Spen Valley Through the Years
by Maurice Popplewell
1912 to 1914

1912

1912 was the year when Woolworths appeared on the scene, when Scott went to the South Pole, to die with his colleagues. The Titanic struck an iceberg and sank with 1513 lives lost. The Daily Herald was born and Albert Schweitzer went out to the French Congo to help the lepers. And in August I was born!

July 10th Royal Visit. King George V and Queen Mary travelled through our Valley, and although they did not stop, a grandstand on the side of the Green at Heckmondwike was full of school children, teachers, councillors and the Concertina Band! The Royal Party had had a five minutes stop at Dewsbury. I have a note that Cleckheaton's platform cost £33 17s 9d.

Heckmondwike Co-op decided to pull down Hurst House, in Northgate, to extend their store. It was the birthplace of the Rev. John Curwen, born 1816, who invented the Tonic Solfa method of singing. A plaque has recently been put up in his memory.

Running a small car. by now a few people were running cars in the town, and a survey was made by someone, analysing the annual cost, which he worked out at £63 10s as follows: 210 gallons of petrol at 1s 6d per gallon (6300 miles at 30 mpg) £15 15s; 20 gallons oil at 3s 6d per gallon £3 10s; 4 tyres at £5 each, £20; Garaging £10; driving licence 5s; car tax £4, Insurance £10. Total cost 24s per week or 2½d a mile. Tyres must have been poor stuff and the oil consumed in one year would last me a lifetime!

March saw a Miners' Strike. A minimum wage of 5s a day for men and 2s for boys was one of the points pressed for. Local pits involved were Hartshead (36 men), Highmoor Lane (42), Three Nuns (43 and Cheerbarrows, all belonging to the Low Moor Company.

Bankruptcy in Cleckheaton. Ridges, popular confectioners in Richmond Street, were declared bankrupt and the figures seem ludicrously small, assets being £18, liabilities £164, giving a deficiency of £146. Average turnover had been £8 10s a week and they had been losing 25s a week. A very old friend once told me: "You could get a half pound of ham fat at Ridges for 2d. It was very tasty and made a lot of meals with home made bread."

The Late Jack Greenwood once told of a pub in town where the landlord, called Walker, always had a basin of dripping on a table, with a loaf of bread, so that customers could make themselves a free sandwich. The pub was nicknamed "The Fat Pot."

Pigeon Flying. The Miller & Dyer was the venue for short distance pigeon flying at this time. It was popular, and men would fly their birds for a prize of perhaps a copper kettle or perhaps 50s.

Fry and Yorkshire Pudding. An elderly friend told me: "we often went for 3d worth of fry and half a turnip or a cabbage before going to school. And another day, perhaps 3d worth of pie meat." I can spend over a pound on meat today, and spend all the care in the world in cooking it, but it never tastes like the meat my mother made. Just one fire, with cabbage in one pan and perhaps a dumpling in another. The liver and fry and the Yorkshire Pudding would be in the side oven and all would be ready together, and no timers.

What to Buy? Jessops, tailors, offered suits and overcoats from 1s 6d, "sale price." The Co-op had a 2s parcel made up of 2lb margarine, ¼lb tea and 3lbs sugar. The Lion Stores gave you 2 tins of sardines for 3½d, and J & Bs, over the hill, had 1000 pairs of corsets on special offer at 1s. Bousfields home-fed bacon was 8d a lb. At the Dewsbury Union Workhouse they were wanting a male night attendant for imbeciles, etc., non-resident and uniform for 26s a week.

Sad Accident. A teamer named Sydney Gilderdale employed by William Walker, colliery proprietor, was crossing the "Bottoms" railway crossing when a train came along and killed instantly both teamer and horse.

Pastimes. A fried who was 11 in 1912 had clear memories of her childhood, and of how they amused themselves. Here are a few of her comments: "At holiday time we went to Mazebrook to paddle and took a bottle of water. If we were lucky we had a lump of 'spanish' to put in it. We shook the bottle and had a nice drink." "When my brothers had their hair cut I liked to go with them to read the comics." "We played a game called Statues. One girl faced the wall and we stood ten yards away. We had to reach the wall without her seeing us move. She would turn around every few seconds.." Another lady told me: "We did not have many sweets, but my mother used to mix a bag of oatmeal and sugar, or cocoa and sugar; you licked your finger and dipped it in. And again: "there was a game called Buttons. Each girl had to put some buttons on the ground. You had to spit on your thumb and press it on a button. If you lifted it, it was yours. But if it dropped, the next girl spit on her thumb and tried. It must have meant a mixture of all kinds of spit, and not have been very healthy! But, we had no dull moments. I remember standing as a child and watching women 'fratching.' Sometimes they would cut each other's clothes line and then the husbands came out, if they were at home!"

New Songs of 1912 "Oh, you beautiful doll," "I love the moon," "Who were you with last night?" and "Everybody's doing it."

1913

Miss Emily Davison, suffragette, died after throwing herself under the King's horse at the Derby. The Cat-and-Mouse-Act enabled the government to release hunger-striking suffragettes, and then to re-arrest them. The first Morris Oxford cars appeared, the 'Bullnose,' with acetylene front and rear lamps. Fishing trawlers were equipped with wireless. This was the year of a new dance, the Fox-trot.

Mr Percy Hanson of High Street, Heckmondwike, was licensed to install and operate a wireless receiving and transmitting station. He received morse code signals from Germany, France and other stations in Europe. He was a naval wireless operator during the Great War, and afterwards was appointed postmaster of Heckmondwike and Liversedge.

Joe Simon, another Heckmondwike character, who lived near to the Red Lion, was an eccentric, who liked to give his address as 'The Cloisters.' It was, he said, "clois to the market and clois to the tripe shop." At one time a master carpenter, he later called himself a 'timber merchant,' because it was his daily habit to fill his cart with sawdust from a local saw mill, and to tour the pubs of the town, servicing all the spittoons. At one time he had been a carpet weaver and on rare occasions Firths would send for him to execute some special order.

Cleckheaton Memorial Park was opened on June 22nd, on the site of the Town's Green, or Fair Ground. It was to be a permanent memorial to the late King Edward VII, and to celebrate the Coronation of King George and Queen Mary in 1911. The spring and autumn fairs had been held there; the scheme was to make a park on the land, with an extenstion at West End, to make a park there also. £805 was raised by voluntary subscription. Samuel Law gave £250, plus £232 for a band-stand. Other amounts came from J.G. Mowat £205, Mrs Mowat £105, Thos. Walker £130, Mrs Walker £100, Joseph Briggs £105, Chas Hirsts £102, Andertons £100, P&C Garnetts £75, Coun. John Fenton £25 and Atkinsons £25. Many readers will remember that when the War Memorial was erected in the park, the bandstand was moved to Royds Park.

Trade Disputes were again the order of the day. In the card clothing trade, card dressers, on 31s, asked for an all-round minimum of 36s. Curriers had a strike at Denhams, Hightown. They were out five weeks, and at a meeting called in front of the Forrester's Arms, they pressed for an increase of 2s, making the average 24s to 29s for 55 hours. We find Heckmondwike Co-op making a grant of £10, in goods, to the curriers strike fund, while at the Co-op Boot Works, the operatives union wanted a 48½ hour instead of a 55 hour week, without reduction in pay, and a national minimum of 35s. Ben Turner of the Textile Union, was as active as ever on behalf of his many local members, who seemed, from this distance, to be on low scales of pay, comparatively, and to deserve some consideration. He wanted 7d an hour for adult, male labour, a figure at which the dyer's strike had been settled. He had written to the Archbishop of York for support, for hundreds of women worked in the worsted mills for 10s a week. He wanted 20s for women and 30s for men.

Children played at 'houses' in 1913, on any bit of waste ground, as they must have done since the world began. Says one of them: "we made circles of stones and pretended to keep shops with pieces of stones for money, but pieces of broken yellow baking bowls were always butter. We used to sing 'Don't throw your muck in our dustbin, cos our dustbin's full.' Children watched the world go by in their own particular street, where they knew every flag stone, every gas lamp and every eccentric neighbour. They played 'duckstone,' 'relievo' and 'kick-can-and-hook-it,' and were happy, without a penny in their little pockets.

Scarlet Fever. There was excitement when people had scarlet fever in the house. The van would arrive and take the patient to North Bierley Hospital, if it was in Cleckheaton. Then the Health Dept. arrived with the sulphur and the sticky tape. The tape would be stuck around the doors, and even the key-hole. Sulphur was ignited inside the house, which had to be left for eight hours. What a crude way of disinfecting something! And it was difficult for the rest of the family, if they had no relatives nearby, for the immediate neighbours were unwilling to take them in if they had children of their own.

The Doctor-Man. Every house in the Valley, except those of the well-to-do, had a doctor-man who called each week for his sixpence. This 'doctor money' was supposed to accumulate to cover medical costs, but it was a 'never never' system, for illness could come at any time in those days, and they would never be in credit. But it seemed to work!

Election in 1910. In my notes on the year 1910, I told of the first three-cornered election in Spen Valley, when T. Russell Williams was the Labour candidate. Mrs K. North of William Street, Liversedge, has kindly let me have sight of a special news sheet, headed ' The People's Advocate,' which was distributed free by the local Labour Party. It is dated January 1st; the Election was on January 23rd. It reports a visit by Keir Hardie to Cleckheaton Town Hall on 18 December 1909. It tells of the sore plight of a woman earning 6s a week to keep herself and a little girl; her rent took 2s of it! It quotes from a speech by the candidate in the Town Hall, expressing his hopes the 'the peer shall come in supplication to the peasant.' But the most bitter attack is on a speech made by the Liberal Sir Thomas Whittaker, where he said that 'poverty was nature's remedy for the over-production of our species.' The Labour candidate described it as 'shameless, monstrous, scandalous and a deliberate lie!' Strong stuff...thank you, Mrs North.

Bottom Drawers. I will let my old friend, born in 1901, and sadly no longer with us, have the last word on 1913...Young girls who were courting, sat on the steps crocheting for their 'bottom drawers.' They put it on pillow cases, sham blinds and bed valances. As children we always wondered why, when it became dark, and we had to go inside, they would go with a man into the recreation ground. What it was to be innocent as a child!

Songs of 1913. "Friend o' mine," "Get out and get under," "Hello, Hello, who's your Lady friend," "Hold your hand out, you naughty boy," and "You made me love you."

1914

For the first seven months in our country and our Valley, things were normal. King George, now 49, was the first monarch to attend a Cup Final, and Sir Ernest Shackleton sailed off to Antarctica. In July, however, storm clouds were gathering in Europe, and there was talk of war everywhere. On August 4th we declared war on Germany, for she had torn up the 'Scrap of Paper' a short document signed by all relevant nations in 1839, preserving Belgium's perpetual neutrality. She attacked France through Belgium. Before the year end we were to have the battle of Mons (Aug 20) and the Allied retreat, Marne (6/12 Sept), Aisne (13/28 Sept) and Ypres 12 Oct/11 Nov). But it was to be our Regulars who halted the German advance. Our Guards, with rapid rifle fire, convinced the enemy that we had machine guns! The 1st Guards Brigade of 4500 had only 463 left by 12 Nov. But the advance on Paris was stopped.

Amalgamation. The burning topic before August was the possible joining of Cleckheaton, Gomersal and Liversedge to make a big Borough, for which some councillor even suggested the name Spenborough. The agreement would give better sewage disposal, cheaper electricity and so on. There still existed the old enmity with Heckmondwike down the Valley, and they were not invited!!

Cleckheaton Town Accounts up to 31st March included some odd items. £2 14s 2d receipts from the town's conveniences, cost of a new cart £15, sale of a horse £10. The baths in Tofts Road produced: 6133 scholars at ½d, 922 extra towels at 1d, 16000 tickets for slipper and swimming baths - 2d and 3d. Turkish Baths were enjoyed by 19 ladies at 1s each, or perhaps it was one body received 19 baths...we shall never know!

Kilburn's Garage at Heckmondwike could sell you an Enfield Twin motorcycle for £12. Linoleum was 1s 4½d a yard, 2 yards wide. Mr Squire Firth (we mention him again), now a respected weaver at Moorend, earned 28s a week and the Clerk to Cleckheaton UDC got 39s.

Pavilion Cinema at Heckmondwike was opened in January, with pictures and a variety which included 'Joe Wolfen, the singing mill lad, direct from his work to the stage.'

Independent Labour Party had its first conference at the St. George's Hall in Bradford. Keir Hardie presided, and when Philip Snowden MP rose to speak, a woman in the audience shouted, "you are a coward and traitor." Another lady heckler had chained herself to her seat and a crowbar was used to free her. Ramsey McDonald appeared...a man threw a bag of flour at him. The I.L.P. was against the war, and the Bradford folks didn't like it.

Exchange Mills had a short strike in January, but it fizzled out quickly, for it had no union support. A miner's strike ended in April. Woolwich Arsenal had a strike in July!. Belgium refugees arrived in August And September. They stayed until after the war, some as guests of Sir Algernon Firth at The Flush, others by the Belgian Relief Committee. 10 More were looked after at The Grange, Cleckheaton, in Whitcliffe.

Local Recruiting. At Heckmondwike, Mr Milton Sharp offered a guinea to each Heckmondwike or Norristhorpe man. Within a week he had paid out 80 guineas. At Cleckheaton, 'a local man' offered a £3 bounty to men enlisting for Kitchener's appeal for a second army of 100,000. 50 men quickly received the bounty.

Liquor Control Board. The habit of 'treating' was outlawed, under penalty. A Bradford man was fined £1 for buying his wife a sixpenny drink and she was fined £1 for taking it. But even the barmaid was fined, £5 this time, for serving the man!!

Local Regulars (on the reserve). The trained soldiers and sailors in our towns were quickly called to the colours. Charles Henry Ainly, of Albion Street, Heckmondwike left Scandinavia Belting Co., to join his ship at Portsmouth along with postman Duckham, lodging with Mr & Mrs Booth of Walkley Lane. The Liversedge men included Harry and Ned, the two sons of schoolmaster Mr T. Irish. Two local constables answered the call, PC Howarth to the Coldstream Guards and PC Clarke to the 8th Hussars. There were many more.

Territorials. Four days after the declaration of war, the Cleckheaton "E" Company of the 4th Battalion of the West Riding Regiment left for coastal defence. Said the young Lieut. Mowat, "We had a great send-off. On the route to the station every inch was packed...we were the first company to be at Halifax." They were soon guarding the docks at Goole, Hull and Immingham. And they had 400 Germans, who had been rounded up, to guard. From Heckmondwike the 6th Battery of the 2nd West Riding Royal Field Artillery made a brave show, as all 132 of them, with their four guns and ammunition waggons, all horse-drawn, rode through Littletown and Cleckheaton on their way to Bradford. Crowds turned out to wish them well, and forgotten were any local rivalries in the thrill of the common adventure. There was a wave of Patriotism through the valley, and at once volunteers came forward for the National Reserve. Sixty came forward at just one meeting.. they called themselves the Spenborough Citizen Volunteers. They replaced the Territorials.

A Violent Explosion shook the whole district just after lunch time on December 2nd. At first it was thought that a German zeppelin had dropped a bomb. Hundreds of windows were shattered and rattled as far as Leeds. It soon became known that an explosion of lyddite had taken place at the chemical works of Henry Ellison & Co. on Hollinbank Lan e, White Lee. Six were killed and many injured.

A Girl of Thirteen when the war broke out, had no serious thoughts about the security of the country: she told me "The security of our home was the most important thing for we children. My own memories always seem to have been of mother. We were never bored. There was always things to be doing. The boots were always cleaned the night before: as mother would say, "in case were are pushed for time." But we were never late. Always when we came downstairs mother would be there, washed, her hair in a bun and with her apron on, just as we had seen her the night before, when we went up to bed...if it was a cold morning, mother would melt some dripping in the frying pan and fry slices of bread for us. If the bread had run out she would have already made an oven-bottom cake. It would still be warm, and the treacle used to run...it was lovely. We loved our mother!"

Paper Money. Before the end of 1914, paper currency appeared. The editor of the Guardian, trying to be helpful about the novel £1 notes, said "they may become permanent...it is desirable that they should not be doubled where they can be kept flat. Frequent folding means that they will wear out quickly...buy yourself a wallet!"

Songs of the Year. "Keep the home fires burning," "Gilbert and Filbert," and "Sister Susie's sewing shirts for soldiers."