Who knew that so much information could be gathered from wills and probate records or that maps and records to excite a group of neighbours would be found in the Hebden Bridge Local History Society’s archive?
Instead of the usual lecture, members of the Society were invited to report on their recent and ongoing research. Barbara Hall has been involved for many years with a group looking at late 17th century Wills, Inventories and Probate Documents from the ancient parish of Halifax. Barbara explained the meticulous process of transcription and research of documents from the Borthwick Institute in York. Groups in Hebden Bridge and Halifax have now successfully published this work, with indexes, glossaries and analysis.
Barbara’s group has now moved on to the first decade of the 18th century in the township of Halifax itself, and already there is plenty to interest family and local historians. Family relationships can be untangled, and the inventories of house rooms and contents provide a snapshot of how people lived and the details of their occupations and wealth and debt. Perhaps another book is on the way.
Sheila Graham reported how a group of neighbours at Edge Hey Green in Colden banded together to find out more about their properties. They wanted to understand when the houses were built and by whom; who lived there; what their lives would have been like; how they would have been employed.
The architecture – different window styles and obvious additions - provided some clues that this was not built as a unified row. Some of the three storey backs had one roomed under-dwellings which have been integrated with the front house – explaining the mystery of gaps in modern house numbers. Deeds and auction adverts provided more details about the cottages.
The group made use of historic maps, including one from 1833 held in Calderdale and Hebden Bridge LHS archives, with area and names of fields as well as all the buildings. It links with information in the Township Valuation book which gives names of owners and tenants of cottages and farms as well as their annual rental values.
The first census of 1841 shows that 75% of the occupants were hand loom weavers and Uttleys, Greenwoods and Sutcliffes occupied over half the houses. In a later census the occupants all stated that they were born in Heptonstall with the furthest coming from Sowerby. The census in 1861 showed signs of social change with the end of handloom weaving and more working in the mills. Older former handloom weavers were now often defined as ‘paupers’. A number of elderly women paupers lived in one cottage, with a 9 year old girl the only worker – this was actually one of several small workhouses in the area. In the Society archive the records of the Poor Law guardians reveal the scale of the poverty during the ‘cotton famine’ of 1862-3, with almost every household on the row receiving some kind of help, including a Christmas dinner.
Both talks provoked a lot of interest from those with their own memories and information to share. Hebden Bridge Local History Society would love to hear about other local research members are involved in.
report by Catherine Chatham