Dalton and the Great Yorkshire Show
The Great Yorkshire Show started following a meeting at the Black Swan Hotel in York in 1837 attended by the 3rd Earl Spencer. It was decided to form the Yorkshire Agricultural Society with the aim of improving and developing agriculture and holding an annual show of excellence. The first show was held in 1838 at Fulford, near York. Following this the show travelled round 30 West Riding towns. It wasn't until 1950 that a permanent showground was built in Harrogate.
The show in Dalton in 1931 was held in fields between Wakefield Road and Long Lane.
The President of the Yorkshire Agricultural Show and organiser of the show was local businessman Major Lionel Brook Holliday. He was the grandson of Read Holliday who started Holliday Dyes and Chemicals Ltd in 1830. This later became British Dyes and then ICI and is now Syngenta. After he married Alice Woolger in 1908 the couple lived at 'Oaklands' in Kirkburton.
The Dalton show was held between July 14th and 16th 1931 and events were reported in "The Huddersfield Examiner". Sunshine and blue skies marked the opening and closing days but in between heavy rain required attendees to don raincoats and wield umbrellas. Entrance cost 5 shillings on the first day reduced to 2/6d on the second and 2/- on the last day to see horse shoeing and jumping competitions, foxhound and military displays, a flower show and more, with prizes of over £6,000. Exhibits included livestock, agricultural implements, wool, hives and honey, and forestry and there were lots of local businesses represented such as Lockwood Brewery's Town Ales, Wallace's groceries, Oldfield and Studdard's furniture, Martin's Bank, and several motor companies such as Rippon Bros. Motors. The Mayor, Walker T. Priest, and Mayoress and other council dignitaries were in attendance.
After the show the Mayor expressed satisfaction with the outcome. He praised local folk for their good humour on the middle day and for facing the mud with a smile! He felt that if the weather had remained good the show would have broken all records. Major Holliday also thought it was "a marvellous performance".
The Roebuck Memorial Homes
“The most beautiful council houses in the country” is how the 'Huddersfield Daily Examiner' described the Roebuck Memorial Homes in its edition of 23rd August 2015.
The homes were the idea of local businessman and philanthropist, Harry Roebuck, who built the homes as a memorial to his son Leonard who had died in an accident on 4th April 1918 while experimental night flying with the Royal Flying Corps, the forerunner of the Royal Air Force, and to his wife Jane who died on14th August 1919.
Harry Roebuck was born in Little Carr, Dalton in 1857. He became a cabinet maker and set up in business in 1877. In 1903 his company was at a site in Aspley referred to as "The Steam Cabinet Works". He opened his first furniture shop with workshops in Aspley in 1903. The business grew and eventually it had 15 shops of its own across Yorkshire and Lancashire. Harry is described as a furniture manufacturer and employer on the 1911 Census at which time he lived at Somerset Road, Moldgreen. When he retired in 1922 his sons Gilbert and Clement took over the running of the company which continued to prosper. But in the 1960s, wanting to retire themselves, the brothers gradually sold off the branch shops and the firm finally closed down in 1967 when the Aspley premises were sold.
Harry's second son Leonard Roebuck was born on 28th September 1893 at Glen Royd, Somerset Road. He attended Huddersfield College and Cranbrook College, Kent. But at some point he was also employed in his father’s business. Leonard was killed in a flying accident on April 4th 1918, when he was a Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps, based at Sleaford in Lincolnshire, whilst practising experimental night flying techniques. His grave lies in Almondbury churchyard.
The Grade II listed buildings were designed by Huddersfield architect Clifford Hickson. There are 4 pairs of interlinked 2 storey houses built in local stone and these were let to the elderly of three parishes rent free and the heating and lighting was supplied free as well. The design had an Italian influence and included a chapel, loggia and terrace gardens. They were completed in 1932 and handed over to the Corporation in January 1933 as homes for elderly and impoverished couples. They are now under the supervision of the Roebuck Homes Trust.
Harry himself died in November 1938.