Huddersfield Local History Society: Journal 22 (2011) by various

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HUDDERSFIELD LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY was formed in 1977. It was established to create a means by which peoples of all levels of experience could share their common interests in the history of Huddersfield and district. We recognise that Huddersfield enjoys a rich historical heritage. It is the home town of prime ministers and Hollywood stars; the birthplace of Rugby League and famous Olympic athletes; it has more buildings than Bath listed for historical or architectural interest; it had the first municipal trams and some of the first council housing; its radical heritage includes the Luddites, suffragettes, pacifists and other campaigners for change.

MEMBERSHIP of the Society runs from 1° September until 31° August and the present subscriptions per year are:- Individual membership £7 Double membership £11 Group membership £10 Double membership consists of 2 named persons using a single address and receiving one copy of the Society’s Journal. Cheques should be made payable to “Huddersfield Local History Society” and sent to the Membership Secretary or submitted at a Society meeting.

MEETINGS: The Society organises a full programme of meetings each year and the programme for 2011/12 is published in this journal. Our programme of Monday evening meetings take place in the Reception Room at Huddersfield Town Hall and commence at 7.30pm. Occasional visitors are welcome at a charge of £2 per meeting.

PUBLICATIONS: The Huddersfield Local History Society “Journal” is produced on an annual basis and is free to Members and at a cost of £3.00 to non-members. In addition the Society publishes a number of booklets which are listed separately in this journal together with details of prices and how they may be purchased.

DATA PROTECTION ACT: Members are reminded that their names and addresses are held on computer. The information we hold will only be used for membership purposes and will not be passed on to any other person or organisation. Please inform the Membership Secretary if you do not wish your details to be stored in this Way.

© This Journal is copyright and no part may be reproduced for publication in any form without the written consent of the Editor

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HUDDERSFIELD LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY

JOURNAL

May 2011 Issue No. 22

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Huddersfield Town Hall This picture shows Huddersfield Town Hall, opened in 1881 and built at a cost of £57,000, it provides a suitable historic setting for our series of Monday meetings.

Would you like to submit an article for inclusion in the Journal? The Society welcomes letters, articles, diary extracts, photographs on any aspects of local history. Please send items for publication to the Editor (John Rawlinson, 12 Station Road, Golcar, Huddersfield, HD7 4ED. Email address: johnrawlinson@aol.com The deadline for submission of copy for the 2012 (Issue 23) will be Friday, March 30" 2012. A “Style Guide” is available for Members wishing to produce articles and the Society offers help for those less confident in using a computer. The “Style Guide” can be found on the Society’s website www.huddersfieldhistory.or.uk

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Huddersfield Local History Society Journal

Table of Contents

About Huddersfield Local History Society Inside Front Cover Huddersfield Local History Society Committee Back Cover

News & Events: The Society’s Programme of Meetings, 2011/12 occ. The Society’S Bicentenary Of Yorkshire LUACISM

Articles:

Asian Voices Nafhesa Ali

Springwood, Huddersfield’s Lost Park David Griffiths voce LO

A New Look at the Place-Name Fartown GEOrge REAMONAS QO

Pebbles on the Wall — Extracts from Margaret Woodhead’s Diary Bill ROD@rtS wooo. OL

Harold Wagstaff, 1891 to 1939 David THOrpe D4

Crown and County Sarah Kellett 44

Resources for Historical Research MArtin 49

Website Queries David

Book Reviews - Keith In Mercy of the Lord, Peter Hurst Joseph Wood 1750-1821, A Yorkshire Quaker, Pam Cooksey Secured for the Town: The Story of Huddersfield’s Greenhead Park, David Griffiths

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Huddersfield Local History Society Journal

EDITORIAL

Welcome to the 2011 edition of the Society’s Journal. The pressures of a growing membership and the advent of new technologies coupled with the rising cost of postage have caused us to rethink the production of the Journal. It is now in “AS” format and commercially printed although still produced “in house”. Keith Brockhill, who has faithfully edited the Journal since 1988, has stepped down from the task and the Editorial Group are learning the hard way what a demanding responsibility it must have been. The genesis of the

Journal was in the “Newsletter” of the Huddersfield

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John Rawlinson

Local History Workshop, which included Cyril Pearce and

Hilary Haigh (still Committee Members) amongst its founders. The first issue was in the Autumn of 1983 and was edited by Dr D M Jones of the then Polytechnic Library. It was launched with the hope that “it will become a means of communication for the Membership as a whole” and “as a medium for the publication of their articles and also historical notes and queries arising from their research”. The “Newsletter” continued until 1990 by which time Keith was its Editor and with the Autumn 1990 edition it became the familiar “Journal”.

I hope you feel that the new format Journal maintains the standards set by its predecessors. Of course, if there are things of interest you would like to write about we are always looking for Members’ contributions to the Journal. Please see the note on page 1 on how to go about submitting an article — go on, have a go!

As we go into press we are looking forward to the new season’s programme of meetings and activities. The 2011/12 Programme is published on page 4 of this Journal and I hope you agree we have an interesting and varied set of topics. So, please remember to renew your subscription — at £7 for single and £11 for double membership it remains a bargain, especially as the occasional charge has been raised to £2 per meeting from September 2011.

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Huddersfield Local History Society Journal

THE MONDAY EVENING PROGRAMME FOR 2011/12

Monday, September 26h 2011

Joseph Wood 1750-1821, A Yorkshire Quaker Pam Cooksey Monday, October 31st 2011 Mrs Jagger’s Honley Peter Marshall Monday, November 28th 2011 From Huddersfield to Hollywood & Back Again Paul Ward

James Mason’s Journey Monday, January 30th 2012

The Work of the Milestone Society 2000—to date Jan Scrine Monday, February 27th 2012 Escape from Famine, a new kind of Poverty Esther Moriarty

The Irish in Huddersfield Monday, March 26th 2012

A Good Day Out Malcolm Haigh Monday, April 30th 2012 Communities of Resistance, The Other Huddersfields Cyril Pearce Monday, May 28th 2012 Medieval Roads in the Huddersfield Area Stephen Moorhouse

Please Note: All the above meetings will be held in the reception Room at Huddersfield Town Hall - commencing 7.30pm.

OTHER EVENTS WE ARE PLANNING January 2012 (Date to be announced) New Year Social Event (Details to be announced) Saturday, November 19th 2011 The “Saturday Seminar” will be held at Newsome South Methodist Church, 9.30am until 3.30pm (lunch provided). The theme will be “Pennine Journeys”. Speakers: David Cockman, Dr Bob Gough, Paul Salveson June Excursion - 2012 There will be an evening excursion to a place of local historical interest. Further details to be announced later.

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Huddersfield Local History Society Journal

Local History Society Publications — And Where to Find Them

As well as our annual Journal, the Society has a range of booklets in print, as follows:

Huddersfield in the 1820s, by Edward J Law (ISBN 978 I 950913 4 5 2) -£6.00 (+ 95p p&p). roc

Pioneers or Partisans? — Governing Huddersfield, 1820- 48, by David Griffiths (ISBN 978 9509134 4 5) — £5.00 (+ 95p p&p).

The Diary of a Quack Doctor: The Last Diary of John Swift, Aurist, of Newsome, 1784-1851, by Jennifer

Stead (ISBN 9509134 3X) — £6.00 (+ 95p p&p). Of John Benson Pritchett: First Medical Officer of Health Ee 7 for Huddersfield, by J B Eagles (ISBN 95091350 5) —

£1.50 (+ 60p p&p).

Joseph Kaye, Builder of Huddersfield, c.1779-1858, by Edward J Law (ISBN 9509134 1 3) — £2.50 (+ 60p p&p).

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We are also planning to publish a revised and updated edition of Queen St Chapel and Mission, Huddersfield by Professor Edward Royle.

These are available by post from:

David Griffiths, 24 Sunnybank Rd, Huddersfield, HD3 3DE; cheques to be payable to Huddersfield Local History Society.

Look out for the Society’s bookstall, at our meetings and other local events, which also carries a wide range of local history materials from other publishers.

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BICENTENARY OF YORKSHIRE LUDDISM

2012 sees the bicentenary of Luddite activity in Yorkshire. Luddism was a movement of textile workers, among others, who protested against the implementation of new mechanical processes because of their social effects.

The University of Huddersfield has set up a hub for groups interested in commemorating this important anniversary. Partners include Kirklees Museums and Galleries, West Yorkshire Archive Service, Mikron Theatre Company, Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Colne Valley Museum and Sheffield Archives.

For more information see the project website www.ludditelink.org.uk or email luddites@hud.ac.uk.

Photos courtesy of Kirklees Image Archive www.kirkleesimages.org.uk

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ASIAN VOICES

By Nafhesa Ali - Project Manager Centre for Oral History Research, University of Huddersfield

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Ashraf Ali & Muhammad Hussain. Coming to England, 1960

History

In a multi-cultural society and with a continuous number of new migrants entering Britain, oral historians are becoming increasingly interested in documenting settled migrant histories and preserving their memories through oral history testimony. The 1950s and early 1960s brought forth an influx of migrants from South Asia, and Britain home of the British Indian Empire welcomed South Asian migrants to the country in hope of providing extra man power in manual labour jobs and encouraging Britain’s economic growth. Yorkshire, a prime location for these newly arrived migrants due to its rail links and textile industry, provided migrants with endless overtime and enough money to strive for the better life they came for.

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Young men from South Asia, predominantly from the Punjab areas of India and Pakistan migrated to Huddersfield and came to work in this then foreign land in search of wealth and better standards of living. Many were motivated to leave behind parents, young families and homes, with hopes of returning to their homeland soon after migration with this better life. Little did they realise they would still be here 50 years on and become recognised as the first generation of South Asian migrants in Britain. During this period their preservation of culture and traditions was essential in maintaining their identity and without realising over generations formed a new cultural identity of British Asians and even shaped Britain’s national dish.

The project

In 2008, the University of Huddersfield’s Centre for Oral History Research secured a £50,000 Heritage Lottery Fund in order to preserve the oral histories of the South Asian migrant community in Huddersfield. This two-year research project aimed to establish a large archive for the South Asian community, which now comprises of over 100 audio recordings and includes a range of personal photographs and images, kindly donated by interviewees. Interviews were carried out by project manager Nafhesa Ali, who born and bred in Huddersfield, is also of South Asian family heritage. This commonality between the interviewees and interviewer allowed oral history interviews to be carried out in dual languages of English and Panjabi, which are available to listen to on the project website.”

The Asian Voices website includes audios from interviewees, personal photographs and images, oral history training workshops carried out in local schools across South Kirklees, an online blog which has received over 45,000 hits from people across the world’ and details of the project exhibition, which was held to celebrate the joint work between the local community and the University of Huddersfield during Asian Voices. The Exhibition was presented in June 2010 and guests included the Mayor of Huddersfield Andrew Palfreeman and Mayoress Liz Palfreeman, Council Leader Mehboob Khan, local community groups and interviewees from the project. The exhibition celebrated the archive created during Asian Voices and presented the outcomes of the project to the interviewees and local community groups. Asian Voices, alongside its media

* Asian Voices [web page]. Accessed online at <http://asianvoices.hud.ac.uk/> 7 April 2011 * Asian Voices Weblog: Oral History [web page]. Accessed online at <http://asianvoices.wordpress.com/> 7 April 2011 8

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outcome has also created a schools learning resource pack, including CD, which is available free of charge and a book publication Asian Voices: First Generation Migrants.”

What they said First Impressions

I came to Huddersfield in 1963 and have lived here ever since. I came to work...it was easy then to get a passport and come to Britain, so I came because it was better living for the children, more money here. But when I came to Huddersfield it was very black and dirty, the stones were black because of the smoke from the mills. It was so different then...and the snow, I’d never seen snow before. I felt so cold — Ashraf Ali’

I was twenty-five years old and I came here in 1962 to earn some more money, because in our country Pakistan it was just hand to mouth. I was a farmer there and farmed the land with my family. I heard people were going to England and there you could get a better life for yourself and your family. It wasn’t easy for me to come over as the government only allowed metric pass and I was a farmer, but I managed. When I came I was really puzzled because of the language, the experience and the cold...it was a totally new environment. I was from the farming industry, but here, life was so different, everybody stayed at home and at the time I felt like a prisoner... was so upset for weeks of getting here — Fazal. R. Khan

I came to England on the 13° January, 1961 and I went straight to Glasgow, because I didn’t know anybody and I had a relation there. So I stayed there for two months. I came to Huddersfield as there were no more jobs in Glasgow. We travelled by rail and when we came to Huddersfield, we disembarked off the train and there was an English lady waiting for us. She was married to a Pakistani and she helped us, booked a taxi and I came to live at Water Street, number 22. The first thing I saw over here was that they used to sell coal and they would shout, “Coal, coal, coal!” It was the first time I’d ever seen anything like it — Hanif Asad°

* Nafhesa Ali, Asian Voices: First Generation Migrants, University of Huddersfield: Riley Dunn & Wilson Ltd. 2010 * Ashraf Ali, ibid. p.13. ° Fazal, R, Khan, ibid. p.16 ° Hanif, Asad, ibid. p.19

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We had a misconception that we were going to England where there would be trees with pound notes. When I came I actually cried for weeks. Where I came from we were quite comfortable and I wanted to go back, but my friends and relations were here so I stuck to it — Baldev Gill’

Work

I was fifteen years old and straight away when I came here I had to work. I worked in the textile mills, it was a tragedy really. My father wanted me to go to school and they said, ‘your fifteen years old the school will not accept you, you will have to find a job...’ It was very hard work textile work. I worked on the grinding machines and then I worked as a spinner. When my grandfather discovered I was working he didn’t accept it. He didn’t send me to England to work at that age, so my grandfather called me back to Pakistan. I ended up dividing my time during the years here and there — Karam Hussain®

I went to work with someone for a day or two and after that never worked again. I didn’t like the men, it was full segregation in Pakistan, even from uncles and cousins and it was a lot more then. So when I went to work I was embarrassed. It was the Christian neighbour who took me. She said, ‘You’re at home all day, so come to work.’ I went and we made balls, cotton balls, took them off and put them in your lap. It wasn’t hard work, but I didn’t realise that. I did it for a week. I didn’t like it, the men would come round and ask if I had finished and I would stay quiet. The neighbour thought I didn’t speak so she’d say, ‘If you want to come to work come, if you don’t then don’t come.’ So I never went back and I left work. Even my husband didn’t say anything about going back to work... so I never went again — Shamim Begum”

I worked at Hepworth mill. My first job was a pipe maker and only a few people in Huddersfield worked there. They only had six Indian people before me and I was the seventh on night shift. They didn’t have any during the day...at the time we had problems with English and everything in general and it was hard, but we still managed to find work — Balwant. S. Sandhu’

" Baldev, Gill, ibid. p.17 ° Karam, Hussain, ibid. p.38 ° Shamim, Begum, ibid.p.39 Balwant, S, Sandhu, ibid. p.41 10

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I came in November 1963 and found a job in January 1964. Whilst I was working as a research chemist on Leeds Road I applied for a job as a teacher, as professionally I was teaching chemistry in Faisalabad, Pakistan. I taught at St James Grammar School, O’ level Chemistry, as it was called then and taught newly arrived children from Pakistan and India in a reception centre in Spring Grove School on Water Street in Springwood. It was a happy medium, teaching chemistry at the Grammar School and teaching newly arrived students social skills — Dr. Iqbal

Food

Curry was a new experience for English people with Asians coming in and if they smelt a curry being made next door they thought ‘Oh, it smells!’ But eventually if you had English neighbours we would say, ‘would you like to eat some as well’ and people started getting used to it — Yaqub Masih”

Most people bought their own chickens, live ones and did it their own way. The milkman used to bring them or we could go to the poultry farms. There was plenty of meat in shops, but I didn’t know if it was halal. The first shop, halal shop, used to be on Sowood Street and it was called Kureshi General Store, that place was demolished when the ring road was built. Another shop called Punjab Stores opened after that one; this is still there in Springwood. It’s been there since 1963 — Muhammad Ismail”

In those days if you wanted any Asian food you had to cook it at home. There were no takeaways, or very few where you could buy Asian food. You had to go down to Thornton Lodge to buy Asian Food and then gradually people started buying shops — Asghar Ali”

When people came from India, you would ask them to bring your spices or you could get them from Bradford. There were no shops here where you could buy the spices from. In Bradford there were only two shops, Asian shops where you could get the spices from and lentils and you’d go there after a month. This was around 1956 — Balwant. S. Sandhu”

** Dr. Iqbal, ibid. p.45 2 Yaqub, Masih, ibid. p.79 Muhammad, Ismail, ibid. p.81 “ Asghar, Ali, ibid.. » Balwant, S, Sandhu, ibid. p.82 11

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Community

The first mosque was Upper George Street mosque, it was a house that the community bought and we started praying there...that’s how the first mosque was set up — Hanif Asad”

Mela, I was an elected member at the time and I helped get it established. It was set up for the people who were just coming into England and a way for people without families to get to know the community. It was a community festival and I went to the director of services at the time to see if they would be interested in an event like this and they were. It started in 1988. There was a Mela in Leeds and other people started celebrating things like St Patrick’s day and other events, so our community asked why didn’t we celebrate our festivals and that was the thing that pushed for the Mela in Huddersfield — Jamil Akhtar’

We used to hire a hall out. Not do many people prayed then, they were young and very busy. You’d probably read at home and then in the mosques, but we’d rent a hall for Eid. There was one in Thornton Lodge, St. Patrick’s hall where Eldon Electrics is now and we hired the Army Regiment building near the University behind the church. We even rented out the Venn Street West Indian Club, we’ve preyed in there and the Media Centre, we hired a few out over the years. There were a few people who got together to hire these halls and they’d arrange it for us to celebrate — Hanif Asad”

Heritage

At home parents insisted that we spoke Panjabi because we spoke English amongst ourselves and they were really worried that we be able to speak our mother tongue fluently if we were speaking with people who couldn’t speak English. So we grew up with two languages — Mehboob Khan*

That is the advantage of living in Huddersfield, where you have the two cultures and you just integrated. I’d like to keep the Asian influence and don’t want to lose it, it’s a very strong part of us and we will always carry our colour with and with that colour we should carry some of the culture. There’s no reason we should

‘© Hanif, Asad, ibid. p.89 *” Jamil, Akhtar, ibid.. ** Hanif, Asad, ibid. p.86 Mehboob, Khan, ibid. p.93 12

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lose our identity just because we have come to another country. It’s important that we understand where we are from — Mamuna Karim”

This is our home, this is where we belong. I go back every year to India and| ama stranger in my own country, I don’t feel comfortable because I am missing my home, missing this land, my children, my grandchildren. I didn’t go to India for nearly thirty years and now this is my home...but I am Indian because of my roots and that’s where I was born — Baldev Gill”

Overview

The oral history testimonies archived in Asian Voices share the highs and lows of migration and the affect 50 years of settlement has had on individuals, families and their own sense of belonging in Huddersfield. The local community welcomed the chance to share personal memories during Asian Voices and revealed the history of settlement within Huddersfield. It was the closeness of the South Asian community which allowed migrants to support each other during initial migration and it was this community support which allowed the first generation to set up roots in a foreign country whilst holding on to their cultural heritage and sharing it with their host community.

Hanif Asad and Jamil Akhtar,” like many others talk at length about how the community would get together to establish places of worship and community events at times of little money and busy work lives. They all talk about how welcoming Huddersfield was to new migrants and this was part of the reason why they chose Huddersfield as their new home. A welcoming town with friendly people, allowed the South Asian community to share their culture with Huddersfield which proved to be fruitful for the town and its people.

There are many other memories which are shared in Asian Voices. Sabir Hussain mentions how he embraced British culture and had the opportunity to go and see the Beetles and Rolling Stones at the ABC Cinema in Huddersfield, now the town centre Sainsburys”. There are also mentions of the famous men’s suits tailored in

20 Mamuna, Karim, ibid. p.100 *" Baldev, S, Gill, ibid. p.101 ** Hanif Asad and Jamil Akhtar, Asian Voices interviews. University of Huddersfield Archives *? Sabir Hussain, Asian Voices interviews. University of Huddersfield Archives

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Yorkshire and how many of this first generation still have their suits in remembrance of their first wage. Areas across Huddersfield are also mentioned, but Springwood arises many times in the oral history testimonies and marks this area as the heart and beginning of the South Asian community. The Springwood Reception Centre at Spring Grove School was the start of learning to live in British society and parents would send their children to school to learn the English language and social etiquettes such as using a knife and fork, which were also unfamiliar for these newly arrived migrants.

The 1960s prompted landmark establishments for the South Asian community within the area; the first mosque was established in the early part of the 1960s on Upper George Street and still stands today. Punjab Stores established in 1963 catered for the South Asian community with traditional spices and halal meat, and the Indian Workers Association founded in 1965, was recognised as the first point of call to help migrants in all areas of work and settlement within Huddersfield and Britain.

The 1970s cemented South Asian identity within the town’s structure with the development of the Sikh Temple on Prospect Street in Springwood. The golden dome prominent in the town centre now stands tall against the sight of the Queen Victoria’s tower on Castle Hill and has rooted the South Asian community visibly in Huddersfield. It is the first sight entering the town centre and signifies the heart of the South Asian community. Many of whom Indian and Pakistani, return to Springwood from across the town with their families to enjoy the foundation laid down by the first generation of South Asians.

Preservation of this culture

The importance of preserving settled migrant histories is evident in through projects such as Asian Voices as it shares differences between communities and documents the histories of ‘hidden’ communities who have not had the opportunity to do so before. The first generation of the South Asian community are now elderly and during the project two interviewees Sikh Temple, Prospect Street, passed away. It is will these Springwood, 2010.

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passings that their history too will be lost, making it more important to preserve and archive their memories while they are still with us. These memories hold the map of changes within the social structure of Huddersfield and their own generational and cultural changes within the South Asian community. Many of the first generation felt maintaining traditions in a foreign country was the only way to preserve their roots from their homeland. Some found their faith to be a true barer of hope and established places of worship immediately in their places of settlement. You now only have to look at Huddersfield’s landscape and not only will you see the Georgian architecture Huddersfield is renowned for, but you will also see the traditional South Asian domes standing high on the Mosques and Temples across the town. Huddersfield has diversified through its buildings and social culture and the interviewees in Asian Voices share how these changes add to their sense of belonging within the town they now call home.

Biography

Nafhesa Ali is a researcher, author and oral historian at the University of Huddersfield. She specialises in South Asian research and continues her work with the Punjabi community within Huddersfield. For further project details you can email Nafhesa: n.ali2@hud.ac.uk. Full Asian Voices interviews can be found at the University of Huddersfield archives. Asian Voices: first generation migrants by Nafhesa Ali is available to buy through the Local History Society, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield Library or direct from Jeremy Mills publishing, Huddersfield.

Bibliography/ Notes

* Asian Voices [web page]. Accessed online at <http://asianvoices.hud.ac.uk/> 7 April 2011 * Asian Voices Weblog: Oral History [web page]. Accessed online at <http://asianvoices.wordpress.com/> 7 April 2011 **" Nafhesa Ali, Asian Voices: First Generation Migrants, University of Huddersfield: Riley Dunn & Wilson Ltd. 2010 p.13, 16, 19, 17, 38, 39, 41, 45, 79, 81, 82, 86, 89, 93, 100, 101 ** Interview Hanif Asad and Jamil Akhtar, 2009. Asian Voices interviews. University of Huddersfield Archives *? Interview with Sabir Hussain, 2009, Asian Voices interviews. University of Huddersfield Archives

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SPRINGWOOD — HUDDERSFIELD’S LOST PARK By David Griffiths

PUBLIC PARKS came late to Huddersfield. Bradford established Peel Park in 1850; Halifax accepted People’s Park as a gift in 1857; Oldham opened Alexandra Park in 1865; but Huddersfield waited until the 1880s for Beaumont and Greenhead Parks to open. Twenty-five years earlier, however, the opportunity had been missed to create a public park at Springwood in 1858. The story of this episode is worth retelling in its own right, and because it illuminates some central themes of the town’s 19°” century development.

* OK KK

THE SPRINGWOOD ESTATE lay between Paddock and Marsh: in terms of present- day geography, to the west lay Gledholt Road, to the north Greenhead Road, to the east Water Street, and to the south the railway and Springwood Passage. The eastern half is relatively flat but the land falls steeply southward at the western end of the site. Today it is largely covered by 20" century housing in Oastler Avenue and Springwood Hall Gardens, but one can still see horses grazing on the remaining open land at the foot of Gledholt Road, the SW corner of the old estate.

At the turn of the 19" century, this land was just part of the large and long- established Greenhead/Gledholt estate, owned by Sir John Lister-Kaye of Denby Grange, near Flockton. However this was divided and sold off in 1804, passing to two men named Haigh. Benjamin bought the larger northern part, included both Greenhead and Gledholt Halls; he was mean ton at Gledholt asa Kaye tenant. His cousin Joseph (1766- 1835), who had built up a substantial business fortune, paid £1560 (say £50k in today’s values) for the Springwood site to the South - virgin territory, where he could build a new home of his own.”

* Philip Ahier, ‘Springwood Hall’, typescript at Huddersfield Local Studies Library (ref. BEG900). Anybody writing about the great houses of Huddersfield is greatly

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By 1820 at the latest, he had done so. Springwood Hall was modelled on Woodhouse Hall, Sheepridge and was a handsome classical house which survived until its demolition in 1971 (fig. 1). It was a substantial mansion, with four reception rooms, eight best bedrooms, a servants’ wing, extensive cellars, twin lodges at the head of the drive and all the usual outbuildings of a country house. (See map, fig.2.)

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It occupied a commanding position overlooking the Colne Valley — which had barely begun to industrialise at the time — and was sumptuously appointed within, including a “magnificent staircase”, marble fireplaces, internal balconies and stained glass panels. Evidently it was a fitting home for a man who was to become a Justice of the Peace in 1815, at a time when that office was monopolised by the gentry; Haigh was soon joined as a Huddersfield magistrate by Benjamin Haigh Allen of Greenhead, son of cousin Benjamin, and John Horsfall of Thornton Lodge.

indebted to Philip Ahier, particularly for his Studies in Local Topography (Advertiser Press, Huddersfield, various dates).

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Joseph Haigh retired to Whitwell Hall near Malton in 1831, reputedly paying nearly £200,000 for its estate (close to £10 million today). He died in 1835 and his son and heir John soon followed in 1837, leaving his daughter Louisa as heiress of both properties. Springwood Hall was rented out, the first tenant being the mill-owner Thomas Starkey (1794-1847) of Longroyd Bridge, for whom Springwood Hall was literally a step up from Spring Lodge, another classical house standing nearer to the works which had grown up down by the river. In 1858 Louisa married Sir Edmund Lechmere, a Worcestershire baronet.” With Severn End (at Hanley Castle, Worcs) as his ancestral seat, and Whitwell Hall added to his portfolio, he had no need for the small Huddersfield estate he had accidentally acquired. Steps by the trustees to sell the estate were in hand from May 1857 — perhaps when the Lechmere/Haigh marriage was contracted? — and leading surveyor George Crowther was engaged to survey and document the property’, lighting the fuse for the debate about a public park at Springwood.

* KK KK

TO MAKE SENSE of the proposals for a park in 1858, however, we must briefly retrace our steps to two significant events of ten years before — the passing of the Huddersfield Improvement Act, and the purchase of Greenhead and Gledholt by the Ramsden Estate.

Around 1848 many neighbouring towns were taking advantage of the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835 to incorporate their boroughs and establish elected town councils. Bradford was incorporated in 1847, Halifax in 1848 and Oldham in 1849 — paving the way for their municipal parks in subsequent years. But Huddersfield’s incorporation would wait for another 20 years, and 1848 instead saw the formation of the Improvement Commissioners. Similar in many ways to a corporation, and largely elected by the more prosperous ratepayers, they also included appointees of the Ramsden estate, the town’s dominant landowner, whose extensive control would have been threatened by a fully elected council.”

* Ahier missed the Lechmere connection, asserting that Starkey bought rather than rented the Hall, and later historians have repeated this. The sale papers and correspondence from 1858 onwards establish that this was not the case. * Crowther papers, West Yorkshire Archive Service, Kirklees (WYAS-K), B/GC/1/3. I have considered the coming of the Improvement Commissioners in detail in ‘Building an Alliance for Urban Improvement: Huddersfield, 1844-48’, Local Historian, August 2009. 18

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At the time the Ramsden estate, after some decades when their approach to the town was largely laissez-faire, had adopted a much more vigorous approach to its development. Central to this was to bring a through railway to Huddersfield; and one consequence was a handsome profit to the estate from sales of land and their canal to the railway company. By the terms of the will of Sir John Ramsden (1755-1839), this could only be reinvested in property, so the estate was now Snapping up land as it came on the market. In 1848 they bought the Greenhead/Gledholt estate, for £35,000 (say £2m), from the Allen family - the two halls having been inherited by two Allens from their uncle Benjamin Haigh - and by 1858 they were eyeing up its potential for villa development.

* KK KK

INEVITABLY, THEREFORE, when they got wind that Springwood was coming to market, Ramsden officials assessed it as a development opportunity. The estate’s energetic local agent, Alex Hathorn, wrote to Sir John Ramsden on 9 August 1858, enclosing a plan of Springwood and arguing that the easterly part of the estate was ‘fine flat land, admirably adapted for Building purposes, and in every respect, well and advantageously situated for Villa Residences’.” He could not value the land without viewing it, but he could go ‘very early of a morning [his emphasis], and without exciting any suspicion or curiosity amongst the people in the immediate neighbourhood’.”

Whether this clandestine mission took place is unclear, but on 28 August the Huddersfield Chronicle weighed in with an editorial call for action. Under the headline “OPPORTUNITY FOR SECURING FOR HUDDERSFIELD A PUBLIC PARK. SHALL IT BE EMBRACED?”, they argued that:

A most favourable opportunity is now presented to secure for the use of the inhabitants of this district a place of public recreation immediately contiguous to the town, ina most delightful situation, and of easy access from every part... an estate about 30 acres in extent, well fringed with wood, commanding a most extensive and magnificent hill-and-dale prospect, in itself most admirably adapted for the formation of walks abounding with the picturesque, and having on it a good mansion well adapted for a museum, for a public library, and for the

° By this time, as he may or may not have known, his counterpart for the Springwood trustees, George Crowther, was himself drawing up detailed plan for villa development on the site. © Ramsden estate papers, WYAS-K, DD/RA/11 (1 & 2). 19

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accommodation of indoor parties A more advantageous position, or greater natural facilities for converting at a comparative slight cost a beautiful residential property into a place of public recreation unsurpassed in the kingdom for a town of similar size, in our opinion it would be difficult, if not impossible to find.

The Chronicle went on to argue that this desirable object could be brought about either by public or private action. The site could be bought and made into a park by the Improvement Commissioners — and there followed a very detailed argument about the exact legal powers and procedures for achieving this, in which the editor, Joshua Hobson , no doubt drew on his previous experience as the first Clerk to the Commissioners. Alternatively, ‘a number of gentlemen could combine, purchase the property, lay it out ...and admit the public on terms fixed and varied by themselves from time to time.’

But this would mean that citizens would use the park by permission rather than as of right. Best of all, therefore, would be what might now be called a public- private partnership, whereby ‘public-spirited and influential gentlemen’ would buy the ground and lease it the Commissioners — giving the purchasers a return while ensuring public access and public management. Moreover, the rent could be reduced if part of the purchase price was raised from a public subscription. The editorial ended by urging the establishment of a committee to take the idea forward and open negotiations.

Three days later these options were aired with Sir John Ramsden in a letter from his legal adviser, T W Nelson:

I do not doubt [he told Sir John] that the opening of such a place for the recreation of the Public would be considered an important acquisition for the Inhabitants and I think that your shewing that you took an Interest in it and were prepared to promote it by a liberal contribution would have a beneficial effect upon the minds of many.

Discussions rapidly ensued between Nelson and John Freeman, chairman of the Improvement Commissioners and an Edgerton solicitor. The main issues of contention seem to have been the extent of the proposed park and its future control. The resulting proposal was considered by a committee of the Commissioners on 17 November 1858, and was very much on Ramsden terms.

” DD/RA/11 (3). 20

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The committee were asked to recommend buying the whole estate, of 32 acres, at the offer price of £22,435. On this condition, but not otherwise, Sir John would contribute £3000 and serve as a trustee; a further £2000 would be donated by Sir Edmund and Lady Lechmere; the rest was to be raised by public subscription, not from the rates; and the land would be safeguarded in perpetuity as a public park.

The proposal did not find favour. The committee minuted that:

From enquiries made as to the probable amount of a public subscription, your committee are satisfied, that there is not at the present time [and especially under the unsatisfactory relations between Sir John William Ramsden and his tenants in the Huddersfield Estate] any reasonable grounds for concluding that the amount required can be obtained.”

The words in square brackets, which the committee subsequently ordered to be struck out of its minute, refer to the bitter ‘tenant right’ dispute then raging about the insecure form of tenure prevalent on the Ramsden estate. This was at its height in 1858 — it was no doubt for this reason that Nelson had urged Sir John to make a “liberal contribution”, but it also made it politically difficult for the Commissioners to proceed on the terms offered.”

The other reason why the proposal fell was that the Commissioners, who only wanted part of the estate, rejected Sir John’s insistence that the town must buy all of it to secure his donation. At first sight the Ramsden position is puzzling, but a subsequent report by Hathorn, advising Ramsden on the possible purchase of Springwood for its own use, reveals the reasoning. Arguing that £22,000 was “too high a price under any circumstances”, he continued:

I consider the Greenhead Estate to be much superior, and infinitely more desirable in every respect. certain that it is land that would be almost universally preferred for the erection of dwelling houses and villas If you should decide upon giving a higher price [for Springwood] than £16,000 you could only be justified by the consideration of your being in possession of the Greenhead and

® HIC Park Committee minute, 17/11/1858; WYAS-K, KMT9/17/1, pp174-6. > Fora good description of the dispute see Stanley Chadwick, ‘A Bold and Faithful Journalist’: Joshua Hobson, 1810-1876 (Kirklees Council, 1976). As well as being editor of the Chronicle, Hobson was a leader of the tenant right campaign. 21

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Gledholt estates, and by thus securing them from being competed with by other and possibly numerous owners of building land.”

One can only conclude that the Ramsden interest wanted the Improvement Commissioners to pay over the odds for Springwood as a park, since this would enhance the value of villa development at their Greenhead estate while eliminating any competition from rival developers on the other side of Greenhead Lane!

The committee’s recommended rejection of the proposal was endorsed by the Commissioners as a whole in on 5 January 1859, and while Sir John was thanked for his proposed donation (as of course were the Lechmeres), his attitude was also compared unfavourably with the Crossleys of Halifax, who had presented their town with the People’s Park in 1857." Reporting the Commissioners’ decision to Sir John, Nelson reflected that: ‘It is not improbable that the state of public feeling has had some influence with the Commissioners and I know that Mr Freeman feared that it would operate unfavourably.’

Once the park proposal had fallen all parties regrouped, and the Hall and western part of the estate were brought to auction on 26 July 1859.°° (See sale particulars, fig. 3 pg. 23). The reserve price was not reached but Hathorn then embarked on direct negotiations with the Springwood trustees, eventually buying the whole estate for £20,000 — still more than he wanted to pay — in November 1861." This meant that the original Greenhead estate of the late century was now reunited in Ramsden hands, and from that point they seem to have pursued a twin-track strategy. A master plan for the whole area from New North Road to Springwood was drawn up by 1863, including extensive villa development. * But by then the versatile Hathorn — though not a mining engineer — had also

*° Ramsden papers, DD/RE/5. ut Huddersfield Chronicle, 8/1/59. * DD/RA/11 (20). Hathorn’s report, cited above, was his advice on the estate’s position at this auction. * Ramsden papers, DD/R/dd/VII/52. * Isaac Hordern’s Notebook, microfilm at Huddersfield Local Studies Library (B920). Hordern was another local Ramsden employee, serving the estate from 1846 to 1906. Unfortunately the plan itself has not come to light. 22

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PARTICULARS.

LOT I.

THE MANSION, CALLED SPRINGWOOD,

WITH THE

PARK, PLANTATIONS, AND ORNAMENTAL GROUNDS ADJOINING,

In the occupation of Mrs. Starker, containing the following quantities, viz.—

1. Mansion House and Offices 2 " Coach-houses, Stubles, Barns, Sheds, and Yards - I Greenhouse, Vinerics, Peach House, and Shed - ~?2 228 Gardens - - és - I

2 3 4 5. Pleasure Grounds saath orn: Plantations a = J G 7 8

fe

Gander Till (Part of) - - - Plantation (Part of) - - - “ “ Gander Hill and Plantation - - - 9. Springwood (Part of) - - - zi - - 10. Ditto 4 é é 11. Back Road Plantation - - 2 # 3 “ 12. Park and Ornamental Timber a “ 13. Plantation - “ " - 14. Two Lodges and Part of Plantation - 7 - 15. Park (Part of) rm - - 3 z

¢ Ghe Mansion Comprises lofty and elegant rooms, viz.: On the Grouxp FLoor—Entrance Mall, 19 feet by 16 feet 6 inches ; Staircase, 20 fect by 16 fect Ginches; Library, 18 fect G inches by 18 feet 6 inches; Dining Room, 27 fect by 18 feet 6 inches; Drawing oom, 26 feet 6 inches by 20 feet; Study, 13 feet 6 inches by 12 feet 8 inches; spacious Kitchen, 24 feet by 20 feet, fitted up with every con- venionce; Jlousekecper’s Room; Dutler’s Pantry; Servants’ Hall; two Laundries; two Larders ; and Seullery. On the Srconp Foor :—Eight best Bed Rooms, Dressing Room, and Bath Room. In the Wines:—Five Servants’ Lodging Rooms, and one Dressing Room. The CELLARAGE extends throughout the entire basement of the building, and is most substantial in construction and convenient in arrangement. In the rear of the Mansion are spacious Yards, double lock-up Coach Houses, Stables for ten horses, Mistal for six cows, Loose Boxes, Ranges of Sheds, and other Out- buildings. To the West of and adjoining the Mansion are spacious Gardens and ornamental Grounds, with Greenhouse and Vineries, 89 feet long by 16 fect 6 inches wide; and Peach House, 22 fect by 13 feet. The Brick Walls inclosing the Garden are from 14 to 20 feet high, flued, and covered with choice Fruit-bearing Trees. There are TIVO LODGES at the entrance to the Grounds, from Greenhead Road, ornamental in desigu, and of beautiful workmanship; anda CARRIAGE DRIVE through a prettily wooded Park to the Mansion. Srnrxewoon is about ten minutes’ walk from tbe Huddersfield ue Station ; and although close to the Town, possesses all the advantages of a Country Residence. A PEW in TRINITY CHURCH will be sold with and included in this Lot, *,* The Mansion may be viewed hy Ticket only, which may be had of the Auctioneer, New Street, Huddersfield.

oo Ho aT Pope = Oo w

OK oO fH

‘oH

Acrrs 14

oo es

LOT II.

THE PRINCIPAL SUM OF FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS,

Secured on the Touts of the Halifax and THuddersfield Turnpike Road.

LOT III.

TWENTY SHARES

IN THE

LEEDS AND YORKSHIRE ASSURANCE COMPANY.

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Fig.3

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identified that there were 24,200 tons of coal to be extracted from beneath Springwood. A colliery operated there from 1862 to 1877 (see fig. 4) and earned profits of £4370 for the Ramsden estate.” Meanwhile the Hall continued to be tenanted, and Huddersfield was to wait another two decades for its public parks.

YAS, BES & of Se Ate. Pare

I Dirarage

* KK KK

THE SPRINGWOOD PARK episode illustrates themes in Huddersfield’s development which would remain in play for many years ahead. After its early 19"" century passivity, the Ramsden estate had become an expansionary and commercially-minded property developer, as well as ground landlord for much of the town and lord of the manor. Meanwhile the public authorities, first the Improvement Commissioners and then from 1868 the Corporation, were concerned to develop the town’s public facilities — but without excessive cost to the ratepayers. These issues would come to the fore again during the protracted

Ww P Hartley, ‘Springwood Colliery, Huddersfield: a portrait of a Yorkshire estate coal mine, 1862-1877’, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal 53 (1981), pp93-6.

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negotiations to secure Greenhead Park for the town, which dragged on from 1869 — when Ramsden plans for villas there were revealed - to 1881, and centred once more on the size of the Park and the price to be paid. The tensions would not be resolved until the Corporation famously bought out the estate in 1920.

Biography David Griffiths is Treasurer of Huddersfield Local History Society. His new history of Greenhead Park, Secured for the Town, is published by the Friends of Greenhead Park at £5. It is available from Huddersfield library, bookshops, the Greenhead Park cafe or by post (at £6.25 including p&p) from FoGP, c/o Refreshment Rooms, Greenhead Park, Huddersfield HD1 4HS. Contact: griffi.davidj@gmail.com

IMAGE CAPTIONS

Fig. 1 — Springwood Hall, c.1910. (Smith Carter collection, Kirklees Image Archive: www.kirkleesimages.org.uk)

Fig. 2— 1859 sale map of the Springwood estate by G Crowther, surveyor (West Yorkshire Archive Service- Kirklees, DD/RE/5).

Fig. 3 - 1859 sale particulars (do.).

Fig. 4 — map of Springwood Colliery workings (WYAS-K, DD/RA/49).

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A NEW LOOK AT THE PLACE-NAME FARTOWN By George Redmonds

I think of the Huddersfield area as the territory that falls within the four ancient parishes of Almondbury, Kirkburton, Kirkheaton and Huddersfield itself. It would be difficult to tell the history of that territory without reference to neighbouring places such as Fixby, Flockton and Saddleworth but it is a recognizable region, defined by the topography if in no other way. When I return home from visits abroad or to other parts of Britain, I am conscious of important landmarks which tell me that I have returned ‘home’, like the Dumb Steeple at Cooper Bridge or the mast on Emley Moor but there is no more evocative landmark than Lepton Edge, which offers a view of fields, hamlets and villages that stretch away to the distant moors. It is part of a watershed from which numerous streams descend the steep hillsides en route to the Holme, to Fenay Beck and ultimately to the Colne. It is a district with a hundred different settlement sites, each with its own complicated history.

It is tempting to see that landscape as ageless, and yet it has changed considerably over the centuries and is forever changing: forests and moors have given way to farm land; rivers and streams have defined new courses; a pattern of fields is created within walls and hedgerows that are then themselves removed as a new generation occupies the land. Towns acquire their suburbs, villages grow, and yet chapels, mills and chimneys that once seemed permanent are demolished. Some of the most dramatic alterations occur within one person’s lifetime and the historian has to remind himself of all that when he seeks to interpret the past.

If we consider for a moment the origins of just some of the ‘hundred’ settlement sites I mentioned earlier we can soon establish how different in kind they were. Marsden seems to be a classic nucleated village, but it was a forest in the 12" century before its development as a cattle-raising estate, sub-divided into six ‘booths’ or hamlets. It was only when the chapel of ease was built in the early 1500s, near the streams that come together as the infant Colne, that the community acquired the focal point we see as Marsden today. Similarly, Holmfirth grew up around a chapel of ease and was even called the ‘chapel town’ on some occasions. Modern Slaithwaite had its origins in the 16° century, with the corn mill, manor house and river crossing at its centre, some miles from old Slaithwaite on the hills - Slaithwaite Hall as we now know it. On the other hand, Quarmby demonstrates the effects of a loss in status. It was once the largest township in the area, embracing Golcar, Lindley, Longwood, Scammonden and 26

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parts of Linthwaite, but it is now a small fold of cottages and houses clustered round the ancient hall.

We can sometimes use documentary evidence to tell part of the story. Milnsbridge, for example, was once literally the corn mill by the bridge, but the parish register testifies to its growing importance in the Tudor period and it was then ideally located for development in the Industrial Revolution. Berry Brow took its name from the hillside in Almondbury where a member of the Berry family made his home in the mid-1500s. It formed part of Deadmanstone at that time but the Ramsden account books reveal how that part of their estate was intensively developed in the 13" century. The new community became the so- called village of Berry Brow that an older generation remembers, before that too gave way to redevelopment in the 1960s.

Quite a number of local townships appear to have been depopulated; Bradley as a grange of Fountains Abbey and Denby as a grange of Byland. The population of Whitley may have been dispersed when the Beaumont family settled there. Other vills, Dalton for example, seem never to have had a centre: within the historic period the township’s population was dispersed among a number of farms and hamlets; there was no church or chapel, no manor house, no village green and no nucleus that identified itself as the centre of the township. There are other place- names which appear to represent more than one nucleus: Lindley in Huddersfield is separated from Old Lindley in Elland chapelry by a range of hills, in much the same way that Upper Whitley in Kirkheaton is separated from Lower Whitley in Thornhill. That could reflect a decision to have the watershed define the post- Conquest parish boundaries but there may have been twin settlements from a much earlier period. Lepton sits on a watershed which is within the township, and it has Great Lepton on one side and Little Lepton on the other.

The new parochial system was certainly responsible for the ‘Kirk’ in Kirkburton and Kirkheaton. It was an administrative decision to have churches in Burton and Heaton that would serve populations scattered over a wide area, in a number of equally ancient townships. The tantalizing question, and it is one that we cannot answer, is whether the church sites were new, deliberately chosen for the convenience of the parishioners in the out townships. That certainly seems possible and it would help us to interpret the place-names Highburton and Upper Heaton. In each case there are aspects of the topography that seem to support the idea, especially dangerous river or stream crossings like the ‘dean’ in Kirkburton. Heaton, which means the ‘high farmstead’ would not be an apt description of the church site nor even of the village site further up the hill.

2/

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That is part of the general background to the problem of how we interpret the place-name Fartown. It was only recently, when I was preparing The Place-Names of Huddersfield for publication, that I related it to other significant names in the township and gave its meaning the attention it deserves. What I had thought initially would be a fairly straightforward task of compilation obliged me to rethink much that I had previously taken for granted. Fartown is not a name with a challenging etymology but it impinges on other major names in the township and may be the clue to an aspect of Huddersfield’s history that has not previously been considered.

The place-name element ‘town’ derives from an Old English word ‘tun’ and it is associated early in its history with a farmstead, a settlement site of the kind that gave rise to such local place-names as Dalton, Lepton and (Kirk)burton. Over a period of time the ‘tun’ became the focal point of a small nucleated settlement and in the post-Conquest years it was regularly spelt ‘town’. This was the term used in the West Riding for what we would now refer to as a ‘village’, a word that has a relatively short history in our region. It is the use of ‘town’ in the place- name Fartown that raises important questions for Huddersfield historians.

It has been usual to say that Fartown was simply a reference to the part of Huddersfield that lies beyond the town brook — an old name for the stream that comes down the Grimescar valley and joins the Colne near the Football Stadium. This stream has had several names in the course of its long history and it was called Hardy Beck in a Quarter Sessions document of 1778. On the Ordnance Survey map of 1851 it was Hebble Beck, and we have Hebble Street and Hebble Terrace to remind us of that name - and of the stream that is now out of sight, passing under the modern streets and roads through culverts. In its upper reaches the brook seemed to define the hotly-contested boundary between Fixby and Lindley, more importantly therefore the boundary between the ancient parishes of Huddersfield and Halifax, and the Wapentake boundary between Agbrigg and Morley. It was an important landscape feature and it almost certainly gave rise to the Huddersfield surname Brook. The Brook family formed a significant percentage of the town’s population well into the 16" century and documentary evidence reveals that they have been intimately involved in Fartown’s history for over 700 years.

In a number of Yorkshire parishes there are place-names where the element ‘town’ is believed to identify a settlement site that predates the modern town, telling us that the centre of the community was changed for some reason. In Barnsley, and in Wadsworth near Heptonstall, there are places referred to as Old

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Town that are now considered to mark the location of pre-Conquest settlements; Mickletown in Methley has been interpreted in the same way. These three may have implications for Fartown, raising the question of whether the site named Huddersfield by Anglian settlers, possibly as long ago as the early 7 century, was on the north side of the town brook, not on the south side in the position it now occupies. That question can be asked but it is unlikely that we shall ever know the answer for certain. If we do it will be archaeologists, not historians or linguists who find the evidence.

I would like to suggest that the original Anglian settlement was in the part of Fartown that we now call Hill House and there are certainly some aspects of the town’s history which make that an appealing theory. We know, for example, that the manor house of Huddersfield is in the Hill House area. A reference to its owners in 1566 described it as ‘their manor or hauleplace called baihaule’. Bay Hall, a small timber-framed mansion, has survived by the town brook which is not culverted at that point. Close by is Ark Hill Mound, probably the ‘Mount’ shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1843. Archaeologists have suggested that this substantial earthwork may have been a Norman motte, the place where a rudimentary castle would have been sited by the de Lacys as they took stock of their possessions in the West Riding. It would not be unreasonable to assume that it was placed close to where Huddersfield was at the time which means that the change in location, if that is what happened, took place after the Conquest.

A case can be made out for the re-siting of the town on the south side of the town brook in the years after 1066. When Huddersfield became a parish, the church served the community of neighbouring Bradley and also those of Quarmby cum Lindley, Slaithwaite and part of Marsden, all the way up the north side of the Colne valley. We cannot know how great an obstacle to church-goers the town brook was in those early days, but it would be wrong to underestimate the danger it posed. The parish registers remind us that similar local streams claimed lives in times of flood, and the field name Hayford, recorded in 1250, tells us that the brook was originally crossed via a ford. Much later it was still only a simple hebble.

We should be wary, I believe, of looking on Anglian Huddersfield as a village in the modern sense. Tax lists emphasise how small the population was as late as the 1500s and even that small total was spread over Bradley, Edgerton, Deighton and Gledholt. Huddersfield still had no market, and no church that we know of, so the possibility is that it had a pattern of settlement similar to that of Dalton - or Newsome, which is clearly shown on the Almondbury map of 1634. No reference

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to the place-name Fartown has been noted before 1538 but the poll tax list of 1379 for Huddersfield clearly implies that the area on the north side of the brook accounted for a substantial part of the population. Included in it are the surnames Boothroyd, Hanson and Lightridge, all strongly associated with Fixby cum Rastrick, not to mention the Fartown names Copley and Brook. There were four Brook households, and this surname would afterwards be dominant in Fartown and indeed in Huddersfield. The numerous hamlets with ‘house’ as a suffix are a reflection of that family’s numerical importance, and testimony to the historic settlement on that side of the brook.

One final point that emphasizes the former significance of Hill House is its location in the region’s network of routes and highways. If we think back to the arrival of the Anglians in the district, it makes sense to assume that they came via the ancient crossing of the Calder at what is now Cooper Bridge, originally a ford, and that the place-names Deighton, Edgerton and Gledholt are a clue to the colonization of the new territory. Modern roads that link these places, via river and stream crossings, point to the route’s antiquity. Hill House, of course, is directly on that route whereas modern Huddersfield is not.

More convincingly, the location of Hill House points to its role in the system of highways that developed during the early history of this part of the old West Riding, the network that links Huddersfield with Halifax, Bradford and Leeds. It has always puzzled me that the medieval highway from Huddersfield to Halifax, one that survived into the turnpike era, ignored possible routes through Lindley or Birchencliffe, both accessible within the parish, and chose instead to leave the town via the ‘Old Leeds Road’ and then make an abrupt turn westwards to Hill House and Cowcliffe. However, if Hill House marks the site of the original settlement then that was the logical starting point for the traveller.

It is unlikely that we shall ever know for certain whether Fartown was the original Huddersfield, but I think the suggestion is worth considering, not just to raise awareness of the implications for archaeologists but to be a starting point for future place-name studies. Gelling and Cole have already challenged traditional explanations of what Huddersfield means and closer investigation into the minor names which have ‘croft’ or ‘field’ as a suffix may throw new light on the early settlement.

Biography George Redmonds is a free-lance local historian best known for his work on Yorkshire surnames and place-names. Recent publications have included The Placenames of Huddersfield and the Placenames of Kirkburton, Shepley & Shelley.

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THE PEBBLES ON THE WALL: A CHILDHOOD MEMOIR By Margaret Revell, edited by her son, the late Martin Woodhead Introduction and Selections by Bill Roberts

Margaret Woodhead, who was born in Huddersfield in 1914, set down her memories of her childhood when she was in her sixties. They offer a fascinating and evocative account of growing up at that time, as illustrated in the following brief extracts.

Trams

When we went on a tram I had to get on to the seat with one knee, then the other, and then turn round and sit. When a little bigger I managed a hoisting movement with my hands one on either side of me on the seat, jumping backwards and wriggling into place until I was settled with my little short legs sticking out in front of me. Then I would scrutinise the other people in the tram, observing their hats, dresses, and mannerisms, and listening to their conversations—as I still do. The passengers faced one another along the length of the tram on hard seats made of tightly-packed slats of shiny yellow wood. If we stopped they all jerked sideways, falling against one another, and then swayed back into an upright position.

Margaret as a child

Upstairs there were seats for two people. These were arranged crossways, and the supports of the seat backs emerged from slots across the width of the seats, so that they could be adjusted to face either way. Round the rails at the front and back of the tram upstairs were seats open to the air; there were even a few trams on certain routes which had no roof at all. I loved it if we travelled ‘outside’. This only happened if my father or uncle went with us: they would take me aloft; the ladies preferred to stay under cover. What I liked best was to kneel up on the seat, if we were downstairs, and look out of the window, but this was only allowed if the tram was almost empty: otherwise the skirts of ladies passing to and fro might brush against the soles of my boots and be soiled.

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Everything about the trams fascinated me, from their noisy clang-clang when in motion, with ‘ting’ for Stop and ‘ting-ting’ for Go, to the mechanism at which the driver stood—a horizontal wheel to wind by means of a short upstanding handle, another to pull on to bring the tram to a halt. I thought he would have to do something about the bends in the road, but it was explained to me that he did not have to do anything: the tram just followed the rails.

I saved tickets for when I played ‘trams’ at home. The halfpenny ones which were bought for me were yellow, and the penny ones white. The conductor had a rank of various coloured tickets clipped to a board, including blue ones for three- ha’penny fares, pink for twopenny, mauve for and green for a threepenny ride, which took us to a wonderful place called ‘the Teminus’. We went there occasionally, and it was strange how it seemed to look different on every visit. Here the driver went to another set of controls at the opposite end of the tram, while the conductor ran upstairs and with a good deal of noise slammed all the seat-backs to face the other way. Then the tram would set off on the return journey.

The Salt Man

Every now and again the salt man would come along the street with his long, low cart loaded with huge blocks of salt—this was the only commodity he sold. If we were at home when he came my mother would go out and buy one of these blocks: they must have been over a foot long and several inches wide and deep, and very heavy. On the kitchen table my mother would break it into chunks, and we would both busy ourselves crushing it into fine grains, she with her large rolling-pin and I, standing beside her on my little buffet, wielding my smaller weapon. When we were sure we had left no lumps we would fill a jar with the result, and start again on another chunk.

Rationing and air-raids

One day I asked for jam, and was told there was not any for us, because it all had to go ‘to the soldiers at the front’. This was puzzling. Why did the soldiers need so much jam that there was none for us, and why did only the soldiers at the front get it? I pictured them sitting in rows on long forms in a room like our Sunday School hall, waiting for the jam to be handed out, and felt very sorry for the soldiers at the back.

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Apart from these small deprivations I have only a few specific wartime memories. The shaded lamps, the whitened walls and gateposts I accepted as normal, since I had never known them otherwise, but when the fascinating pear-shaped shades were removed from the lights in the trams I remarked on the change to my mother. To my surprise she answered that she had never noticed there had been any. It must have been at about the age of three that I learned a new word— Zeppelin. It was a word grown-ups pronounced almost with bated breath. An awesome feeling, unrecognised as the smell of fear, came through to me, little though I understood. There began to be air-raid warnings, given by the dipping three times of the electric lights, giving just time to fetch a candle. Then the lights would go out. I clearly recall sitting on someone’s knee in the candle-light, after having watched the dipping of the lights.

There was frequent mention at this time of British Dyes, the forerunner of Imperial Chemical Industries, the likeliest target for an aerial attack on Huddersfield. I do not know that any raiding planes got into our locality: their range was limited, and we were well inland, and air warfare was on a minute scale compared to our more recent experiences. But it was an entirely new horror for my parents’ generation, and the advance warnings alone were sufficient to cause alarm.

© Estate of Margaret Woodhead

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HAROLD WAGSTAFF - (1891 to 1939): THE BEST IN THE NORTHERN

UNION. By David Thorpe

When the cortege left the Royal Swan in Westgate, Huddersfield, people were standing ten deep on the pavement, and the crowd stretched all the way to Market Place. On the coffin rested a wreath from ‘The Boys of the Fartown Football Team’. The wreath took the form of a rugby football and was composed of gold tiger lilies and claret carnations tied with ribbons of claret and gold. Harold Wagstaff, ‘The Prince of Centres’ and the former England and Huddersfield Rugby League captain was on his final journey.

Wagstaff was born on 19 May 1891 at Underbank, Holmfirth. His father Andrew had moved to Rochdale in the 1870s for work and married a I local girl, Hannah Rhodes. Harold’s older siblings, Ann and Arthur, were born in Rochdale before the family returned to Underbank in the early 1880s which meant that Harold and his brothers, Young and Norman, were native Yorkshiremen. Andrew was a railway labourer at the time of Harold’s birth but was employed in the local mills for much of his life. Harold’s mother died in 1904 when he was not yet thirteen.

The origins of the rugby club with which he was to become synonymous began twenty-five years before Wagstaff’s birth when on 27 January 1866, twenty members of the Huddersfield Athletic Club (HAC) and a similar number of members of the local Rifle Corps played a football (rugby) match on the Rifle Field. The game attracted a large number of spectators and in the autumn of 1866, at the second annual meeting of the HAC, the formation of a football

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(rugby) club to consist solely of members was announced. The club prospered and at the annual meeting in October 1870 it was noted with pleasure that three of its members had the honour to play in the county team against Lancashire. In 1875 the HAC amalgamated with St John’s Cricket Club that played at Fartown. In 1875 the HAC amalgamated with St John's Cricket Club. The football club continued to play on its field in Trinity Street until 2 November 1878 when they moved to Fartown to share facilities with the cricket section. This ground was to be their home until 1991 when a short period at the old Huddersfield Town ground at Leeds Road was followed by a move to the McAlpine (now Galpharm) Stadium.

By the late 1870s rugby was a mass spectator sport in the industrial towns and villages of Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumberland. The influx of working-class players and spectators brought different values and traditions to those educated in public and grammar schools who had founded the Rugby Football Union (RFU) in 1871. The industrial working classes saw no reason why excellence in sport should go unrewarded but in 1879, in response to rumours of men being paid to play rugby, the Yorkshire Rugby Union attempted to outlaw payments to players.

At its October 1886 general meeting the RFU officially banned all forms of payment and inducement, monetary or otherwise. The next few years saw many players and clubs suspended for taking or offering money or jobs, including Huddersfield in November 1893. Professional soccer and cricket were demonstrating that, far from being a disaster, as predicted by many, professional sport could be successful. The leaders of the major Yorkshire rugby clubs now began to argue for ‘broken-time’ payments to reimburse wages lost because of time taken off work to play rugby. This was dismissed by the RFU which announced that any club or players charged with professionalism should be assumed to be guilty unless they could prove their innocence. This new ruling was to commence in September 1895. Compromise was impossible and on 29 August 1895 twenty-one of the leading teams in Yorkshire and Lancashire met at the George Hotel in Huddersfield and unanimously adopted the resolution ‘That the clubs here represented decide to form a Northern Rugby Football Union and pledge themselves to push forward, without delay, its establishment on the principle of payment for bona-fide broken time only’. A letter to the Yorkshire Post on 21 September 1895 summed up the feeling of the Northern Union’s supporters

I say with Mark Twain’s bold bad boy, that we glory in the sentence of outlawry pronounced on us, as freeing us from the tyrannical bondage of the English

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B. Gronow. H. Wagstaff. J. Rogers. G. Thomas. D. Clark. TORIES.

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(Rugby) Union, and we breathe pure air in being freed from the stifling atmosphere of deceit in which we previously existed. ;

Thus was born the sport in which Harold Wagstaff was to find fame and glory not only within the confines of the North of England but as captain of two England touring teams to Australia and New Zealand.

Harold Wagstaff’s first football was a yeast bag stuffed with old rags. His elder brother played rugby with Underbank and by the age of 13 Wagstaff was playing for the Pump Hole Rangers, a group of lads who took their name from the village pump in Holmfirth where they met. Matches were friendly affairs with other teams of lads from the local district. There were no formal grounds or pitch markings and on more than one occasion a game had to be abandoned because the farmer on whose land the game was taking place did not approve.

During the 1905-06 season Wagstaff achieved his aim of promotion to the Underbank side that played in the Huddersfield and District League. He scored two tries in his first game but his father was concerned that a 14 year old was playing against teams composed chiefly of men. This did not deter Wagstaff and he became a regular in the side. The following season a referee at one of his games asked if he would like to play first class rugby with Halifax. The Halifax committee asked how old he was and, when Wagstaff said 15, they decided he was too young.

Wagstaff did not have to wait long for a second chance of senior rugby. The Huddersfield club were more persistent. For two weeks their representative came to the family home every evening. In the end their enthusiasm paid off. It was at the Druid’s Hotel at Underbank on 2 November 1906 where Mr Joe Clifford spread five golden sovereigns on the table (making them cover as much space as he could) that Wagstaff signed forms for Huddersfield, on condition that he had a game with the first team straightaway.

After a couple of training and practice sessions Wagstaff made his debut in the famous claret and gold colours at Bramley on 10 November 1906. He was aged 15 years and 175 days. Only Harold Edmondson of Bramley, at 15 years and 81 days when he played his first game in 1919, has ever played at senior level at a younger age. Senior football was a much sterner test for a young player and Wagstaff later recalled his first attempt at a tackle

* Yorkshire Post 21 September 1895. 37

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I can feel the bump now, if ever a youngster felt that he had been under a steamroller I did. One knee hit me under the chin, the other whizzed past my face. I went down with a foot on my chest, and I realised at once that the making of a tackle in senior football (rugby) was a vastly different thing from the making of a tackle in junior football (rugby).7

Wagstaff quickly learned and in the second half he cut through the defence to score a try near the posts. His performance cemented a place in the Huddersfield team and afterwards he was never off the team sheet except for illness and injury until the end of his career in 1925.

In 1907 the Northern Union game embraced international competition as the first tourists arrived from New Zealand, followed a year later by the Australians. Wagstaff’s development was swift. He was selected to play for Yorkshire against Cumberland on 17 October 1908 on his home ground at Fartown at the age of 17 years and 141 days. Many doubts were raised as to Wagstaff’s age and to put at rest such questions the Huddersfield club re-produced a facsimile of Wagstaff’s certificate of Baptism, noting with pleasure that ‘Harold, as you will see, is only 17 years of age, 5ft 9in in height, and weighs 11st 3lbs’. Fartown was also home to his England debut when on 2 January 1909 at the age of 17 years and 228 days he became, and still remains, the youngest England international of all time as Australia were defeated by 14-9.

Wagstaff joined Huddersfield just about the time they began to look up after a lean spell. Their improvement continued. Edgar Wrigley joined from New Zealand to be followed by Albert Rosenfeld and Paddy Walsh after the Kangaroo tour. Douglas Clark, later to become the World Wrestling Champion, moved from Cumberland. A young full back from Morecambe was Jack Bartholomew, the uncle of comedian Eric Morecambe. In 1909-10 the club won its first honour since the split of 1895 by defeating Batley in the Yorkshire Cup final and there was the tour to Australia and New Zealand to look forward to at the end of the season. Unfortunately Wagstaff played little part injuring his knee in the first game of the season and then becoming a victim of diphtheria that required a stay in Seacroft Isolation Hospital, Leeds.

Wagstaff was fully recovered for the following campaign and towards the end of the season the club made him captain, still not aged 20, a position he was to hold,

; Sports Post, Leeds 16 February 1935. 38

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except for one season until he retired. Team building continued with Wales a particularly strong recruiting ground as Ben Gronow, the player who kicked off in the first ever Rugby Union international at Twickenham, joined. The Huddersfield team that was to dominate the game for the next four years was in place, it was to be called ‘The Empire Team of All the Talents’. In 1911-12 the team won everything except the Challenge Cup. The Yorkshire Cup, the Yorkshire League and the Championship were won and only 4 league games out of 36 lost. In 1912- 13 only the Yorkshire Cup was not in the trophy cabinet and in 1913-14 the Yorkshire Cup and Yorkshire League were won.

Wagstaff was an automatic choice as captain of the 1914 touring team to Australia and New Zealand. He was accompanied by four Huddersfield colleagues, in a party of twenty-six players, who received ten shillings per week at sea and one pound on land, plus sixty pounds each from the tour profits. The final and deciding test against Australia is probably the most famous international in the history of Rugby League. The test was scheduled for Melbourne when the England team returned from New Zealand. However, such was the interest in the game that the Australian authorities cabled to England to ask the Northern Union Council to agree to the third test being played in Sydney only five days after the second. The touring team were crippled with injuries and reluctant to meet the Australian demands but were told by the Northern Union Council to ‘Play match as Australians desire; England expects that every man will do his duty’. Early in the game Frank Williams twisted his leg. Immediately the second half started, with England leading by 9-3, Douglas Clark smashed his collarbone after breaking his thumb in the first half. Then Billy Hall of Oldham was carried off with concussion. This was before the introduction of substitutes and England’s ten men were facing thirteen Australians with thirty minutes to go. Wagstaff recalled ‘Never had I such nine men with me on a football field as I had that day’ as England held on to win by 14-6. It was probably Wagstaff’s greatest achievement. J.C.Davis, the editor of The Sydney Referee wrote

I have never seen the bulldog tenacity, the courage and heroic skill of the Englishmen that afternoon surpassed on the football field. That day Wagstaff, the English captain, played with inspiration that left upon my memory that it was the most wonderful game any man has ever played in the face of colossal odds. Wagstaff, always a great player, that day became the ubiquitous, and the King of the game. Here, there and everywhere, all the time he was doing the work of half-

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a-dozen men, inspiring his valiant band, dominated by misfortune, to transform themselves each one into two men. Wagstaff the Great.”

By the time the team arrived back in England on 26 September the country was at war. Professional football of all codes was under severe pressure to suspend its activities. However, there were many who thought the continuation of football would be good for morale. On 8 September the Northern Union General Committee met and passed a resolution that

“Matches be played as usual, as it is impossible for all men to take up active war service, and it is thought unwise to have no relaxation from the more serious objects of life. All clubs be asked to encourage their players to join the army for active service, unless their employment is such that by doing so they equally serve the country’s welfare.”

The season continued but enthusiasm drained away as war casualties mounted and it became clear that the war would not be over quickly. The season also became increasingly uncompetitive as Huddersfield dominated the league, winning all I four competitions open to them and 28 6@ - ae ee Oe losing only two games during the I _ entire season. Wagstaff receivedfour || MIUDDERSFIELD

pounds and three pennies for winning =|; x

the Challenge Cup and a bonus of ten omy I ST. HELENS

pounds for winning both the {| ON SATURDAY, MAY Ist, 1915, 3 &

OLDHAM. F.C. I OFFICIAL PROGRAMME I

Set,

Northern Rugby Football Union

a x eT Tsp

i Seana eee ed seen

Championship and Cup. In June 1915 the Northern Union voted to suspend operations, except for schoolboy and

At Watersheddi under eighteen games. Wagstaff CEH I

married Ann Battye, a local Holmfirth I OFF AT 2:30 PROompT (|| girl, in January 1915 and they had a qi 1 eee errr ed) coed BEE gy 4s son, Robert , born in 1917. satay seats OM

* Quoted in Robert Gate, Rugby League Hall Of Fame, page 218. * Northern Rugby Football League minutes, General Committee, 8 September 1914, Rugby Football League Archive, University of Huddersfield. 40

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The Rugby Union ban on Northern Union players was lifted during the war and Wagstaff played his first Rugby Union game in 1915-16, a charity game against the Anzacs who had just returned from Gallipoli. In 1916 he went into the Army Service Corps (ASC) based at Grove Park. Major Stanley, who had been a member of the England Rugby Union Selection Committee, was in charge of the staff whose job was to drive heavy lorries in convoy to such places as Portsmouth, Salisbury Plain and Avenmouth. Also at Grove Park were Wagstaff’s Huddersfield colleagues, Albert Rosenfeld, Ben Gronow and Douglas Clark. The Grove Park Rugby Union team scored well over 1,000 points during 1916-17 and lost only once. The team played Northern Union football (rugby) under Rugby Union rules as Wagstaff instructed the Rugby Union men in the side to cut out kicking and rely on passing. At the end of 1916-17 the team broke up as Wagstaff went to Egypt, Clark and Gronow to France and Rosenfeld to Mesopotamia where they stayed until the Armistice.

Wagstaff returned to Huddersfield after demobilisation. In 1919-20 Huddersfield topped the league for the fifth successive season, won three of the four cups, but had to take part in the Championship final without the services of five players (including Wagstaff) who had departed for Australia on the 1920 tour. In the final at Headingley, Hull won by 3-2 with a try in the final five minutes thus depriving Huddersfield of a second ‘all four cups’. On January 31, 1920 Wagstaff took a well-deserved benefit in the game against Rochdale Hornets. His popularity was such that one thousand pounds was raised. Mr Harry Lodge, chairman of the Huddersfield club wrote

Always faithful to his club, ready to do a good turn for the game, for a club or for a fellow player, Harold Wagstaff has the best wishes of all supporters of football who sincerely admire a great player, one who has been a credit to the game and his club on and off the field.”

Wagstaff was again selected as captain of the 1920 touring team. New Zealand were defeated by 3 games to O but Australia took the honours by 2 games to 1 and Wagstaff missed the victory in the final test. He led the team that regained the Ashes in 1921-22, his final test match being the decider at Salford on 14 January 1922, the year that the Northern Union changed its name to the Rugby Football League. Wagstaff’s last season was 1924-25. He felt throughout the season that the end of his playing career was near and he was compelled to wear a protective corset during games following an operation for a duodenal ulcer. His

° Huddersfield Examiner 19 July 1939. 41

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last match was against Oldham on 29 March 1925. In the time he was with Huddersfield they won the Yorkshire Cup six times, the Yorkshire League five times, the Championship three times and the Challenge Cup three times. There is no doubt that but for the war intervening when the team was at the height of their powers this total would have been even greater.

A few months before retirement Wagstaff became the licensee of the Boar’s Head in Halifax before returning to Huddersfield in 1932 as landlord of the Swan With Two Necks in Westgate (the name was changed to the Royal Swan in 1933). He had a couple of short, unsuccessful spells coaching Halifax and Broughton Rangers and was vice-chairman of the football (rugby) committee at Huddersfield in the 1938-39 season. Wagstaff had not been in the best of health since the end of 1938. He suffered a bad attack of influenza which left him with heart trouble and very weak. He went into a nursing home two days before his death and gradually became worse as complications ensued, passing away on Wednesday 19 July 1939.

Large crowds lined the road at Berry Brow and Honley to watch the cortege pass. The pavements in the vicinity were dense with sympathisers as eight of Wagstaff’s old team-mates carried the coffin of plain unpolished oak into Holmfirth Parish Church. In his address the vicar referred to the fact that Wagstaff was a native of the town, but he had carried his name far beyond these hills and valleys. He was an almost legendary figure in the particular sohere of sport in which he excelled. It was Saturday 22 July 1939 as Harold Wagstaff, the ‘Best in the Northern Union’, was laid to rest in Holmfirth Cemetery.

On 24 October 1988 Harold Wagstaff along with his team-mate Albert Rosenfeld was among the first nine entrants inducted into the Rugby League Hall of Fame. The purpose was to honour, celebrate and commemorate the game’s greatest players.

Biography David Thorpe was Deputy Director of Finance at the University of Huddersfield

before retirement in 2007. He watched his first game of Rugby League in 1959. E-mail address is thorpe_d2@sky.com.

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Sources. Newspapers. Sports Post (Leeds). Wagstaff wrote a series of thirteen autobiographical articles between 9 February 1935 and 4 May 1935. Huddersfield Examiner. Books. Tony Collins, Rugby League in Twentieth Century Britain: A Social and Cultural History: Routledge 2006. Robert Gate, Rugby League Hall of Fame: Tempus 2003. Stanley Chadwick, Claret and Gold 1895-1945: The Jubilee History of Huddersfield Rugby League Football Club: Venturers Press 1945. Roland Davis, Great Britain Rugby League Tours: 75 Years: British Rugby League Lions Association 1985. Archives. The archive of the Rugby Football League is held at the University of Huddersfield.

Acknowledgements.

Professor Tony Collins, Director of International Centre for Sport History and Culture, De Montfort University and Dr. Rob Light.

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CROWN AND COUNTY: A LOOK INTO ROYAL INTERACTIONS

THROUGHOUT THE REGION By Sarah Kellett

Members of the royal family have visited this region on countless occasions. However the reasons for these visits have changed over the years from battles and power struggles, to more formal public appearances. The first royal presence in this region was by Queen Cartimandua, leader of the Brigantes tribe. This tribe was located throughout Yorkshire and further when the Romans invaded in 43 A.D. Cartimandua was the first queen to gain the throne through succession as she was the first queen to rule in her own right without the intervention of a husband or a father. Cartimandua is possibly the most important monarch for Yorkshire as her land was based in the region. Her land stretched from modern day Southern Scotland, as far down as Derby.” The centre of Cartimandua’s land is unknown, but York, Aldborough and Stanwick, near Scotch Corner in North Yorkshire have all been put forward as possible places.” Several places throughout our region were important throughout Cartimandua’s reign, such as Almondbury Hill Fort, the modern day site of Castle Hill. It was at this site that Cartimandua handed Caratacus over to the Romans after he had asked for her protection.” Caratacus, along with his brother, Togodumnes, had a power base north of the Thames, incorporating the Catuvellauni tribe, and held much influence over the rest of South East England.” These brothers were the leaders of

* Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry for Cartimandua by David Braund, accessed online at < http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/41192>, 3 April 2011 * Heritage Key [web page] accessed online at < http://heritage- key.com/blogs/nicki-howarth-pollard/10-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about- cartimandua-britains-forgotten-q>, 3 April 2011 ° Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry for Cartimandua by David Braund, accessed online at < http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/41192>, 3 April 2011 * Britain Express [web page| accessed online at < http://www.britainexpress.com/History/roman/cartimandua.htm>, 3 April 2011 ° Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry for Caratacus by Malcolm Todd, accessed online at < http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/4601 ?docPos=2>, 11 April 2011 44

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the British resistance to the Roman invasion, and Caratacus continued this resistance for eight years after the invasion as his brother died soon afterwards.” After a battle against the Romans in Wales, ‘The family of Caratacus was captured but he himself escaped and fled to the Brigantes of northern Britain, hoping there to continue the fight. The Brigantian queen Cartimandua, however, remained loyal to her alliance with Rome and handed Caratacus over to his enemies.’’ From here, Caratacus was taken to Rome for a trial and allowed to live as an example of the emperor Claudius’ clemency. The main reason given as to why Caratacus was given to the Romans was that ‘Cartimandua decided to become an ally of the Romans and retained power as a client ruler of the empire,’ therefore she had to hand Caratacus over as a sign of loyalty to the Romans.”

Cartimandua was the only King or Queen whose land was centred on Yorkshire. A later presence of a monarch in this region was one of violence and devastation. William the Conqueror saw much opposition to his rule throughout the north of England, and his reaction was to travel north with an army and stop the rebellions 1069. ‘He began first with the city of York, isolating his enemies and finally driving them out.”” William then continued to march throughout the north of England and devastated much of the land through burning and slaughtering. The Harrying of the North, as this became known, affected men, women and children throughout the whole area and the whole of northern England, and even brought on famine to the region due to destruction of crops.

Many of the later visits to this region by members of the royal family were focused on visits to the Savile family, or interactions with them. The Savile’s were a prominent family based in several locations throughout Yorkshire. Ancestors of their family moved to Yorkshire after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066." Their family originated in Anjou, France, then came to England with the Conqueror and were granted land in Yorkshire by him.” They were connected to the royal family for a long time and fought alongside the royals in several battles.

° Ibid Ibid 8 YE. Salisbury, Women and the Ancient World, California, 2001, p.41 ° History in an Hour [web page] accessed online at <http://www.historyinanhour.com/blog/read_14151/the-harrying-of-the-north- a-great-medieval-massacre-1069.html>, 12 April 2011 *° House of Names [web page] accessed online at < http://www.houseofnames.com/saville-family-crest>, 12 April 2011 ** Ibid 45

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However it was reported that Edward IV was ‘less than pleased with Savile’s efforts’ when he arrived in the region as his exile came to an end in 1471 and Savile was not there to greet In 1485, when Henry VII came to the throne, ‘Sir John Savile was one of the first of the Yorkshire gentry to make his peace with the new The Savile family may have made a mistake by not greeting Edward IV when he came in to the region, but where Henry VII was concerned, they did not want to anger him, so approached and congratulated him on his victory and resulting kingship.” The King clearly appreciated Savile and understood the influence he had as he was appointed Justice of the Peace when the new King came to the throne.” Henry VII visited Yorkshire in person to put down certain disturbances, during which time Savile was at his side.” One of these disturbances was when Yorkshire rebelled against the taxation Henry issued to finance his war in France. Henry came personally to the region as he could have been fighting on two fronts if Yorkshire continued to rebel and he needed to put a stop to it, however he did not continue to collect tax from the region for fear of further

Overtime, whilst the Savile’s continued to have connections with the royal family, this became more from a distance and the visits from the royal family became fewer. Members of the family were given certain titles and jobs such as the defence of the city of York during the rebellion of the Earl of Lincoln in 1487, and also being a Knight of the Body in the King’s household, meaning he was one of the King’s closest attendants.” It is possible that the Savile’s relationship with the royal family could be compared to Cartimandua’s relationship with the Romans: the Savile’s were the more modern version of the client kings within the Yorkshire region.

2 History of the Savile’s [web page] accessed online at <http://www.savilehousehold.co.uk/html/body_the_savile_s.html>, 4 April 2011 * Ibid "Ibid * Ibid Ibid *” Tudor Rebellions [web page] accessed online at < http://rebellionsa2.blogspot.com/2009/11/yorkshire-rebellion-1489.html>, 12 April 2011 House of Names [web page]] accessed online at < http://www.houseofnames.com/saville-family-crest>, 12 April 2011 46

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Prior to the accession of Henry VII in 1485 was the Wars of the Roses. This was a series of battles between the Houses of York and Lancaster, each taking the white and red rose respectively as their symbol. The battles took place throughout the whole of the country, sometimes with several years between. It lasted from 1455 to 1485 and, ‘In December 1460, the two opposing factors were both based in West Yorkshire.’”” This meant that the area felt much tension due to the armies marching through the area, however it must be stressed that ‘The two counties were not at war with one another: the people who held these dukedoms were.’~” Despite being based in West Yorkshire, only two battles were fought in this region: the Battle of Wakefield in 1460 and the Battle of Towton in 1461. While this small number of battles seems insignificant in the wider context of the thirty year long war, they caused great damage. At Towton for example, ‘Historians have estimated that in all there were some 28,000 bodies scattered over the battlefield and Towton is considered to be the bloodiest battle ever fought in Britain.’

As we move in to more modern times, royal visits become much more for social reasons than for militaristic ones. Queen Victoria’s visit to Leeds to open the Town Hall in 1858 represented a change in the nature of royal visits to the region. Other recent visits to the area include King George V opening Leeds Civic Hall on 23 August 1933, and Queen Elizabeth Il opening the M62 motorway and Scammonden Dam when they were ready for use in 1971. The latest visit to this region by the Queen was in 2007 to open the new Creative Arts Building at Huddersfield University, showing that template for royal visits that was created during Queen Victoria’s reign still stands today. Visits from other senior members of the royal family have become much more low key due to easier access to them through new advancements in media. This represents yet another change from the Victorian period as there has been a continued decrease in enthusiasm for visits from other members of the royal family.

Public reactions to royal visits vary greatly depending on the individual. June Stephenson of the Batley area has seen the Queen many times and has described how everyone was in awe of her and the atmosphere was incredible. For this lady, seeing the Queen made her proud to be British. However other people have

’ The Tudors in West Yorkshire [web page] accessed online at <http://www.archaeology.wyjs.org.uk/TudorWeb/TRoses.html> 7 April 2011 *° Ibid ** Ibid 47

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different reactions to the visits. Some people simply are not interested in the royal family, and during Elizabeth II’s visit to Huddersfield in 2007, a man was arrested as he was pushing through the crowd and holding an axe. Despite claiming he was only there to take photographs, he was jailed for six years. This shows that while many people enjoy the royal visits, there are still some who are not interested and the odd few who cause problems.

The interactions with the royal family from this region have drastically changed in nature over the years, becoming safer and more about public appearances. Cartimandua was the only ruler to have this region as the main part of her territory. She was also a strong woman who did what she had to do to keep her throne. Later visits and connections with the royal family were the result of wars and battles, and much was centred around the Savile family for a long period of time. They had great influence throughout this region for many years, played their part in several royal visits and gained many titles from their links with the monarchs. Attention was focused on this region during parts of the Wars of the Roses but royal visits to the region were limited during this time due to events elsewhere and preoccupations. More recently visits have been to grand openings and planned public appearances, with large crowds flocking to be a part of the excitement. Recent developments in technology have made access and interactions with the royal family much easier for the nation as a whole, not just throughout West Yorkshire. This may represent yet another change in the nature of royal visits and interactions with the region, but only time will tell.

Biography Sarah Kellett, an undergraduate student at Huddersfield University. This is my

first piece of work to be viewed by anyone other than a lecturer. Email — sarah.kellett @live.co.uk

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RESOURCES FOR HISTORICAL RESEARCH IN KIRKLEES By Janette Martin

What follows is a brief description of the key libraries, archives, museums and resources for local history in the Kirklees area. Only places which have a physical presence have been included in this guide. Readers interested in online resources for local history should consult the Huddersfield Local History Society (HLHS) website which includes a number of useful links http://huddersfieldhistory.wordpress.com/ Each issue of the Journal of the Huddersfield Local History Society will highlight a specific archive or library. Our first feature is on West Yorkshire Archive Service, Kirklees which is described at the end of this piece.

Colne Valley Museum The Colne Valley Museum holds objects and artefacts relating to the history of work and life in the Colne Valley. The Museum is housed in former weaver cottages and its permanent displays include a kitchen and living room as it would have appeared in the 1850s, a loom chamber, spinning and cropping rooms and a fully equipped clog-maker's workshop. In addition to these permanent displays the museum hosts regularly changing temporary exhibitions and collects material on Colne Valley History.

Contact details: Colne Valley Museum Cliffe Ash, Golcar Huddersfield, West Yorkshire HD7 4PY Tel: 01484 659762 URL: http://www.colnevalleymuseum.org.uk/ Email: info@colnevalleymuseum.org.uk

Huddersfield & District Family History Society (HDFHS) The society was formed in 1987 and is for all those who are interested in genealogy and family history connected to the Metropolitan District of Kirklees. The Society maintains a resource centre which offers the following: free Internet access to Ancestry and Find My Past; local census records; a growing collection of Parish Records for the Kirklees area on microfiche; the GENDEX database (of all transcriptions produced by the society); the current NBI and burials for the Kirklees area transcribed so far; 1992 IGI for the British Isles; probate calendars 49

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from 1858 to 1943 on microfiche; and the HDFHS library. Readers requiring a fiche reader or a computer are advised to book a place 24 hours in advance by ringing 01484 859229. Contact details: 33A Greens End Road, Meltham, Holmfirth, HD9 SNW Tel: 01484 859229 URL: http://www.hdfhs.org.uk/

Huddersfield & District Archaeological Society The Huddersfield & District Archaeological Society actively studies, explores and records the archaeology of the Huddersfield area. The Society was founded in 1956 and covers pre-history, the Roman and mediaeval periods and the archaeology of the recent past. It has a library of specialist books and an extensive archive of the Society’s archaeological activities over the past 50 years. Contact details: Sandra Harling 72, Moorside Road, Kirkheaton Huddersfield, West Yorkshire HD5 OLP Tel: 01484 511400 URL: http://www.huddarch.org.uk/ Email: hdas1956@virginmedia.com

Huddersfield Local Studies Library Key holdings include a large collection of historical Ordnance Survey maps covering the Kirklees area from 1843 onwards. Copies of tithe maps are also available and some earlier printed maps, including Jeffrey's Yorkshire of 1778. Copies of local newspapers (some of which date back to the 19th century) are held on microfilm. These include the Batley News, Colne Valley Guardian, Dewsbury Reporter and the Huddersfield Examiner. The library also holds an incomplete run of the Leeds Mercury. Visitors to the library are also able to access digitised British Library nineteenth century newspapers via the Gale Group database, which includes a digital version of the Huddersfield Chronicle (1850- 1900).

The library has a collection of trade directories, including Kelly's Post Office directories which contain lists of private residents. The earliest directory in the collection dates from 1819. The local studies library also holds a large number of

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resources for family historians including census records, parish records and the International Genealogical Index for Yorkshire. Readers can access old photographs of Huddersfield and the surrounding area via the Kirklees Image Archive http://www.kirkleesimages.org.uk/index.php. A wide range of local history books and pamphlets can also be consulted.

Contact details Huddersfield Local History Library Huddersfield Library and Art Gallery, Princess Alexandra Walk Huddersfield, HD1 2SU Tel: 01484 221965 URL: http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/community/libraries/history.shtml Email: huddersfield.localhistory@kirklees.gov.uk

Huddersfield University Archive and Special Collections The University Archive and Special Collections holds a number of archives relating to the educational, political and industrial heritage of Kirklees including: Huddersfield Mechanics’ Institution 1843-1884; Huddersfield Female Educational Institute 1846-1883; Huddersfield Foreign Library Society 1851-1870; Huddersfield Literary and Scientific Society 1857-1882; Huddersfield Fine Art and Industrial Exhibition 1882-1884; Colne Valley Labour Party 1891-1970; Huddersfield Labour Party 1918-1990s and some material relating to JPW Mallalieu MP. The University also holds several oral history collections including Asian Voices, ‘Up and Under’ Rugby League and oral history reminiscences and other records relating to the history of theatre in Huddersfield. Sport history is also well represented with the Rugby Football League Archive (1898-2002) and the Yorkshire cricket collection. Contact details University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield, HD1 3DH Tel. 01484 473168 URL: http://www2.hud.ac.uk/cls/archives/index.php Email: archives@hud.ac.uk

The Tolson Museum The Tolson Museum holds important local collections of natural history, archaeology, objects, and material culture, as well as valuable sets of local photographs. Through its research work and its publications, the museum has made strong contributions to local history and archaeology and scientific subjects. The Kirklees Image Archive is based at the Tolson Memorial Museum.

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The Archive comprises over 250,000 digitised mainly black and white images stretching back to the late 19th century, including the photographic archive of the Huddersfield Daily Examiner. Public access to the images is available at four of the main Kirklees Libraries and over the internet http://www.kirkleesimages.org.uk/index.php Contact details Tolson Museum Ravensknowle Park, Wakefield Road Moldgreen, Huddersfield West Yorkshire, HD5 8DJ Tel: 01484 223830 URL: http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/community/history- heritage/museums/tolson/tolson.asp Email: tolson.museum@kirklees.gov.uk

West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Service The West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Service (WYAAS) holds and maintains information on all known archaeological sites and find-spots in West Yorkshire, including battlefields, historic parks and gardens and some conservation areas; information on historic buildings (including those of industrial archaeological interest); the principal oblique aerial photographic collection of archaeological sites in West Yorkshire; several hundred copies of historic maps; a collection of over 25,000 colour transparencies; a comprehensive reference library on archaeological material. Contact details West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Service (WYAAS). Registry of Deeds, Newstead Road, Wakefield, WF1 2DE Tel. 01924 306797 URL: http://www.archaeology.wyjs.org.uk/wyjs-archaeology.asp Email: wyher@wyjs.org.uk

The Yorkshire Film Archive The Yorkshire Film Archive holds over 16,000 items of film and video tape, dating from the earliest days of film making in the 1880s to the present day. While this resource covers the whole of Yorkshire and Humberside it includes some material relating to Kirklees. The Archive regularly acquires more footage. Contact details Yorkshire Film Archive, York St John University Lord Mayor's Walk, York, YO31 7EX

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Tel: 01904 876550 URL: Email: yfa@yorksj.ac.uk

2011 featured archive:

West Yorkshire Archive Service (WYAS): Kirklees WYAS: Kirklees holds five main categories of records: official records (local government); family and estate records; business records; ecclesiastical records and other records (local societies and organisations). Its collections of manuscripts and archives are complemented by the books, pamphlets and printed material held in the adjacent room, the Huddersfield Local Studies Library.

Official Records These comprise records from Kirklees Metropolitan Council and its eleven predecessor authorities - the County Boroughs of Dewsbury and Huddersfield, the Boroughs of Batley and Spenborough, and the Urban Districts of Colne Valley, Denby Dale, Heckmondwike, Holmfirth, Kirkburton, Meltham and Mirfield. Records are also held of still earlier authorities such as Huddersfield Lighting and Watching Commissioners, Huddersfield and Dewsbury Boards of Guardians and the townships of Batley, Denby, Dewsbury, Honley, Mirfield, South Crosland and Thurstonland and Upperthong.

Family and Estate Records Among the deposits of family and estate papers the most notable are those of the Ramsdens of Byram and Longley, Beaumonts of Whitley and Thornhills of Fixby. The Ramsden papers include deeds, rentals, surveys and valuations for Huddersfield and Almondbury 1200-1921 and the Almondbury court rolls from 1627. The papers of the Beaumont family cover the twelfth to the twentieth centuries and mainly relate to Kirkheaton, Lepton, South Crosland, Mirfield and Whitley. The papers of the Clarke-Thornhill family of Fixby supplement those held by the Yorkshire Archaeological Society. The collection includes accounts, deeds and leases mostly for the Calverley, Fixby, Lindley, Longwood and Rastrick areas.

Business Records The records in this class depict the wide range of business activity in the Kirklees area. The textile industry is represented by woollen, worsted and fancy cloth manufacturers in the Huddersfield area and shoddy, mungo and rag merchants in the Dewsbury and Batley area. Other records of firms include accountants, shovel 53

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makers, valve makers, shoemakers, land surveyors, auctioneers, maltsters, iron and lead works, wire rope manufacturers, theatres, tanners, the Huddersfield Canal Company and a number of solicitors. A large collection of records of co- operative societies is held, including minutes of more than thirty local branches.

Ecclesiastical Records The parish registers for most of the churches within Kirklees and for other parishes in West Yorkshire are available on microfiche (or microfilm) but it is advisable to confirm holdings before a visit. Records are held of over 130 Nonconformist churches including Baptists, Christian Brethren, Congregationalists, Independents, Methodists and Unitarians, with registers and Sunday school records. The records of Highfield Independent Chapel contain papers relating to Highfield Schools and to the Huddersfield Girls' College Company.

Other Records A wide range of records relating to local societies, trade unions and bodies established for special purposes are held. These include minutes of Holmfirth flood relief fund 1852 and records of the National Union of Dyers, Bleachers and Textile Workers. There are also records of a number of Friendly Societies, Trades Councils and Chambers of Commerce. The musical heritage of the area is well represented and records include Huddersfield Choral Society, the Glee and Madrigal Society and a number of Feast Sings. The records of G. W. Tomlinson reflect the interests of a middle class Victorian gentleman, being extremely diverse and including political posters, transcripts of medieval deeds, pamphlets and genealogical and heraldic notebooks.

More detail about the holdings of Kirklees District Archives can be found in the Kirklees Archives 1959-1989: an illustrated guide to Kirklees District Archives (1989), 80pp., illus., £4.00 + £1.00 postage. Copies can be purchased at WYAS: Kirklees or online via http://www.archives.wyjs.org.uk/wyjs-archives- publication%2Osales.asp.

Contact details WYAS: Kirklees Huddersfield Library and Art Gallery, Princess Alexandra Walk Huddersfield, HD1 2SU Tel: 01484 221966 URL: http://www.archives.wyjs.org.uk/ Email: kirklees@wyjs.org.uk

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Biographical details Dr Janette Martin is a researcher at the University of Huddersfield currently working on an oral history of the Yeoman Warders at the Tower of London. She is a qualified archivist and teaches on the ‘Hands on History’ module in which Huddersfield University history students research and curate exhibitions in partnership with local museums. Contact J.martin@hud.ac.uk

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WEBSITE QUERIES — CAN YOU HELP? By David Griffiths

The contact form on the Society’s website (www.huddersfieldhistory.org.uk) brings a steady stream of queries on all manner of historical subjects. We don’t offer to undertake research for people, but often somebody in the Society knows the answer, or we can point them to another body like the Family History Society or Local Studies Library for help. But sometimes we just can’t help. If you do have a particular area of knowledge, and would be willing to field occasional queries, please let us know, via huddshistory@gmail.com

Below are some sample queries which we’ve not been able to answer. If you know the answer, do say and we’ll pass it on!

Moss Moor farm I am hoping you can help with my investigations or point me in the right direction. There is a derelict farm on Moss Moor that can be seen on the Derelict Places web site. It was built in 1662 and has SGW over the door. I would love to find out the farm’s history

Tom Clough Alongside March Hill [near Marsden] is a Tom Clough. I'm trying to determine if ‘Tom’ in

this context is for a mound or hillock, or if the name designates something (or someone!) else.

Emma Bartlett I have just bought a book called Wild Flowers and their Localities. It was written by an Emma Bartlett of Huddersfield in 1853. It is mainly made up of hand-coloured illustrations of groups of wild flowers located in different places (e.g the wood, the hedge-row, the meadow etc). Are there any records of this lady?

Meltham branch line I am currently carrying out research into the building of two tunnels, Butternab and Netherton, on the Meltham Branch of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. They were constructed with the rest of the railway between 1864 and 1868. I am particularly interested in details of problems encountered during the construction period and after. Any mention of shafts sunk to assist in the work would be of particular interest.

A place like a prison In 1946 an widowed female from Over Kellet [Lancs] was sent to ‘a place in Huddersfield’,

‘it was like a prison’, where she gave birth to a son who was given up for adoption. Have you any idea where this place would have been and what it was called?

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BOOK REVIEWS

Reviewer: Keith Brockhill

IN MERCY OF THE LORD. ALMONDBURY COURT ROLLS Part 1. 1627-41 Edited by Peter Hurst Huddersfield: P. Hurst. 2010. LXVIII. 144 pp. £15.00

Mention the word Manor, and images of ox teams, open fields and manor houses spring to mind, definitely something more medieval that early-modern. Yet, as this epic piece of translation reveals, Almondbury’s Manorial Court was still an integral part of people’s lives on the eve of the Civil Wars.

Another preconception is that the content of Court Rolls will be as dry and dusty as the parchment they are written on (25 membranes in this case), whereas, the words of a certain newspaper, “all human life is here”. From the detailed introduction, which describes the history and workings of the court to the numerous small transgressions, that put them in misericorda domini (in mercy of the Lord) the people of the townships of Huddersfield, Quick, Slaithwaite, South Crosland, Honley and Meltham are here.

Then, as now, violence was all too common, there are 571 cases of affrays with one village particularly prominent. “Honley appears to have been a particularly fractious township”. Individuals of both sexes were involved, sometimes in whole families “Humphrey Beaumont of the Greave in Honley, James his son and Mary his daughter made an affray one on the other and drew blood”, at a subsequent cost of 6s8d each.

Wanderers, both four legged and two, caused problems. Arthur Aldersley in Almondbury was declared to be “a common harbourer of wandering vagrants” and was duly amerced 20s for his pains. Whilst “the pigs of the widow of Thomas Wilkinson were also delivered without legal authority “while impounded and she was amerced 3s4d”. Killing a salmon “at the wrong season” cost Roger Heeley 6s8d. The same sum extracted from Edward Hawkeyard and Thomas Walker for hunting the Lord’s game with greyhounds.

Not Fulfilling social obligations was also costly. Thomas Hirste of Oke in Bradley failed to “sufficiently repair the way for the passage of ploughcarts, horse carriages, from a certain gate called Sindersforegate towards a certain bridge called Colnebrigg”, a dereliction of duty that brought a substantial £10 fine. 57

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Being a widow was no defence either, as Widow Houldesworthe of Elland found in 1631, when she was fined 13s4d for not contributing work on any of the “4 days appointed for repairing the commonways” and then compounding the offence when she dug up stones in the king’s highway and carried away the same to build her house”. Failure to attend court was frowned on, especially when the miscreant displayed a bad attitude, as did Robert Hey of Huddersfield, who was amerced 10s for “not coming to court to do service on his office Within the view of frankpledge although he was summoned but contemptuously withdrew in bad example to others”.

And what of the Lord himself, the “Bank of Almondbury”, William Ramsden? The introduction provides a rare insight into his personal life, through a piece of poetry tucked away in an account book. Written as a lament for his late wife, Rosamund, it shows that even the wealth of a hard-headed Yorkshire business man was no guarantee of happiness.

“All comfortes I may complayne, My heart is full of woo, My joy ys gone me froo ...”.

What might the next two bundles of Rolls reveal?

JOSEPH WOOD 1750-1821: A YORKSHIRE QUAKER, AN INTRODUCTION TO HIS LIFE, MINISTRY AND WRITINGS By Pamela Cooksey York, Quack Books, 2010, 113pp £10

Between the familiar, though receding, life of the 1960s and the early modern period where the influences of medieval life were still very evident, lies the sea change of the Industrial Revolution. Joseph Wood’s long life soanned that crucial period, endowing his prolific writings with both social and religious significance.

In common with Pam Cooksey’s other works, this book owes its genesis to her house, The Ridings in Thongsbridge, and its former owners, particularly those of Quaker persuasion. Joseph Wood was born into a prosperous yeoman clothier family at Newhouse in High Flatts, who devoted much of his life to the Quaker cause, travelling, organising, entertaining, and, fortunately, writing. His 103 notebooks cover business “met father at Cloth Hall” in Leeds, and pleasure “13 to supper and 12 lodgers, we were obliged to get beds for five of them at our neighbours houses” — for he was a very sociable host.

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As an employer, he expected standards of behaviour, advising a new employee “to warn thee in future to desist from absenting thyself from my house improperly and associating thyself with such as are seeking to draw thee into vanity of any kind”. Reflecting on a visit to Bridgend, “my heart was filled with sorrowful reflections upon the general depravity of the people” after witnessing a bear baiting. Whilst a Quaker desire to “avoid all conversation regarding Politicks” was over ridden, as a Parliamentary voter, by a dislike of slavery and a fierce criticism of the “mercenary freeholder” taking land under Parliamentary Enclosures. Money was given to the families of Luddite sympathisers hanged at York.

The new world of industry fascinated him. Travelling on foot, as usual, he visited Coalbrookdale, where “friend Birchall and me took a walk amongst the iron works which to me was of great curiosity”, and, nearer to home the Rochdale cotton factory of John Bright, with its “200 hands” and “many different kinds of machinery at work was a curiosity to us who had seen nothing of its kind before”.

Paradoxically, for a time of such great changes, for Quakers it was the “Quietist period” and Joseph, described by a contemporary as “a deep and able Minister, a thoroughly honest, innocent man” was “the quintessence of a Quaker of the Quietist Age”.

And his words live on, many thousands of them, to be transcribed and published by the Quakers as a significant resource for both Quaker and social historians. Whilst the notebooks themselves have an unusual importance of their own, for, bound round them are samples of contemporary wallpapers, so unusual and extensive, as to constitute an important archive of their own. 24 of them are shown, in colour, along with many other illustrations of contemporary Quaker life.

SECURED FOR THE TOWN: THE STORY OF HUDDERSFIELD’S GREENHEAD PARK By David Griffiths Huddersfield, Friend of Greenhead Park, 2011, 66pp, £5.00

Parks and cemeteries, tow important, though much neglected, even derided, Victorian institutions, seem to be enjoying something of a renaissance these days. All around there are restoration projects, Lottery grants and blossoming Friends organisations. Their space, their architecture, and even, with parks at least, some of their values are back in fashion, and now, thanks to the Heritage Lottery

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Fund grant in 2005, Greenhead is emerging from its own cocoon of conservation into a brighter world.

Ably written by our own David Griffiths, this is very much a social history of the Park, its history and its people. Tracing the public parks movement from its roots in a Parliamentary report of 1833, it describes the need for such public spaces in the overcrowded and insanitary new industrial towns. Huddersfield, it has to be said, wasn’t exactly a pioneer in this field. Not incorporated as a Borough until 1868, it had also to contend, as so often, with the vexed question of Ramsden Estate ownership. The Greenhead land was identified as a park site by 1870, but as the Town Clerk noted, wearily, in 1878, negotiations were “long and tedious” but “terms have been at last arranged for 30 acres of land for a Public Park”.

Alderman Thomas Denham (the first of 5 “Park Heroes” celebrated in the book) took the lead and Richard Dugdale, the Borough Surveyor (and second “Hero”) drew up the plans, so that, finally, on 27 September 1884, with the usual Victorian pomp and ceremony, Greenhead Park was opened. Since when it has entertained many people (with memories recalled in 5 “Happy Days”” insets), hosted numerous events, from band concerts to agricultural shows, and wartime “holidays at home”, and been a focus for reflections on less happy times - both the Boer War and Great War Memorials are here.

It has been many things to different people, not just the municipal worthies, whose names adorn so many Victorian works, and memories are actively sought by the Friends and the University of Huddersfield’s Centre for Oral Research. Times change and once again parks have become places, as the author concludes, “where people meet, court and enjoy themselves”. Alderman Arthur Gardiner (the 5" “Park Hero”), noted in 1960, that “today in Huddersfield we have more public parks than pawn shops, and that to my mind is a sign of real progress”. Given today’s less optimistic financial climate, that is perhaps another reason why parks and their history are so important.

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HUDDERSFIELD LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY

WEBSITE: www.huddersfieldhistory.org.uk Email address: huddshistory@gmail.com

SOCIETY OFFICERS AND COMMITTEE

CHAIR: John Rawlinson Email: johnrawlinson@aol.com

SECRETARY: Pauline Rawlinson 12 Station Road, Golcar Huddersfield, HD7 4ED

Email: paulinerawlinson@aol.com

TREASURER: David Griffiths Email: griffi.davidj@gmail.com

PUBLICITY: David Griffiths Email: griffi.davidj@gmail.com

JOURNAL EDITOR: John Rawlinson

Editorial Group: Janette Martin, Bill Roberts,

Chris Webb, Sarah Kellett, Graeme Poulter

COMMUNICATION WITH MEMBERS

VICE CHAIR: Howard Robinson

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY: John Rawlinson: 12 Station Road, Golcar Huddersfield, HD7 4ED Email: johnrawlinson@aol.com

PUBLICATIONS: Keith Brockhill

COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Val Davies, Hilary Haigh, Brian Haigh, Janette Martin, Cyril Pearce, Bill Roberts, Chris Webb

The Society appreciates that not all members are computer users and will continue to send all essential

membership information by post. However we sometimes receive information which may be of interest to Members electronically, and we are happy to circulate this by e-mail to any Member who wishes to join a list for this purpose. If you would like to do so, please e-mail your request to the address at the top of this page. Anybody joining the e-mail list may also leave at any time.

The society wishes to pay special thanks to Graeme Poulter and Sarah Kellett, both

undergraduates at Huddersfield University, who as part of their work experience

designed the front cover of the Journal. An article by Sarah is also included.


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