Horticultural Society
The inhabitants of Clayton, emulating other villages, have recently established a Floral and Horticultural Society, and their first exhibition took place on Saturday evening, in the large room at the Black Bull Inn The number of exhibitors, the quality of the flowers, fruits, and vegetables and the public interest felt. in the society, as shown by the attendance which far exceeded the expectation of the most sanguine among the members. The show was second to that of no other village in the neighbourhood The judges and curators were Mr. Thomas Cusworth gardener John Foster, jun., Esq. Queensbury and Mr. Charles Thomson , head gardener to Lieut Col.Hirst, of Low house. The principal prizes were awarded as follows : — Best tray of vegetables, four sorts, Mr. Henry Barker the best tray of vegetables six sorts Mr. Henry Barker, the best tray of fruit, six sorts, Mr. George Wilman. the best bunch of grapes, Mr: George Wilman, heaviest bunch of grapes, Mr. H.. Burnishing, gardener to Mr. Broad bent ; the best tray of grapes, Mr Burniston, the best bouquet, Mr. John Holroyd, Queensbury ; The best twelve kidney potatoes, Mr. Samuel Jackson, gardener to J. H. Hirst, Esq.,of Low House ; best brace of cucumbers Mr. Gregory Stead, gardener to Mr William Bottomley Esq. , Shelf ; the best cucumber, Mr. George Wilman In addition to these, prizes inferior in value were awarded to Messrs. Edward Eland, John Armitage, Joseph Brook, Henry Armitage Jonathan Craven, Wm. Rawnsley , Jonas Jennings George Hemingway, Joseph Robinson George Stead, and Wm Craven. A grand display of plants was placed on the table, for the purpose of decoration by Mr. H. Burniston which was much admired, also two tremendous sticks of celery, belonging to M William Craven of Shelf attracted much attention . A party of glee from Queensbury including also Thomas Barker, the landlord and Miss Barker , his daughter. , contributed much to the enjoyment of the evening, J. Ambler presiding at the pianoforte. ‘ At eight o’clock the room was cleared of vegitables and the Committee, the judges, and a number of the ‘ visiting ‘Friends, about forty in all, sat down to an excellent supper, Mr. Thos. Jowett presiding, after which toasts and’ speechifying, singing . and recitations, become the order of the evening
Village School Report Dated 1867 The village school built in 1819 on land donated by the Lord of the Manor, then Richard Hodgson, the site of the building being waste land, no title deeds were made, but a number of men were elected as nominal trustees under whose control the school was placed. The school was built by public subscription, unfortunately the amount subscribed failed to cover the cost of erection so the sum of £80 was advanced by one of the inhabitants upon a promissory note. In 1867 the sum of £36 was still outstanding and the nominal Trustees being all dead, application was made for this to the Local Board by legal representatives of the gentlemen referred to and the inhabitants of the village. Fearing the property was about to slip out of their hands they called a public meeting by requisition to the overseers of the poor. The balance due on the promissory note was offered by one of the inhabitants to the representative of the gentlemen who offered the £80. Previously in 1865 the deputation approved at a public meeting of the inhabitants, held a conference with the new Lord of the Manor James Hodgson Atkinson Jowett, who wished to demolish the village school in order to obtain the good quality stone supposedly known to lie beneath the school. A very liberal offer was made by Mr Jowett, namely he would rebuild the school on a new site if that was preferable after the stone had been removed, he would even sell the stone at 6d a pound less to any other person. A further meeting was called for the Tuesday following, but this was not reported in the press. |
Relic of Prehistoric Age9th November 1877 During the progress of the works on the Bradford and Thornton Railway, several indications of vast changes which have so metamorphosised the face of this part of the country before the historic period, have presented themselves. In the course of excavations of the line, glacial boulders in quantity have been found, several of which have been examined and reported on by an eminent geological authority.Within the last week or two another interesting memorial of the past has been unearthed in cutting the tunnel at Clayton, namely a fossil root of some primeval forest tree. This was found at a considerable depth below the surface, and was removed with great care. In addition to several forked arms which penetrated into the earth, about two feet of trunk, marked as if it was still covered by bark has been preserved. The Relic has been taken possession of by the chief engineer of the line. |
An Example of Working Man at ClaytonOCTOBER 1869 |
Festivities at The Clayton WorkhouseJan 4th 1870 |
ConcertMarch 11th 1874 |
Rival AttractionsMay 30th 1866 |
SuffrageMarch 3rd 1873 |
ConstablesList of Constables Clayton 1835 |
Knur and Spell Match31st May 1886 |
Clayton TideAugust 1864 |
Fox Hunt2nd March 1865 |
Local Government Act of 1858The above act was adopted by Queensbury in 1865, but prior to that year the local affairs of Queensbury were administered by the two neighbouring townships of Clayton and Northowram. |
Friendship amongst work people.11th January 1866 |
Clayton Local BoardMay 7th 1869 |
Eccentric Poultry DealerOctober 1869 |
19th Century NewspapersJUNE 1848 The Black Bull Inn. Clayton. To Let, with immediate possession, with or without land. Apply Mr John Hirst, Clayton House.
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Events in Clayton 1858
Sep 9th
A married woman, Mary Rushworth of Clayton, died suuddenly whilst at work as a power loom weaver at Beck Mill about half past six o'clock on Saturday morning. She leaves five children.
Oct 28th A meeting of working men has been held in the village school room at Clayton to consider the propriety of forming a Co-operative Society, the object being to collect a store of provisions, drapery goods etc which will be retailed to the public at a cost which will always be within the market price. Mr Josh Andrews presided and made a few pointed remarks with reference to the advantages which would accrue from such a Society if properly managed. The meeting was afterwards addressed by Mr J. Vickerman and Mr J. Baycliffe. Eighty eight persons have already enrolled themselves as members.
Clayton National Day and Sunday Schools. The annual Christmas tea party connected with the above schools was held in the school-room on Monday evening, the Rev. T. R. Manning, Incumbent of Clayton, in the chair. The tea boards cleared, a selection of music was performed, consisting of glees, madrigals, songs and duets by the Highgate Mill Glee and Madrigal Society. Mr T. Ward presided at the pianoforte. The music -- at all events, the choral music, was for the most part very well known, and would probably have been considered "stale" by a Bradford audience, but in Clayton it took well, and gave satisfaction. Mr W. Jackson's song, The United Flags, and another called John Brown, both sung by Mr T. Barker, were loudly encored. Mr George Mason, Esq, kindly favoured the company with two songs, The Flag that's Braved and The Fine Old English Gentleman. Both were so much approved as to be re-demanded, but in the latter case only, when Mr Mason substituted, with excellent effect, the nigger song, poor Old Ned. There was a good attendance, the evening being very pleasantly spent.
' Clayton National Day and Sunday Schools. Letter to the Editor of the Bradford Observer. re above. Sir'--Presuming upon your accustomed kindness, I beg for a space in your paper for a few words with reference to the tea party which was held in the Clayton National School on Monday evening the 27th Dec, a report of which appeared in your impression of last Thursday. From that report it would appear that the songs, etc, which were sung after tea took well, and gave great satisfaction. I was not present myself, but I am creditably informed some parties left the room completely disgusted with some of the songs that were sung, and others were heard to say that such songs were more suitable for the public house than in connection with a Sunday school. Similar remarks have been made since the night in question, so that I feel it my duty, for the credit of the Sunday School and those connected with it, to state that the Superintendent and teachers had nothing whatever to do with the drawing up of the programme; neither did they know anything of it until it appeared in print. They, therefore wish it to be distinctly understood that they have no sympathy with most of that night's proceedings; on the contrary, they condemn it as being diametrically opposed to the spirit and tendency of the teaching in Sunday School. I therefore trust that the odium which it has so justly provoked will fall upon those with whom it was left to draw up the programme, so that the character of our Sunday School be not made to suffer for what the Superintendent and teachers had no control over By inserting this in your next issue you will greatly oblige
Yours etc The Superintendent Jan 3rd 1859
Bradford Observer 21st March 1850
Clayton Tragedy
A most melancholy event occurred at Clayton on Saturday last, which occasioned the greatest excitement and horror, not only amongst the quiet inhabitants of that hamlet, but also in our own town and the surrounding district. The appalling circumstance is briefly this: a man named Edward Jcssop, a blacksmith and delver in fit of great excitement, deliberately shot his wife through the body, and then, deliberately sent a bullet through his own brain. The attempt at murder was not fully successful, as the woman still survives; but his own death was instantaneous. The motives that led to this appalling catastrophe may be gathered from the subjoined narrative. The unhappy pair were comparatively young, Jessop being 25 years of age, and his wife somewhat younger. They were married as recently as August last. The marriage was hastened by the pregnancy of the bride, and was consummated almost without the knowledge, and certainly without the good will of their friends. It is perhaps no extraordinary occurrence amongst people in their rank in life, and in a neighbourhood where the manners are primitive and rude, but on the wedding morning, the bridegroom and bride met together at the Bradford Parish Church, each having come by different roads-the former proceeding on foot, and the latter journeying towards the town in a farmer’s cart which was conveying milk thither. The bride, too, went to the altar in a troubled mind. The prospect of leaving her mother’s hearthstone, it is said, filled her with grief, and her tears fell copiously on that account. The wedded pair, like too many of their class, had no home provided and the ceremony over they separated, to return to the different homes whence they had come. In a few days, however, it was arranged that Jessop should take up his abode beneath the roof of the wife’s parent, Sarah Robinson, a widow, advanced in years, living in a cottage at the upper part of Clayton. With two sons and one daughter, besides the wife of the deceased. Here Edward Jessop lived with his wife for two or three months: but, as might have been expected, not in the enjoyment of domestic peace. The offence against his wife’s family, it would appear, was never fully forgiven; and the mother especially resented his conduct. On one occasion late at night, as she alleges, he had been misbehaving himself, and she drove him from her door to shelter in the lodgings of his bachelor days. Since that time, he has repeatedly besought his wife to join him in a separate home, but she has turned a deaf ear to his entreaties. Jessop was considered a stranger at Clayton; he was a native of Brighouse, and had been brought to the village in an adventure for employment. He is spoken of by almost every tongue as a quiet, good-natured, steady, harmless man, and appears to have gained the good will and respect of the villagers generally. He had been in the army and had bought his discharge. The friends of Jessop’s wife, on the other hand, allege that, although he was not a drunkard or an idle man, yet he wasted his substance (too small as it was), in gambling, a vice to which he was much addicted. Then separation from his wife had been the subject of banter and taunts of his associates in the delph, and at the forge (for he divided his time between both employments) and it is conjectured that, being unable to get redress, this circumstance may have prayed upon his mind and induced him to commit the dreadful deed we now record. About three o’clock on Saturday last, Jessop entered the cottage of his mother-in-law, Mrs Robinson. His wife was there, as were also her mother, her sister, and her baby, asleep in the cradle. Jessop, addressing his wife said, “ I want to speak a word to thee” “Well” returned the wife, “ if thou has anything to say, say it now “ He then approached her, as she was standing on the hearthstone, and, laying one hand on her, he pointed the pistol at her heart, and, as he fired, he exclaimed “That is it!” The poor wife, in agony and fright, raised a dreadful shriek, and hurried to the door, followed by her mother and sister. They stooped over the apparently dying woman as she fell to the ground. But the horror of the scene was the next moment increased, by another report of a pistol and the sight of Jessop himself weltering in a pool of blood: he had applied the muzzle of another pistol to one side of his head and blown a bullet through his brain. He had died without a struggle. The wife was alive, the bullet, having passed through the fleshy part of her left bosom and out at her side, had not inflicted a mortal wound. Mr Steel (of Bradford) and Mrs Hebblethwaite (of Thornton) attended the woman during the day, and she is now, we are happy to add, in a fair way to recovery. The body of the unhappy man was removed to the Black Bull public house, to await the inquest. INQUEST On Monday afternoon, an inquest was held at the house of Mr. Womersley, the Black Bu11 Inn before George Dyson, Esq. and a respectable jury, on the body of Edward Jessop. The following were the statements, of the several witnesses. Sarah Robinson, widow, stated, the deceased Edward Jessop, was married to my daughter Elizabeth in August last. The deceased lived at our house with his wife for a short lime, but left us without any disagreement. I did not know much of him before he got married. My daughter would have gone to live with him if he bad been able to set up house. My son would have bought them a bed, if they could have managed the rest. The deceased was by trade a blacksmith. He came to my house about three o'clock on Saturday. He said he wanted to speak a word or two with his wife. She said, “Well, thou may speak to me if thou hast anything to say." She was on the hearthstone, and he went to her, and pulled a pistol out and fired it, saying, “That is it." He was close to her and had hold of her at the time. My daughter ran out of the house screaming and left him standing We followed her and she fell down about three or four yards from our door. There was nobody but him and the child left in the house, and, hearing the pistol again we thought be had shot the child, but we found he had shot himself. The ball which he fired at my daughter went into her left breast, and out at the side. We hope she is now doing well, but she is not yet out of danger. I never saw any of his family till yesterday, when a brother of his came from Brighouse. He looked decent dependable man, but I can't say what he is. He stated that he had not spoken to the deceased for two years; he did not like the ways of the deceased, and was not surprised at what had happened. I have seen him drunken very seldom, but I have seen him so. He was like a middling quiet man. My daughter was willing to go into house with the deceased, when the deceased had anything to set up with, but he was a gambling man - he gambled his money away. I don't know how long my daughter and the deceased had been acquainted before they were married. I knew perhaps an hour before they went to let married that it was going to happen. While he lived at our house, he were agreeable enough. He paid 6s. 6d. for his meat and lodging, and his wife who worked at the mill, paid for her own board and lodging. He left or home when my daughter was about to be confined, and before be went be threatened to murder her on one occasion. This perhaps rose from my ordering him to go away after be had been swearing and misbehaving himself. He left the house afterward, but he had wanted to go before there was any “harry” (uproar) at all. His wife has since been so afraid of the deceased doing her some harm that she has never gone out after dark without having some person with her. [We may gather that the witness gave her testimony evidently with great unwillingness. To refer to the deceased in any way seemed to be a great mortification to her.] John Rookes deposed: The deceased Edward Jessop has lodged with us since about Christmas last. He had conducted himself properly. Never had a wrong word with him. He has kept good hours, except perhaps one night, and has been very sober and steady. With the exception of one night, when he stopped out till twelve, he has always been at home at ten. There seemed to have been some unpleasantness between his wife’s relations and himself, but I could not say particularly what it was. I have understood that on one occasion his wife’s mother ran him out of the house with the tongs. He was a blacksmith and a fair workman but he has also worked at bearing stone at Collopwood. He was apparently a sane man, like others. I believe he gambled before he came to live with us, but he repented of that and left off the practice. I understand that he meet with his wife last Tuesday, and she promised him that if he would get a chair, table and bed she would go live with him. I put him into the best way of getting them and he was off on Thursday in Bradford. I thought he had perhaps gone to buy some furniture. He was off also on Friday: he went away with a soldier who came to Clayton: it was said he had been fetched as a deserter, but Jessop afterwards said that the report was untrue. I believe he had shown the soldier his discharge. He might perhaps have been taken as a deserter. On Saturday he took a gatepost down to get the lead from it, and so no doubt moulded the bullets at Collopwood. He would have 3s or 3s 4d a day when in full employ for three days a week and he got three days a week besides as blacksmith. But he had seldom-full work and I understand that during the last fortnight he had only £1 from both jobs. He had some five half crowns on the mantelpiece on Friday morning and having taken these away, he no doubt bought the pistol on Friday with that money. Hannah Robinson deposed: I am sister to Elizabeth Jessop. I was at the door hole on Saturday when Edward Jessop fired at my sister. On coming in, he said he wanted to speak to her, and said he might speak to her there. I ran to her on the shot being fired and my frock was fired by the blaze which was upon her. I don’t know that there had been any quarrel either between the deceased and my sister, or between the deceased and my mother: if they had any quarrel it was among themselves. I don’t know that there was a quarrel between the deceased and my brothers. They were always agreeable on Sundays when they were together. Edward Briggs deposed: I live next door but one to Robinsons. I heard the alarm by these pistols going off on Saturday. I heard a cry from children, but thought it was on account of rat shooting. In four or five seconds I heard Hannah Robinson say-“ He has shot our Betty” I went out and assisted the Robinsons to help Betty into the house. I immediately afterwards saw the deceased lying dead on the floor. He was wounded in the right ear and a large quantity of blood ran from him. I was not personally acquainted with the deceased. joseph brigg, constable stated: i received the pistols produced from jos. hurst, a joiner, who gathered them up in the house, and i also took some bullets, some caps, and some powder from the pockets of the deceased, and 6d and 5d in copper. these pistols were bought on friday afternoon of mr. egan of bradford. he stated to me that he sold them to a young man who said he was going to america. joseph brigg afterwards volunteered a statement to the effect that he had been with the deceased and had heard him often tell such strange stories, as led him to believe that he was not of proper mind-that he had “ a slate off” mr. john jowett, a juror, volunteered a similar statement. the coroner then briefly addressed the jury, and after a consultation of a few minutes, the jury returned a verdict of “shot himself, but in what state of mind the deceased was at the time, there is no evidence to show”
Clayton Board Meetings 1815
4th June 1815 Clayton Local Board. The usual monthly meeting of the board took place on Wednesday last in the Board Room. Present were Messrs T. Jowett, J. Benn, E. Ridings, O. Wilman, A. Briggs, W. Sutcliffe, J. Hudson and C. Ward. The clerk reported that he had received the mortgage deed to secure £250 to Messrs Emmet and others with interest at 4 per cent for a term of ten years. It was resolved that the same be signed and sealed. The accounts in respect of the collector and surveyor were dealt with as usual, also cheques were drawn and ordered to be paid. It was noticed that the collector had received a payment of £2 10 6d for the loan of the roller, but to whom was not stated. Maybe the local cricket team. It was decided that the district should be posted with notices to the effect that all dogs at large must be muzzled between the 14th of June and 1st of October. Plans for two houses for Mr W. Ingham were submitted and passed. The medical officer's report was submitted as follows:- The health of the district is in an improving condition. During the month of May eight births and eleven deaths have been registered. Of these deaths, four were in the Workhouse, which number deducted reduces the number of deaths in Clayton district to to seven, which is considered a low one. One death occurred from typhoid fever. The analysis is as follows: Typhoid fever l; paralysis l; apoplexy 1; enteritis l; heart disease 2; infantile diseases 3; phthisis l; old age 1; total 11. The outbreak of Typhus at Town End and Holt's Lane is gradually passing away, only three fresh cases having come under my notice since my last report to the Board. The others are nearly all convalescent. July 1st 1815 Clayton Local Board The usual monthly meeting. Present: T. Jowett, Chairman, C. Ward, A. Briggs, O. Wilman, J. Benn, E. Ridings and J. Hudson. Amongst matters dealt with plans for the Liberal Club which were submitted and approved, the site of the Club was land at Jacob's Croft. The Medical Officer of Health reported several cases of fever in the neighbourhood of Town End but was unable to discover any special cause which could have brought on the outbreak. TO BE SOLD BY AUCTION by Messrs Davis & Son, at the Royal Hotel, Clayton. on Tuesday, July 21th, 1815 at seven o'clock in the evening prompt. Subject to Conditions, and in such Lots as may be determined upon. ALL those three several MESSUAGES or dwelling houses at Green Well Lane, Clayton, with yards, gardens & etc, belonging, now in the respective occupations of Mr Ezra Milner, John Milner and George Ward. And also all those three several MESSUAGES or dwelling houses situate at Coghill in Clayton, with the yards, gardens & etc belonging, now in the respective occupations of Robert Sharp, Jonas Andrews and Elixabeth Brooke. The houses are in very good repair, well tenanted, and may be viewed on application to the tenants. Particulars may be had from the Auctioneer or Mr F. Walker, Solicitor, Halifax. NOTE The three houses above in Greenwell Lane, now Greenwell Row, were named Andrews Buildings, there is an inscribed name to that effect today