Title quote: extract from Daniel Defoe, A /Qurthrough the whole island of Great Britain (Harmondsworth, 1971). p. 500 Front cover: depicts a detail from a map of the estate of the Low Moor Iron Company drawn in 1811 by George Leather junior (Metropolitan Bradford Libraries/LOW 1811 LEA 12) Back cover: Inventory of Isaac Denby of Wilsden, dated 6 July 1725 (Borthwick Institute/Exchequer Probate Records/ Pontefract D/August 1725) West Yorkshire: 'A Noble Scene of Industry" The Development of the County 1500 to 1830 by R. C. N. Thornes WestYorkshire Archaeology• Service WEST YORKSHIRE JOINT COMMITTEE FOR ARCHIVES AND ARCHAEOLOGY ISBN: 1 870453 02 6 © West Yorkshire Archaeology Service 1987 First published 1981 by West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council Reprinted with corrections and a new foreword 1987 by West Yorkshire Archaeology Service, 14, St John's North, Wakefield WF1 3QA. Printed by Witley Press Ltd., Hunstanton, Norfolk. iii CONTENTS List of contents iii Figures and plates V Foreword .. vii Acknowledgements and Abbreviations ix Introduction 1 CHAPTER 1. Textiles 7 CHAPTER 2. Iron and coal 28 CHAPTER 3. Minor industries .. 37 CHAPTER 4. Communications .. 42 CHAPTER 5. Working-class housing .. 51 CHAPTER 6. Priorities for future work 54 Notes 55 Bibliography 57 iv V FIGURES AND PLATES FIGURES PLATES l. Geology and relief 1. Wade family crest, High Bentley (Shelf) 2. Wealth distribution, 1334 and 1600 2. Peel House, Gomersal 3. Population density, 1379 and 1672 3. Park Mills, Leeds 4. Population density, 1831 4. Bingley from Bailey Hills, c. 1830 5. Population increase, 1801 to 1831 5. Factory children, c. 1814 6. Enclosure of the commons, Honley, 1788 6. Midgley Farm, Baildon 7. The deanery of Pontefract 7. Midgley Farm, Baildon 8. Probate inventories: distribution of those engaged in 8. Clothiers taking their cloth to market, c. 1814 the textile industry, 1688-1738 (by parish) 9. Merchants and clothiers in the Leeds coloured cloth 9. Probate inventories: relative wealth of yeomen­ hall,c. 1814 clothiers and yeomen in the parish of Halifax,1688- 10. The Piece Hall, Halifax 1738 11. The Fieldens' cottages, Todmorden 10. Probate inventories:· agricultural interests of the 12. Turkey Mill, Goose Eye (Keighley) principal trade and status groups, 1688-1738 (by 13. Bell pits, Bentley Qrange, Emley parish) 14. Bell pit, Bentley Grange, Emley 11. Distribution of houses with three or more hearths, 15. Bretton furnace watercourse 1672 16. The original blast furnaces, Low Moor (North 12. Schematic plan of an aisled hall Bierley) 13. Worsted mill, Goose Eye (Keighley) 17. The original blowing engine, Low Moor (North 14. Armley Mills Bierley) 15. Distribution of woollen and worsted mills, 18. A typical cottage of the type built for colliers, North 1831 (by parish) Bierley 16. Woollen cloth production, 1770-1820 19. Newlay Bridge, Horsforth, 1819 17. Loomshop, Addingham, c. 1797 20. Bierley Ironworks 18. Nineteenth century weavers' cottages, Golcar 21. A Middleton collier, c. 1814 19. Nineteenth century weavers' cottages, Golcar 22. The Leeds Pottery 20. Weavers' cottages, Gully (Wooldale), 1794 23. Bottle cone, North Bierley 21. The distribution of textile manufacturers, 1821 24. Packhorse bridge, Marsden 22. The distribution of the principal branches of the textile 25. Toll bar, Bradford industry, 1821 26. Aire and Calder Navigation warehouses, Leeds 23. Trade token issued by Richard Paley in 1791 27. Sowerby Bridge basin, Calder and Hebble Navigation 24. Low Moor Iron Works (North Bierley), 1811 28. Waggonway embankment, North Bierley 25. Field-names with leather elements 29. Coal staithes, Middleton Railway, Leeds 26. Distribution of potteries 30. Single storey cottage, Adel 27. Field-names with brick elements 31. Terrace row, New Longley (Norland) 28. Milepost, West Bretton 32. Dwellings of the urban labouring-classes, Leeds 29. Turnpike roads 33. Dwellings of the urban labouring-classes, Leeds 30. Navigable waterways 34. Iron worker's cottage, North Bierley, c. 1791 31. Broken stone waggonway sleeper, Shitlington 35. Estate workers' cottages, West Bretton 32. Some of the principal waggonway and railway systems of West Yorkshire, 1758-1836 33. Ironworker's cottage, Low Moor (North Bierley), c. 1791 34. Estate worker's cottage, West Bretton 35. Single storey cottage, Lepton vi vii FOREWORD Between 1977 and 1980 a survey of the post-medieval Workers' Housing in West Yorkshire 1750-1920, by Lucy archaeology and history of West Yorkshire was carried out Caffyn. A third important survey, covering textile mills in by the former Metropolitan County Council Archaeology the County, is currently in progress, again a joint venture Unit. This volume, first published in 1981 records the prin­ by the Archaeology Service and the Royal Commission on cipal findings of the survey. As the title implies, it is con­ Historical Monuments. cerned mainly with the industrial development of the At a time when the face of West Yorkshire is undergoing County: it outlines the origins and growth of both major a dramatic transformation, when the remains of the Coun­ and minor industries, and of what these days would be call­ ty's older, traditional industries are being erased from the ed the infrastructure - the associated housing and com­ landscape, it is vital that such studies take place. They will munications. It also traces the impact of this development enable future generations to understand the ·processes upon the region's rural society and agrarian economy. which formed the modern character of West Yorkshire, The publication was not designed to be a definitive and and they will indicate which monuments to past industries final account of West Yorkshire's industrialisation. Rather, should be preserved in the present and future landscape. In it sought to establish a context for more detailed studies of the meantime, this volume still provides an indispensable the relevant historical documents and archaeological introduction to the industrial history of West Yorkshire monuments. Two such studies have already been com­ and to its archaeological monuments. pleted, both of them undertaken jointly by the former County Council with the Royal Commission on the John Hedges Historical Monuments of England. They are Rural Houses County Archaeologist of West Yorkshire 1400-1830, by Colum Giles and PREAMBLE TO THIS DIGITAL Those interested in pursuing the content of this volume in more depth, should be aware that EDITION copies of all the cited reports, and a lot more West Yorkshire: A Noble Scene of Industry - besides, are available for consultation by The Development of the County 1500 to 1830 appointment (free to personal researchers), at the by Robin Thornes, was first published by the West Yorkshire Historic Environment Record. West Yorkshire Metropolitan CC in 1981, with a I welcome this digital version of A Noble Scene second edition (with minor corrections) of Industry by the Yorkshire Archaeological and published by West Yorkshire Archaeology Historical Society. I hope that it will serve as an Service in 1987, of which this is a scanned copy. introduction to West Yorkshire’s industrial past, Since the publication of the first edition, there for a new generation, with changes having taken has, not surprisingly, been significant additional place that few could have imagined in 1981; work on key aspects of West Yorkshire’s perhaps the biggest of all being the end of coal industrial past. This work has significantly mining and its use in large scale industries and supplemented, rather than superseded, some of power generation. Interestingly, water power is the content of A Noble Scene of Industry. Notable returning, with two major schemes now in place. are the RCHME/West Yorkshire Archaeology However, transport was a foundation of the Service volumes on Yorkshire textile mills (Giles industrial revolution and continues to dominate and Goodall 1992), workers’ housing (Caffyn the county, and Chapter 4 of A Noble Scene of 1986) and rural houses (Giles 1986). Industry remains the best general survey on this subject. Significant archaeological work has also been carried out through the planning process as a Ian Sanderson result of Planning Policy Guidance Notes 16 and West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Service 15 (1990; 1994), and their successive iterations Nepshaw Lane South (PPS5 and currently the National Planning Morley Policy Framework), where the concept of Leeds LS27 7JQ developer-funded archaeological recording in advance of destruction by development, was February 2020 applied at a national level. This has resulted in https://www.wyjs.org.uk/archaeology-advisory/ significant gains in knowledge for specific industries, some of it published as monographs, E: [email protected] such as that on the Monk Bridge Ironworks (Davies and Barker 2011). Other investigations References have been published as papers in the Industrial Caffyn, L., 1986, Workers’ Housing in West Archaeology Review, and many more have been Yorkshire 1750–1920 (RCHME & West reported as ‘grey literature’, with copies lodged Yorkshire MCC) in the West Yorkshire Historic Environment Record (held by the West Yorkshire Archaeology Davies G. and Barker, D., 2011, Monk Bridge Advisory Service (WYAAS). Ironworks, (ArcHeritage, York Archaeological Trust) The comprehensive research agenda for the Industrial Archaeology of West Yorkshire Giles, C., 1986, Rural Houses of West Yorkshire (Gomersall 2005; reviewed 2009), available on 1400-1830 (RCHME & West Yorkshire MCC) the WYAAS website, has naturally replaced Thornes’ one-page Chapter 6 (‘Priorities for Giles, C. and Goodall, I.H., 1992, Yorkshire future work’) in A Noble Scene of Industry. Textile Mills: 1770–1930 (RCHME & West Guided by this research agenda, significant Yorkshire Archaeology Service) recording on a range of industries has taken Gomersall, H., 2000, ‘Departed Glory; the place initiated through the planning process, archaeology of the Leeds tanning industry 1780 perhaps most notably in the textile industry, but to 1914’, Industrial Archaeology Review 22, also in coal mining and others. Important Issue 2, 133-44). research on nationally significant local industries, based on personal research, has also Gomersall, H., 2005, rev.