Letters to the Young on progress in Pudsey during the last sixty years

Preface

. In compliance with numerous requests, the following letters are issued in a separate form. Being written chiefly for the young people, who, from the nature of their position, cannot be expected to have large pecuniary resources at command, not having had a sufficient length of time to ac quire much wealth, we have resolved to publish a cheap edition. Our desire is that they should be read ; thinking from our own experience, that the young people might be helped both to appreciate the superior advantages they possess as compared with their forefathers, and be prompted to greater activity on behalf of progress in the future. The following letters extended over twice the length of time that we expected they would do when we began to write them, though we curtailed them as much as possible, compatible with giving the reader something like a general view of the various matters dealt with.

We are not conscious of having gone out of our way to deal with debatable matters, but have tried to avoid them as much as possible. One thing however is certain, that those who only read their own side deny themselves of some advantage which reading both sides would give. Were there no difference of opinion amongst mankind, no one could learn anything from his fellow-men, and all social intercourse and progress would be at an end. There is no need for any apology on our part for the order or arrange ment of our subject. The various letters were written as the matter presented itself and impressed us at the time, and it has not been deemed desirable to alter them in that respect, though some slight alterations and corrections have been made. VI

PREFACE.

. It is only necessary to add that if any person 50 years ago had predicted what has since come to pass, he would have been considered crazy. And could anyone foresee, and tell us the social, political, and religious aspects of Pudsey 50 years hence, he also would probably be thought a fit subject for Bedlam. Change and progress seem 20 slow from day to day, that it is only by looking back over a long period of time that we are able to see the immense progress made. We trust that to some extent the following letters will enable the reader to do this. THE AUTHOR. Eorsforth, Sept. 8th, 1886. CONTENTS.

Letter I

The Old Time Roads, Buildings, Furniture, etc Pudsey at present the centre of a Parliamentary Division— Its general condition sixty years ago — No order or taste in the buildings — A view of tbe roads and sidewalks — Surface drains — Ash middens and filth — Scanty conveniences — A peep into a house — A doctor's first medicine — Ovens — Sanded stone floors — Tbe oaken " Kist " — Corner cupboard — Dels case — Mutual help — Borrowing and lending ... 1 — 3

Letter II

Scarcity of Coal, Light, Soap, Water, etc. Few cellars and coalhouses — " Muleloads of Coal," and the coal heap — Baking the fire — and lighting it — Candles — The fire-side on a winter's night — Soap and its substitutes — Pumping, drawing, and fetching water — Waiting till it springs — Cellar wells and ponds- Panic on a washing day — Catching the eavedrops 3—6

Letter III

Baking, Brewing, Dress, Food, etc. Planning for Washing — Brewing beer called " drink " — Food — Flour dear, and why — Flesh meat a luxury — " Havver cake" and the "Bakstone " — Borrowing and lending yeast — Brewing utensils — Drink in every house — All welcome to " a sup o' drink" — The parson and cobbler drink i-fc — Thought to possess more strength than any other article 6 — CONTENTS.

Letter IV

Courtship and Love-Making. The villagers' knowledge of each other — Few means of meeting outsiders — Dangerous courting lasses in other villages — No love-letters, cheap trips, or galas — Leeds and Bradford fairs — Giving up courting in despair — Mock courtship for a purpose — Pudsey tide — A famine before and after — Abusing Pudsey people's hospitality — Shabby to leave home at Tide-time — How and where the Tide is held — The market for sweethearts — A " Tiding" a " God's-penny " — Lads and lasses at the alehouse — Village gossip — " Hearkening courters " — " Pitchering Brass " — Calling persons out of their names — Courting by proxy 10 — 16

Letter V

Old Time Weddings. Love-making not confined to the feast-time — Old time lanes and fields — Going to Tong Church and Fulneck Chapel under false pretences — Pudsey on a certain day — All astir — Two weddings — Walking to Calverley Church — Gossip and Bridecake — Following the Weddings — " Chalking up a Shot " — Throwing away money for luck — " Sodding the Weddingers " — The " Enbrass " — A Biding Wedding — The dowry, and wedding presents 16 — 20

Letter VI

What is the Chief Employment? Weaving cotton on hand-looms — Power-looms supersede them — Making of woollen cloths — Hand-looms — Jennies, etc. — " Leadbouses" and wool dyeing — Drying wool and tentering pieces out of doors — " Moiting " wool by hand — " Lecking pieces " — Clotbmakers going to Leeds market — Their talk at the Inns on tbe road — " Wetting Bobbins " with a " sahker " — Revolution caused by tbe " Bobbin sinker" — Hand-loom weaving has its drawbacks ... 20—25 CONTENTS. IX

Letter VII

The Trials and Difficulties of Hand-Loom Weavers- Cloth-makers become numerous — Panics and bad-times- Small manufacturers — Few weavers and spinners have constant work — Seeking work — Bad customs — "Odd jobbing" or working for nothing — Waiting for slubbing — Sizing, and " Laking for druft " — Putting webs out to dry — Seeking gears — Power-looms dreaded — Effects of machinery — " Open-band and cross-band " — Difficulty in making cloths alike 26-32

Letter VIII

Burling and Burlers. *' Moity " wools — Burling cloths — Great losses sustained — What Burling is, and who does it — Dark weather — A bad scour — A great institution — Burlers know all, and more— Listen at a Burling-house door — Slubbers and their business — 111 usage and poor pay of piecers Slubbers earn good wages, and most of them spend them — Condensers supersede slubbing — Prejudice against them — False prophecies — America ahead of England— Condensers hold their own, and slubbing dies out — Letter from an old time Pudseyer on " Progress in Pudsey " 32 — 38

Letter IX

Low state of Education. Few schools— Uneducated teachers— Writing and Arithmetic not thought necessary— Books scarce, poor, and dear ; and why— A good reader of a newspaper thought to be •• far-learned "—Sunday schools- Ignorant teachers— A sin to write on Sunday— Wages kept down by law— Dangerous to educate tbe people— Quill pens— Borrowing writing materials— The blacksmith's and barber's shops— Last news, old news— General ignorance of foreign affairs— No libraries for the people— Books in the cottage— Scarcity of waste paper- Street news— Tbe Railway wonder— Monopoly of education by the aristocracy and the wealthy— American Republic and Ed"- X CONTENTS. 47 54 55-67 cation— When the people of England got political power they educated themselves— False Statistics by the Yoluntaryists— What one did for himself— Exceptions no guide— Brutal punishment in week-day and Sunday schools— Ignorance breeds superstition ... 39

Letter X

"Superstition the Child of Ignorance." Witchcraft believed in— Unbelievers in it called Infidels — Persons supposed to sell their souls to tbe devil — "Wise men" consulted — Virtue in a horse-shoe— Telling " Boggard Tales " — Children made unhappy — The " Padfoot," a ghost and the results — Favourite places for ghosts— Satan, his cloven-foot, and sulphur — Frightening children — Lucky and unlucky days, persons, and places — Boggards have a flourishing time of it — How to make boggards — Why are they scarcer ? - Deaths, the result of bad sanitation, thought to be the will of Heaven — Sanitary science kills such notion... -47

Letter XI

Manners, Customs. Sports, and Pastimes. Barbarous manners and customs the result of ignorance — Pudsey no worse than other villages — Old time clanships — Insulting strangers " Pudsey blacks " — Pugilists visiting feasts — Young men standing in groups — Village constable — Indecsnt remarks to passers by — Alehouses and Chapels — Doing mischief — Teetotalers thought to be crazy — Alcohol indispensable at Sacrament — Prizefights — Dog and Cock fighting — " Cobbler Monday " — Christmas both merry and sad — Old-time Football and tbe new — Dancing single step- Easter and Fulneck Tide, etc. — The low state of Yeadon — Intercourse with other villagers destroys clanship — Cobden's French Treaty makes ns fear the French less —Cricketing, old stylo and new— Cricket a civiliser — Cruelty to animals — Hate of the Irish — Children mob them — Old-time Alehouses — Chartism — A test of best ales — Drunk for sixpence — The sort of songs sung — The war spirit — Long working hours I CONTENTS.

Letter XII

Theological Progress. An ignorant, superstitious, and rude people will have a Theology to match — Terror to check vice — The chapel and the ale-bouse — Church and Dissent — Church-rates — Bad feeling caused — Political immorality — Tbe old theology had no present utility — Learning despised — Wise above what was written — Science called " worldly wisdom " — Ignorance of the Bible — Praying to reconcile contradictions — The State Church no criterion — Great change in theology — Chapels more inviting* — A pattern Methodist — No whistling on Sundays — Religious football players, cricketers and harriers — Methodists and temperance — Ministers more liberty — More charity towards sinners — A Methodist's address to students — A good sign — The Owenitee — Joseph Barker — Hearing him preach — Barker's expulsion for heresy — Split in the Methodist New Connexion — Trotter and Smith — Barker's great labours — He becomes more heretical — Gets a steam printing press — Publishes the People— The Barkerites — Barker goes to America — Returns an Agnostic — A co-editor of the National Reformer with Bradlaugb — The latter made sole editor — Barker ends where he began — His death bed — Confession — Unitarians — Science and other agencies liberalise the old theology 68-82 LETTER -XIII.

Contributory causes of change and progress in the Manufacture of Woollens. Our purpose— What it is, and what it is not — Recapitulation of processes —Australian wool— Its history— Mungo— Cotton warps— Predictions falsified— Piece dyeing— Burl dyeing— Fancy Coatings— Great increase in tbe number of woollen manufacturers—" Hawking Cloth," and Cloth Hawkers— Many cloth-makers begin to finish their goods— Leeds Cloth Hall is deserted, and Company Mills decay 83~ CONTENTS.

Letter XIV

Power Looms, and the Revolution they effected. No progress without decay — Machinery and its effects — Strong opposition to power-looms — Blackburn, Bradford, and Leeds — A curious petition to Parliament — The old hand-loom weaver's lament — "To be sold by Auction " — Great depreciation of value in property — " The darkest cloud has a silver lining " — Manufacturers have to buy their own machinery and pay for all odd jobbing — The Worsted Business — The Boot and Shoe Trade and the revolution in that branch — " Cobblers " and old-time boot and shoe makers 88 — 93

Letter XV

Fulneck- Why we deal with it — A seat of learning — The founders good judges — Its wide-spread reputation — Pudsey people should feel proud of this settlement — Its efficient day and Sunday schools — Why Fulneck had a charm for us — Its seclusion, music, and people — Contrast between a Methodist revival meeting and the service at Fulneck Chapel — Noisy visitors from Pudsey — Its attractions — A little community ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ! 'J4— 97

Letter XVI

Tong. FllOM WHICH PuDNKY PEOrLK FORMERLY -JETCHBD MlLK, AM) SOME OF THEM A FEW Hakes ami Pheasants, Why we deal with Tong — Surrounding scenery sixty years ago— Poaching and poachers— The Game Laws— Fetching milk, etc.— Our early attachments — Rational progress no need to spoil the acenery— Tong Church bells— Lines, written on hearing them ring in 1856 98—102 CONTENTS. XIII

Letter XVII

Progress in Music. Ignorance of Music sixty years ago — Prejudice against Organs — Difficulties in striking tunes at Chapels — A woman comes to the rescue — Blunders of leading singers and their self-conceit — Pudsey Old Reed Band— Some droll characters — The Drummer — All gone ! — Shakespeare's lines — Old time recollections — Music then and now — Pudsey Choral Union and its numerous patrons — Influences of Bands of Hope — Services of Song — Our National system of Education — Pianos then and now — A curious soul with no taste for music — The universe full of music — What some think the best thing — Letter from Mr. Simeon Rayner 103—109

Letter XVIII

The Hall of Freedom Project. Thirty-five years ago Pudsey had no large Hall or Lecture Boom — Schools and Chapels not accessible for the advocacy of unpopular principles — The Temperance Boom — Bad feeling caused by letting it for heterodox principles — Unfairness of orthodox Teetotallers towards heterodox Teetotallers — Barker unable to get a room to lecture on Temperance — Working men sign a pledge and resolve to build a Hall for the advocacy of all creeds and opinions — Extract from the first report — How it all ended 110 — 116

Letter XIX

Progress in the Future The centralisation of business, and the causes — Competition tends to destroy itself — Property has its duties — No two men have the same chances, and why — All cannot be employers of labour — Nor be millionaires— Much better times possible in the future — Why should there be any poverty — The great struggle between labour and capital — Social and political Grievances in the future— New political era — Canon Percival on competition— Vicar of South Cave on pauperism— Man as a savage and as a co-operator 117 — CONTENTS. 136

Letter XX

Concluding Letter. Our object in the previous letters — Great fault of historians — Macaulay comes to the rescue— Old-time manners and customs passing away —A friendly letter and the "Plug Riots "— Mayhall— Extracts from a Biography — Our critics — A post card from an unknown writer — Fulneck — The Encyclopædia Britannica — Baiues' Directory—The writer of postal not "posted" — Pudsey might and ought to have made more progress during the last 60 years — We hope and expect better things in the future ERRATA. Page 22, 8th line. For sipn read spin. ,, 27, 13th line, ,, scoured „ soured. 32, last line, „ bulk „ balk. 56, last line, bein being. 57, last line but two, ,, wages wagers. Reprinted from the Pudsey District Advertiser. December 18th, 1885 — August 27th, 1880. Being Thirty- Six Consecutive Weeks. LETTERS TO THE YOUNG os PROGRESS IN PUDSEY During The Last Sixty Years.

Letter I

The Old Time Roads, Buildings, Furniture, &c Pudsey at present the centre of a Parliamentary Division — Its general condition 60 years ago — No order or taste in the buildings — A view of the roads and side walks — Surface drains — Ash-middens and filth — Scanty conveniences — A peep into a house — A doctor's first medicine — Ovens — Sanded stone floors — The oaken " Kist " — Corner cupboard — Dels case — Mutual help — Borrowing and lending. Since Pudsey, by the late Reform Bills, has been made the Centre of a Parliamentary Division, and elected its first Member to represent it in the British House of Parliament, an old native is led to ponder on times far back in tbe past, and compare such with the present. Pudsey may not have made that rapid progress which some other places have done, owing to their more favoured situation, or other special advantages, yet, if some old inhabitant who had left the village 60 years ago, and never seen or beard of it since, could revisit it to-day, he would be a sort of second Rip Van Winkle.

Or could the young men, who are natives of Pudsey, be placed in the village at the period referred to, and be compelled to make their way in it for twelve months, they would be severely puzzled. The appearance of the buildings, roads, and inhabitants; the homes, food, and dress ; the native habits and customs ; employment, sports, and pas times ; bad situations, and unavoidable dense ignorance ; were such, though in all respects equal to the surrounding villages at that time, as no one who has not lived amongst it can fully realise, for words in such matters convey but a faint idea of the actual state of things. Yet, during all that period, progress for the time being always seemed slow and almost imper ceptible, and it is only by carrying the mind back for many years, and comparing the past with the present, that we are able to see the immense changes and improvements that have taken place.

At that time there would only be about one-third of the present population, and the houses in most parts were scattered. There were no Local Boards, and persons built houses to suit their own personal whim or interest, regardless of taste, order, or sanitary considerations ; hence they appeared as if they had sprung up from seeds dropped unawares, to be weeded out by coming generations, placed here and there as if by accident, approached by crooked folds, or courts, and narrow passages called ginnels, etc., though a stranger had less difficulty in finding a person than might be supposed, as everyone knew nearly all the rest of the people. Let us, in our imagination, view the roads, etc., in those days. Many of them we find with irregular gradients, up hill and down hill, to the discomfort of man and beast.

Other parts have narrow and dangerous places, and in wet weather, especially during a thaw, the highways are almost impassable, and particularly so are those streets or lanes leading off from*the main roads. Then the sidewalks, or causeways : we find some of them unflagged, and such as are have only a single flagstone in width ; in many parts much higher than the streets. They are very dangerous, especially on dark nights and in frost and snow, with unlighted streets ; but to obviate the difficulty somewhat, many are carrying lanterns in their hands, with a candle inside, to see their way and avoid a collision. This reminds us of the complaints made by some at the present day of the tendency to Socialism there is in our legislation. Now lighting the streets with gas is socialistic, but few will deny that it has a great advan tage over the old lantern system, which left everyone at his own option, whether he provided for himself that sorry flicker of a light, or walked and plodded his way on dangerous roads in midnight darkness.

Whatever good can be done better by united action than by isolated individual effort is a public benefit. But let us pursue our course of inspection, and we see on the surface slops and other refuse which have come from the dwellings, and heaps of ashmiddens, and other filth, exposed to the gaze of every passer by. Many of the houses have no outside conveniences, and the occupants are at the mercy of those who have ; whilst many of those owned by others are in a most repulsive condition, for, as we have said, there is no Local Board to correct the nuisance. Let us peep into the people's dwellings : we find the rooms very low, and windows small, for glass is dear. The houses, being either badly drained, or not drained at all, are mostly damp. There are few sashes in the windows, and seldom an air-pane for ventilation.

There is dense ignorance of sanitary science. A doctor comes into a house where there is fever, and he knocks a pane of glass out with his stick, his first dose of medicine being fresh air. Many of the houses have no ovens, and the occupants have to bake on a "bakstone" placed on the fire, or carry their dough to a neighbour who has an oven, taking coal to heat it. Few have iron castings for the fire place, but large stones instead, which they make black with blacklead or with what they call "oil of coil." These stones often break with the heat of the fire, and have to be replaced. Such as have iron castings, ovens, etc., have to put them in themselves as tenants, and risk getting a valuation when they leave the house. They have mostly stone floors, which they wash and sprinkle with sand, which they " bray " on crush from stones they buy from shops and carts, or get them from the roads, walls, or quarries, and some scour the hearth stone and door steps with scouring stone.

Most of the working people's houses are meagrely furnished ; many have no clock or timepiece, and may be seen going frequently during the day to where there is one, to know the time. In some houses there is an oaken Chest or Kist — a family heirloom, or a small cupboard fastened up in a corner, and a delfcase for pots and plates ; but pots are dear, and much of a coarse kind of ware is used, such as brown and black. It is pleasing, in these rude times, to see the mutual good-will and friendship there is, notwithstanding the occasional back-biting, tittle-tattle, and ill-will. They watch and nurse each other's families when sick, and borrow and lend almost anything in the house ; though I am not aware that they equal the folks in a neighbouring village, where it is said they borrow basins of broth and pots and plates of porridge.

Letter II

Scarcity of Coal, Light, Soap, and Water, etc. Few cellars and coalhouses — " Muleloads of Coal," and the coal heap — Raking the fire — and lighting it — Candles — The fire-side on a winter's night — Soap and its substitutes — Pumping, drawing, and fetching water — Waiting till it springs — ■ Cellar wells and ponds — Panic on a washing day — Catching the eavedrops. Many families have no cellars or outbuildings to put their coal in, and have to leave it outside. When a deep snow falls, they have much shovelling to find their piles. It frequently happens that some neighbour whose coal " heap " or pile is either used up, or getting low, helps himself or herself from others which are often in close proximity. This is not mere jealousy or suspicion, because the coal had been put in a definite form to be sworn to, on a certain night, and on the following morning the pile was found to be disarranged, and remarkably less in bulk.

Few persons can afford to keep much coal by them, and many fetch from retailers a hundredweight at a time in a wheelbarrow. Others buy a bag from off the top of cartloads, while many order what they call a " Mule-load," which is a sack-full fetched on a donkey's back. There are persons who keep a drove of these donkeys, which they drive daily down Scholebrook Lane to the Tong side of the Beck to Holme and other places for coals. It would touch the feelings of any right-minded person to see the animals struggling under their loads up the steep hills. Some have their backs in a most horrible state from wounds made by the coal, whilst others have sores on their legs, caused by the bites of dogs kept to drive them along. Then it is quite common to see the poor animals fall down under their load, and in wet weather the roads are such that their feet stick in the clay and mud, so that stumbling and tumbling is a constant occurrence.

Those who get a cartload of coal at a time seldom know what weight they get. Some of the " <x>al-leaders," as they are called, have carts made small to make a little load appear a big one. Others have bags of coal on the top, which they sell to customers on the road, and, it is said, do not deduct them where they deliver the rest, though all are weighed together at the pit. Some bring cartloads of coal from Bierley and Dudley Hill, and hawk them from door to door, and the purchasers are not always the poorest of the inhabitants ; many persons who are known to be in good circumstances buy their coal in these various ways. Lighting the fire is no easy matter, for there are no Lucifer Matches ; hence those who can afford the fuel, use means to prevent it going out. They " rake " the fire, as it is called, by covering it at bed-time with small coal and cinders, and make it compact, so that it may burn till morning.

When it is not kept in, there is serious trouble sometimes in lighting it. If the chimney does not draw well, at an outside place away from other dwellings, much time is wasted ; for, after striking fire from flint, etc., so as to light paper and a candle, persons may be seen blowing with their mouths or fanning with a board to light the chips, till their eyes are red and full of tears caused by the smoke being puffed back in their faces. Those living near each other, light their candle at some of their neighbours' fires, or borrow a little fire, or exchange a piece of coal for some, except at Christmas time when it is thought unlucky to do so. Yes : raking a fire and lighting one are serious matters ; and, as in everything else so it is in these two, persons vary very much in their ability to do them scientifically.

Then, candles are dear, and melt and waste much, especially if carried about the house. Many families make it a rule never to light one except for some work that cannot be done without, and then it is immediately blown or snuffed out. If one goes into a neighbour's house (as some, it is said, do on a winter's night on purpose to save their own fire and candles), he will probably find a few sitting round the fire, and he is mostly some time ere he is able to recognise all those present, for seldom is there any light, except from the fire, which cannot at all times give out much light, and there is some truth in the remark that during the winter season people do not see each other clearly. There may be some use in this darkness after all, for soap is at a high price, and some slight defects in one's personal appearance for want of its freer use may not be so prominent.

Soap, we say, is dear, and many substitutes are resorted to by some families ; at times a little oatmeal, etc., and something else we will not mention as well, except that it bears some not distant relationship to what is collected in barrel-carts to scour cloth with at the mills. But the most lamentable affair in our estimation in relation to clean liness and health, is the condition of Pudsey, at the time we are speaking of, as regards its water supply, or rather the want of it; not that it is worse off than other villages with its population are. During a wet season there is plenty, such as it is but in many cases it is too far to fetch. Some few have pumps, but too often out of repair. One here and there who has a cellar may have a well in it, probably in a house undrained, or badly drained, except so far as their cellar well may do it.

There are a few draw-wells where the " Iron-bound bucket " is often lost, and the well has to be dredged with " well-creepers," while a dozen persons may be waiting for water. There are ponds in the village for cattle, but the water is not all that is desirable, being a little spoiled by the rotting carcases of dogs and cats, though it is said some publicans use it for brewing. There are public wells in every part of the village, but during a dry season it is a terrible affair getting water, for most of the wells are dry, and remind one of the African desert. The washing days produce a panic. Scores of people spend half their time in fetching water, for many have to go more than half a mile for it, and have sore heads and blistered hands with kits and cans. Sometimes may be seen 20 or 30 vessels waiting by the side of the well to take their turn as the water springs, and strong conscienceless men and women cheat the weaker out of their turns.

The water carried so far, too, is often muddy, and has to stand to let the sediment settle before being used ; and how people manage to live and maintain even moderate health is a mystery, but nature must have a deal of elasticity in her to bear such stress and violation of her laws. During rain scores of bowls, tubs, etc., may be seen nnder the eaves catching the droppings to wash the clothes ! There are few spouts, so that one is soon wet through in passing under the eave-drops on entering a house. What we have said about the difficulties of procuring water sixty years ago in Pudsey comes far short of conveying a full idea of the sad state of things then existing. Both brewing and washing days were frequently put off for the want of water, while, on the other hand, if no rain had fallen for some time, people would wash their clothes before the regular time, lest the springs should fail ; or if a good shower of rain came, they would rush out and put their tubs and bowls, etc., under the eave-drops to catch them, and would wash a day or two sooner, whilst the water caught was sweet and fresh.