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Shoddy and Mungo
Description of the shoddy and mungo industries of West Yorkshire and the author's family connections to that process. The final post in a four section sequence about the wool industry of the West Riding.
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Tracing the Archers of Earlsheaton, Chickenley and Ossett
Because Archer is an occupational surname…like Fletcher, Butcher, Smith and so on, it should have arisen in many different areas of the country, in men who were not actually related to each other but had the same occupation. It’s a little surprising, therefore, that, in the 1881 Census, by far the biggest concentration of families of the name “Archer” resided in the woollen towns of the West Riding, with the second largest group in London and the south east. My Archer family can be traced back to Dewsbury Parish records from 1581 and my branch of the family comes from Chickenley and Earlsheaton (known as Soothill and pronounced “soootil”) and the…
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Earlsheaton History and Family Connections
A potted history of the village of Earlsheaton, my Hemingway ancestors' involvement in woollen blanket manufacture there and my own memories of growing up in the village in the mid-20th Century.
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Cloth Market and Cloth Halls
Leeds Cloth Markets – 17th & 18th Centuries The Civil War (1642-51) interfered with the production of cloth in West Yorkshire, particularly in the early years, when Halifax, Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield became garrison towns for the opposing sides of the conflict. After the wars, Leeds became a principle market for the sale of woollen cloth. In the 17th Century, the Leeds Cloth Market became a major centre in the area for marketing cloth of all kinds. It was held every Tuesday and Saturday from 6 am and was held on Leeds Bridge, a historic crossing point on the River Aire. By 1684, it had outgrown its site and moved…
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Dewsbury’s Victorian Town Hall
A recent visit to Dewsbury, the first in many years, was a pretty sorrowful experience. The town centre that I knew in my childhood and early adulthood had changed almost beyond recognition. Above all, I was sad to see how many shops and buildings looked derelict and boarded up. Chatting to an assistant in one of the many charity shops, I heard that there is a movement afoot to improve the town centre. However, reading the updated reports of this in March 2020, the £200-million pound regeneration plan has been cut to a share of £68-million with Huddersfield. I hope that regeneration comes to fruition because it would be such…
