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HUDDERSFIELD & DISTRICT FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY The Society was formed in 1987 and its aims are to promote and encourage mutual help between people
interested in family history and genealogy. It caters particularly for those with interests in the Kirklees Council
area which comprises the towns and districts of Batley, Colne Valley, Denby Dale, Dewsbury, Huddersfield,
Holme Valley, Kirkburton, Meltham, Mirfield and the Spen Valley. It covers an area of nearly 160 square miles
and within its boundaries lie the ancient parishes of Almondbury, Batley, Birstall, Dewsbury, Huddersfield,
Emley, Hartshead, Kirkburton, Kirkheaton, Mirfield and Thornhill.
Membership of the Society runs from 1 August to 31 July and the subscription rates, per year, are as follows:
Individual Membership £12 Family Membership £15 Overseas Membership £18
Family Membership consists of two named persons at the same address, receiving one Journal. Please ensure that cheques are in sterling only and are made payable to:
‘HUDDERSFIELD & DISTRICT FHS’
Subscriptions may be paid by PayPal via the Society website, or to The Root Cellar by sterling cheque, or in
person by cash. If you are a UK income tax payer you may consider paying your subscription with Gift Aid.
This will increase the value of your payment to the Society at no extra cost to yourself. Life Membership of
the Society is available at twelve times the annual subscription in force at the time of application. This
sum is payable with Gift Aid in four equal, annual amounts.
Meetings are held at regular intervals during the year at various Town Halls throughout the area, starting at
various times. Please refer to the Programme in this Journal or the website for more details. Occasionally,
due to unforeseen circumstances, it may be necessary to change the programme and so if you plan to
attend a particular meeting, please make sure that you check the Society’s website (see below), three or four
days prior to the meeting.
Sale of Goods Act: UK postal customers may change their mind within seven days of receipt of the goods,
returning them at their own cost. There will be a charge of 50p per book plus 50p per order to cover our costs.
Publications: The H&DFHS Journal is published and distributed to members four times a year in January,
April, July and October. The Society’s Project Group has produced complete indexes of both the 1841 and the
1851 censuses for the whole of our area (more than 200,000 names and 1/90th of the population of England
and Wales for 1851). These are available in booklet form and also on CD-ROM. The group is currently
indexing Parish Registers (baptisms, marriages and burials) for all the major local churches. This information is
available in printed form, as is information from the ever-growing database. Most of these works are listed
on, and can be purchased through, the Society web site (www.hdfhs.org.uk) or a full publications list can
be obtained by writing to the Book Seller or Membership Secretary at ‘The Root Cellar’ (details inside the back
cover), enclosing a large letter SAE or two IRCs (International Reply Coupons).
Data Protection Act: As a ‘not for profit’ organisation, we are not required to ‘notify’ the Data Protection
Authorities in the UK regarding the holding of personal data. However, you should know that we hold on the
Society’s computers the personal data that you provide to us. We also make this information available to other
members for the purposes of following up ‘Members’ Interests’. If you do not wish the Society to make any of
your details available without your authority, please contact ‘The Root Cellar’ by letter, email or phone.
Society website: www.hdfhs.org.uk
H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2 Page 1
HUDDERSFIELD & DISTRICT FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Registered Charity No. 702199
January 2016 VOLUME 29 NUMBER 2
Lower Whitley St Mary and St Michael. Photo taken by Marcia Kemp
The opinions and views expressed in this Journal do not necessarily represent the views of either the Editor or the Huddersfield & District Family History Society. This Journal is copyright, and no part may be reproduced for publication in any form whatsoever without the written consent of the Editor. The Society accepts no responsibility for any loss suffered as a result of any item published in this Journal.
Please note that queries regarding non-arrival of Journals should be sent by email to [email protected] or by post to the Root Cellar at Meltham.
Journal Submissions: Please send items for publication to the Editor by email or post, and include your membership number, name and postal address. Items sent by post can only be returned or acknowledged if a SAE is included. Please state if an article has been printed in, or submitted to another publication. Items should be clearly hand-written, typed in Microsoft Word with a file name ending either .doc or .docx. Please do not send any attachments in Word formats which are pre-1997. The Editor welcomes letters and articles on any aspect of family or local history. Items with relevance to the Kirklees area are of particular interest; as are cuttings, hints and tips. Editing of articles may be necessary, depending on available space.
Deadline for inclusion in the next Journal: 1st March 2016
Page 2 H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2
Contents
The Society
Committee
Editorial
Programme of Speakers & Forthcoming Events
Financial Statements to July 2015
Chairman’s Report – AGM 2015
Annual Family History Fair
New Members
January Sale
Members’ Correspondence
Letters to the Editor
Surnames as Forenames
General Interest
Talk Reviews
From the Root Cellar Librarian
WDYTYA Birmingham 2016
News from the Federation
Mortimers of the Spen Valley
The Old Sweet Shop in Cross Church Street
Waterloo Ancestors
‘Sykes’ Searches
A Fulling Mill – Cocking Steps Mill in Netherton
Visitor to Ravensthorpe
Wartime Rationing
Research Corner
Combs Pit (1)
Combs Pit (2)
Help Wanted
Inside Back Cover
3
4
5
6/7
8
20/21
31
13 – 17
33
9 – 11
Maureen Wheeler 12
Roger Gill 17
18/19
Peter H Bentley 22/23
Sue Hassett 24 – 26
Margaret Ware 26
Dave Hirst 27
James Hodgkinson 28/29
Brian Arundel 30
Audrey Town 32
34
Brian Arundel 36
Barry Bedford 37
38
H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2 Page 3
When I visited California some time ago I bought a small ceramic plaque on which was written ‘My mind not only wanders … sometimes it leaves completely’ and it is with this thought that I have to give a huge thank you to members of the Committee for their write-ups on the recent talks at the Society’s November Fair. The talk write-up from after the AGM will follow in the next journal. Whilst I do my level best to focus on the speaker I find myself studying the carpet or the ornate decorations in the Town Hall so it is reassuring to know that not all of the Committee suffer from my failings.
I have also to give thanks to many of the members who have contributed to this quarter’s Journal. It is very rewarding to have feedback to the articles that appear. Awaiting inspiration is purely in the lap of the gods and when I receive a good topical story it is like manna from heaven. We all have our stories but some are more interesting than others.
The January Journal is a reflection on the previous year with the Treasurer offering her findings for the previous year together with the Chairman’s report. In the cold winter months there may be a reluctance to venture out to the Root Cellar but the January Sale, which is very ably managed by Keith and Margaret Woodcock, might be a tempter to buy some more information to help in finding the wider family.
Once again we are having an Open Afternoon for anyone who has thought about becoming a volunteer for the Society. It is two years ago since we last held one and it proved very successful as we still have the same volunteers who started then, but during this year we have had some retirements.
Another retirement is the post of Membership Secretary so again if you feel this might be a job for you, or in the near future, please come along. The article about this is in the Help Wanted on Page 38. If we forget to make a cup of tea this time just remind us.
Finally a message to everyone reading the Journal, both members and non-members, can I wish you all a very Happy New Year for 2016.
Janet Le Billon
Family History in your Local Library
Many libraries in Kirklees offer family history sessions, often supported by members of our Society. We intend to update our records of ‘drop in’ sessions in local libraries in the near future but in the meantime please visit the Kirklees website:
http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/leisure/libraries/index.aspx
for more information about family history related events at your local libraries throughout the Kirklees area.
________________________________________________________________________
Society News and Notices
Page 4 H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2
Tuesday 9 February 2016 at 7.30 pm - Christian Names, George Redmonds at the Town Hall, Huddersfield HD1 2TA. Admission for non-members £1.00.
Tuesday 10 May 2016 at 7.30pm - David Burgess, Regional Representative of the Guild of One Name Studies – An illustrated talk on the GOONS, Dewsbury Town Hall, WF12 8DG. Admission for non-members £1.00.
Wednesday 20 January 2016 - Huddersfield Library Lunchtime Club - ‘A Yorkshire Dialect Treasure Trove’ – Rod Dimbleby 1.00 pm in the Light Reading Room, Princess Alexandra Walk HD1 2SU. Admission free.
Monday 25 January 2016 - Huddersfield Local History Society – ‘Loss and Legacy : The Tolson Story’ – Jenny Salton, Heritage Quay, University of Huddersfield, HD1 3DH. 7.30 pm. Admission for non-members £2.00.
Wednesday 17 February 2016 - Huddersfield Library Lunchtime Club - ‘Huddersfield’s Best Address’ by David Griffiths of the Huddersfield Local History Society, 1.00 pm in the Light Reading Room, Princess Alexandra Walk, HD1 2SU. Admission free.
Monday 29 February 2016 - Huddersfield Local History Society - ‘Bentley and Shaw, Brewers of Lockwood’ – Robert Tomlinson, Heritage Quay, University of Huddersfield, HD1 3DH. 7.30 pm. Admission for non-members £2.00.
Monday 21 March 2016 - Huddersfield Local History Society – ‘The Woodsome Panels and Early Modern Marriage’ – Professor Jessica Malay, Heritage Quay, University of Huddersfield, HD1 3DH. Admission for non-members £2.00.
For more details of family history fairs and events see: www.geneva.weald.org.uk
Programme of Speakers 2016
Forthcoming Events
H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2 Page 5
Financial Statements for the year ended 31 July 2015
The Society can report that, through prudent management of funds and a steady membership base, we have managed to make further inroads into turning around the deficit which existed prior to 2013/14. The trustees are pleased to report that for the second year running, our income has exceeded expenses.
Restricted
funds Designated
funds Unrestricted
funds TOTAL
31 July
2014 Incoming resources
Subscriptions 12,524 12,524 12,171 Donations 500 1,208 1,708 1,053 Publications 3,254 3,254 3,049 Research 290 290 236 Royalties 2,170 2,170 2,433 Grant income - - 2,485 Course fees 652 652 - Gift aid 3,223 3,223 2,563 Other income 983 983 1,728
Total income
500 24,304 24,804 25,718
Resources expended Library 433 433 202 Journal costs 3,604 3,604 4,571 Fair costs 815 815 514 Subscriptions 1,920 1,920 1,470 Advertising 1,564 1,564 270 Premises cost
6,743 6,743 9,557
Insurance 256 256 1,078 Printing, postage & stationery
2,221 2,221 3,529
Telephone 736 736 1,040 IT support 1,050 1,050 - Bank charges
61 61 54
Sundry 591 591 1,118 Depreciation 828 333 25 1,186 1,424
Total expenses
828 333 20,019 21,180 24,827
Surplus / (Deficit)
(828) (167) 4,285 3,624 891
Page 6 H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2
Chairman’s Report - AGM 2015
Again I am pleased to report on another successful year for the Society.
I, as well as the Society, am fortunate in having a strong and dedicated Committee who, without exception, have carried out the duties of their respective offices very capably.
I left last year’s report with a reference to Family History Courses and in the year to July 2015 we have had 25 participants on courses at the Root Cellar. These have been run in conjunction with the U3A and we thank Joan Firth, who is a Monday volunteer for her input from the U3A. Joan together with Roger Gill, Susan Hutson, Janet Le Billon and Maureen Wheeler have been able tutors.
The Root Cellar has also been used by Friend to Friend, a registered charity working with older people to improve their quality of life. They have used our facilities as a training venue for their team leaders and have provided another income stream.
The ‘Monday Ladies’, Anne, Beryl, Janet and Joan, in the research team continue to provide excellent research advice and help which brings in further income.
We are very fortunate in being able to cover all the present openings at the Root Cellar and I thank all the volunteers for their time and efforts. However, we are always looking for additional volunteers to cover for those taking ‘early, but well-earned retirement’!
The membership at this time last year stood at 939 and I am pleased to report that it is now also at the same level of 939. In the present times when Societies generally are suffering with a reduction in membership it is very gratifying that we are bucking the trend. Undoubtedly this is, in part, down to the initiative of taking the Society “On Tour”. We have been to Colne Valley Museum, Slaithwaite Library and to a pop-up shop in the Packhorse Centre for 3 days in June. We also attended the ‘Old Liversedge’ Event, organised by a member Jim Summerscales, in November.
We have attended all the quarterly meetings of the Yorkshire Group and we assisted them at WDYTYA at the NEC in April – my personal thanks to Roger Gill for covering my absence.
We have had three Speaker Meetings in the year to July, two of which were arranged by Margaret Woodcock. Margaret has acted as Speaker Secretary for the last 12 months alongside her role as Publicity Officer, bringing new thoughts and ideas to the committee. The talks were:-
Pam Cooksey - ‘Churches and Chapels of the New Mill Valley’
Peter Higginbotham - ‘Gruelling Experiences – 300 years of life in the Workhouse’
Paul & Sheila Kenny - ‘England’s Green and Pleasant Land’
All our events are publicised on the website as well as in the Journal, edited by Janet Le Billon, who continues to carry out an excellent job keeping our members informed as well as demolishing brick walls for people on Monday afternoons at the Root Cellar.
You will all, I hope, have picked up a copy of Steve Wayne’s Project Report on the transcription work done in the last 12 months which sets out both the new publications and the work presently in hand.
Again, any member of the Society who feels able to assist, please do contact Steve.
H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2 Page 7
These extra booklets always give Keith Woodcock, our Bookseller, a hectic time on their publication and some excitement in January when a sale was held. It is no small task to keep control of the publications, which are now in excess of 450 without the census booklets and CDs.
Ian Stevenson as Vice-Chairman has had to cover for me on a number of occasions this year. When not covering for the Chairman he has again enabled the Society to obtain further Grants which is a great bonus to the Society.
You will hear in Karen’s review of the accounts the full effects of not having No. 35 which is a financial positive, but we have still got storage at Lee Mills. For all the to-ing and fro-ing from there to the Root Cellar we must thank Maureen Wheeler who has carried this out with no fuss, together with her post as Librarian. A number of new books have been purchased and I would recommend that members make use of this extensive resource.
The honorary Treasurer has kept the accounts up to date despite working full time, let us all hope that the surplus continues well into the future - something for you to ensure Karen.
Roger Gill and Alan Starkey have continued to ensure that the website and the data management are kept up to date and running smoothly. It is a specialist area and is no mean task to ensure that that happens.
Alan is standing down from the posts of Membership Secretary and Members Interest Secretary at this AGM and I give particular thanks to him for all the hard work he has put in and has continued to put in up to the AGM. All we need now is someone to step into his shoes!
I have made mention of all the committee members with the exception of one – Susan Hutson, our Secretary – without her enthusiasm, forward thinking, attention to detail and hard work, the Society would not be in the position we are now. Susan, all I can say on behalf of the Society and all its members is THANK YOU.
The success of our Annual Fair at Cathedral House in November last year was in no small way down to Susan’s input. The attendance of over 300 people reflects that work coming to fruition.
Also it should be recorded that Susan assisted George Binns, a Society member, who has produced a commemorative booklet for the 150th anniversary of the Moldgreen United Reformed Church. The bonus being that it added another chapter to her own family history.
Sadly, I have to record the passing of Laurence Perry and Wendy Wood who were both stalwart committee members. Laurence was a former Chairman and Wendy speaker secretary on the last committee. Also, Meriel Bowers who was a founder member of the Society and hosted committee meetings at her home.
Thanks again to all our trustees, volunteers and transcribers for all their help and support.
Richard Brown Chairman
Page 8 H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2
Annual Family & Local History Fair
As you will know we held our Fair again in November at Cathedral House in Huddersfield and were pleased to welcome 28 family history societies, local history groups and commercial suppliers. It was a great success once again despite the terrible weather in the afternoon, attracting around 300 paying visitors. People travelled from all over the country to visit us and most made a day out of it by including at least one talk in their visit as well as a break in the cafe.
Whilst it takes a lot of organisation as big events do, everyone ‘mucks in’ including all the committee, many of our Root Cellar volunteers and even some of our regular Root Cellar attendees. Many thanks to everyone – we couldn’t do it without you. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the staff of Cathedral House who make sure everything is perfect for our visitors.
Our own stand was very busy throughout the day and our new book stall made many sales of local history related books. Feedback from other stall holders suggests that they too had a very successful day.
We had talks from local historians David Griffiths and Vivien Teasdale; Lindsay Ince from Heritage Quay at the University updated visitors on their collections and the entertaining Myko Clelland from FindmyPast packed the room for his talk on the 1939 Register, we could have filled it twice over! All our talks are reviewed in this journal.
Each year is a little different at our Fair and I was surprised to find whilst talking to visitors on the reception desk that many had not been the previous year.
This suggests that some of you who came along last year didn’t do so this time but there were several new stalls to enjoy; particularly local history related groups, as well as the family history societies from all over Yorkshire and beyond. If everyone who attended in 2014 and in 2015 comes along in 2016 we can make it even more successful and invest more resource into the things we do for you our membership which is, after all, why we exist in the first place!
Susan Hutson Secretary
H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2 Page 9
The 1939 Register – Myko Clelland FindmyPast
You may remember my article in the July 2015 Journal regarding the 1939 Register and we were very pleased to welcome a most popular speaker to our Fair, Myko Clelland, who is the Partnership and Outreach Manager at FindmyPast.
Only two weeks before the Fair FindmyPast had released the 1939 Register on their website so Myko’s talk was very timely and gave an interesting insight into the transcription of the records and the information contained within this exciting resource for family historians. To fully understand the background to the register please read again the article in July 2015.
Myko proceeded to enlighten his audience, often in an amusing way, as to the value of the information to be found in this set of data. For example he told us how mothers were often determined to keep their sons off the register as they dreaded their conscription but then soon realised that rationing was being introduced and their sons needed to eat! Women would often then have to go back to the registrar with excuses as to why their names had not been included.
Myko told us how only two days after the declaration of war legislation was enacted and 65,000 enumerators were employed to collect information for the register. This information continued to be used until ID cards were withdrawn in 1952.
The digitisation and transcription has taken two years with 35,000 pages being scanned per week; there are 1.2 million pages and 41 million names appear in the register.
Myko noted that there is a 100 year rule in relation to privacy and data protection of individuals who may still be alive and so a proportion of the records are currently ‘closed’ although it is relatively simple to open records if proof, e.g. copy of a death certificate, can be provided.
These records are particularly interesting as when the NHS came into being in 1948 it was decided that the 1939 register would become the basis of the NHS records and so amendments were constantly made to the register up until 1991 by the Health Service with details of deaths, marriages of women etc.
In addition the records contain maps and newspaper articles to provide context to the areas and times when our ancestors lived. There are also fascinating infographics provided so that we might compare local areas in statistical terms, for example a lot of detail was collected about individual occupations because of likely conscription.
It should be noted that the records currently apply only to England and Wales, Scotland is still on paper and access to the Northern Ireland set can be made only via a Freedom of Information request. At the moment the records are quite expensive to access but if you have an annoying brick wall then it may well be worth the investment, go to –http://www.findmypast.co.uk/1939register
I have bitten the bullet and bought a five household bundle for £24.95 and I got a 10% discount as I had a FindmyPast subscription (as at 14 November 2015).
Susan Hutson Secretary
Talk Reviews
Page 10 H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2
Murder and Mayhem by Vivien Teasdale
Vivien started by outlining some sources which are very useful for researching crime and disorder. These included 19th Century newspapers, available online at many libraries. CDs are available which cover Criminal Chronology of York Castle, Coroner’s Inquests – particularly Thomas Taylor’s Notebooks.
West Yorkshire Archive Service has many related records such as Prison Records, Gaol Deliveries and Gaol records as well as Assize Records (for York, Leeds and Wakefield).
Researchers need to be aware that people would often use an alias when arrested. One woman being arrested several times using six different names until she was recognised by a constable as trying to give a name different to the one he knew her by.
Family crimes often included killing children in order to obtain some burial money, or murdering relatives following disappointment about an inheritance. When a gamekeeper was bludgeoned to death, six poachers were arrested and cleared of murder but transported for being ‘around at midnight’.
Mental health problems were not appreciated and prison was the only option for such sufferers. Postnatal depression was not recognised and many mothers were hanged for murder.
Drink and drugs caused problems. Opium was in common use and given to children. Sweets were made with unusual materials and occasionally, accidentally, contained poison.
Vivien mentioned a number of local cases including in 1674 an Amos Cropper, aged 25 of Hull, who murdered Joseph Beck of Dewsbury and was eventually taken (citizen’s arrest) by John Hall aged 84!
David Goldthorpe of Holmfirth, found guilty of stealing cloth, was hanged at York.
Robert Dalby married Mary Ann Mortimer at Birstall in 1870. After being arrested for assaulting her, five other of his ‘wives’ materialised. He received five years for bigamy.
One unusual case was a man, arrested for stealing coals and sentenced to be transported, who admitted he wanted to be transported …. to get away from his wife.
Roger Gill Webmaster
Huddersfield’s Best Address: Four Centuries of Life at Greenhead Hall, by David Griffiths
David opened his talk by saying that “Huddersfield’s best address” may be subjective, but over its long life the Hall has been occupied by some of the town’s principal inhabitants. Greenhead College is more or less on the footprint of Greenhead Hall, for many years the property was known simply as Greenhead. The Hall and its estate was closely linked with Gledholt Hall, from time to time the two estates were in the same family.
The first homestead was built around 1500, then rebuilt around one hundred years later in the three gabled Pennine style, the first owners were the Hirsts of Quarmby, a wealthy, well married family, they were on the Royalist side in the Civil War and as a result their lands were sequested and the estate was tenanted for some years.
H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2 Page 11
The estate was sold to Matthew Wilkinson of Richmond, he founded the Town’s first Grammar School at Seed Hill, after the death of John Wilkinson in 1738, who was unmarried, and everything passed to John Lister Kaye, a nephew, a colourful character. JLK’s principal home was Denby Grange, he soon ran out of money and the property was rented out to a series of tenants.
The main tenants were the Fentons, a descendant being Lewis Fenton, MP for the Town in 1832/3. In 1791 the estate was put on the market, due to John Lister Kaye’s mounting debts, but did not sell until 1804. Ben Haigh bought it and upon his death it passed to his nephew Ben Haigh Allen. Ben Haigh Allen inherited much wealth, he rebuilt the Hall in 1820, he was also a philanthropist who endowed Holy Trinity Church. He died young aged 35 and the estate passed to his eldest son, however, his widow remarried and moved away and the Hall passed once again into tenancy.
Among the more notable tenants were Joseph Brook a wool merchant who was responsible for bringing the railway to Huddersfield; Joseph Beaumont, tenant from 1852-70, a tobacconist with family interests in the tobacco plantations of Tennessee, and Joseph Fligg Brigg, a shipping merchant and twice Mayor of Huddersfield. The Ramsden family bought the Estate and sold the Park in 1881, the House was empty by 1899 and by 1909 it was demolished and the Girls’ High School in its place.
Margaret Woodcock Publicity Officer
University Challenge: Uncovering Family History in the University of Huddersfield Collection, by Lindsay Ince
Lindsay, an assistant archivist at the University of Huddersfield began her talk by outlining a brief history of the University and how it developed from the 1840s as a Mechanics Institute to a Technical School in the 1870s, a Technical College in 1896, through to a Polytechnic and finally to the present day University.
The archive contains a wide range of family history resources relating to both staff and students. For example student registers going back to the 1850s although those from the 1880s onwards contain more detailed information. Other records include full course timetables, so you could find out what your ancestors were studying, prospectuses and calendars, prize winners, annual reports, exam registers, award booklets, staff records and minute books, class committee books and student newsletters.
Lindsay pointed out that records are searchable, by index, but are locked by data protection from 1931 onwards, so if your ancestors were connected with the University after that date, special access arrangements would need to be made.
The archive is located at Central Services Building, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield, HD1 3DH - Tel: 01484 473 168
Take a look at this slide show to see what is available: http://www.slideshare.net/Heritage_Quay/university-challenge-uncovering-family-history-in-the-university-of-huddersfield-collection, along with details of opening times.
Maureen Wheeler Librarian
Page 12 H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2
One out of print booklet that has come onto our shelves recently is Holmfirth Place-Names and Settlement by George Redmonds. Trying to track down out of print publishing is an on-going job and thanks should go to our Librarian, Maureen Wheeler who has managed to get a copy at a reasonably cost from Amazon. Fortunately I already had a copy and I have spent many hours just browsing the information. One reference is of Ward Place in Cartworth. The information reads: -
This was formerly Wade Place and no doubt the home of the Wade family who were prominent in Cartworth for about 200 years. The last record of the surname there was c.1580 and it was after this that the place-name acquired its present spelling (c.f.1767 Nathaniel Ward otherwise Wade QS). Other place names of this kind are Foster Place, Ainley Place (Slaithwaite) and Moulson Place (Stainland).
1307 Henry Wade, Wooldale YAS.36
1387 Henry Wade, Cartworth. MD 225/1/113
1479 Richard Waide, Cartworth MD 225/1/205
1526 John Wayde, CartworthMD225/1/252
1603 Crosland of the Wade Place, Ramsd.41
1639 John Charlesworth Wadeplace, WCR.1
1663 Abraham Kaye Wardplace PR
Whilst this is only a short article on this place-name it gives the level of information given to some abodes mentioned. My own family lived here in the 18th and 19th century so it was good to visit the settlement this last summer and see that six properties, which have been derelict since the 1960s, are now being renovated. The oldest property there is from the 17th century but as pointed out in this booklet the present properties have been built on or near the previous settlements. Please contact our librarian Maureen Wheeler for further details – JLB.
Penistone Archive
If you have ancestors in the south of our area towards Barnsley, you might find some useful background resources for your research at Penistone Archive.
The Archive is based in the Neville Roebuck Room in the Community Centre, which is situated near to the Parish Church in the centre of Penistone. Enthusiastic volunteers, led by team leader Brian Robinson (email: [email protected]), meet on Thursdays from 10:00 am to 13:00 pm when the archive is open to the public. They have been working through and cataloguing a massive amount of donated local material including thousands of files and hundreds of books and videos about Penistone and surrounding villages. The group have a Facebook page.
A member of the archive team kindly digitised our recently acquired Parish Records for St John’s Parish Church, Penistone, and also donated a DVD of ‘Thurgoland in times past’ to the Society library collection. These are available for use at The Root Cellar.
On the day we visited we were made very welcome, so if you are visiting the area, or live just down the road, it’s well worth fitting into your schedule. You could find just that piece of information you’ve been looking for!
Maureen Wheeler, Librarian
From the Root Cellar Librarian
H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2 Page 13
Owing to limited space some letters received will be appearing in the April 2016 Journal – Ed.
Hi Janet
Thanks for the article on Castlegate. "Pie Jos" and his wife Anne Sykes (Oct 2015, Page 16) were my 4 x great grandparents. Jos was a bit of a rogue and was frequently in trouble for selling out of hours and other misdemeanours. He was also at one point stabbed by his son William and this incident is mentioned in Vivien Teasdale’s book ‘Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths around Huddersfield’.
Thanks again
Peter Middleton (M043)
Dear Janet
I was very interested to read the items concerning Castlegate. I have always found it quite strange that the modern Castlegate runs from Chapel Hill to the fire station. I have very vivid memories of riding along Castlegate with my father on a tram (that’s another experience). We didn’t travel about much in those days. I have no idea why we were going along there on a tram, it would be early 1930s, and I would be about five. At that time Castlegate was where the lower part of the ring road was built after the war, with the Sports Centre, Tax Office etc. I can still envisage the yards, alleyways and all the signs of poverty very vividly. In the early days of doing family history I remember trawling through reels of the 1851 Census and found the bottom end of town had lots of Irish, who probably came here due to the potato famine etc. There were also a few Italians, who were ice-cream makers. Quite a number of Irish were recorded in the court cases, their descendants probably continued to live in the area.
Audrey Town (T04)
Hello Janet
Thank you for posting the information about the Buzon Memorial in Korea. Your readers may be interested to know that serviceman’s memorials (but not with photographs) can be viewed at http://www.unmck.or.kr
Best wishes
Andy Micklethwaite (M170)
Letters to the Editor
Page 14 H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2
Here we have a couple of emails from member, Walter Jakeman, on the subject of unusual names -
Dear Janet
I have just been having a bit of a clear out and come across the April 2015 Journal. Looking through it again, properly rather than the glance for obvious points of interest when it first arrived, I noticed the item including the reference to the name Tedbar. As I have one on my tree I have done a little research. The origin of the name is featured in the book Names and History: People, Places and Things by George Redmonds.
A transcript of this book is on line. I found it by asking the question ‘Origin of the name Tedbar”. My Tedbar even gets a mention.
A following email continues…
I have a name I cannot understand – Firth. To me this is a surname but searching FreeBMD with only Firth as a forename shows it is quite common in Yorkshire. I have four instances in two generations in the second quarter of the 19th century. Two died in infancy and of the other two, one emigrated to America to be followed by his nephew some 20 years later. I have not identified any Firth family connections so I am intrigued as to why the name was suddenly used and then dropped. When you look at the names used about 1900 many people gave their children names associated with the places and people involved with the Boer War. Was there a notable Firth active in the Holme Valley area at that time? It is a rhetorical question, just a conversation piece.
Walter Jakeman (J032)
Hello Janet
I am contacting you in regard to the article submitted by Hilary Gee (G103) on page 37 of the October 2015 Journal.
Enid Minter is a fellow member of ‘Huddersfield Then and Now’ - a group I follow on Facebook - and so I was intrigued to read this article.
I have contacted Enid on Facebook and given her your editor email address so she can contact you if the items mentioned are of interest and indeed if she is in fact the Enid Minter mentioned. I just can't bear to think any documents or photographs in regard to Huddersfield history would be destroyed.
If she doesn't contact you I would be very interested in the photographs and documents as I am researching the various 'Yards' in Huddersfield as a personal project on Huddersfield History. It is a passion of mine that we preserve as much of our social, architectural, and family history for future generations.
My friend Debs Crockett and I used to be regular Thursday evening visitors to the Root Cellar, but in recent times health issues have prevented us attending. I am hoping we will be able to attend again soon. Hopefully Margaret Woodcock would remember us.
Can I also say thank you for such a wonderful Journal, I thoroughly enjoy reading every article and will, I hope, be able to make a contribution to the Journal in the future.
Best wishes
Sheila Elson (E072)
H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2 Page 15
Hello again Janet
Enid Minter sent me the following reply on Facebook:
"Thank you for giving me a sight of the article. Unfortunately, I have no recollection of the photographs nor of Miss Mary Lockwood. I have, however a vague recollection of a Miss Dixon who I think was a member, many years ago, of our U3A class. She had, I think, lived in Hammond's Yard and was a descendant of the Hammonds. I really can't think why our names should be attached to the photographs …
… If there is anything I can do to stop the destruction of old documents I will willingly do it but I can't claim possession of them as they were never mine."
Thank you for your interest.
Enid
In light of Enid's response and in case no one else declares any interest I would be willing to give a donation of whatever was considered fair to H&DFHS to prevent the items being destroyed if all parties were in agreement.
As I said in my previous email I really passionately believe in preservation of our local history and the numerous 'yards' of which Hammonds Yard is just one, are part of the character of Huddersfield in a bygone age and I hope they remain for future generations.
Yours sincerely
Sheila Elson (E072)
Hi
Recently we were given an excerpt from your Journal which referred to Miss Marie Tuplin. We were Miss Tuplin's neighbours for about 18 years. She lived in a part of what had originally been the family home in Dalton and my husband spent hours chatting to her - or, more accurately - listening to her reminiscences. We were privileged to be able to read the scrapbook you refer to and can add a little more information.
Miss Tuplin went to the Technical College in Huddersfield to do shorthand and typing and very quickly achieved better than 200 wpm at shorthand with equally good typing skills. It was these skills, which she put to good use in the WRENS. At the end of the war she was given the option to either go as a courtroom stenographer to the trials at Nuremberg or to go to Moscow. She chose Moscow but was only there for a short time as she fell whilst ice-skating, broke her leg and was flown home in Churchill's private plane.
As far as I know the scrapbook was given to Miss Tuplin's nephew when she died at age 98, having spent the last few years of her life in a home in Skelmanthorpe.
In the 60s and 70s she was a company secretary for a mill in Mirfield, taking responsibility for the running of the business when, sadly, the owners died in a crash leaving their young son to inherit. She handed the business over to him when he came of age.
She was a very doughty lady - not always easy to get on with, but she had a fund of stories - including the fact that she played bridge with Omar Sharif whilst on a cruise. She was a fine bridge player and was popular on P&O cruises where she partnered many different people and was often offered discounts because of this. She was an enthusiastic member at the Huddersfield Bridge Club on Cambridge Road.
Page 16 H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2
I hope this information provides just a little more background to your story.
Kind regards
Janet Straughan
I was very surprised to read the article concerning Marie Tuplin. It would be in the mid 1950s that I joined a walking group, probably CHA. We had organised weekly walks and occasional social events. I remember walking and chatting with Marie Tuplin on quite a number of occasions. She was a very pleasant, relaxed, unassuming individual. I had no idea she had such an interesting wartime background. I would say she was a fairly private person. I got the impression, possibly quite wrongly, that she lived alone in the Dalton area. If her interesting scrapbook finished up like that I suspect she had no close relatives.
Audrey Town (T04)
News from ‘Down Under’- Ed.
Hello Janet
I am a member of the NZSG Nelson Branch. I have been interested to see that we now have copies of the HDFHS journal at Ancestors Attic, our library, given by our librarian Cheryl Carnahan.
I was born at Snowlea, Longwood in 1927 and later lived at 73 Leymoor Road and saw your article a couple of years ago. I contacted a lady who was able to send me a lot of information about the Parkwood Mills where my father worked in the office from about 1909 until he went to Northumberland in 1937 and we followed a year later.
I went to Spark Hall School where the teachers were Misses Bamford, Moorhouse, Lord, and in the infants Miss Pearson and Miss Hehir. I then went to Royds for less than a term. The Lyth family were keen members of Parkwood Methodist Church. My Lyth grandparents and family lived at 32 Hall Street from about 1895 to about 1940 or a little later. My other grandparents (Smith) lived at 57 Prospect Road and other members of both families lived in Longwood. I have been pleased to see on Google that their houses are still there although Joseph Hoyle’s and the Co-op shops have all gone.
I have a bound copy of the Parish Magazines of Holy Trinity Church, Trinity Street Huddersfield for the year 1886 and another one for 1887 but this is only January – September. The covers are missing on both but there is a lot of information about people, trips, choir and other activities. They belonged to my grandmother Lyth. I would be very pleased to give these to your Root Cellar, no expense to you, if the Librarian would like them. The last time I was in Longwood was in 1989 just before we came here to New Zealand. I have no relatives in Huddersfield now.
Kind regards
Jean Coulthard (nee Lyth)
email:[email protected]
Just to confirm that our librarian, Maureen Wheeler, has accepted these magazines and they will be available for other members to research – Ed.
H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2 Page 17
Greenhead Hall
It was interesting to see the photograph of Greenhead Hall in the July 2015 Journal. Greenhead High School celebrated its centenary a few years ago and a luncheon and ‘get together’ was arranged for as many old girls as could attend. Photographs and other memorabilia were requested.
I chose to try and uncover some of the history, so I contacted West Yorkshire Archives who were very helpful. They provided me with correspondence between Huddersfield Borough School Board and the Agent to Sir John William Ramsden, negotiating the area of land the school would require and the ground rent to be paid. They also agreed that Greenhead Hall itself was not suitable to be converted to a school, so it would be demolished and an appropriate school built. Before demolition Sir John requested that several architectural features, e.g. a fireplace and some panelling, be removed and preserved or relocated.
As with any new development, the nearby residents objected to having a school, with the extra footfall four times a day, close to their homes, but they were assured that it would only be on weekdays during school terms, and that the pupils would be well-behaved young ladies.
Margaret Ware (W038) - Old Girl, 1948-53
A reminder from our webmaster and contact details if you are available – Ed.
Who Do you think You Are Live At the NEC Birmingham
7 - 9 April 2016
WDYTYA Live is the major Family History exhibition in the UK. It has been held in London for several years but last year moved to the National Exhibition Centre at Birmingham. The exhibition web site is at www.whodoyouthinkyouare live.com.
Trade Exhibitors and Family History Societies provide a wide-ranging variety of material and information for Family Historians.
Your Society will have a presence on the stand arranged by the Yorkshire Group of Family History Societies (YGFHS). Assistance in manning the stand during the exhibition is required from members of participating societies.
This is the opportunity for H&DFHS members, who would be interested in visiting the exhibition to help to staff the YGFHS stand for a couple of hours. There will be a limited number of free parking and entry tickets available for these volunteers. Visiting for the day and spending half the time helping on the stand leaves time to enjoy the rest of the show as well.
If you are thinking of visiting the WDYTYA show in April 2016 and wish to take advantage of this offer then please send a message to the Society Secretary at the Root Cellar. Alternatively a form is available on our web site for this purpose.
Roger D Gill [email protected]
Page 18 H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2
Medieval muster rolls
On October 15 2015 the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt was marked. This historic conflict took place between King Henry V’s troops and the French, and was forever immortalised by William Shakespeare in Henry V. This battle was the turning point in the Hundred Years War. Henry V’s victory over the French eventually led to him marrying the French King’s daughter and their son became the heir to the French throne. Amazingly, although this battle took place six centuries ago, it is possible to find out if one of your medieval ancestors was on the battlefield. Search the muster roll database from 1369 -1453 on The Soldier in Medieval England Database. If you find an individual, you will be given a reference number for the relevant muster roll that you can put into The National Archives Discovery Catalogue, which brings up the record details. You may need to pay to have a copy sent to you, or you can look at it for free if you go to Kew.
Salvation Army archives
On 2 July 2015 the ‘Sally Army’ celebrated its 150th anniversary. This organisation was founded in 1865 by William and Catherine Booth, who believed that charity demeaned the individual, and instead they wanted to offer people a ‘hand up’ and not a ‘hand out’. By 1884 The Salvation Army had opened a women’s rescue home in Whitechapel for those fleeing domestic violence and prostitution. It followed with maternity hospitals and homes. If you think a family member may have passed through one of these facilities you may be able to find out more about them from the Salvation Army’s archive. Kevin Pooley, Social Historian at the charity told FFHS that:-
“The records we hold from the Salvation Army’s former maternity hospitals and homes mostly take the form of discharge records giving a small amount of basic information. For some homes we have maternity registers which have details such as time of birth and birth weight, and in a very few cases we have files which include original correspondence. People born in our homes and hospitals, as well as women who gave birth in them, get in touch with us for information or in the hope of making contact. By law we are required to deal with such cases in co-operation with Adoption Support Agencies (ASAs), who must be registered through Ofsted. These ASAs are able to share the information we provide with the person making the enquiry, and can offer counselling as well as advising on the question of making contact. Enquiries from other birth relatives are handled in a similar way. For enquiries that are more than 75 years old we are able to provide information on a “family history” basis, direct to the enquirer. More detailed early records sometimes mean that in cases more than about a hundred years old the information available can actually be more detailed than is the case with more recent materials”.
If you would like to make an enquiry, email: [email protected]
Surgeons at Sea
Did any of your ancestors travel to Australia in a convict ship? If so, take a look at ‘Surgeons at Sea’. A team from Newcastle Family History Society Inc., New South Wales, Australia, has compiled the CD, which includes an index to the surgeons’ journals that were kept on convict ships to Australia and are now microfilmed. The main ‘The People’ database lists over 50,000 people recorded in surgeons’ journals, convicts and their children, soldiers, crew free settlers and their families, and even colonial officers.
News from the Federation of Family History Societies
H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2 Page 19
Where possible, the status and age of each individual and their medical condition or punishment is given. The person’s ship and year of arrival is also included, along with the name of the surgeon and the number of the film. The records were compiled from 670 ships’ journals and date from 1817 to the end of transportation, though not all journals survived. Short biographies of individual surgeons are also included.
In compiling the CD, the team came to the conclusion that while some of the early voyages were horrific, with many deaths and much illness among prisoners on arrival, the events brought about radical changes that ensured that many subsequent sailings were accomplished without loss of life and with all on board arriving fit and well. They drew this conclusion after reading the surgeons’ ‘Surgeons at Sea’, edited by Ken Shilling, cost $50 plus posting and requires Internet Explorer to run. For details of how to order, email: [email protected]
Merchant Navy Crew Lists
You can now search records of thousands of merchant seaman online. With the help of volunteers, The National Archives has completed a project with the National Maritime Museum and the Crew List Index Project (CLIP) to transcribe the Crew Lists and Agreements from the Merchant Navy for 1915. The Merchant Navy is the UK’s commercial shipping industry. Though no records of individual merchant seamen and women survive for the First World War, the Crew Lists and Agreements for 1915 enable you to search almost a million names of those at sea during that year.
You can search by an individual’s name or the name of the ship. Once you have searched the records by name, you will not only have the ship they were serving on at the time but also the name of the ship they were on for the previous voyage. You may have multiple returns for your ancestor for 1915. This is because they will be recorded on every voyage they made during that year. You can keep using the ‘previous ship’ to carry on tracing your mariner back beyond 1915, but you will need to refer to crew lists that have not been transcribed as part of this project. The result of your search could be from record series BT99 and BT100, which are held by the National Archives, or BT400, which is held by the National Maritime Museum.
The crew lists for other years are held in a number of different archives. You can search Discovery by ship’s number to see if they are held at the National Archives. Many crew lists are held by the Maritime History Archive and you can search their catalogue by ship’s number. You may also be interested in the log books for the ships that your ancestors served on. These are held by the National Archives in series BT165 and are currently being catalogued. Go to Discovery advanced search and type in the ship’s name and restrict your search to series BT165. These are original documents and you will need to visit The National Archives in Kew to view them or order a copy.
Our Really Useful information Leaflet
In August 2015 FFHS published updated editions of essential resources for genealogy. They are online and you can download them for free. The first, ‘Our Really Useful Information Leaflet’ is a comprehensive guide to family history research in the British Isles. FFHS also published the second edition of ‘Our Australasian Really Useful information Leaflet’ to coincide with National Family History Month in Australasia. It is particularly useful for those Australasians from British descent, and is also a mine of information for UK researchers with ancestors who were transported to Australasia or who emigrated there.
Page 20 H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2
Amendment
Sue Hassett (H471) has asked us to print her email address which was missing from our list in Oct 2015: [email protected]
New Members
Mem No
Name Address Email
C283 Mrs Jenny Coupland 5 Banks Crescent, Golcar, Huddersfield, HD7 4RQ
C284 Carolyn Carter 47 Ayton Road, Longwood, Huddersfield, HD3 4TN
D195 Mrs Vicki Di Stasi 7 Holme Court, New Mill, Holmfirth, HD9 7NP
E089 Mr Jeremy Eldridge Seymour House, Lower Street, Cavendish, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 8AQ
G172 Susan Graham 16 Fleminghouse Lane, Waterloo, Huddersfield, HD5 8QN
H473 Mr Nick Hayley 11 Courtleas, Cobham, Surrey KT11 2PW
H474 Mr Michael Handy 6 Westridge Drive, Beaumont Park, Huddersfield, HD4 7AX
K109 Mr Ian Knowles 30 Victoria Chase, Bailiff Bridge, Brighouse, HD6 4DE
L184 Laura Lodge 22 Woodfield Road, Altrincham, WA14 4EU
M202 Mrs Patricia E McLay PO Box 58, Trentham, Victoria 3458 AUSTRALIA
M278 Mr David Marsden 60A Carr Hill Road, Upper Cumberworth, Huddersfield, HD8 8XB
M279 Mrs Maureen McCarthy 41 Bishops Way, Meltham, Holmfirth, HD9 4BW
M280 Mr Malcolm McDonald Greystones, Main Street, Westow, York, North Yorkshire YO60 7NE
M281 Faro Maniaci 2248 Prairie Lane, Wentzville, Saint Charles, Missouri 63385 USA
M282 Mr Robert Morley 21 Meadow View, Skelmanthorpe, Huddersfield, HD8 9ET
N125 Mr Ian Hugh Nicolson 16 Sylvan Drive, North Baddesley, Romsey, Hampshire SO52 9NA
P168 Katherine Parkin Gunshole Farm, Banks, Brampton, Cumbria CA8 2BX
P169 Mr David Pattern 247 Meltham Road, Netherton, Huddersfield, HD4 7HL
S416 Mrs Linda Smith 210 Somerset Road, Almondbury, Huddersfield, HD5 8LP
H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2 Page 21
S417 Mr Jack Smith 8 Rydal Drive, Dalton, Huddersfield, HD5 9EP
S418 Mrs Vanessa Scott Holly Cottage, High Heskett, Carlisle, Cumbria CA4 0HV
S419 Mr Gordon Smith 114B South Road, Spotswood, New Plymouth, 4310 New Zealand
T173 Mr & Mrs David & Susan Toothill
3 Croft Drive, Honley, Holmfirth, HD9 6HQ
T174 Mr Alan Tunnacliffe 14 Abbots Way, Horningsea, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB25 9JN
W426 Mrs Susan M Whitwam 19 Knowl Road, Golcar, Huddersfield, HD7 4AN
W427 Mrs Christine Whitfield 45 Buttermere Road, Dalton, Huddersfield, HD5 9EN
Members’ Changes of Address
Mem No
Name New Address
F146 Mrs C K M France-Cockerell
14 Manor Rise, Skelmanthorpe, Huddersfield, HD8 9DP
H105 Mrs J Hartgroves 55 The Hedges, St. George's, Weston Super Mare, Somerset, BS22 7BU
H405 Mr J Hodgkinson Els Tossals 11b, Jesus Pobre, Alicante, 03749, SPAIN S391 Miss I Shore c/o D Bray, 12 Holmdale Crescent, Netherthong, Huddersfield, HD9 3HB W064 Mrs M Woods 15 Warehouse Hill, Marsden, Huddersfield, HD7 6AB W411 Mr P Wheeler 2B Millmoor Road, Meltham, Holmfirth, HD9 5JU
New Publications
There are two new publications which are now available to purchase via the website or from the Root Cellar:
Ravensthorpe St. Saviour’s Baptisms 1918-1936
Ravensthorpe St. Saviour’s Baptisms 1937-1975
Publications – coming soon
Keep an eye out for the release of the following new publications which should be available on our website or at the Root Cellar from early February:
Rashcliffe St. Stephen Baptisms, 1864-1900, 1901-1922 and 1923-1952
Rashcliffe Mission Church of St. Matthew at Primrose Hill Baptisms, 1914-1972
Page 22 H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2
Mortimers of the Spen Valley
Census and church registers reveal a large number of Mortimers to have been born in the area referred to as the Spen Valley, which included the townships of Birstall, Cleckheaton, Drighlington, Gomersal, Hartshead Moor, Heckmondwike and Liversedge. For example, in the 1851 census there are 217 Mortimers living in 55 households. Additionally a further 84 individuals who were born in the Spen Valley were residing outside it in 22 households. The 1881 census reveals 87 Mortimers born in Cleckheaton alone of which 67 still resided there.
The mother church for the area was primarily St Peter’s at Birstall (BSP) at which most of the marriages took place.
I have researched these Mortimers for a number of years as many were my mother’s ancestors and this article is my first report. I start with my own line as follows:
Family of Richard and Ann Mortimer. Richard was born about 1748 in Cleckheaton and died 1820. He was a clothier and married Ann Hopkinson at BSP in 1771. They had at least 11 children of whom Joseph Mortimer 1782 - 1852, the third son, was my 3 x great grandfather. His siblings were John 1772-1843, Betty b 1774, Richard b 1775, Polly 1777-1831, Benjamin 1783-1831, twins Nancy and Sarah b 1784, Sarah b 1785, Law 1788-1874, William b 1789, Hannah 1791 – 1850 and Rachel 1793-1875. The family resided in Cleckheaton and father Richard was a clothier.
Family of Joseph and Nanny Mortimer: My ancestor Joseph remained in Cleckheaton and became a card nailer/maker by trade. He married Ann Mann in 1806 at BSP. She was also known as Nanny and they had 10 children of whom the second son, Edward Mortimer 1824 - 1894, was my 2 x great grandfather. All were baptised at Cleckheaton Whitechapel. Further conclusive data on daughters Hannah b 1807, Elizabeth b 1808, Sarah b 1810, Claricy b 1814 and Betsy b 1821 has not been obtained but the lives of daughters Sophia 1817-1888 and Ann 1827 - 1894, and of sons Joe 1819 - 1868 and George 1828 - 1903 have been defined.
Family of Edward and Sarah Ann Mortimer: My 2 x great grandfather was a (black) smith aged 15 in the 1841 census living in Cleckheaton with his parents and younger siblings. In 1849 at Rochdale St Chad Church he married Sarah Ann Murgatroyd (1824 - 1905). Although the first of their three children, my great grandfather, James Mortimer was born in Rochdale in 1849, by 1851 the family was living in Horton, Bradford close to Edward’s married sister Sophia. By 1861 they had removed to Oldham where the family remained. Edward was a mechanic at this time but records show him to be the licensee of The Alexander Hotel in 1872 - 1878 and the Dutchman and Voltigeur public house in 1879 - 1884 (now the Gardeners Rest). Afterwards he moved to Chadderton as a beer seller and grocer.
Family of James and Sarah Jane Mortimer: James became a cardnailer like his grandfather but he was also a tack dealer and had other occupations if entries in directories are to be believed. He married Sarah Jane Oldham (1859 -1 932) at Prestwich Parish Church in February 1877. She bore him three sons: Walter in 1877, Edward Mortimer, who was my grandfather, in 1879 and Frank in 1881. Although the family are together residing in Oldham in 1881, by 1891 Sarah Jane is widowed with her three young sons. It has been passed down to us by our family that James had died possibly abroad in 1882 or 1883 but no death certificate or burial has been uncovered for him and we now believe that the only logical explanation of this circumstance is that James left home never to return.
H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2 Page 23
Sarah Jane was to marry again in 1902 to John Thomas Smith and, following his death in 1912, she married for a third time to John Dewhurst in 1916. By this time her married sons Frank and Walter had died in 1906 and 1912 respectively and she also outlived son Edward. She would gain comfort from her three daughters-in-law and her six grandchildren and they from her.
Family of Edward and Mary Alice Mortimer: My grandfather, Edward Mortimer (1879 - 1920), became a house joiner by trade and lived all of his short life in Oldham. He married Mary Alice Fitton (1874 - 1945) in 1905 at All Saints Church in Oldham and they had four daughters: Clarice (1905-1921), my mother Selina Mortimer (1907 - 1987), Bessie (1913 - 1970) and Winifred (1919 - 2003).
If anyone has knowledge of the persons mentioned in this article I would be pleased to hear from them. I intend future articles to detail the families of the children of Richard and Ann Mortimer and Joseph and Nanny Mortimer and then more distantly related Mortimers from Cleckheaton and Gomersal. I have recently converted my researches into book form that includes an index to more than 300 Mortimers.
Dr Peter H Bentley (B545), York
Calderdale Family History Society
Research Room
Brighouse Library, Rydings Park, Brighouse
Opening Hours: Tuesday 1.30 to 4.30 and Thursday 10.00 to 1.00
Equipment available: 5 computers, 2 microfiche readers and 3 internet connections
Information available includes:
Parish Registers for all C of E local churches opened before 1837, including the main ones which can be searched by computer
Let us help you find your ancestors
Tel. 07952 211 986
Page 24 H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2
The Old Sweet Shop in Cross Church Street
I wonder how old you would need to be to remember Atkinson’s sweet shop in Cross Church Street. To the best of my knowledge it ceased trading around 1956, though this was several years after the death of its founder and owner, Albert Atkinson.
Local trade directories tell us that the shop was at number eleven though no evidence of its existence remains today. Recently while I was standing across the street trying to imagine how it may have looked in its heyday, a man approached me asking what my interest was. When I explained he told me how a relative of his used to manage the shop in a more recent incarnation and how when they first acquired the premises they found one of those big, old fashioned sweet jars in the cellar. As a child he remembered his mother keeping coins in it. It seems I had the right place, then.
So what, you may be wondering, has Atkinson’s sweet shop to do with me? Well, the first link in the chain is my grandmother, Dorothy Schorah, born in Huddersfield on the 31st December 1892. In the 1911 census she’s recorded as a confectioner’s shop assistant and her father, William Schorah is listed as a confectioner’s traveller. Confectionery is clearly in the family but at that point I knew no more than this.
The beginning of the trail
Only when I looked at my great grandfather William’s life did I begin to get the picture. William, born in Brotherton, Yorkshire in 1869 was the son of a shoemaker. However this line of work clearly didn’t appeal to him because in 1891, at the age of twenty-two, I found him on the census living in Huddersfield with Albert and Eliza Atkinson and recorded as a confectioner’s assistant. So who were these people?
It didn’t take long to fit together the pieces. Eliza Atkinson, before her marriage was Eliza Schorah, William’s older sister, making Albert and William brothers in law. Further research into the Schorahs revealed various other family members in Albert’s employ and it became obvious that the Atkinson and the Schorah families were intricately linked, so I wanted to know more about Albert himself.
Born in Huddersfield in 1854, son of a basket maker, in his early years Albert took up his father’s trade. When he and Eliza married in 1879 the couple set up home in Beast Market and the 1881 census records them both as basket makers. However this can’t have been the whole picture as a news report in the Huddersfield Chronicle, dated 17th February 1880 tells a different story. The article concerns the theft, by a William Brahaney, of three eggs and a quarter of a pound of polony from Albert’s shop. The theft occurred at a quarter to eleven on Saturday evening so it would seem that the shop was of the ‘open all hours’ variety! The thief, allegedly the worse for drink was fined one pound plus costs or fourteen day’s imprisonment.
Whatever his basket making activities involved, Albert was clearly already a shopkeeper and a decade later the family is established at 11 Cross Church Street and he is recorded as a confectioner.
A dealer in sweetmeats
Nowadays we often think of confectionery in terms of cakes and pastries but at that time it more typically referred to what used to be known as sweetmeats; usually nuts or fruit preserved in honey, sugar or spices. It’s my understanding that this was the type of confectionery Albert dealt in, at least in the early days.
H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2 Page 25
This is confirmed by news reports I found concerning Whit Monday celebrations held at the Brunswick Street Wesleyan Sunday school in 1898 and 1899. In both cases reference is made to several hundred packets of spices and nuts donated for the children by Mr Albert Atkinson of Cross Church Street. Albert’s lifelong connection with the Brunswick Street Methodist Church is again mentioned in his obituary, so the provision of sweets for the children was possibly a tradition he maintained throughout his life.
By the end of the nineteenth century, Albert’s business was highly successful and in 1901 the family no longer lived over the shop. By this time their elder daughter, Ethel was twenty and their younger daughter, Ivy was six. I came across pictures of both sisters amongst my aunt’s collection of family photos, inherited from her mother, my grandma, who was the girls’ cousin.
The photo archive also contained a picture of Albert, posing outside what may be a garden shed. Apparently in his free time he liked to breed prize rabbits and enjoyed working in his garden.
Albert and Eliza also had another child between the births of the two girls, a son named Horace who tragically died in 1887 at the age of two. Who knows, if Horace had survived and had children of his own, perhaps the business would still be going strong to this day.
New found prosperity
By 1911 the family has moved to 11 Thornhill Road, to a substantial, stone, semi-detached in a pleasant, leafy part of town, close to Edgerton. The house, though quite large was pretty packed with people, as in addition to Albert, Eliza, their two daughters and a servant, an unmarried half-brother of Eliza’s and a recently widowed sister are in occupation. Neither is listed on the census as ‘visitor’ so I can only assume this was at least a semi-permanent arrangement.
My impression of the Atkinsons is that they were a generous and hospitable couple, who despite newly acquire prosperity neither forgot their humble origins nor became too grand to shelter less fortunate relatives.
On his death, Albert left a considerable amount of money to Ethel and Ivy who undoubtedly lived comfortably for the rest of their lives. His will, made in 1928 made no reference to the business, so I can only imagine that he had already either sold it or transferred ownership to one of more of his nephews, thus explaining the continued use of the Atkinson name until the nineteen fifties.
Letters to Ivy
Surprisingly a collection of letters written to Ivy immediately after the First World War has found its way into the archive at the local studies library. Mostly domestic in content and of no particular significance, the letters nevertheless provide an interesting glimpse into the
Page 26 H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2
life of a young lady in Huddersfield in the years immediately post 1918. Also surprisingly, all were written by male friends or admirers. I wonder why she never married?
A photo of Ivy and Ethel taken in later life with my grandma shows them both to be decidedly plump and a cousin of mine who recalls meeting them on one occasion back in the nineteen sixties, jokingly christened them ‘the two large ladies’; presumably the outcome of a lifelong connection with a sweet shop!
Prior to my last visit to Huddersfield and a search through the local trade directories, I was uncertain for how long the business had survived. Not being local, when I heard Nora Batty on one of the later episodes of ‘Last of the Summer Wine refer to ‘Atkinson’s Bakery in Huddersfield’, I even wondered if perhaps it still existed in some expanded form. However, sadly this turned out to be merely a fictional reference!
Nevertheless Albert accomplished a great deal I think, and when he died in 1939 at the age of eighty four, his obituary referred not only to his long term connection with the church but to his sixty years of successful trading in Huddersfield; no mean achievement for someone who started life as a basket maker. Albert is buried with his wife Eliza in Edgerton Cemetery
Sue Hassett (H471)
Waterloo Ancestors
Ed Barker’s piece in the July 2015 Journal prompts me to write that there is a Waterloo Medal, still with its ribbon, in our family, given to one Joseph Clough. My g-g-grandfather Joshua Priestley married Harriot Clough on 22 October 1824. There is no information handed down as to whether this Joseph is Harriot’s brother or her father. Harriot stipulated that it passes through the male line.
Two amusing, (well, I think so) things have arisen. The first is that when I was describing the medal to John Rumsby at Ravensknowle Museum, I said that the reverse had ‘a male winged figure’. Mr Rumsby assured me it was female. Oh dear, I thought, have my ancestors polished her too well? (Infer from that what you will.)
The other is a story handed down that “Joseph Clough lost both his legs at Waterloo and pushed himself round in a little cart”. During my research I find no mention of Waterloo Joseph being wounded, but that Harriot Clough had a son before she married Joshua and she called him Joseph, so there were in fact two Joseph Cloughs, the second, born in January 1823, being ‘severely wounded’ at the Crimea. He is described in the 1861 census as a Chelsea Pensioner, living with his widowed mother. Some of the family took a deal of convincing about this second Joseph Clough.
This latter point confirms that family stories passed down are sometimes not always completely accurate!
Margaret Ware (W038)
H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2 Page 27
Some time ago whilst writing about Sir Walter Parratt I mentioned in passing about his friend Charles Sykes and the problem I had in finding him in a census because of the mistranscribed surname of Lykes. It would appear I am not alone – Ed.
Don’t give up on your “Sykes” searches, all is not lost – “LYKE” IT OR NOT
While performing a recent search of the 1851 Census on www.ancestry.co.uk for a family of surname SYKES in the Linthwaite area, I was confused and annoyed that the people I was looking for were not to be found. Not unusual you might think for families to be missing from a census, we all suffer that problem from time to time. However I was convinced they should be there, so undaunted I turned my attention to the www.findmypast.co.uk web site records. With a few clicks of the mouse button and on entering similar search data I was looking at an image of the census page I expected to find on Ancestry. My first thought was that I may have found ‘another’ transcription error or a missing image. Fortunately the search facility on Ancestry allows the input of places and names of family members. Knowing that I needed to enter something different to my original search, but accurate, I used some of the FMP image data without the surname and it worked, I found the same scanned image on Ancestry but the surname had been transcribed as ‘LYKES’. This is a surname I have never come across in the UK. Further investigations revealed that it does not appear on the surname listings for UK but is on the USA surname lists.
Being a suspicious sort of person I thought I would search for any more ‘Lykes’ on Ancestry but I was not prepared for what I found next. Reverting to the 1851 search, using only the surname LYKES and setting the “Exact” flag, I was presented with an index of Lykes showing the total of 1013 individual person records. Similar searches performed on the remaining censuses returned totals as follows: -
1841 – 737, 1861 – 818, 1871 – 1165, 1881 – 13, 1891 – 1332, 1901 – 1260, 1911 – 842
(That says something for the accuracy of the 1881 census).
I have raised my concerns with Ancestry and am waiting confirmation from them that the matter is hopefully getting their urgent attention. It maybe that Ancestry will have corrected some or all of these 7300 records by the time this article is published but I would suggest that anyone interested and having been confounded by disappearing ‘Sykes’ census records has another look.
Dave Hirst (H007)
Ancestral File Book
Priced at £5.00 plus p&p these are an ideal way to record your family history. You can enter up to 16 great-grandparents and keep all your notes together about each ancestor. These can be ordered through our website or in person at the Root Cellar.
Page 28 H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2
A Fulling Mill - Cocking Steps Mill in Netherton
It was with great interest that I read the articles that appeared in the July edition of the Journal concerning silk spinning in Marsden. We hear a lot about mills in the area but very seldom do we hear about what they manufacture.
In researching my family tree I found that my great grandfather, John Hodgkinson, ran a business of cloth finishing at Cocking Steps Mill in Netherton, often referred to as ‘Wrigley’s Mill’. But let us start at the beginning;
John was born in 1825 at St. Michael’s on Wyre in Lancashire. His family for generations had been agricultural workers, but at this time it was particularly hard to scrape an existence. Around 1830 when he was 5, John came to Huddersfield with his family, who were presumably seeking a better quality of life.
By 1841 four of John’s brothers and sisters were married leaving John, age 15, a cloth dyer, and his brother Joshua, age 17, a “mick”, living at home with their parents in Lowerhead Road, Huddersfield.
The Shears Inn, Lowerhead Road – just round the corner from The Fleece Inn
(Huddersfield Archives)
John married a cloth miller’s daughter, Selina Lee, in Bradford in 1846 when he was 21 and was working as a mechanic.
By 1851, the census showed that John was 25 and a cloth finisher and living in Hillhouse, Huddersfield.
In view of his occupation I was surprised to discover an article in the Huddersfield Chronicle of February 1853 that he had appeared in the Huddersfield Police Court for running a beer house in Union Street and being open between one and two o’clock on a Sunday morning. He was fined one shilling with eight shillings costs.
He was similarly fined for a further offence in September 1854 as the keeper of the Fleece Beer House in Hawk Street and fined 10 shillings with costs.
It was not all bad times however. On the 7th May 1859 the Huddersfield Chronicle reported; ‘Lodge Anniversary. The members of the Golden Fleece Lodge, numbering upwards of 80, celebrated their annual festival, on Tuesday week, at Mr. Hodgkinson’s Fleece Inn, Union Street. The dinner was served up in a first-class manner by the worthy host and hostess and gave general satisfaction to the brethren assembled, who spent the evening in a very happy manner’.
In 1861 John was still resident at the Fleece Inn, 1 Back Hawk Street, Huddersfield where he described himself in the census as a cloth dresser and beer seller. I assume by this that with the help of his wife, Selina, he must have kept up his dual occupations.
H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2 Page 29
Between 1862 and 1864 John, Selina and family moved to Netherton. John went into partnership with a David Schofield and again the Huddersfield Chronicle of 30th January 1864 gives us a lot of information and a flavour of the times:
‘Employees Treat. Messrs Schofield and Hodgkinson, cloth finishers, at Messrs John Wrigley and Sons, Cocking Steps Mill, Netherton, entertained their work people and friends on Saturday last, at the Forester’s Arms, Honley Moor, with the good old English fare of roast beef and plum pudding.’
Some ten years later on the 31st March 1873, the London Gazette informs us that the partnership of David Schofield and John Hodgkinson was dissolved. John continued to run the business with his son Thomas and other members of the family into the early 1900s.
I have yet to discover the exact nature of the close relationship which developed between the Wrigley and the Hodgkinson families; were there two completely separate businesses located at the Cocking Steps Mill or were they interconnected in the manufacturing process. If they were interconnected why did the Wrigleys not do all the processes themselves?
It is only recently that I discovered references to the History of the Huddersfield Woollen Industry, W. B. Crump & G. Ghorbal. 1935:
‘Cocking Steps mill had been built by the Wrigley family in 1760 (as a fulling mill) and was run by them continuously down to 1924, and for the whole period they were engaged in manufacturing kersies, moleskins, liveries and hunting cloths of the West of England type. It affords another example of the early development from a scribbling mill of a manufacturing business that is characteristic of the district.’ (Kersies were a rough cloth that were often made into tailored stockings.)
Cocking Steps Mill c.1910 (Huddersfield Archives)
A scribbling mill was used for the preparation of raw fleece, for spinning by a coarse form of carding - pre industrial revolution. Fulling is a step in woollen cloth making which involves the cleansing of cloth (particularly wool) to eliminate oils, dirt, and other impurities, and making it thicker. This involved the two processes of scouring and thickening of cloth. Fulling mills were a product of the industrial revolution.
Selina died aged 73 in May 1899 and John aged 75 in May 1907, both at Woodlands Honley. They are buried in Honley Cemetery. Remarkable for the times they were survived by 12 children and numerous grandchildren.
So does this give me any help in what my family ‘finished’ or was it something completely different.? If anyone has any further information I should be pleased to hear from them.
James Hodgkinson (H405) ([email protected])
Page 30 H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2
Visitor to Ravensthorpe
I think that there will be few, if any, people residing in the Mirfield area today who knew anything of the close connection that existed between the area and the writer, Edgar Wallace.
In Ravensthorpe lived the Frisby family, relatives of Edgar, and with whom he spent holidays. However, he became strongly attracted to the family of my great-great uncle, Henry Hirst, who was a neighbour of the Frisbys. In Ravensthorpe he became something of a celebrity, where reporters sought his opinion on the situation in South Africa, where he was working as a reporter for Reuters.
Edgar spent much time with the Hirsts, where two daughters, Julia and Lauretta, were described by Margaret Lane as ‘lively, intelligent and distractingly pretty’. Julia, in particular, was really beautiful. As a child she was used by the painter Millais as a model for his work ‘Little Cornflower Blue’. She was an accomplished pianist, playing for musical evenings numbers from shows such as ‘Florodora’* which Edgar had seen and enjoyed in London. A romance blossomed between Julia and Edgar. When the time came for him to leave he asked her if she would wait for him. She replied that she was too young for marriage. He left the next day; she never saw him again, but contact was maintained. He wrote and sent copies of his books, which are still treasured by members of the family.
The enclosed photo was sent from Bulawayo, inscribed on the back ‘A photo of myself taken by myself in a mirror of the wardrobe in the Grand Hotel, Bulawayo, June 1900’.
Eventually Julia married Dr John Hepple, Head of the Calder Farm Reformatory near Mirfield. Unfortunately, during World War 1 when he was on duty at night, he fell into the harbour at Bridlington and was drowned.
A bust of Julia can be seen in Mirfield Library, executed by the late Hilda Walker, using Julia as the model for the Goddess Diana.
Yours sincerely
Brian Arundel (A037)
*Florodora opened in the West End of London in 1899.
Whilst the submitted photograph is a little unclear it shows that ‘selfies’ were around in the 1900s - Ed.
H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2 Page 31
Once more we are having our January Sale during our ‘quiet’ time.
Take advantage of the reduced price on all new stock
January Sale
All Parish Transcription Booklets
£1.00 only
All CDs – sale price £5.00
From 1 January until 31 January 2016 inclusive
If you cannot visit the Root Cellar then orders can be placed on the Society website or by post to 33A Greens End Road, Meltham, Holmfirth, HD9 5NW. Orders made by post should include 50p per item to cover post and packing.
Cheques should be made payable to H&D FHS
Orders can be placed for the above by visiting
the Publications page on our website www.hdfhs.org.uk
Page 32 H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2
Wartime Rationing
In October 2015 The Examiner published an article concerning the availability of the information from the wartime National Identity Cards and publicised the HDFHS Fair on November 14th. There was a photograph of ‘ladies waiting for their daily rations’. There were no such things as daily rations. We were all issued with ration books. Families normally registered with their regular grocer. No such things as supermarkets in those days! We had a weekly ration of butter, sugar, and meat. Bread was rationed too. The ration book was cancelled for each weekly purchase.
Our regular butcher was George Dixon from Blackmoorfoot. He used to come round every Friday evening with his enclosed van. My mother selected her weekly rations for the family. Offal was not included in rations so sometimes she would buy part of an oxtail and make a delicious stew and dumplings. I never ate red meat but I enjoyed the oxtail, delicious! Poultry wasn’t included in the meat ration so we sometimes got a chicken too.
We had a very good fishmonger, Willie Taylor of Morley Lane, Milnsbridge. His family had a fish and chip, and fruit and greengrocery business at the top of Morley Lane. He delivered fish twice a week, every Tuesday and Thursday, having been to either Grimsby or Fleetwood to get fish fresh from the trawlers. We regularly had hake, plaice, sole, halibut etc., not at today’s ridiculous price. He also kept chickens, and we sometimes had one. Somehow he acquired rabbits, various game birds, pheasants, pigeons etc., which I thoroughly enjoyed.
I used to go to town shopping with my mother every Saturday afternoon. We usually went down King Street to the Market Hall and into the Top Market (upper floor) on the lookout for tinned fruit, salmon, meat. It was quite strange, shoppers used to pass the message that Lodge’s, Redman’s etc. had tins of fruit, or salmon or tongue and we would go to join the queue. I would stand behind my mother and was usually lucky to be served as an individual. Sometimes the supply would run out before we got there. Biscuits were also in short supply, not supplied in packets in those days, but weighed out from large tins. We used to queue at the Caledonian Biscuit Company in the top market and were grateful for whatever sort was on sale. Sometimes they were broken biscuits but it didn’t matter we could enjoy them just the same. Fruit was in very short supply but we sometimes found some on Shambles Lane, and occasionally dried bananas were available, not the most desirable fruits. We had no fridges in those days but we managed to keep our food all right. Neither was there central heating so homes were not as warm.
Clothing was rationed. Everyone had an allocation of clothing coupons, shoes, socks, coats, skirts, underwear, material by the yard, knitting wool all required a certain number of coupons, and of course sweets and chocolates were rationed. There was some sort of rationing of soap powder and bars of soaps but I don’t know how that worked.
There wasn’t a lot of money about in those days, no allowances, benefits, welfare etc., but we were remarkably contented with our lot. It was a very different world from today. Rationing did not suddenly stop when the war ended but I cannot recall precisely what the gradual changes were.
Audrey Town (T04)
H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2 Page 33
John Sykes, Member S161 of Beverley, East Yorkshire shares his findings on reading about the use of the mother’s surname used as a forename – Ed.
Madeleine Butterfield’s letter in the October 2015 Journal which referred to the use of the mother’s maiden name as a forename for her children reminded me of something I discovered on the ‘fringes’ of my own family history research.
My 3G Grandfather was Benjamin Sykes born 1787 of Share Hill, Golcar. Benjamin’s youngest brother was James Sykes born 1797 of Share Hill and later Cliffe Ash, in Golcar. Two of James’ grandsons married two sisters, Mary Crosland Ramsden born 1852 and Constance Maria Crosland Ramsden born 1860, the only daughters, I believe, of John Edward and Harriet Ramsden of Paddock. Both of these ladies were baptised with their mother’s maiden name, Crosland, included as a ‘forename’
In 1870 Walter Sykes born 1849, son of James Sykes born 1823 the eldest son of James Sykes Senior married Mary Crosland Ramsden. Mary Crosland Ramsden was 18 at the time and the marriage is recorded as having taken place in Largs in Scotland!
In 1881 William Henry Sykes born 1856, son of John Sykes born 1829 the second son of James Sykes Senior married Constance Maria Crosland Ramsden the younger sister of Mary Crosland Ramsden at St John’s Church, Golcar.
While the use of the mother’s maiden name in this way was almost unknown in the wider Sykes family at the time, the following summary of baptismal records for the children of these marriages suggests that the sisters had a large say in the naming of their children:-
Children of Walter and Mary Crosland Sykes nee Ramsden
Born Baptised Place
Mary Crosland Sykes 23/09/71 Holy Trinity Huddersfield
Edith Crosland Ramsden Sykes 31/07/73 Holy Trinity Huddersfield
Hilda Maud Sykes 20/02/75 Holy Trinity Huddersfield
Edward George Ramsden Sykes 16/12/76 19/02/77 Christ Church, Linthwaite
Constance Evelyn Sykes 30/11/79 27/12/79 St John’s Golcar
Hugh Frederick William Ramsden Sykes
11/01/84 21/02/84 St John’s Golcar
Children of William Henry and Constance Maria Crosland Sykes nee Ramsden
Born Baptised Place
John Ramsden Sykes 18/04/83 09/06/83 St John’s Golcar
Constance Harriet Margaret Sykes 04/11/86 18/02/87 St John’s Golcar
Marjorie Elizabeth Sykes 02/12//87 St John’s Golcar
Nora Ramsden Sykes 24/03/92 St John’s Golcar
George Herbert Sykes 26/08/92 23/08/95 St John’s Golcar
Page 34 H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2
Have you ever thought about having that DNA test to check the ethnicity of your family tree? Often on the American programmes of ‘Who Do You Think You Are’, as a final piece to their story they often add the result of the test. As a decision to have the test may be like opening Pandora’s Box we still find that elusive information very compelling. Being of Yorkshire descent, well thinking I was, when confronted with a discount for finding the information, it was too much for me to pass up.
For anyone contemplating having the test using Ancestry, and there may well be other tests available, there is an initial cost of approximately £99. With the discount offer sometimes this is reduced to approximately £80 but this doesn’t include the shipping costs. A further £20 is required.
An email from Ancestry keeps the buyer in touch with what is happening, quite reassuring having spent that kind of money. The test takes between 6-8 weeks. When the initial order is confirmed a kit is sent with clear instructions how to obtain a saliva sample then this is posted using a prepaid addressed envelope. There is an update when it is received and this contains a unique code for the person doing the test. When the test results come through there is a notice on the email telling where to obtain the information on the Ancestry website. Then realisation occurs. The result only lists the areas where the person has their origins.
Looking at the list of 95 pages of possible connections which was sent to me, mainly 5th-8th cousins with a moderate chance of being connected I immediately saw a 3rd cousin. Whilst I didn’t know her I was aware of her family name and as I clicked onto her tree I saw my great aunt Emma Mellor born 1857 at Dearshaw Fulstone Huddersfield. From that information I felt that somehow the test had worked. Would I recommend doing the test? It is a personal decision, only you can decide.
As more and more people take the test it will, no doubt come down in price, as it isn’t the sort of money to spend on family history every day. Has it answered any questions? Not sure. It has told me I am 9% Irish which has left me intrigued rather than resolving any thoughts of where my roots are from. I am mainly of Western European and English stock so looks like I am pretty much average… hmmm nothing new there then.
Janet Le Billon
Stamp Duties Act 1783
…or why I can’t find the baptism of my ancestor between 1783 and 1794
The government passed the Stamp Duties Act in order to raise money to pay for the American War of Independence. Under the provisions of the Act all baptisms, marriages and burials in the parish register were subject to a tax of 3d. The vicars were authorised to collect this tax but were allowed to keep 10% for the extra work it involved. A fine of £5 would be given for any refusal to comply with this act. Paupers were exempt. Many children were not baptised or their parents baptised all their children at a date after 1794 causing a potential problem for using the date of birth to find the entry. Some were baptised just prior to their marriage and others simply weren’t baptised.
Research Corner
H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2 Page 35
One of our members, Norman Hinchliffe (H251) was recently looking for information about his relative Howard Hoyle, 1839-1874 in the Ancestry records from the Wakefield Charities Coroners Notebook 1852-1909.
Here he has transcribed the details he found and it gives an insight into life in the 1870s and the sort of information that is available if you wish to pursue the same records.
A trip to Buxton ends prematurely
At the house of Thomas Holmes, the Rose and Crown Inn, Ingbirchworth on Saturday the 19th day of September 1874 on view the body of Howard Hoyle deceased.
Mary Whiteley of the New Inn Hinchliffe Mill, Austonley, domestic servant sworn says, ”Deceased was my half brother and I lived with him. He was 35 years old and an Innkeeper. About half past 1 o’clock in the afternoon last Thursday he, along with Henry Thompson and another man set off in a dogcart. Henry was driving and started off quietly. Deceased was in good health and intending to go to Buxton for pleasure”.
Mary Whiteley (signed)
Joseph Barrow of Holmfirth, Innkeeper, sworn says “I have been well acquainted with the deceased for many years past. Last Thursday we hired a dogcart from Mr Hugh Holmes and deceased came to my house and about 1 o’clock in the afternoon we set off in the dogcart. Thompson is Mr Holmes’ man and drove. We called at the deceased’s house and then started for Buxton. We went all right until we got about 100 yards past Crowden Railway Station. I and Samuel Mellor were behind and deceased was in front with Thompson. We were going gently alongside the railway, which is on the hillside above the highway. A goods train was coming and when about 100 yards from us the mare began to prick her ears a bit and when the engine got alongside of her the whistle sounded very shrilly and the mare suddenly turned sideway and the rails on the roadside gave way and the mare and dog cart went through. I was sent forward and when I recovered from the shock I found myself lying on my belly on the embankment side. (HH) was several yards lower on the tramway belonging to Manchester Waterworks. He asked me whether I was hurt much and then said he was killed. He complained of pain in his body. The Station Master stopped the Express train and we went to Penistone. Thompson’s legs were broken. Deceased said he would go home and therefore I got a Butcher’s spring cart and put some straw in it and he laid on it and he said he was comfortable. I then left him with James Taylor while I went to Huddersfield Infirmary with Thompson.
Joseph Barrow (signed)
James Taylor of the Rose and Crown Inn, Penistone sworn says, “Last Thursday evening I was sent with a spring cart to Penistone Station where the deceased was helped in and laid down. I then set off with him towards his own house. He was very restless but quite sensible. When we got near Ingbirchworth he said he felt *starved and I called at this house. Mr Leigh happened to be here and he examined him and said he would not live many minutes. Deceased then was unconscious. He was carried into the kitchen and died in about a quarter of an hour without speaking again. I am an Ostler.
James Taylor (signed)
Verdict: Accidentally injured.
* Cold (not hungry)
Page 36 H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2
Following on from the article in the Research Corner, October 2015 Journal on the Combs Pit disaster we received two articles, one where a change of shift on the day resulted in one brother surviving and the other tragically killed, and this poem written about the disaster, submitted from our member Brian Arundel who has an original copy of the full transcript. Both articles have been edited but should anyone want a copy of the complete poem please contact me.
There is a note at the bottom of poem, which says that it cost ‘2d for a copy and that profits from sale of this poem will be given to Dewsbury Infirmary’. Presumably printed in 1943 as it was written on the fifty-year anniversary – Ed.
In Loving Memory
Of the 139 Men and Boys who lost their lives in the
Thornhill Colliery Disaster
Fifty years ago.
July 4th 1893
Fifty years have passed away, since disaster came to the Thornhill mine; Thornhill men with their lives did pay their number, one hundred and thirty nine.
It was on July fourth in ninety-three they went to work with hearts so gay; None of them knew what their fate would be before the close of day.
They got their picks and motts and lamp and took their turn for the cage; No thought had they that fire-damp would turn their life’s last page. Down the pit, they made their way, upon their trams up to the face. Where danger lurks to take its pay from worker of the mining race.
With their picks they did attack the coal, to win and fill When it comes to getting diamonds black someone’s got to pay the bill.
Their work went on much as before, none knew that disaster was in store; The bill was paid, ‘tis sad to say, by Thornhill men that very day.
They hacked and filled till about mid-day; ’Twas time to have their bread, When their faces black were turned to grey and their hearts were filled with dread.
For a rush of hot air had plainly told that something had transpired; God’s sunshine again they may never behold, for they knew that the pit had fired.
In darkness they made their way down the gate, Unaided by light from a lamp; They had not gone far when they knew their fate they were met by the deadly after-damp.
They lay in groups upon the floor, they knew they had entered death’s dark door; A weariness came over them one by one, and they prayed to God, “Thy will be done.”
A Thornhill Miner J. Rusby
H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2 Page 37
I read with interest your recent article about the Combs Pit disaster, which took place on Tuesday 4th July 1893, where 139 men and boys lost their lives. I lost my great great grandfather in the disaster, William Ellis, who died along with his two sons John and Tom. The story handed down through the family was that young Tom swapped a shift with his older brother, William Henry; although no reason is known for the swap, this was apparently a regular practice in mining communities amongst close friends and family. Suffice to say that William Henry Ellis, brother between John and Tom, was my great grandfather and at the time of the disaster he had a wife and 6 children at home but, my grandmother wasn’t born until 1902. In 1993, the Dewsbury Reporter produced a special memorial 8 page edition 100 years on and I thought one or two précised extracts would be interesting. At about 4pm July 5th, word got out that a man had been found alive, he was Friend Senior of Thornhill who had been trapped for 28 hours and had lost all hope of rescue and of ever seeing the light of day again. When he recognised his rescuer, Charles Moore, he simply said, “Well Charley, it’s thee”. The rescuers were encouraged by their find and pushed on finding more men alive, Henry Wrathmell, Joseph Mallinson, Squire Fisher and Richard Wood. Upon receiving this news two Doctors immediately went down the pit to give medical assistance. As the other survivors were being brought up, the news came that another survivor had been found, John Garfitt. A sixth survivor was brought up, Richard Wood, an old and experienced miner whom everyone had given up for dead. His appearance was greeted with loud cheering and one man shouted, “hey up, it’s Dicky Wood, hey up owd lad, glad to see thee ageean”. At 8.55pm, the crowd were told that another survivor had been found and he was Willie Lightowler, age 18, Willie was able to wave to the crowd as they cheered him. At 9.45 pm, the pithead was informed that there were two more survivors waiting to come to the surface, they were Joshua Ashton and John Heywood. A significant number of those who perished were insured with the Prudential Assurance Company. Two Prudential managers came to Thornhill and hired a room opposite the gates to the pit and in one day paid 62 claims amounting to £1009.00. Some men were insured with the London, Edinburgh and Glasgow Assurance Company who also paid claims. At that time, the Combs Colliery was owned by Mr Edward Theodore Ingham of Blake Hall, Mirfield who it is quoted “is a gentleman of large experience as a mine owner and who takes great pride in having everything connected with his pits, on the best possible principles”. There is no mention of compensation, perhaps a term no one thought about in those days, however, Mr Ingham did provide a good many of the coffins and provided the hearses for the funerals. Today the Combs Colliery site belongs to Kirklees Council who occupy it as workshops etc. for their Building Services. Whilst I was working there a few years ago I was lucky enough to come across a very helpful lady who could tell me the story and provide me with a copy of the special memorial paper. As for my GG Grandfather William’s grave, well I’ve hunted for it around Thornhill church yard several times but, to no avail. Further, does anyone know what happened to the disaster fund? Type ‘Combs Pit Disaster’ into your search engine for much more about this event. Barry Bedford (B321)
Page 38 H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2
Have you ever fancied being a volunteer?
… but didn’t know whether it was for you.
We are having an open afternoon at the Root Cellar on Sunday 24 January 2016 (weather permitting) from 2.00 pm until 4.00 pm where you are most welcome to call in and have a chat without being pressurised into taking on a
permanent role. What we would expect from potential helpers ….
Are you of an outgoing disposition and able to make immediate contact with strangers and friends alike?
Yes - that would be a quality, perhaps a position at the reception desk
No - that’s fine there is still a need for the quieter, studious member.
Have you got an interest in Family History generally?
Yes - that is a requirement high on the list.
No - it has to be remembered that each visitor wanting information will have details for their family and will expect a quick understanding of all their scraps of paper and a willingness to listen to their family tales … of Uncle Fred’s or Auntie Ethel’s escapades.
Do you have computer skills?
Yes - that is brilliant
No - would you be prepared to learn?
The computer is central to much of our research as far as the casual visitor is concerned. The Society pays large subscriptions in order that the members can have the benefit of Ancestry and FindMyPast for the price of their yearly membership subscription. The ability to navigate these sites is important but training would be given.
Do you have knowledge of the local area?
Yes - this helps members who might be visiting from Australia or America, and yes we do get members from so far away.
No - have you a specialist skill that you think might be useful to our members e.g. knowledge of military history, information from wills, social history, all of which helps when putting flesh on the bones of family trees.
Whilst most volunteers have a fixed day where they meet their other volunteer friends there is also a need for a list of volunteers who would be happy to be on call on an ad hoc basis, just if required. Most days there are three volunteers so it is possible for one to take the day off without letting anyone down. Once on a permanent day the Society appreciates it if volunteers let others know if the shift cannot be covered.
Do you fit the bill?
If so please just turn up you will be more than welcome.
Help Wanted
H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2 Page 39
Back Cover - Slaithwaite
This quarter’s picture is taken of the Colne Valley district of Slaithwaite. The view taken from Heights at Linthwaite shows both modern and the original weavers' properties. The centre of Slaithwaite shows the viaduct, which carries the main trans-Pennine railway to Manchester and beyond.
One resident born in this district was the composer Haydn Wood perhaps best known for his composition of the Roses of Picardy. Haydn was born at his home, the Lewisham Hotel, 25th March 1882 into a very musical family, the son of Clement Wood and Sabra Sykes.
When he was three the family moved to the Isle of Man but they retained a connection to Slaithwaite.
Whilst browsing through some of my Christmas music last November I came across a book on Colne Valley Carols and found a carol called “Ring Merry Bells”. There was a note on this music, which said, “it had been acquired via Mrs Nellie Sykes and Mrs Hilda Haigh of Slaithwaite. The original copy was owned by Mr Harry Wood who was Haydn Wood’s brother. The carol is thought to have originated in the Isle of Man in the 1930s”.
It goes on to say that “Harry Wood was closely associated with Slaithwaite Band and he performed the opening ceremony of the new Slaithwaite Band room on August 29th 1925. In his opening speech he told of his early connections with the band when it used to rehearse at the Lewisham Hotel. This band was known as Hamlet’s Band and according to Harry Wood “was the very first jazz band that ever was. The business of the band was to make a noise, and we blew into any old sort of instrument we could lay our hands on”.
Reading the website of the Slaithwaite Band there is reference to a march written especially for them by Haydn Wood named Merridale and this was first performed in 1948. Merridale being the name of a clough in Slaithwaite …
… Whilst on the subject of the Colne Valley a couple of members have suggested having a browse at some brilliant ‘YouTube’ footage of the Colne Valley. I put ‘Colne Valley, Huddersfield 1950s’ into the browser and found a forty-eight minute ‘YouTube’ clip of all the Colne Valley including Golcar.
If you can remember the 1950s as if it were yesterday, and have an interest in this valley, please take a look.
JLB
Thursday Evening Opening Times
The Root Cellar can be opened from 7.00 pm until 9.30 pm on the following dates. Please note that this is now on an appointment only basis and you should ring the Root Cellar, 01484 859229, the day before (Wednesday) before 4.00 pm if you wish to come along and do some research.
7 January 2016 21 January 2016
4 February 2016 18 February 2016
3 March 2016 17 March 2016
31 March 2016
Page 40 H&D FHS Journal Vol. 29 No.2
THE ROOT CELLAR
33A Greens End Road, Meltham, Holmfirth HD9 5NW
(Adjacent to Greens End Garage)
Opening Times
Monday 2.00 pm to 4.30 pm Tuesday 2.00 pm to 4.30 pm
Wednesday 10.00 am to 12.30 pm and 2.00 pm to 4.30 pm Thursday 2.00 pm to 4.30 pm
Thursday evenings, appointment only, (alternate weeks) 7.00 pm to 9.30 pm Saturdays 2.00 pm to 4.30 pm
Why not come along and:
Carry out your research Speak to people with similar interests
Work on our computers including using Ancestry.com Worldwide Seek advice from our team of volunteers and explore our resources Purchase our publications booklets and look at old maps of the area
Ring ‘The Root Cellar’ 01484 859229 for information
We operate on a voluntary basis
HUDDERSFIELD & DISTRICT FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY (A member of the Federation of Family History Societies)
Registered Charity No. 702199
33A Greens End Road Meltham Holmfirth HD9 5NW
Telephone: 01484 859229
Website: www.hdfhs.org.uk
Society Contacts Chairman
Richard Brown
Vice Chairman
Ian Stevenson
Secretary
Susan Hutson
Treasurer
Karen Lightfoot
Journal Editor
Janet Le Billon
Librarian Maureen Wheeler [email protected] Publicity Officer Margaret Woodcock [email protected] Bookseller Webmaster Data Manager Membership Secretary
Keith Woodcock Roger Gill Alan Starkey Vacant
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Research Team Projects Officer*
Steve Wayne
[email protected] [email protected]
All correspondence should be addressed to the appropriate contact either to their email address or to ‘The Root Cellar’. Queries regarding non-arrival of Journals should be sent to the Membership Secretary and not to the Journal Editor. Exchange Journals should be sent to the Librarian please.
* Indicates non-committee member
