Part 4 of Henry Harrison's articles appeared in the Cleckheaton Guardian on 25 Nov 1910.

Leaving Alec Hill, we will now cross the road and enumerate a few of the old inhabitants of Spen. In the first house on the left, going down, lived Joseph Hartley, his wife Mary, and children. At the time of which I am writing, Joe was a teamer for Joseph Gomersall, cornmiller and starch maker, of Greenbank Mill, Rawfolds. (Gomersall was the builder of Greenbank House, 1843). His business came to grief. In the course of time he removed to a corn mill at Ossett Common near Wakefield, and Joe had to consequently to find work at some other place. He (Joe) hailed from Newmillerdam, near Wakefield. His wife Mary, for some years, kept a small shop (in her house), selling flour, oatmeal, etc. Her maiden name was Brooke, and she resided with her brother John, who was for some years engineer for Mr George Anderton, and I am inclined to believe it was through John Brooke, his uncle, that David Hartley took up that line, which he followed both at Anderton's and at Peg Mill. It was John's custom always to call for a gill of beer in a pint pot.

In the next house lived Lydia Binns and her husband Tom. She was an oatcake baker. At that time 90 per cent of the people had a bread creel, and it was the custom to take their own meal and a little bottom yeast - yeast that settled in the tub bottom after working their home-brewed beer. The Binns fed some good pigs out of backstone sweepings. The block of property was owned by the Jackson family, grocers at Cleckheaton. In the yard called "Top Fold," round the corner, lived Sarah Barstow, who has well-known and respected descendants in Cleckheaton today. She had a hard life, having to work at Peg Mill to bring up and maintain her growing family. She was sister to Sam Mortimer's wife, to William Carr Thornton's wife (Mary) and to James Wood's wife (Ann).

Below the "Top Fold" are two good stone houses, standing somewhat forward. In the first lived Robert Law, his wife Hannah and children. They hailed from Bradford, and he was an overlooker in the middle room at the Old Peg Mill. In the next house lived Samuel Blackburn and his wife Tamar, prior to their going to live in the ancient hall'd house at the bottom of Spen. Round the corner in the "Low Fold" lived Ben Fawcett, a hand loom weaver. To play a joke on him someone told old Mr Mann that Ben turned to be a Chartist, and when the sharing time came he was going to have Mr Mann's house. Poor Ben! it was some time before he heard the last of it, for the old gentleman used to call out to him, "Fawcett, they say tha wants my house." In the topmost house of the row, with the back to the park, lived old Will Marsland. He too was a hand loom weaver and also kept a cow or two in the same fold and a croft below. He was father to James Marsland, a woolsorter at Peg Mill, who married Martha Haley, grand daughter of old Mercy Haley, top of Peg Lane.

In the bottom house of the fold lived Mark Brooke. He was a hand comber and his chamber was used as a comb shop. His son Charles and one or two others worked in the same room. Charles married successively, two daughters of old Polly Middleton of Westgate.

We now leave the fold and come back to the front. The two modern stone houses, and the last two, belonged to a man named Jackson, a herbalist living at Bradford. In the first lived William Bennett, named in article No.2. In the next, the last on that side, lived Joshua Jackson, a woolsorter, who, being dissatisfied with his wife, sold her for the modest sum of 2s 6d., and delivered her at Bradford to Richard Brooke, then residing at Moorbottom. At her death, she was buried in the Old White Chapel yard (behind the chapel). Her epitaph reads thus: "Betty, the wife of Joshua Jackson, and a friend of Richard Brooke." Jackson married a second wife, whose first husband was a tubber. He left a son, and the son and his mother were always called Joe and Sarah Tubber. She had two children to Jackson, a girl and a boy. He wanted the girl to be christened Queen Ann and the boy King William, but the minister refused, and gave them the names Ann Queen and William King.

At the bottom end of the croft, below the last two houses on the left, was an open stream, and carts and cattle had to pass through the water. It was the overflow from a stone trough. In dry times we had to cart water from it up to Mount Pleasant, and I have seen it carted to Little Gomersal for cattle. At that time the footpath was an elevated one, on the right hand side of the stream, against the gable end of the ancient hall'd house that stands today. Standing in its own grounds this house was a little paradise in itself., its soft surrounding carpet of grass, so fair and home-like. Here one could sit in the sheltered garden and listen to the babbling of the brook running down alongside of it, whispering music in its flow to the river Spen. Under the shady trees in springtime one might admire the daffodils and wallflowers, while overhead could be heard the song of the thrush and the mellow piping of the blackbird. The beauty of such a spot seen in youth cannot pass or be forgotten. Such would be the surroundings of the home of the Manns in their youthful days. Three of their sons were Joseph, Thomas and John Mann. It was this home that Thomas Mann left to go to Bradford, and it is said that he was the first to embark in the business of a stuff merchant. In the year 1800, his elder brother John, joined him. Their business premises were in Kirkgate, and in the rate book of the old Lighting and Watching Commissioners for 1804, appears an entry showing that they were rated at £31 10s. The premises comprised a retail shop in front (immediately opposite Messrs. Geo. Brown and Son's shop) and a warehouse in the rear. The place today still bears the name of Mann's Court. After John joined his brother Thomas, the trade became precarious, and the firm combined with it the trade of woollen drapery, and, what is even more remarkable, they also acquired considerable reputation and wealth by the making of artificial limbs of cork, covered with leather. This triple business was carried on in what is still known as Mann's Court. Artificial limbs were in especial demand after the battle of Waterloo, and soon after that great engagement the Marquis of Anglesey (then Lord Uxbridge) traveled to Bradford from his seat in Staffordshire for the purpose of being supplied with an artificial leg by Messrs. Mann. The noble lord was received with many marks of respect, and was conducted through the Piece Hall, which nearly adjoined Messrs. Mann's premises. A Russian officer, Colonel Kutusoff, was under the care of the firm at the same time, and the two maimed gentlemen had dinner together.

In or about the year 1816, Mr John Mann built Springfield House in Manningham Lane, and at that time it had not a single companion building upon either side of the lane. It was an isolated position in what would be considered the country then. John resided at Springfield until his death in April 1846. The residence occupied a commanding position in the higher portion of the grounds, and the estate altogether contained an area of 5,245 square yards, having a frontage of sixty yards towards Manningham Lane. After the owner's death the house let at a rental of £175 per annum.

Some say that John Mann was the first patentee of cork legs. Another account is that the two brothers bought the invention from a David Haigh of Silsbridge Lane. This branch of the business was subsequently disposed of to Mr Swithenbank, who carried it on for a long while in premises in Toad Lane. John married, but had no children, and bequeathed the Springfield House property to his niece Anne, daughter of his brother Joseph, of Spen Bank House, who married William Masterman Harris; the residue of his estate going to three of his nephews. Shortly after John Mann's death, Springfield House became the residence of Mr William Peel, who continued to occupy it until his removal to Ackworth Park, Pontefract in 1854. In the year 1855, Sir Jacob Behrens became the tenant, In December 1896, this property came into the market at Leuchter's Restaurant, and was knocked down to Mr Frank Watson, solicitor, for £10,750, being at the rate of a little over £2 per yard. It transpired that the actual purchaser was Mr Destin W. Asman.

We will now pass on to the house of Thomas Mann, named Mannville. This house was on the left hand side of Horton Road, between Mann Lane and Shearbridge - a stone built mansion which stood in its own little park, with its back and stabling about opposite to the end of Carlton Street. Near to this house was Mann Lane, a name familiar to old Bradfordians who lived on the Horton side, but long since passed out of the category of thoroughfare known to the present generation. Before it was closed, for a fortnight or more, observant passers-by had their curiosity aroused by two tiny official notices posted on boards, erected the one in front of a shop in Morley Street, the other against a wall behind the German Church. The notice was to the effect that application would be made at the next Court of Quarter Sessions for an order for the closing of Mann Lane, on the ground that it was no longer a necessary thoroughfare, having been superseded by Morley Street. As a matter of fact, Mann Lane had been closed for years before. Just at the end of Grove Terrace there was, however, a yard or two of flagged causeway, parallel with the Morley Street side walk, which must have puzzled many. This was really a little bit of Mann Lane. It was never more that a foot road, in its later days known as "The Ginnell," but at one time was a pleasant pathway through green fields much beloved by dwellers in Horton.

Thomas Mann had three sons, one of whom (Joshua) succeeded his father at Mannville. Another son resided at Boldshay Hall. Above the Mann estate, where Claremont now is, was the first ground of the Bradford Cricket Club, and being practically the only means of approach from the town to the lower portions and cheaper parts of this ground, Mann Lane was pretty tightly packed on the termination of any great match. In later years, it was a source of trouble to the eminently respectable residents of Lansdown Place, for their back gardens or yards abutted on Mann Lane. Moreover, it was often very dirty, and was not over well lighted, so that it obtained a somewhat evil reputation. Still, as a thoroughfare for foot passengers its convenience was great, and it was regularly used by many hundreds of people. But when the Corporation bought the Rand's Mill estate and constructed Morley Street, Mann Lane eventually passed out of existence as a public thoroughfare.