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