St. Peter’s Parish Church, Kirkgate
A church has stood on this site for many centuries, but only the lower west tower remains from the Norman period, the rest of the church being rebuilt between 1865 and 1870. Charlotte Bronte worshipped here when visiting friends Mary Taylor and Ellen Nussey who lived nearby. Ellen’s grave is in fact in the churchyard, as is that of Charlotte’s teacher, Margaret Wooler. Charlotte renames it “Briarfield Church” in her novel “Shirley”.
The stone carved head of George Bromley can be seen on the West exterior wall. He was master of the National School in Birstall. He was also the parish clerk in the 1850s and secretary of the Batley and Birstall Savings Bank in the 1850s, 1860s and 1870s. The bank had been established in 1822 and had branches in Batley, Batley Carr, Birstall and Cleckheaton, open for an hour or two each week. By 1881 Bromley was also a stationer with premises in the High Street.
The church contains some interesting relics from the past including a set of pew ends, one dated 1616, an ancient saxon preaching cross and the font from the original chuch c.1100, several 13th century Knights Hospitallers' tombstones and a set of gruesome carved heads in the porch.
Black Bull Inn
This inn is situated immediately behind the parish church and is reputedly linked to it by a secret underground passageway. There has been an inn on this spot for at least 300 years, possibly much longer. The Black Bull served as the courthouse for the increasingly large parish of Birstall during the early 19th Century, and the courtroom, on the first floor, still exists. There is a separate small sitting room for the justices, and the original panelled magistrate’s chair and
box for prisoners can still be seen. Each of these has a painting on its centre front panel and a wooden canopy supported by colonnettes. Trials, mainly for bankruptcy, were conducted here but it is said that two Luddites were tried here and later hung on trees behind the Inn. It is also said that one man involved in the Luddite attack on Cartwright’s Mill in April 1812 and four others accused of the murder of mill owner William Horsfall soon afterwards had their committal hearing here. They were sent on to York Assizes to be tried. The murder trial took place in January 1813 when three of the men were found guilty and hanged two days later. Around the same time a total of eight men went on trial for the attack on Cartwright’s Mill. Five of them were found guilty and they were publicly hanged the next day, 16th January 1813.
William Cartwright had installed shearing frames in his mill, Rawfolds Mill, in 1812, an act which caused bitter ill feeling amongst those rendered unemployed by the new machinery.
Local clergymen, including the Reverend Patrick Bronte of Hartshead, and in particular the Reverend Hammond Roberson of Liversedge encouraged local manufacturers to stand up against Luddite threats and attacks.
On the West wall of the Inn there is a stone with an inscription dating from earlier alterations to the building. It reads
"The west side of this wall was set in the hedge-row
the dike-comb and dike was lost for Stee-room 1754”
Snickleways or passageways with handrails connecting different levels of the hillside on which the village is built still survive. Intended for pedestrians only, they are both narrow and worn, and in some cases have had to be widened. Good examples are “Sheard’s Hill” connecting High Street and The Mount, which has no steps, just cobbles, and the steps between Middlegate and Chandler Crescent.
The National School on Kirkgate bears the name of its founder, William Charlesworth and date 1818. It was extended in 1848. A schoolhouse for the schoolmaster was also built and paid for by Mr Charlesworth who lived at Brier Hall. The school provided free education for all the children of the village, even the poor. The building is now called Mitre House and is used as business premises for an IT company.
On the main Bradford to Batley road, the old police station still stands, “Peel Court” refurbished and now a private house. It once had a large Victorian lamp over its door with the word “Police” printed on its glass, and was an essential part of village life. Birstall had its own small police force as far back as the 1850s, with several sergeants and six or more constables based at the station. There may have been temporary lock-up accommodation too, since in 1866 West Riding justices agreed for £600 to be spent on police cells near the town centre. Once indispensable, the station was closed in the 1960s.
An interesting cottage, “Bank House”, still stands next to the Market Place. A farmhouse during the 16th Century, it later became a branch of the Midland Bank, but when the Bank moved out to new premises across the road, it reverted to domestic use. The most interesting feature of the cottage is this double window with the word “Dairy” above, now almost painted out. This dates from the tax on windows introduced during the reign of William of Orange. The original Act of 1695 was amended in 1778 and 1795 to make farmhouse and dairy windows exempt. A similar window exists at Oakwell Hall.
A singular tiny shop, once a butcher’s shop, on Bond Street, still exists. Clinging to the summit of the hill, it has had to change its wares and adapt to modern needs.
Also surviving, just, is this advert for Wills’ Gold Flake cigarettes, probably dating from the period between the two World Wars. It can be found high on the side of a building near the market square. These fading signs are know as "ghost signs".
St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, consecrated in 1906, with its presbytery and schoolroom below has not been in use since 1970, a new church and school having been built nearby. A statue of the Virgin Mary once embellished this wall but is believed stolen. Below, this an inscription and
model survive, with the wording
John Rodney Heptinstall
Died January 27th 1958
Aged 11 years
RIP
John, a pupil at St Patrick's, fell through the ice at Longbottom's dam, a pond at a disused dyeing mill on Bradford Road, and was drowned. John was one of a number of schoolboys playing on the ice on their way home from school. One of the boys, Brian Mahon, got into difficulties when the ice cracked and John may have been trying to help him when the ice gave way again. Passers-by managed to rescue Brian, but it was some hours before John's body could be recovered by members of Batley Fire Brigade. The alabaster model next to the memorial was blessed by Pope Pius XII before being placed there.
An interesting doorway opening onto the market place bears the intertwined initials “W” and “B” and the date 1908. This was most probably the premises of William Blakeley, chemist.
John Nelson's Study
This is situated in the grounds of Birstall Methodist Chapel, now Wesley House, and was used by Nelson to meet people and to study. An inscription over the mantelpiece reads 'John Nelson's Study A.D. 1751'.
John Nelson was born in Birstall in October 1707, the son of a stonemason and he too became a skilled stonemason. Despite being brought up in a pious home, Nelson found himself troubled over the matter of his salvation and he tried various sects unsatisfactorily, until he heard John Wesley speak at Moorfields, London in June 1739, after which he became Wesley's most ardent lay assistant and 'the pioneer of Methodism in Yorkshire'.
Whilst still working at his trade in London, John received a letter from his wife relating the death of one of their children and severe illness of another, but it was his new faith which enabled him to deal with this situation staunchly. John returned home to Birstall in 1740 and had first to convince a doubting wife about his new beliefs. She was converted and became an ardent follower. After this, Nelson spoke at first to his neighbours in his own home, but when his audience multiplied he spoke from his doorstep. His success led to him founding the Birstall Methodist Society in 1741. In need of support, though, in May 1742 he wrote to John Wesley for guidance which resulted in Wesley visiting him at his home soon afterwards and preaching to his congregation, the first of 30 visits by Wesley to Birstall between 1742 and 1789. Charles Wesley also visited Nelson that autumn, and both brothers used examples of Nelson's success, and also his trials, in their sermons and publications. It was his example that decided John Wesley to use lay preachers as part of his plan.
But Nelson's success, it seems, also attracted enemies. The Moravians, who were strong in the area at that time, fell out with him. Then the vicar of Birstall reported Nelson to the authorities for illegal preaching and in 1744 he was thrown in the old Bradford gaol in Ivegate. Then another attempt was made to quieten him by having him pressed into the army, where he stayed until Charles Wesley found a way of having him released.
From 1750 to 1770 Nelson acted as official preacher to Methodist societies across the country, even travelling to Ireland on one occasion. Meanwhile he helped build Birstall Methodist Chapel between 1750 and 1751, the first Methodist preaching house in Yorkshire. Around 1765 the Birstall Methodist Circuit, which at first included Huddersfield, Dewsbury, Holmfirth and Denby Dale, was established.
John Nelson died on 18th July 1774 and is buried in the churchyard of Birstall parish church, opposite the vestry door. Inside he is commemorated on a plaque on the wall of the south aisle.
Ellen Nussey
Ellen Nussey was born on 20th April 1817, the 12th child of John Nussey, an affluent Birstall cotton merchant. Her father died when she was still a child in 1826. She is famous for her long friendship with Charlotte Bronte.
Ellen and Charlotte Bronte first met in January 1831 when both were pupils at Roe Head School near Mirfield, when Ellen was 13 and Charlotte 14. Describing that meeting, Ellen wrote "there was a silent, weeping, dark little figure in the large bay window", but despite this poor start Charlotte went on to be happy at the school. The two also made friends with fellow pupils Mary Taylor of Red House, Gomersal and Elizabeth Cockill who, from 1838, taught at her mother's school in Oakwell Hall, as well as Miss Margaret Wooler, their teacher, and Amelia Walker (see Lascelles Hall).
Ellen and her family lived at "Rydings", Birstall Smithies, a castellated mansion that is echoed in the description of Thornfield in "Jane Eyre". The house was owned by Ellen's uncle Richard who allowed her family to stay. Charlotte and her brother Branwell visited Ellen there in September 1832, three months after Charlotte had left Roe Head as a pupil - she was later to return as a teacher. When he left, Branwell said that he was leaving Charlotte "in paradise". Besides the house itself there were grottos, fishponds, waterfalls and bluebell woods in the grounds. This wonderful house still exists but is now enclosed within an industrial compound and inaccessible to the general public. You can just make it out here in the background amongst the trees.
Ellen also visited Charlotte and her family at Haworth parsonage. Patrick Bronte approved of Ellen and after her first visit Charlotte wrote "Emily and Anne say they never saw anyone that they liked so well as Miss Nussey". Ellen and Charlotte had begun a correspondence at Roe Head that would continue until Charlotte's death. Charlotte's letters, which Ellen preserved despite a request from Arthur Bell Nicholls (Charlotte's husband) that she destroy them, reveal much about the life of the Bronte family. Ellen later allowed Mrs Gaskell to use over 300 of them as the basis for her definitive biography "The Life of Charlotte Bronte", published 1857.
From "Rydings" Ellen and her family moved to "Brookroyd House" on Brookroyd Lane, Birstall, a more economical house since her uncle's death. Charlotte visited her there many times and is even said to have revised the proofs of "Jane Eyre" whilst staying there. Ellen's brother, Henry, proposed to Charlotte in March 1839 but Charlotte did not think they were a good match and let him down gently. Ellen acted as housekeeper for the family and later for Henry, now the Revd. Henry Nussey. She had aspirations to be a teacher, though, and taught in Sunday Schools for many years. Years later she did a little teaching at Oakwell Hall once the Miss Carters had taken over the school there, and she also taught at the village school in Birstall.
Ellen remained a loyal friend and was one of only two friends to accompany Charlotte and Anne to Scarborough where Anne sadly died in May 1849. She was also the only bridesmaid at her friend's wedding to Arthur Bell Nicholls in June 1854, Miss Wooler giving Charlotte away in Patrick Bronte's stead.
Later in life, Ellen moved to Moor Lane House, Gomersal, now part of the Gomersal Park Hotel, and she died there, a spinster, on 26th November 1897, aged 80. Her grave is in the churchyard of St. Peter's at Birstall.
See also Birstall page 2