Scouthead; a Record of a Half Century of Change 16 Jack & Jose Schofield

Saddleworth Historical Society Bulletin

Volume 48 Number 1 2018

SHSB, VOL. 48 NO. 1, 2018 Bulletin of the Saddleworth Historical Society

Volume 48 Number 1 2018

The Life and Times of Joseph Woodcock Fancy Woollen Cloth Designer, (1830-98) - Part 1 1 Phil Wild

Scouthead; a Record of a Half Century of Change 16 Jack & Jose Schofield

Obituary - Lorna Helen Gartside 25

Obituary - John Andrew Cleverly 27

Letter 28

Book Review 29

Cover Illustration: Bankfield Mill Complex, Dobcross Sykes & Campinot Mills Advertising Flyer, Mike Buckley Collection

©2018 Saddleworth Historical Society and individual contributors and creators of images.

SHSB, VOL. 48, NO. 1, 2018

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOSEPH WOODCOCK Fancy Woollen Cloth Designer, (1830-98) Part 1 Phil Wild Foreword Whilst reading back issues of SHS Bulletins, I discovered that my great (x3) grandfather, Joseph Woodcock had acquired Manor House in Dobcross in 1875 (see Figure 1). Identified as ‘one of the finest examples of classicism in Saddleworth’2, I became aware what a substantial and prestigious Grade II listed property this is, and began to wonder how my ancestor had acquired the means to own it. As my research unfolded, I began to formulate a hypothesis that Joseph Woodcock had benefited from some form of sponsorship from his employers, John Hirst & Sons. The ensuing study considers the available evidence for such a hypothesis and some insight into the changing industry in which Joseph worked.

David JW Harrison 2018 Figure 1 Manor House and Cottage, Dobcross, northern aspect

Joseph Woodcock’s Background Joseph Woodcock was born in Bradshaw, a scattered hamlet in the township of Austonley and parish of Almondbury (Figure 2) on 7th September 1830, and baptised at Holy Trinity, Holmfirth on 30th October 1830.3 His parents were John Woodcock, a Woollen Clothier, and Maria (née Butterworth). Although his father appears to have been a simple clothier, his grandfather, Jonathan Woodcock, of Hoowood another small hamlet in the valley, was well established in the woollen trade, albeit probably as a modest trader, and was listed as a manufacturer in Baines Directory of 1822. He had earlier been in business with Joseph Crossland & Co, a partnership

1 J.M. Hunt, ‘Old Saddleworth: Manor House, Dobcross’, Saddleworth Historical Society Bulletin (SHSB) Vol. 15 no. 3, 1985, p. 54-6. 2 N. Barrow, M. Buckley, A Petford & J. Sanders, Saddleworth Villages, (Saddleworth Historical Society (SHS), 2003) p. 74. 3 Parish Registers; Holy Trinity, Holmfirth, 1830.

1 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOSEPH WOODCOCK dissolved in 1810.4 Jonathan later appears to have encountered financial difficulties having had to assign his personal/copyhold estate to creditors in 1836.5 Nevertheless he and his son Joshua were listed as manufacturers in the 1841 Pigott’s Directory.6 The Woodcocks also intermarried with the Roebuck family, another well established family of manufacturers in Austonley.

Ordnance Survey 6in to 1 mile surveyed 1851 Figure 2 Bradshaw in Austonley

Ordnance Survey 6in to 1 mile surveyed 1851 Figure 3 Edge End in Austonley

4 Leeds Mercury, 31 March 1810. 5 Leeds Mercury, 7 May 1836. Such financial adversity was not unique to Jonathan Woodcock; his father-in-law Emor Taylor, clothier of Field End, Austonley, had also been obliged to assign his estate and effects over to credi- tors in trust in 1808, Leeds Intelligencer, 17 October 1808. 6 J. Pigot & Co, National and Commercial Directory of the Counties of Y ork, Leicester, Lincoln, Northampton and Nottingham (London and Manchester, 1841), p. 127.

2 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOSEPH WOODCOCK

The baptisms of his younger siblings confirm that by the time he was seven years old Joseph’s family had moved to Edge End, a small farm of approximately 20 acres in Austonley (Figure 3).7 Joseph’s parents remained as tenants at Edge End for the remainder of their lives. It is noteworthy that their leasehold tenure8 included a two-acre close known as ‘Tenter- Piece’, evidence that woollen cloth manufacture had long been was associated with the farm. Joseph Woodcock’s father, John was recorded as a ‘clothier’ in the 1841 Austonley census.9 In light of his absence from Trade Directories, as a woollen manufacturer or farmer, it seems unlikely that John Woodcock would have traded directly at the Huddersfield Cloth Hall market as an independent clothier. However, either John’s father, Jonathan, at Hoowood, or his uncle, Joshua, at Townend, may have sold weaving piece-work undertaken within John Woodcock’s own household at Edge End. Both their listings ceased between 1841 and 1842, a time of severe economic depression.10 In neighbouring Holme 71 clothiers and 25 woollen weavers were noted in the 1841 census but, ten years later, not a single clothier was recorded in the census of that year, which identified 155 villagers as woollen weavers.11 As industriali- sation led to dramatic reductions in market prices for woven cloth, self-employed ‘Domestic System’ clothiers, like John Woodcock, lost their independent way of life, as their income from hand-loom weaving diminished. In the 1851 census John Woodcock described himself as a farmer for the first time.12 Nevertheless, the family probably continued to secure weaving work from a ‘putter-out’ - a merchant or manufacturer controlling processes before and after hand-loom weaving - in this instance, perhaps John Roebuck & Sons, of Bankend Mill? Woodcock’s father, Jonathan had once been in partnership with John Roebuck and there may have been additional cause for cooperation as his eldest son, Jonas Roebuck, was John Woodcock’s brother-in-law and had been a witness to his marriage in 1826.13 On 20th May 1850, at the age of nineteen, Joseph Woodcock married Susannah Woodhead, of Royd, Meltham, at All Hallows Parish Church, Almondbury, only a few weeks before the birth of their first daughter.14 By the time of the 1851 census, the birth of their first son was also imminent but Joseph had not yet the means to establish an independent household. He and his wife remained resident in Joseph’s parents’ farm homestead at Edge End, which by then sustained fifteen family members. He was then working, along with five of his siblings, as a ‘Hand-loom Woollen Weaver’. The Bilberry Reservoir Flood At that time, a catastrophe that would irreversibly affect the livelihoods of most of Austonley’s community was imminent. High in the Pennine hills above the Holme Valley, Bilberry Reservoir had been commissioned with the intention of increasing the availability of water to power a burgeoning demand for mills in the valley below (Figure 4). On 5th February 1852, after heavy rainfall, its embankment gave way, cascading 300,000 tonnes of water down the valley. Neither the disaster itself nor an inquest verdict of defective construction came as a surprise to some in the local community, whose suspicions led them to maintain a close vigilance over the embankment. Some raised the alarm as the breach was

7 Baptism Registers, Broadlands Baptist Chapel, Meltham, 1837. 8 The leasehold tenure was annually renewable. 9 England and Wales Census, 1841, HO 107, 1273, 7, p. 39. 10 J. Pigot & Co, National and Commercial Directory of the Counties of Y ork, Leicester, Lincoln, Northampton and Nottingham (London and Manchester, (1841), p. 127; and W. White, Directory of Leeds and the Clothing Districts, (Sheffield, 1842), p. 255. 11 H.A. Bodey, ‘Village of Holme 1841-61’, Industrial History in Huddersfield, (Huddersfield, 1972), pp. 18-28. 12 Census 1851, HO107, 2292, 310, p. 14. 13 Until 1810 Jonathan Woodcock and John Roebuck had been partners in Joseph Crossland & Co., Leeds Mercury, 31 March 1810. 14 England and Wales Birth, Marriage and Death Registry Index (BMD), Huddersfield, 22/249, June 1850, and 22/418, September 1850.

3 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOSEPH WOODCOCK imminent and this enabled a few families to escape the path of the floodwater in the nick of time. Nonetheless, there were 81 fatalities, and devastation of the mills and properties, which populated the Digley and Holme tributaries.15 Amongst those who gave evidence to the Inquest were John Hirst, of Dobcross, who had recently part-owned Digley Mill; John Roebuck, of Bankend Mill, and Jonathan Woodcock, Joseph’s uncle, of Hoobram-Hill, who had served as shuttle drawer to the reservoir between 1844 and 1846, taking informal instructions from George Hirst, of Digley.16 In his retrospective narrative, ‘A Pennine Disaster’, A.J. Howcroft quantified the damage as follows: ‘There were destroyed:- four mills, ten dyehouses, twenty-seven cottages, seven tradesmen’s houses, seven tradesmen’s shops, six bridges, one county bridge, ten warehouses, eighteen barns and stables.... There were partially lost: seventeen mills, five dyehouses &c, three stoves, one hundred and thirty nine cottages, seven tradesmens’ houses, four large shops, eleven public houses, five bridges, one county bridge, and about 200 acres of land washed away and damaged. Four thousand nine hundred and eighty six people and two thousand one hundred and forty two children were thrown out of work, earning about three thousand seven hundred and forty eight pounds per week’17 If, as part of their cloth weaving supply chain, the Woodcock family at Edge End had relied to any extent on their Roebuck neighbours, as earlier mooted, this was no longer possible as their premises at Bankfield Mill were severely damaged by the flood and Bilberry Mill (also known as Lumb Bank Mill), where the Roebucks also rented a fulling mill, was swept away. Their workforce was immediately redundant and the Roebuck brothers were petitioned for bankruptcy on 20th September 1852.18

Ordnance Survey 6in to 1 mile surveyed 1851 Figure 4 Bilberry Reservoir and the Austonley Valley

Many workers in the valley sought employment from the Hirsts, now well established at Tamewater in Saddleworth and the displacement consequences of the disaster became a significant factor in the growth of Saddleworth’s population occurring at this time. Howcroft

15 E. Williams, Holmfirth: From Forest to Township, (Pontefract and Holmfirth, 1975), pp. 148-54. 16 Huddersfield Chronicle, 21 February 1852. 17 A.J. Howcroft, ‘A Pennine Disaster’, from Tales of a Pennine People, (Oldham, 1923), pp. 110-129. 18 London Gazette, 24 September 1852.

4 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOSEPH WOODCOCK expressed the influx metaphorically: ‘It is said and, figuratively, it is true that many Holmfirth families were washed over to Saddleworth by the flood’.19 Joseph Woodcock’s uncles, Jonathan, noted above, and Joseph were amongst those who left for Dobcross. Edge End, however, like most traditional clothiers’ homesteads, was located high on the hillside, and was unscathed by the deluge in the valley below. Ancillary evidence from an unrelated newspaper report reveals that, despite the expanding family household, the Woodcocks still had sufficient ‘Domestic System’ business to be able to contract in additional weaving resource: ‘On 16th November 1852 a journeyman weaver, Jonathan Wood, who worked for a man called Woodcock of the Edge End, was found drowned in a local reservoir above Black Sike Mill. He had gone missing about a month before ...’ 20 Nevertheless, if the development of mills in the Holme valley was interrupted by the catastro- phe, the trend of industrial progress throughout the wider district was relentless. As a young adult weaver, Joseph Woodcock must have already sensed there would be no future for him or his dependents in the ‘Domestic System.’ He remained in Austonley for at least another year, but the birth registration in Saddleworth of his fourth child, Rebecca, indicates he had moved his family household by the end of 1855.21 In the 1861 Dobcross census Joseph was recorded as a ‘Fancy Woollen Designer’, living with his wife, Susannah and their six children, in a household adjacent to Arthur Hirst, woollen manufacturer, and his family. From identifiable properties on the census, both families were evidently resident just above Walk Mill, at the lower end of Woods Lane, between the Woolpack Inn and Nudger Inn (Figures 5 & 8).22 It was only in the context of Joseph Woodcock’s later associations with the Hirst family that the potential significance of this juxtaposition became apparent.23 The Hirst Family Arthur Hirst’s grandfather, John Hirst (1759-1831), had been a leading woollen manufacture entrepreneur in the Holme Valley. He bequeathed freehold land interests in Tamewater, Saddleworth, to his daughter, Hannah Fozzard, ‘to her own use’, in 1831, and left Digley Mill, established in Austonley in 1791, to his two sons, George and John Hirst, (1802-77).24 Soon after 1830, the brothers established Fozzards Mill, Tamewater, in partnership with their brother-in-law, Charles Fozzard, a Dyer. The partnership lasted until 1838,25 when it was dissolved to enable the brothers to concentrate on their own scribbling and cloth finishing business at Tamewater (Figures. 7 & 11).26 Digley Mill only produced plain weave, so it seems significant to the scope of this study that John Hirst apprenticed his eldest son, John, junior, (1823-87), to a manufacturer of ‘fancy’ woollens - probably neighbouring mill-owners, James Beardsall & Sons.27 On 7th April 1849 the Hirst brothers dissolved their partnership, leaving Digley Mill solely under George Hirst’s stewardship.28 Meanwhile his brother, John

19 A.J. Howcroft, ‘A Pennine Disaster’, p. 127. 20 Huddersfield Chronicle, 20 November 1852. 21 BMD, Saddleworth, 9a /206, December 1855. 22 Census 1861, RG9, 3241, 85, pp. 3-4. 23 The neighbouring households in question were probably two of four premises, known as ‘Woods Lane Cottages’, owned by the Hirst family; See F.G. Battye, ‘The Estates of the Hirst Family of Dobcross, Part Two’, SHSB, Vol. 3. No. 1, (1973), p. 9. 24 Will of John Hirst of Digley Mill, Prerogative and Exchequer County of York Probate, July 1831, 184 / f.412. 25 London Gazette, 6 November 1838; see also Fozzard’s later assignment of assets to Creditors, Leeds Mercury, 9 March 1839. 26 Saddleworth Historical Society Archive (SHSA), Slaters Directory, (Manchester, 1843), p. 165; Bernard Barnes Collection, H/BB/5/4. 27 Obituary of John Hirst, Esquire, JP (1802-77); Oldham Chronicle, 4 August 1877. 28 London Gazette, 10 April 1849.

5 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOSEPH WOODCOCK

Hirst took control of Fozzards Mill, resolving to concentrate and expand his business interests in Saddleworth.29 John Hirst (aka ‘Old John’) had moved his family to Dobcross by 1850. Anecdotal family sources suggest that occurred in order for his wife Mary (née Taylor) to care for an ailing grandfather. However, no evidence has been found to corroborate this story. It seems more likely that Hirst chose to move to Saddleworth for business reasons. His subsequent evidence to the Holmfirth Flood Inquest suggests he was very concerned about the reservoir. Furthermore his decision to cease his partnership with his brother perhaps indicates he thought the Digley Mill location was becoming remote from growing markets and, informed by his experience at Fozzards, identified Saddleworth as a better strategic location. Accordingly ‘Old John’ entered into a new partnership with his eldest sons John Hirst, junior, (aka ‘Young John’) and William Lockwood Hirst. On 26th November 1850 they leased Walk Mill, Dobcross, complete with its steam engine, scribbling and carding engines, billies and other semi-automated cloth preparation and finishing apparatus.30 On 5th February 1852 Digley Mill - including a large weaving shed with 34 power looms - was utterly destroyed by the Bilberry Reservoir flood, and was never rebuilt. One hundred locals lost their livelihoods.31

Saddleworth Museum Archives Figure 5 Walk Mill and Woods Lane, Dobcross, c.1900

During the early years of partnership with his father, John Hirst, junior, was in charge of the weaving department, as well as acting as a merchant for their company, John Hirst & Sons. His younger brothers, Ben, Joshua and Arthur, soon joined the partnership, and their father seems to have also entrusted them with active roles and responsibilities. Joshua Hirst was an engineer, whilst Joseph Woodcock’s neighbour, Arthur Hirst, before his retirement in 1864,32 may have been in charge of Walk Mill. A report on a fire at Walk Mill in 1863 indicated that the workman who discovered it ‘went to the house of Mr Arthur Hirst, of Dobcross, for the keys.’ 33

29 Obituary of John Hirst, Esquire, JP (1802-77); Oldham Chronicle, 4 August 1877. 30 Leeds Mercury, 7 December 1850. 31 M. Day, Wool and Worsit, History of Textiles in the Holme Valley, (Huddersfield, 2013), p. 97. 32 London Gazette, 29 April 1864. 33 Huddersfield Chronicle, 18 July 1863.

6 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOSEPH WOODCOCK

An obituary for John’s brother, Ben Hirst, written in 1906, and later echoed by Howcroft, asserted how John Hirst & Sons had recruited their workforce from the Holme Valley: ‘When the firm came into the district, they brought most of their hands from Holmfirth with them, and it is stated that it was through their hands returning to their native town at the weekends, that the present road over Pots and Pans from Saddleworth church, came to be made’.34 Some contemporary evidence and qualification of this whimsical assertion can be gleaned from a County Court case in 1855, concerning a campaign by Dobcross parishioners to re-establish Wharmton School, at Tamewater, ‘in consequence of the Messrs Hirst's works having brought a large increase of workpeople into the districts [of Tame Water and Dobcross].’ 35 Hutchinson, Hollingworth & Co. Amongst the economic migrants from Austonley was James Hollingworth, who, along with his brothers, worked for his father, Thomas, as a joiner. Hollingworth was contracted by a number of Austonley woollen manufacturers, and prominent amongst his regular clients were John Roebuck & Sons, of Bankend Mill, earlier mooted as possible partners of the Woodcocks of Edge End. Indeed a small job for Joseph Woodcock’s uncle, Uriah Woodcock of Bankend, was also recorded in the day book of Thomas Hollingworth in 1846.36 By 1853 John Hirst & Sons at Dobcross had become a major customer and, soon afterwards, James Hollingworth, aged 20, became an employee, working as a joiner and mill mechanic with the firm until 1860. James Hollingworth continued to devote his spare time to making rising shuttle boxes for handlooms and by securing technical adaptations for efficient manufacture on power looms, his expertise also greatly aided his new employer’s plan to capitalise on the increasing demand for fancy woollen goods.37 In 1859 John Hirst, junior, and Hollingworth registered a shared patent which enabled the working of the shuttle boxes and regulated the picking of the woollen power loom with only one set of chains. This made the weaving of check and fancy patterns easier.38 Their improved method of operating multiple shuttle boxes in conjunction with jacquards was evidently a major advance in technology and prompted Hollingworth to leave the firm and set up his own business, Hutchinson, Hollingworth & Co., which soon established itself as a highly prosperous concern at Dobcross Ironworks. From October 1861, the patented system was licensed to a number of woollen manufacturers, at an annual royalty of £3 per 3-box shuttle. Over the next five years John Hirst & Sons and Hutchinson, Hollingworth & Co. shared royalties equally in excess of £1600, until the latter firm developed further inventions in weaving looms.39 Although Hollingworth went into overt partnership in January 1861 with John Hutchinson and, briefly, Ernest Cookson, it is evident from extant business records that Hirst and Hollingworth remained on amicable terms. In its early trading years, particularly during its construction and set-up phases, Hutchinson, Hollingworth & Co. required significant financial support, and John Hirst, junior, became a ‘sleeping partner’, injecting sever tranches of interest-bearing loan capital, which seems to have been repaid in 1868 in the sum of £1,148-1s-8d.40 Such investment is noteworthy, in the context of the hypothesis adopted in

34 Obituary of Ben Hirst, JP (1828-1906), Saddleworth Herald, November 17 1906. I am grateful to Peter Sandford for this reference. 35 Huddersfield Chronicle, 3 March 1855. 36 Thomas Hollingworth Joinery Day Book, Saddleworth Museum Archives (SMA), M/Hut/10.1. 37 Obituary of James Hollingworth, JP, Oldham Chronicle, 22 June 1895. 38 London Gazette, 15 February 1859; see also N. Barrow et al., Saddleworth Villages, (SHS, 2003), p. 58, and ‘Hirst and Hollingworth’s Looms’ in The Engineer, (London, 18 October 1861), p. 236. 39 SMA, Hutchinson, Hollingworth & Co (HHC) Purchase Ledger, M/Hut/1.2/8. 40 SMA, HHC Cash Ledger, M/Hut/1.2/9; Obituary of James Hollingworth, JP, Oldham Chronicle, 22 June 1895.

7 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOSEPH WOODCOCK

Saddleworth Museum Archives Figure 6 Advertisement for Hutchinson and Hollingworth Power Loom, 1883

8 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOSEPH WOODCOCK this study concerning the support provided to Joseph Woodcock, and reflects that Hirst had both the independent means and confidence to sponsor his protégés. Aside from these personal loans from John Hirst, junior, other cash movements between the parties included royalty and interest outgoings; lump sums exceeding £1,200 from John Hirst & Sons, which probably constituted additional loans; a recurrent ground rent payment of £5, indicating that the Hirsts had provided some land, probably for a small workshop, to assist their former employee; and other receipts from the partnership between 1861 and 1866, totalling some £1,500, which can reasonably be attributed to trading income from the purchase of ‘Dobcross looms’ to equip the weaving sheds at Bankfield and Walk Mills.41 Woodcock and the Hirsts The pattern, pace and size of these payments underline the scale of manufacturing investment in Dobcross. Supported by the strong anecdotal evidence of incomers, it seems quite plausible that Joseph Woodcock was amongst many who identified this opportunity to escape the adversity in Austonley, and he may well have commuted to and from Dobcross, before set- tling his family there by 1855. Even if he had not been taken into Hirst’s confidence as part of the invention development process, a skilled, trustworthy designer would have been vital to Hirst, in order to exploit his intellectual property commercially. Woodcock’s establishment of his expanding, independent household in Dobcross, and his career progression, within the space of a decade, from a simple domestic handloom weaver to a fancy woollen designer in a major ‘Factory System’ manufacturer coincided, at the very least, with that need. There is no evidence of any blood-link between the Hirst and Woodcock families, so it seems reasonable to assert that Joseph Woodcock secured any position with the firm entirely on merit, either despite or because of ‘the prejudices of Old Saddleworthians against the strangers who settled at Tame Water, Dobcross’.42 Born in 1830, long before the Education Act of 1870, Joseph Woodcock nevertheless acquired an education, and unlike his bride Susannah Woodhead, he was able to sign his name at his marriage ceremony in 1850. Joseph (and his father) probably attended Sunday School. Day School was also accessible in Holme Village for a fee, although, for at least two prior generations, children fortunate enough to attend left at the age of seven, in order to learn to spin and, later, weave at home.43 Whereas Saddleworth domestic weavers specialised in the production of plain, but fine, broadcloth, Joseph, crucially, learned his trade in one of the townships of the Huddersfield Union, an area of the West Riding that specialised in ‘fancy woollen cloth’ designs, often using handlooms equipped with a dobby head, which facilitated complex patterns. In 1849 Angus Reach observed:- ‘The population of Huddersfield and the surrounding districts are almost entirely engaged in the manufacture of wool - the scattered cotton and silk spinning and weaving establishments which may be found here and there being merely exceptions to the general rule. By far the greater part of the woollen manufacture of Huddersfield is carried on, in all its stages, in the mills. When weaving is put out, the work is generally executed by country people living within a circuit of some half-dozen miles. The species of fabric so manufactured is commonly that distinguished, in its different kinds, as fancy goods.’ 44 Phyllis Bentley also highlighted the significant impact of the Jacquard loom in the Huddersfield district and the superior reputation local designers had established - for example, at the Great Exhibition of 1851.45 Edward Armitage asserted the influence of the dobby-loom,

41 SMA, HHC Purchase Ledger and Cash Ledger, M/Hut/1.2/8 and M/Hut/1.2/9. 42 Obituary of John Hirst, JP, (1823-1877), Huddersfield Chronicle, 31 March 1887. 43 W.B. Crump & G. Gorbal, History of the Huddersfield Woollen Industry (Huddersfield, 1935), p. 67. 44 A. Reach, ‘The Cloth Districts of Yorkshire, 1849-50’ from Morning Chronicle, 18 January 1850; in J. T. Ward, (ed.), The Factory System, Vol. I, Birth and Growth (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1970), p. 160. 45 P. Bentley, The Pennine Weaver, (Portway, Bath, 1970), p. 60.

9 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOSEPH WOODCOCK prior to the patent application of Messrs Hirst and Hollingworth, ‘the figuring and producing capacity was so much increased by the substitution of the “witch” [or dobby] hand-loom for the treadle-loom, that the attention of inventive minds seems to have been diverted from the question of the application of the power-loom to weaving such goods.’ 46 A successful pattern designer presumably did not require a formal academic education, rather a practical aptitude honed by experience. However, there is another possible means, which may have created both inspiration and opportunity for Woodcock’s career advancement, by which the paths of John Hirst, junior, and Joseph Woodcock may have crossed. The obituary of the said John Hirst, who died at Ladcastle on 29th March 1887, highlighted his: ‘desire to acquire knowledge and his efforts to give to others the benefit of his studies, and ... the introduction of an institute into Holmebridge by Mr Hirst and his brother-in-law, who nightly superintended classes of young men.’ 47 Austonley Scientific Institute, established in Holmbridge in 1843, was barely a mile away from Edge End, so it is quite conceivable that Joseph Woodcock was among the young students who attended Hirst’s classes. In January 1850 over 600 people crowded into the schoolroom, with others unable to gain admission, to hear a series of lectures, including Ben Hirst on the ‘Importance of Knowledge Design to the Manufacturing Community’, followed by his brother, John Hirst, junior, on the ‘Value of a Knowledge of the Natural Sciences’, highlighting the value they placed on design-focussed intellectual property.48 A previous study of mine observed that by the 1850s demand for Saddleworth broadcloth had declined dramatically.49 In the wake of changing demand patterns, John Hirst & Sons identified an ideal opportunity to expand ‘fancy’ woollen manufacturing under the ‘Factory System.’ Their strategy for competitive advantage, it seems, was to combine economies of scale; productivity gains from steam-powered mechanisation; and innovative pattern designs, inspired by Jacquard and other loom inventions. These were then adapted by means of patented inventions to achieve efficient, repeatable results.

Saddleworth Museum Archives Figure 7 Husteads Mill c.1910

46 SMA, E. Armitage, ‘The Progress of the Weaving Industry during Her Majesty’s Reign’ (Huddersfield, 1897), M/Hut/1.5/46. 47 Huddersfield Chronicle, 31 March 1887. 48 Leeds Intelligencer, 12 January 1850.

49 P. Wild, ‘The Schofields of Hollingreave-2’, SHSB, Vol. 44, No. 2, (2014), p. 48.

10 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOSEPH WOODCOCK

Various accident reports at their Lower Husteads Mill in 1854 and at their ‘new mill’ at Fozzards in 1859 indirectly reveal the extent of the Hirsts’ expansion of manufacturing facilities at Tamewater, which from their initial investment in Walk Mill had culminated in the building of the vast Bankfield Mill further down Wall Hill Brook.50 John Hirst, senior, retired from the partnership in 1871, and died suddenly, six years later, at his home, Grove House, in Delph. Contemporary newspapers are rarely disinterested sources of information on major employers, and the critical report in 1856 of Hirst’s curmudgeonly gesture, draping a large black flag from Walk Mill during the post-Crimean War peace procession in Saddleworth, is unusually frank.51 Nevertheless, the description in his obituary as a ‘shrewd, energetic man of business’, who had brought benefit to the neighbourhood and his employees, may reflect the genuine respect in which ‘Old John’ was held, observing that 12 of the oldest workers acted as bearers at Hirst’s funeral, and 40 other workpeople followed the cortège. The obituary also notes his staunch Conservative politics and one particular reason why the firm might have inspired loyalty from long-serving employees: ‘As an illustration of the unsatisfactory method of transacting business between master and workpeople, when Mr Hirst came to Saddleworth, it may be mentioned that no such thing was known in the district as the regular payment of wages, the truck system was in full vogue, and a workman might consider himself fortunate if he received coin from his master once a month. Mr Hirst, however, introduced regular payments to the great advantage of the workpeople.’ 52 After the retirement of his father in 1871, the firm continued to prosper under the leadership of its new Principal, John Hirst, junior, of Ladcastle, JP, alongside his brothers Ben and Joshua. By the time of the census of 1871, Joseph and Susannah Woodcock, needing more spacious accommodation for their ten children, had moved into Husteads Farm, a location convenient for Fozzard, Bankfield and Walk Mills (Figures 8 & 9).53 Joseph Woodcock continued to record his occupation as a ‘Fancy Woollen Designer’. Once again, his home was owned by the Hirst family - premises acquired, in 1865, principally for their strategic location on the hillside above Bankfield Mill, close to its vital water supply.54

Ordnance Survey, 1:2500, surveyed 1888-92 Figure 8 Tamewater and Dobcross, 1892

50 Huddersfield Chronicle, 11 March 1854, 18 June 1859 and 29 October 1859. 51 P. Fox, ‘Saddleworth’s Crimean Peace Celebration 1856’, SHSB, Vol. 41. No.2, (2011), pp. 37 & 39. 52 Oldham Chronicle, 4 August 1877. The Truck System refers to payment of wages in kind, often to the advantage of an employer. 53 Census 1871, RG10, 4337, 39, p. 7.

11 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOSEPH WOODCOCK

Younger members of Woodcock’s family were clearly in mill operative employment, and his eldest son, Joseph Woodcock, junior, may also have been engaged by the firm as a clerk. It is also noteworthy that Joseph Woodcock’s siblings had by then left the family home at Edge End, Austonley, bringing with them their mother, Maria, shortly before her death in 1868, to join their elder brother in accommodation nearby. Three of Joseph Woodcock’s seven sisters - Sarah Ann, Elizabeth and Jane - and their respective spouses and families, became resident employees at Bankfield Cottages, Tamewater, tied houses, established by the Hirst family for their workers at Bankfield Mill. Even closer, at Husteads, Joseph’s two younger brothers, Emor, aged 27, and John, aged 20, also tenants of the Hirsts, were recorded in 1871, with their respective families, as ‘joint farmers of 12 acres and woollen weavers’.55 Furthermore, as John Woodcock was so young and both brothers were ‘comers-in’ in Saddleworth, it seems a plausible hypothesis that, as a result of his status within the business, Joseph Woodcock was able to secure an arrangement from his employers which favoured members of his immediate family. By the 1881 census John and Emor Woodcock, like Joseph, had vacated Husteads Farm for accommodation in Tamewater, but had extended their farm tenure to 29 acres (probably taking over Hirst lands, previously farmed by occupiers of Mount Sorrel).56 By the 1891 census they occupied cottages at Tamewater, immediately adjacent to the owner, Ben Hirst, of Tamewater House, who was, by then, Principal of John Hirst & Sons.57 By 1901,

Saddleworth Museum Archives Figure 9 Husteads Farm c.1900

54 Joshua and Ben Hirst owned much of the land in the Tamewater area, including Husteads and Mount Sorrel Farm (see F.G. Battye, ‘The Estates of the Hirst Family of Dobcross’, SHSB, Vol. 2, No. 4, (1972), pp. 55-6, and Vol. 3. No. 1, (1973) pp.9-10.). Husteads Farm House, and inclosures of 12 acres, was auctioned, as Lot 3, on 4 October 1865; Huddersfield Chronicle, 30 September 1865. A Chancery case concerning alleged diversion of water, heard in 1872, notes that Joshua Hirst had also acquired Husteads Meadow in 1865; Huddersfield Chronicle, 16 March 1872. 55 Census 1871, RG10, 4337, 39, p. 8. (See also previous footnote). 56 Census 1881, RG11, 4364,149, p. 21. 57 Census 1891, RG12, 3552, 7, p. 7.

12 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOSEPH WOODCOCK notably after the closure of the firm and the death of Joseph, his brothers, Emor and John Woodcock had vacated their Hirst tenancy and were farming land at Marslands, which could well have formed part of John Hirst’s Marslands property.58 This identified pattern of connections is unquestionably circumstantial, but, in aggregate, the closely aligned fortune of the Woodcock family does seem to exceed mere coincidence. By the time Joseph had moved into Husteads Farm, his developing knowledge and experience provided further opportunity to make a mark on the wider industry and Saddleworth community. In April 1872 in the Temperance Hall, Uppermill, Joseph was one of seven local men of diverse practical skill-sets in the woollen trade, appointed as provisional directors to the newly inaugurated Co-operative Woollen Manufacturing Company Ltd. The company proposed a wide range of powers in support of ambitious objectives to establish its own manufacturing facilities for woollen clothing, although the venture does not seem to have progressed beyond initiatory stages.59

58 Census 1901, RG13, 4090, 49, p. 8. 59 The Co-operative News: A Record of Industrial, Political, Humanitarian and Educational Progress, Vols I and II, (Manchester, 1871-2), p. 250. I am grateful to Neil Barrow for this reference .

13 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOSEPH WOODCOCK

14 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOSEPH WOODCOCK

15 LIFE AND TIMES OF JOSEPH WOODCOCK

16 SHSB, VOL. 48, NO. 1, 2018

SCOUTHEAD; A RECORD OF A HALF CENTURY OF CHANGE Jack & Jose Schofield “The road from top of Austerlands that swings out to the east, Where is there another road half so good for man or beast?” Ammon Wrigley 1917 In the 1940s when I was a schoolboy my English teacher, Hartley Bateson, the Oldham historian, used to recommend us to keep a personal note book in which we could record happenings and events which interested us. These jottings, he claimed, would be the raw material of local history. I didn't follow his advice. I don't know anyone who did. But now I can see the virtue of recording and reflecting on change with the passage of time. To one raised in Waterhead, Saddleworth was an area of recreation. We looked up the hill and spoke of going for a walk around the Waterworks and on t' tops.” In the inelegant phrase of the Oldhamer, a walk around t'tops would “blow stink of thi” or as Ammon Wrigley put it “The clamour of the driving wheels, the cotton dust and oil, How good it is to slip them, to throw them from your back, and the Scouthead road can do it - that's the magic of the track.” When I first became aware of Saddleworth in the 1940s, like most of the country it suffered from the austerity and shortages of the war and post-war years. Revival and refurbishment would have to wait for the 50s and the 60s. People travelled by bus and by train. The farmhouses had not been transformed into desirable 'homes in the country'. Textiles and engineering were the principal employers. There was a strong presence of dairy producer retailers and agricultural small holdings. The village streets of Delph and Dobcross showed a variety of shops. You could still call in the Nudger for a game of fives and threes or nine card don. In this study I intend to move away from the broader picture of Saddleworth and focus upon a discrete and manageable segment of the township; that is the hamlet of Scouthead. Perhaps following this study others might be encouraged to look to their patch and consider whether what I have described is typical or unrepresentative of the larger community. Would a study of Austerlands, Denshaw, Diggle, or Dobcross offer similar experiences? Do not sit beside the fire in a moping mood and sad Shake yourself and foot it on the Scouthead road my lad: Scouthead is a street village situated about 900 feet above sea level where the hill top flattens out before descending into Delph. It grew on the turnpike road built in the 1790s and developed when the enterprising Wrigley family built their cotton mill at a point where a small stream crossed the road. The Wrigley mill with 20,000 spindles and 200 looms dominated the village and provided jobs for 100 workers. The Wrigleys endowed St Paul's church and built the school. The mill closed in 1901 and was partially demolished. Then major parts were destroyed by fire in 1917. In this essay I shall mark the changes in the village, particularly over the past 60 years. For the purposes of this account I shall define the Scouthead hamlet as consisting of the section of the A62, Huddersfield Rd from number 933 (Three Crowns 995) to the number 1265 (opposite the site of the former Star Inn.) I include Pastures, Newhouses, the Spinney, Wrigley St, Higher Turf Lane and Doctor Lane. This encompasses about 94 residences housing 253 electors in 2017. Scouthead is a village in transition. It straddles the zone between Oldham and Saddleworth, between Lancashire and Yorkshire, between wool and cotton.. Its buildings are half red brick

17 SCOUTHEAD

David JW Harrison 2010 One of only six gas lit street lamps remaining in Saddleworth, Pastures Lane, Scouthead and half stone. To the east the landscape turns to pasture land, stone villages and then moorland. To the west begins the largely red brick Greater Manchester urban spread which continues without break until the suburbs of Trafford are reached. Politically Scouthead is in transition too. From 1894 to 1937 when it was merged with Saddleworth it was governed by the Springhead Urban District Council. It was then merged administratively with the rest of Saddleworth. But recognition of the assimilation was not fully accepted even in the early 1960s. When the pylons and power lines marched across the A62 from Hartshead to Besom Hill a Saddleworth UDC Councillor was quoted as saying that “They wouldn't be visible from Saddleworth!” My wife and I moved into Scouthead in our new bungalow in Lyndon Close on the 29th February 1960. (The Close was not named in honour of Lyndon Johnson, the President of the USA The builder was called Donald and he had a daughter named Linda!) As new residents we took part in conversations with older residents whose memories went back to the nineteenth century. In those days the site of Lyndon Close was the recreation ground for Pastures Congregational Chapel. (I had the remains of a tennis court in my garden.) The long- term residents spoke of Huddersfield Road, the A62, as a white, dusty, relatively traffic- free road where children played their games unconcerned by the occasional motors. Families were identified as Church of England or chapel folk. One old lady's memory was that of the occasional visit by carriage from Fernhill, Grasscroft, of Mrs Anne Wrigley, formerly owner of Scouthead Mill, to take tea with Mrs Robinson, formerly owner of Woodbrook Mill, at Pastures House. Children wore their smartest clothes to witness the visit.

18 SCOUTHEAD

Despite its small population Scouthead has produced notable residents in touch with the wider world. Sportsmen have included rugby league stalwarts of Oldham and Keighly, Leeds and Rochdale and a cricketer who played for Lancashire and Leicester. The international caps of an England striker were kept at Doctor Lane Head. On Brownhill lived an Everest climber. The writer of 447 episodes of ‘Coronation Street’ lived on Doctor Lane. Higher Turf Lane was the home of a veteran of the Dam Busters' raid. Mrs Lilian Hirst in her history of Scouthead Church, writing about the years between the wars, describes a vibrant Church of England community with a prize winning choir, amateur dramatic groups, Operatic Society, Girl Guides, Scouts, Ladies Guild, Band of Hope, Men's Football Club and charabanc outings. She reminisces nostalgically about the numerous social and fund-raising ventures associated with the church. Sales of Work, Bazaars, a Concert Party, Christmas Fetes, Whitsun Walks, Sports days and Saturday night dances. I shall note and try to reflect upon the Scouthead of 2017 and record the changes it has seen over the half century since Mrs Hirst wrote her evocative memoir.

David JW Harrison 1980 St Paul’s Church and Vicarage, Scouthead

First a personal note; a description of the new householder in 1960. Of the six new bungalows in Lyndon Close only two thought it necessary to have a garage. Only two owned a car. Today we have nine cars based in the Close. Home heating was provided by a open fire, a Baxi with convective heating plus one small radiator based on a back boiler. Outside coal bunkers were standard though the Clean Air Act abolished coal. Household white goods included a washing machine but no tumbler dryer. A fridge was optional. Vacuum cleaners were replacing carpet sweepers. A black and white TV was soon acquired and and a land line telephone. Electronic devices were some decades in the future; electronic calculators, ATMs, credit cards, computers, mobile phones, text messaging, Facebook, Instagram, Ebay, Google, VHS and DVD players, I pads, TV Games, multi channel TVs, all appeared in sequence.

19 SCOUTHEAD

Lyndon Close has changed too. In the 1960s it was the home of a dozen children. Now its residents include eight pensioners. It forms a quiet oasis despite the nearness of the main road. The accommodation of each of the six residences has been extended to meet expanding families and changing needs. The increase in property values has made householders adapt and build rather than change home.. There hasn't been much new building at Scouthead in the last half century. The Spinney and some houses on Lower Turf Lane were built and the demolition of the petrol filling station at the bottom of Higher Turf Lane is expected to provide the site for 12 new dwellings. Re-buildings and conversions have added to the number of homes. The hamlet of Newhouses has been rescued in this way. It was described by Ammon Wrigley as “an old hamlet, grey and worn by age, with gangrene eating its way into roof and gable.” Today it has been transformed by rebuilding and conversions. The police house at number 1003 Huddersfield Rd has become a private home. We have lost our two shops and the post office. The post office and grocery, formerly known as ‘the Red House’, became briefly a barber's and a tattoo parlour but has now been converted to flats. Mrs Potts' sweet shop at the bottom of Doctor Lane is now a house. The Star Inn at the end of Platting Rd has been converted to houses whilst retaining its outward appearance. The former Pastures Congregational Chapel was the venue of a Play Group for many years before it closed (June 1981) and was demolished. It is now a residence and the 'Old School House' swimming pool, where lessons are offered.

Bill Mason 1982 /Oldham Chronicle Ebenezer Congregational Church, Scouthead

A major change of use is that of the remains of the old Scouthead mill. A small part of the mill continued at the end of Wrigley St. In the 60s it was engaged in flock printing and was called Hyndgart. This too closed and was converted into apartments. To some, the most significant change was caused by the Local Government reorganisation in 1974. Scouthead, as part of Saddleworth, left the West Riding administratively and became part of Greater Manchester. Scouthead was now a part of the Oldham Municipal Borough and the residents paid their rates to Oldham instead of to Wakefield and received municipal services from Oldham. A new body, the Saddleworth Parish Council, was created with certain devolved powers and Scouthead, as part of the Higher Springhead Ward, could elect two Parish Councillors. Political allegiances changed too. Scouthead, in the 60s and 70s, was represented by Conservative UDC councillors and County Councillors. Since the 1990s the Liberal persuasion has been more successful.. In May 2018 a close, three party, contest saw a Conservative gain for its representative on Oldham Council.

20 SCOUTHEAD

The last half century has seen dramatic changes to the A62. A number of accidents led to the the bend near the garage being made safer. A souvenir of the work in the form of a large glacial erratic boulder can be seen in the grounds of Sunnyside. Before the creation of the M62 the burden of heavy traffic made Huddersfield Road a pedestrian nightmare. Now the increased use of private cars has once more produced hazards. On a normal weekday evening around 20 cars are normally parked on the main road. For the non-car owner communications are poorer. Buses no longer run directly to Manchester nor to Huddersfield. The services run every half hour between Ashton and Oldham. Bus drivers find it difficult to maintain a punctual service on such a meandering route. Scouthead however is richly endowed with bus stops; five double stops in the short stretch. In 1960 the Turf Lane bus stop was known as the 'Red House' in recognition of the brick built post office. The Lyndon Close stop was called the 'Brown Cow' in memory of a long defunct pub.

Mike Buckley 2006 Cllr D Heffernan with staff member outside Scouthead Post Office

For the active walker the Waterhead 98 service that used to provide a stopping service to Manchester every five minutes no longer exists. From the early 1990s until 2015 an intervention into village life was the creation of a major land- fill site on Highmoor. A new road to service the site was created and the A62 once more became became the venue for heavy traffic, a stream of waste lorries and leachate containers. The Highmoor quarry continued to produce diminishing quantities of stone and excavations became progressively filled. A number of companies managed the site with varying degrees of success. Over the decades the village suffered from pollution and smells. That period is now ended but the drive road remains. Electricity is still being produced at the former landfill from the controlled emission of methane. Mrs Hirst wrote, “So the last century has seen many changes but our church is still what it has always been, the heart of our parish and the centre of our lives here in Scouthead Village.”

21 SCOUTHEAD

The heart of the village was removed by the closure of both the school and the deconsecration of the church. The church of St. Paul had served the village since 1886 but the falling population and declining church membership led first to the amalgamation of parishes in 1976. The retirement of the Rev. Tibbles in 1975 and his replacement with a Joint Ministry led to the sale of the then redundant vicarage. In 1974 control of the village school passed to Oldham Education Committee. In 1983 the school in turn closed but in accordance with the Trust deeds it retained its educational function. It became a private fee- paying nursery, the award winning 'Saddleworth Stars.' It now meets the needs of about a hundred pupils serving a wider catchment than the former state school.

Saddleworth Museum Archives St Paul’s Church and School on Huddersfield Road (A62)

It became more and more evident that the church would close. In July 2004 it was declared to be redundant and this was confirmed in 2006. A major refurbishment of the church buildings followed. At a cost of two and a half million pounds a new edifice was created, the Talking Point Conference and Exhibition Centre. Thus, probably for the first time, Scouthead became a regional meeting place. Some things don't seem to change. The Grimshaw family of Scouthead Farm and the Collins family of Doctor Lane still put their cows out to pasture from late May to October. They are two of the six families recorded in 1960 who still live in the village in 2017. But the rural landscape too has changed. We no longer see the lapwings, redwings and fieldfares nor hear the skylarks nor see the hares in their winter colouring Troops of frogs are no longer seen making their way to the old mill lodge behind Hyndgart. For the past two years the Austerlands and Scouthead Community Group have been meeting with the encouragement of the Oldham Council. They have taken responsibility for the management of the remaining public part of Dawson's Field and have organised an Annual Fun Day. An active section of the group played their part in cleaning up the village in preparation for the Oldham in Bloom visitation. Another group, initiated by a former church warden, meets fortnightly for coffee and a chat.

22 SCOUTHEAD

A major social event which draws in residents and ‘comers in’ alike is the annual brass band contest. This has been organised by the Brass Band Contest Committee led by an annually elected mayor. Since beginning in 1978 each Whitsun sees up to 70 bands, some world famous, including bands from Norway and Switzerland, march and play in Dawson's field. It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of this contest at Scouthead. Though Scouthead is thinly populated it is one of the most financially attractive of the eleven venues. The Band Committee toil throughout the year raising money for the event. Their well- produced printed program shows over 30 sponsors, drawing in support not only from Austerlands, High Moor, Springhead and Lees but also from Rochdale, Hyde and Glossop. These social gatherings run counter to the trend. Since 1960 car ownership has increased. Buses are chiefly patronised by pensioners and children. The home has become more comfortable and attractive as a source of entertainment with the result that public houses are no longer servicing the local community. In the same way, with the ban on smoking, more pubs have become restaurants, no longer serving a mainly local clientele. Since 1960 the biggest change has been the loss of social interaction, a trend which continues today. The Three Crowns pub restaurant which opened in the early nineteenth century announced in May 2018 that it would be closing. This pub restaurant served a larger area than Scouthead but it was the starting point of every band in the Annual Contest. In 1960, we, as a family, knew about 70 people in the village with whom we could pass the time of day. Today the number is more like 30. In the past 60 years Scouthead has lost its church, the chapel, the school, a play group, a police house, two shops, a post office, a petrol filling station, a pub and a factory. We have gained a pub-restaurant, a Conference Centre, an independent nursery school. and two new bus shelters. We have retained our Victorian post box. But some of these latter facilities serve a wider area than the village. We no longer meet informally in the pub, at the playgroup, at the school gate, in the post office, or at the bus stop as was our custom. Today we get into our cars and leave the village. Nowadays we live amongst strangers whose names we do not know and Mike Buckley whose faces we do not recognise. Victorian Post Box However, if you climb up Dawson's Field on the path to Old Nathan's by the former post office the whole village comes into view. The church building on its headland no longer seems so isolated sited between the cottages, farm and houses on Doctor Lane to the east and those clustering around the old Wrigley mill to the west. Hardly any recent building blurs the original outline of the settlement on the turnpike road of the early 1800s. Local people appreciate that seclusion and quietness, the hill-top views of Saddleworth and the Mersey plain, the absence of suburban sprawl and the proximity to the A62 for buses to Oldham and onward trams to Manchester. The wider world is on our village doorstep and offers some compensation for the inevitable loss of the old village community. Then hey for top of Austerlands, and hey for all it gives, for the freedom and freshness for which a human lives.

23 SCOUTHEAD

Sam Seville c1935/Saddleworth Museum Archive Three Crowns Inn, Scouthead

Sam Seville/Saddleworth Museum Archive

Mason Row, Scouthead

24 SHSB, VOL. 48, NO. 1, 2018

OBITUARY Lorna Helen Gartside (1937 - 2017)

Gartside family collection Lorna

Lorna spent her early years in Hale, Cheshire and she and her husband, John, met while they were both studying at Oxford. John was a native of Saddleworth and ran a business in Oldham. Lorna qualified as an occupational therapist and worked for many years in the Tameside area. On moving to Saddleworth she quickly fell in love with the district acquiring a keen interest in its history, architecture and landscape. John and Lorna bought an eighteenth century farmhouse at Holly Grove in Dobcross. Lorna was an enthusiastic and active member of Saddleworth Historical Society as well, as Saddleworth Civic Trust, of which, for many years, she was secretary. Discovering that Holly Grove was originally called Hollingreave it was not long before she named her house Hollingreave Farm. Over many years she carried out extensive research into the house, the history of the hamlet, and the families who had lived there. A keen family historian, she researched John’s Melladew ancestors and participated in the WEA Wills and Inventories class. A particular interest, and academically, a very valuable one, was the significance of the network of ancient watercourses that supplied her house and others on the Diggle, Dobcross and Uppermill hillsides - these have since been shown to date back as far as the earliest settlements in the district. This led later to a study carried out by the Saddleworth Civic Trust into surviving water troughs in Saddleworth. Another project she initiated through the Civic Trust was the placing of blue plaques on some of the important historic buildings in Saddleworth; the blue plaque on the old toll house on Chew Valley Road in Greenfield was the first of these. She took an active interest in planning matters in Saddleworth, particularly in the case of historic buildings, and would raise concerns with the planning department in

25 OBITUARY

Oldham when she felt the heritage of Saddleworth was under threat from unsympathetic development.

David JW Harrison 2008 Lorna, The Charioteer - Saddleworth Show 2008

Lorna was passionate about animals and, in addition to her much loved horses and dogs, she farmed their small holding at Holly Grove, raising rare breed cattle and poultry. Despite being troubled by ill health for much of her life, she continued to participate in a wide range of diverse activities in addition to those already mentioned, supporting The Friends of the Whitworth Gallery, Saddleworth Players, the Chamber Concert Society and the Saddle- worth Film Society, to name just a few. In presenting this snapshot of Lorna’s life and activities one can understand something of the contribution she made over a lifetime to the quality of life of all of us in Saddleworth. Her husband John died shortly after Lorna and, despite being in poor health herself, she cared for John in his final illness. She left two sons and a daughter.

26 OBITUARY

OBITUARY John Andrew Cleverley (died 7 November 2017)

Cleverley family collection John

John Cleverley died on 7th November last year at the age of 93. He was an active member Saddleworth Historical Society for many years having joined the society soon after its formation in 1966. He participating in several archaeological digs, including the tumulus near Hill Top Lane and investigations into the path of the Roman Road through Saddleworth. John was also a regular attendee at the many social events organised by the society in its early days. Also an active volunteer at Saddleworth Museum, he was very involved with the early extension and remodelling of the museum, and took part on the manning of the desk by Saddleworth Historical Society members on their rotas for the Saturday and Sunday openings. John saw active service during the second world war as a gunner in the 22nd Dragoons, Royal Armoured Corps, and was a veteran of the D-Day landings. His tank, which was one of the first to arrive at Sword Beach on 6th June 1944, was fitted with flails to explode sand mines. He later wrote of this experience and in 2015 was awarded the Légion d’honneur by the French government in recognition of his contribution to France’s liberation. He was involved as a member of the Oldham branch of the Royal Artillery Association, in having an old flag restored.

27 SHSB, VOL. 48, NO. 1, 2018

LETTER Letter from Lewis Cowen My father (William Lewis Cowen) was born at Hollin View, Diggle, Saddleworth on September 5th 1904. He was one of the children of Thomas and Mary Alice Cowen, and had a younger brother called Harry Stanley Cowen who was born in 1920 at Bankfield House, Diggle( now Diggle Band Club I believe). During the course of tracing my Family History, one of the things I was unable to discover was the whereabouts etc. of my uncle Harry and his wife. I didn't know where they were or if they had any children - or even if they were still alive. My only memory of my uncle Harry was when he visited us after we had moved to Macclesfield, with his wife June shortly before they emigrated to Canada. As a result I decided to look at the Passenger lists on the Ancestry web site, and there they were on the S.S. Queen Mary in February 1952, bound for Canada. Further investigation of the Lists showed that in May 1955 June and her twin daughters (of whom I was completely unaware) returned to England on the S.S. Empress of Australia where they visited relatives during the course of the next twelve months. The girls were born on 26th July 1952 and following their visit to England they returned to Canada on the S.S. Scythia in April 1956 giving their last address in this country as Tetbury, Gloucestershire. Things were looking up and further investigation revealed that June and her daughters had again returned to this country, on the S.S .Great Britain in April 1959 giving their ‘country of intended future permanent residence’ as an address in Birmingham. However, enquiries there were to no avail, and as neither of the girl's names appeared in any of the B.M.Ds. I decided to try the Tetbury connection from 1956. In May this year I contacted a lady who worked at the local paper in that area, and she said she edited a weekly article about Family History, and would be pleased to make some enquiries via the paper. Her article brought ONE reply, and that was from a lady who still lived in the Tetbury area and was the cousin of the twins, on their mother's side. She had sent my details to the girls who (along with their mother) now lived in Australia, and the rest, as they say, is history. I was in regular touch by e-mail with my new-found cousins during the last four months or so, and one of them intended to visit this country in July as she was very keen to know as much as possible of her Family History, and visit some of her other relatives whilst over here. She said her father had passed away in 1999, but her mother (aged 92) was still alive although not in the best of health, and during our ‘conversations’ she suggested we make arrangements to tidy up our paternal grandparents Grave at St Chads, which had become much overgrown, and arrange for a Gravestone to be placed there. We were greatly indebted to Stanley Cowburn, the Sexton at St Chads, for his considerable help and guidance in this venture, without which we would not have been able to achieve our aim of refurbishing the Grave which contained the remains of our grandparents and two of their children. My cousin Judith spent a couple of days with us whilst on her visit, and we were able to go to the Grave, spend some time in St Chads Church, visit some of our deceased relatives at Holy Trinity, Dobcross and see where Judith's father was born and went to school and (when he was old enough of course) enjoyed the occasional glass of something refreshing. All in all it was a most enjoyable and worthwhile day in Saddleworth. The moral of this story is that whilst we all hit ‘brick walls’ in our research, there is almost always a way of solving the mystery. If we can just find it!! Lewis W Cowen (October 2017)

28 SHSB, VOL. 48, NO. 1, 2018

BOOK REVIEW

HISTORY IN THE SOUTH PENNINES The legacy of Alan Petford edited by Nigel Smith (Hebden Bridge Local History Society [on behalf of South Pennine History Group] 2017 x+413pp ISBN 978-0-9933920-1-6) £20+£3.50 p&p Alan Petford, a much-loved and highly respected teacher, lecturer and researcher in local and landscape history, died too early in February 2015. He came from Saddleworth, that quintessentially Pennine parish which, though in Yorkshire, was on the Lancashire side of the watershed. Its vigorous and distinctive character, and historically-rich, often bleak, and haunting landscape, with a wealth of early industrial sites and vernacular buildings, encouraged and inspired him, and to this and adjacent parts of the South Pennines he devoted much of his working life. As Gillian Cookson notes in the introduction to this beautiful and worthy tribute to his work, ‘The West Riding’s upland dwellers generally had much more in common with their east Lancashire counterparts than they did with many fellow Yorkshire- men and women’. This common social and economic identity and strong visual framework helps to create a clear sub-regional unit which is sharply different from the Peak District to the south and the Yorkshire Dales to the north, let alone the plains of Lancashire and Yorkshire to the west and east. In this book fourteen scholarly essays highlight various aspects of the Yorkshire side of the South Pennines, divided into four sub-sections based on geographical divisions: Calderdale, Marsden, Saddleworth and Shipley. The book is a collaborative effort between members of the Hebden Bridge, Marsden and Saddleworth local history societies, with each of which Alan was involved, and the whole has been ably edited by the landscape historian Nigel Smith from Hebden Bridge. The chronological span of the essays covers the period from the end of the fifteenth century to the middle of the nineteenth, with something of an emphasis on the later sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a crucial period in the social and economic evolution of the sub-region. The book is lavishly illustrated and uses full-colour throughout, allowing some particularly clear and attractive maps and graphs, and excellent photographs of the fine landscapes of the district. In the first section Nigel Smith has a very interesting paper on the township boundaries of the Upper Calder Valley, demonstrating that, contrary to an often stated assumption, these were in many cases not formally fixed until the nineteenth century, especially in areas of open moorland, and that disputes over boundaries were a widespread feature. He emphasises the significance of the Ordnance Survey in the context of the disputes of the 1840s and suggests that the exercise of rights of common in the upland areas was a significant element in these inter-community conflicts. Members of the Hebden Bridge LHS contributed an well-researched and notably well- illustrated review of population trends in the parish of Halifax from 1539 to 1670, using the parish registers and looking at the theoretical background to demographic analysis before considering the population of individual townships; migration patterns; mortality, with a special emphasis on the various mortality crises of the period and the impact of the Civil War; and an overview of change during the whole period. This is followed by Mike Crawford’s paper on the probate records of the Upper Calder Valley from 1688 to 1700, based on a project initiated by Alan Petford ten years ago. Among the themes picked out are religious preambles; the rationale for bequests; wealth, landscape and economy; agricultural activity and textile production; and patterns of spending and lending. David Cant investigates the rebuilding of the house of Little Brackenbed, just north of Halifax, which is uniquely well- documented with a detailed agreement and specification, while Peter Robinson discusses the ‘design, function and layout of licensed houses’ in the Halifax area before the mid-nineteenth century, a period for which a surprising amount of written and physical evidence has been assembled. He covers a broad range of types of premises: inns, alehouses, spirit vaults, dram

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BOOK REVIEW shops, and beerhouses. Another architectural paper, by Sheila Graham, considers the building of public libraries, looking at several Yorkshire towns (Leeds, Halifax, Keighley, Sowerby Bridge and Todmorden) and highlighting the factors debated locally which determined the timing, size, scale and ambition of the buildings in question. A detailed case study by Dave Smalley focuses on the Nodale Dam in upper Calderdale, exploring its early history and archaeology, construction methods and rather sudden end in 1936-1939 when a small breach was rapidly widened during terrible weather, the dam collapsed, and the remains were permanently slighted for safety reasons. A short case study, by Richard Davies, looks at an abortive mid-1820s proposal to build a 6½ mile quarry railway from Cold Edge to Halifax and the Calder and Hebble Navigation. The section on Calderdale concludes with a descriptive analysis of the value for local historians of the memoirs of the Reverend John Taylor (1743-1818) of Northowram near Halifax. It covers family and religious life, sickness and death, the roles of women, and the problems of poverty and destitution, as well as giving valuable insights into coal-mining. Under the guidance of Alan Petford, Hazel Seidel and the Marsden History Group undertook a probate record project between 2007 and 2013, researching all 209 wills, 182 inventories and 86 bonds processed by the Marsden Peculiar Court in 1655-1855. Their paper discusses in detail the nature of the material itself, including its social and economic bias, and then analyses aspects such as farming, the woollen industry, tradesmen, houses and domestic lifestyles, inheritance strategies, the place of women, religion, education and funerals. This wide-ranging survey gives a convincing and effective overview, and serves as a model of its kind. Mike Buckley analyses the anomalous geography and complex administrative origins of the parish of Saddleworth, looking at boundary features and marks; place-names; the medieval pastoral economy; medieval estates and land grants; the expansion of settlement in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (including the creation and sub-division of tenements); and a gazetteer of medieval place-name references. This paper is superbly illustrated with very clear full colour maps, and is an exemplary piece of landscape and documentary analysis. The final three sections include Elizabeth Paget’s comprehensive account of the linen industry in seventeenth-century Saddleworth, which is commendably strong both on the processes involved and the broader context, using probate evidence but making it clear that linen production was also found widely in the region, including parts of Lancashire and some of the lower Yorkshire Dales. Victor Khadem gives a splendid and fascinating local historical perspective on Samuel Bottomley’s poem Greenfield, written in Saddleworth in about 1780 and packed with references to and descriptions of landscape, buildings and social comment, as well as dramatic local legends. The last paper, by Richard Coomber, dissects the process and consequences of parliamentary enclosure in the township of Shipley, near Bradford, arguing that it created the physical framework for much of the present town. The book finishes with a very comprehensive bibliography, and it is fully referenced throughout. This is a major contribution to the history of the sub-region, each of the essays being to the highest standards - it would not be easy to single out any as being weaker than the others. It is thoroughly recommended not only for local historians in the area, but for anybody interested in Pennine history, Yorkshire history and (dare I say it?) Lancashire history. And some of the essays are models of how local history analysis should be presented. It’s a delight from beginning to end, and a source of many new ideas. AGC January 2018

Reproduced by kind permission of ALAN G. CROSBY who is the editor of The Local Historian. He has lived and researched in Lancashire for over thirty years and has a special interests in the landscapes and social and economic history of the Pennines.

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