1701 Wakefield Quarter Sessions

 I came across this entry in the Wakefield County Court Quarter Sessions records stating that on 17/7/1701 a Timothy Bankroft [spelt with a 'K' as was common in these times] of Warley near Halifax, which stated that his home was recorded as a place of 'Religious Worship'. This statement got me thinking about why such a situation would be required. 

There have always been times in history when various religious denominations, particularly of the none-conformist faiths, were persecuted and therefore had to meet secretly as a groups in an individuals private homes or as I think in this case where there was not a local Church or Chapel where they could gather to worship. This situation was not uncommon in the early days of Wesleyan and Baptist faiths, so what do we know about Timothy from Warley? 

 The baptist movement emerged at the beginning of the 17th century, but its members suffered persecution until the Act of Tolerance in 1689 granted freedom of religion to all faiths (apart from Roman Catholicism, which had to wait another hundred years). 

 Not much is known about Timothy other than the facts that he looks to have been baptised in December 1654 at St John's, Halifax.

Timothy's baptism record - Halifax

 

 He married Sara Scofield at St John's Halifax, At the Time he was living in Warley and Grace was living at Sowerby.

Timothy's marriage

 

 [Sorry, all the copies of the records are difficult to decipher!] 

Sadly we may never know why Timothy set his home up as a place of 'Religious Worship'

Illegitimacy..the scourge of the working class!

 

 

St  John's baptism 9/4/1822

Whilst going through some old parish records for St Thomas Church, Heptonstall, Yorkshire I came across an unusual baptism entry for an illegitimate child called Henry Bancroft who was baptised on 9^th April 1822. 

The very unusual entry, and something I have not come across before, lists the “reputed” father as a John Thomas Tebbelroyd or Hebblroyd [difficult to decipher from the hand writing.] who was described as a Wadsworth weaver.

Elizabeth Bancroft, the child's mother must have been pretty sure of her facts, or was put under pressure from the authorities to actually put this on the records, bearing in mind the laws surrounding illegitimacy in those times made it difficult for the alleged father to escape the child and mother maintenance costs.

Checking further, I found no evidence of the parents marrying at a later date.

Illegitimacy has always been around in society albeit sometimes hidden, even within families. I have come across many instances where an unmarried girl, living at home with her parents, has a child which has been listed on census records as her brother or sister, and even registered in that manner in some case. The figure below shows the average illegitimacy ratio for some 98 English parishes, and after 1840 from published official statistics. It is evident that illegitimate births had been on the rise since the middle of the 17th century.

 Before 1540 data is difficult to obtain, and data for the period 1835-1840 is also inaccurate as this was the transitional period from parish registers to civil registration in England. It is possible that in the early 19th century up to 30% of all births were not recorded in parish registers and in some places, especially in larger parishes, non-registration may have been even higher at around some 70%. Indeed my G/G/Grandfather, Timothy Bancroft, was born in 1840, but never  officially registered, even though it was a legal requirement by this time.It seems likely that many of these unregistered births were illegitimate, so the above figures should be treated as an underestimate.

The Bastardy Examination Board
  "Bastardy Examinations", to determine the name of the father, must have been a very traumatic experience for any young woman, as the fear of ending up in the local workhouse was always the ultimate threat from the authorities for any unmarried mother and child . The examination would take place before two Justices who inquired into the circumstances under which the woman about to give birth to an illegitimate child had fallen pregnant. Legally a woman who knew herself to be likely to bear an illegitimate child was obliged to present herself for examination, but in practice this only occasionally happened, and examinations occurred more often after the birth. Bastardy Examinations were particularly keen to discover the identity of the father, in order to force him to provide a bond, known as a "Bastardy Bond",  to indemnify the parish against the costs of maintaining the child. Evidence of paternity claims had to be "corroborated in some material particular"... something that was often impossible to achieve to the disadvantage of the poor woman being brought before the examining committee.

Prior to the 19th century, the Poor Laws stipulated that the putative father was responsible for the maintenance of his illegitimate child. If he failed to support the child, the mother could have him arrested on a justice's warrant and put into a workhouse, or even prison until she agreed to name the child's father. Local authorities issued public funds to maintain the mother and her child until the father could do so. Those public funds were to be reimbursed by the putative father, though this rarely happened because many fled and disappeared without trace. In an attempt to stem the rising costs of poor relief, the local authorities quiet often attempted to reduce their liability for illegitimate children by forcing the fathers to marry the women.


The cost of child-support expenditure could potentially consume a significant proportion of a parish's budget. In Sowerby Bridge, a large township in  nearby Halifax, West Yorkshire, between 25 and 38 per cent of annual expenditure on the poor was dispensed to unmarried mothers between 1818 and 1828. If the parish could enforce and collect maintenance payments, this could moderate the parish's costs of child support. Under the terms of affiliation orders, unmarried mothers in that area typically received between 1s 6d and 2s 6d per week in the early-nineteenth century. It is difficult to provide a contemporary equivalence of value, although it is worth noting that in the late-eighteenth century, a typical male agricultural labourer might have been earning around 10s a week. Unmarried mothers would thus be receiving as much as a quarter of a male labourer's wage. 

 In the 1833 Poor Law Report, the Commission Report on Bastardy, appointed the previous year to investigate the situation, revealed that the Poor Laws encouraged "licentiousness between unmarried couples". More relief was being issued to maintain illegitimate children than to support legitimate children. Not only were the mother and child given relief, but costs were rising because mothers were shipped back to their original parishes to avoid long term responsibility for their illegitimate children. Young men, accused solely on the word of the mother and unable to pay the surety, were, innocent or guilty, forced into early and unsuitable marriages which the commission felt were detrimental to the country. 

 

Bastardy Examination Board

Multiple Bancroft Family Baptisms

 

3 Baptisms on same day

Whilst researching Bancroft family lines I have come across several families where, for one reason or another, the parents had several of their children baptised at the same time, which seems a strange arrangement, particularly as infant mortality rates were sometimes quite high in times gone bye. 

Their three children were Betty 16 yrs, Thomas 15 yrs and  Sarah 13 yrs of age at the time.

There were many Bancroft families, living with large families in cramped poor conditions, with poor diets and where diseases such as smallpox were prevalent, who made it a practice to have children baptised as early as possible, and yet there were some parents such as Thomas and Hannah Bancroft from Old Town,Wadsworth near Halifax Yorkshire who chose to have their three children all baptised at the same time at Heptonstall Church when their eldest child was 16 years of age….I wonder what the reason for this was?....here are some possibilities.

1-The most obvious one was that they were not interested in religion, or just could not be bothered with their local church/chapel.

2-There was sometimes a charge by the local clergy for a baptism, and as money was tight and children were coming at a rapid rate they just could not afford it.

3- Some families seems to have worked on the basis that if one child was approaching marriageable age, they ought really to be 'done' so they did the others at the same time.

4- The family had a disagreement with the local clergy, and it’s only when a new clergyman was appointed that he would decide to round up all the unbaptised families and have a mass baptism day. [This may well have been the case with Thomas and Hannah as it is clear from the church records that several other family had a family group baptism of their children around this time.

5- There may have been an absence of a clergyman in the area for some time.

6- The parents may have been a bit naughty and had a child less than 9 months after marriage, so they decided to wait until the arrival of the second child, hoping to mask the fact that the first child was conceived before their wedding date.

Unfortunately we will probably never know the true reason why the parents decided to have all their children baptised on the same day.

 

St Thomas's Heptonstall

Soap production for the Woollen Industry.

Soap production 18th century

 Many of our Bancroft ancestors in the 18th and 19th centuries were involved in the woollen industry, as wool sorters,wool combers, spinners and just general textile workers, and were working with raw wool in its natural state straight off the sheep's back before being processed.

 The first job when dealing with raw wool was to wash it thoroughly to get rid of dirt, lanolin etc. and there was quiet a big industry locally in the production of large quantities of soap for this purpose. One such business was started by a William Sugden when he bought Cold Spring House near Cullingworth, Yorkshire, in 1874. The property was described as a modern, stone-built mansion house with farm buildings and about 24 acres of land. It also had the benefit of “the well known cold spring”, which arose on the property and provided an abundant supply of pure, soft water suitable for trade purposes. 

By 1878 he had put his plan into action and built a soap mill with the capacity to produce 100 tons per month. The soap was to be used primarily for scouring (washing) raw fleeces to prepare them to be combed and spun into yarn. To produce soap, olive oil – also known as Gallipoli oil – was imported in huge quantities from Italy and the Middle East and combined with an alkali. The presence of a chimney at the mill suggests that Sugden was using what was known as the hot saponification process. This entailed boiling a mixture of oil and alkali solution in large kettles, usually holding one imperial ton each. This method reduced the manufacturing time to one day and when the soap set it was then packed into barrels ready to be transported to customers by train from Cullingworth Station. Soap had always been essential for washing wool, however, before chemical alkalis were developed in the 19th century and vegetable oils were imported, it had been made using potash and animal fats. Potash was produced by burning green bracken in a kiln and literally collecting the ash in pots. The bracken had to be gathered in large quantities and local names such as Bracken Bank, Keighley, Bracken Hill, Silsden, and Bracken Ghyll, Skipton, suggest areas where it was plentiful and probably gathered during the pre-industrial era.

 Restrictions on soap making and a tax introduced in 1712 affected the growth of the industry. However, when these were abolished in 1853, soap makers such as William Sugden saw an opportunity and set up in business. The enterprise at Cold Spring Mill was not the only soap business in the area. 

 

Soap advert

Only a mile or two away at Cross Roads there was Samuel Thompson who advertised his products from the rather grandly named Cross Roads Soap Works. However, he only employed one man and his premises were in an outbuilding at Green Head Farm. The farm was tenanted by Thomas Mitchell, who was his father-in-law and with whom he and his wife lived. It is most likely that he was making soap by the cold saponification process. In this method the cold oils and alkali were mixed into a paste which was then put into trays and left to set over a period of a week, or more. Once set it could then be cut up into blocks ready for sale. His soap was very likely used for personal washing, both in households and on industrial premises.

 By 1911 Samuel Thompson had ceased business and William Sugden closed his mill when the demand for soap fell during the Great War. 

 

Cold Spring House - 2024

 

[I am grateful to the Keighley News, who provided some of this information]

Bancroft woolcomber's wages – late 19th Century

Isaac Holden 1809-1897

 

 A recently read a book called “ Holden's Ghosts” which tells the story of the 19th century wool magnate Sir Isaac Holden, and gives interesting information about his rise from humble beginnings in Scotland, to being a multi-millionaire in the wool combing industry and describes the way he treated his workers in his mills both in England and France.

 Many of our Bancroft ancestors worked in the Yorkshire Textile Mills in Yorkshire in the 19th century after the demise of the cottage industries and although it was a way of making a living, times were hard from wool combing or working with the latest textile machines in the mills. Holden became an enormously wealthy mill owner both in France and later in Bradford, and was a well known local M.P., inventor of textile machinery, philanthropist, particularly to the Wesleyan society but was always reticent with regards to his views of reform for his mill workers. He was radical in matters of electoral and educational reform, but reticent when it came to worker's rights and factory reform. Together with other mill owners in the 1860's he opposed the 'Nine Hour Bill' introduced in Parliament which cautiously proposed to reduce working hours in the textile industry for women and children from 60 to 54 hours per week. They tried to explain, that as manufacturers, they did not consider current hours were excessive but did concede one hour on Saturdays to make the working week 59 instead of 60. 

Woolcombers in his factories typically worked a 60-hour week, often in conditions of up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit of heat in the combing rooms. The wages for this work in his Alston Mill in Bradford were 16/- [[£0.80p] a week and women received 9/- [£0.45].

Women would often work to within one week of childbirth and return again within two weeks. Many of the male night workers, often called 'Holden's Ghosts' by the locals were employed on a casual basis and had to attend each night even if there was no work when they got there. One man described this practice as 'white slavery 'because of the casual employment and low pay. 

 

Alston Mill, Bradford

 As late as the 1890's Holden was adhering to his theory and was quoted: “ It would be our ruin, at least until the Germans and French, our greatest competitors, reduce their hours....An hours work a day may give the manufacturer his profit. If that is given up, it would mean the capitalist's profit is gone, and with it the labourer's wage is gone too” 

 Working conditions for women in Holden's French mills were even poorer, as a French journalist describes:

"There are the same beautiful machines the I have seen in operation at the Alston Works in Bradford, but the workers were altogether different. The machines were almost entirely minded by girls, the majority of whom were shoeless and stockingless, besides being scantily clad in other respects. There was nothing in the least suggestive of immodesty about this, however, for the girls certainly behaved very decorously....Combing sheds were rather high in temperature, and the French girls adopted every available means of keeping cool. They came to work as neat as can be....but as soon as they got to the side of their machines they divert themselves of their shoes and stockings and anything cumbersome in the way of upper garments."

Holden's woolcombing machine

 

By 1875 one of Holden's factories at Croix in France employed 1785 people and his own accounts show his personal net income that year from that factory was £91,982 [equivalent to around £7 million today.....from one factory!] and despite living in a grand style at Oakworth, Yorkshire in his mansion, he continued to promote to the local press that he was living an entirely simple life! 

 Isaac Holden died 1n 1897, age 90 years, and was buried at Undercliffe Cemetery in Bradford 

Holden Monument, Undercliffe Cemetery

 

Anyone interested in reading the book can buy it on Amazon.

Slack Lane Chapel and the Bancroft records

 

1st Slack Chapel - 2024

 I recently came across a book about the Slack Lane Chapel, Oakworth, nr. Keighley produced for it's 180th Anniversary Celebration with details of it's history and formation for as far back as 1819. 

There are also details of about 13 Bancrofts buried there and at least one wedding, but more about this later. 

The chapel's originates go back to about 1819 when the Pastor of the Baptist Chapel in Keighley had a disagreement with some of his congregation and they began to meet in a room of a house in nearby Oakworth for the regular services. This group of local started to try and raise funds for a local baptist chapel and by 1819 had raised £3.-3s-0p to buy a plot of land, and building work commenced. Originally known as “Shaw's Chapel, after Joseph Shaw, who the land was bought from, to later become known as “Slack Chapel”

 No ones knows how the name came about, but the story is told that a gentleman passing asked a boy the name of the place. The boy replied “Slack Chapel”....The man replied “Nay , never my lad, folk cannot be very slack , who come to a place so isolated” [ It never was isolated as there were many small villages within easy reach for worshippers.] An alternative theory is that the word 'Slack' is a local word for swamp, as the area was always very boggy before it was drained.

 In 1847 further land was acquired across the road for a burial ground and in 1851 land at the rear of the chapel was also acquired to build a minister's house, which was known as Zion Cottage and this remained the minister's residence until further land was found nearer the village for a new Manse to be built on Slaymaker Lane, which at that time was known as Slack Lane, in 1907.

 In it's first 100 years 379 baptisms took place at the chapel and as was the custom, baptisms took place by immersion fully in water, and this had to take place outside in summer or winter just down the hill from the chapel on farm land.

Around 1867 it was decided that a second, larger chapel, should be built and money started to be raised for this, including one contribution of £500 from the local industrialist Sir Isaac Holden, who lived nearby. It however took till 1879 for this new chapel to be built at a final cost of over £3000.

In the late 1930's much work was done on the new chapel, including replacing gas lighting with modern electric one and the seating was undertaken to accommodate up to 650 people. It then remained as a working chapel until it was closed in the late 1980's and sold for conversion into residential use.

 

                                2nd Chapel, now Chapel Fold apartments
 

 

 The original chapel had been used only for social events and also as a Sunday School, but was then reinstated as the main chapel for worship, and finally closed in July 2018 and was recently sold for residential use.

 The graveyard contains twelve Bancroft individual from two family graves over several generations.

 In Loving memory of

George Bancroft

of Hardgate Cottage, Cross Roads,
Who died Nov 24th 1915,
Aged 55 years.
"At Rest."
Also of Maria, his Wife
Who died June 26th 1915,
Aged 56 years.
Also of Hilda,
Their Daughter
Who died March 9th 1936
Aged 36 years.
Also of Emma May,
Their Daughter
Who died Feb 11th 1970,
Aged 78 years.

  I was recently given a large cardboard box of items, which had originally been deposited at a local solicitors, on behalf of an Emma May Bancroft, who died in 1970, an unmarried lady, who was the last surviving member of her particular line...and what an interesting assortment of papers, letter and photographs it turned out to be! Emma May's father George, turns out to be a very interesting and rather “well-to-do" person of some note in the area. He, together with his three brothers, Abel, William and John Thomas, all ran tailoring business's in the area and he was, amongst other things a Grand Master of the local Masonic Lodge as well as a substantial property owner who at the time of his death in 1915 had at least eight houses and some land in and around the local area of Crossroads nr Keighley pic of George & Masons The collection, as well as having the usual collection of photos, letter and personal items also had many rent books recording the weekly rent collected from his various properties both by him and later his daughters. George was born in 1860 at Brow Top nr Haworth, the fourth of seven children of Abraham and Martha Bancroft [nee Sutcliffe] and married Maria Wood at St John's Church, Ingrow, Keighley on 18th June 1895. They went on to have two daughters, Emma May in 1896 and Hilda in 1900, neither of whom were ever married. George died on 24/11/1915 at the relatively young age of 55 years, and his estate with all the properties he owned together with his list of other assets and cash were valued at over £1500. George, his wife and two daughters are all buried here. George's story in full can be read HERE

 

George & Family 1911 census

In Loving Memory of
William Bancroft
of Bradford
Who died December 11th 1895,
Aged 53 years.
Also of Martha, his beloved Wife
Who died March 13th 1908,
Aged 73 years.
Also of James William, son of
Frederick & Melina Bancroft,
Who died December 3rd 1917,
In his 25th year.
Also of Lillian, their Daughter
Who died August 9th 1928,
Aged 30 years.
Also of the above named
Frederick Bancroft,

Who died Jan 31st 1930,
Aged 59 years.

Also of Melina, beloved Wife

of the above Frederick Bancroft,

Who died May 23rd 1944,

 Aged 72 years.

 

The other Bancroft grave is of William Bancroft [1842-1895] and his descendents. William was the son of Abraham and Mary and spent his early years growing up in the Oakworth area, before marrying Martha Wadsworth and then moving to the Bradford area as a Mill Overlooker. Interestingly his father, Abraham, by 1891 was living in the Keighley Workhouse and described as an “Imbecile” as many of the other inmates there were also described, and which today would probably be diagnosed as dementia. Why he ended up in the workhouse is not clear as he had at least 5 children as well as more distant relatives where he could have gone to. Below is a copy of the Workhouse census for 1891 showing Abraham together with other unfortunate individuals with the same medical condition who must have lived in grim conditions there. 

 

1891 census - Keighley Workhouse

William spent most of his adult life in Bradford as initially working as a butcher and later in the skin tanning trade. It is not clear why he ended up being buried at Slack Chapel, some way from his home in Bradford.....maybe he wanted to be nearer his early life and was a baptist?

Frederick & Family 1911 census

 

To finish on a brighter note, records show a Bancroft marriage here with another William Bancroft marrying Hannah Whittaker in 1933 and here is a link to an article I wrote some time ago, click HERE

William & Hannah  1933

 

Horkinstone Chapel, and it's new Organ.

Horkinstone Chapel....in the bleak mid winter

 

 This is the story of Horkinstone Baptist Chapel, built on the outskirts of Oxenhope, which has sadly long since been demolished, although the graveyard is still in existence.

 I am sure several Bancroft individuals were regularly amongst the congregation here because 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.

 On 25th April 1836 it was reported that a Baptist ‘Sabbath School’ had commenced in the hamlet of Horkinstone, Leeming, Oxenhope, with 124 scholars enrolling on the first day. The construction of the new school began a month later, to be completed in 1837, with a small burial ground adjacent. Records show that a ‘church’ was formed in 1849, with the building then able to be used for formal services. In 1863 a new day School was built further down Denholme Road at Leeming with the support of the British and Foreign School Society. The school was let to the Haworth School Board in 1879, sold to them in 1910 and at some stage was taken over by the Keighley Education authority. A local newspaper article from 1890 mentions the new organ at Horkinstone Chapel and who donated to buy it.

 Opening of a new Organ – A new organ has been erected in the Horkinstone Baptist Chapel was opened on Saturday by a recital and vocal concert. The new instrument is an outcome of the effort instituted at the beginning of the year, with the object of not only of providing an organ, but also paying off a debt of about £190 for paying off the Sunday School, which was erected in 1863, and renovating the chapel. The entire scheme involved an outlay of £300. The expense connected with the following contributions:- £50; Mr Abel Kershaw £50; Mrs Wm Crabtree £20 and Mr Jos Crabtree £20. The instrument has been built by Messrs Driver & Haigh of Drewton Street, Bradford. The organ which consists of nearly 1200 pipes, is sufficiently powerful in tone for a much larger building, and its arrangement allows for arrangement and combination, the organist has his command a good range of solo stops of brilliancy and beauty. The first public performance on the new organ was given by Mr William Wilson of Warrington [formally of Keighley] whose programme included the choicest works of music for the organ. The programme was shared by Mrs Wilson of Warrington, who sang with much taste and acceptance Cowen's “The better land” and “The lost cord” She was loudly and deservedly applauded for her chaste rendering of the latter. Mr Fred Cockroft also sang two pieces including Gounode's “ Nazareth” Under Mr Crabtree's baton was ranged a fine and balanced chorus of some fifty voices, including over thirty Thornton friends, who rendered gratuitous service. Their contribution's included “ Sing unto God” “Worthy is the lamb” “ Let their celestial Chords”, and the “ Hallelujah Chorus”

The modest Horkinstone Baptist Chapel at Oxenhope could muster this impressive choir, photographed in 1906. Choirmaster Amos Dewhirst sits baton in hand, with organist Victor Sunderland on the left. Amos Dewhirst, being a newsagent and stationer, could order his choir music through his own shop, his records revealing that in 1906 he bought 26 copies of “Shepherd of Souls”, “They Shall Mount Up and Stand Up”, with “On the Banks of Allan Water” and “Ye Mariners of England” for secular relief, the latter, with only 13 copies, being sung by men only. A choir like this occupied a wider sphere than its Sunday services, for chapel formed the centre of its worshippers’ social life. Public teas and Saturday-night concerts were as important as Sunday School anniversaries and missionary Sundays. For some years the Horkinstone Baptist Chapel choir took part in great non-conformist festivals in London, a demanding experience which necessitated leaving Oxenhope on a Friday night and getting back early on a Sunday morning.

 

Horkinstone Choir  1906

 The Horkinstone chapel building was declared unsafe in 1924 and the last service was held on 15th May 1927. It would be interesting to know what happened to the chapel's organ as it was only thirty odd years old. 

A new chapel was opened on 21st May 1927 further down Denholme Road under the name of Oxenhope Baptist Chapel. The cost of the new chapel including furnishings was circa £3,600. The Keighley News report of the chapel centenary on 25th April 1936 says that the old chapel was demolished about ten years previously and that some of the stone was used in building the new chapel and school. 

 The building closed as a school in 1957 but was bought by the Sawood Methodists to be used as a chapel and Sunday School. The Methodist Society disbanded in 1997 and the building is now a private residence.

Oxenhope 'New ' Chapel

Below is a ceremonial trowel used for the opening of the new chapel.

Horkinstone Baptist Burial Ground remained in use until the early 1950s and is situated on the left of Denholme Road at the junction with Blackmoor Road. The burial ground lies in open countryside near to two farms and three cottages.

 For the Centenary of Sunday Schools’ celebrations in 1880 Horkinstone Baptist Sunday School is listed as having 120 scholars and 30 teachers, giving some indication of the population and community that it once served.

Horkinstone Graveyard

 

Urine collected from the home for the Woollen Trade

 

18th century men scouring wool with paddles

A little known fact is that men's urine was collected from people's homes in the 17th to the 19^th century for use in the processing of raw wool, and there is still evidence of this outside houses today locally in Yorkshire.

Urine, or as it was known locally as “Lant” was collected by men going house to house and collecting from outside through a spout, and many of these spouts still exist to this day. The following picture shows one outside a house in Denholme near Bradford for use in the local mill of Fosters, where many Bancroft men, women, boys and girls worked.

A lant spout outside a Denholme house

For centuries in the woollen and worsted areas of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lant was a valuable commodity and was used for scouring and washing raw wool prior to spinning.

Fermented urine was known as lant and was retained not only for household use, but also collected to be used for commercial purposes. Many houses during the 17th and 18th centuries had special lant stones located on an outside wall. Internally they consisted of a recess into which urine could be poured from chamber pots and from where it passed through a spout in the wall and was collected on the outside in tubs. Surviving examples of lant stones can be found locally at properties in Haworth, Stanbury, Utley, Denholme and Sutton-in-Craven.

Wool for scouring was put into a large tub, or trough, containing a mixture of water and lant and vigorously agitated, to remove dirt and grease, by men using long paddles. A large internal stone trough found in a farm in Newsholme, near Keighley, was probably used for this purpose. During the early 19th century, a mechanised process was developed. The wool was drawn along a wooden trough by paddles before being passed through rollers that squeezed the liquid out. The wool was fed into the rollers by hand with the inevitable consequence that operators lost fingers and even limbs. In 1812 at a mill in Scotland, “a man working some rollers of a new scouring machine had one of his hands drawn under a roller...with the loss of one finger”. Eventually a fully mechanised process for scouring was developed, but it does not appear to have been in common use in Yorkshire until the 1830s.

Lant was also used as a mordant, or fixative, for dyeing wool and cloth. In the 1770s Bridgehouse Mill at Haworth was an indigo mill. Here lant, which was said to be particularly beneficial for dyeing indigo, would have been used for dyeing finished cloth, perhaps shalloon, a fine worsted used for lining coats. During the first half of the 19th century, small dyeworks were established in Keighley attracting specialist dyers to the town..

William Partridge in his Practical Treatise on Dyeing, published in 1823, wrote that the urine of beer drinkers was the most sought after and this may well be so as a row of lant stones still survive in the yard at the rear of the Friendly Inn at Stanbury, for use by anyone leaving the Inn.

A  lant spout outside a local farm house

I am grateful to the Keighley news for some of the information in this article

 

Grandmother liked to keep up with fashions of the times.

Whilst going through some old family photos left by me Grandmother, Hettie Bancroft, who herself was a keen photographer, I was struck by the variety of some of her outfits and in particular her head gear, which must have been the height of fashion at the time. I always remember her telling me once, she liked to keep up w'fashons of the time and how, having always had long hair tried up, she decided to go with the fashion of the time in the 1920 and took a trip to the hairdressers, without checking with her husband first, and had her hair ‘bobbed’and her long locks brought back in her shopping bag!. She said my Grandfather, John, “went mad at what she had done” but it was too late by then. This first photo shows Hettie before marriage in a studio setting, probably done to celebrate her coming of age at 21 years. The hat looks as though it might be a dead bird on her head!

The next photo is of her wedding to John, showing a beautiful wedding dress, which must have been the height of fashion at the time in 1911, but again what’s that on top of her hat?....another dead animal?

 

And now with the family on Blackpool beach in the 1930’s….but what’s that around a neck!....could it be a dead fox!

And finally, here is one of my favorite photos of my grandparents and family, together with some of their friends all enjoying a walk on the prom, again at Blackpool. Interesting all nine people , including Hettie, have ‘normal’ hats on and fur collar, and my grandfather, John, who for some reason is wearing a bowler hat!

John Thomas Bancroft....quite an entrepreneur in business

Here's an interesting story of a John Thomas Bancroft, which started with the find of an old machine oil bottle in a garage. who although came from humble beginnings, went on to be quite an entrepreneur in business.

John was born in Haworth in 1862, the son of Abraham and Martha Bancroft. His father was a Stone Quarry Labourer living in the Brow area of the village and with his wife had eight children. John's story started with the find of an old machine oil bottle in a garage, and although came from humble beginnings, went on to be quite an entrepreneur in business

The 1871 census shows John Thomas working at 9 years of age with most of his siblings in a local Worsted Factory.

 

By the 1890's he had married an Emma Ruth Reddihough and had become a tailor with three of his brothers George, Abel And William in what must have been a reasonably profitable way of earning a living to support four men and their families. I wrote an article about the tailoring business which can be read HERE. https://bancroftsfromyorkshire.blogspot.com/2011/05/bancroft-brothers-tailors-of-haworth.html

 

While working in the tailoring business, he must have used light and fine oil to lubricate the various sowing machines, which probably gave him the idea of setting up business selling the oil as can be seen from the bottles.

 

 

I'm not sure exactly when he moved away from the family tailoring business but by the time of the 1901 census he had moved to Bradford with his wife Ruth and young family and had set up a new business as a “Mineral Water Manufacturer”, possibly connected to his earlier business using glass bottles....but a big change from his past employment!

By 1911 he had changed jobs again, and was now shown as a “Rag Merchant”

This business must have developed somewhat because when the next census was taken in the war years of 1939 he was a widower, his wife Emma Ruth having passed away in 1929, and his daughter and her husband Martha and her husband Harry White were living with him at a substantial house called “Thornfield” in the Pudsey/Stanningly area of Leeds.

John Thomas died in 1943, and was buried with his wife and later with his daughter and her husband ,Harry, at Haworth.

 

Inscription

In Sacred Remembrance
Of A Devoted Wife & Mother
Emma Ruth,
Wife of John Thomas Bancroft,
of "Thornfield," Farsley.
Who Fell Asleep Aug.13th 1929
Aged 64 Years.
Also of the Above
John Thomas Bancroft,
Who Fell Asleep Oct.1st 1943,
Aged 81 Years.

"Dearly Loved."

 

His home in later life, Thornfield, was a substantial residence which was later turned into a Hotel and Wedding venue and still operates to this day.

Jabez & Arthur Bancroft.....Weslyan Chapel Sextons

 

                                                                     Interment book

Ist page of book - February 1862

  I was recently lent the old Grave Books for the Oakworth Weslyan Chapel, listing buials from 1862-1917. The graveyard was where Jabez Bancroft was the Sexton, and on his death his son Arthur took over the job.

Jabez was listed as Sexton from 1884 to dis death in 1898.

Arthur took over after his father's death in 1898 to 1938.

Record of all Sextons

Many will wonder what exactly the duties of a Sexton were. They were:

1- Grave digging

2- maintenance of the graveyard....generally keeping it tidy....grass cutting, hedge trimming etc

3-General maintenance of the chapel grounds.

 

The record of Jabez's burial is listed in the following entry halfway down the page in the grave book, and just underneath the entry is a note saying that his son Arthur took over as grave digger.

 

Jabez's interment record

Arthur confirmed as replacement grave digger  

 

 The cost of obtaining a grave is shown in the books as 2/- per plot or 5/- for a double plot, and it looks as though this charge went towards paying for the wages of the grave digger because shown below is a record of Jabez receiving payment for his work.

Both Jabez and Arthur were buried in the family grave shown below.

   In loving memory of

JABEZ BANCROFT

of Chapel Lane, Oakworth

who died May 2nd 1898

in his 53rd year

Also of ANN

daughter of the above

Jabez & Mary Ann Bancroft

who died Oct 18th 1887

in her 1st year

At Rest

Also of MARY ANN

wife of the above

who died Feb 3rd 1934

in her 86th yea

Also MARY ELIZABETH

 beloved wife of Arthur Bancroft

   died April 17th 1939

age 70 years

 Also of the above ARTHUR

 who died Jan 25th 194
 age 75 years

Moving onto the contents of the books, I have to say what a sad record it is with so many infants listed as still-births, death at days old or under the age of 5 years old.

The Graveyard, according to Chapel records, has 725 graves, many without gravestones, in which are buried 2452 named people including a significant number of infants. A sad fact of Victorian life in the village is that there were 449 children buried at the site who died under the age of five, as well as 123 unnamed infants who were either stillborn or died before they were named, which is a staggering 23% of the occupants of the graveyard.

The last burial there took place in 1968, when the site had to close because of flooding after work was done on the nearby school playground, although many think this was never proved and was just a convenient excuse for closing the graveyard.

 

The Chapel itself was an imposing building first opened in 1858, and was in fact the second Chapel on this site. It was built with financial help from Sir Isaac Holden, the local industrialist who lived in Oakworth House, a magnificent mansion next to the chapel site. In fact Sir Isaac had his own private door at the side of the chapel, in order that he did not have to enter from the main entrance with the rest of the public.   The original chapel had been a much smaller affair built in 1822, but as the congregation increased a bigger building was required and so this new chapel was built with a capacity of 977 worshipers. Numbers however never reached the expected levels and at a peak it had 347 members in 1889, and then numbers steadily declined until it was decided to close the chapel in 1957 and replace it with a more modest building incorporating the Sunday school, which had previously been housed in an

equally large building nearby.

The large Sunday School had also been built nearby in the 1840's and was demolished in the 1990's to make way for a small housing estate.

Today the graveyard is transformed, back to how it must have looked many years ago, thanks to the work of many volunteers, working over several years.

There is a website giving many details of the graveyard's history and how things are today which can be seen by clicking HERE

Dockroyd graveyard - 2023