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Messages - daveyp

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The township of Slaithwaite (technically in the wider parish of Huddersfield rather than Almondbury) has some unusual spellings in historical documents, partly because the modern spelling doesn't match the old pronunciation. Most locals say "Slawit". Similarly, Linthwaite is often referred to as "Linfit".

Lingarths (or Lingards) was a separate small township that was in the wider parish of Almondbury. It was sparsely populated and was part of the chapelry of Slaithwaite (i.e. residents of Lingarths would have attended the chapel at Slaithwaite as they had no chapel in their own township). It was eventually amalgamated into Slaithwaite civil parish in the 1890s.

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Yorkshire (West Riding) / Re: Church of the Good Shepherd, Huddersfield
« on: Monday 16 September 19 16:03 BST (UK)  »
It can definitely be tricky! Some roads in the area that now have a single name for the entire length were once several sections with different names, so the house numbering might have changed radically overnight :-\

The Old Maps UK web site has the 1959/60 1:1,250 scale sheets for the central Huddersfield area which were the first to include house numbering and can be zoomed in enough to make out the house numbers without splashing out on a subscription (unlike the 1:2,500 sheets).

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Yorkshire (West Riding) / Re: Church of the Good Shepherd, Huddersfield
« on: Monday 16 September 19 11:06 BST (UK)  »
In case it's of interest, 476 was the southern end of a row of 10 terraced houses which once stood on the east side of Bradford Road. I suspect they were demolished when the new road was laid out to turn Bradford Road into a dual carriageway. 476 was here:
https://goo.gl/maps/nCdVKRJVrGwN3cwW6

...and here's the row on the 1933 O.S. map:
https://maps.nls.uk/view/125645936#zoom=7&lat=4537&lon=11269&layers=BT

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Yorkshire (West Riding) / Re: Church of the Good Shepherd, Huddersfield
« on: Monday 16 September 19 10:24 BST (UK)  »
I need to do a bit more digging, but I think the Cowcliffe Mission Church was primarily used as a school and later became St. Hilda's Church:
https://huddersfield.exposed/p/1a40

There's a Thomas Henry Dyson listed at 476 Bradford Road in the 1937 Huddersfield Directory, along with a "T.H. Dyson" who was a confectioner at 407 Bradford Road.

As an aside, there's a curious article in the "Yorkshire Post" (18/Aug/1953) which states that the Cowcliffe Mission Church wasn't consecrated until September 1953, so all of the services which had taken place up to then had been "illegal" (apparently Holy Communion in the C of E can only be taken at an altar in a consecrated church or at a sickbed). Presumably they initially intended to only use the school for a temporary period, but never quite got around to actually building a separate Mission Church?

[edit] Yep -- the Mission Church was definitely also the National School. I suspect it changed its name to St. Hilda's when the Bishop of Pontefract carried out the consecration service in September 1953.

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Yorkshire (West Riding) / Re: Church of the Good Shepherd, Huddersfield
« on: Monday 16 September 19 08:16 BST (UK)  »
Just for info, it's marked as being "Church of England" on the 1959 O.S. 1:1,250 map. There was an earlier Anglican Mission Church (marked on the 1918 map) situated on an adjacent plot, which might help explain the reference to "missioner in charge". It's not named as being the "Church of the Good Shepherd" on the 1918 map, but presumably it must have been known as that prior to the larger building being erected.

The Mission Churches tended to be smaller structures and were built in areas where there'd been a sizeable increase in population but there was no local church. In this particular case, the nearest "proper" church was Christ Church at Woodhouse Hill. At least one of the Mission Churches in the Huddersfield area was constructed from timber whilst some of the equivalent structures for other denominations were built from corrugated galvanised iron (nicknamed "tin tabernacles").

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Yorkshire (West Riding) / Re: Spaniard in Holmfirth in 1860
« on: Monday 12 August 19 13:36 BST (UK)  »
Holmfirth Feast looks to have been celebrated around the 3rd week in May, so presumably too early to fit with Hosetta's birth. Honley Feast tended to be the largest local one, attracting large numbers of visitors from neighbouring townships, and that began on 23 September 1860.

As a side note, I found another article from 1860 which confirmed that Madame Saqui (often "Salvi" in newspaper articles) was touring with Pablo Fanque's Circus that year, so at least it confirms that Pablo's Circus had European performers. Unfortunately the Huddersfield Chronicle's coverage of the Honley Feast for that year doesn't go into much detail, except to say that Pablo's Circus performed on the 24th & 25th September.

I've had a quick look for "Spanish", "Spaniard" and "circus" in the Huddersfield Chronicle for 1860, but unfortunately nothing jumped out.

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Yorkshire (West Riding) / Re: Spaniard in Holmfirth in 1860
« on: Saturday 10 August 19 11:28 BST (UK)  »
Out of interest, someone has added the following to a family tree on Ancestry which seems to fit with Hosetta...

Eliza Wimpenny (daughter of James) married William Bottomley (son of William) on 22 March 1863.

1871 Census (Ancestry):
- Lizata Bottomley (aged 9) of Broad Lane, Upperthong

1881 Census (Ancestry):
- Osetta Bottomley (aged 17) cotton winder of Matlock, Upperthong

Hosetta had a younger sister named Hannah Maria, which strikes me as being an unusual (although not unique) name for the area.

Perhaps worth noting that travelling circuses weren't an unfamiliar site in the mid-1800s, even in the wilds of rural Yorkshire. They often arrived in time for the local annual Feast and could have included performers from Europe and beyond. A monkey or large ape was shot near Ramsden Rocks (the area is also known by locals as "Monkey Nick") to the southwest of Holmfirth in May 1852 and the assumption in the newspapers was that it had escaped from one of the circuses.

For example, the attractions at the 1860 Honley Feast included Pablo Fanque's Circus (as immortalised in John Lennon's "Being for the Benefit of Mr Kits" lyrics), Wild's Theatre, and the famous French tightrope walker Madame Saqui (who would have been in her mid-70s!).

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Yorkshire (West Riding) Completed Requests / Re: Holme Valley flood 1852
« on: Sunday 24 April 16 00:52 BST (UK)  »
Not sure if they'll be the same as these, but I've scanned the etchings made for the Illustrated London News and they're available on Flickr.

Since my earlier posts, I've come to the conclusion the figure of 81 victims was most likely derived from the 78 named victims plus 3 children who were unclaimed at the time the coroner released the bodies for burial (all 3 appear in the burial registers as "unknown"). At least 1, if not 2, of those 3 children were very likely amongst the named 78, as not all had been identified by the inquest. The local newspapers never really settled on a precise figure, but the Huddersfield Chronicle claimed there were exactly 80 victims when one of the last missing bodies was eventually recovered in the summer of 1852.

Going back to the foundling story, there are a few instances of people using the event for own purposes. For example, one local newspaper reported that the dead body of a baby had been found near the banks of the river several days after the flood. However, the evidence pointed towards it having died shortly after birth (rather than drowned) and it was believed one of the parents had placed it there to make it appear to be a victim of the flood. So, I could well believe that an illegitimate child born around the time of the flood might be passed off by their mother as being a flood foundling to gain local sympathy.

Gillum's initial post mentions a chest of drawers and this might possibly be borrowing from something which did happen on the night of the flood. One family fled their house in a hurry, accidentally leaving their youngest child behind. When the father realised, he turned back but was unable to re-enter the house by the door. However, he was able to force a window open and saw the child sat atop a chest of drawers which was floating around the room in the swirling flood water. He was able to pull the child to safety when the drawers floated near enough to the window.

In the Rev. S. Baring-Gould's "Penny Comequicks" book, it has an episode in which a baby in a crib is washed away by a flood. The infant survives as the family's cat had jumped on top and, legs akimbo, it managed to keep the crib upright by shifting its weight around. There are also claims that Baring-Gould himself rescued a teenage girl from a later flood at Horbury and fell in love with her. They married and (I believe) had 15 children!

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Yorkshire (West Riding) / Re: INMAN Mineral Water, Leeds & Huddersfield
« on: Friday 22 April 16 21:40 BST (UK)  »
Fond memories of getting bags of chips with bits from the local chippie in the late 70s/early 80s, always along with a small bottle of Ben Shaws "Space Special" pop - a luminous green cream soda which must have been jam-packed with e numbers and colourings ;D

Paddock does seem a long way from Holmfirth, so I'll see if I can spot any other possible mineral companies tomorrow. I've also got a few old Holmfirth guides from the 1950s/60s, so I'll have a quick look in case any of them have got an advert in them.

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