The history of the township of Meltham ... Edited with additions by C. H

Front matter

HISTORY OF MELTHAM. HUDDERSFIELD '. — PRINTED BY J. CROSSLEY AND CO., MARKET-PLACE. M ELTHAM FROM THE ROMAN CAMP CROUND PLAN OF THE ROMAN CAMP THE HISTORY OF THE TOWNSHIP OF MELTHAM NEAK HUDDEESFIELD; IN THE WEST-RIDING OF THE COUNTY OF YORK; FROM THE EARLIEST TIME TO THE PRESENT. BY THE LATE EEV. JOSEPH HUGHES, INCUMBENT OF THE CHAPELRY; EDITED WITH ADDITIONS BY C. H. — X^&SE&SZK LONDON : JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE HUDDERSFIELD : J. CROSSLEY & CO., 6, MARKET-PLACE 1866. ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL. DEDICATION. THIS HISTORY OF MELTHAM, CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE CHURCH ERECTED IN THE VILLAGE IN THE YEAR 1651, AND OF THE EXISTING EDIFICE BUILT IN 1786, TOGETHER WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE VARIOUS IMPROVEMENTS WHICH HAVE BEEN EFFECTED, DURING THE LAST AND PRESENT CENTURIES, IN THE TOWNSHIP, IS DEDICATED TO ITS INHABITANTS, BY THEIR FRIEND AND PASTOR, JOSEPH HUGHES. [THE ABOVE DEDICATION WAS WRITTEN BY THE AUTHOR IN DECEMBER,] 1851.

Preface

. In laying this History and Description of Meltham before the public, it is necessary to state that the work was commenced in the month of December, 1851, and proceeded with at various intervals during upwards of ten years. After many unavoidable delays, it is now completed, and offered to those who are interested in the annals and prosperity of the Chapelry, in the hope that it may prove to them an acceptable memorial of their late Pastor. The design of the author in collecting materials for this work, was to furnish the inhabitants with reliable information respecting their Township — honoured, not only as the birth-place of the celebrated Abraham Woodhead, but also, as the only district in Yorkshire, in which an Episcopal Chapel was built and consecrated, during the Commonwealth. These facts, with many others which are introduced, have been derived, either from old documents extant in manuscript, or from personal inquiries repeatedly instituted among the aged members of the old families in the neighbourhood.

Since the author's decease, much addi tional matter from both these sources, has been added by the editor, for which, cordial thanks are now tendered to those kind friends, too numerous to be individually named, who courteously supplied it, either orally or in writing. In this preface to the work, planned and partly written by the author, and now completed from his papers, and other documents, it is not too much to state that his attachment to Meltham and its inhabitants, and the deep interest which he felt in their prosperity and happiness, ended only with his life. The following lines engraved on his tombstone, in the new burial ground, convey a true portraiture of him in the exercise of his pastoral office among them. Sacred to the Memory of THE REVEREND JOSEPH HUGHES, for Twenty-five years Incumbent of St. Bartholomew's Church, Meltham.

A faithful shepherd of the flock committed to his charge. He was born on Sunday, the 3rd of April, 1803, and died on Sunday, the 8th of November, 1863. " Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." Heb. xii. 14. C. H. Meltham, December, 1866. CONTENTS.

Appendix

Errata. Page 22, line 5, for one, read once. „ 204, „ 8, „ Brooke, „ Brook. „ 217, „ 14, „ 1829 „ 1849. „ 259, „ 1, „ Margeny „ Margery. „ 271, note, „ Mss. „ Ms. „ „ „ „ courses, „ course. THE HISTORY OF MELTHAM.

Chapter I. Introduction

— THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF MELTHAM — PHYSICAL TRACES OF THE CELTIC, ROMAN, AND SAXON ERAS REMAINING IN THE DISTRICT, AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NORMAN RULE. (5» S the object of the following pages is to supply all t^y the information which has been collected from various sources, and at different times, respecting the village of Meltham, and the district immediately surrounding it, the probable derivation of its name is the first thing that claims attention. On this point a difference of opinion exists among etymologists ; some contending that, like the names of several villages in the neighbourhood of Leeds, corresponding ones to ■which are to be found in Germany — a proof that they were imported by the Saxon invaders — that of Meltham has been derived probably from the same source, and that its counter part may still exist in the German fatherland ;* while others, and by far the greater number, refer it to a Roman origin, and maintain that it is either a contraction of Melitton signifying a place where beehives stand, or a corruption of Mel-tun, that is, the Honey Hamlet.

In support of this, they assert, that from time immemorial, beehives were brought from all parts * In favour of this opinion it may be observed that the name of Meltham, as now written, is found in the Domesday Survey. E of the country, during what was termed the heathing time — that is, when the heather was in bloom — and placed in long rows upon the moors lying all round the village.* The universality of this custom has been handed down from father to son ; and its existence, even after the enclosure of extensive portions of the moors in 1817, is still fresh in the memory of many of the inhabitants. There is no doubt that the heather is almost indigenous to bog soil, and its flower very attractive to the bee, and that it yields more honey than almost any other to that laborious insect. The immense quantities of fir and oak wood, more particularly the former, dug out of the moors surrounding Meltham, give abundant proof that at some period, the date of which is unascertainable, extensive forests of these trees must have covered the hills, that they eventually yielded to the destroying hand of time, and falling where they once grew, sank into the soft ground, and were in the course of ages buried deep beneath the vegetable matter constantly accumulating over them.

This fir wood, afterwards dug up out of the moors in hundreds of cart-loads, was used as torches by the cottagers within the last seventy years. They cut it into long splinters, and made it serve for candles. The bituminous matter contained in it, gave out a strong bright flame, which had the twofold virtue of diffusing heat as well as light throughout their dwellings. A curious tradition is extant among some of the older inhabitants of the village, respecting certain strange wild beings, probably outlaws, who once skulked in these woods, and for a time « Beehives, as they are now made, were, of course, the production of a much later date than that at .which the name of Meltham was given to the village. At the time of the Roman occupation of the Island, they were usually constructed of the hollow bark of trees, joined firmly together, as well as of the^ flexible rods of willows.

Bees were found to lodge also in hollow rocks, in the cavities of decayed trees, and even in cells dug under ground. The district around Meltham appears to have been well suited to the wants and habits of the bee. THE MOORS. 3 managed to subsist on such roots as they found in them. These miserable creatures, from the colour of their skin, received the name of " Redshanks,"* but nothing is known as to the period of their existence, or the cause of their exclusion from civilized society. The aspect now presented by the moors is that of high, bare, flat-topped hills, and underlying tracts of broken ground, occasionally interspersed with huge masses of grey stone, the surface covered with heather of two kinds, as also with the bilberry plant, which seems, like the heath, indigenous to the soil, and the berry of which may be con sidered the fruit of the country.

On the high moors vast numbers of red grouse are found, while on the plains below, the larks are so numerous that their notes not unfrequently form a chorus of song. The blackbird and thrush also abound in the neighbourhood. Into the Botanical history of the district it is not necessary to enter, but, in passing, it may be remarked, that the whin bush, fern, harebell, and ground cistus, are common, and that a great variety of beautiful mosses are to be observed on the moors. The soil is particularly favourable to the growth of the holly and the yew, while the oak most frequently forms the undergrowth of those sheltered parts where wood is found, and which it is to be hoped the axe of the woodman may yet spare. A vein of small coal runs through some part of the adjoining hills, from which the several brooks, with their respective tributaries, which water the township, flow down towards Meltham Mills, and, after merging into one stream and taking a north-easterly direction, run into the river Holme at Steps Mill, below Honley. * A Highlander with buskins and red-deer-skin with the hair outwards. ■Supp. to Imp.

Diet. 8% <M& anb fernan to. It is to be regretted that the district immediately sur rounding Meltham, as well as the tract of moors lying near Crosland, have never yet been properly explored by antiquaries. In similar situations in other parts of the kingdom, a ricli harvest of discoveries has rewarded the researches of archæo logists, and furnished conclusive evidence of the occupation of those vast tracts of moorland by our Celtic forefathers. In some localities numerous small barrows or demolished kistvaens have been discovered, and in others, circles of stones, and traces of ancient British encampments. Dr. Walker, a learned antiquary, affirms, that he has himself seen the remains of a kistvaen not far from Blackmoor Foot. One remarkable and most interesting relic of Celtic times was to be seen about forty years ago, on a part of the moor called Brow Grains, lying between West Nab and Deer Hill.

This Druidical stone,* for such it unquestionably was, familiarly termed a "Rocking Stone," was destroyed in the year 1827 or 1828 ; but its existence on the moors at that time furnishes an undeniable proof of their previous possession by the ancient Celts. Future researches will show whether the speculations of antiquarians on these topics are not borne out by the facts to be deduced from them, and probably the rising generation of archæologists, now labouring in a work of so much interest, may succeed in bringing to light important remains, illustrative of the manners and customs of the early Britons, once occupants ofthe * The demolition of this interesting memorial of a bygone age, spared by the hand of time for so many hundred years, was effected by the hand of man, on a Whit-Monday morning, near forty years ago.

Some half-a dozen masons planned and executed the work of destruction for a frolic. They first endeavoured to accomplish it by blasting with gunpowder, and on the failure of this they fetched tools from Deer Hill, with which they drilled a hole, and then wedged it, when the stone fell with a tremendous crash, hardly allowing the man on its summit, who was driving in the wedge, to escape without injury. THE SAXON AND NORMAN ERAS. 5 romantic country lying in the immediate vicinage of Meltham. The flint weapon found on the breaking up of the moor above WUshaw by James Redfearn, and now in the possession of the historian of "Kirkburton and the Graveship of Holme," adds another to the proofs already given of the residence of the Celts in this district. While the remains of a Roman encampment* below West Nab, on the property of Uriah Tinker, Esq., in which querns or hand-mills for grinding corn were found, give indisputable evidence that the Romans were at one time living in close contiguity to the village. ®3Ijs S&æam ma Jtormait 6ras.

But to descend to later times. From this periods until 1080, in which the Domesday Survey was commenced, there is not a single historical record to aid the inquirer in his researches respecting this district. From that document, however, it appears, that in Edward the Confessor's reign, Cola and Suuen, or Swayn, had four carucates of land in Meltham and Haneleia — Honley — subject to guildage, or an annual tax imposed in the time of king Ethelred II. 991, on every hide of arable land in the kingdom. It is added, Hbert has it and it is waste. Its value in King Edward's time was forty shillings, a considerable sum at that period. The next piece of information furnished by the Domesday » Of this the following interesting notice is taken from Mr. Morehouse's " History of Kirkburton " : — " In the adjoining township of Meltham, are the remains of a Roman encampment, on the moor below West Nab, a short distance to the left of the road which leads thence to the village, and in the property of Mr. Uriah Tinker, of Bent House, forming nearly a square of about four chains.

When I visited the place about twenty years since, in company with the owner and other friends, the whole was very distinct and perfect. This piece of ground has since been brought into cultivation, yet the trenches are still visible. This encampment would have appeared only to have been made to supply some temporary emergency." — P. 9. + The Roman, which lasted from B.C. 55 to A.D. 448. — Hume's History of England. Record is the dispossession of the two joint Saxon thanes,* and the substitution of Ilbert de Lacy, the Norman lord, in their stead. Of one of these individuals, Cola, no further mention is made, and his fate is not known, but not so that of Swayn. In some instances where the Saxon thanes had possessed lands before the Conquest, they continued to hold the same afterwards of a Norman lord or baron, as tenant in capite, and in others, after being deprived of large estates in one place, had still larger bestowed on them elsewhere.

This was the case with Swayn, one of the joint Saxon thanes of Meltham and Haneleia already named. From what can be collected after examining the names of the Saxons dispossessed of their manors by Ilbert de Lacy, as well as of those who had been removed to other manors, it would seem that this powerful Norman lord had already decided on the erection of Pontefract Castle,t and observing that the round hill above Almondbury was also a desirable site for another of his strongholds, had resolved to plant a castle there, and regulated his measures accordingly. Meltham was not the only place of which Swayn was deprived ; for the manor of Almondbury itself, part of which was in his hands, was given to another ; and yet this could hardly have arisen from any bias unfavourable to Swayn, as he was still allowed to retain possession of a considerable number of manors elsewhere.

InLeland's "Itinerary" it is stated that Alric,;): or Aluric, a Saxon, the father of Swayn, possessed the Castle of Kirkby, or * The persons now called Lords of the Manor, were, during the Saxon rale, termed Thanes. This designation was changed by the Normans into Barons. — See Appendix, Note A. + As this castle is elsewhere said to have been built by a Saxon lord, it is supposed that Hbert de Lacy only decided on strengthening or rebuilding it. J This Alric was the son of Richard Aschenald, a Saxon thane. Camden states " that one Aske was the first Saxon proprietor of Pontefract, and that it descended by due succession to one Alric, or Aluric, from whom William the Conqueror took it." THE SAXON AND NORMAN ERAS. 7 Pontefract, before the Conquest, which being a place of strength fit to protect the northern parts, William gave to Ilbert de Lacy.

It is not improbable that as Swayn was the son of Alric, the crafty Norman might deem it impolitic to confide the keeping of two of the strongest positions in the West Riding of Yorkshire to him and his father ; yet both these Saxon nobles continued to hold vast estates under Ilbert at the time of the general Survey, of which some of their descendants possessed parts as heirs general for many ages after the Conquest — the family of the Askes existing in the county till the time of Charles I. Not many years after Pontefract Castle was built, or more properly rebuilt or strengthened, by Hbert de Lacy, Almond bury Castle was erected by King Stephen, who took possession of the throne in 1135, and was granted by him to Henry de Lacy. From this period a great part of the parish of Almondbury was under feudal bondage of the most rigorous description.* In the reignt of Edward II, Thomas Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster, was returned Lord of Huddersfield, Holme, Mel tham, and Almondbury.

Tins powerful nobleman, the first prince of the blood, and one of the most potent barons in England, was beheaded in 1322, at his own castle at Ponte fract. His death involved many others in the same fate, and the estates of all those suffering with him were confiscated- Among others, Richard Waleys, the Lord of Honley barely escaped with his life. A bond was entered into under the seal of this nobleman, Lord of Honley, by which he acknow ledges, that having adhered to the great men in rebellion against his sovereign, he had submitted himself to the king's will, and that the king, out of his graciousness had accepted * Proofs of this may be found in the Inquisitions taken in succeeding centuries. Sir William Beaumont gave lands in North Crosland and Meltham to his son Robert in the time of Edward I. + A period extending from 1307 to 1327. a ransom for his life, lands, and tenements.

In return for this great mercy and beneficence, the said Richard Waleys, of his own free will, and without any coercion, hath made oath that he will henceforth be a faithful and obedient subject, and defend the king against all men, and maintain his emprises to the death ; that he will not enter into any alliance or con federacy against the king, his crown and dignity. If he make default in any of the forementioned points, the king may imprison him at his will ; and he submits to a fine of 2,000 marks to save his life.* The next historical notice of Meltham is found in the Inquisition relating to Almondbury in the reign of Edward III., which lasted fifty years, from 1327 to 1377. In that document two tenants from Meltham are named as paying rent to the Lord of Almondbury. And again in the Inquisi tion made in the twenty-sixth year of Elizabeth, 1584, it is recorded that " John Beaumont, of Meltham, holdeth certain lands and tenements within the said manor of Meltham by copy of court roll of her majesty as of the said manor of Almondbury."

This gentleman's descendants continued to reside, and held considerable landed property in Meltham for many succeeding generations, as will be seen in a subsequent notice of them. The same feudal law, which in Elizabeth's reign connected Meltham with Almondbury, still continued in force during that of James I., from 1603 to 1625 ; nor are there grounds for believing that it had undergone any par ticular change in the time of his unfortunate son, Charles I. The archæological and historical account of the district given in this chapter furnishes a brief outline, or a sort of bird's-eye view, of its existence and condition, for little less than two thousand years, beginning with the Druidical epoch, before Christ, and including the Roman, Saxon, and Norman, as well as what may be termed the Tudor period. * Rot. Fin. Ed. II., M. 23.

Chapter II. The Village Of Meltham In

1649 — THE FIRST CHURCH IN IT — THE BUILDING OF THE CHAPEL IN 1650 — ITS CONSECRA TION BY BISHOP TILSON IN 1651 — THE VARIOUS BEQUESTS MADE TO IT — DOCUMENTS CONNECTED WITH THEM — AN ACCOUNT OF THE RUSH-CART. 8^* $tb. §nxml (grotmir. occasion* of adding a new burial ground to a church Iffy for the interment of the dead, and the necessity for it, together with the public observance and commemoration of the second hundredth year of the erection of that church, is an event calculated to awaken many and solemn reflections in the mind, and to recall the memory of years gone by. The design of the writer of this narrative is to give a simple detailed account of circumstances and events connected with Meltham, and to rescue from the devouring grasp of time some of those traditionary and interesting particulars which form the frequent topic of conversation among the aged people of the district.

The writer of this sketch is strongly impressed with the propriety of putting on record such particulars, as in a few years these ancient chroniclers of past occurrences will, in all human probability, have disappeared. It is not a fortnight since he visited the house of an old parishioner and mado several inquiries respecting, the erection of the second church in Meltham. In less than a week after, the old mant * This was written in 1851. + Thomas Watson, the first person buried in the new cemetery. was numbered among the dead, and this day, December the 2nd, 1851, the minister was called on to perform the solemn office of committing his body to the ground, " earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust," in the new burial ground, as the forerunner of the many that shall there rest until the morning of the Resurrection.

S31j« Jfirst Cjrerrji in HWlbam. Whether Meltham possessed a church during the Saxon and Norman eras, is not known, though every village at the time of the conquest is believed to have had some building of the kind. Spelman, who was not in the habit of making rash or exaggerated assertions, states, that at the time of the Domesday Survey* there were no fewer than 45,011 parish churches within the kingdom, whereas the number actually noticed in the Survey does not much exceed 1,700. The only reason that can be adduced for the extraordinary dis crepancy in these statements is, that Spelman in his estimate included every one of the churches to be found in the kingdom of England, of which only a mere fractional portion is men tioned in Domesday Book, the precept which directed the formation of that Survey having laid no injunction on the jurors to make any return of churches.

The fourfold distinction of churches, specified in the 3rd Law of Canute, AD. 1033, seems to import that these sacred * This work, begun in the year 1080, took six years to complete. Sir Henry Spelman considers it the most ancient and venerable monument of Great Britain. The reason assigned by some writers for the compilation of Domesday Book was, that every man should know his own right and possessions, and not be tempted to usurp what belonged to others. The name is said to have been derived from its definite and unquestionable authority, from which, as from the final sentence to be pronounced at " Domesday," or the " Day of Judgment," there could be no appeal. Alfred the Great had finished a like Survey of the kingdom in his time, which was long kept at Winchester, and probably served as a model to William in his undertaking. — Hume's History of England. edifices in his time might altogether amount to a large num ber, and it is manifest that during the reign of Edward the Confessor, from 1042-3 to 1066, there must have been a very great increase of what were strictly denominated Parish Churches, it being asserted in one of the laws ascribed to that king, that in many places there were three or four churches, where in former times there was but one ; and if, as is commonly reported, thirty-six churches were destroyed by the Conqueror in order to enlarge the New Forest in Hampshire, this is an argument that they could not possibly be so few in number as the Domesday Survey would imply.

An article published not very long since in the "Gentleman's Magazine," gives the names of a great many churches certainly in existence at the date of the Domesday Survey, not one of which was recognised in that ancient record ; and it is a curious fact, as observed by Sir Henry Ellis in his General Introduction to it, that only one church can be found in the return for Cambridgeshire, and not one in Lancashire, Cornwall, or even Middlesex, the seat of the Metropolis. It appears that the jurors in some counties drew up their valuations in a very different manner to that of others. Some returned, as in the Norfolk and Exeter Domesday, the num ber of sheep and cattle. Others, as in the instances above named, entirely omitted the churches. And it is observable that out of the twenty-nine places with the prefix " church," four only are mentioned as having one at all.

Hitherto it has been thought by some, that neither at Almondbury nor Huddersfield was there a church at the time of the Domesday Survey. But if the testimony of Sir Henry Spelman is to be relied on, who grounds his statements upon those made in Sprott's "Chronicles," written about the year 1274, surely such must have been included in the vast number, above forty-five thousand, said at that period to exist within the compass of the Island. What description of churches these were, is not stated, but great numbers, probably, by far the greatest, were of wood, rude in structure and liable to decay. When such facts as these are taken into account, it can hardly be thought possible that the mother churches of three parishes so extensive as those of Almondbury, Huddersfield, and Halifax, did not form a part of the vast array said to be in existence at the time of the Conquest.

But this is a question which cannot easily be decided ; it must therefore be left an open one. Sfet (Btution rf % Æfcajrd to 1650-51. Little is known of the social condition of the village previous to the erection of its church in 1650-51, during the time of the Commonwealth. The population at that period could not have been more than about two hundred persons, for the Register of the chapel during the ten years extending from 1669 to 1678 inclusive, gives an average of only ten baptisms, seven funerals, and little more than one marriage a year — namely, thirteen marriages in the ten years. It is probable that some of the inhabitants, from ancient custom and association, would have still resorted to Almond bury for the rights and privileges of the church, yet, judging from the number of those whose names appear in the Register as having come to Meltham from the surrounding townships for similar purposes, the foregoing average may be considered as a tolerably correct estimate of the statistics of the township at that time.

The earliest intimation on record of the intended erection of a church to meet the spiritual wants of the village and neighbourhood is a paragraph in the will of William Wood head, a native of Meltham, bearing date the first day of November, 1649, the year in which Charles I. was beheaded. Amongst other things the testator willed and directed, "that John Waterhouse, his brother-in-law, should, out of the rents and profits of property in Saddleworth, pay towards the maintenance of a minister to preach the word of God at Meltham, if there should be a chapel there erected, the yearly sum of forty shillings ; " and immediately after this "some of the chief inhabitants of Meltham expended considerable sums of money in erecting a chapel." This building was completed in the year 1651. Some of the descendants of William Woodhead state that the active and prominent part he took in promoting the erection of a church in the village of Meltham, was in con sideration of the growing age and infirmities of his mother, who was no longer able to go so far as Honley Chapel,* the place of worship in her time nearest to Meltham.

The footroad across Harden Clough, which was then generally used by those living at Roydt in going to Honley Chapel, still retains the name of " Chapel-gate ; " and it was in traversing this wild path on the Sabbath Day that the old lady, Mrs. Martha Woodhead, the mother of William Woodhead, was occasionally pelted with sods by the idle and mischievous lads of those days ; at least there is a family tradition to that effect, and also another testifying to the worthy old lady's steadfast abhorrence of popery, the introduction of which was then indeed rendered not altogether improbable, as a swarm of Jesuits from France and Ttaly had come over into the kingdom, » Honley Chapel is of much older date than that of Meltham, for a faculty, granting permission to build a Chapel of Ease at Honley, was obtained in the eighteenth year of the reign of Henry YIL, 1503, and doubtless the erection of it took place shortly afterwards.

In a document in the handwriting of the late Rev. Charles Drawbridge, Incumbent of Honley, and now in the possession of Mr. Hirst, the Churchwarden of that place, it is stated that the first church was erected in 1507, and probably enlarged about 1630. The present building is the third church at Honley. The earliest minister, of whom Mr. Monhouse has been able to find any record, was there in or about the year 1570. + The Woodheads of that day, and of several succeeding generations, resided on their property at Royd. and were insinuating themselves into every part of the country. These had followed Henrietta Maria into England on her marriage with Charles I., and were known to be using the most strenuous efforts to re-establish the Roman Catholic religion in the Island. Of this, Mrs. Martha Woodhead was quite aware, and is reported to have said that, much as she rejoiced to see a chapel erected in the village of Meltham, she would rather have it burnt to the ground than that it should fall into the hands of the Papists.