The Closure of Keighley Magistrates Court

I seldom write articles involving myself, because the purpose of this blog is to write material about Bancrofts who have lived in the past, with details of how they lead their lives, but recently I was involved in an event which I consider will be an important moment in future local history, and so the details of the event should be recorded for future generations of researchers.

I have been a magistrate on the Keighley Bench since 1988, and Chairman of the Bench for the last 3 years. As part of that duty, I have had to be involved recently with the closure of the Keighley Magistrates Court, situated in Bingley, and the merger of our bench with the larger one in Bradford, to form a new Bench called "The Bradford and Keighley Bench"

 The closure of our courthouse took place on 23rd December 2011, and here is part of the speech I made at the Closing Ceremony:

"Today is an important day in local history…..the closure of the Keighley Magistrates court, sitting here in Bingley.

Justice was administered in both towns going back hundreds of years. In Keighley initially on one day a month by the Town's Court Barons at the Devonshire Arms Inn, before moving to the first courthouse on North Street in 1831. The formation of the Keighley Borough Magistrates, is recorded in a book on display here today, having taken place in 1899 when the prominent people of the town at that time were brought together to form the first bench of Keighley magistrates."

 Minutes of the first meeting of the Keighley Borough Bench

                                                                              
"Bingley’s justice can be traced back to the 16^th century when part of the Old White Horse Inn was used as a court, with the cellar used as a prison cell and the stocks in use in the Inn’s courtyard….indeed the stocks still have pride of place just down the road from here in the town centre.

This is a sad day… sad for local people and sad for local justice. Ask any magistrate or solicitor in this court today, what is one of the most important things about dealing with justice, and they will tell you that it should be local justice, by local people, for local people. There are many benefits to magistrates being seen to be from the local community and administering justice with a local knowledge of the problems within the area in which they live, and of the people within that area. With this latest round of closures, not only will defendants have to now make their way to Bradford in future, but also victims and witnesses of crime as well, and I am sure some of them will now decide that it is just not worth the inconvenience….and justice will therefore be more difficult to administer because of these changes.

Over a year ago, consultation started on court closures and despite good support from our local MP’s and a campaign by the Keighley News to keep our court open, the decision was made to close our court together with 92 other magistrate courts and merge the work with the adjoining areas….93 Magistrate's Courts is almost a third of the total in England and Wales so you can imagine the size of such a reorganisation. As well as Magistrate's Courts, a large number of County Courts are also to be closed at the same time. I feel we are witnessing the biggest changes in the structure and management of our legal system, certainly in my time on the bench, and I suspect that much more is to come with the recent announcement that there is now to be a review of the management structure of the courts service throughout the country.

We have always had court  closures and area mergers…. When I was appointed in the 1980’s there were over 600 magistrates courts in England and Wales….indeed our own bench came about by the merger of the Keighley & Bingley areas in the 1970’s, but we have never seen anything on this scale before. When this latest round of closures is complete we will be left with only about 240 magistrates courts in the whole of England and Wales.

I think everyone accepts that changes had to occur due to the big reduction in work that every court in the country is facing, and also because of the large budget cuts that the Ministry of Justice has to make, due to the state of the country’s finances. We also now live in times when we are expected to get more out of less, but our court had one of the highest levels of utilisation in the area, so it is a great pity that it chosen for closure.

As well as difficulties for future defendants, victims and witnesses, it is also going to mean difficult time for our magistrates, with nearly 100 of us now has to make our way to Bradford regularly to sit in court. We should always remember that magistrates are volunteers, giving their time for no financial reward, but who are just trying to be good citizens, and who want to put something back into society and make our area a better place for everyone to live in.

Politicians of today talk about the “Big Society”…which means people giving up some of their time to do voluntary work for the benefit of others in their community…well magistrates are a perfect example of this….our magistrates sat here collectively for the equivalent of over 2000 full days in the last 12 months….a fact that I think is not always fully understood by some of the people at the top making these decisions. 
Dealing with justice in this country would be unmanageable without magistrates, giving their time freely, to deal with over 90% of all the court work in this country.

However we now need to look to the future… the decision to merge has been made to merge, and we are where we are, so we need to move on. Many hours of meetings have taken place to make sure that the new Bradford and Keighley Bench incorporates the best practises of both benches…it’s a new beginning and I am sure that our group of nearly 100 magistrates together with the 200 plus Bradford Magistrates will do their very best to make sure things run smoothly.

With any merger, change and compromise is inevitable, not just for Keighley Magistrates but for the Bradford ones as well, who have also seen big changes in the way they operate from next year. Magistrates are used to change…..it seems that we are continually having to deal with new legislation, which involves changes and retraining, so I am confident we can cope with this change.

They will be challenging times ahead….…it’s a new beginning but I am sure that our group of magistrates together the Bradford ones will do their very best to make sure it is a success.
And so I have one last duty to perform as Chairman of Bench, and it is to announce with a heavy heart that.....The Keighley Magistrate's Court is now closed." 

And here's a nice letter I received recently from The Rt.Hon. Lord Justice Goldring, Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales.
 

 Here is what the local newspaper had to say about all this: 

Present at the ceremony was the High Sheriff West Yorkshire, Mr Anthony Grant OBE, and the Deputy Mayor of Bradford, Mrs Valerie Slater

Anthony Grant OBE

Mrs Valerie Slater

                                                           
 The Bench recently presented me with this gavel to be used at this closing ceremony, which is an item I shall always treasure.  The inscription on the box says:

"Presented to Jarlath Bancroft J.P.

The last Chairman of the Keighley Bench

2009-2011

In appreciation" 

Hand Loom Weaving in Yorkshire

A Hand-Loom Weaver

There are many examples of 18th and 19th Century Bancroft families earning a living from hand loom weaving in their homes, before the invention of machinery, which made production on a large scale possible in the mills, and spelt the demise of this cottage industry.

My G/G/G Grandfather Joseph Bancroft [1755-1838] was a hand loom weaver all his life. He had 4 children with his first wife, Judith Smith, who died at the early age of only 34 years, and then went on to have a further 11 children with his second wife Ellen [Nelly] Bradley. Even at the time of his death at the grand old age of 82 years was still listed as a weaver. [An interesting fact on his burial record at Haworth, is the signature of Patrick Bronte, the famous vicar at Haworth at the time.] You will notice his cause of death on the death certificate was given as 'Old Age' which I guess is understandable, bearing in mind that there cannot have been many people who reached the age of eighty-two and three-quarters in 1838 !

Many Bancroft families, who were involved with farming, also had a hand loom in the house to supplement their income, particularly in the winter months, when there was a large family to feed and cloth. I wrote an article some time ago called ‘Auction at Fairplace Farm’ which  describes the contents of an Isaac Bancroft’s farm, called Fairplace near Cowling. When the contents of his farm was auctioned off in 1841, as well as all the usual farming implements he also had three looms!....which shows how the family all helped out to bring a bit more money into the household.

 In 1909, one individual, who had made a living from farming as well as hand loom weaving, looked back at his childhood, growing up on the Wadsworth hillside near Halifax in the 1830s, and wrote this romantic account about his earlier way of living, and then the sadness, long after it had disappeared to make way for a life working in a mill: 

“The weavers as a class were poor, but they had their good times. The dwellings being on rising ground where they got the early sunshine in its splendour and where the atmosphere was not fouled by the smoke of the factory. There was no bell to ring them up at four or five o’clock in the morning nor again at noon, nor were they bound to stay late at night; there was freedom to start and stay away as they cared.
The later years of the forties [1840's] were a very acute time for hand-loom weavers. Our house was on the spur of the hill, and towards the south, from it we could see the whole countryside and the village of Heptonstall to the west, the farmsteads and cottages about them to the north - west with here and there an occasional row of cottages. The summer’s sun would shed its genial rays on my patches of corn fields, nearly all oats. The same sun in winter just before setting, shone over the snow and the wide expanse. Then there was the clear cold frost clear from the fog of the valleys, and the reflection from the windows of the weavers’ cottages were much brighter than the brightest electric light in our large towns nowadays, but it was a time to make the flesh tingle and hunger to feel all the keener. The same windows which used to be lighted after dark from within were now in darkness, and many of the houses unoccupied, the hand wool comber and the hand loom weaver are not there. In the walks that one might take in the lanes and footpaths, old faces are not to be met. The old families are not known, nor have been for some time. The sound of song and the shuttle is departed.”

A Weaver's Cottage

The arrival of power looms appears to have been relatively slow because by 1838, Yorkshire had only 688 power looms for woollen weaving. One of the reasons for this is that it was hard to adapt cotton power looms to woollens due to the fact that  the loose spin on the wool yarn, made it liable to break more easily. The weaver had to retie the threads by hand and the power loom could not work any faster than a hand loom weaver if the threads broke often. Initially, it was felt that the labour saving aspects of a power loom for woollens was not worth the expense of the new machinery.
However, because the area grew so rapidly in woollen and worsted manufacturing it eventually became the place in which to invest in the new Mills and machinery . Although the industrialisation of the woollen industry in Yorkshire came more slowly than in the cotton industry in Lancashire, it did eventually come. When industrialisation arrived in Yorkshire there was an additional advantage. Yorkshire had and abundance of both coal and water power which were needed to run the new factories.

The immediate effect of the industrial revolution on hand loom weavers was beneficial because the increase output of yarn from the introduction of new spinning machines meant that the weaver had more raw materials and were therefore in greater demand to turn it into a finished produce. They could therefore demand a higher wage, but wages eventually fell mainly because of three reasons:

1. The hand-loom weaver was forced to compete with the increases in the availability of manpower as a result of the increases in the population, which started to rocket in the first part of the 19th century.
2. The eventual transformation to the use of power looms in the mills.
3. The weaver who worked at home had little or no bargaining power when changes were made in wages or the introduction of new machinery

Initially the introduction of the  power looms was patchy because the early machines were not able to produce as good a quality cloth as could be woven by hand, but as the machinery evolved power loom production took over from the handmade process from the 1830s onwards. Wages for hand loom weavers were lowered and the amount of time between one job and the next could be days or weeks.

In the wake of a typhoid epidemic in the winter of 1843-4, a doctor called Robert Howard wrote about medical and sanitary conditions in  an area of Hebden Bridge called Slack. He lived at no. 15 New Road in Hebden Bridge and was paid by the poor law guardians to attend the sick. Howard’s local interests included medical and sanitary improvements in the town and district, but he was also concerned about the loss of dignity suffered by hand-loom weavers now forced to rely on charity, and living in desperate conditions.
However, the poverty of the hand loom weavers became of national concern. There are records of riots in Skipton, and nearby Colne by hand loom weavers, as the work dried up and their plight became ever more serious. The hand loom weavers tried to say that their jobs were safeguarded by statutes dating from Tudor times, but mill owners argued that these laws were archaic. Parliament had appointed a Select Committee as long ago as 1803 and again in 1806 to investigate the issues, but it was not until 1909 that the Government repealed all the old legislation. 

Only in the 1840's, in the woollen industries, did the power looms in the factories competed fully and directly with hand looms. Until that time the two existed side by side, with the hand loom weaver reduced to being an auxiliary of the factory, but not yet driven out of existence by competition. Their role was to take up the slack in boom times, and to bear the first brunt of recession. They also acted as a check on the wages of power loom weavers, most of whom were women. The plight of the weavers is a vivid illustration of how helpless a section of labouring men could be when caught between the relics of the domestic system and the full force of competitive industrialisation.

Haworth's main industry during the early Victorian period was mainly weaving, and there was said to be 1,200 hand looms working at the time the Brontes were writing. Industrialisation then grew quickly in the area. Mills were built to accommodate modern machinery that was replacing the hand loom.

As a separate industry, the move to weaving in the mills instead of as a cottage industry, brought prosperity to those individuals involved in the making of weaving shuttles, and I wrote an article some time ago about the 'Bancroft Shuttlemakers' who saw their business prosper as more and more mills set up with the latest weaving machinery, which required large volumes of weaving shuttles.

In 1910 a Timmy Feather of Stanbury, who was known locally as the the "last of the Worth Valley Hand Loom Weavers", died. Timmy lead a simple life living on a diet of only porridge oats, and became something of a celebrity. He would get many visitors arriving at the door of his little cottage to see for themselves how he worked at his hand loom, practising his dying skill of hand loom weaving. His loom and accessories is now on display at Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley.

Timmy Feather weaving at his Hand Loom

Joseph Greenwood Bancroft 1889-1915

Joseph Greenwood Bancroft

I came across the following story about Joseph Greenwood Bancroft, who was killed in the first world war, and although born in Manchester, Lancashire, moved  to Yorkshire with his widowed Mother and the rest of the family after the early death of his father, who was also called Joseph Greenwood Bancroft.

Joseph Parents, Joseph and Mary Ann were both born in Yorkshire, Joseph from Stanbury near Haworth, and Mary Ann from Grassington near Skipton, and it looks as though Joseph [snr] moved over to Arwick near Mancheser, with a job, some time in the 1870’s because census records show him living with adopted parents in Sutton Yorkshire in 1871. It is pretty clear from the records that he was illegitimate, so there is no record of a father but it seems quite possible that his mother was Ann Bancroft b 1821, the daughter of Joseph and Isabella [nee: Jowett], because she was listed as a single girl and working in the area at that time, which was well away from the rest of her family who were living in an area called Cragg Bottom, near Stanbury, which although nearer the Haworth Parish area was geographically in the Keighley Parish.
By 1881 Joseph[snr] was working for a Corn Dealer and living at Ardwick, and when he died in his early 50’s, the family then all moved back to Sutton in Yorkshire , where Joseph [jnr] got a job as a shop assistant in the local Co-Op shop.

When war was announced in the autumn of 1914, the young men of the nation came from towns and villages to take the King's shilling and to offer their dedicated services in defence of their homeland. Young men flooded into the recruiting centres in answer to their nation's call for young manhood.

Prior to enlistment, Joseph Bancroft was employed as assistant manager in the grocery department at the Sutton Mill Co-operative Society.

At the outbreak of the Great War, Joseph Bancroft responded to the call and volunteered to enlist into the 1/6th battalion Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment) in September 1914. His regimental number was 2713 and he commenced with the rank of Private, and  entered the war on 14th April 1915 when the 1/6^th battalion West Riding Regiment landed at Boulogne in France.

The West Riding Regiment raised 24 battalions during WW1 including the 1/6th (Territorial Force) battalion at Skipton on 4th August 1914.

The Western Front was the name applied to the fighting zone in France & Flanders, where the British, French, Belgian and later American armies faced that of Germany.

It was marked by a system of trenches and fortifications separated by an area known as "No Man's land". These fortifications stretched 475 miles and precipitated a style of fighting known as trench warfare. From the moment the German Army moved into Luxembourg on 2nd August 1914 to the Armistice on 11th November 1918, the fighting on the Western Front in France & Flanders never stopped. Just as there were quiet periods, there were also the most intense, savage, huge-scale battles the world has ever known.

Having been in France for only 4 weeks, Joseph wrote the following letter to a friend back home about his experiences in the trenches so far, which was published in a local newspaper on  21 May 1915.

SUTTON MAN TALKS WITH THE GERMANS

In a letter to a friend, Private Joe Bancroft, who before the outbreak of war was employed in the grocery department at the Sutton Mill Cooperative Society, writes:- "I have only seen one German yet. I had a pot at him but he 'bobbed'. The Germans use the periscope a good deal,and we do the same.

 The troops opposite I fancy are Saxons. They are so quiet. The last lot were the Prussian Guards, a very noisy lot. One day some of our fellows shouted across to their trenches, "To ------ with the Kaiser". The answer came back, "Yes, we say the same. I wish I was back in London." In referring to the Christmas incident, Private Bancroft says it was no fable. "One of our soldiers I was speaking with said it would have happened at Good Friday, but their officer said 'No, you would be having tea with them.' Last week we were shelled in our billets and they did some damage. Our aeroplanes seem to do far more work than those of the Germans, also our artillery. The aviators are very plucky. The buildings around here are more or less shelled, and look very dilapidated. It is a shame to see nice farms ruined. If the people over yonder saw them they would waken up and do their part to get this job finished. You cannot understand what war is like until you are in it. I am about three miles from Belgium and if my chance comes, I will do my bit for poor Belgium. The tales about the German treatment are all too true."

6 months after arriving in France, Pte Joseph Greenwood Bancroft was killed in action on the Western Front on the 22nd October 1915 He was 26 years of age.

The local newspaper reported his death on 29 October 1915 as follows:

"DEATH OF PTE. J. BANCROFT OF SUTTON"

2On Tuesday morning, Mrs. Bancroft, of Holme Bridge, Sutton, received news that her son, Pte. Joseph Bancroft, had been killed in the trenches on Saturday morning last. Pte. Bancroft was very widely known in the district, and his death is deeply deplored. Prior to joining the 1st Duke of Wellington's, he was employed in the Sutton Mill Co-operative grocery stores, where his services were greatly valued by the committee. His courtesy and desire to please were acknowledged and appreciated by its members. Although not a member of the Sutton Baptist Church, he was a regular worshipper, and took a great interest in the Young Men's Bible Class, being treasurer at the time of joining the army. He is the first connected with the Baptist Sunday School and Church to lay down his life. His comrades at the front are greatly distressed at his death. The following has been received by his mother, with whom great sympathy is felt:- "Dear Madam, - I am sorry to inform you that your

son, Private J. Bancroft, was killed in the trenches yesterday (Saturday). He was a good soldier and always did his work well, and a great favourite with both officers and men. You will be glad to know

he suffered no pain. Please accept the deepest sympathy of officers and men of the A Company, 1st Duke of Wellington's Regiment. -Capt. Nicholson."

Memorial Card [source Andrew Monkhouse]

Article Date: 05 November 1915

SUTTON - THE LATE PRIVATE JOE BANCROFT

Memorial Service at the Baptist Church

On Sunday morning last, a service to the memory of the late Pte. Joe Bancroft, of the 1st 6th Duke of Wellington's Regiment, who was killed in the trenches on Saturday, October 23rd, was held in the Baptist Church, the pastor (Rev. F.W. Pollard) being the preacher. The large congregation was representative of all denominations in the district, there being present the committee of the Sutton Mill Cooperative Society, his fellow workers (shop assistants), members of the Bible Class, for who Pte. Bancroft acted as treasurer, and the 2nd Sutton Troop of Boy Scouts. The service opened with the hymn 'Nearer my God to Thee', followed by the anthem 'There is a land', under the leadership of Mr. Joseph Overend. The story to the children of heroic deeds done by the Red Cross Society was very appropriate to the occasion. Mr. Pollard based his remarks upon the text from John xv., 13, 'Greater love hath no man than he lay down his life for his friends'.

His said: "We are met here this morning to pay tribute and grateful respect to the memory of our dear friend who has been killed upon the battlefield, and your presence in such numbers shows how deeply we all feel his loss. None of us realised it, that he would be taken. It seemed the last thing in our thoughts that his brief, bright life should come so soon to a tragic end. He is the first of our brave lads to fall, and when we heard the news our hearts were wrung with anguish: all of us loved him. He was so bright and cheerful in his disposition and a favourite of all who knew him, young and old alike. He bears a name that we shall remember with thankfulness as long as life lasts. The name of one who was faithful and true, to the highest and best that was in him, and in the spirit of our text, cheerfully giving himself for those he loved and for those who called him friend. In one of the earlier letters received by Mr. Pollard he wrote: "Before I enlisted I counted the cost, I studied about it no little, and now, after six months of hard training, if it was to do now I should just do the same; in fact I don't see how I could do any other way. In your letter you referred to Mr. Wilson's lads (Lothersdale) being fairly in at it. It has to be hoped they will come through. If we don't come back, it's a good cause we are fighting for, and that's worth something." In another letter, said Mr. Pollard, he showed the true Christian spirit. In answer to Mr. Pollard's letter he wrote: "As regards billet life, it is best to be in at it to know. We have all sorts here, all good-hearted chaps, and so long as you keep straight I think you help others who have need of it. Some might laugh at you occasionally, but then . . . . .It does not bother me." "Here," said Mr. Pollard, "you have a spirit of courage manifested in camp life." In another letter which Mr. Pollard referred to as showing the self-sacrifice of the man, he wrote: "A few months ago I never thought I should be in the army, but things have moved fast since then . . . . As regards credit being given to us it is not us, but I think it is the mothers that should have it." "These extracts," continued Mr. Pollard, "speak more powerfully than any words a man could; you all knew him and these words represent the man. He met his death while playing the handyman, preparing a meal for his comrades, and he died while on an errand of loving service. Our friend was steadfast to the duties to which he had given his life, and today we lift up our hearts in gratitude to God for the life lived, and we pray that his removal may be sanctified. He entered this conflict because he heard the call of duty. We pray this example may lead us all to the same fidelity and to manifest the same spirit, which was the very spirit of Christ Himself who loved us and gave himself for us." Mr. Pollard closed his address with a special appeal to his congregation to live for the highest and the best. The service closed with the beautiful hymn 'Brief life is here our portion', and the playing of the 'Dead March'.

Talana Farm War Cemetery

Talana Farm was one of a group of farm houses named by the army from episodes of the South African Boer war. The cemetery was begun by French troops in April 1915, taken over by the 1st Rifle Brigade and 1st Somerset Light Infantry in June 1915, and was used by fighting units until March 1918. The Talana Farm Memorial in Belgium bears the names of 529 Commonwealth servicemen of the Great War buried or commemorated in the cemetery, including the grave of  Joseph Greenwood Bancroft.

 Joseph Bancroft was posthumously awarded the 1914/15 Star, British War Medal & Victory Medal

The family grave is still there at Sutton Baptist Chapel, where Joseph’s parents were married, and are buried, and where he was also a regular worshipper. The gravestone has an inscription  about their son Joseph’s death .

I an grateful to the following websites for some of the information in this article.

Andrew Monkhouse and the Sutton-in Craven Village website on:
http://www.sutton-in-craven.org.uk/
Also the Craven's Part in theGreat War website on:
www.cpgw.org.uk

Isaac Bancroft saved Ickornshaw Moor !

Ickornshaw Shooters outside the Round Hut - circa 1890

Ickornshaw Moor is the area of moorland above Cowling village, including the hamlet of lckornshaw, right up to the Lancashire border with the becks acting as natural boundaries. It is beautiful moorland, with ever changing scenery through the seasons, traversed by footpaths and bridleways, which can still be enjoyed today.

History tells us that Ickornshaw Moor is included in the wastes or commonlands of the manor of Ickornshaw. In or about 1565 Richard Tirrell, Lord of the Manor at that time, sold the tenants of the manor their ancient holdings, making them freeholders. In 1583 his son, Edward Tirrell, conveyed the Lordship or Manor of Cowling, including the commons, moors, and wastes of moors to those freeholders. The freeholders held the land in undivided shares of 304 equal parts., in proportion to the amount of rent each had previously paid. There is a deed to this effect dated 1657. There were originally 24 freeholders, but through the years these rights were passed down through generations or sold, so the number of freeholders became much greater and widespread as people moved further afield.

Ickonshaw Moor is reputed to be an excellent grouse moor, and villagers have enjoyed shooting rights across it for many years. These men were known as the Shooters to begin with, eventually becoming Cowling Gun Club in 1975. Voluntary subscriptions were collected to pay for the upkeep of a new stone shooting hut used by the Shooters, and built in 1902 on the site of an earlier smaller Round Hut [See this in the picture at the top], and the official opening of the new Stone Hut is shown below.

The new Stone Hut grand opening - 1902

And here is a more modern picture of the Stone Hut from the rear, with the addition of a lean-to, built onto it in more recent times.

Ickornshaw Moor and Stone Hut 

 There have been many disputes over Ickornshaw Moor through the years, some concerned with boundary disputes, some with shooting rights - which have been staunchly defended by the shooters. In August 1892 almost the entire village congregated on the moor on the glorious 12th to show a united front against Messrs. Pepper and Houldsworth, who had purchased rights to shoot from a minority of villagers in order to extend their existing rights to Emmott Moor which runs adjacently. This show of strength was too great and, despite one more attempt to shoot over the moor and several visits to court, shooting rights remain within the village and a Gun Club is still in existence today.

Back in 1880, the following articles, regarding shooting rights, appeared in the local newspaper.

 Alleged Game Trespass at Cowling Petty Sessions, Skipton,     

                                           August 21st 1880

The following men were summoned for game trespass on the moor at Cowling.

Smith Shuttleworth, Painter, Cowling.
William Teal, Farmer, Colne.
Blackburn Robinson, Keighley.
Thomas Burry, Manufacturer, Nelson.
Richard Roberts, Manufacturer, Nelson.
William Smith, Silsden.
John Jackson, Silsden.
Isaac Atkinson, Farmer, Cowling.
Wright Greenwood, Woolsorter, Haworth.
George Binns, Warp Dresser, Cowling.
James Stephenson, Warp Dresser, Cowling.
William Wilkinson, Bradford William Turner, Bradford
Isaac Bancroft, Stonemason, Cowling.

 From the statement of the prosecuting solicitor, it appears that the right of shooting on the moor in question is disputed, but that an arrangement has been come to that all summonses on the defendants should be withdrawn with the exception  of that for Isaac Bancroft. The defendants promised in open court not to trespass again and to pay costs.

 Mr Neill, who appeared for the defendants, ,who said that they were perfectly willing to do so, as the person who gave them liberty to shoot game, he found. had not the right to do so. The promises having been made, the defendants were dismissed.

 The hearing of the case against Isaac Bancroft, who is said to have a right to shoot on the moor, was adjourned.

A Question of Shooting Rights on lckornshaw Moor,
Cowling Petty Sessions at Skipton, September 4th 1880
Judge T.H Ingham in the Chair

 Isaac Bancroft, Stonemason of Cowling, was summoned for trespass in search of game on the moor near Cowling. Mr Nowell, solicitor of Burnley prosecuted and Mr Neill represented the defendant. From the opening statement on Mr Nowell it would appear that fourteen persons had been summoned for the offence, and at the session a few weeks ago, thirteen of the defendants had apologised in open court, and in paying expenses, the summons were withdrawn.

 The present defendant claimed to have a right to shoot over the moor in question and declined to adopt the course adopted by the other defendants. In consequence, the case was adjourned until today, in order that enquiries might be made as to the question of right.

 The prosecution stated that the people residing in the district claimed to have a right to shoot over the moor, whereas they had no right at all, and in the second place most of the persons claiming a right had signed an agreement with Mr Foulds of Burnley, which contained a paragraph to the effect that persons would be prosecuted for trespassing on the moor after that time.. In spite of that, the defendant went upon the moor, and it would be up to Mr Neill to show that the defendant had the right, which he claimed, to go on the moor and shoot game.. As far as Mr Nowell, the prosecutor could learn, the defendant claimed the right through some deed left by his father [James Bancroft of Fairplace Farm], and if such was the case, probably the deed would be provided. The simple statement that the defendant was the owner of the common property would not he sufficient to claim.

Mr Neill, defending, said that the conveyance of the property under which they claimed a right was made in 1841, and his client had shot on the moor for a period of thirteen years, and his brother for two years before him without any interference from anyone.

James Bancroft, the defendant's father, stated that he took from his father a plot of land at lckornshaw on which eight cottages were afterwards erected. The tenant had the right to take Ling, Bedding, etc from off the moor adjoining.
Isaac Bancroft stated that he had shot on the moor for thirteen years without any interruption. He got his licence to do so off his father.
Mr Nowell, at some length, contended that the evidence did not prove a reasonable claim, and in support of this quoted various decisions in the superior courts.

After the matter had been fully argued, it was decided by the Bench that it was not a case for them to deal with, and the summons was dismissed

His Honour Judge Ingham, in giving his decision added that the people of the Hamlet of Ickornshaw had a "JUST RIGHT TO THE MOOR". That expression of opinion would seem to be enough, as nothing more was hear of this attempt. It would seem by his actions the Isaac Bancroft "HAD SAVED THE MOOR FOR THE INHABITANTS OF THE VILLAGE".

The right to freedom of access to Ickonshaw Moor remains within the village, and moorland life continues much as it always has, and the picture below shows the Ickornshaw Freeholders having a brew outside their stone hut after a day's shooting in 1936 [courtesy of the Cowling Moonrakers website]

Ickornshaw Freeholders - 1936

Isaac Bancroft let a very interesting life,and I wrote about him and his skills as a stonemason and builder in a previous article, called: 'Quarrymen of Cowling'


[I am grateful to Mr Dennis Harker of Cowling and the Moonrakers of Cowling website for some of this information]

"Lewd & Obscene Entertainment" at the Lecture Hall

“Strange Proceedings at the North-Street Lecture Hall” was the heading  of an article in the Leeds Mercury Newspaper of 3^rd September 1878 and described the lively activities in that establishment ….activities, which today would hardly warrant a few lines in any newspaper, but in 1878 were described as “most lewd and obscene entertainment”

The case was heard in Leeds against an elderly man, William Pratt, a 69 year old cloth-dresser, who was charged with selling beer without a license and managing a disorderley house, along with Edwin Bancroft, a 40 year old labourer of St Peter’s Street, who was charged with assisting in the management of a disorderly house.

.

The police stated that acting on information received by them, they had cause to visit the Lecture Hall on North Street Leeds at about 12.50 in the morning, and this is how the newspaper describes the scene they were met with when they arrived!

“The door was fastened, but on making use of the password “Rachel”, the prisoner Bancroft admitted them. On proceeding upstairs to the large hall they found about a hundred persons assembled….three women, and the rest men. About twenty or thirty of the men however were dressed in female’s cloths. There were two dressing-rooms and persons were going in and out of them. Some of the men were only partly clothed, and one man who was dancing in the middle of the room, had only a cloak and girdle on. As he danced the cloak flew back and exposed his body. Whilst dancing, one of the men who was dressed as a woman purposely fell and a number of other men threw themselves upon him whilst on the ground, and indecent familiarities took place. During the dances, the dancers kissed and conducted themselves indecently towards each other. The prisoner Pratt was in the room the whole time, and Bancroft came in occasionally. A large stone bottle could be seen which would hold about six gallons of beer, and there were glasses about containing beer. There was also a box present, which contained spirits, gin and whiskey.”

The prosecution requested a remand in custody until the following week when the case was due to be heard for further evidence to be obtained, “as the particular of the case were too monstrous to admit of such a thing”, the defence solicitors requested bail on the defendants own recogniances…..both prisoners were remanded to the following week, bail being refused.

The full details of the case were heard the following week when Edwin Bancroft’s defence stated that The North Street Lecture Hall was normally let to a society known as the Secularists’ Society, who then sublet it for lectures, music and dancing etc and that some time ago some people engaged it for a dance. Bancroft was the hall-keeper engaged by the Secular Society, and his only duties were to make sure the hall was opened and then closed when a function was over. He had no power whatsoever in directing what was going on, and consequently could not have interfered. He had only been at the door a few minutes when the police arrived because Mr Pratt was away for a few minutes. Pratt had told him that he was to let no one in without a ticket or a shilling, and to let no one out without giving them a password, by which they could re-enter

More evidence was hear from various witnesses, and at the end, the Stipendiary Magistrate Mr Bruce stated that Pratt was in management of the affair, with Bancroft as his servant and  therefore both men must have known something of what was going on. He therefore ordered Pratt to be imprisoned for a month, and Bancroft be fined 60 shillings including costs. He said he did not consider Bancroft to be the main offender in this case. The main offenders were the people who let the hall for the purpose of “a most lewd and obscene entertainment” and as a consequence of this he would be recommending that the music licence for the Hall be forfeited as he was satisfied that what had taken place was sufficient to bring the room under the heading of a "disorderly house"

Edwin was the son of Joseph  and Martha Bancroft and was born around 1829 in Lightcliffe near Halifax. The census records for 1871 show Edwin living at Davenport Square in the St Pater's area of Leeds, with his wife, Mary Ann, but no children and his listed occupation at that time was 'Mechanic'. By 1881, he looks to have moved up in the world to some extend, he was now living at 48 Duke Street in a different part of Leeds and his occupation was then given as 'Rent and Debt Agent'. He then had his widowed mother, Martha, living with him and his wife.

Lecture Hall circa 1860's

Why did Philemon Bancroft die in the Workhouse?

Mealtime in the Workhouse

I have recently come across a rather interesting and disturbing report in the Leeds Mercury newspaper of November 1860 which reported on the sudden death of Mary Bancroft, the wife of Philemon Bancroft, and provides some answers to questions I had wondered about for a long time….I’ll start at the beginning.

Mary's husband, Philmon Bancroft, was born in the Lightcliffe area, near Halifax in 1808, the son of James and Sarah Bancroft.

Philemon & Mary's marriage record

He married Mary Sucksmith in 1832 at Halifax. Mary was heavily pregnant at the time,and was the daughter of James Sucksmith, a farmer from Norwood Green near Halifax and his wife Frances. There is some confusion in the records about Mary's surname, as some of the internet records show it as 'Lucksmith' rather than 'Sucksmith', although it seems more likely that 'Sucksmith' is the correct surname.
Philemon and Mary went on to have at least ten children……so the question is.... why did Philemon end his days alone, and without the support of his family, in a workhouse in the village of Clayton near Bradford?

Looking at the census records, it would seem that Philemon had a variety of occupations throughout his life. 1841 showed his as a farmer in Lightcliffe, while by 1851 he and his family had moved to Raistrick near Halifax and he was then shown as a woolcomber.

By 1861 he has moved again to Cleckheaton and is now an Agricultural Labourer and shown as a widower, and was now living alone. The same census year shows eight of his children living at a separate address in North Bierley…and that where this story takes a nasty turn!

The Leeds Mercury newspaper of 15^th November 1860 had printed the following article:

Leeds Mercury Article

Philemon must have been a rather unpleasant character as far as his family were concerned as he appears to have started a six month prison sentence shortly before his wife died at the early age of 46 years because he “inhumanly treated” her. One can only speculate whether her early death was due to having ten children and then the cruel treatment at the hands of her husband.

Mary's Death Certificate

As can be seen from Mary’s death certificate, the cause of death leaves some unanswered questions. The Coroner is the informant, and gives her cause of death as “ Sub Acute Bronchitis…evidence not sufficient to determine if death was accelerated by ill treatment”

Anyway, Philemon eventually ended his days in the North Bierley Union Workhouse in Clayton near Bradford, and the 1871 census lists him there as "Pelam Bancroft" an inmate, together with several hundred other  unfortunate individuals. He is shown as being of sound mind and body, unlike some of the others there, who are described as "imbecile or deaf and dumb" etc, and he is shown as a Labourer from Hipperholme.

Former Clayton Workhouse Entrance

The North Bierley Workhouse at Clayton was built in 1855-8 to accommodate the rapidly growing city of Bradford, which was starting to have to deal with  large numbers of poor people, and was designed to accommodate up to 400 inmates. The building still exists today, although it has been greatly enlarged over the years. It was converted to a hospital called "Thornton View" in 1948, and eventually became a private girls school in 1991. Interestingly from 1904 onwards, the address given for all birth registrations was
'1 Highgate Road, Clayton' to protect children born there, from the shame of being registered as being born in a workhouse, so as not to stigmatise them in later life.

I wrote an article previously about life in another local workhouse at Keighley, describing the soul-deadening drudgery of daily life for anyone unfortunate enough to end up in one of these establishments. It can be read by clicking here


 The following copy death certificate shows, he died of gangrene on 24^th January 1873. Interestingly his name is mispelt as “Pelian” on the certificate. I had always though that his listed occupation at the time of death as a schoolmaster must also have been a mistake, and that it possibly referred to the informant who was the Workhouse Manager, but on further investigation it would seem that this was correct, because a few years later his son Edwin lists his deceased father’s occupation as this on his marriage certificate. Perhaps Philemon was a changed character after his time in prison and reformed his ways in later life!

Records show that Philemon was buried at Lightcliffe Cemetry near Halifax, which is where his parents James and Sarah were also buried.

Philemon's Death Certificate

For anyone interested.... Philemon is a biblical name.'The Epistle of Paul to Philemon', usually referred to simply as 'Philemon', is a prison letter to Philemon from Paul of Tarsus. Philemon was a leader in the Colossian Church.

I am grateful to Peter Higginbottom, and his website www.workhouses.org.uk for some of the information in this article.

Construction of Ponden and Watersheddles Reservoirs



Ponden Reservoir

 

 
  When you look at this tranquil scene of Ponden Reservoir near Keighley, it's hard to imagine what life was like nearly one hundred and fifty years ago in this area, when Ponden, and the nearby reservoir of Watersheddles, were being constructed in the 1870's. At the height of their construction up to 300 men were involved in work on the two sites, living either alone or with their families in a 'Shanty-town' of makeshift huts and caravans on site.
This army of navvy workers, together with their wives, women and children, poured into the district from all over the country and caused no end of a commotion in the sleepy hamlets of Scar Top and nearby Stanbury. The area must have resembled a scene from the Wild West, because for eight years they dug, drank, fought, pilfered, were injured and died in various trench mishaps.
The local newspaper, The Keighley News, reported on one such incident on 17th February 1873 as follows:
" On Monday morning an accident, unfortunately caused the death of a man, occurred at the waterworks at Keighley Local Board now in course of construction at Ponden. It appears that an excavator named Greenwood Hird, residing at Stanbury, was engaged at his work on Monday, digging out for the puddle trench of the reservoir. A very heavy bed of stone had been met within this operation, and the stone and rubbish excavated in hoisted to the level, a distance of over thirty feet, by means of a pulley and a horse. The truck or boxes containing the material are hooked on, and the operation being of a rather dangerous character considerable precaution is necessary. While one of these trucks was being thus hoisted, a stone weighing over eleven pounds fell from near the top to the bottom, alighting upon the head of the deceased, who was going on with his work immediately below. His skull was driven in from behind, and the unfortunate man was killed instantaneously. It is stated that the deceased, who had a sub-contract for part of the work, had been frequently cautioned as to the practice of filling the trucks too full and also working underneath while the trucks were being hoisted; but that no notice was taken of these warnings. The deceased was twenty-four years of age, and leaves a wife and two children"

The situation in the area became so bad, with the influx of so many rowdy workers, looking for recreation after a hard days work, that the people of the nearby sleepy village of Stanbury, had to petitioned the authorities for an extra constable " to keep the navvies in order".


One of the construction workers was a local man, Joseph Bancroft, who was born on 8th April 1840 at Denholme, the son of John Bancroft and Mary Ann Holmes. Joseph, together with several of  his brothers, had worked at various quarries in the area learning his trade as a stonemason and he eventually went to work on the Ponden Reservoir site doing 'top-facing' work, which was dressing stone for walls etc. Whilst working on site Joseph had to live on site in some sort of a caravan, only going home at weekends to see the family due to the distance involved. He apparently also did work on the side to complement his wages by doing jobs for local farmers and also mill employers who needed a bit of work doing on the fabric of their buildings. As well as a skilled stonemason, Joseph was an accomplished artist, who would do sketches of people he met in his everyday life, for the price of a pint of ale. He eventually moved on to work at the nearby Watersheddles Reservoir site, which was under construction at the same time as Ponden, and whilst there he heard about all the work available just over the border in Lancashire where stonemasons were required for all the new cotton mills which were being built around this time, so he moved to Colne and worked in Southfield and Marsden quarries in the  nearby town of Nelson. He stayed there for most of his working life, ,moving back to Yorkshire in the 1920 and saw his days out in Yeadon near Leeds, passing away in March 1937 and was buried at the small Municipal Cemetery there.


Joseph Bancroft

The history of Ponden and Watersheddles reservoirs goes back to 1869, when the town of Keighley was in a desperate need of a fresh water supply. The Keighley newspaper at the time reported on parts of the town where the piped water supply had been dried up for thirteen weeks.... factory machines stood idle as water supplies had to be diverted for domestic use....new wells were being sunk in the town but were running dry almost immediately..... natural springs up to a mile out of town were being besieged night and day by men, women and children with buckets and cans..... the town drains clogged up due to lack of water and gave off poisonous gases, which were blamed in part for the scarlet fever epidemic which had killed a number of children. The local newspaper correspondent voiced the universal view of the desperate people of Keighley when he stated  "Nothing....neither expense, covert opposition, nor open hostility will be deemed by the inhabitants an excuse for delay or even dilatoriness on the part of the Board.....they must let us have water, and they must let us have it soon!"
The upshot of all this was the Keighley Waterworks Extension and Improvement Act of 1869, which authorised the construction of the new reservoirs. Both Ponden and Watersheddles Reservoirs were of a similar size, about 50 feet deep, covering about 30 acres and with a capacity of about 200 million gallons of water each. Both took nearly eight years to build and work commenced in about 1870.





Ponden Reservoir under construction

 

 The above rather grainy photo, shows Pondon under construction, looking along the puddle trench dug in readiness to build the embankment, which was 200 yards long and 18feet wide across the top. 

Towards the centre of the photo, raising beyond the row of cottages, with smoke rising from the chimney, is Scar Top Brewery which was an enterprising business set up by William and Robert Heaton. These two gentlemen lived at Scar Top Farm and must have seen the business opportunity of starting a brewery in 1870 to supply the three hundred thirsty construction workers with plenty of drink, as it was a long way to walk to the nearest public house, and it was well known that they like to consume plenty of ale after a hard days work. The two men built the brewery onto the side of their farmhouse, and it consisted of a large underground store cellar, a wash house for barrels, a wagon shed, a counting house, a brew house, vatting rooms, refrigerator and setting back rooms, a hop chamber and a malt room. Business must have been good and must have grown beyond supplying the local workforce because by 1877 they also had  three horses, an ale cart, a sprung cart and lots of other equipment, but by 1878 the reservoir work was finished and within a year the local newspaper had an advert offering  the brewery, farm and three cottages for sale. They must not have sold, and the owners plight looks to have  become more desperate  because in November 1878 another advert appeared selling everything, including household  furniture and livestock, by Order of Mortgagees, under Power of Sale conditions, so it looks as though the Bank must have foreclosed on the unfortunate business owners.

Scar Top Brewery

On completion of the Watersheddles Reservoir in 1877, which finally secured the water supply for the whole area, two hundred of of the workers sat down to a celebration dinner, whilst their employers toasted "Success to the Keighley Waterworks, and Prosperity to the Town of Keighley!"

Watersheddles Reservoir

George Bancroft...Electronics Wizard!

I was recently given this story about George Bancroft [1907-1996] who had a very interesting life as an electrical engineer, and who's hobbies lead to a career as a radio expert, radio manufacturer and in his later life a maker of electronic organs.

George was born in Haworth in 1907, the son of Samuel and Elizabeth Bancroft. His father was the local butcher, running his business from a shop in Haworth village and was always recognisable because of his habit of wearing breeches, gaiters and boots and always being followed by his terrier dog called "Curley".

After leaving Keighley Boys Grammar School, George went to work for an electrical firm in Bradford and his boss must have seen that young George had an inventive mind for anything electrical, because he asked him to make a crystal set.....and that's how his love of electronics began....he started making crystal sets which the firm he worked for then sold.

George had a flair for a good  electrical idea from and early age, and in the 1920's some people had a radio at home, but needed to use a glass accumulator to run it because they did not have an electrical supply to the house. These accumulators were similar to a small car battery, and needed charging regularly. He therefore bought and old generator, which he set up in his mother's outside wash-house, and ran a business from home recharging accumulators for everyone in the area.

By the early 1930, he had set up one of the earliest  radio relay business in the Haworth and Crossroads area from his home in Brow Road, Haworth. At the time many people could not afford to buy a radio for the home, so the radio relay arrangement allowed a person to have the BBC radio programme wired directly to their home, and the equipment in their house consisted of a radio loudspeaker with a volume knob, and in later years there was the added luxury of an extra  knob allowing them to listen to two different channels! At it's height, radio relay was used in over one million homes throughout the country, and locally in the Keighley area, one in six houses were connected. The cost of the service was 1/3p per week. Alternatively if you needed the equipment installing the cost of a loudspeaker was 5/3d....this then gave you 100 hours of entertainment a week!
The minutes from the Haworth Urban District Council meeting of 2nd June 1931, list his application to set up this business as follows:
"The Clerk laid before the Council a letter from Mr George Bancroft dated the 28th ultimo, asking the permission of the Council to supply people in Haworth & Cross Roads with relayed wireless programs from the Central Receiving Station at 2 Spring Row, Cross Roads, the distribution to be by means of overhead lines. It was resolved that the application be granted."
At the same meeting the Council considered a similar application from an existing Radio Relay Company in Blackburn, Lancashire, and refused their application....presumably favoring a local business to operate this important service to the local community.

George eventually sold his radio relay business to a nearby rival company in the late 1940's. By then many people were getting their own radio sets due to the fact that many more British and Foreign stations were becoming available, so he decided to set up a new business renting out radio sets, and eventually set up another business manufacturing them from a small factory at Mill Hey in Haworth.

 He had previously tinkered with television in the 1930's using his radio knowledge. The BBC at the time were using the Baird Televisor system with a long-wave radio signal, but as it was only broadcast at the time on a 30 lines format, the picture was very poor so he did not pursue this project. He looked again at television in the 1950's and  built his father a television set which was a console type, (floor standing) and of course only received the BBC broadcasts, as that was the only channel available at the time. It was eventually passed down to his sister, Clara, and when she  moved house in the mid 1960’s she disposed of it, although it was still  in working order!!

By the 1960's George turned his electronics knowledge to a completely different hobby....making electronic organs.He had first become interested in organs shortly before the war when he was intrigued by the tracker action and coupled keys of the pipe organ in his local chapel, and then went on to read books on organ building before making small electronic attachments to a harmonium and then experimenting with tone generators and filters.Here his skill in radio electronics became vital.
 He always said that he would donate an organ to the first local church to place an order with him, and the picture at the top of this article shows this organ, which took two years to build, and which he donated to the Bridgehouse Methodist Chapel in Haworth. A concert was held at the Chapel in February 1964 to celebrate it's installation, and the local newspaper reported the event as follows:
" Bridgehouse Methodist Chapel received a gift on Sunday of and electronic organ, worth several hundred pounds, built by Mr George Bancroft of Haworth. Mr Bancroft said that well known organist, Miss Freda Hall, has played the organ several times and considers it is the best in the world. She describes it as the Rolls Royce of organs. The organ was installed three weeks ago as a trial and Mr Bancroft asked if the church were willing to buy it. They said they were all delighted with it, and he then offered it as a gift. Mr Bancroft said his interest in organs stated about 15 years ago and he is now employed full time making organs at his workshop in Brow Road. He is at present making one for Scunthorpe Methodist Chapel."

As his skill and knowledge developed he started to produce organs where each note had it's own generator, which was an expensive refinement at the time. In an ordinary electronic organ, identical notes from the same or different octaves, produce precise unison, whereas George's organs produced what is known as a chorus effect, where they are as in a choir, fractionally out of tune with each other. This effect brought his organs into line with a pipe organ, where there is a pipe in every stop on every note. At that time pipe organs were ten times the cost of George's organs. His organs also had other features, normally found on much more expensive organs such as the ability to produce tones similar in sound to an oboe, french horn or trumpet, and coupler controls which made a note sound one or two octaves higher or lower, thus producing an orchestral effect in both tone and volume

George continued with his hobby from his home, and the following picture shows him hard at work in his little workshop where he produced up to four organs a year, mainly going to private houses or small chapels.



George had married [Ellen] Marie Moon in 1938, after a chance meeting when they were both passengers on a Norwegian Cruise, and they had a long and happy marriage. When they reached retirement age in the mid 1960's, they moved Wigtown in Scotland because George had fallen in love with the  the area when visiting the nearby grammar school camp as a boy, and it was also convenient for travelling across to Northern Ireland where Marie had originated from. They finally bought "Clintz House" which was the old jailhouse in Wigtown and was in a pretty poor state when they purchased it. Being a listed building, it took a lot of time and expense to bring it up to a satisfactory condition, and here is a picture of how it looks today.

Even during retirement, George continued to move with the times and keep up with technology.In the early 1970's a neighbour's son who worked for a publishing company, asked him to make a small organ which could be used abroad, so George designed the following transistor organ which eventually ended up in Johannesburg. 

George built his last electronic organ when he was 82years old, which was a two manual instrument with bass pedals. He had this organ with him in a nursing home in Newton Stewart where he died at the age on 89 years in 1996. The instrument was passed onto a friend in Kirckudbright after his death and is still in use there today.

Below is a picture of another  single manual organ, together with speaker, which George built in the 1960's for the Halton Gill Church in Yorkshire.

I would like to thank Paul Allen from Oakworth, who was a long time friend of George and Marie's, for providing the information for this article.