"From Woollen Mills to Flying Machines" - Part 1

I have just been reading a very interesting book called “ From Woollen Mills to Flying Machines”, which is an autobiography of Thomas Bancroft O.B.E. [1897-1985]. It goes into fascinating detail, and paints a vivid picture about Tom’s early life from starting to work half days in the local mill in Denholme, near Bradford, at 11 years of age, before spending the other half of the day at school, and then at the age of 12, working a full 53-hour week in the mill. The book then goes on to talk about The First World War, albeit not the grim side, but the more day to day activities and then leads onto Tom’s later career working for Aircraft Company’s eventually to become the Works Director of Hawker Siddeley in Brough, East Yorkshire.
This first article concerns his early life at the Foster’s Mill in Denholme, prior to The First World War. A future article will be about his later life, working in the aircraft industry.



Whilst reading the book I was reminded of my Grandmother talking about her time working half-days in the local mill in the early 1900’s, a practice which was very common with all young children growing up in northern mill towns. The morning’s work started with a siren sounded to remind the workforce to “get to’t mill”. If anyone arrived late, they had to wait until the door was reopened again, and lost an hour's pay.
The noise inside was frightening to anyone not used to it. The machines were driven by long leather belts, which would stretch the length of the room, or shed as it was known, and wrapped around huge wheels. The ends of the belts were fastened with metal clips, and if any of these gave way, due to wear and tear, the flying leather could, and did, cause serious injury.
Despite the heat, the youngsters wore overalls, with the girls also wearing black stockings and clogs. Hair had to be kept fastened back out of the way of machinery, which in those days was unguarded and accidents were commonplace. Loose clothing, like the short smocks worn by the men, was easily caught up unless the greatest care was taken. The smell of lanolin, the natural wool oil, clung to clothing, and grease from the machinery made floors very slippery as it soaked into the floorboards. All this made the mills a serious fire hazard.
Children of eleven years of age, both boys and girls, started as doffers, who had the job of removing the full bobbins from the spinning frames and replacing them with empty ones. For this they received 1s 6d (7.5p) per week. They were supervised by older ones who had become proficient at it and then graduated to spinning. The many and varied processes in a woollen mill all required nimble fingers and a keen eye. Broken threads had to be joined with a neat, flat knot. A poorly repaired knot was known as a “slub”, and the inspector could identify which spinning shed this had come from, so that the careless worker could be reprimanded. I can remember my Grandmother saying that her inspector had a big long strap which he often used on the children if their work was not up to scratch.

Tom’s story starts with a wild shriek of the mill “whew” [mill hooter] gently rattling his bedroom window at 5.30am. This was it!....He had been lying awake for a long time waiting for this great day, when he ceased to be a school kid and became a man. He had been looking forward to this for months, and had been fully accepted by the Spinning Department Manager at W.H.Foster’s Mill, Denholme to start work at six o’clock that morning, a beautiful day, 6th June 1908…his eleventh birthday. After a pot of tea with his father, who was an Overlooker at the same mill, they both set off for work, up the main street to ….THE MILL!

His father then left him in the scurrying crowd of other part-timers at the mill door at around 6.00am, with a tap on his back, saying “ See you at 8.00 o’clock lad” After making his way to the Spinning Rooms, he was directed to the Overlooker, Percy Myers, who was walking along the long isles banging the floor with a foot wide strip of leather, some 4-5 feet long, attached to a short wooden shaft. The noise this made on the floor could be heard above the howling of the two long rows of spinning frames. Percy’s first words to Tom, on seeing his size was “ I’ll hev ta finned thee a box ta stand on”.
He then met Sarah, a nice lass of about seventeen, who looked after some spinning frames, and was given instruction as to what to do as a new “doffer”. He watched the more experienced boys and girls till 8.00 o’clock when the “Whew” blew again, and joined the swarm of men, women, boys and girls pouring out of the main gate.



Just enough time to get home for breakfast and then back before the doors closed again at 8.30 am so he could get back to Sarah, before the Overlooker’s whistle blew to start work again. From then till 12.00 he then followed on, copying the other boys and getting the hang of doffing. It took him weeks before he do this properly, and found school dull after a morning in the mill. He couldn’t wait to get back again the following morning.
After he had picked up the knack of doffin, Sarah gave him some more instructions, about what to do when the thread broke on a bobbin. She was able to take the waste off the roller on the spinning frame, without stopping it and start it on the bobbin again. He had watched her do this scores of times a day with just a finger and thumb, so had a go under her watchful eye. When he tried to do this, he had to jump back from the frame sucking a blistered thumb and finger. Sarah stood there laughing and said “ It’s no good laking wi’ it, th’sta grab it ‘ard before it burns tha”. He collected a few more blisters before he got the knack, but then enjoyed watching the new lads burn their fingers as they also learned the knack.

When his twelfth birthday arrived, it found him as a fully trained doffer, and he automatically became a 53 hours a week full-time mill worker. On Friday, payday, he proudly handed his wage of half-a-crown to his mother, who always gave him something back. He felt he had grown up and was justifying his existence in a fine family life

All this from a lad of 12 years of age!

The picture below shows Tom as a boy with his two younger brothers.



[To be continued]

Accident at Haworth Station - 1882

While reading through some old newspapers recently, I was reminded of the large number of accidents that occurred on the railways in the late 19th century, and the following fatal accident at Haworth Railway Station in 1882.
It concerned a man called Binns Bancroft who died at the age of 42, after being crushed by a moving coal train in the station.

Binns was born in 1840 at a house called “Throstles Nest”, which is still there today and is situated on the moors near Stanbury, looking out over the bleak Bronte moorland.
He was the son of John and Hannah Bancroft, and was one of at least eleven of their children.

Binns Bancroft married Hannah Chaplin at Haworth Parish Church on 24th December 1870 and lived at Clarendon Street Haworth from where he went to work for the local Co-operative Society, where he was employed as their coal agent.

On the afternoon of 19th December 1882 around 1.15pm, Binns was at the station, waiting for a coal delivery, and went over to the coal train, which had just come in. He checked with the guard to see if there was any coal on the train for him and the guard said there was one truck of coal allocated to the Co-op. Witnesses then told of how Binns attempted to get through between the buffers of the engine and the wagon, with his back towards the engine, and just as he had got between them, the wagons were closed up by the engine shunting them down the siding. An eyewitness, the guard, said he was carried about a yard, and killed on the spot. The body, when later formally identified, had no marks of external injury visible, beyond two or three slight black marks and a Doctor came to the station within ten minutes of the accident and ‘pronounced life to be extinct’

It was thought Binns was trying to get to the other side of the wagons, in order to take a card from one of them.

An enquiry on the accident was opened two days later at the nearby Royal Oak Inn.
Evidence was heard from eyewitnesses, the guard and the doctor who attended the scene shortly after the accident, and after hearing all the evidence, the jury returned a verdict of “Accidental Death”

His widow, Hannah, was left to bring up their five children, and eventually received the sum of £30 compensation from either the Co-op or the Railway Company. She later remarried a man called Holmes Feather in 1885 and continued to live in Haworth.

The photograph at the top shows the station around this time, and the one below shows the station in the foreground and the Royal Oak Inn in the centre. Both show a very smoky Haworth ….presumably from all that coal they were burning in those days!

Living conditions in Ickornshaw 1904.

Several months ago I wrote a long article about John Henry Bancroft and his sons who were servicing in the Great War, and I recently came across some more information about him that may be of interest to my readers.

A report in the local newspaper in April 1904 describes the house he was living in at number 14 Ickornshaw near Cowling.
Apparently the local medical officer of health, Dr Atkinson, was most concerned about the living conditions in this house, which at the time was occupier by John Henry, his family and a lodger…a total of nine people in accommodation, which consisted of one living room and two bedrooms!
The properly was owned by a Mr Ben Snowden of Fold Lane and was occupied rent free by John Henry, but was is such a dilapidated state that Dr Atkinson asked the Clerk to the Council to obtain an order to close the house as it was ‘unfit for human habitation’
Here is a brief description of the state of the property:

· There were no gutters or fall pipes to the back of front
· The roof is not in good condition.
· It has damp walls and was earthed up at the back to a depth of over a yard
· There are no drains from the house
· There is no water supply to the house.
· The ventilation in the house is not good.
· There is a pail-closet in a state of disrepair.
· There is an open unenclosed ash pit next to it.

I am not sure what the outcome was of the council’s actions seeking closure, but I suspect that they were successful because John Henry and his family moved to the nearby village of Silsden in January 1905, and he remained there till his death in 1931.

The row of houses fell into disuse and were then used for none inhabitable purposes. The drawing at the top shows the row, next to Ickornshaw Wesleyan Chapel, which was built in 1875. The house on the left-hand end was at the time shown as boarded-up. The house at the right-hand end was eventually a blacksmith’s shop, where horses waiting to be shod, were tethered either on the nearby gas lamp or at the end of the nearby footbridge over the beck. The row was eventually demolished sometime in the 1980’s, and a new house has recently been built on the site.

The picture below showed the row in the centre, next to the Ickornshaw Wesleyan Chapel. The Chapel is still there today, but has in recent times been converted into residential accommodation.



I am grateful to Mr Dennis Harker from Cowling, for his help with this article.

What's in a name?

A story with a different theme this month, and certainly not a Yorkshire one!

I recently returned from a trip to the small town of Tuam in the West of Ireland, to see family and friends and that got me thinking about my Christian name…something that I am asked about on a regular basis, so here is the story.

The name “Jarlath” is commonly used in the area around County Galway Ireland, and comes from Saint Jarlath, who was an Irish priest and scholar from the West of Ireland. He is the patron saint of the Archdiocese of Tuam Co Galway.It is not known when he was born but but he it is believed that he came from a village called Sylane near Dummoore and he died around 550A.D.

His father was called Loga and mother Mongfinn, and he was a member of the Conmaicne family, which was looked upon as probably the most important and powerful family in Galway at that time.

He was educated in a monanstery founded by St. Bennin of Kilbannon and after being trained as a holy man and ordained as a priest, he founded a monestery at Cloofush, just outside Tuam, and presided over the monestary as Abbot-Bishop. The picture at the top shows the remains of the monestry at Cloonfush as it is today.

Folklaw suggests that St. Benin, told St. Jarlath to seek out a site for a new monestary, and that where ever his chariot broke down, that was to be the place of his “resurrection”. He therefore travelling eastward, looking for a site for a new monastery and as foretold, the “accident” happened, and the wheel of his chariot broke on what is now the site of St Mary’s Cathedral in Tuam, only four miles from where he started out, and so it was here that he founded his new monastery. The following pictures show the interior of St Mary’s, as it is today.There are still parts of this beautiful building going back to the 12th century, and it is believed that a church has existed on this site since the 6th century.


His “chariot” may be something of an exaggeration, as the mode of transport in those days was more likely to have been either a horse & cart, or even a handcart, pulled by others. A broken cart wheel is the emblem for the town of Tuam, and a modern sculpture of this is in the Town Square to commemorate St. Jarlath’s short journey.


Long after his death, his bones were found and placed in a silver shrine to be deposited in specially built church called “ Teampall na Scrine” in the town in the seventh century. This church was later destroyed at the time of the Reformation, and eventually became a barn, and the silver shrine then disappeard for a while. Then in 1650, two men were threshing in the old barn and noticed a bright object on the clay floor which turned out to be the silver shrine containing the relics of St.Jarlath. The item was then handed over to various religious persons and seems to have vanished without trace around 1870.

The picture below shows me standing at the gate of the site of the original Clonflush monastery, which is also a graveyard. The gate shows the name “Jarlath” spelt in the Irish language, and the wheel denotes the one broken on his chariot.

The Butterfly Roof Bungalow

Here’s an interesting short story about Sydney Bancroft, who in his normal walk of life would have been considered a very conventional person, and yet he lived in a very unconventional house in Oxenhope near Keighley.

Sydney was born in 1906 in Oxenhope and led a very full and worthwhile life, firstly as a mill owner of the firm of John Bancroft & Co at Charles Mill Oxenhope, after taking over the running of the family business from his father in 1945. He retired after selling the business in 1957, and then spent much of his time working for several charities and for the community as a local councillor, and eventually as Mayor of Keighley in 1971 to 1972.
He was a lifelong member of Oxenhope Methodist Church and was a steward of the Haworth & Oakworth Methodist Circuit, and also had the unique distinction of being elected an Alderman by the local Council, when he was no longer a servicing Councillor.

Sydney & his wife Maud [Riley] had previously lived in a large house built by his father since their marriage in 1939, but then decided to have a new house called “Woodridge”, built in 1959….and what a house! Their main stipulation they gave to the architects when designing the house, was that there must be no need to go through one room to get to another, and so they were able to come up with this ultra modern design for the time, by designing a split level bungalow, suitable for a sloping site of one-and-a- quarter acres.

The local press at the time wrote an article about the new house saying
“ It’s like a book cover!”
“It makes you want to look inside!”
“The layout is given an added appeal through it being asymmetrical”
“ Some would call it variety, and others would say off- beat!”

The most striking feature of the house was the fact that it was designed with what was described at the time as a “Butterfly Roof” which, when built in 1959, must have been viewed as a little unusual, to say the least!

Here are a few things the newspaper had to say at the time about this state of the art property, with it’s up to the minute design features:

“It’s a home with a polished mahogany canopy above the front, which has a 26 ft stretch of south-facing windows overlooking the picturesque valley, with wild majesty of the moors beyond”

“When seated behind the open fire, with it’s underfloor draught, it is possible to enjoy the full warmth and at the same time appreciate the magnificent views”

“The kitchen ceiling is azure blue, and working surfaces are in red laminate…there is a dish washer, and also a steam extractor….the polished mahogany door is steam resistant”

“Equipped with underfloor electric heating…the bungalow has separate thermostatic controls in each room”

“The front garden leads down to rose beds, and with the flowers give a froth of gaiety along the top of its low wall”


Sadly the house is no longer there. It was sold to a developer in recent years, who then demolished it and built five houses on the land that it had occupied. Below is a picture of the bungalow, taken from the newspaper at the time…sorry for the poor quality, but it’s the best I could find.

Bancrofts from Silsden and The Great War

This article is somewhat longer than normal, but very occasionally I come across a story, which is so moving and sad that it just has to be told in full. It concerns the family of John Henry Bancroft and his wife Agnes Ann, who lived at Oakworth near Keighley and then Ickornshaw near Cowling before moving to 14 Walker Place in Silsden near Keighley around the time of the First World War. They had a large family of fifteen children, and had their five eldest sons away fighting in France in the First World War. What a time of pain, anguish and despair these poor people must have endured, having two sons wounded and then another two sons killed during the war. It’s hard to imagine what must have been going through their minds as there received the many letters from their sons when they were away, and then the letters that all families dread from the authorities, informing them about the deaths of their two sons. Here are some details about these five brave men, some of which are rather sketchy, whilst others are more details thanks to the many letters they send home from the front to their friends and family. These letters paint a vivid picture of their day-to-day activities during their times in France, and the dangers they faced in the war.

John Bancroft, born 1897 at Ickornshaw, near Cowling joined up at the age of 23 in May 1918,and was in the Cavalry Reserve Regiment at Newbridge Camp Ireland. He seems to have survived the war largely unscathed.

Fred Bancroft, born in 1896 at Ickornshaw, and enlisted in January 1916 in the West Riding Regiment and went out to France in March of that year. He won the Military Medal, and the background to this was reported in the local press in September 1917 as follows:
“ He was proceeding on the railway at ……… [blanked out at the time for reasons of security] when enemy shelling became very heavy. One shell exploded near the party and mortally wounded a comrade. The rest of the party ran for cover, except Private Bancroft who remained cool and collected. In spite of further shelling, he proceeded along the track to obtain a stretcher and returned with another man to take his comrade to the dressing station. Unfortunately the man died 5 minutes after being admitted.”
He fought in The Battle of the Somme, and was engaged in work near the front for a considerable time and was later wounded. By October 1918 he was still convalescing in Ripon Convalescent Hospital.

Willie Bancroft, was born in 1899 at Ickornshaw and it is understood that he enlisted as soon as war broke out, even though he was only fifteen years old at the time. It was eighteen months later when this was discovered and he was immediately discharged, only to enlist again when reaching eighteen years old. It was reported that he was wounded in April 1918 whilst serving in the West Riding Regiment, and was discharged. In later life he was a leader of the Home Guard in Silsden during the Second Word War, and later became a founder member of the Silsden branch of the British Legion. In 1959 he was given life membership of this organisation in recognition of his services to the branch. He was also instrumental in setting up the British Legion Club, of which he was President at the time of his death. The local newspaper reported on his death on 16th November 1973 stated
“ He was the British Legion Standard Bearer every year in Remembrance Day parades, and his smartness and military precision set an example to the more youthful members”



Sam Bancroft was the eldest of the family, born in 1890 at Oakworth and joined up in 1914 into the Royal Engineers. Prior to the outbreak of war he was a member of the Territorials, and was also a prominent ambulance worker before enlisting.
In correspondence to his family in January 1915 he wrote saying,
“ I received the parcel and all the men of Silsden wish me to thank all who have contributed on their behalf. The cloths will keep us very warm during the winter. I have got into trouble going home without leave from Birstall. I fairly caught it when I got back, but I was not alone. There were 84 of us, and we all got 21 days pay stopped, which is rather hard lines. However we broke one of the Army laws so we must keep on smiling. It was our own fault, so we must just stand it, although it is hard lines”.
In a letter received by a friend from Addingham in May 1915, he said
“I am in the best of health, and have been in the trenches for three days and could count on one hand the number of men who had been killed or wounded. We have been shelled out of a village. The second night in the trenches we had all the wires broken, and the officer and myself had gone out to repair them. It was not a very nice job, but had to be done so that they could get the news through”.
A further letter received by his family in February 1916 says
“We are fine, and are now enjoying a well earned rest. We must have earned it or we should not have got one. It feels grand to be away from the trenches for a while. I suppose Silsden will be quiet now as all the young men who are medically fit will be soldiers, it not they ought to be. How long do you think the war is going on? It can’t last forever, as we can hold out longer than the Germans. We do know that the Germans are getting worse off, so let us hope that before long they will give it up as a bad job”.
His wife received a letter saying that on 11th October 1918 he was dangerously wounded by a shell, and that it had been necessary to amputate a limb, which had resulted in his death.
He left a wife and a baby daughter and was buried at The Duisans British Cemetery, Etrun, France [pictured below]





Joe Bancroft was born in 1892 also in Oakworth, and also joined up in 1915. He originally went out to France in April 1915, serving in the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment and was both wounded and gassed while there.
We are fortunate that he wrote many letters back to his friends and family, and here are some of the things he mentioned.
In a letter received in May 1915 by an Addingham friend he says,
“Our platoon in the 4th Battalion was fetching rations one day and it was a very risky job, going about a mile under fire with no cover. We are just getting used to it, and we have only had one killed so far even though we have been here ten days. I am enjoying myself… “If only we had more Woodbines!”
In a letter to his parents, dated 12th May 1915 he says,
“ We got through the big battle all right. We were kept in the reserve trenches all night and the next day, and then they took us up to the front line when the battle had been on all day. We were at it all night, and in the morning our trench was shelled and we had two killed and some wounded with one shell, but it was a sight when the big battle was on. The guns started at five o’clock in the morning and the noise was enough to make anyone deaf. Then in two hours the infantry charged after which there were wounded men coming down all day. At the beginning of the charge a General got on top of the trench to give the men the word to come on, and was shot dead. Some regiments had hardly any men left. We have now had a month in the trenches and have I have just had my cloths off once since I came, and had one bath, but someone has to put up with it. They keep saying the war cannot last long. We shall be glad to get away from here”
In another letter sent to his parents dated 18th May 1915 after coming out of the trenches after six days he says
“ Yesterday was the anniversary of Waterloo and we had flags up on top of the trenches all day. At daybreak we waited to see what the Germans would do. About dinnertime they put up two black flags in front of us, but soon put them down. At night when we took the flags down some of them had half-a-dozen holes in them. We have recently done a bit of haymaking in front of our trench during the night because the grass was about five feet high, and it had to be cut to enable us to see across”.
He sent word to his parents in a letter received in July 1915, that he was in hospital in France, but did not give the cause of his being there. He said he had been in the trenches for several months.
A letter sent by him to his parents in August 1916, informed them that he had been wounded, and was currently in hospital in France. He said
“ I have bad news for you this time: I was hit last night with a piece of shell at the back of my shoulder. We were making a night attack, and had just got back to the trench when a shell dropped amongst my half of the platoon. Only two of us were hit, and I think I got off lucky”
In a letter received the day before he was wounded he had said,
“ I have been promoted to full Corporal, so you see I am not doing so very bad”
By January 1917, he had been awarded the Military Medal for ‘meritorious conduct on the battlefield’, and in a communication from the Major-General of the 49th West Riding Division it was stated that
“He had distinguished himself in the field from 18th to 22nd January 1917 during which time an officer was shot through the head and Sergeant Bancroft assisted in bringing him back to the trenches”
An article in the local press dated 29th March 1918 reported that Sergeant Joe Bancroft of the West Riding Regiment had been wounded in the head.
His parents received official news that he had been killed in action on 4th May 1918. The letter went on to state

“ I am awfully grieved to tell you of your son’s death. He along with others was left in the line to assist a famous foreign battalion and it appears that he was accidentally killed by a shell. There are thousands of very brave men out here, but I have to say I have never seen a man so utterly indifferent and regardless of personal danger as your son. After one German attack, which was repulsed with very heavy losses to the enemy, your son went out about eight times on patrol close to the enemy’s position. He had already gained the Military Medal and I have recommended him for the DCM for great gallantry, and I sincerely hope it will be awarded. I can ill afford to loose such men as your son, as his influence on his comrades was great, and enabled them to hold out in many a tight corner. You and your family can be proud all your life of your son’s record in this terrible war, and I can say most sincerely that I never came across a braver man”.
Joe was 25 years old when he died, and was buried at Tyne Cot Cemetery in Belgium. [See photo at the top]
He was awarded the DCM posthumously, and in the London Gazette of 1st October 1918 it was reported as follows:
“His Majesty the King has been graciously pleased to approve of the award of the Distinguished Conduct Medal for the following officer…
200453 Sjt J Bancroft M.M,
For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. After the enemy had been driven off with severe loss by the rifle fire of his company, Sjt Bancroft the same afternoon and three times the next day took out a patrol and went over 800 yards securing identifications from enemy dead, and bringing back valuable information regarding the enemy’s dispositions. He had only recently been wounded, and set a splendid example of devotion to duty.”



The picture above shows Silsden Cenotaph, which has Joe and Sam Bancroft’s names listed on it. In June 1918, a service of memory was held at Silsden Parish Church, to honour the sixty-nine men of the Silsden who were killed in action, or later died from their wounds. On behalf of the village the Vicar offered to the relatives and friends of these brave men their deepest sympathy and their most sincere and heartfelt gratitude for what they had done. He said he was touched beyond expression by the courage which the women of the parish had shown in these awful times, for they had shown themselves to be worthy mothers and wives of heroes who had given their all. He also expressed the wish that as long as a church remained in the village, it would be the custom once a year to commemorate all these men who had fallen in the war. He finished with the question….“Shall we betray their trust and take their deaths in vain?”



As a postscript to this sad family story, Mr & Mrs John Henry Bancroft were selected from a large number of applicants to be present at the opening ceremony of the Menin Gate in 1927. This memorial was build by the British Government at Ypres in Flanders to commemorate all the missing soldiers, …those who had no known grave. The Menin Gate, shown above, marks the main road out of the town where tens of thousands of men went towards the front line.

I just want to finish this article by quoting the following words from a speech by Lord Plumer of Messines at the unveiling ceremony of the Menin Gate.
"One of the most tragic features of the Great War was the number of casualties reported as, "missing, believed killed." ....... when peace came, and the last ray of hope had been extinguished, the void seemed deeper and the outlook more forlorn for those who had no grave to visit, no place where they could lay tokens of loving remembrance........and it was resolved that here at Ypres, where so many of the missing are known to have fallen, there should be erected a memorial worthy of them which should give expression to the nation's gratitude for their sacrifice and their sympathy with those who mourned them. This memorial has been erected which, in its simple grandeur, fulfils this object, and now it can be said of each one in whose honour we are assembled here today…..He is not missing; he is here!"




I am grateful to the following two websites, which provided some of the information for this article:
Men of Worth: http://www.menofworth.org.uk
Craven’s part in The Great War: http://www.cpgw.org.uk

Jabez's story hit the Keighley News

Following on from the previous article about Jabez Bancroft, the story has been picked up by the Keighley News. The following article appeared in the newspaper this week.


I have also received the nice piece of ephemera from Steve Pick, which appears to be an advertisement that Jabez must have been using to promote his work as a taxidermist. I am now wondering if this was more than just a hobby for Jabez, as he describes himself as a “Dealer in British and Foreign birds, skins, bird eggs and artificial eyes etc”.


I like the bit that says ….” Specimens got up as life-like as possible” !!

Jabez Bancroft - The Taxidermist !

I am indebted to Steve Pick, who lives in Texas USA, for details about his Great-Grandfather Jabez Bancroft, who led a very interesting life.

Jabez was born on 18th May 1833 at Hollins Summer House, Crossroads near Keighley and then grew up on a farm knows as Whins Delf, also sometimes called Unwins Delph at Ingrow, on the outskirts of Keighley, the son of James and Hannah Bancroft who ran this small farm of about 13 acres. He married Deborah Waddington and the two photos below show a couple thought to be them, although this cannot be definitely confirmed by his descendants…..Does anyone recognise the people in these pictures, and are able to confirm their identity?





















Jabez came from a large family of twelve children, and he and Deborah had seven children themselves. During his life he was a man of many talents and had many occupations, some of which were running a quarry, another a brewery, as well as being a teacher, and also being in charge of several railways. He was a man who travelled widely, and seemed to spend money as quickly as he earned it on this, because travelling to America three times.

The most interesting side of his life was his lifelong hobby of collecting animals, birds and bird’s eggs. In fact his trips to the US seems to have been to collect more birds and animals for his large collection.

Taxidermy in those days was quite a dangerous hobby,due to some of the substances used in the process. Poisons such as mercuric chloride, and arsenic mixed with soap were commonly in use to help preserve the specimens, and these are known to have had serious consequential health problems for the people using them if care was not taken.

It is not known if Jabez suffered the effects of these substances, but he died at 7.15pm on 4th January 1897 at 14 Carlton Street, Beechcliffe, Keighley, and the vast collection of over 1600 birds, birds eggs, animals, bees and butterflies was sold to Keighley Corporation, by his second wife, Elizabeth, after his death. Initially the collection was due to be auctioned off to the highest bidder, but after the intervention of the auctioneer, a private arrangement was agreed between Keighley Corporation and Mrs Bancroft so that they could purchase the entire collection for the princely sum of £130, provided it was to be used for the benefit of the town.

The Corporation were in the process of setting up a new museum in Keighley, and The Bradford Observer Newspaper of 8th February 1897 reported on this as follows:
“Mr Jabez Bancroft, a well known taxidermist and naturalist from Keighley, died some two months ago, and his large collection of birds is announced to be brought under the hammer. There is a desire in the town that the whole collection should be acquired for the museum now being formed at Eastwood House, and a deputation will wait on one of the committee of the Corporation tonight to urge them to make the purchase. A few gentlemen have taken the matter in hand, and the auctioneer, Mr Wright Watson, has named a very modest price, which Mrs Bancroft is prepared to accept if the collection is bought by the town. The specimens, which were nearly all prepared and mounted by Mr Bancroft, number over 1600 and include Hawks, Silver and Golden Plover, Grey Lapwing, a pair of Red Grouse and young [10], Ptarmigan, Gannett, Black-Headed Gulls, Heron, Falcon, Teal, Raven, Small Auk, Green-Backed Cormorant, Hoopoe and other”

The bird collection included many skins, which were not completed exhibits at the time, and so the Corporation engaged the services of a Derby expert, Mr AS Hutchinson, to professionally mount the whole collection. This took two years to complete, and the whole collection was then put on display in Keighley’s first Museum, at Eastwood House in Victoria Park, which opened in 1899 as part of a Science and Art Exhibition to raise funds for the Cottage Hospital.





A local newspaper at the time reported
“The collection of one hundred and twenty cases were delightfully received….the robin has hopped down to an old chopping-block, into which the axe has been driven, and close to a bundle of sticks. Quite a happy family appears in another case, the sheldrake, which embraces a pair of adults and five immatures. Three of the young are swimming in a small pool, and two are wandering on the sand….”

Jabez’s collection of birds eventually ended up on permanent display at another museum in Keighley called Cliffe Castle which was opened in 1955, and currently there are thirty eight cases of his birds on display there, together with about another forty other examples of his work held in storage elsewhere.



I was recently given a guided tour of the exhibits by the staff. Many of them are now somewhat faded after having been subjected to over one hundred years of exposure to sunlight, but I was very privileged to see and handle three specimens that were taken out of storage for me to examine. Shown above are these three birds, a King Parrott a Soldier Bird or Noisy Minor, and a Magpie Lark. It was amazing to handle these specimens, which were well over 100 years old, and yet were in perfect condition with the colour of the feathers as bright and perfect as they must have been when the specimens were caught so long ago, thanks to the fact that they had been stored in the dark, away from damaging sunlight. One unanswered question with these three specimens is the fact that they all originate from Asia and Australia, and we know that Jabez’s only trips abroad were to America, so how did he acquire these?…perhaps we will never know.

Some of the exhibits are, what would today be described as quite rare specimens, such as Chough, Red-Footed Falcon, Sparrowhawk, Honey Buzzard and Snowy Owl [photo at top] and one wonders where Jabez managed to obtain them from. A clue to this is that one exhibit of a bird of prey, mentions it was shot by a gamekeeper on local moors, which might give an indication of his source of supply.

Currently there is no mention at Cliffe Castle of the fact that many of the exhibits were from Jabez’s collection. It would be nice to see, at some time in the future, a small plaque or notice put up in the museum, attributing this important work to Jabez Bancroft and the legacy he left to the town.

Unfortunately space does not allow me to show photographs of all Jabez’s exhibits, but here are a few, and I would urge anyone who visits Keighley to go to the Natural History Museum at Cliffe Castle and have a look at this wonderful collection of birds and animals.

Horkinstone Baptist Chapel - Oxenhope

I was recently driving past the site of what was once the Horkinstone Baptist Chapel, which was on the outskirts of Oxenhope. All that remains today is the graveyard, where quite a few Bancrofts were buried, including some of my family line, together with my Great-Great-Grandparents William and Hannah Greenwood.
There are at least six separate Bancroft graves on the site, all of families who lived in the Bradshaw Head and Far Oxenhope area, including Jonas & Betty Bancroft and their family, who lived in the Tancy End and Sykes areas of Far Oxenhope. Jonas occupation was a quarryman, an occupation sometimes also referred to as a ‘stone delver’ Another grave denotes what must have been a sad story of the death of four of the children of John and Harriet Bancroft, which shows their children dying at the ages of 7 months, 15 months, 19 years and then an unnamed stillborn child. John and his family lived in the Leeming area of Far Oxenhope, and carried on the business of a Greengrocer there. Thankfully at least three of their children reached adulthood.
My own Great-Grandparents Timmy & Jane Bancroft also have a grave there denoting the death of their firstborn child Fred, who died as an infant in 1871. At the time they were tenant farmers, living at nearby Dole Farm, Bradshaw Head.





As the photos show, the Chapel is no longer there, it having been abandoned in 1924 when it was declared unsafe and then demolished. All that remains is the graveyard, which continued to be used after the demolition of the Chapel, with the last burial there recorded in 1953.The site for a new Chapel further down the road was acquired in 1925, and that was opened in 1927. This replacement building is still there today, although it ceased to be a place of worship in 1996 and has since been converted to residential use.




Extracts from the Souvenir of Centenary Celebrations of 1936 and the old minutes book for the Chapel, can be read by clicking on the photo, and they give some interesting facts about it’s inception and the early days of the Chapel when it was getting established. They provide a record of the first meetings in 1836 when it was resolved “with great daring” to build a chapel from the funds available which were £13 in cash with a promise of a further £41 after collection in all the outlying areas There are also interesting items about everyday things, such as "precuring iron candle sticks, a pair or two of snuffers, lamps, oil, candles and brushes”,and also “asking Mr Smith to remove his cow-house” by a certain date.



As was the practice of many chapels in those days, Horkinstone provided an annual Christmas Day Tea. The local paper at the time in December 1883 said, “ The Christmas entertainment was a great success. About 300 sat down to an excellent tea. After tea Mr W Kershaw took the chair when an excellent programme of glees, duets, readings and songs together with piano duets by Mrs Crabtree and Mrs Kershaw. Mr L Crabtree presided at the piano”.

The choirmaster from 1896 to 1907 was Amos Dewhirst, and in his time there the choir occupied a wider sphere than just it’s Sunday services. Under his leadership it formed the centre of the local social life. Public teas and Saturday-night concerts were important social events, and the choir alternated sacred oratorios such as ‘From Storm to Calm’ and ‘From the manger to the cross’, with comic songs like ‘The Chinese Laundry Man’ and ‘Ain’t Yer Ebber Gwine ter Marry Me?’
For some years the choir took part in the Great Nonconformist Festival in London, which required leaving Oxenhope on a Friday night and not getting back till early on the Sunday morning.

The graveyard is now managed by a group of trustees, and they are currently in the process of producing a book about the graveyard and it’s inhabitants. If you are interested in getting a copy of the book when it is available, please contact the trustees on: OOBGT@lowerisle.co.uk

The Boulderclough Tragedy of 1894

I am grateful to Tim Bancroft from Canada, who supplied me with details of this terribly sad story of his Great-Grandmother Sarah Bancroft, who drowned herself and her baby daughter at Boulderclough near Sowerby, Halifax in 1894.
At the time, Boulderclough was a sleepy little hamlet where not much ever seemed to happen until 19th June 1894, when Sarah Bancroft, the wife of Wright Bancroft, went out in the middle of the night with her fourteen month old child in her arms, and firstly drown the child before drowning herself in a nearby stream.
Here is how the local newspapers reported the tragic events as they unfolded, and the Coroner’s eventual verdict as to why this happened.

Sarah’s husband, Wright Bancroft was a well-respected man who was employed as a cloth miller at a nearby mill at Luddenden Foot, and was also a teacher and chapel-keeper at nearby Bethel New Connection Chapel. His job required him to work during the night, and he tended to return home between five and six o’clock in the mornings. Sarah had been complaining for about six months of acute abdominal pains, and had been spending long periods in bed. The couple had two children, Joe age 7 years and Alice Elizabeth who was about 14 months old at the time.

A niece, Miss Betsy Pickles, had been staying with the family to help Sarah with the house and children, and was woken in the middle of the night by some movement. She found Sarah sitting on the side of the bed putting her stocking on, and when she enquired if she wanted anything, was told “no, stay where you are” so went back to sleep and was then woken by Mr Bancroft at about six o’clock on his return from work, after finding both his wife and the baby missing, and the front door ajar.

Mr Bancroft went back outside on to the street and gathered some of the neighbours to look for his wife and child. Within ten minutes the bodies of mother and child were found in a shallow stream less than sixty yards from the house. The newspaper reported the finding as follows

The mother lay on her back with her face upstream, and a miniature waterfall of clear water was trickling down upon her face. She lay in her nightdress and the only other articles of clothing she had on were stockings and a petticoat. The little baby was to her left side, also having her head upstream…the child’s head barely reached the mother’s hands. The distressed husband waited for nothing, but lifted his wife out of the water exclaiming the while “ Eh Sarah, whatever have you done this for?” He burst into a flood of tears as he knelt on the rivulet bank and gazed into his wife’s pale face. The baby was taken from the water by someone else. The corpses were removed to the house and laid out side by side in the chamber they had recently left. As the morning sun stole in at the windows, the little baby’s face was a picture. Never in life had she exhibited much colour but now her cheeks were a pretty scarlet. The mother, as white as a sheet, lay on the left side of the infant.

An Inquest was opened two days later at the nearby Kings Arms Inn, and evidence was heard firstly by the family doctor who confirmed that he had visited Sarah seven times in the last week He felt that she had had delusions about her ailment, and he had tried to persuade her that she was mistaken, but that she remained in low spirits, although he did not think she had any suicidal tendencies.
Wright Bancroft was then interview, and in a distress state gave his evidence about the events of day in question. He left home to go to work at 5 o’clock in the evening, as usual, and that day his wife had stayed in bed all day. He went on to say that his wife had been seeing the doctor since 1st July, and that he had told him that his wife was suffering from an ulcer, but had been told that there would be no operation because of his wife’s nerves, due to the strong pain she was suffering. He said she did not seem low-spirited, but she never was of a very cheerful disposition. He confirmed to the jury that he and his wife “had lived affectionately together all their married life…and that she was a very good woman”
There was then evidence given by the niece Betsy Pickles, and various neighbours who commented on Sarah’s state of health, and how weak she was. One witness commented on the fact that she was so weak, she could hardly lift the baby up, and the fact that she was able to carry it to the stream surprised her.
The Coroner in summing up said that ‘all the evidence tended to show that the poor woman, distracted with pain, had drowned herself, and as to the baby, he was afraid the evidence was very strong that she drowned it as well….The case was a very unfortunate one, and he hoped it would be a long time before there was another like it in the township. From the way he gave his evidence, the husband seemed a quiet and respectable man, and he said he and his wife had always lived very affectionately. Besides he said, she was a very good woman’.

The jury deliberated a few minutes in private, and then found that Mrs Bancroft had committed suicide while temporarily insane, and that she had also drowned the child.
These facts regarding Sarah’s death are confirmed on her death certificate, shown below.




The local weekend paper for Saturday 23rd June 1894, summed up the whole incident as follows:

The Sad Affair at Sowerby
There will be but one feeling, that of profound sympathy, with the poor fellow at Sowerby who this week lost his wife and infant daughter in such a tragic manner. Boulderclough is so peaceful and quiet a village, it’s life is so regular and monotonous that the sad event of Tuesday must have produced a terrible shock in every home. The complaint from which Mrs Bancroft was suffering, an internal abscess, may well have occasioned in her a feeling of despondency, and now after her death, circumstances are called to mind which, though little regard at the time, seem to have indicated that her condition was producing a mental effect which is very familiar to coroners and juries. The fact that her husband was away at work during the night may indeed have accentuated her feelings of despondency, though the arrival of her niece on Monday to spend a few days with her might have been expected to have a cheering effect. Very sad indeed is the story of the finding of the poor woman and her cherub babe. The shock, so unexpected, was terrible to the stricken husband upon who’s happy home had come a sudden and crushing blow of a kind happily rare in human experience

After Sarah’s, death their surviving son Joe, was brought up by two maiden aunts. Joe’s first-born child, born 1910, was named Alice presumably in memory of his long lost sister.


I have never found anything to lead me to believe that Wright remarried after this sad incident. He died on 19th July 1913, and is buried with Sarah at the chapel near their home, where he had been at one time the Chapel Keeper.
Below is a picture of the Bethel New Connection Chapel and the gravestone of Wright & Sarah Bancroft.

A Nice Day

I get lots of requests for help from fellow researchers, and was contacted by David Riley recently about the article I wrote some months ago regarding the Lowertown Old Burial Ground.

David was researching the Riley side of his family and found details in the article about one of his ancestors Mary Ann Riley 1815-1869 who married John Bancroft,a local Mill Owner, in 1838 and who’s table top stone is in the graveyard.

David came up to Yorkshire recently and we had a great day going through his family tree. He went away with lots of information he did not have already, including photos of his Great-Grandparents, which he had never seen before!….a good day for all concerned.

The photo, taken beside the gravestone shows David, together with John Kitchen and Norma Mackrell who are both trustees of the Lowertown Old Burial Ground

Timmy Bancroft's narrow escape from the Stocks!

I was reading an old book recently, and was amazed to find some ‘shocking’ details about my Great-Grandfather Timothy Bancroft 1841-1900, who was known as Timmy.
It seems that Timmy was not the quiet unassuming farmer’s son I thought he was, because on 8th May 1856, when he was just 15 years of age, he was in front of the local Magistrates on a charge of drunkenness in the village of Cullingworth where he lived. Also with him was a Davy Lambert on the same charge. Each was fined five shillings plus costs….or the alternative to this fine would have been to spend six hours in the stocks at Haworth.

Following on from this revelation, I thought I would do a little research about the general attitude to drunkenness at the time, and about punishment of the stocks.

Around this time the local Temperance Magazine produced the following ‘fire and brimstone’ warning to pub landlords:

"If there is a business in which the candidates of hell are labouring, it is yours, and full well you know it.
Were it not a conscience killing business, you would not take the last sixpence from the trembling hand of the drunkard and give him in relief a poison that, ere the next rising sun, may send him to his tomb.
Were it not a demoralising traffic, you could not stand by unmoved, and see the last spark of mortality and virtue driven from the mind of a man by the poison you administer.
Were it not an inferior business you would not be so assiduous in servicing the devil with victims for his abode of endless misery, for he exalts over every drunkard you prepare for the drunkard’s doom.
Then cease this business of ruin, ere the cry of humanity ceases and ere the wrath of angry heaven be poured out upon your head, for God has announced “a woe to him who putteth the bottle to his neighbour’s lips”.


The Stocks had been popular since medieval times, as a mild restraining device for minor offenders, and consisted of a wooden or iron frame to hold the head, hands or ankles. As can be seen from the photograph, the Haworth ones were of the ankle type. They were first introduced in 1376, when King Edward III had a law passed decreeing that every town and village had a set of Stocks. They were usually positioned in the most public place available in a town to give maximum humiliation to the offender, such as a village green or busy main road. The Haworth ones are situated outside the front of the Parish Church on the old main street, as can be seen in the photograph.
They have a plaque on them, which shows that they were restored in 1909, and they were possibly moved to this position at that time.
The use of Stocks as a means of punishment started to gradually disappear from the mid 1850’s and the last recorded use of the Stocks for punishment in the UK was at Adpar in West Wales in 1872.

As far as I know, Timmy did not spend his six hours in the Stocks at Haworth, so I assume his parents, Timothy and Sarah, coughed-up the five shillings fine and costs, to save the family embarrassment, and save young Timmy the humiliation.

The First Car in Oxenhope

As I said in a previous article, I recently read a book called “ Lowertown Old Burial Ground & Life in Oxenhope 1807-1908”, which contains a mountain of information about the life and times of some of the people of the village.

One such person was John Walker Bancroft who was born around 1868 at West View House, Oxenhope the son of Joseph Riley Bancroft, who was one of the local mill owners and worsted manufacturers in Oxenhope, and who in 1870 had jointly inherited Charles Mill from an uncle.

John had a lifelong interest in engineering, and built Oxenhope’s first car. Construction started in 1889 and was completed in July 1900, and the car had the appearance of a small waggonette with big wheels.
A wheelwright at Oxenhope made the body and a firm of Keighley engineers, Messrs Judson & Hudson made the car to Mr Bancroft’s design. The vehicle was looked upon with awe when it travelled up the road, making a tremendous noise. The total weight of the car was about 7cwt and had a 31/2 hp water-cooled single cylinder engine, which was an experimental engine made by Allard & Co of Coventry. The shifting gear for the belts was controlled by handles on the steering pillar, giving two forward speeds, but no reverse. He ran the car for about 2000 miles before disposing of it in 1903.The two photographs show this original first car, and then John driving through Oxenhope with his two sisters in the next car he owned, made by the Victrix Motor Co in Paris.This second car was kept by him until 1919.

For 60 years John was connected with the firm “John Bancroft & Co”, worsted spinners at Charles Mill Oxenhope, and was a senior partner there for 54 years. He had over 50 years continuous membership of the Bradford Wool Exchange.

The 1901 census shows him living at Westview as a Worsted Manufacturers with brother Frederick and two sisters.

In later life he lived at Hillcrest, another large house in Oxenhope, which he had built when he married. He was married twice and first wife was Edith Lund.
They had two children Sydney & Ida. Sydney was a town councillor and later became The Lord Mayor of Keighley in 1971.


He died at Hillcrest on 3rd August 1945, and was interred in the family vault at Oxenhope Cemetery. The newspaper at the time reported in his obituary “ He had a lifelong association with the Methodist Church and was secretary and treasurer of the Sunday School for nearly 40 years. He was an excellent conversationalist and could recall many amusing incidents in connection with his travels to Bradford on market days and of life in the village”

[If you would like to purchase a copy of the book, please contact the trustees on: OOBGT@lowerisle.co.uk]

John Bancroft b 1803 - Removal from Sutton

I came across an interesting article recently concerning a John Bancroft born 1803 in the Keighley area, the son of Isaac & Mary.

John’s wife, Mary [nee Brigg] died at the young age of 32 years in 1836, and left him with five young children to bring up. Shortly after her death John was obviously desperate for some financial help, and must have approached the Sutton Authorities where he was living, for some poor relief money. He then fell foul of the “Act of Settlement” rules, which allowed the authorities to remove someone from their parish and send them back in the parish from where they came from previously, unless they could produce a Certificate of Settlement.

The ‘Settlement and Removal Act’, follows on from the ‘Poor Relief Act’ of 1662, the purpose of which was to establish the parish to which a person belonged [i.e. their place of “settlement”], and hence clarify which parish was responsible for him, should they be in need of poor relief money. It was mandatory for each person to have a parish of settlement and to produce a Settlement Certificate to prove that they were a legitimate resident of that parish, otherwise they were liable to be moved back to the parish they had lived in previously.
The Settlement Act was partly repealed in 1834, when legislation was introduced to strengthen the authority’s powers to send people to the workhouse, although not fully repealed until 1876.

To gain settlement status to a parish a person had to meet one of the following conditions:
· Be born in the parish.
· Have married in the parish
· Be hired for a year and a day within the parish
· Rent a property worth £10 per year, or pay the same in rent.
· Receive poor relief in that parish previously.
· Have a seven-year apprenticeship with a settled resident in the parish.

A person had to undergo a settlement examination by the overseers of the parish to obtain legal settlement in a new parish, before they could obtain poor relief, and if they were unsuccessful in obtaining this, the overseers could obtain a removal order to have them transferred back, by force if necessary, to their original parish of settlement. [The picture at the top shows an original removal order]

The statement given in 1836 by John Bancroft to the Sutton Authorities for his request for settlement in the Sutton Parish was as follows:
"I am about thirty three years of age and was born at Keighley in the said Riding, as I have been informed and believe. My father when I was about a year and a half old removed to Sutton and rented a farm of the yearly rent of about eighteen pounds, that he occupied the same farm until about 17 years ago when he removed to Cowling and took a farm where he now resides, of the yearly rent of about sixty pounds. I lived with my father at Sutton aforesaid, and removed with him to Cowling and continued to form part of his family until about twelve years ago when I married, when I took a farm in Cowling aforesaid, of Holmes Clapham for the yearly rent of Eighteen Pounds and occupied the same about five years and paid the Rent. I then removed to Sutton and occupied a Cottage and had the keeping of two cows from the twenty third day of March to Martimas for which I paid Eight Pound ten shillings: That I am now a widower with five children viz. Isaac aged about twelve years, William aged about ten years, Abraham aged about eight years, Sarah aged about four years and Mary aged about two years. That I have done no Act save as aforesaid, whereby to gained a settlement, and am now chargeable to the said township of Sutton".

Despite this statement given by him, and probably because the authorities could see the cost involved in supporting John and his five children from poor relief funds, they decided not to issue a settlement certificate and to remove them from Sutton parish back to his last place of residence, Cowling. They would have produced a request to the local Justice of the Peace for removal of John and his family. The wording of their request would have been “the family came lately to inhabit Sutton, not having gained a legal settlement there nor produced a certificate owning themselves to be settled elsewhere” and that “if not timely prevented, they are likely to become chargeable to the township of Sutton”

This sad story shows the struggle that some people had surviving during these hard times, and ended up being past from pillar to post, as parish authorities did what ever they could to rid themselves of so called “paupers”, who would be a burden and drain on their local poor relief funds.

I do not know what happened to John after his move back to Cowling, but by the time of the 1841 census, there is no sign of him in the area and his children are by then scattered across different areas. I assume John probably died sometime between 1836 and 1841.

Does anyone have any further information about when happened to the family after they had to move back to Cowling?

Life in the Workhouse

I was recently researching a local individual called Abraham Bancroft, who was born circa 1809 in the Oldfield area of Keighley and eventually ended up in the local Workhouse, where he ended his days in 1893. He was listed as a single retired woolcomber, and must have been left there by his family for some reason.
This research got me thinking about what life must have been like for those unfortunate enough to end up in one of these establishments.

The local Workhouse in Keighley is listed on the census for 1891 as having about two hundred ‘inmates’, both in the actual workhouse building and the nearby hospital, many of them listed as either ‘imbacile, blind or deaf & dumb’ and was managed by a Workhouse Manager, his wife and a handful of others who were listed as porters, nurses, a cook & a gardener. The last workhouse building in Keighley was built in 1858 at a cost of £7000, and still exists today, albeit is now turned into residential accommodation. A previous smaller establishment existed up until that date at nearby Exley Head, and earlier in 1777 a parliamentary report on this establishment stated that it had forty inmates.

Workhouses largely came about because of an act passed in 1601 called “The Act for the relief of the Poor” which made parishes legally responsible for looking after their own poor, and was funded by the collection of a poor-rate tax from local property owners. These funds were then used to provide unpaid work for the unemployed….with the threat of prison for those who refused!. It also set out proposals for the erection of houses for the “impotent poor, the elderly and the sick” Parish poor relief was initially dispensed in the form of money to enable people to buy clothing, food or fuel for those living in their own home in exchange for work without pay. This procedure was it seems, open to abuse, so by 1723 the “Workhouse Test Act” was passed and gave parishes the option of denying money to claimants and offering only the Workhouse.

In 1887 a local writer and bookseller called Mr CW Craven, went undercover into Keighley workhouse to try and experience what is was like first-hand, and later published an account of his experience called “ A Night at the Workhouse”….here are some extracts from it:

“I found myself in a room where a regular pauper was in charge, who at once told me to undress myself. Whilst doing this, a piece of dry bread, about 4 oz in weight was thrown onto a board with the exclamation, “ Thear’s yer Tommy”. On getting my coat, waistcoat and trousers off and discovering my underclothes, the attendant exclaimed several times “You don’t look as if you hed been on t’road long anyhow”. “No!” says I “ this is the first time”. He then told me to take my shirt off, and strip myself entirely. “Why take my shirt off?” I asked. “ Because ther might be sum o’ them thear things abaght!” he replied. “ Are there many of these things round about these quarters?” I further interrogated. “Nah, ah doan’t think there’ll be so monny, we mostly stove ‘em when we find onny” With this answer I was somewhat comforted. When I undressed myself to a state as naked as when I was born, I was told to tie my cloths up and place them alongside a series of other similar bundles laid against a wall. I was then furnished with a couple of rugs and ordered into the sleeping room and the lock tuned on me. All was dark as pitch. My bare feet slipped on what I afterwards found was the vagrant’s spittle on the stone floor, and the sensation was cold and slimy. It made me think of snails and worms, and other loathsome creeping things…...I laid myself on the hard slanting boards, with bare wood as a pillow to experience twelve hours of misery.
I did not sleep a wink all night, and kept fancying “some of them thear things” were creeping over me. By the time the welcome streaks of morning dawn appeared, my bones felt terribly sore, and I was half staved to death. At about a quarter to seven the key turned in the door, and the order was given to “get dressed and bring your rugs in here”. Seven naked forms then flitted about in search of their cloths, and commenced to dress. I found the piece of dry bread I had left untouched the night before, and told one of the vagrants he could have it if he cared to do so. He appeared exceedingly grateful and at once commenced to devour it.
Breakfast was brought in by a pauper attendant, and consisted on seven pieces of dry bread on a board, each piece weighing 8 ozs, one for each vagrant. They were placed on the stone floor. A rusty can was then brought in, containing about two quarts of cold water, which was to serve as a drink for us all. A strong feeling of indignation rose within me as I observed this miserable fare, and the contemptuous manner in which it was served.
After a sufficient time had been allowed for breakfast, we were ordered out to perform our task work. Two were relegated to some lighter labour, whilst five, amongst whom was myself, were set to corn-grinding. We were placed in a room, where protruding from the wall were six wheels with handles attached, and nothing else but the dead wall was discernable. After being ordered to grind away at these, we were locked in. some of the machines were dreadfully hard to turn, whilst others were not so bad. The most aggravating part of the affair was that none of us could observe how much work had been accomplished.
The atmosphere was very warm and in midsummer must have been nearly stifling. Being in want of something to drink,we thrust a tin through an aperture in the window, with a request for one of the paupers to fill it with water. The tin was taken away, but no water appeared, and nearly an hour elapsed before our wants were supplied in this respect, and then only because of repeated knocks and shouting. Drearily the hours passed until twelve o’clock, when we were liberated for dinner consisting of thick soup, which I could not bring myself to taste. From one till five o’clock corn-grinding was again our portion, after which the night was spent much similar to the last one. I was greatly pleased when my time expired and I was again a free man.
My impression of the general treatment of vagrants is that the system is much too severe. Making every allowance for the shortcomings of the class constituting them, I am of the opinion that the lowest of mankind deserves better treatment than that accorded to pigs, dogs, and other animals of creation. The food furnished was scarcely fit for these last mentioned, whilst about the harsh treatment, the less said the better. It is a disgrace to any civilised country.”

Thankfully the end of the workhouse system came in 1930, when the Boards of Guardians across England and Wales were abolished, and responsibility passed to the local authorities. The Keighley Workhouse site was taken over by the West Riding Council and became Keighley Public Assistance Institution. It later became Hillworth Lodge old people's home and was afterwards used by Keighley College. In 2000, the site was redeveloped for residential use. The photograph at the top shows part of the original workhouse complex, as it is today.

Lowertown Old Burial Ground

I was recently lent an interesting book about the Lowertown Old Burial Ground, which is in the village of Oxenhope near Keighley. Originally it adjoined the Wesleyan Chapel, which had been built in 1805, and these were the first church and graveyard in Oxenhope.

From records at that time, the chapel was obviously still in debt several years after being built and the trustees were desperately trying to get some money in. The Methodist Times of 1910 recalls early days at Lowertown Chapel…”When £300 debt remained on the early chapel, Mr Beaver’s father wore out a new pair of boots in tramping the surrounding district getting subscriptions. Have the younger generation realised this self-sacrifice?.”

The first burial took place in 1807 and thereafter they averaged about five burials a year, the last one was carried out in 1908. It was becoming evident by 1850 that more burial land was going to be required in the village and so a new Wesleyan burial ground was opened on land across the road, and the two were then used at the same time.The old burial ground was largely hidden from view for nearly two hundred years because it was partly behind the Chapel, which was in use until 1891, when a new larger Methodist chapel was built elsewhere in the village. It contains at least 90 graves all packed into a fairly small area, and was in a very neglected and overgrown state when it was rescued. There are though to be many other people buried there in unmarked graves. The old chapel was eventually sold and converted into a mill where it was in use for the next century under the name of Perseverance Mill, but in 1990 the mill was destroyed by fire. When it was demolished after the fire, the little burial ground was revealed for all to see from the roadside. The following year the site of the mill and burial ground were offered for sale as building land. Two local Bancroft sisters decided to put in a tender to buy the graveyard, because it contained the graves of some of their ancestors and were successful in purchasing it. They then managed to set up “The Lowertown Old Burial Ground Trust” with six trustees appointed, all of whom had ancestors buried there, and who were also interested in family and village history. The burial ground was thus saved for future generations.

The burial ground is on a steep slope, measuring about 90 feet x 60feet, and is bound on two sides by the original stonewalls. The gravestones are close together and are set in eleven rather haphazard rows without paths between them, which must have made funerals difficult in such cramped and steep conditions.
The gravestones are set northeast/southwest and are all inscribed, except for two, which face northeast. There are 101 gravestones commemorating 264 people. Twenty five of the gravestones are impressive table tombs, made from huge blocks of millstone grit measuring about 6 feet x 3 feet x 6 inches, weighing about half a ton and resting on shaped stone supports. At the lower end of the burial ground there are no memorial stones and it is thought that stillborn babies were buried here together with those who could not afford a plot for a family grave.

There are several Bancroft families buried here, all descended from Joseph Bancroft who died at Far Oxenhope in 1785,but who was buried at Haworth Church. The Bancrofts buried here in Oxenhope were either the mill owners or mill workers from the village.

One Bancroft family grave denotes a sad memorial to John Bancroft who died in 1869 age 56 and his wife Mary. John had been a spinning overlooker at the nearby Charles Mill, who had seven children during their twelve-year marriage, of which four died very young. Jonas died of the croup age 3: John of work fever age 1: George of teething, inflammation of the lungs and convulsions age 1. Their mother Mary died age 33 after a long illness of Phthisis pumonalis [tuberculosis]. Eleven years later their second child, Walker Bancroft was killed at the age of 21 years at Charles Mill where he worked as a engine tender. At the inquest in 1862 the cause of death was given as “accidentally crushed when working in a steam engine”. He had previously had an accident in the mill in which he lost his left hand. The father John died in 1869 and the cause of death was described as “chronic ulcer of stomach etc”. His remaining two sons Joseph and Jonas went on to eventually inherit Charles Mill from an uncle in 1870, and the Bancroft family continued to run the spinning mill for another hundred years.

Another grave marks the family of Joseph and Pricilla Bancroft who lived in the outlying area of Sawood. On the 1861 census Joseph is listed as a quarry master employing seven men at his flag and slate quarry. It is a sign of the hard times that children had to encounter in those days that his son David was described on the census as a “Coal Miner” at the age of eleven years, and died age 29years in 1879. Joseph later went on to be the innkeeper at the Dog & Gun Public House at nearby Bradshaw Head, as well as continuing with the quarry work, and he died in 1889.

Since 1991 there has been an ongoing programme of restoration and maintenance of the burial ground, with support from donations from all over the world, much of it from other researchers who have ancestors buried there.

[With acknowledgements to the book: “The Lowertown Old Burial Ground and Life in Oxenhope 1807-1908”, where most of this information came from.
If you would like to purchase a copy of the book, please contact the trustees on: OOBGT@lowerisle.co.uk]

Mount Zion Chapel Ovenden

I visit Mount Zion Chapel at Ovenden on a annually basis to check an tidy up our family grave where my Great-Grandparents are buried, and was privileged some time ago to be given a guided tour of the building with a party of other interested researchers.
The original Chapel and adjoining cottage was opened in 1773, and was at that time in the Anglican Parish of Bradshaw.
One of its most important preachers came soon after it’s opening…John Wesley came and stayed in the adjoining cottage on 22nd April 1774. He recorded the following in his journal ‘I rode to Bradshaw House, standing alone in a dreary waste. But, although it was a cold and stormy day, the people flocked from all quarters. The house afforded hospitality and shelter for man and beast’. He made his last visit to preach at Mount Zion in May 1790, by which time he was a frail 87 year old and it was said that two friends had to assist him as his memory was failing.
It is said that a window in the Chapel Cottage once had the following etching…’Time how short – Eternity how long. CW’…Was this a reference to a Charles Wesley’s visit?

The original building was demolished and the present day chapel was opened in 1815. The only remains of the 1773 building are the sundial on the front of the present chapel and a foundation stone.
The interior of the Chapel was done by a company called Leeming & Leeming in 1881, a well-known firm who also did the interior of the Admiralty Building in London. The capacity of the building is 170 on the ground floor & 180 in the gallery on pews made of pine. The original pew rent board is on view in the vestry.

The Chapel also houses an important collection of Methodist Ceramics, bequeathed by Alderman Horace Hird, a one time Lord Mayor of Bradford. The collection consists of busts, standing figures, pulpits gothic niches, plates, plaques, teapots, jug cups and much more, mainly Staffordshire, but also some Wedgwood and Sunderland pieces. Many of the items are on permanent display in the Chapel, and the rest safely in storage. Two of the busts are of John & Charles Wesley.

There is also a collection of pictures, on display in the adjoining cottage, which depict life locally at the time of Wesley.

The Chapel Organ was built in 1892 By a Belgium company called Charles Anneessens, and is thought to number one of only six left in the world still in working order. The original Chapel Cash Book records the cost of the organ as £350, with an additional cost of £1.14s.0d to convey it. The original blower can still be seen, but theses days an electric blower is used. The organ is still working and was last overhauled in the 1980. It is however now in need of an enormous amount of money to carry out a full restoration, which is hard to justify in this day and age.

It is well worth going onto the Chapel’s excellent website for lots more information. The site also contains links to a register of monumental inscriptions and photographs of every grave known in the graveyard, which has been painstakingly produced by volunteers, together with a plan of the whole graveyard, which could be invaluable to any family history researchers. There are records of at least 50 Bancroft people buried at Mount Zion, many of them unrelated.
The site address is:
http://www.mountzionhalifax.org.uk

The Chapel has it’s own Heritage Centre which is open to visits at certain times in the Summer. Full details on it’s website, and I would urge anyone with any interest in family history to go along and see everything on view at this important place of local religious history.

James Bancroft of Ovenden & The Crimean War

From time to time I get correspondence from people who have been assisted in their research through the ‘Bancrofts from Yorkshire’ website, and here is a recent e-mail I received from Paul & David Branson, who live in Canada.

Dear Jar;
You do not know me, nor do I bear the Bancroft surname, but I owe you a great debt of gratitude. Allow me to explain;
When I was a teenager, my Grandmother gave me an old pocket watch with an inscription on the inside. All we knew was that it had been given to my Grandfather by one of his uncles, and ever since I have wanted to find out more about the man named on the watch. The inscription reads as follows:

Presented To
Grenadier James Bancroft,
by his Ovenden Friends
for his bravery
throughout the Crimean War.

Only last fall was I able to trace my family line to him, as he married Mary Ann Branson, the older sister of my Great - Great Grandfather. Ovenden is the town in Yorkshire where he was born about 1829, from parents Thomas and Jane (formerly Jagger). My brother David and I have made it our mission to uncover as much as possible about James and of late we have been very fortunate. This all culminated about a month ago when my brother David found your website and discovered the name Kate Taylor, a living person directly related to James Bancroft. This was a revelation !! We have been in touch with Kate and are now in the process of exchanging information, lots and lots of information. As you well know, in a hobby that demands much time and effort for what are often baby steps in forward progress, you can imagine the joy we are experiencing in sharing our research.
So the purpose of this Email is twofold. One is to thank you for maintaining the website to provide a means for us to have met. Secondly, we believe that after leaving the army in 1859, and before his death in 1884, James was present at a number of public functions. We suspect this because of a quote from the Newcastle Daily Journal, in an article covering the funeral of a former Grenadier Officer, Sir Henry Percy. In describing the various attendees the article said that James Bancroft was - "conspicuous as usual by the medals on his breast". This led us to think that maybe he became a bit of a local hero, and had been noticed before. If you, or any of your regular readers know anything about these events, we would love to hear about it.
with sincere thanks and best wishes
Paul Branson & David Branson


I have since had further details from Paul & David Branson as well as Kate Taylor who are all researching their ancestor James Bancroft. He had a very interesting military career, the brief details of which are as follows:


He first enlisted in Grenadier Regiment of Foot Guards on 5th August 1847, based at Halifax and at that time was 18years & 11 months of age. His description on the attestation was “ 5 feet, 9 inches high, fair complexion, grey eyes, sandy hair, with a scar on his forehead” and his occupation was entered as Woolcomber.
He was present at the battle of Inkerman where he played a prominent role in the defence of the Sandbag Battery, and the charge down the Kitspur Ridge, both defining moments in the history of British Infantry. His presence there has been documented in several books on the War, namely, Battles of the Crimean War, (W. Baring Pemberton), Heroes of the Crimea, (Michael Barthorp), and A Bearskins Crimea, (by Algernon Percy).
He served under Cpt Edwyn Sherrard Burnaby in the 2nd Battle of Inkerman, on 5th November 1854 and was wounded.
In the charge out of the Sandbag Battery there is a graphic description of the hand-to-hand fighting which took place from a report by James describing the battle and eventually of him killing five Russians ‘by the sword’….
“I bayoneted the first Russian in the chest; he fell dead. I was then stabbed in the mouth with great force, which caused me to stagger back, where I shot this second Russian and thereupon run a third one through, and brought him to the ground. A fourth and fifth Russian then came at me and ran me through the right side. I fell, but managed to rise and run one of them through, and brought him down. I killed him, or either stunned him by kicking him, whilst I was engaging my bayonet with another. Sergeant-Major Algar called out to me not to kick the man that was down, but not being dead he was very troublesome to my legs; in fact I was fighting the other over his body. I returned to the battery and spat out my teeth in my hand. I found only two”
James appears not to have been a model soldier….being absent from duty, tried, convicted and punished a number of times. After the third time he was convicted of desertion, sentenced to four months imprisonment and to be marked with the letter 'D' on his entire term of service with five years 38 days forfeited. After this episode of imprisonment he was immediately tried again and sentenced to receive a corporal punishment of fifty lashes, which was then commuted to thirty-seven days imprisonment. Some of this imprisonment was later remitted.
Still in his entering rank of Private, he was later tried for “habitual drunkenness” and served a further sentence. After this episode he seems to have behaved himself and had all his forfeited days restored to him by letter from the War Office. He eventually had a total service in the army of almost eleven years and was discharged on 11th April 1859 at the age of 30.

After his army service James seems to have settled in London and married Mary Ann Branson on 28th November 1863.
On the 1881 census he is listed as a Cab Owner.
He died on 4th December 1884 at Hanover Square London. The cause of death was described as bronchitis, no doubt exacerbated by the terrible living conditions endured during the Crimean winter of 1854-1855.

If there is anyone out there interested in more information about James Bancroft, who was born October 1828 at Ovenden and baptised 24th May 1829 at Illingworth nr Halifax, the son of Thomas Bancroft & Jane Jagger, please contact me and I will pass the details on to other researchers.

Bancrofts at "The Queen's Garden Party" !!

I know that I try and keep articles on this blog confined to family history matters….but I just cannot contain myself on this occasion and have to tell all my readers that Sue & I recently had the honour of being invited to the Queen’s Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace.
Here’s how the day went:

We arrived outside the Palace front gates on a lovely warm afternoon at the time given of 3.00 o’clock to join the queue of several hundred others waiting to get in. Most of the gentlemen were wearing lounge suits, but some were dressed in military or national dress and some had even gone to the trouble of hiring a morning suit. The ladies all wore hats of all colours, shapes & sizes, although I cannot say I saw any that were ‘over the top’ as you sometimes see at events such as Ascot.

We all passed through security and had to show identity documents to prove who we were, and were then lead into the gravel courtyard and then through the carriage arch, often seen on television when the Queen is greeting important people coming to see her. Another queue as we entered the Palace itself, and then we were inside!… lush carpets, enormous portraits hanging on the walls of monarchs of the past, and gold leaf everywhere.

We were then ushered through the Bow Room into what is called “The Garden” which has to be one of the greatest understated descriptions of all times. The gardens actually cover 40 acres of parkland and lake originally started by James I in 1609, and have since been extended and altered over the centuries by each monarch. It’s hard to believe that this setting is right in the middle of London. As we walked from the West Terrace at the rear of the palace onto the lawn there were two military bands playing light military tunes and more contemporary stuff by the Beatles and even the Whitney Houston song “ I will always love you”. It was wonderful just to stand there soaking up the atmosphere…the people all dressed up… the setting…. the music… all on a warm summer’s day….fantastic!

Nothing much was due to happen till 4.00 o’clock so we decided to have a look for something to eat & drink from a large marquee on one side of the lawn. In there was a choice of neatly cut sandwiches of different types, including, you guessed it, cucumber!.. all with the crusts taken off, together with lots of other little savoury crackers covered in such things as cheese and smoked salmon. There were also lots of dainty cakes and other sweet things covered in strawberries and cream for anyone with a sweet tooth. Of course, no alcohol was available, so it was either a soft drink or tea/coffee. Having filled ourselves up with royal grub, it was nearly 4.00 o’clock, which was the time when Her Majesty was due to appear, and at the required time things started to happen on the Palace West Terrace.

The Palace Equerries appeared, and in a discreet way gradually formed three corridors within the crowd, for the individual royal families to make their way down. Certain of the guest had also been picked out earlier to speak to the Royals, and they were positioned in the empty space within the corridors. Then the Yeomen Of The Guard came out of the Palace followed by Her Majesty, Prince Philip, Prince Charles & Camilla, who all then made their way separately down one of the three corridors. As they made their way individually down the rows of guest, they would stop to talk to the guests who had been earlier pulled out and also stopping to talk to anyone else who caught their eye. Obviously security men were hovering around, but not obtrusively, and we could all get almost within touching distance of them and listen into the conversations they were having. All the Royal Family seemed very relaxed and at ease, chatting to everyone and seemed genuinely interested in what the guests were saying to them. This whole process took about an hour and then the Royal Party headed for what is known as the Royal Tea Tent where they then spent time speaking to more people, and having something to eat and drink themselves, still in full view of everyone.

The Queen wore a white jacket over a white & red dress with a matching white hat. Prince’s Philip & Charles wore grey morning suits, and Camilla wore a peach summer dress with matching hat.

Just before 6.00 o’clock the Royal Party started to make their way back to the Palace, walking back through the crowd to the sound of the band playing the National Anthem. We all then made our way back though the Palace, retracing our steps back to the front gates, to be seen by all the London tourists with their cameras sticking though the palace railings taking photographs of us all, just in case they recognised us later as some sort of a celebrity!

Royal Garden Parties have been held at Buckingham Palace since the 1860’s, when Queen Victoria instituted what was the known as ‘breakfasts’, even though they always took place in the afternoons. There are three Garden Parties in the month of July and several thousand guests attend each one.

My main memories of the day were…The atmosphere in the Palace & the Garden on the summer’s afternoon….The sound of the Bands playing….The sight of so many people all dressed up and having a good time….and of course seeing Her Majesty and the other Royal Family members.

What a memorable day!


God save the Queen!

Martha Ellen's Poem

I have for a long time been writing poetry, just really as a bit of a hobby, and only when I have come across something that inspires me to put pen to paper.

Some time ago while doing some research at the local Reference Library, I came across an old dusty box file which had been deposited there by the family of a lady called Martha Ellen Bancroft, after her death. The box was full of lots of little things which this lady had obviously treasured throughout her life not just photographs and letters, but some personal items such as glasses and nail scissors. I began to build up a picture in my mind, while going through the contents, of what this lady must have been like, and how she led her life. I felt a little sad that this lady’s whole life now seemed to be represented by just a box full of old papers left to gather dust on a shelf in the Library, and was moved to write a poem about this experience.

Anyway, on with the story….I recently sent this poem to a local magazine, which has a family history section, and was lucky enough to have it published, and that was the end of the story as far as I was concerned…..but then out of the blue I was contacted by a lady from Cowling near Skipton, who recognised the person who the poem was written about and sent me more information about this lady and her family.

Martha Ellen Bancroft was a single lady who lived all her life in Cowling, and who with her other maiden sisters had worshipped at at Ickornshaw Methodist Chapel, and when it closed in 1985, the remaining members transfered to St Andrews Methodist Church Cowling.
In memory of the sisters, the Church later named their meeting room as “The Bancroft Room”.

The Local History Group meet monthly in The Bancroft Room at St Andrew's, and at their last meeting they read out my poem to the audience, some of whom had known Martha Ellen….. I wish I could have been there to read it out in person !!

The photograph at the top shows Martha Ellen, second from the right, as a child circa 1909. The children are thought to have been on a Whit Walk in Cowling.

Here’s the poem.

Memories of Martha Ellen

It was just a box of old papers
Left for all to see
What was hidden there waiting
Had it been left for me

So many pictures to look at
Scraps of paper, nothing else
Momentoes of some happy times
Memories now, nothing left

Her life, just a bundle of papers
Laid bare to be viewed by all
Was it a life full of interest
Or just a sorry tale

So many items to look at
So many thoughts left unsaid
Was she this quite gentle soul
Or lively and outgoing instead

All these items…..treasured memories
Made happy times, I’ll bet
Did this lady live her life
With such a gregarious set

Pictures of that bonny babe
Holding her mother’s hand
And later in life….a maiden lady
Abroad in a foreign land

How strange it feels, just looking
Invading her private life
These photos of her twilight years
Why was she never a wife

So what was her life made up of
Would she have changed if she could
Or was she content with the way it was spent
Did she live life to the full

And who will remember her passing
This maiden lady, so kind
Is she just a box of old papers
Not a second thought in one’s mind

What a Treasure Trove !

I went to visit my cousin recently, because she was clearing out some old paperwork & photos that had belonged to her late parents, my Uncle and Aunt. She knew of my interest in family history, and wondered if there was anything in the collection, which I would be interested in, and never one to turn down this sort of invitation, off I went.
Her parents were also two of my three godparents, so I did have some knowledge of their lives, and I am always a bit apprehensive about delving into old paperwork because you never know what you might find….but on this occasion I was not disappointed!
As I looked through the bag full of papers, I came across items not just from my Aunt and Uncle, but also from my Grandparents John Bancroft and Hettie Watson.
I had always known that Hettie had been a keen record keeper and photographer, and what an interesting collection this turned out to be.
There was a very dusty old photo album with lots of Hettie’s photos, showing life on the farm in the 1920-1930’s, with some pictures of the prized animals they kept at the time together with others showing the whole family on holidays in Blackpool. Then I came across a very faded old photo showing her future husband John, around the age of 20years old, which would have been about ten years before their marriage, sat on a wall with his mother Jane. I could not believe what I was looking at because for years I had been searching for any photos of my Great Grandparents Timothy Bancroft and Jane Greenwood, and here I was now looking at an image, albeit faded, of Jane, probably taken around 1900 which would the time her husband Timothy had died prematurely at the age of 58 years….what a find !
Also in the collection was an early photo of Hettie, taken when she would be about 20 years old, and shortly before her marriage…again what a wonderful picture showing her all dressed up in the photographer’s studio, having her picture taken, probably for some special occasion…maybe an imminent 21st celebration or engagement?…who knows, anyway this is the oldest picture I have of her and it shows what a beautiful and elegant woman she was at that time.
Amongst the pile of paperwork there was also the original birth certificate of 1890 for Hettie, which gave me the exact address of the house in Nelson where she was born, and her father’s occupation, which was shown as an Overlooker in a Cotton Mill. This was another piece of new information, because we had always thought her father had come from a farming background, but it now looks as though this is something he went into later in life.
There was also an original marriage certificate for John & Hettie’s wedding in 1911, again I had never seen the original before, only a modern day copy obtained from the local Register Office.
What a wonderful collection of items to find !
I’ve put all these items on the website alongside my family line details, and also put the two photos mentioned at the top of this article.

Joseph Ban'k'croft....a new theory to his origin?

As Bancroft researchers will know, there has been lots of speculation over the years about the origins of our line, which comes to a full stop at Joseph Bancroft who married Grace Greenwood. He died at Far Oxenhope, and was buried at Haworth in 1785.
A fellow researcher, Michael Northrop, contacted me recently with his thoughts, which on reflection might be correct, as the dates etc fit the period in question.
The picture opposite shows, Michael & myself together with another researcher Jeff Wright from the US, who all met a couple of years ago and are seen outside Hoyle House in Oakworth, the one time home of Joseph Bancroft’s son also called Joseph in the early 1800’s.

What started Michael thinking again was the recent article on this blog, which mentioned the habit in times gone bye of families using the letter ‘o’ to denote ‘son of’, for example “ Joe ‘o’ John ”. Michael was reminded of a one-time conversation he had with a family member who mentioned that as a child she was taught to recite a rhyme about her ancestors in time to her father tapping it out using the poker on the hearth.
The rhyme ended “Dode o’ Dode o’ Tim” [Dode being a nickname for Joe/Joseph]. This got him thinking again, and based on other information, he came up with the following possible family line:
----------------------------------------------------------------
A Joseph Bankcroft is known to have been living in the Stanbury area because this is mentioned in the Haworth Parish records when his son, Timothy was baptised on 14th June 1761. Our Joseph who died in 1785 also had his surname spelt Ban’k’croft.
Earlier that year on 5th April 1761 a John Bankcroft, also from Stanbury had his son also called Timothy baptised again at Haworth.
It is significant that both John & Joseph lived at Stanbury, and both had their surnames spelt with a ‘K. It is quite possible that they were brothers, although there is no evident to confirm this, and no record of their birth dates. We wonder if both these were the sons of a Timothy, who named their son’s after their father?
There is also an entry on the LDS website showing Joseph’s death date in 1785, and a baptism year of 1727 at Haworth, but with no further information to substantiate this.

A Timothy Bancroft lived in the Stanbury area during part of his lifetime. We know that this person died of “the decline” in his 90th year, because the parish records state this, and we also know that his first wife Sarah Holm[e]s died in Stanbury in 1760. He later remarried Grace Murgatroyd later in 1760 and she died in 1788, both marriages took place in Halifax, and both wives were later buried at Haworth Parish Church, presumably because their husband Timothy had moved over to the Keighley/Haworth area at some point in time, but was originally from Halifax area.
There is no record of Timothy’s baptism, but we can assume from his burial record that he was born circa 1700.

Moving over to Halifax area, a Tim Bancroft of Warley was married twice, firstly to a Sara [h] Wilson, who died in 1698, and then to an Elizabeth Hodg[e]son.
They had a son called Jo born in 1710 at Halifax, and it is this Joseph who we have always assumed was the Joseph who died in 1785. We are now wondering if this Tim & Elizabeth might also have had another son called Timothy, who’s baptism records are missing, and who was born in Halifax but later moved to the Stanbury area and is the same Timothy who died in 1790 somewhere in the Keighley Parish area, which covers Stanbury.
I accept that there is a lot of supposition and speculation in all this, but the dates do fit into the times we are looking at.
So to sum up the line would look as follows:


Tim Bancroft died 1711 at Warley
Married Elizabeth Hodg[e]son 1699 at Halifax

Timothy Bancroft born circa 1700 Halifax? died 1790 Keighley area, buried Haworth
Married Sarah Holm[e]s 1724 at Halifax who died at Stanbury 24/3/1760, buried Haworth

Joseph Bankcroft born 1727? Haworth area, died 1785 Far Oxenhope
Married Grace Greenwood in 1752 at Bradford.


I would welcome any comments on this subject from fellow researchers. You can e-mail me on:

jbancroft1@btinternet.com

Deborah's "eviction"

I was going through some old newspaper clippings recently, and came across this sad story of an 80 year old maiden lady called Deborah Margaret Bancroft, who after living her whole life in Aireworth Street, Keighley was forced to move out to make way for a new block of flats. The picture opposite shows Deborah tending her garden shortly before having to leave.
Aireworth Street had at one time been a row of 101 terrace houses, but from about 1959, houses in the area were deemed to be “unfit” and demolition started to enable three new blocks of flats to be built in their place. The demolition got nearer and nearer, until matters were brought to a head in 1973.
The local press wrote the following about her at the time:

“….For the past few months Miss Bancroft, of the white hair and weather-beaten face, had kept a lonely vigil in her through terrace house in Aireworth Street, last of the tenants to defy the bulldozers.
Not surprising really, as it was in that self-same house that she was born in the days of gaslights and hansom cabs. And on the face of it, was where she would have wanted to end her days amongst the surroundings she knows and loves.
With the stubbornness of age, she did not want change…and as she talked, she looked for confirmation to the framed photographs of her late mother and father in the front room.
But things came to a head on Monday when the demolition men fractured the gas main, which continued to serve the one occupied house…”

Needless to say, poor Deborah was forced to move out immediately, and had to exchange her little terrace house for one of the new flats, which were replacing Aireworth Street.
I do not know what happened after that, or how long poor Deborah continued to live in her new flat, but it must have been a real shock to her way of life, particularly at the age of 80 years.

I have more details about her family history, if anyone is interested.

Woolcombing in Yorkshire

Many of my ancestors gave their occupation as “Woolcomber”, so I thought I would do some research into what this common form of employment actually involved.

Woolcombing continued to be a Cottage Industry long after Spinning & Weaving had moved away from the home and into the mills as mechanization increased.
The work involved iron stoves being kept alight day and night in unventilated rooms in order to maintain the correct temperature for heating the combs, and these conditions, combined with the fumes given off by the stoves, contributed to the poor state of health by the workers. The Bradford Woolcombers Report of 1845 paints a horrifying picture of the conditions in which these people had lived and worked, with the average life expectancy for the combers and their families was estimated to have been 16 years of age. Another report written by Sir Henry Mitchell to the Government said, “Wool was entirely combed by hand, and the work was done to a large extent in the cottages of the workpeople. As charcoal is largely used for heating the combs, the occupation was very detrimental to health and this, combined with bad sanitary conditions, caused the average mortality to be greatly in excess of the present time”

The work was to produce long “staples” or “tops” of wool yarn needed for the worsted trade, and this was done by securing a pad comb to an upright post in the house at a height convenient to the worker, attaching wool to this comb and then combing the wool with another warm comb. The combs were carefully made with rows of steel teeth called “broitches” and were kept warm by being kept in a stove or cauldron in the room, and needed to be warm in order to soften the lanolin in the unwashed fleece. The wool would then be pulled off the comb in a long sliver. Any short slivers, called “noils”, would be used in blanket making or the coarse cloth trade. Combing out all the bits was called “jigging”, and once jigged, the wool would be drawn into long lengths called “sleevers” which were about two metres long. This would be oiled and jigged again before being drawn off the filled comb through a horn disc called a “diz”, in order to check the consistency of the sleevers.A good woolcomber could comb about 28lbs of wool a day, but this would be barely enough to support a family on it’s own, which is why many woolcombers also had a few acres of land to supplement their meagre income.

By the 18th century the woolcombers were becoming an important element in the worsted trade. Many had joined together with other families to use a communal workroom, which aided production and also made the work more bearable with others to talk to while working.
A Woolcombers Union was formed and was to become quite strong at negotiating with the local mill owners. Woolcombers, usually fathers and sons, were becoming prosperous, and in 1747 woolcombers were reported to be earning twelve to twenty shillings a week, making them the best-paid workers in the worsted trade.

In Bradford in July 1825, the Woolcombers Union went on strike for higher wages. They contended that they were working long hours for insufficient pay, and it was stated that the best workers laboured from 4am to 10pm for only fourteen to sixteen shillings a week. Opponents of the wage increase countered that the wool combing shops did not open till 5am and were closed by 8pm….a mere fifteen hour day! The strike went on for months, and was finally settled in favour of the employers with the woolcombers going back to their workshops at the same wages and hours that had brought them to strike in the first place. About this time this cottage industry started to go into decline and by about the 1840’s, due to the invention of various machines which mechanized the whole process, it moved away from being a cottage industry and into the mills.

Archbishop Richard Bancroft

I have over the years had lots of researchers contacting me regarding Archbishop Richard Bancroft [1544-1610], to see if they are related to him as a "Yorkshire Bancroft", so I thought I would put together the information I have on him.....and put on record that he was not a Yorkshire Bancroft but came from LANCASHIRE!!

He was the son of John Bancroft & Mary Curwen and baptised on 9th September 1544 at Farnworth in Lancashire. His early education was at Farnworth Grammar School, and later at Cambridge, firstly at Christ's College & then at Jesus College.
He was ordained in 1570 as chaplin to the Bishop of Ely, and then became on of the preachers at the University. In 1584 he was made rector of St Andrew's in Holborn and a year later in 1585 was appointed treasurer of St Paul's Cathedral.
On 9th February 1589 he preached at St Paul's Cross and the theme of his sermon was a passionate attack on the Puritans and is said to have "denounced the exercise of the right of private judgement, and set forth the devine right of bishops in such strong language that one of the Queen's councillors held it to amount to a threat against the supremacy of the crown"'
In June 1597 he was consecrated Bishop of London, and from that time because of the age and incapacity of Archbishop Whitgift, he was virtually invested with the power of primate and had the sole management of ecclesiastical affairs.
Queen Elizabeth died in 1603, and he was present at her death.
In 1604 Archbishop Whitgift died and he was eventually appointed his successor, albeit it after strong opposition from parliament because of a Book of Canons which he had produced for royal approval earlier in the year.
Probably his most important fact in his life was his appointment by King James to oversee the translating of a new authorised version of the Bible, which was eventually published in 1611.
Sadly Richard never saw the completion of his work on the Bible project because he died at Lambeth Palace on 2nd November 1610. In the preface of the new King James Version of the Bible, the translator refer to him as "chief overseer & task-master under his Majesty, to whom were not only we, but also our whole Church,much bound"

"Jim o' Abes" from Haworth

I was recently contacted by John Mullholland, who lives in Utah USA, and is researching his Bancroft line that descends from Abraham Bancroft who lived on an isolated farm called ‘Old Snap’ in the Keighley Parish.
Not much is known about Abraham, apart from where he lived, but he is probably the same Abraham who died in 1774 and was buried at Haworth Church.
Old Snap farm is still there today, and although it is in the Keighley Parish, it is geographically nearer Haworth, which is while people living in the area tended to use Haworth rather than Keighley for birth, marriages & deaths.
Briefly the line is as follows:

Abraham Bancroft b ?
William Bancroft b 1762 d 1823
Married 1785 to Ann Binns
Joseph Bancroft b 1789
Married 1809 to Isabella Jowett
Abraham Bancroft b 1813 d 1893
Married 1834 to Mary Pickles
James Bancroft b 1836 d 1921
Married 1860 to Maria Smith
Willie Bancroft b 1874 d 1925
Married 1896 to Mary Calver Cherry

All lived in the Keighley/Haworth areas, and Willie emigrated with his family to Australia and died in Freemantle.

While looking at this line I was reminded of an old article in the local paper, the Keighley News of 1921 that another researcher sent to me. It concerns the James Bancroft 1836-1921, who is in this line, and who became quite a famous character in the Haworth Area.
He was known as “Jim o’ Abes”, which was the local way of saying Jim, son of Abraham, and was quite a common way of referring to people at the time, particularly where there were several people with the same name.
The article in the Keighley News describes the formation of Spring Head Brass Band, which eventually became the Haworth Brass Band and how Jim came to be it’s leader for the next forty years.
Here are a few interesting paragraphs from the article:

“Mr Bancroft, better known as 'Jim o Abes', was one of the foremost bandsmen in the district , and was a cornet player in brass bands for over 60 years. When he retired in 1899 the public of Haworth presented him with a gold watch and chain in recognition of his 40 years service, and Mrs Bancroft with a silver tea and coffee service”

“ The Haworth Band passed through stirring times under Mr Bancroft’s control. One of the outstanding events was the visit to London to compete at the Crystal Palace in 1863. On their return to Haworth stories were related which ‘capped the natives’ of that day. It was said that on this memorable occasion they arrived at the railway station at midnight and took of their shoes and stockings when they started to play through the town ‘so that they did not disturb the residents who had gone to bed!’ “

“ Another amusing tale is told that one evening the band were rehearsing when a late comer, who had been listening, opened the door and exclaimed ‘My word your playing sahnds [sic] lovely’. The band put down their instruments and went outside to listen!”

Bancroft relative from Texas

The photo shows Steve Pick & myself, when he can to visit me recently at home while on holiday in Yorkshire.
Steve was born in Barrow-in-Furness and after extensive travelling around the world, settled in Texas US in the mid 1980's.
We are both decended from Joseph Bancroft who died at Oxenhope in 1785. Steve is decended from Joseph's son Timothy, and I am decended from another son, also called Joseph.
Steve's G/Grandfather, Jabez Bancroft 1833-1897, was a very interesting character who amongst his many hobbies was also a Taxidermist! After his death in 1897, his widow, Elizabeth, sold his entire collection of over 1600 items of birds, butterflies and eggs to Keighley Corporation for the sum of £130, and it was then displayed in the local museum here in Keighley.

Bancrofts ancestors in New Zealand

Whilst on a holiday to New Zealand, we met and had a meal with some distant...very distant relatives.
Corolie Luffman and her sister Jennifer are the grandchildren of Israel & Sabina [ne Bancroft] Massey.
Israel & Sabina emigrated from Burnley, England to NZ in the early 1900's.
We all had a very nice evening together at a restaurant in Auckland, NZ as the photo shows, and exchanged lots of information and photos about our Bancroft histories.
By coincidence, Corolie's husband Philip comes from Leeds in Yorkshire!

Bancroft's from Ovenden/Halifax area

Harry Bancroft, living in West Yorkshire, contacted me recently, seeking help from anyone researching Bancrofts from the Ovenden/Halifax area.
He is researching his own family line which is:
Brice Bancroft born circa 1871 Halifax.
son of George Bancroft born circa 1838 Halifax & Selina.
Can anyone offer any help with this family line?

The search for my Bancroft ancestors

The Search for my BANCROFT ancestors

How did it all start?
How did I become interested in researching my Family History?

After the death of my Grandmother, Hettie Bancroft in 1982, the family were going through the many things she had collected over her long life of 90 years, and came across a wonderful collecting of old family photographs, in a large old salt tin. She had obviously cherished this collection throughout her life. Much to everyone’s surprise, no one in the family had ever seen the salt tin before, and we therefore discovered that she had been an enthusiastic and prolific photographer of her family, her working life and surroundings in her earlier years.

Hettie, and my Grandfather John, had run the family farm, Nettle Hall, nr Thornton all their married life and had been typical farmers for most of the time, but unusually for that type of background, they had always spent a couple of weeks every year holidaying in Blackpool, as a complete change to their normal quiet way of life. The photograph collection therefore contained lots of the normal holiday snaps but also had lots of wonderful family photos of life on the farm in the 1920’s and 30’s, showing farm practices long since overtaken by progress ,such as tending to breeds of cattle no longer seen on modern farms, haymaking by hand with scythes and wooden rakes, and working the land with a team of horses.

Amongst this collection of photos was a Memorial Card to commemorate the life of John’s father Timothy Bancroft, who died in 1900 and was buried at Mount Zion Baptist Chapel at Ovenden nr Halifax.. Up until then I had never really thought much about my ancestors because as a family this was something that we never really talked about much.
It was this one item, the memorial card, which started me on my quest for family research and from it’s details we soon was able to find the long forgotten family grave at Mount Zion, which was found after several searches in a very overgrown corner of a very overgrown graveyard.

So hear goes with my Family Tree.

John Bancroft 1881-1962
My grandfather John, was born 5th March 1881 at Intake Farm, Manywells between Denholme and Cullingworth. He was the son of Timothy and Jane and the youngest of three children. By 1891 the family, had moved to Nettle Hall Farm nr Thornton, Bradford to a bigger farm of about 30 acres, and there he lived with his brother Greenwood Bancroft, two bachelor men on their own, after the death of his parents in 1900 and 1905. His sister, Sarah Hannah, having married another farmer, Edgar Drake, and moved away to another farm in the area.
The two bachelors lived in quite isolation till along came Hettie Watson, a farmer’s daughter from the adjoining farm, Black Carr, and they were married on 23rd September 1911 at St Peter’s, Bradford Cathedral . There was no honeymoon period in those days if you were a farmer with “beast to tend to” so John and Hettie only little treat to celebrate their marriage day, was a ride around Manningham Park ,Bradford in a horse drawn carriage. I can remember my grandmother telling me about the difficulties she had with her parents when she told them she was marrying “John from yonder farm” , as her parents were against the match for some reason which she never elaborated on. Anyway the marriage went ahead and the rift between Hettie and her parents must have been healed because many of the later family photographs show the whole family on holiday together at Blackpool, all dressed up in the “Sunday best” having great times on the beach.
John and Hettie spent all their working life at Nettle Hall Farm until John’s retirement from farming in the 1950’s, when they moved to New Royd Cottage nearby, where John died in 1962.
John was a keen motorist in the 1920’s and only the second person in Thornton area to buy a motor car in the village, a “Bull Nosed” Morris in about 1925. The first person in the village with a car being the local doctor.
Hettie’s father and mother , Lister and Jane Watson had an interesting background. They came to Black Carr Farm, near Thornton from a farm in the village of Wycoller, just over the Yorkshire/Lancashire border near Colne.
Wycoller is today a popular Country Park managed by the local authority, but at the turn of the century it was a very small isolated village, made up of a small tenant farms. The village itself is set in a deep valley with a stream running through it, and about this time it was decided by the local authority that a bigger water supply was required for the fast expanding Lancashire cotton towns in the area. It was therefore decided that the valley would be a good place to build a reservoir, which meant the village would have to be flooded. All the tenants were therefore served with noticed to quit, which is how Hettie’s family ended up looking for a new tenant farm, and settled at Black Carr.
After all tenants had been evicted, it was then found at the last minute that the valley had a bad geological fault thereby making it unsuitable for flooding, so the village then stood empty and derelict until the early 1970’s when the local council finally decided to turn it into a country park for the enjoyment of the local population.

Timothy Bancroft 1841-1900
Timothy was born 5th March 1841 at Warley, near Halifax and baptised at Haworth Parish Church on 13th November 1842 by the famous local minister Reverend Patrick Bronte. His parents, Timothy and Sarah seem to have not bothered registering the birth, even though this was a legal requirement after 1837.
It is not clear why Timothy was born in Warley , or Luddenden Foot as listed on some census records, and yet baptised in Haworth twelve months later, but it seems likely that his father was moving around with work, and moved back to the Haworth/ Keighley area shortly after Timothy’s birth.
His first listing in the local census records as head of household was in 1871 at Dole Farm, Back Denholme, and is listed as a Farmer with wife Jane, widowed mother Sarah, and unmarried brother Michael.
Previously he had been described as a “Delver” when listed in the 1861 census, working for his father, together with his four other brothers.
It is not known when the family moved into Dole Farm which consisted of about 21 acres, but it must have been between 1861, when the farm was listed as uninhabited on the census, and 1869 when Timothy’s father ,Timothy, died at the farm.
He had married Jane Greenwood at Bradford Parish Church on 25th July 1870.

The Marriage certificate shows Jane, as having to put a mark where the signature would normally be, which points to the fact that she must have been unable to read or write. Timothy was able to sign his name. It seems clear that Timothy never strayed far in his early life because his future wife, Jane, was the daughter of John and Hannah Greenwood who lived at the adjoining farm at Bradshaw Head, between Far Oxenhope and Denholme.
Shortly after the marriage Jane had their first child, Fred, but he died in infancy and was buried at Horkinstone Baptist Chapel, Far Oxenhope on 14th November 1971, in a grave next to Jane’s parents grave.
By 1881 Timothy had moved with his wife and three children. Greenwood b1875, Sarah Hannah b 1878 and John to Intake Farm, Manywells, Cullingworth. It must have been very difficult to sustain a living for him and his family at Intake Farm as it consisted of only thirteen and a half acres which is probably why the family moved again before 1891 to take on the tenancy at Nettle Hall Farm, Thornton, a larger farm of 30 acres.
Timothy continued to live at Nettle Hall until his death on 5th May 1900.
It is unclear as to why he was buried at the Mount Zion Chapel at Ovenden, as this is some distance from the home.It is known that the undertaker they used, resided in the village of Bradshaw , half way between Nettle Hall and the chapel, so this is the most likely reason.
His wife Jane, and later son Greenwood were also buried in the same family grave at Ovenden.
His son Greenwood, died from acute appendicitis because the condition went undetected, as it later came to light that his appendix were on the wrong side of his body to normal, thus causing the condition to go undiagnosed until it was too late.

Timothy’s wife, Jane, was actually born in the Wadsworth area of Halifax., and on the 1851 census is listed as living at Lane Bottom, Bradshaw Head, as a Worsted Factory Hand, with her parents John [born circa 1807] and Hannah [born circa 1803] Greenwood, and their other children William and Alice. Her father, John is listed as coming from Wadsworth and was a Farmer of 18 acres at Bradshaw Head. The family , like many others in the area probably migrated from the Wadsworth/ Heptonstall area using the old moor road via Crimsworth Dene, in an effort to find work or to rent a farm with enough land to support a family. Both of Jane’s parents were buried at Horkinstone Baptist Chapel, which is just down the road from where they lived at Bradshaw Head.


Timothy Bancroft 1802-1869

Timothy was born on 24/5/1802 at Hoyle House, Keighley Parish, which is actually a small row of farm cottages in the village of Oakworth.
He was baptised at Haworth Church on 26/7/1802. The baptism entry for Timothy and most of his siblings is stated as “Hole House” probably because the Minister wrote down the address as it had been spoken to him, and as old Yorkshire dialect always expressed Hoyle as Hole, he must have mistakenly thought that this is what the parents meant, when in fact they did mean Hoyle!
[I spent many long hours looking for Hole House without success, until I did in fact find it correctly listed as Holye House for one of the other children’s baptism. I then realised that I had been living no more than half a mile from the place I had been searching for years!]
He worked his early life as a Woolcomber, probably working for home, as was the normal place of work at the time.
He lived at Hight, near Harden in his early days, with his Father Joseph an brother Mathew and married Sarah Binns from Barcroft ,near Crossroads, in the Bingley Parish at Bingley Church on 26/12/1829.
Neither Timothy or Sarah could read or write, both having to mark their marriage record with a cross instead of being able to sign it.
He had been working in at Luddenden Foot , which is in Warley area of Halifax, when his son Timothy was born in 1841, but moved back to the local area by the time of Timothy’s baptism at Haworth one year later.
When his next son, Michael was born in 1845, the family were living at Spring Row, Wilsden, and Timothy was by then listed as a Delver.
It Is likely that he had moved away from the area, looking for different work because the woolcombing work was starting to no longer be a cottage industry done by hand in the home, to a job being done on machines in the new Mills springing up in the area.
By 1851 the census in that year lists him as living somewhere on Cullingworth Moor, and he is listed as a “Stone Getter”. The rest of the family appear from the census information to include wife Sarah, and his 3 eldest sons, John b 1833, Mathew b 1835 and Joseph b 1839 who are also listed as stone getters. There were also sons Timothy, listed as working in a worsted factory, and youngest son Michael, listed as a scholar.
He had moved to New Spring House [now called Field Head Farm] by 1861 where he had progressed to being a Quarry Contractor employing 6 men.
He changed jobs again in the 1860’s and became a farmer, moving to Dole Farm [now called Springfield Farm] on trough lane between Oxenhope and Denholme, and died there on11/4/1869.
The death certificate lists him as having died of “the dropsy”.
He was buried at St John’s Church , Cullingworth on 15/4/1869.
No grave stone exists, but the plot number was 11D.

After his death, Sarah lived the rest of her life at Lodgefield, in Cullingworth and died 18/6/1877.
She was also buried in the same grave as her husband at St John’s.


Joseph Bancroft 1755-1838
Joseph was baptised 31/5/1755 at Haworth Church and is listed as being from Far Oxenhope on the parish record.
He married twice, first to Judith Smith, in 1784 at Bradford church and at which time he was living at Leeming, Far Oxenhope, where their first four sons, William b1784, Abraham b 1785, Joseph b 1787 and Jabez b 1789 were then all born.
He was a weaver by trade, probably working at home with a handloom, as was a common occupation in the area at this time, and possible did a little farming to help sustain his family.

Shortly after the his four son, Jabez, was born in 1789, his wife Judith died at Far Oxenhope of what is described of “ the gripes”when only 35 years old.

He married again on 13/101794 to Ellen Bradley, known as Nelly [daughter of John Bradley], at Haworth church.
Both are listed “of this parish” and both left there marked cross on the parish register, being unable to read or write.

They then moved away from Oxenhope to Hoyle House [listed as Hole House in most of the parish records[, which is in the village of Oakworth in the Keighley parish, where they had eight sons and three daughters, to add to Joseph’s four sons by his first marriage.
The children were Grace b1797, Jonas b 1797 d 1801, Betty b/d 1799, Mary b 1802, Timothy b 1802, John b 1803, Michael b 1805, George b 1810, Isaac b 1812, Mathew b 1808, Benjamin b 1814.

In 1803, Britain declared war on France, and as there was the threat of invasion by Napoleon, it was felt necessary by the government to prepare the active male population between 17-55 years of age for military training. All 1118 males from the Keighley area were therefore listed by name and occupation but without an address on The “Craven Muster Roll” , and Joseph although by then 48 years old but still liable for service, is listed there as a weaver.

By 1814, when their youngest son Benjamin was born, the family had moved again just a small distance over the River Worth to Greenwood Vale, which is in the Bingley Parish.

Ellen [Nelly] died in 1828 aged 58 years, and Joseph died 10/4/1838 at the home of his son Mathew at Harden Hights.. His death certificate lists him as a weaver of 83 and three quarter years old, and the cause of death is listed as “old age”!!

Both were buried at Haworth Church by Rev Patrick Bronte, but there are no gravestones to commemorate this.


Joseph Bankcroft ?-1785

Nothing is known about Joseph’s birth detail and no baptism record has been confirmed. It may well be that the original parish records have been lost, or alternatively it may be that he was never baptised for some reason, such as illegitimacy etc.
There is a record of a “Jo”, son of Timothy from Warley [near Halifax] baptised in April 1710.
There are also entries of a Joseph of Nothurum [sic Northowram near Halifax], using Thornton Church to baptise his children in the 1720’s and bury his wife, Mary. This Joseph is described as a Weaver, living in nearby Denholme, and could be the father of the above Joseph, although there is no record locally of a Joseph having a son with the same name.
Joseph [d1785] had 3 sons, John, Joseph and Timothy and is most likely to have been a weaver by trade, as most people living in the Far Oxenhope area at that time, were involved in this cottage industry.
Manorial records taken on 11th August 1777 have an entry listing Joseph as living at Far Oxenhope as a cottage tenant of a John Jowett.

His wife, Grace, who he married at Bradford Church on 10/2/1751, was listed as coming from Thornton on the parish records. She died at the age of 64 years of what was described at the time as “the decline”.

Joseph was buried at Haworth Church on 28/7/1785. There is no gravestone to commemorate the spot where he and his wife are buried.
It is noticed from the Haworth parish burial record that the name is spelt with a “K”. This may be a mistake by the minister, entering the details at that time, or it could also be the correct spelling at that time. There are other BanKcrofts listed in the Halifax area, around this time, which may be a clue to where this line of the family originated from.