Holmbridge

The 1852 Great Flood

The 1852 flood severely affected Holmbridge and Hinchliffe Mill. The Bilberry Reservoir above Holmbridge had been one of three reservoirs built under an Act of Parliament of 1837 to ensure the textile mills in the Holme valley had a constant water supply even during dry periods. It was built to a design by Mr George Leather of Leeds but modified during construction to cut costs, so that the height of the dam wall was reduced by over 30 feet to only 8 feet higher than the water level. Subsequent subsidence reduced its height even further. Poor building work – one firm was dismissed and another brought in – and the existence of previously unknown springs undermining the construction contributed to its weakened condition. Warnings by local residents were ignored. After a stormy week with wind and water pressure further weakening the dam wall, Bilberry Dam broke its embankment in the early morning of February 5^th 1852 and around 86 million gallons of water rushed down the valley towards Holmfirth along the route of the Digley brook and Holme river. The torrent destroyed anything in its path, buildings, bridges and people, around 80 of whom drowned. A few, such as those living at Bilberry Mill and cottages close to the dam, realising the imminent danger, had luckily evacuated their homes. The water rushed down the narrow course of the river, wreking the most damage where its course was narrowed by rocks, mills or cottages.

At Holmbridge some of the debris already gathered by the torrent, such as dead animals, broken machinery, bales of cloth, uprooted trees and rocks and stones from the embankment were deposited, even so the greater part of the Holme bridge and 30 feet of the Woodhead road were swept away and the nearby church flooded to a depth of 5 feet. Inside the floor had been torn up to be replaced by a deposit of mud and sand, and some pews were floating in the water. A coffin from the churchyard and a dead goat were later found in the centre aisle. Other bodies buried in the churchyard were carried with the current to mingle later with the freshly dead. Four days later fourteen flood victims were buried in that same graveyard. It took 10 months to repair all the damage suffered by the church building.

Afterwards the river here was bridged only by a wooden plank for a while so that onward travel for goods along the usual Holme Moss route towards Manchester was impossible. See also Hinchliffe Mill page

St. David's Church

At the centre of the village now, it was built between 1838 and 1840 as an Anglican church at a cost of £2,500 at the behest of the Rev. Lewis Jones of Almondbury who was known as 'the church building vicar'. He was responsible for the building of 13 other churches and parsonages in the area and about 20 schools. Previously Holmbridge had been part of Almondbury parish but became a parish in its own right in 1843, having been consecrated on 28th March 1840 by the Bishop of Ripon. It is said it was named St. David's because Rev. Jones was a Welshman and he used a Welsh architect to design it. The chancel was opened and an organ added in 1887. In the 1970s it became a shared church under legislation of 1969 enabling the shared use of church buildings. Hinchliffe Mill Methodist Church had at that time dwindling congregations and problems with rot in their chapel so came to a sharing arrangement with St. David's. From that time on Sundays there were services for each denomination at separate times.

The Flood Bible

On the night of the 1852 flood which caused such devastation, an old lady, Mrs Hirst, refused to leave her home despite the rising water levels and the imminent threat, but instead sat steadfastly reading her Bible, until she was absolutely forced to flee. Months later her daughter found the Bible buried in the silt, cleaned it up and kept it in the family. A couple of generations later a Mrs Dixon, who had inherited it, presented it to St. David's to be kept in the church in memory of the Great Flood. Remarkably the pages bear the imprint of a folded pair of spectacles Mrs Hirst was wearing that night.

The Parish Hall

Built around 1910 next door to St. David's church, it is used partly for church activities, the Sunday School and Youth Club but can be hired for private functions, dances and even boxing matches.

The Former National School

On Field End Lane overlooking the village, this was built in 1841 by voluntary contributions and grant aid. It was one result of the Shaftesbury Act of 1833 which barred under 9 year olds from working in the mills and demanded that all 9 to 13 year olds who did also have 2 hours schooling per day. A small plot of land had earlier been surrendered by the Lord of the Manor upon trust to a Joseph Barber of Field End and others, on which to build a school. The school was erected and trustees appointed who themselves furnished the school and appointed a schoolmaster and later a school mistress too. In 1857 Mr Thomas and Mrs Caroline Harris occupied those roles whist in1893 the master was Mr George Ingham and the mistress Miss Louisa Crosland. They might be assisted by pupil teachers. There was no lighting and only poor heating, from a couple of smoking stoves, to begin with so that improvements had to be made later.

At one time, around 1878, an average of 240 pupils packed into the premises giving cause for concern about overcrowding. In 1887 the school inspectors threated to withdraw funding if the premises were not improved. There were periods of low attendance, though, such as when the children were needed for haymaking and the girls for helping with Christmas preparations at home, or when bouts of illness visited the village. On at least one occasion, in July 1872, the children were forced to work in the mills to cover for a strike! As a National School all children resident in Holmbridge district could attend to learn reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, singing, religion and sewing for the girls. They had to attend washed, with combed hair and clean and whole clothes. After the 1870 Education Act, however, a Board School was built and attendance began to diminish and the school eventually closed as a day school. A non-denominational Sunday School then began to use the building and prospered for many years. Services were held there as was the annual Old Folks' Treat. But by the 1960s attendance had again fallen so low that it was decided, in order to preserve the building, to let it to a tenant and it has now been converted into a private dwelling.

Broadfield House

This is a small mansion with separate coach house set well back off Woodhead Road and surrounded by 1.25 acres of landscaped gardens. It was built in 1856 for George Charlesworth and his family who owned a mill in Hinchliffe Mill. It is thought they had been impressed by some of the features of Chatsworth House and incorporated some of them in their own home such as the original mosaic floor, stained glass window and ornate ceiling mouldings. In 1886 the house was sold to another mill owner, Samuel Butterworth. He moved there from his previous home in Heald Carr Houses and although only 55 was retired and had been for some years. His wife, Elizabeth, and unmarried daughter, Clara Amelia, were living there with him in 1891. He and his older brother had been in business together as Henry and Samuel Butterworth, woollen manufacturers in Hinchliffe Mill. Both had been born at Upperthong. Samuel's son, Frederick William, also went into the wool manufacturing business and it was he who was in residence at Broadfield in 1927.In his will proved on 19th July 1932 he left £20,595. His sister, Clara Amelia continued to live at the house until her death and was able to leave £5,197 in her will proved 17th December 1942. Later the house was acquired by St. David's church and became its vicarage from the mid-1900s until 1962.

Fernleigh House

Another former mill owner's mansion on Bank Lane, it changed hands several times before being converted into the Fernleigh House restaurant in the mid 1960s. Built in the 1840s as a gentleman's residence it was later the home of the local schoolmaster.

Holmbridge Mill

Records exist for this mill from the 1770s but it was probably considerably older than that. In 1778 Benjamin Green of Austonley inherited the mill from his mother. Benjamin and Edmund Green occupied it. When Benjamin Green died sometime before 1790, he left it to William Gartside of Cumberworth in trust for Benjamin Gartside. At this time the mill was operated via two waterwheels and had teasing and fulling departments, a wool store and a dwelling house built into the first floor. Joshua and Joseph Barber were the tenants in 1798 beginning a long association of the Barber family with the mill. In 1819 Benjamin Gartside's son, Firth Gartside, was the owner and Joshua Barber the tenant. Just a year later the Charlesworths had entered the scene. The mill's occupants were named as Joshua Barber, Edmund Sykes, Joseph Charlesworth Snr., Joseph Charlesworth Jnr., both of Holmfirth, together with David and Joshua Charlesworth of Yew Tree. The Charlesworths were also in business in Holmfirth as 'J. Charlesworth & Sons', cloth dressers.

In 1832 both companies, the Barbers and the Charlesworths were still in business there. 'Joseph Barber & Co.' were scribbling, carding and slubbing wool and milling cloth and employed 29 people, 20 of whom were children, working a 14 hour day in summer. 'Joseph Charlesworth & Sons' still employed part of their workforce there. A steam engine, for use when the water supply dried up, had been installed by this time. In 1840 the original building and another dating from the 1790s were pulled down and replaced by a new 4 storey mill. A new weaving shed and power looms were added in the 1850s.

Firth Gartside died in 1847 leaving the mill to his 4 daughters, 3 of whom were married to men already engaged in the textile industry. At this time the mill had spinning rooms, a drying stove, engine and boiler houses, textile machinery, and its own reservoir, with 2 cottages, gardens and other parcels of land around it. 'Messrs. Joshua Barber & Co.' were operating inside. This Joshua Barber is recorded on the 1851 Census as being aged 60, living at Bank Bottoms, Kilnhurst Bank, Holmbridge, a woollen manufacturer employing 100 men, so the business had sure expanded! Other members of the Barber family – Henry, two Johns and Joe, all of Holmfirth or Holmbridge were listed in this Census as woollen manufacturers, and the family became influential in local affairs.

Holmbridge Mill largely escaped the 1852 flood because of its relatively elevated position, but 6 houses on Water Street owned by Joshua Barber were completely destroyed. A year later the mill was occupied by Joshua, John, Edmund and Joseph Barber and also John Earnshaw and Uriah Wimpenny. Their employees were treated to a celebratory dinner at the end of the Crimean War in 1856 and watched the parades through the village. That same year the Barbers bought the nearby land on which Clarence Mill was built providing new weaving rooms. Power looms were installed bringing the use of local handloom weavers in their own homes to an end. The following year fire ripped through the mill collapsing its roof which gave the Barbers the idea of having their own fire engine built and kept close by. New machinery continued to be installed in 1872 but the deaths in quick succession of all of the company's directors – John, Joshua and Edmund Barber - between the late 1870s and early 1880s left it without proper leadership and it soon ran into financial difficulties. The land, weaving shed and engine house had to be sold to James Hirst of Lockwood who sold the shed on to a company called 'Norcliff & Jessop' who used it to produce seal skin.

William Henry and John Barber of Bottoms mill and Joshua T. Barber of Bankend Mill bought Clarence Mill in 1890 forming two separate companies – 'W.H. & J. Barber' and 'J.T. Barber'. The former bought the 5 storey mill, the dam and buildings at Holme Bank in 1900 and the Holmbridge dyehouse in 1903. New engine and boiler houses and new offices were erected in the early 20^th Century and the company prospered. They were making fancy worsteds and trouser fabrics in 1910 and spinning worsted yarns at Clarence Mill in 1926. They took over 'B. Vickerman & Sons Ltd.' of Thongsbridge Mill in 1938 and again escaped much damage in the 1944 Holmfirth flood. Lack of orders eventually forced closure in October 1975 at which time they employed 118 workers. 'Butterworth & Roberts' of Yew Tree Mill took over the worsted spinning plant at this time using the yarns in their own business, and this kept Clarence Mill open for a further 4 years. After this it was divided into units and used by a variety of non-textile businesses until 1994 when it was demolished and the land used for housing.

Holmbridge Dyehouse

This seems to have been part of the appendages to Holmbridge Mill originally and like the mill existed in the 1770s, but it was gradually treated as a separate entity. Like the mill it was owned for several decades from at least 1819 by Firth Gartside of Holmbanks. He died in 1847 at which time John and Jonathon Midgeley were the dyehouse's tenants. The Midgeleys improved the premises adding a steam engine and boiler house, a dyeware room with stoves, an office and counting house, a water wheel house and several separate dying rooms. The dyehouse drew its water mainly from Digley Dike via a long goit but also had a small reservoir behind the buildings. The 1852 flood damaged the goit, dam stones and shuttle head, but this was minor compared to other mills in the same valley. Members of the Midgeley family continued to tenant the dyehouse until it was bought by 'W.H. & J. Barber', who already part owned Holmbridge Mill, in 1903. It continued in use as a dyehouse for some time after this but by the 1940s was being used for other purposes, principally as a joinery and for storage.