TonyHillyard at 14:23, 18 April 2025

2025-04-18T14:23:13Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:23, 18 April 2025
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			'''A Brief Survey of the Luddenden Valley by C.H. Tordoff'''

	The Lud, or as it is usually known nowadays, the Luddenden Brook forms the dividing line between Warley and Midgley, which were two of the nine berewicks in the Parish of Halifax, according to the Doomsday Survey of 1086. Warley since 1900 has been a part of the Borough of Halifax, and Midgley is now a part of Sowerby Urban District.		The Lud, or as it is usually known nowadays, the Luddenden Brook forms the dividing line between Warley and Midgley, which were two of the nine berewicks in the Parish of Halifax, according to the Doomsday Survey of 1086. Warley since 1900 has been a part of the Borough of Halifax, and Midgley is now a part of Sowerby Urban District.

TonyHillyard at 14:21, 18 April 2025

2025-04-18T14:21:46Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:21, 18 April 2025
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	Ebenezer Cockroft had a school on the road which leads to Cold Edge Dams. He had an earlier establishment in a long low building which stood on the site on which Bridge Terrace was built, and separated only by the beck, from the premises occupied by Sammy Rothery's School later in the century. Tom Sutcliffe writes of the first school which he went to in Warley which was a Dame School. ”Nothing was taught. The children just sat on the benches swinging their feet and varying this exercise from time to time by falling off. The chief feature of the establishment was a pot of very sweet bread and milk, which was kept simmering on the hob, of which the best behaved scholars were treated to a spoonful or two according to merit.” It is not suggested that this was a typical example of a Dame School but it does reveal how appallingly inadequate some of these places were and how desperate were the needs for which the Warley School Board, when it was set up in 1870, had to provide.		Ebenezer Cockroft had a school on the road which leads to Cold Edge Dams. He had an earlier establishment in a long low building which stood on the site on which Bridge Terrace was built, and separated only by the beck, from the premises occupied by Sammy Rothery's School later in the century. Tom Sutcliffe writes of the first school which he went to in Warley which was a Dame School. ”Nothing was taught. The children just sat on the benches swinging their feet and varying this exercise from time to time by falling off. The chief feature of the establishment was a pot of very sweet bread and milk, which was kept simmering on the hob, of which the best behaved scholars were treated to a spoonful or two according to merit.” It is not suggested that this was a typical example of a Dame School but it does reveal how appallingly inadequate some of these places were and how desperate were the needs for which the Warley School Board, when it was set up in 1870, had to provide.

	This survey of the Luddenden Valley, a number of reasons, has been restricted to the eastern or Warley slope with one or two exceptions such as Castle Carr and Kershaw House. A similar story could have been told of the Midgley hillside. On that side a collection of farms such as Hawks Clough, Arrowbutt Lea, Mytholm, Catherine House, Goose Nest, Dean House, Oats Royd, The Greave and Ellen Royd could have revealed a folk—history different in detail but similar in pattern. The tides of fortune and misfortune benefited or afflicted families on whichever side of the brook they lived. In the times of busy looms and clacking shuttles, the yeomen clothiers of Midgley were also making their fortunes, rebuilding their houses and extending their estates. And in the last century when unemployment and sheer poverty drove people into the towns to seek work in the mills, the West side of the valley suffered no less than the East and carries the scars of derelict and abandoned farms and farm buildings.		This survey of the Luddenden Valley, a number of reasons, has been restricted to the eastern or Warley slope with one or two exceptions such as Castle Carr and Kershaw House. A similar story could have been told of the Midgley hillside. On that side a collection of farms such as Hawks Clough, Arrowbutt Lea, Mytholm, Catherine House, Goose Nest, Dean House, Oats Royd, The Greave and Ellen Royd could have revealed a folk—history different in detail but similar in pattern. The tides of fortune and misfortune benefited or afflicted families on whichever side of the brook they lived. In the times of busy looms and clacking shuttles, the yeomen clothiers of Midgley were also making their fortunes, rebuilding their houses and extending their estates. And in the last century when unemployment and sheer poverty drove people into the towns to seek work in the mills, the West side of the valley suffered no less than the East and carries the scars of derelict and abandoned farms and farm buildings.

	The final chapter of this survey could be headed “Decline and Fall” but this would suggest a dramatic change whereas the situation which today exists has been brought about almost imperceptibly over two hundred years. First the cottage based industry of spinning and hand—loom weaving was superceded by machinery driven by water power in the valley bottom. Then in the last century when the new means of communication came to the Calder Valley, the trunk road, the canal and the railway, these made it more difficult for the mills in the tributary valleys, such as Luddenden, to compete and one by one they either went out of business or moved to premises where the means of transport was more readily accessible. Industry transferred to places like Sowerby Bridge, Luddenden Foot and Hebden Bridge, which in the 17th century had scarcely existed other than as a huddle of houses where there was a river crossing by bridge or ford. Of eleven mills which once operated on the stream from Cold Edge to Luddenden, only three are now working.		The final chapter of this survey could be headed “Decline and Fall” but this would suggest a dramatic change whereas the situation which today exists has been brought about almost imperceptibly over two hundred years. First the cottage based industry of spinning and hand—loom weaving was superceded by machinery driven by water power in the valley bottom. Then in the last century when the new means of communication came to the Calder Valley, the trunk road, the canal and the railway, these made it more difficult for the mills in the tributary valleys, such as Luddenden, to compete and one by one they either went out of business or moved to premises where the means of transport was more readily accessible. Industry transferred to places like Sowerby Bridge, Luddenden Foot and Hebden Bridge, which in the 17th century had scarcely existed other than as a huddle of houses where there was a river crossing by bridge or ford. Of eleven mills which once operated on the stream from Cold Edge to Luddenden, only three are now working.

TonyHillyard: Created page with "The Lud, or as it is usually known nowadays, the Luddenden Brook forms the dividing line between Warley and Midgley, which were two of the nine berewicks in the Parish of Halifax, according to the Doomsday Survey of 1086. Warley since 1900 has been a part of the Borough of Halifax, and Midgley is now a part of Sowerby Urban District. The name Luddenden is a corruption of LUD DENE – a dene (or dean) being a narrow valley or gorge. Therefore a true translation of Ludd..."

2025-04-18T14:20:31Z

Created page with "The Lud, or as it is usually known nowadays, the Luddenden Brook forms the dividing line between Warley and Midgley, which were two of the nine berewicks in the Parish of Halifax, according to the Doomsday Survey of 1086. Warley since 1900 has been a part of the Borough of Halifax, and Midgley is now a part of Sowerby Urban District. The name Luddenden is a corruption of LUD DENE – a dene (or dean) being a narrow valley or gorge. Therefore a true translation of Ludd..."

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TonyHillyard at 14:23, 18 April 2025

TonyHillyard at 14:21, 18 April 2025