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
He recently visited Heptonstall, where he visited the grave of Sylvia Plath, the wife of former Poet Laureate, Ted Hughes.
Albert Waxman, a Kindertransport Kid, who served in the RAF and eventually became an industrialist and the founder of Waxman International
Albert Max Hurwitz, who was the son of a Rabbi and became a leading Barrister and in 1957 was appointed Recorder of Halifax
Dr Bertram Mann, who was a consultant chest physician at both Halifax General Hospital and Royal Halifax Infirmary; he pioneered much of the work on asbestosis in the 1970’s;
Dr Barry Benster, who was a consultant gynaecologist and local councillor.
Jonathan Silver, who, along with Ernest Hall, was responsible for the regeneration of Dean Clough Mills
Waldemar (Val) Ginsburg, who’s cousin Margaret, was married to Joe Kagan, having survived the Holocaust, came to live in Brighouse with his wife, Ibi; in the 1980’s they visited many schools to educate children about the Nazi persecution of the Jews and the Holocaust and to try to inspire tolerance among young people. In 2005 they were presented to the Queen on the 60th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
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.
GEHS Member Mr Andrew Ryland with Mr Alan DeanPhotograph by courtesy of Mr Alan Dean
The Annual Dinner is to be held at the Sportsman Inn, Greetland on Wednesday 22nd April 2026.
Can all members confirm their attendance, menu choice and payment by the 8th April 2026. A copy of the menu can be found under the Annual Dinner Tab on this website.
Thank you. Anne & Margaret.
Members Meeting
Our meeting is on Wednesday 8th April, 2026.
The speaker will be: Margot Atherton
Topic: The History of Hartshead
The meetings are held at Elland Working Mens Club, Rosebery Street, Elland HX5 OHT. (The entrance to the car park is on South Lane, Elland) Meetings start at 7.15 pm.
All welcome. There is a charge of £3.00 for non-members.
Membership
Membership of the Society for the year is £15.00.
Cheques will be accepted. Please make them payable to The Greater Elland Historical Society.
We would also ask that, if you intend paying by cash, that you bring the exact amount as we will have limited change on the night.
Following on from our request for committee members to help organise and run the society we are pleased to inform you that we have been able co-opt new members on to our committee.
We would like to thank the following members for joining the committee.
Easter Holidays – the History Room will be open as normal.
Membership
Membership of the Society for the year is £15.00.
Cheques will be accepted. Please make them payable to The Greater Elland Historical Society.
We would also ask that, if you intend paying by cash, that you bring the exact amount as we will have limited change on the night.
YOUR SOCIETY NEEDS YOU!
We are looking for members who are willing to join the committee and help with the running of the Society.
Can you spare a few hours a month to assist in the running of the society?
If you feel you can assist, then please have a word with a member of the committee at the next meeting or send us an e-mail via the contact us page on this website.
STAYING WELL AND CALDERDALE WARD FORUM GRANT
We have been fortunate in obtaining grants from Staying Well and Ward Forum. The money received has been used to improve our Audio and Visual equipment by purchasing a new screen, speaker system and microphones. This has been well received by our members and has improved their learning experience.
Both Ward Forum and Staying Well continue to support local people of all ages to become active members of their local community by giving grants to support local voluntary organisations such as ours and is a Calderdale Council initiative.
Royal British Legion
Members of the Society have been invited to attend the Royal British Legion’s monthly meetings.
The meetings take place on the 3rd Wednesday in the month at the Elland WMC.
ARTEFACTS
Can anyone help with artefacts for our History Room at Elland Library?
We are looking for items with relevance to the history of Elland, be it Industry, transport, religion, entertainment or local governance, anything that you think is of historical value.
At the moment we are limited by space, so smaller items are of most interest. However, do let us know of anything you have which may be suitable in the future.
The History Room is open for visitors on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons between 1:30 pm and 3:30 pm.
Alternatively, if you would like one of our History Room volunteers to contact you to discuss your items first, then please send us a message via the “Contact Us” page on this website.
We are looking for members who are willing to join the committee and help with the running of the Society.
Can you spare a few hours a month to assist in the running of the society?
If you feel you can assist, then please have a word with a member of the committee at the next meeting or send us an e-mail via the contact us page on this website.
The Greater Elland Historical Society would like to thank Mr David Glanfield for his continued support of the Society.
The articles he puts in the Go Local magazine are not only informative but have introduced our activities to many people. A number of new members have attended our monthly talks or visited the history room this year because they have read his articles and seen the information about GEHS.
