Figure 3. Newspaper illustration of the Saddleworth Spitfire.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The assistance of Ray Burgess of the ‘Spitfire Society’ is gratefully acknowledged.

5 Henry Boot & Ray Sturtivant, Gifts of War, (2005).

127 SHSB, VOL. 50, NO.4

INDEX TO VOLUME 50 Alan Schofield

Number 1 pages 1-34 Number 2 pages 35-64 Number 3 pages 65-102 Number 4 pages 103-132

Illustrations, maps, photographs, graphs etc. are indicated by lower case i Article & book Titles, in Italics

A Broadbent, Caleb, Quaker meeting house 87 Abney Chapel, Mossley 84 Broadbent, John, Hollingreave, clor D.I.C.trustee 90, 91 Abolition of: the bishops, ecclesiastical courts, Broadbent, John, manorial tenants, Diglee 21, 25, 26, 29 established church hierarchy 1642 86 Broadbent, William, Ryefields, road maintenance 108 Acting Chairman’s Address: David J W.Harrison 103-105 Broadhead, Rev., William, presbyterian minister SW 86,87 Ainley, Messrs., Delph 97 Brooklands, Surrey, 24 hour race 71 Albert Mallalieu’s new ‘Argyll’ motor car 1908 cover3 i Brownhill to Ward Lane, road maintenance dispute 106 Albion Garage, Cross Keys, Delph, E. Hirst 67 Buckley, Edmund, Quick, Dissenting meeting house 87 Andrewes, Richard Hayles, Priory possessions 20 Buckley, Henry, Wallhill, yeoman, D.I.C,. trustee 90 Andrews, Richard, granted Kirklees land Diglee,1543 4 Buckley, J. E., vote of thanks, D.I.C. 86 Ankers, R., Spitfire fund raising football match 125 Buckley, James, D.I.C., trustee 96 Armitage, Rev.,William, minister Delph Ind.Chapel 77,95 Buckley, James, Hollyville, D.I.C., trustee 97i, 98 Ashton-u-lyne, Stalybridge, Dukinfield Water Board 42 Buckley, James, Tunstead, D.I.C., trustee 90,96 Augustinian priory Nostell, grant to 16 Buckley, John & Sarah, buried, D.I.C. 91 Buckley, John, Pinfold, clothier, D.I.C., trustee 90, 91 B Buckley Mike: Delph Independent Chapel - Bailey, William, Motor car accident, Delph 75 An Account & Some Historical Notes 76-100 Bamford, Percy, Willowbank Mill,10th M/c Bat WW1 60 Buckley, Mike: Diglee -An investigation into the Baptisms, Delph, Dissenting Chapel, 1759-1763 101 structure & Exploitation of a small Monastic Estate 16-30 Barrow, Neil: Geraldene Jewsbury 123 Buckley Mike: Missing Baptisms from the Registers Barrow, Neil: In Search of the Early Wrigleys 1-15 of Delph Independent Church, D.I.C. 101-102 Battle of Britain 1940 124 Buckley, Misses, Hollyville, gifted Delph Chapel 84i, 91 Bellas, Rev., Lancelot, curate Heights Chape 83 Buckley, Rye, John, Lt-Col., 10th Mc Regt. Boer war 60 Belsize Motors, speed trials at Bill’s o’Jack’s 115 Burgess, Joseph: Cotton Factory Times 36 Bill’s o’ Jack’s: Murders 120 Independent Labour Party 36, novels of 36 1854 & 1894 OS maps 43i, 44, visitors 41, 42 Oldham Evening Express, 36, Workman’s Times 6 Edwardian ladies outingcover2 i Burgess, Rev., James, 1st minister D.I.C. 76, 88 items from murder scene 37i, murders £100 reward 35 Byram, John, dissenting minister 88 photographs 40, souvenir crockery 41i Blackburn, Martha, D.I.C. mural tablet & children 81, 95 C Blackburn, Rev., Noah: baptism registers 101 Calligan., Spitfire fund raising football match 125 Delph Independent Chapel, engagements 80, 81, 82i Cameron, John, proprietor, Summershades1922 33 D.I.C., grave inscription 77, 78, 79 Campbell, Rev., James, Mossley,minister D.I.C. 76, 84, 86 Booth, Barbara (1932-2020) Obituary 63, 64 Camping, caravans, Summershades 1930’s 33 Bothomley, Issac, Hollingreave clothier D.I.C.trustee 90,91 Carr, James Colin (1928-2020) Obituary 61-62 Bottomley, John, Marslands, road dust spraying 108 Central Garage: Marsden, Uppermill, Morris agents 67 Bottomley, Samuel: poem dedicated to Anna’s memory 53 taxis, charabanc coaches 67 Gravemakers, Cross keys 54 Cheetham, Ralph & Christopher, Asshenbench 3 Greenfield A Poem 52, 53 Chew Valley Reservoir 42 Greenfield A Poem, manuscript version 52i Cistercian Priory, Kirklees Nunnery 16, 29, 30 memorial verse, On the Death Of A child that Clarke, Rev.,C. W., D.I.C.:150th anniversary address 76,94 was Drowned 52, 53, 55 minister 84, 85i, 88, 90 Obituary, Manchester Mercury 52 Constantine, Rev., Robert, Oldham 87 Bradbury, Jamie & Joe, suspects Bill’s o’Jack’smurders 35 Crowstone Gate to Top of Noddle, road maintenance 106 Bradbury, Joseph, Saddleworth Sketches, 1871 Cullen, J. E., D.I.C., administer rite of Baptism 83 Bill’s o’Jack’s murders 35 Cyclists’ Touring Club, safety board signs 116 Bradbury, Peter, Viewtree, clothier, D.I.C., trustee 90, 91 Bradbury, Thomas, D.I.C., trustee 91 D Bradbury, Thomas, tenant, Diglee 22, 25, 26 Delph Independent Chapel family subscribers: 91-94 Bradbury, William & Thomas murders: Leeds Mercury 35 Andrew, Boot, Bostwick, Bottomley, Bradbury, 91-94 Observer 35 Broadbent, Brooks, Buckley, Buckle, Carter, 91-94 British Tar Spraying Co. Ltd. 108 Claughton, Clegg, Gartside, Hague, Hall, 91-94

128 INDEX

Hawkyard, Heap, Hinchliffe, Holden, Hoyde, 91-94 Richard Wrigley map 23i Hunt, Johnson, Jones, Kenworthy, Lawton, 91-94 aerial view & surrounding area 1892/4 Map 18i Lees, Malalieu, Marshall, Platt, Pomfret, 91-94 early division into two halves map 28i Ratcliffe, Rhodes, Robinson, Robishaw,Schofield 91-94 field names map 28i, Hey 1590 map 27i Scholefield, Shaw, Turner, Ulfingham,Whitehead 91-94 manorial tenants 21, Marsh 1590 map 26, 27i, 29 Wild, Winterbottom, Wood, Wrigley 91-94 Diglee – An investigation into Structure & Exploitation Delph Chapel new 84 of a small Monastic Estate: M. Buckley 16-30 Delph Chapel school house 82 Dissenting meetings in Saddleworth 87 Delph Crossroads safety, demolition of Tame House 114 District Roads SUDC 106 Delph Dissenting Chapel baptism Thomas.Morgan 01-102 Dixon, J. C., JP., D.I.C. 76, 86 Abram, s, of Nathaniel Bottomley 102 Dunkerley. L J.,Summershades ‘moveable dwellings’ 33 Alice, d, of Edm.Whitehead Denshaw 102 Dygel, Diglee 19, 30 Alice, d, of James Buckley Tunstead 101 Anna, d, of Jonathan Hall 101 E Anna, d, of Thomas Platt 101 Early Dissent in Saddleworth: Mike Buckley 86-89 Anne, d, of (blank) Platt Barn 102 Early Motoring in Saddleworth: John Warburton 65-74 Aron, s, of John Cheatham Dukinfield 102 Eastwood, Edwin: purchased Summershades 33 Aron, s, of Moses Bottomley 102 chemist, druggist, farmer, cattle dealer 33 Benjamin, s, of James Bottomley 102 Ecclesiastical government restored 87 Betty, d, of Corn. Buckley Delph 102 Edwardian Ladies Bill’s o’ Jack’s cover2 i Betty, d, of Hugh Kenworthy Delph 102 Evans, Rev., Curate, Lydgate 31 Betty, d, of J. Shaw 101 Deborah, d, of Robert Hoult 102 F George, s, of William Adshead Dukinfield 102 Farmer, W., D.I.C,. administer the rite of Baptism 83 Hugh, s, of Hugh Kenworthy 101 Farrars Arms to Lydgate, road widening 114 James, s, of Eneas Bottomley 101 Farrer, William, LoM, Saddleworth 21, 22, 24 James, s, of Jo. Buckley Pinfield 102 Five Mile Act 1665 87 James, s, of William Shaw 101 Fox, M. Managing the Roads in Saddleworth: The work Jesse, s, of Isaac Bottomley 101 of Saddleworth Highways Committee1900-1930 106-109 John, s, of Eneas Bottomley Digglee 102 Fox, P, & Colin Watts Saddleworth Spitfires: 124-127 John, s, of Issac Bottomley Kinders 102 Fox, Peter & Mike Buckley: Summershades Pleasure John, s, of Jo. Bradbury 102 Gardens, Grasscroft 1-34 John, s, of John Buckley Oldham P. 102 Fox’s Book of Martyrs 87 John, s, of John or Joseph Buckley 102 Friarmere, medieval division 17 John, s, of Jonathan Kenworthy 102 John, s, of William Winterbottom 101 G Joseph, s, of James Kenworthy 102 Gartside, Henry, Attorney, Ashton-under-lyne 97, 98 Lydia, d, of Jo. Kinder of Dukinfield 102 Gartside, John: D.I.C., trustee 96, Memorial 99i Mary, d, of John Broadbent Oldham 102 Geenacres Independent Chapel 76, 88 Mary, d, of Nathanial Waterhouse 101 George, Rev., John, minister D.I.C. 84 Mary, d, of William Barber Closs 101 Geraldene Jewsbury 123 Nelly, d, of (blank) 1761 102 Grants of land purposes, of rights of usage 17 Radcliffle, s, of Jo. Whitehead Delph 102 Grasscroft, Oldham Road, car on drive 67i Ralph, s, of Jo. Whitehead 101 Grasscroft, Station, Delph Donkey Line 31 Ralph, s, of Robert Lion Tinfell 101 Grave Makers, Cross Keys, Saddleworth Church 54 Sally, d, of Moses Bottomley 101 Greaves, Thomas, D.I.C., Deacon 97 Samuel, s, of Jos. Shaw High Barn 102 Greenfield - Holmfirth Road, excessive speeds 114 Sarah, d, of (blank) Carter 102 Greenfield Farm 44 Sarah, d, of Benjamin Green New Mills 102 Greenfield Reservoir 42, 44 Sarah, d, of John Lees 102 Gregory, Chas., D.I.C., administer the rite of Baptism 83 William, s, of Samuel Sunderland 101 Gurnhill, Rev., Thomas: gallery D.I.C. 90 William, s, of William Walton or Watton Mancs 102 minister D.I.C., brass tablet 77, 95 ? Desy 101 Delph Donkey Line, Grasscroft Station 31 H Delph Independent Chapel - An Account & Some H.M.Transport Avon: 10th Batt. Rifle St Oldham 58 Historical notes: Mike Buckley 76-100 10th Batt. Mc 58, 2nd County of London Yeomanry 57 Delph Independent Chapel: c1860 89i 3rd East Lancs Field Ambulance 58, 6th Lancs Brig 58 James Schofield baptism records 54 cricket & tug of war results 59 registers baptisms & burials 91 Duke of Lancaster’s Yeomanry 57 subscriptions new lighting 91-94, Turbulent times 94 soldiers disembark to Suez Canal 60, WW1 56 Delph New Independent Chapel, opening 1866, 100i H.M.Transport Minerva, WW1 56 Den Quarries, Uppermill 110 H.M.Transport Weymouth, WW1 56 Denshaw Vale calico-printing works steam lorry 112, 13i Hall, W. H., organist 76 Dickenson, Henry, Quaker meeting house 87 Hardman, G. Whittaker, Bangor Mill 10th Mc Bt WW1 60 Diglee 3 Mean fields in 1770 cover1i Harrison, David J.W.:Acting Chairman’sAddress 103-105 Diggle Enclosure: 1770 map 23i Harrop Dale, Diggle 19

129 INDEX

Harrop, David 25, 26, 27 Manchester Automobile Club trials 70, 71i Hayward, James, Dissenting meeting house 87 Manchester Motor Manufacturers: Belsize 66 Hepworth, J. W., D.I.C. 86 Crossley & Royce 66, Eagle Altrincham 66 Hepworth, Ralph, D.I.C., Deacon 97 Ford Trafford Park 66, Horbrick Pendleton 66 Heywood, John, Austerlands, Great Bible 87 Marshall & Co. Clayton 66, Rolls-Royce 66 Higgs, Rev., T K: 76 Rothwell Oldham 66 Greenacres address, D.I.C. 85 Manchester Motor Shows 69 High Street, Delph, demolition Mechanics Arms 113i,114 Manor of Saddleworth sold 20 Highways Act 1835 106 Manorial farms, Diglee map 1590 25i, 27 Hill, James, confessed to Bill’s o’ Jack’s murders 35 Mechanics Arms, demolition, Delph 113i Hillbrighthope, Saddleworth, grant to Roche Abbey 16,17 Messrs Hutchinson & Hollingworth, spitfire donation 125 Hinchcliffe, Spitfire fund raising football match 125 Midgley, Richard, puritan Vicar Rochdale 86 Hinchliffe, B., D.I.C., conductor 76 Missing Baptisms from the Registers of Delph Hirst, E., Albion Garage Cross Keys 67 Independent Church: Mike Buckley 101-102 Hirst, Jonathan, Oldham Chronicle, Bill’s o’ Jack’s Mitton, Spitfire fund raising football match 125 murders 35 Moorcock Inn, Bill’s o’ Jack’s: 36 Holgate, John, D.I.C., administer the rite of Baptism 83 Moorcock Inn, closure 44, front room 38i Holly Grove Cottage: finds button, fabric fragments 46,47 room layout 39, landlords 39 Grade 2 Listed 48i, 49i, historic artefacts 46, 47 Morgan, Rev. Thomas: baptism records 101 John Schofield, cloth maker 47, Lower & Upper 47, 48 minister D.I.C. 77, 94, 101 material fragments & button finds 47i, plan of 46 Motor ambulance crash, Cross keys Delph 75 Sykes cottage 50, 51 Motor car accident, Delph, Nicker Brow, Wall Hill 75 Holly Grove Field Top, lintel ds 1696 50i Motor Car Act 1903, speed restrictions 114 Holroyd, Rev., John: interred &family Delph Chap. 83,96 Motor car endurance trials 69, 70 minister D.I.C. 83, 94, 96, 97 Motor lorry on fire, Lydgate Road 75 Honour of Pontefract, Saddleworth tenants 19 Motor vehicle, self-propelled internal combustion eng 65 Hopkinson, Fred, Brownhill Bridge, transport advert 66 Mullins, Charles, suspect Bill’s o’ Jack’s murders 35 Hopkinson, Fred, Saddleworth road complaint 108 Hopkinson, Fred, Uppermill SUDC ambulance driver 75 N Hulme, Athaliah, Summershades 31 National driving Test, 1935 115 Hulme, William Griffiths, Summershades, plumber 31 Nettleship, George, D.I.C., administer rite of Baptism 83 Hunt, Julian, three field system Diglee 16 Newroyd Mill picnic Summershades Oldham Standard 31 Hunt, Rev., Henry: baptisms register 101 Newspapers, Observer, Leeds Mercury 35 minister, D.I.C. 77, 78i, 94, 95 Nicker Brow, Dobcross, posts preventing vehicle use 115

I O In Search of the Early Wrigleys: Neil Barrow 1-15 Obituary, James Colin Carr (1928-2020) 61-62 Internal combustion engine 65 Obituary, Barbara Booth (1928-2020) 63-64 Oldham Automobile Club 72, 73i J Oldham County Borough, car registration BU 67 Jackson, Henry, Quaker, Holmfirth 87 Oldham Motor Co., Ford lorry for SUDC 111 Jewsbury, Geraldine: contributions Household Words 123 Oldham Poor Children’s holiday Ass, Summershades 34 contributions to The Athenaeum 123 Oldham Road, Grasscroft, road widening c1930 117 including The Great Saddleworth Exhibition 123 Oldham, N., D.I.C. 86 novelist, Manchester & London 123 Oram, William, D.I.C., administer the rite of Baptism 83 John, de Staveley 19, 29 Ornamental trees damaged: Bleak Hey Nook, 116 Fern LeeVale Oak View Greenfield 116 K Ornamental trees, Uppermill Square 116 Kennerly, John, Dissenting Meeting House 87 Kershaw, James, D.I.C,. trustee 96, 97 P Kirklees Nunnery, Cistercian Priory 16 Peters, Albert, council lorry driver 111 Kirklees Priory: nuns & property of 20 Pilling, Harry & Sarah, Moorcock Inn landlords 40 Lesser Monasteries Act 1535 19 Platt, Reuben, suspect, Bill’s o’ Jack’s murders 36 Kyppes, Joan, Kirklees Prioress 20 Platt, Thomas Ammon, Summershades 31 Presbyterian form of religion 86 L Priestley, John, suspect, Bill’s o’ Jack’s murders 35 Lees, Rev., John, Saddleworth 87 Public footpaths, conflicts with landowners 118 Lesser Monasteries Act 1535, second act 1539 20 Lord Lovell, LoM of Saddleworth & Staley, rents 19 R Locating the ‘Far Famed Bill’s o’ Jack’s.’ T. White 35-45 Ramsden, John, Manor of Saddleworth 20 Ramsden, Sir John, LoM Saddleworth, Chancery Crt. 21,24 M Ramsden, William: granted Kirklees land Diglee 1543 4 Mallalieu, Albert, Delph, early car 69 Longley Priory possessions 20 Mallalieu, Ann nee Hardman, Bailey Mill 60 Manor of Saddleworth 20 Managing the Roads in Saddleworth: The work of Raol, Botiler, LoM grant to John de Staveley 19 the Saddleworth Highways Committee 1900-1930 Rhodes, John, Lees, Quaker license application 88 Michael Fox 106-119 Riley, J. W., Motor car accident Delph 75

130 INDEX

Road Repair Gang, The Sound Delph 107i Stephenson, William, suspect Bill’s o’ Jack’s murders 35 Road repair vehicles, horse drawn & steam roadrollers 111 Stone quarries for roads, Oak Hole, Wild Cat Low 110 Robert de Diggelegh, rent 19 Stone quarries for roads,Yarns Hill, Nab End Dcross 110 Robert de Stapleton: LoM Saddleworth 16, 29 Sugden, John, Heys Quarries Delph 110 grant of 8 acres to Kirklees Nunnery 16 Summershades Pleasure Gardens, Grasscroft: Roberts, L., Spitfire fund raising football match 125 Peter Fox & Mike Buckley 31-34 Robinson, Ernest, Dobcross, Rothwell car 65i Summershade Gardens: Greenfield, dancing picnics etc 31 Roch Abbey, dissolution1539 3 1892/4 map, c1900 32i c1930 33i Rothwell car(s): advert 66i Ann, Travis 31 31 Ernest Robinson, Dobcross 65i, 67, Rothwell cars 68 farmhouse, Wharmton Grasscroft 31 Royal George, Red Sign Roaches c1915 73 George Travis, flannel manufacture 31 John Taylor 31 S sale 33 Saddleworth Buy a Spitfire Campaign 124 Temperance Hotel 31 Saddleworth car owner, Albert Mallalieu, Delph 69i Saddleworth car owner, G. A. Schofield Greenfield 68 T Saddleworth car owner, J. Murgatroyd, Stoneswood 73 Tame House, Delph Crossroads, demolition 114, 117i Saddleworth car owner, John Taylor, Brownhill 68 Taylor, James, Cross, Quaker meeting house 87, 88 Saddleworth Chapel, Parish of Rochdale 16 Taylor, John, Brownhill, early car 68 Saddleworth clothmakers: broadcloth, linen, flax Taylor, John, Summershades 31 worsted, woollen yarns, 47 Temperance Hotel, Summershades 31 Saddleworth Enclosure Award 1834 106 The Conventicle Act 1664 87 Saddleworth Farmers’ Association 106 The Declaration of Indulgence Act 1672 1687 87 Saddleworth Footpath Preservation Society 118 The Great Saddleworth Exhibition – As reported in Saddleworth Highways Committee: Household Words, Geraldine Jewsbury 120-122 road maintenance 106-108, road safety 114 The Great Saddleworth Exibition: Saddleworth Museum collection transport memorabilia 66 old furniture cabinets, armour, tapestry, 121 Saddleworth Parish Church 76 carved boxes, Chinese mandarins, 122 Saddleworth War savings 124 electrical & philosophical apparatus, 121 Saddleworth roads: stone setts, macadam, tar spraying 108 cloth manufacture, 121. machinery room 121 Saddleworth Spitfires: Peter Fox & Colin Watts 124-127 Mechanics Institute fund raiser 121, organ playing 121 Saddleworth Urban District Council roads (SUDC) 106 phrenological development 121, Wild life 121 Saville, John, Castleshaw, yeoman, D.I.C. trustee 90 Mrs Susannah Dobsons shoe pattern 122 Schofield, Abel, Spring House, address to D.I.C. 96 The Kernel moralboosting pamphlet WW1 Troopship 56-60 Schofield, Edmund, Castleshaw, D.I.C. member 89 The Northern & Peak District Footpaths Preservat. Soc 42 Schofield, F., Spitfire fund raising football match 125 The Perils of Early Motoring: John Warburton 75 Schofield, George Arthur Westfield, Greenfield car 68 The Schofields of Hollingreave pt 3 a Postscript P.Wild 46 Schofield, J. Stones, D.I.C. 97 Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, Honour of Pontefract 19 Schofield, James & Jane, Moorcock Inn landlords 39 Thornton, John works of 82, 83 Schofield, James & Sarah: nee Whewell, alias Buckley 54 Thornton, John, pastor Billericay Essex 82 Lower Green, Bank Top 54,Lower Hollingreave, Pob 54 Thornton, John, weaver, Broadhead 82 Schofield, John & Ann, ds 1696 49, 49i Thornton, Joseph, description of first Delph Ind.Chapel 90 Schofield, John, Holly Grove Cottage 47 Three field system: Diglee, Julian Hunt 16 Schofield, John, manorial tenants Diglee 21, 25, 26, 29 three mean fields Diglee 23, 24, 30 Schofield, Mars & Annie, Moorcock Inn 40 Travis, Ann, Summershades 31 Schofield, Priscilla, Summershades 31 Travis, Edward, farmer, beer seller 31 Scholefield, Annah, Top o’th’ Field, death 54, 55 Travis, Edwards, landlord, Whit Hart Inn 31 Scott, James, D.I.C., administer the rite of Baptism 83 Travis, George, Summershades, flannel manufacturer 31 Shaw, Edmund, land, house lease Diglee 25, 26 Tunstall, Marmaduke, sold Manor of Saddleworth 20 Shaw, Giles, Quick, Dissenting meeting house 87 Turner, John, dissenting minister, Holmfirth 88 Shawyer, Rev., Andrew Fielder, minister D.I.C. 84 Turnpike Roads, WRCC controlled 106 Saddleworth Highway Committee Vehicles: watering cart, snowplough, ford lorry 111 U Snow warning signs, Bill’s o’ Jack’s 116 Uppermill High Street, setts c1905 109i Spencer, John, Kirklees Priory purchase 20 Uppermill traffic census, 1922 110 Spitfire fund appeal to house holders 126 Spitfire fund contribution, various organisations 126 V Spitfire fund, football match, Home Guard v A.R.P. 125i Vehicle Licensing Office records 67 Spitfire fund, Sir Gilbert & Lady Tanner donation 125 Vehicle registration records Oldham Local studies 67 Spitfire photograph 127i Spitfire purchase marked with plaque 126 W Stalybridge poor children outing, Summershades 31 Wade Lock, paved setts 110i Stanley, Adeliza, The Great Saddleworth Exhibition 119 Waggon Road, Bank Top, S’worth Enclosure Road 106 Stanley, Clytemnestra, The Great Saddleworth Exhibn 119 Waide, Rev., J. S, 76, address D.I.C. 85 Stanley, Cordelia, The Great Saddleworth Exhibition 119 Walker, Rev., J., Pastures, address D.I.C. 85 Steam powered railway network 65 Wall breaking vandalism 116 Steam traction engines, haulage,agriculture,showman’s 65 Warburton John: Early Motoring in Saddleworth 65-74

131 INDEX

Warburton John: The Perils of Early Motoring 75 Wrigley, Reginald, purchase Kirklees land Diglee1543 4 Waterhouse, Joseph & Martha, Moorcock landlords 39 Wrigley, Richard, Diglee: field names 25, 29 Watts, Colin & Peter Fox: Saddleworth Spitfires 124-127 freehold steward of manor 1590 4 Wesley, John, Delph visit 83 rents, Diglee from Kirklees nunnery. 1539 4 West Riding County Council roads (WRCC) 106 tenant, freeholder Diglee 21,23i, 24, 25, 29 Whitehead, John, Delph, yeoman, D.I.C., first trustees 90 Wrigley, Rigley, Surnames 1881 distribution map 9i Whitehead, Robert, Delph Friarmere 88 Wrigley, Robert, 1455 Friarmere tythes 3 Whitehead, Robert, Saddleworth, Delph Chapel 88, 89 Denshaw 15thC 3 Whiteheads, Higher Slack, Delph Slack & Barn D.I.C. 89 Wrigley, Robert, Midgegrove 17th C 7, 8 Whitley, Beaumont, West Yorkshire records 16 Wrigley, Roger, priest Prestwich,1549, Oldham 1563-75 6 Wild, Cllr., A, JP, Spitfire Campaign 124 Wrigley, Thomas 1455 3 Wild, P.The Schofields of Hollingreave pt 3 Postscript 46 Wrigley, Thomas 1560 2 Wild, Rev., John, puritan curate Saddleworth 86 Wrigley, Thomas, Ashleyhey Derbyshire, 1502 4 Wilde, Issac, Dissenting meeting house 87 Wrigley, Thomas, Ogston & Carnsfield Derbyshire, 1502 4 Wilkinson, John Willie, proprietor Summershades1922 33 Wrigley, Thomas, Shirley, 1571 6 William de Stapleton, chapel in Saddleworth 16 Wrigley, Thomas, Stakehill, 1525 2 William of the Sykes, land Dygel Saddlewortfrithes 19,29 Wrigley, William, Staley Rental Saddleworth,1397 3 Willielmo, Wrigley, Saddleworth poll tax 1379 19, 30 Wrigleys in Derbyshire: Ashbourne, 1576-1596 4 Wood, Rev., Ralph, presbyterian minister Saddleworth 86 Bradley, 1595 4, Doveridge,1576 4 Wragg, Wallace, council lorry driver 111 Heanor, 1560-1596 4, Longford, 1538-85 4, 5 WRCC Road-roller, Junction Inn cover4 i Netherseal, 1578-1594 5 WRCC, responsible for main roads 112 Wrigleys in Leics. Kegworth, 1574-1584 5 Wriggeley, Wills de Brampton Derbyshire 1327/8 4 Wrigleys in Notts. Selston, 1565, 1584 5 Wrigle, Thomas de Chadderton 1381 2 Wrigleys in Staffs. Rolleston, 1570,1586 5 Wrigley Carr, Heywood 1 Wrigley’s land, the Lee & David’s Smithy, 1770 map 26i,27 Wrigley derivation 1 Wrigleys in Almondbury, parish registers, 1594 4 Wrigley families, Bury to Salford 17th C 7 Wrigleys in Balderstone, Buersill Head, Stakehill maps 3i Wrigley field, Over Alderley 1 Wrigleys in Manchester, 1578-1593 2 Wrigley Fold, Mottram 1 Wrigleys in Marsden (Huddersfield) parish, 1597, 1599 4 Wrigley Head, Failsworth 1322 1 Wrigleys, in Middleton, 1578-1599 2 Wrigley land, Diglee sold, leased back 21, 22 Wrigleys in Old Tame, freehold, 1649 4 Wrigley or Rigley 5 Wrigleys in Rochdale, 1584-1599 2 Wrigley Pedigree 1 Old Tame S’worth A, M Buckley 10 Wrygglegy, William del, 1379 1 Wrigley Pedigree 2 Old Tame S’worth B, M Buckley 11 Wryglegh, Willelmus, Saddleworth, 1379 3 Wrigley Pedigree 3 Diglee S’worth A, M Buckley 12 Wrygley, Ag(nes) de Wrygley, Saddleworth, 1430 3 Wrigley Pedigree 4 Diglee S’worth B, M Buckley 13 Wrygley, Edmund, purchase tenement Saddleworth 20, 23 Wrigley Pedigree 5 Midgreave S’worth, M Buckley 14 Wrygley, James, purchase tenement Saddleworth 20, 23 Wrigley Pedigree 6 Saddleworth Fold A,M Buckley 10 Wrygley, John, purchase tenement Saddleworth 20, 23 Wrigley, Alice, Middleton 1442 2 Wrygley, Richard, Saddylworth tenement, 1539 20 Wrigley, Brook, Heywood 1 Wryigley, Reginald, purchase tenement Saddleworth 20,23 Wrigley, Bury 1591 2 WW2 fundraising, Salute the Soldier, Warship Week 124 Wrigley, Edmund, purchase Kirklees land Diglee1543 4 Wyke, T.: Locating the ‘Far Famed Bill’s o’s Jack’s’ 35 Wrigley, Elias, Alice, Brownhill 17th C 7, 8 Wrigley, Elize 17th C 7 Y Wrigley, Ellis, Saddleworth Fold 17th C 7, 8 Yeoman Hey Reservoir 42, 44 Wrigley, Francis alias Platt, inherited land Diglee 21, 23 Wrigley, Geoffrey, Ashleyhey Derbyshire 1502 4 Wrigley, George, 17th C 7 Wrigley, Henry, Denshaw15th C 3 Wrigley, Henry, Oldham 1554, 1631 2 Wrigley, Hugh, husbandman, Hopwoode 1586 6 Wrigley, James, Basford Notts. 1586 6 Wrigley, James: Diglee 17th C 7, 8 land at David’s Smithy 27 manorial tenant Diglee 21, 25, 29 purchase Kirklees land Diglee1543 4 Wrigley, John, Midgegrove 17th C 7, 8 Wrigley, John, Asshenbench (Old Tame) 1524 3 Wrigley, John, Middleton 1535-42 2 Wrigley, John, Old Tame 17th C 7, 8 Wrigley, John, Prestwich 1543 2 Wrigley, John, purchase Kirklees land Diglee1543 4 Wrigley, John, Thornham Buersill Head 1438 2 Wrigley, Joshua, Oldham1550 2 Wrigley, Longford Derbyshire Manchester connection 5, 6 Wrigley, Ralph, Longford, miller 1571 6 Wrigley, Ralph, priest, Kirk Langley Derbyshire 1571 4, 6

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