crystal grove and mills, millbridge/heckmondwike

[Pennines]

Unfortunately I am not linked to the Swallow family. It was simply that Swallows Nest was where my 3x Gt Grandfather was living in 1841 ---- but I didn't mean in the original house built by Joseph Swallow --- I am assuming the area around there may have been called Swallow's Nest after I discovered there used to be a house by that name.

(Actually my 3x Gt Grandfather got himself incarcerated in York Castle for debt!)

However there do seem to be a lot of people named Swallow in the town. A Michael Swallow is listed in the 1837 Trade Directory of Heckmondwike on the Genuki Website -- as a Carpet and Coverlet Manufacturer and Cotton Spinner.

Also have you seen this site re your Crofts Mill/Fairfax Kelley and Michael Swallow;
http://www.evil-pop.com/sam/family/Kelleys_of_Heckmondwike.htm

In fact if you 'google' Michael Swallow Heckmondwike ---- there are many, many mentions of him in various sources. I strongly suspect he was descended from the Joseph Swallow of Swallows Nest, who was originally a Dyer, but became a Carpet Manufacturer. My 3x Gt Grandfather, (the one who was in debt), was a Carpet Weaver (and beer seller) --- hence my family were definitely from much poorer stock!

[queencorgi1]

Hi Pennines

I will certainly follow up some of those references to the Swallows -- thank you! I note the 1837 reference, most interesting. Michael Swallow and Fairfax Kelley must have been trade rivals.

Yes, the 'evilpop' citation was the first thing I ever found about the Kelleys. Unfortunately I've been unable to locate/contact the author.

RE your 3 x Gt grandfather -- my great grandfather did hard labour in Hereford for horse stealing having previously returned from transportation to Australia! Nothing like a little convict/gaolbird flavour in the family tree, is there?!

I am not a Kelley by the way, that's part of my research project. They seem to have been a respectable lot with a great deal of chapel-going.

[Pennines]

re the 'Chapel- going'  ---- have you seen this quote from Elizabeth Gaskell when writing about Charlotte Bronte;

Elizabeth Gaskell's biography of Charlotte Brontė in 1857 described the inhabitants of Heckmondwike as "a chapel-going people, very critical of their sermons, tyrannical to their ministers and violent radicals".

This is from Wikipedia -- and it quite amused me that the chapel goers of this small town were 'violent radicals'. I sort of imagined them all marching to chapel looking really violent and scary.

[queencorgi1]

That's brilliant! Don't mess with Heckmondwike folk, evidently!

[pityackafromblyth]

"Chapel going " - When I arrived in Heckmondwike I could not believe the number of chapels in such a small town.  Perhaps someone could list the exact number of them. And "violent radicals" could that be something to do with the Luddites which I believe sprang up in that area - Heck., Cleckheaton, etc.

[queencorgi1]

I have just been looking through Spen Valley from the Images of England series, which uses old postcards. It says that 'the Church of England never became firmly established in the Spen Valley' and from the 11th to the 19th century, no new Church of England churches were built there' (of course they'd be Catholic before the 16th century) whereas Methodism in many different versions was a big hit. I can't get over the size of some of the chapels illustrated in the book -- intended to seat nearly 2,000 people! Fairfax Kelley himself belonged to four different versions of Methodism during his life and I should think that was not unusual.

[Pennines]

I seem to remember that many believed in Calvinist doctrines in Heckmondwike.
Joseph Priestley was brought up by an aunt in that township -- and he was a Calvinist.

Also the historian Frank Peel - wrote a book about Non-Conformity in the Spen Valley - and there is an extract here;

http://www.maggieblanck.com/Land/Nonconformists.html

It's really interesting.

[queencorgi1]

Thank you for that link to the Peel nonconformity book. I think he certainly had plenty of material to write about!

[dobfarm]

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=qpkMAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA343&dq=Fairfax+Kelley+Crystal+Mills&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Fairfax%20Kelley%20Crystal%20Mills&f=false