Member’s Meeting 8th May 2024
Speaker: Janet Niepokojcycka
Topic: Robin Hood
All welcome. Non-members £3.00.
Summer Trip – Wednesday 19th June 2024 – further information can be found under the Excursion 2024 and Anniversary tab. Forms have to be in by Wednesday 8th May.
*Also check the News Updates page*
Flora Smithies, a society member, gave a talk titled Destination Elland – A Journey of Discovery.
This started with her own story of her early live at Dean Head when a visit to Elland was an adventure. Catching the trolley bus from West Vale to Elland when they visited the dentist twice a year. They would also play a visit to the Market Warehouse. A place where you could get almost anything you required.
Flora then went on to present to members a copy of a document she had been given for the sale of land on the Langdale Estate by Joseph Langdale in 1877. It was the contents of this document that started Flora’s research into how the Langdales of East Yorkshire arrived in Elland. She traced the history of the Langdale family from their routes in East Yorkshire in the 1500’s to their eventual presence as significant landowners in Elland.
The family had businesses and property in London, Elland, East Yorkshire and France.
After intensive investigations through the family generations Flora was able to find the connection to Elland. Marmaduke Langdale married Frances Brooksbank of Warley. Included in the dowry was property and land in Elland. The presence of the Langdale Family can be seen in the names of some of the streets in Elland: Langdale Street, James Street, Catherine Street and Frances Street named after members of the family.
AG introduced the guest speaker for the night, Nigel Grizzard.
Nigel’s talk was entitled “The Local Jewish Entrepreneurs and the Kagans”.
Nigel, himself, is Jewish, was born in Whitechapel, London but came north to work in Bradford and eventually settled in the Jewish district of Alwoodley in Leeds. He researches Jewish heritage and leads Heritage Walks around West Yorkshire.
His talk was intended to be a “two way street”, where he encouraged audience participation to enhance the overall experience of the evening.
He highlighted a number of areas in our locality with Biblical referenced names, for example, Machpelah Terrace and Machpelah Works in Hebden Bridge and Mount Tabor, before moving on to talk about Jewish celebrities who lived and worked locally, and although there were many Jewish families living in the area, there has never been a Jewish community in Calderdale.
Joseph Kagan, the son of Benjamin, was born in Lithuania. They came to live in Elland in the 1930’s and founded Kagan Textiles in 1938. Their first property was Thornton Mills and later built the famous Gannex Mill on Dewsbury Road. Joe Kagan, was later made a Life Peer, Baron Joe Kagan, by his very good friend, Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who, along with the Duke of Edinburgh, was one of the most famous people to be seen regularly wearing one of Kagans waterproof Gannex raincoats. Joe was one of the more well known people to occupy Barkisland Hall. Benjamin’s wife, Miriam, another survivor of the Holocaust, came to live with him in Britain after the war had ended. At the time he died in 1988 at the age of 109, Benjamin Kagan was Britain’s second oldest man.
Other, lesser known local celebrities were mentioned and discussed
(AB)
AG introduced the speaker for the night, Alan Dean, who guided us through a slide show on The History of Joe Dean and Sons, Haulage Contractors.
Alan’s Great Grandfather, Joe Dean was a tenant farmer at Far Syke House, located at the junction of Branch Road and Saddleworth Road, Greetland.
The property at that time was rented from the Dyson family. Later, the Dysons sold the property at auction to a butcher from Hull. However, very shortly afterwards, he sold it on to Joe Dean. He, later, built the terrace of four houses at the end of Branch Road for members of his family for the princely sum of £600.
As well as the usual farming activities, they ran a haulage business using wagons and horses and would often travel to Appleby Horse Market to buy horses which they would then walk back to Greetland over a period of several days. Some of the horses would be sold on to other local farmers.
Joe and Edna Dean had four children, including Alan’s Grandfather and the driving force behind the haulage business, Joe Willy Dean.
Joe Willy persuaded his father to buy their first petrol powered wagon, which he himself drove. In June 1915 he volunteered for the Army, he was called up in 1918, but did not see active service and was demobbed in October 1919. He then persuaded his father to buy a fleet of petrol wagons. At that time a lot of haulage firms started up, buying up and using Army surplus vehicles.
The business was diverse, transporting a lot of products and materials for the textiles industries which were thriving locally, partnering with companies such as Binns and Sons, pulling rags to make shoddy for export, Elland Dying Company, when every Friday they would take a full load to Dundee, they worked on roads for WRCC, and they were also coal merchants, but this ended when the cost of maintaining coal tipper wagons became too much.
The day to day farming business continued, cattle being bought and sold at market (and then bought back as meat from the butchers a few weeks later), and hay making during the summer months – happy days.
As the business prospered, a new garage was built in 1947. Although the structure was sound, the roof was constructed on the cheap and leaked until Alan had it repaired many years later.
Eventually, they started using articulated wagons to attract more lucrative work. There was never a shortage of work for haulage companies and they often had to use subcontractors to meet the demand.
They carried a lot of cotton yarns to knitters in the Midlands, transported quarried rock for Marshalls at Southowram, plastics for Synlon Plastics, heavy engineered products and fabrications for the likes of James Lumb, Hopkinson Valves and Portland Engineering.
They developed a very good relationship with their neighbouring business, Bondina/Freudenberg and on many occasions provided them with wagons for them to dress up as floats for local events. And because of their Auntie’s connection with the Girl Guides, they also provided this same service whenever the Halifax and Elland Carnivals were on.
Alan’s many slides and narrative proved to be a joy to all who attended, bringing back very happy memories of days gone by in our small corner of the world.
The guest speaker, Shirley Asquith, delivered a factual talk on Dorothy Wordsworth, an English poet, author and diarist and, the sister of the much more well known poet, William Wordsworth. Some believe that Dorothy, living in the shadow of her brother, never received the recognition she deserved. But she had no ambition to become well known and was happy for her brother to be in the spotlight. Indeed, it is thought that William’s well known poem, “Daffodils”, was somewhat plagiarised and adapted from a journal entry written by Dorothy some two years earlier.
Dorothy was born on Christmas Day 1771 and raised as a young child in Cockermouth in Cumbria. Sadly, her parents died while she was young, so, in 1783, she came to live in Halifax with her auntie, Elizabeth Threlkeld. In later life she documented, “Halifax, a place I have come to call home”.
She attended Mellins, a boarding school, where she was taught, not only the usual “Three R’s”, but also about good morals, literature and nature. This was the same school later attended by Anne Lister, and though 20 years later and in the similar era, neither lady made reference in their journals about the other, and although they were associated with the same people, they did not know each other.
The Halifax Piece Hall was opened on New Years Day 1779. Dorothy often stayed with a very good friend, Mary Pollard, who lived nearby and, from her bedroom window, she could see the comings and goings of the traders
Elizabeth Threlkeld married William Rawson, a partner in Rawson’s Bank, and this opened the door for Dorothy to improve her social connections. She was always very poor and could never afford to buy her own home and William Rawson was very good to her and often gave her books.
After she died in 1855, her journals were published posthumously in 1897. (AB)
Members Meeting 13th December 2023
Our speaker at our last meeting before Christmas was our Chairman, Mr Andrew Gilmour. Andrew gave an entertaining, and memory provoking talk on Christmas Traditions. Andrew’s talk was followed by the annual Brian Hargreaves Raffle. Prizes were donated by the committee and GEHS members.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL FRIENDS AND MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY
We welcomed Mr Patrick Robertshaw to our November meeting. Mr Robertshaw gave us a talk on the Kirkheaton Police Murders in 1951.
The story revolved around a man named Alfred Moore (or was it Albert Moore?), who was hanged on the date of the Queen’s accession to the throne. He was a prolific serial burglar specialising in mills and offices. Mr Robertshaw showed us a number of photographs, some of which showed the extent of Moore’s extensive collection of skeleton keys.
He and his family lived at Whinney Close Farm. It was in a remote location which served as an ideal base for his surreptitious activities.
His daughter attended a private school which showed just how lucrative his “business” was (far more so than a farming business could be).
In July 1951 the police decided that it was time to put a stop to his criminal activity. On the fateful night in question, they staked out his property. As he was a mere burglar, no violence was expected. However, gunfire was heard at one of the locations where the police had been waiting to intercept him upon his return home from another night “at the office”. Two policemen had been shot; an inspector, Duncan Fraser, died at the scene of the crime; the constable, Arthur Jagger, died in hospital a few days later, but not before identifying Moore in an identity parade and providing a deposition on his death bed.
On the strength of PC Jagger’s evidence, Moore was charged with murder, tried by jury, convicted and sentenced to be hanged, despite the fact that his property was searched with a fine-tooth comb and no weapon was ever found.
Alfred Moore was hanged on the 6th February 1952, the same date as the Queen’s accession to the throne.
Mr Keith Gill, Vice Chair of the Society, thanked Mr Robertshaw for his fascinating insight into the demise of one of the area’s most notorious criminals. (AB)
The AGM was held at the October Meeting. 40 members attended. The Chairman presented the reports, and the Committee was duly appointed.
We then given a talk by Mr Philip Wilkinson about his 47 years in the Law.
Philip brought the audience back to 1972 when petrol was 30p a gallon and when he bought his first car for £120, which was a Morris Minor.
He also explained that in 1973 there was no VAT, no EEC, no computers, and no electrical aids and that all the secretaries did shorthand.
He told tales of brothels in Halifax and Brighouse and Dewsbury and said there was little drug related crime at that time.
He told of his days in Brighouse Magistrates Court and how Barristers cross examined witnesses. The courts in Halifax only ran fully 2 days a week and most cases were dealt with first time up.
He was thanked by Andrew Gilmour Chairman for a colourful talk.
Members were welcomed to our first meeting after the break for the summer.
Our first speaker of the season was Robina Hodgson who gave a talk on the “Home Front”. Robina gave us a very interesting and informative talk on the various occupations/volunteer roles that people undertook at home whilst men, and later women, were away defending our country.
Robina showed an information film made at the time showing the various roles undertaken by those that stayed at home, the construction of the various type of air raid shelters, the evacuation of adults and children, and much more.
A selection of artifacts from the time were on display. These included the varying sizes and designs of the gas masks issued, including a Mickey Mouse designed gas mask for small children and a gas mask used for babies. The latter is being carried by one of our members in one of the photographs below.
She concluded the talk by a showing a number of photographs taken at the time. Members thoroughly enjoyed Robina’s expressive presentation and, had time been available, would have continued to listen to her for much longer. Let’s hope that Robina is available, and willing, to visit us again in the future
The Royal Hall, Harrogate
This year’s GEHS excursion took us to the splendid Royal Hall, Harrogate and was accompanied by super weather. The event was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone who also appreciated the spacious coach as well as its air conditioning.
The Royal Hall is a Grade II listed performance Hall and theatre and was opened in 1903 as the Kursaal. The word Kursaal is from the German name for a public building, at a spa, in which entertainment is provided. The Hall was built on the site of the Cheltenham Pump Room. Due to the public’s feelings in 1914 the building became known as the Royal Hall.
Our knowledgeable guide gave us an excellent tour bringing the building to life. This glittering palace, with all its gold and red velvet curtains was definitely worth a visit. The dress circle is supported by a cantilever system rather than lots of pillars. This improved the views of the stage.
The building was fitted with electric lighting throughout, and most of the lights in the auditorium are the original ones. An early kind of air conditioning system was built into the structure. Over the rear balcony there was a sliding roof to let smoke out and fresh air in. The boxes around the auditorium have shutters which could be raised so that people could see and hear daytime concerts, which still work today.
Due to safety issues the Royal Hall had to close in 2002 and it is only due to the efforts of the Royal Hall Restoration Trust that the building and its programme of events still exists. The building was re-opened on 21st January 2008 by Trust Patron HRH Prince of Wales.
Following this wonderful tour, there was time to explore Harrogate and its many features.
Thanks go out to Rose Gilmour for organising this special event.
(AG)
