Fixby Hall, Fixby
Details
- location: Fixby
- status: still exists
- category: hall
- notes: now Huddersfield Golf Club
Discovering Old Huddersfield
Extract from Discovering Old Huddersfield (1993-2002) by Gordon & Enid Minter:
Fixby Hall was once the home of the Saville family and, later, the Thornhills but its greatest claim to fame comes through its association with that tireless champion of factory reform, Richard Oastler. Oastler worked as steward to Squire Thomas Thomhill and was resident at the Hall. In September 1830 Oastler wrote a letter to the Leeds Mercury which was published under the title "Yorkshire Slavery". In it he described the plight of "...the innocent victims at the accursed shrine of avarice who are compelled, by the thong or strap of the overlookers to hasten, half dressed to those magazines of British infantile slavery — the worsted mills in the town and neighbourhood of Bradford!" The letter impressed a number of men of like mind who formed the Huddersfield Short Time committee and who called on Oastler at Fixby Hall to invite him to assume leadership of the group. He was an ideal choice. His skill with both the written and the spoken word and the force of his commanding personality easily drew people to the cause and soon Fixby Hall was at the centre of the Ten Hour Movement.
Gallery
- Loading...