%roffl &m* THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES ' **Vr " -' CHRONICLES AND STORIES OF OLD BINGLEY. A FULL ACCOUNT OF THE HISTORY, ANTIQUITIES, NATURAL PRODUCTIONS, SCENERY, CUSTOMS AND FOLK-LORE OF THE ANCIENT TOWN AND PARISH OF BINGLEY, IN THE WEST RIDING OF YORKSHIRE. BY HARRY SPEIGHT, AUTHOR OF "THE CRAVEN HIGHLANDS;" "THROUGH AIREDALE; " NIDDERDALE;" "ROMANTIC RICHMONDSHIRE; " ETC. NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. LONDON : ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, B.C. 1898. Entered at Stationers' Hall. PRINTED BY EDWARD FOULDS, MAIN STREET, BINGLKY, YORKS. PREFACE. OLD Saxon town of Bingley, is very pleasantly situated in the valley of the Aire, about twelve miles from Leeds, and six miles from Bradford. At one time consisting of but few houses, clustered round its venerable Parish Church, the little place lay deeply embosomed amidst high craggy hills and embowering woodlands, and well did it deserve its title of "The Throstle Nest of Old England," which it still fondly bears. In the following pages I have endeavoured to trace the history of the town and parish f r om the remotest times. The work is divided into four parts ; the first embracing the period > from the foundation of the rocks to the Ice Age and the advent of man ; the second from thence to the Norman invasion ; the third conducting to the present time ; while the fourth deals with outlying places in the parish. The design and general scope of the work will at once be apparent on turning to the index of Contents on page 5. Since the prospectus of the work was issued in 1896 a very large amount of additional matter has been received, which accounts not only for the delay in the publication of the volume, but also for its greatly increased size. My thanks are especially due to Mr. Ferrand, of St. Ives, Bingley, the principal landowner in the parish, whose estates and valuable manuscript collections have been open to me in the most generous manner. Mr. Ferrand has also been good enough to revise the proof-sheets relating to his family's possessions, without which help the book could not have been so accurate and complete. To Mr. Arthur C. Benson, son of the late Archbishop of Canterbury, I am indebted for many interesting particulars respecting his family's connections with the parish. The Bight Hon. the Earl of Cranbrook has also sent me many 629693 interesting notes. To the clergy, ministers, and a large number of others, in the parish and elsewhere, I am likewise indebted for various useful help, and especially to the following : Mr. W. A. Brigg, Kildwick Hall ; Mr. Francis E. Shackleton, Torquay ; Messrs. Farrer & Co. (solicitors to Mr. Lane Fox), London ; Miss Maud, Seattle, U.S.A. ; Mrs. Staffurth, Bognor; Mrs. Le Page, Cheadle ; Mr. J. Stephenson, Bath ; Mr. Algernon G. Hartley, London ; the late Mr. J. Aldam Heaton, London ; the Eev. R. V. Taylor, Melbecks ; Mr. J. Norton Dickons, Bradford ; Mr. J. J. Stead, Heckmondwike ; and the following local residents, namely : Messrs. J. E. Preston, John Walker, J. A. Clapham, T. Wilkinson Green, Alfred Platts, N. H. Walbank, Thomas Longbottom, William Green (librarian), Stephen Darlow, and Sydney Waddington. The numerous illustrations, and the names of those who have supplied the originals, are given on pages 6 and 7. For a large proportion of the photographs engraved I am indebted to the industry and skill of Mr. George Whitaker, of Bingley, who has taken them specially for this work, and has been unremitting in his pains to supply excellent and suitable originals. Mr. T. W. Goodall, of Bingley, has kindly supplied some beautiful pictures, including various views in the Main Street before the alterations. Miss Nannie Preston, of Gilstead, has furnished some original drawings, and her work too well known to need any comment of mine will speak for itself. All the blocks have been engraved by Messrs. Armitage and Ibbetson, of Bradford, and printed with the book by Mr. Edward Foulds, of Bingley. The valuable plate of " Bingley Eighty Years Ago," in the best edition only, depicts the old church, grammar school, canal, and Belbank woods before the railway was made, and the picture was dedicated to the Rev. Richard Hartley, D.D., vicar of Bingley, and published by N. Whitley, of Halifax, in 1822. To the subscribers and the many friends who have helped to obtain them my thanks are also due. The subscribers' names are printed at the end of the volume. . HAEBY SPEIGHT. Bingley, Yorks. CONTENTS. PART I. PRIMEVAL BINGLEY . . . . . . . . . . 9 BINGLEY DURING THE ICE AGE . . . . . . 17 WANDERINGS AMONG WILD FLOWERS . . . . . . 25 WILD BIRDS OF BINGLEY DISTRICT . . . . . . 35 PART II. THE ADVENT OF MAN . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 The Aborigenes The Celts The Romans The Picts and Scots The Anglo-Saxons The Danes. OLD BOADS . . . . . i . . . . . . 75 OLD DYKES AND BOUNDARIES . . . . . . 91 PART III. MANORIAL HISTORY . . . . . . . . . . 101 BINGLEY DURING THE CRUSADES . . . . . . 115 BINGLEY IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY . . . . . . 130 CHRONICLES OF THE SIXTEENTH AND SUCCEEDING CENTURIES 134 THE PARISH CHURCH . . . . . . . . . . 147 THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL . . . . . . . . 175 THE NATIONAL SCHOOLS . . . . . . . . . . 180 BINGLEY NONCONFORMISTS . . . . . . . j 182 Independents Society of Friends Wesleyan Methodists Baptists Primitive Methodists Christian Brethren- Roman Catholics. EXTENSION OF THE TOWN AND TRADE . . . . . . 221 OLD CHARACTERS . . . . . . . . . . 257 FOLK LORE AND OLD CUSTOMS . . . . . . 266 PLEASANT WALKS AND PLACES OF PUBLIC RESORT . . . . 279 SOME HISTORIC MANSIONS . . . . . . . . 291 Gawthorpe Hall Old Vicarage Ryshworth Hall East Riddlesden Hall West Riddlesden Hall Marley Hall Myrtle Grove Milner Field Greenhill Hall. PART IV. BRIEF NOTICES OF SURROUNDING PLACES Morton . . . . . . . . . . 329 Eldwick .. .. .. .. .. 336 Cottingley .. .. .. .. ..345 Harden . . . . . . . . . . 357 Cullingworth . . . . . . . . . . 385 Wilsden . . . . . . . . 390 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. IN THE LAKGE PAPER EDITION ONLY. Engraved for this work from the original supplied by . . Algernon G. Hartley, London. Frontispiece. IN BOTH EDITIONS. FULL PAGE VIEWS. BINGLEY Eighty Years Ago Stream Gully at Greenhill Glacial Drift on Sandstone at Seven Arches A Botanists Paradise, Seven Arches " The Throstle Nest of Old England " In the Harden Valley Eiverside View of " Old Bingley " . . Market House and Butter Cross Geo. Whitaker, Hingley Do. do. Do. do. T. W. Goodall, Bingley Do. do. Do. do. Richard I. reviewing the Crusaders Nannie Preston, Gilstead Beckf oot Farm View of Harden Grange . . Runic Inscription at Bingley Parish Church, Bingley . . Elm Tree Hill, Bingley . . Jubilee Procession at Bingley Old House, Main Street, Bingley. King's Court and Old Shops Elm Tree Hill Inn, Bingley . Old Bingley " Characters " Riverside, near Ravenroyd Ravenroyd, near Bingley . . Gawthorpe Hall The Old Vicarage, Bingley llyshworth Hall East Riddlesden Hall West Riddlesden Hall MarleyHall Morton Bridge Mr. Benjamin Preston Cottingley Hall St. Ives, Bingley Old Harden Grange Woodbank, Harden Harden Hall Hill End, Harden 16 24 34 40 100 108 114 128 146 150 156 192 220 242 246 252 Sydney Waddington, Bingley 256 T. W. Goodall, Bingley Nannie Preston, Gilstead E. E. Gregory, Bingley T. W. Goodall, Bingley George Whitaker, Bingley Rev. T. Mellodey, M.A., Cnllingworth T. W. Goodall, Bingley Do. do. Do. do. T. W. Goodall, do. Mrs. Weatlierhead, do. Rev. T. Mellodey, M.A. George Whitaker, Bingley . Do. do. J. N. Clarkson, Riddlesden , Nannie Preston, Gilstead George Whitaker, Bingley Do. do. Do. do. Nannie Preston, Gilstead Rev. T. Mellodey, M.A. Nannie Preston, Gilstead Rev. T. Mellodey, M.A. George Whitafor, Bingley . OTHEK ILLUSTRATIONS. A Home of the Killarney Fern, Bingley . . " . . . . George Whitaker, Bingley . Ancient Stone Circle, near Bingley Sydney Waddington, do. Quern found on Bailey Hills . . T. W. Goodall, do. . Roman Road on Blackstone Edge E. Bolton, Bradford . . 278 280 290 298 302 306 312 316 328 341 344 356 360 368 376 382 28 45 53 55 PAGE. Castlestead Ring, near Cullingworth Rev. T. Mellodey, M.A. .. 62 Arley Stone, Harden Moor . . Sydney Waddington, Bingley 66 Ancient British Road . . . . Do. do. 77 Cottingley Bridge George Whitaker do. 85 Beckfoot Bridge Do. do. 89 Harden Beck Bridge .. . . Rev. T. Mellodey, M.A. .. 95 Burying " Lawrence " by Torchlight Nannie Preston, Gilstead .. 154 Rev. James Cheadle, M.A. . . . . . . . . . . 161 Rev. A. P. Irwine, M.A 164 Rev. Canon Edwards, M.A. . . . . . . . . . . 166 Ven. Archdeacon Kilner, M.A. . . . . . . . . . . 168 Holy Trinity Church, Bingley . . Mrs. Angus, Bingley. . . . 173 Old Grammar School, Bingley . . Nannie Preston, Gilstead . . 177 Old Congregational Church, Bingley .. .. .. .. 184 Rev. Joseph Martin . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Old Quaker Meeting-House . . E. E. Gregory, Bingley . . 191 Dr. James Crocker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Mr. George Severs . . . . . . George Whitaker, Binglfy . . 196 Rev. F. E. Cossey 206 Rev. E. R. Lewis 206 Rev. John Flesher .. .. .. Airedale Magazine .. .. 210 Mr. Charles Crabtree .. .. .. '.. .. .. 212 Mr. John D. Fox 212 Mr. Charles Sellers .. .. .. ..215 Rev. Canon Puissant, M.R. . . . . . . . . . . 218 Mr. Alfred Sharp, J.P 226 Mr. Samuel Rushforth, J.P. . . 229 Five-Rise Locks, Bingley . . . . George Whitoker, Bingley . . 239 Old Railway Station, Bingley . . John Lightfoot, do. . . 249 Old Coach Clock, Bingley . . . . Nannie Preston, Gilstead . . 255 Mr. William Midgley, Eldwick . . Sydney Waddington, Bingley 262 Spa Well, Bingley .. ..- .. George Whitaker, do. 271 Ducking a Scold 273 Druids' Altar, Bingley . . . . F. Brundrett, Clayton . . 281 The Cemetery, Bingley .. .. Rev. T. Mellodey, M.A. .. 284 Mr. Timothy Lister . . . . . . . . . . . . 286 In the Park, Bingley . . . . George Whitaker, Bingley . . 288 Myrtle Grove, Bingley . . . . Do. do. . . 321 Old Milner Field, Gilstead . . John Walker, Gilstead . . 325 Old Thatched House, Morton . . George Whitaker, Bingley . . 332 Toils Farm, Eldwick . . . . Sydney Waddington, do. . . 343 Mr. Richard Thornton . . . . . . . . . . . . 349 Mr. Richard Thornton's Burial Place in Central Africa . . . . . . . . . . 351 Mr. William Busfeild-Ferrand . . . . . . . . . . 365 Doorway, Woodbank . . . . . . . . . . . . 371 Low Cliffe, Harden . . . . . . . . . . . . 373 Old Houses, Cullingworth .. .. Rev. T. Mellodey, M.A. .. 387 Goit Stock Waterfall . . . . E. E. Gregory, Bingley . . 393 o w H O B OQ CHRONICLES AND STORIES OF OLD BINGLEY. PRIMEVAL BINGLEY. " A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it ; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee." Deut. viii, 9, 10. N order to determine the causes which led to the site of Bingley being first chosen as a place of dwelling, it will be necessary to go far back to primeval ages, long before the human epoch. It was then through the wisdom of their infinite Author that the rocks with their mineral treasures were deposited, followed by a wondrous vegetable growth and a beauty of form and mould adapted to man's services and advancement, as implied by the words of the above scriptural text. As was the case with most ancient centres of population, the spot was unquestionably selected by reason of the physical advantages of rock-structure and surroundings. Moreover, the situation of Bingley at the confluence of two secluded and well-wooded valleys, was one calculated to inspire the early love of meditation and retirement, and even long antecedent to the time when the first fragment of local history was carved in stone, now more than 1100 years ago, the place doubtless was the scene of a happy religious devotion. Ages before then , however, the aboriginal 10 skin -clad native rowed his coracle on the bright waters of the Aire, albeit the full manner and fruition of his life in the district are obscured in the darkness of antiquity. Yet, again, this man's presence at Bingley is but as of yesterday compared with the time that has elapsed since the rocks on which he first stood and the valley in which he first lived were formed. How came these rocks and this valley, are questions I must now engage to answer. The divers grit rocks and sandstones which constitute the floor and sides of the valley are said to be the result of the decomposition and dispersion of the constituents of granite. Granite consists of an aggregation of -felspar, silica or quartz and mica, such materials in fact of which the first solid crust of the earth was made. But how this grit came to be deposited here is a problem that may well arouse enquiry. There appears, however, to be a consensus of opinion that it was derived from the granites of Norway and Sweden, as no other granite resembles so exactly the fluids, gases, and crystals of the grit rocks of this country. As- granite decomposes most readily under alternations of great heat and cold, it is conjectured that this took place when the earth was sufficiently cooled to admit of this possibility, and that the particles were bo'rne from the east by hurricanes of wind to find a barrier and stay upon the range of Carboniferous Limestone, at a time when no land existed eastward of the limestone, all the present land surface in this direction being of more recent formation. The phenomena of wind-borne particles over long distances is not unreasonable when we consider the travelling power and desolating effects, even at this day, of great masses of sand in the desert region of Sahara in Africa and in Central Asia ; the sea bottom in many places is covered with a great thickness of sand blown from the desert of Sahara, as was proved by the dredgings brought up by the Challenger, often at very considerable* distances from the African coast. Yet the wind-bearing theory while it explains many circumstances attending the deposition of the gritstone in England does not explain all. The angularity of the enclosed quartz particles may be accounted for in this way, whilst on the other hand the 11 rock at Bingley is often found to have these pebbles in varying size rounded and smoothed as if by the action of water. The precise determining causes of these variations have never been satisfactorily explained. Overlying the Rough Eock, which forms the topmost bed of the Millstone Grit series we have the Coal Measures, consisting of alternating beds of sandstone, shale, and thin seams of coal. Bands of ironstone and a stratum of fire-clay are also associated with these measures at Bingley. A valuable sandstone, close-grained and highly silicious, termed galliard, is likewise found in small quantities usually directly beneath the lowest coal seams. In these upper beds appeared the first vegetable life at Bingley. Also the vegetable origin of coal has long been established. With the gradual cooling and thickening of the earth's crust fresh deposits of mud and sand were formed, and as each successive surface rose above the water it was soon covered with a luxuriant and dense vegetation. The jungles of tropical forests at the present day are mere barrenness in comparison with the extraordinary growth of terrestrial vegetation during this warm period of local history. The giant lepidodetidron, or fossil tree of our quarries, waved its palm-like branches over a rank and profuse undergrowth of large and magnificent ferns, of which half-a-hundred kinds grew within a few miles' radius of where Bingley now stands. Enormous catamites, so called from the reed-like jointings of the stalk, flourished on the muddy banks of these primeval streams; their representatives being the dwindled "horsetails" of our hedge banks and beck sides. Occasionally, as at Gilstead, we find these fossil trees encased in a thin cylinder of coal, formed by the preservation of the bark, the tree having become hollow got filled up with mud or sand, and so took the shape of the trunk. Sometimes, too, we find the sandstone ripple-marked, produced by a gentle flow of water over the surface, which had hardened on the retreat of the wave ; likewise the sandstone pitted with small holes caused by rain drops, and we may sometimes tell by the position and form of the holes which way the wind blew when it rained in those far-off days. 12 Undoubtedly at one time the land within and adjoining the parish was almost one unbroken level surface, but the eye of God alone beheld this. The places which we now know as Greenhill, Druids' Altar, Cottingley Moor, Wrose Hill, Baildon Hill and Gilstead Moor were once joined together by an almost continuous table-land. There happened at this time and also at intervals before, great subsidences in the strata, some taking place suddenly, while others were gentle and protracted. The effects of these subsidences, throws, or " faults," as they are technically termed, we are witnesses of at the present day. An important one extends from near Greenhill, by Gawthorpe Hall, and crossing the town extends the whole length of the Harden valley, throwing out some fine springs in Bell Bank Field and at the back of St. Ives, until its course is stopped by a cross fault through Harden Moor, forming the romantic ravine of Deep Cliff, and passing southwards by Harden Hall towards Wilsden. There is little doubt that the beautiful Harden valley owes its inception to this fault, although so much removed above the present valley bottom. The Aire valley, where Bingley is situated, is however not directly due to any such faulting as I have described. This dale, like the other great valleys of Yorkshire, owes its origin to the great and much older Penine ridge, which runs in a north and south direction from Derbyshire to the Cheviots. It is noteworthy that most of the great rivers of the world run east or west for similar reasons. The Danube, the Po, and the Tagus in Europe ; the Amazon, the Orinoco, and the La Plata in South America ; the St. Lawrence, the Ohio, and the Missouri in North America, flow towards the east or west ; though the Apennines in Europe, the Andes in South America, and the Alleghany and Rocky Mountains in North 'America, extend northwards and southwards. That the Bingley valley is a valley of denudation only is obvious from the corresponding position of the strata on opposite sides of the valley. These strata when not interrupted by faults are perfectly conformable and rise in regular sequence. It is impossible to estimate correctly in point of years how long it has taken to form the valley. 13 In remote times no doubt the denuding power of water and the actions of heat and frost, have been much more rapid than they are at present, but if we are to accept Dr. Geike's hypothesis that upon an average one-twelfth of an inch is worn out of the valleys in 8| years, or say one foot in a century, we arrive at the conclusion that it must have taken fully 450,000 years to excavate the Bingley valley, say from the level of the Druids' Altar and Greenhill (650 feet) to the river level at Castlefields (270 feet). This may be an over-estimate, inasmuch as the thickness or depth of the valley is not wholly solid rock, but contains a good proportion of shale, which would wear away much quicker than the sandstone and grit. The trough of Priesthorpe, for example, was excavated out of this softer material, and forms a plateau resting on rock sloping westwards to the valley. I have spoken of the vegetable life of the local rocks and the earliest evidence of animal life I have met with in the parish is an annalide or form of water-worm ; petrified castings of which are found in the sandstones of the millstone grits and coal measures. An admirably-preserved specimen is to be seen on a sandstone gate-post at Bavenroyd, and this may be regarded as the oldest representative of animal life extant in the parish. Little or nothing is known of the life-history of these interesting creatures, which occur in varying forms in the rocks long antecedent to the sandstone era, even far down to Cambrian age. Doubtless all our freshwater and terrestrial worms are modern developments of these primitive estuarine and marine forms. Higher up in the series of local rocks we find a more advanced type of animal life in the shape of fossil shells and fish remains. No insects, however, or reptiles are seen, which belong to a later period than is yielded by the local strata. And these facts, by the way, are quite in accord with science and the Bible ; the humble forms of life are the oldest, and the most wonderful and complex, viz., man, appears as the consummation or climacteric of life on the earth. In the coal measures is found a well-preserved mollusc, Aviculopecten, accompanied with a goniatite, a univalve 14 shell coiled up like a snail, a form of which occurs in the Carboniferous Limestone of Bolland, Derbyshire, and the Isle of Man, as well as in the limestone and coal measures of Ireland. A higher type still, ranking between the fishes and reptiles, is found in the roof of the Hard Bed coal, including the colossal Megalicthys Hibberti, a fine specimen of which is in the Leeds Museum. The "fossil mussel," hardly distinguishable at sight from the common sea-mussel of the present age, which is found in quantities close above the coal seams on Baildon Moor, is doubtless a descendant of the primeval form occurring in the Carboniferous Limestone, and allied to the freshwater types found in the neighbourhood of Bingley at the present day. I am told on the authority of several old men, still living, that when the railway was made at Bingley in 1846, the stone tippings in the bog caused numerous specimens of black mussel and sea-cockle to ooze to the surface, and in places where they could not possibly have been thrown. That these should appear at Bingley dark coloured, or even black, is easily accounted for by long continuance in stagnant water and subject to the pressure of decayed vegetable matter excluded from the air, precisely in the same way as the vegetable accumulations of coal become black. But the occurrence of the sea-cockle at Bingley, if it be ever proved to be such, is of more than ordinary importance. Until, however, actual specimens are produced from the spot the subject is purely speculative. Possibly the shells were the freshwater helices (Tellina cornea) which have been found in peat-moss, but in these forms the stripes are across the shell, from side to side, not in the same directions as the sea-cockle. I have met with but a single mention of the occurrence of sea-cockle in peat-moss in Yorkshire, and this about forty miles from the sea, at a point about two miles from Greta Bridge and about two miles from the river Tees. The cockles were, it is said, found in considerable quantity, and an old farm- house near, called Cocklesbury, is said to have taken its name from the circumstance. But in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, vol. II (1827), Sir W. C. Trevelyan doubts that they are native to the place, and asserts that 15 after an actual visit he found some freshwater specimens, the common whelk ; and if the sea-cockle (cavduum edule) has been found there, they have been put there for the purpose of hoaxing the individuals who collected them afterwards. The only shell which I have myself found in the peat at Bingley was obtained during the recent draining in the highroad on the edge of the bog going to Crossflatts. Here at a depth of 16 feet from the present surface I obtained from the peat dead specimens of Helix rufescens, a common and still-existing land shell. A marine shell (Cyprina Islandica), I may add, has been found in this valley at Greengates, but embedded in glacial drift. In the same material at Bingley, about 8 feet from the surface, there was found, while digging a grave on the east side of the cemetery, in January, 1898, about sixty well-grown specimens of the peculiarly limestone mollusc, Helix nemoralis. It is not unusual for this creature to burrow 3 to 4 feet down, but to find it at a depth of 8 feet is very remarkable. Probably they had slipped through an aperture in the gravel. All were dead. When the conditions which had produced the rocks and strange life above described had ceased, and the hills and valleys were clothed with a tropical growth, there was another and more complex kind of life existing here, of which, however, we know little. Still we are sure there were some strange quadrupeds at Bingley, for the bones of the hippopotamus, the teeth and bones of the mammoth, bear, bison (a tooth was found in forming the fish-pond at Milner Field), and the molars of a single lion, all found in Airedale, constitute undoubted evidence as to the kinds of creatures that infested the local woods and glades in those primeval times. But we have no evidence of the presence of man and his handiwork until after the close of the Ice Age, a comparatively recent event when considering the antiquity of the valley he inhabits, an antiquity that recalls the words of the divine Interrogator to His servant Job : " Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ? Declare if thou hast understanding ! " And the man answered : " Behold I am vile ; what shall I answer Thee ? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth." 17 SINGLE Y DURING THE ICE AGE. HE stupendous walls of blue ice that completely filled the gorge at Bingley and had been encroaching upon this district during many centuries, drove away every form of life save that which is peculiar to the frozen regions of the north at the present day, as for example, the bear, Arctic fox and certain species of birds. The huge mammoth (now extinct) seems also to have survived the rigours of this Polar cold in Yorkshire, and doubtless, the hippopotamus too, a denizen of the Bingley swamps, as bones of this thick- skinned sluggish creature, identical with the species now inhabiting African rivers, have been found in glacial clay lower down the Aire valley. About sixty years since while a small tunnel was being made from the river to a well in Mr. Wm. Maud's property on Elm Tree Hill there was found in the glacial drift some fifty or sixty feet from the surface a leg bone of a fowl, but singularly not far from it was a brass pin. But it is very questionable, considering the proximity of the latter, if the bone was of glacial age. Man, however, as I have just said, does not appear to have been present in Yorkshire antecedent to or during this great northern cataclysm. In North Britain, Scandinavia, and indeed throughout Northern Europe paleolithic implements have never been found nor any evidence of pre-glacial man, whilst in the south of England and in France they are abundant. It is moreover now agreed that the supposed human fibula found in glacial debris along with bones of the mammoth and spotted-hyaena in the Victoria Cave, near Settle, is not a human remain, but may be the bone of some inferior order of animal which cannot be determined with certainty. That man may have come northwards and witnessed the retreat of the glaciers in the Yorkshire dales is not at all improbable, as I have shewn in my work on Richmondshire. The discovery 18 of a bone brace of very primitive make, along with the remains of reindeer and other evidences of the occupation of Wensleydale during a period of intense cold, seems to point to the belief that man and the reindeer were coeval in Yorkshire when it had an Arctic climate. The reindeer is an animal that subsists on lichens and has a preference for a certain degree of cold ; it is a migratory animal upon which one class of mankind the Laplanders are mainly dependent for their existence. Is it not likely then that the reindeer followed the retreat of the ice northwards, and that man accompanied it ; the present inhabitants of the Arctic regions being the descendants partly of the primeval tenants of the Yorkshire dales ? As will be explained in the next chapter, many Arctic plants have survived at Bingley unto this day ; among others the old Reindeer Lichen (C. sylvatica) still maintains its ground. In my work on Nidderdale I have expounded the astronomical discovery of General Drayson shewing that " about 23,000 years B.C., the Arctic circles extended about 80 degrees from the Poles, at about 13,500 B.C., they extended nearly 35^ degrees from the Poles, or to be exact to the latitude of 54 degrees, 34 minutes, 13 seconds in both hemispheres. Consequently North Yorkshire was within the Arctic Circle, the dales were filled with glaciers, the land to an altitude in some places of nearly 2000 feet above present sea-level, was submerged in ice and snow and all the appearances of an Arctic climate prevailed." Long after the ice-mantle disappeared from the higher ground, tongues of ice in the shape of local glaciers continued to fill the Yorkshire dales, and in Airedale we have evidence that the glacier extended below Shipley, thinning away in the neighbourhood of Leeds. Ice- groovings have been noted on rock near Apperley Bridge, &c., and at Bingley magnificent evidence is to be seen of the contest which the ice had with the winding sandstone gorge, in forcing through which enormous mounds of moraine matter were deposited. Nowhere in Yorkshire can the strange effects of these ancient glaciers be better studied than in the neighbourhood of Bingley, where the confined valley must have been choked with ice for many 19 hundreds of years. And these singular mounds with their loads of transported limestones, &c., were to prove in after days, as I shall shew by-and-bye, a source of great and exceptional profit to the inhabitants of Bingley. It was not until 5,600 B.C., that the Arctic Circles had contracted to 30 degrees from the Poles or to the latitude of about south Shetland, and it would not be until about 3000 years B.C., that Yorkshire would possess a climate suitable for habitation by man. The fabulous antiquity so frequently ascribed to certain finds of human remains, and their associated relics in the north, must therefore be received with caution. There is probably not a human bone ever found in Yorkshire that has an age of 5000 years upon it, whilst the first steps in the human history of this parish begin long after this date. Northern Europe, as I have pointed out, was not inhabited until the Neolithic or second Stone Age. In the long and severe winters of that frozen era, ice and snow covered the hills and valleys in winter, whilst the almost tropical heat of short summers produced enormous floods, accompanied by dense fogs, just as they arise now on the banks of Newfoundland from the same cause. In Airedale these successive annual floods filled the valley' in many places to a great depth with water ; lakes were formed, traces of which remain to this day. A considerable amount of denudation also took place ; many of the stones composing the glacial hummocks were rolled in water and the striations caused by the scratching of one stone against another during the ice pressure were largely removed, whilst upon the hill slopes almost every trace of glacial deposit was obliterated. Ice-scratched limestone pebbles may however still be picked out of the clay on the hill sides surrounding Bingley, as well as from the till and esker-ridges on the moor tops. Perched blocks, galliard resting on millstone grit, were also at one time very numerous on Harden and the surrounding moors. On Gilstead Moor and on Rumbalds Moor these white, flinty rocks have been very numerous in places where no galliard is in situ. Most of them have been used for walling purposes as the moors became enclosed. 20 The town of Bingley stands on one of these old glacial moraines, the Main Street following its longitudinal apex, whilst the " Old Hills " and Myrtle Pasture (formerly worked for limestone), completes the drift on the south side of the town. At the north end a long mound commences on the north-west side of the church and rises towards the cemetery. This single deposit occupies all the ground between the river on the west and the railway on the east running north-west and south-east for 45 chains (about half-a-mile), and is 20 chains at its broadest part. The maximum depth above normal river level is about 70 feet. Its northern boundary is limited by the river-bend at Ravenroyd to Castlefields Mill, and the reason why the river has not followed a straight and natural course along the valley on the east side of the hill where the railway runs, is owing to the thick spreads of gravel, which rising towards Crossflatts, have baulked the river and compelled it to cut a fresh channel by the lower level on the west side of the town. This extensive mound, called Bailey Hills, was at one time undoubtedly an island and a secure refuge of the early inhabitants (see chapter on THE ADVENT OF MAN). It was bounded on the west by the river and on the east by an extensive lake which continued impassably wet until the making of the railway in 1846. The highroad from the vicarage to Crossflatts rises over the eastern slope of this mound, and the railway cuts through the northern extremity of the gravel at the bridge. Crossflatts is built partly on gravel containing drifted sandstone and limestone pebbles, and it is gravel all along the canal-bank as far as the Five-Rise Locks, where the drift is abruptly terminated. The whole of th'e expanse below towards the vicarage (which is erected on elm piles) formed a large lake, whilst another wide-spreading lake filled the valley beyond Crossflatts towards Marley. Peat has accumulated to a great thickness in the valley below the vicarage, and during the recent excavations for the main drain I had opportunities of noting that the peat at a depth of 18 feet from the road surface rested on a stratum of tough boulder clay. The valley has moreover nurtured a forest of indigenous growth, and much decayed as well as 21 sound wood has been found here. One trunk of black oak, fully 20 feet long and 2 feet in diameter was dug out, and others of varying dimensions have been also unearthed from time to time whilst digging for foundations in different parts of the valley. Pieces of black oak which an axe could not cut were lately met with while excavating for the foundations of the centre buttresses of the new aqueduct across the Aire near Cottingley Bridge. One noteworthy feature in connection with these mounds is the very stony character of the deposits at Bingley, where boulders up to half-a-ton in weight are not uncommon. The included boulders consist principally of local grits and sandstones of various kinds, also limestones, white, blue, and encrinital, and now and then I have met with boulders and pebbles of a hard detrital bluish-grey rock though sometimes found of a greenish tint which appears identical with the Silurian grits of upper Bibblesdale, of which the magnificent group of erratics at Norber, near Austwick, constitute the most notable existing example of ice-transportation of this rock (see my " Craven Highlands," pages 168-170).* Northwards, nearer Marley and at Sandbeds, the deposits are almost wholly pure sand, forming smooth, rounded lesser hills and beds of fine sand of great thickness. This circumstance may be explained by the fact that at the south end of the town, where the valley makes a sharp curve with the principal declination of the ground towards the west, the glacier has accumulated to an enormous thickness, filling the whole of the gorge, and depositing its burthen of debris, which here attains its greatest thickness. These accumulations have completely stopped the outlet of the water, and the dam so formed has caused the waters to gather into a large lake, the current, or rather conjunction of currents, with the main valley from Morton Glen have tended to form banks of sand by continued attrition. Higher up the dale, opposite Carlton, similar whirlpools have caused deposits of sand, and on the * A well-rounded boulder of this rock, weighing probably 2 cwt., has lately been dug out of the drift in Priesthorpe Road, at an elevation of about 150 feet above the river. Sandstones have also been found containing fossils, evidently of a Silurian facies. 22 site of Skipton Cemetery graves are dug through fifteen feet of sand without finding a stone bigger than a pigeon's egg- An inspection of the ground at Bingley shews that the declension of lateral currents and the increased power of the main current have in course of time forced an outlet near Castlefields Mill, cutting along the west side of the Bailey Hills, thus lowering the level of the old lake, and leaving a sandy shore. The principal mounds of the valley, too, appear to be formed on a neucleus of solid rock. The rock is in evidence near Castlefields ; in Myrtle Place and Main Street, and a good section is exposed in the mound at Hirst Wood, close to the Seven Arches, where it has been quarried for sandstone (see page 16J. The glacier grinding over these strata would smooth and polish them, or it may also have been partially cleft, and crevasses would be formed, causing a more rapid break-up of the ice-mass and consequent deposit of debris. As I have stated, the tough blue clay forms the floor of the superficial deposits of the valley, and this boulder clay, consisting of clay and stones intermingled, ascends nearly, if not quite, to the summit level of the watersheds of Aire and Wharfe. During the construction of the Shipley reservoir on the moor above Eldwick (750ft.) a good example of this till was come upon in the course of excavating. A similar mass of till extends from Calverley Moor to Eccleshill and Idle, about 600 feet above the sea level. A peculiarity of these beds, observes Mr. Davis in West Yorkshire, is that whilst they contain numerous sub-angular boulders of grit and sandstone derived from the Millstone Grits and Lower Coal Measures south of Skipton, no Carboniferous Limestone has been found. But this supposition may be controverted. I have myself obtained well-rounded and beautifully-striated limestones from the blue clay on Greenhill, overlooking the Bingley valley, at a similar elevation (600ft.). The deposit at this spot is of unique interest. In the quarries of the Bingley Sanitary Tube Co. at Greenhill, a section has been bared of an extraordinary character. It consists in descending order as follows : (1) Top soil 8 to 4 feet; (2) about 20 feet of 28 shale and sandstone of no commercial value ; (3) black shale, about 3 feet, from base of which springs of water are pumped into a small reservoir in the quarry ; (4) a parting of coal about 1 inches thick ; (5.) the coal rests on a bed of fire-clay 3 feet thick, from which the sanitary tubes are made ; (6) below the clay, forming the base of the quarry, is about 20 feet of " blue-bind " (shale), from which common bricks are made. The whole series comprises a thickness of about 50 feet. The bed of fire-clay is apparently of no great extent, following a north and south direction towards Greenhill Grange, perhaps 200 yards, when it disappears, being cut off by a fault, which brings up the sandstone of the Millstone Grit series. But the most remarkable features connected with these measures is the presence of an ancient stream-gully, which at first sight I took to be a breach made by a fault in the strata, but a little investigation showed that the gully was completely filled with the glacial till above described. The till consists of a stiff blue clay with a blackish sandy base, containing rounded and scratched stones. The gully takes a curvilinear direction from north-west to south-east right through the measures, and is about 25 yards wide at the summit (moor) level, maintaining neaiiy the same width until a depth of over 30 feet is reached, when it narrows to about 9 feet, though originally it maintained a pretty uniform width to the floor level. On the east side the strata along the margin are perceptibly bent by impact of the superincumbent mass ; on the west boundary they appear to be less compressed. The illustration prefacing the first chapter shows the main features of the strata, with the till in the gully ; the latter has no commercial value, and is now being removed. The limestones found in it are small, and never more than a pound or two in weight, whilst several boulders of local sandstone, some upwards of a ton in weight, have been removed. That the gully primarily originated by the action of water is also evident from the presence of several basin-shaped hollows in the shaly floor (where the rails are laid), which contained hundreds of pebbles, well-rounded by the swirl of waters in these cavities. A BOTANIST'S PARADISE, SEVEN ARCHES. 25 WANDERINGS AMONG WILD FLOWERS. Honour the Most High for His sweet power, The gift of flowers ! The glory and the meekness of the earth, Telling of years not ours, but time of eld, Ere wit of man knew aught of the deep truths That spring from out their secret majesty. H. Speight. \ HEN the babe Nature grew into the perfection of womanhood she girdled the earth with flowers. Her attractions play so prominent a part in the parish of Bingley, and they have done for ages we cannot count, that these must form the next step forward in the sequence of local history. Once on a time the old place lay encircled in leafy and many-coloured luxuriance. Great trees with their spreading arms grew around on all sides, literally embracing the old town ; swelling uplands towered above the valley gay with a thousand floral treasures, while many a rill poured forth in musical sweetness its pure flood into the valley below. To the lover of Nature the scene under such purely rustic aspects must have been charming ; a " Throstle Nest," truly, as the old folks loved to call it, and a " Throstle Nest," too, that lay deeply hidden as in a huge nosegay ! Let memory go back for a brief space to those happy olden days whilst we wander in thought through the leafy lanes of old Bingley. I am told by aged people still living that sixty or seventy years ago the vernal season was ushered in with such a show of primroses, anemones, and celandines as few other places could boast. From Bingley Bridge to Eavenroyd the river sides were aglow with countless primroses ; the same lovely flower starred every hedge bank, and in the pastures at the bottom of Priesthorpe, where now are rows of streets, cowslips and primroses might have been gathered in hundreds. The delicate white flowers of the anemone and the yellow rays of the 26 celandine also covered coppice and wood on the Harden as well as Priesthorpe sides of the town. In the Harden valley primroses are still pretty numerous, but the glory of their profusion, alas ! is gone. What a welcome flower is the soft-eyed primrose at each return of spring ! There is hardly a poet of rank from Chaucer onwards who has not loved it and sung its praises. Its peculiar creamy tint resembles no other British flower, and it is said we must go to the moist banks of tropical countries to find its likeness. Perhaps the primrose is one of those tropical species which has come down to us from very remote ages ? It delights in a warm and sheltered soil, and dwindles and perishes in cold and exposed situations. Then there are the curious arums and orchids of our woods, which are said to be descendants of old tropical forms. Have these lain sepulchred for ages under an Arctic ice-blast, until the light and warmth of another era have raised them fresh and sweet into life and beauty, though in an altered form ? We know there are certain seeds and roots that have retained their power of germination after preservation through numberless centuries. There are many plants and flowers peculiar to our district which suggest themes for the studious and inquisitive lover of Nature. Many, doubtless, are the survivors of ancient tropical or sub-tropical forms, whilst others have been brought hither by the great glaciers from the north, described in the last chapter. Take the pretty tuberous moschatel (Adoxa moschatellina), which grows in two or three places, but notably about Beck- foot. Here, in the lap of an old glacial moraine, this interesting little plant has flourished in a wild state, probably for several thousand years. It is a characteristic plant of the cold and frozen north. It grows on the summits of Scotland's highest mountains, expanding its pale green blossoms beside the hardy saxifrages ; on the Scandinavian ranges, too, and in the treeless deserts of Siberia and Lapland, as well as on the wind-swept shores of Arctic seas it revels in the sun-warmth of the short summer incident to those frigid parts. Singularly, this 27 plant and two or three other northern species are not found in the Calder valley ; having their westward range apparently limited by the Airedale spurs of the great Penine Chain. Some of the saxifrages found in the Bingley area also luxuriate in the far north, and never have I seen finer specimens of the beautiful flower of Parnassus (Parnassia palustris) than those which bloom among the mountains of Argyll. I have seen this plant on the edge of Eumbalds Moor, above Bingley, and I have also gathered it lately on the Cornshaw Moors, west of Keighley, at an elevation of near 1,000 feet. The golden saxifrage (Chrysosplenium) occurs in Bingley streams, and is found in the Yorkshire highlands up to an altitude of fully 2,000 feet. The little rue-leaved saxifrage (S. tridactylites], growing near Cottingley, is very rarely found on grit rock. It is partial to limestone districts, and must have been carried down the valley from the white crags of Craven. Then again, there are here certain Scandinavian insects, and there are those remarkable little insectivorous plants, the butterwort (formerly used for curdling milk, and still so in Lapland) and sundew (described by Darwin), both of which occur in our area but sparingly, though they are abundant in the moorland districts further north. The round -leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) is by no means common in Airedale, yet in the Priesthorpe district, almost within a stone-throw of where I write, I have seen at least one hundred specimens in a wild state, as it only will grow. Cultivation out of its own element kills it ! In the highlands of Scotland I have seen it redden the streams for miles, and it is found all down the Penine ridge by Blackstone Edge to Derbyshire. The distribution of plant-life is one of engrossing interest. It must not be supposed that the occurrence of this or that species in a given locality is due entirely to spontaneity or is a gift direct from the Creator. Geological formation and climatic conditions are the great governors of the plant-life of the earth. Ice and water have had a share hi the local distribution of plants, and there is no doubt that winds and high gales are important factors in 28 the dissemination of seed, particularly in the case of the minute spores of certain ferns and mosses. How else are we to explain the records of the delicate and rare Killarney Fern (Tvichomanes radicans) in the Bingley woods except by these means ? I have often thought that high south-westerly gales must have prevailed for a long period up to the close of the Ice Age in this district, and that these sweeping winds down the Harden valley may have contributed not only to the transmission of spores, but A HOME OF THE KILLABNEY FEKN, BINGLEY. to the break-up of the ice in the Bingley valley. This fern , which at one time flourished amazingly about the beautiful Lakes of Killarney, but is npw, I regret, through the rapacity of collectors, almost extinct, was first recorded for Bingley by Dillenius in Ray's Synopsis (A.D. 1724). It is hardly likely to have been planted here at a time when no interest was taken in ferns, and communication with Ireland was tedious and difficult. The first monograph 29 on British Ferns was, I believe, written by J. Bolton, and published in 1785. In that work the author refers to this fern having been " first discovered by Dr. Richardson in a little dark cavern, under a dripping rock, below the spring of Elm Crag well, in Bell Bank." In the same place Bolton saw it in plenty in 1758, and again when he visited the spot in 1782 he found the cavern had been destroyed, but a single root was discovered under a rock to the left side of the current, and about fifteen yards above the cistern. From this specimen an engraving was made for his book. Dickson and Teesdale (vide Linn. Trans., 1800) likewise record the existence of the fern at the same place. Since this time there is no evidence of its having been seen, and it is known to have been long extinct here. The length of time covered by these valuable records leaves no room to doubt that the Killarney Fern has been a native of Bingley. But who shall measure the period of its continuance at this spot, so far from its true home ? It is, however, well-known to have been observed in some retired glens of North Wales within the last twenty years, and may perhaps be found in other places there and in England yet, whilst in many others it has probably become extinct. The plant is not so much injured by frost as by the direct rays of the sun, and those who know the situation of the recorded habitat at Bingley, which is represented in the accompanying view, must realise that no more likely spot, embracing all the conditions requisite to the life of the plant, could be found in the county of broad acres.* But a multitude of other gems awaits attention, so now let us wander awhile through our " fortunate fields * The situation and conditions are identical with those of the lately-discovered Irish hepatic, Jubula Hutchinsia, near Hebden Bridge, which Mr. Needham describes in the Naturalist for 1897 (p. 128) : " Found growing on sandstones in a damp wood in a sheltered glen by a small rill, which empties itself into the river Hebden. The wood in which it grows has a westerly aspect, and is well sheltered from the north and east by lofty hills." This is the first record of the plant in Yorkshire ; its habitat being principally confined to the sheltered glens of Glengariff and Killarney. 80 and groves and flowery vales." Upon these things the great limner of Paradise loved to dwell, for Milton was passionately fond of flowers, both wild and cultivated, and in his blindness loved to have their forms described. Burns and Wordsworth leaned to Nature's wildings, and who has written with more soul-affection than Scotia's prince of song in his idyll, To a Mountain Daisy ? The celandine was Wordsworth's favourite flower, and who does not love to see its golden rays expand and illume the earth like bright stars in the sky after weeks of dull and clouded weather? It is the first real harbinger of spring, and in the genial days of February or early March it may usually be found lighting up the yet bare and brackish gill above Gawthorpe Hall, as well as in other similarly- sheltered places. But the best haunts of Nature's varied treasures are, of course, on the woodland side of the valley. Going over Bingley Bridge on to the Harden road we soon pass through the stile on the left, and go through Holme House Wood and by the flower-embroidered path over the Hesp Hills to Beckfoot, a favourite walk at any season. Here we shall find the early purple orchis (0. mascula], whose tuberous root is said to yield a preparation equal to the finest salep brought from Persia. The bright pink meadow-lychnis, or ragged-robin, is always found plentifully about here ; then we drop on to the woody-nightshade (Solanum Dulcamara], with its frail branching stems and drooping flowers of deep purple and yellow. It belongs to an order of poisonous plants which includes the deadly nightshade, potato-flower, and tobacco-plant. The enchanter's-nightshade (Circcea lutetiana] also grows in these woods. In different places in this neighbourhood appear likewise the various species of stitchwort, including the rare Stellaria nemorum, or broad-leaved stitchwort, which fortunately occurs in some profusion. Here, too, is the old medicinal wood-sanicle (5. euvopoca) and the large flowered bitter-cress (Cardamine amara). Here also grows the sweet violet (V. odorata), which puts forth its fragrant blooms in the early spring. Then there is a solitary patch of the curious fleabane, its scientific name 81 being Inula dysentenca. Anciently it was called Helenium, the heroine of the Trojan war, and the plant is said to have sprung from her tears. Year after year it appears in the same place. Walking about Harden and in the Goit Stock valley we have many precious flowering plants, mosses, and ferns, whose localities I dare not name, lest the despoiler lay ruthless hands upon them. The hellebore (E. latifolia), one of the rarest of our orchids, grows sparingly in two places. Herb Paris and monk's hood (Aconitum napellus) I have seen ; the latter, no doubt, a garden escape, though here far away from any garden. Several of the hawkbits also occur here, including Leontodon hirsutus, whilst the familiar " mother-of- thousands," or ivy-leaved toad-flax, fringes many an old rock and cottage wall. Ascending the river to Marley, we have the two geraniums, sylvatica and pvatense, and along the wood bottom, taking the river-side walk, to Bavenroyd is the passion-dock or snake-root (Polygonum Bistorta), with its spikes of pale pink flowers. It grows here in profusion, and has also lately got established in the public lane. Polygonum Hydropiper, or water-pepper, is also found about here. The frog orchis (Habcnaria viridis], butterfly orchis (H. chlorantha), bog violet (Hottonia palustris), water plantain (Alisma plantago), water figwort (S. aquatica), monkey-flower (Minmlus lutens), knotted spurrey (Sagina nodosa), and three species of mint, are amongst some noteworthy plants of this district. Crossing to the heights of Gilstead and Eldwick, we find patches of good king Henry (Chenopodium Bonus Henricus) and the pretty scarlet pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis) (in my garden at Crow Nest the variety ccerulea has cropped up among waifs of the common speedwell, dwarf spurge, &c.). We have quite a host of waifs and strays to record in the corn-lands about Glovershaw Beck. Such, for example, as the madder, grey speedwell, shepherd's needle, lamb's lettuce, field woundwort, sun spurge, &c. The butterfly orchis and the beautiful bog pimpernel (Anagallis tenella) occur on the edge of Eumbalds Moor. At Morton has been found the sow- 82 thistle (Sonchus olemceus], with its succulent leaves and stems, for which pigs have a particular liking, hence its name. Coming down from Gilstead to the canal we find the rare gipsy-wort (Lycopus euyopceus) here growing by the water brink in some quantity. The rare mountain crane's-bill (G. pyrengcum) has also been noted in this locality for many years. Now we are at the Seven Arches, and truly we may wander far over the big shire before we find a spot where so many objects of interest to the naturalist are crowded into a like space. This is an attractive and never-tiring spot, very well known to members of the Bradford Naturalists' Society, who have made it a special field of investigation. Every foot of ground has been scrutinized, and probably every object recorded. I have deemed it interesting to perpetuate some aspects of this classic ground in the engraving which prefaces this chapter. My friend, Mr. John W. Carter, ex-President of the society named, is introduced into the picture ; he is shewn upon the rustic bridge which spans the stream below the Arches. Many happy hours has he and other members of the long-established Bradford Naturalists' Society spent here in fruitful quest of flower and insect and shell. It is unnecessary to enumerate all the records that have been made. It must suffice if I describe one bit of bank close to the scene of the picture. Here within a space of a few yards I have noted the following plants. Beside a spreading sycamore (whose foliage and flowers are no where more luxuriant than at this spot), where a thorn and hazel crop up among trailing brambles, springs the wild hyacinth and red-flowered campion, barren and fruiting strawberry, yellow archangel, and sweet-scented ciceley ; the fern-like foliage of the white-flowered earth- nut, rough chervil, ground ivy, and white-flowering cow parsnip ; the tender green leaves of the wood sorrel (which some believe is the true shamrock), wood violet, wild garlic, the star-like stitchworts, broad and narrow-leaved, Jack-by-the-edge, herb Robert, and climbing bush-vetch, with the modest little Greenland moschatel half screened from view. The common ivy plant trails its shining 88 leaves in and among this wealth of various plant-life, whilst above and around range the sweet wild roses and stately bell-flowers, as if they would make an Eden's bower. And all this within almost an arm's-breadth of Nature's own garden ground ! Of insects and other curious things of God's own giving, each having its wondrous life-history, these are in plenty, too. But I must stop. May all of them, I pray, continue to harbour the same sweet spot for years yet to come ; helping by their manifold beauty and diverse structure to guide us to a nobler appreciation of the best aims of life ; to grow wise in the loving and rich in the spirit of His glorious works. Spare thou, therefore, the flowers and the green sod where thou canst ! Do not let the cunning of thy hand smite the tree and floral bank for pure lust of gain ! If we had all the wealth of Croesus we should be poor if our woods and fields and flowers were gone. The meek-eyed tender wildings are as angels' looks by the thorny paths of life ! Their pure love never ceases, for while cities and temples have fallen and the stones' of man's hewing have crumbled to dust, the uninjured flowerets of the field are clothed as with immortality, and shall gladden thy soul for aye ! Let us not forget, too, that " Other eyes than ours Were made to look on flowers ; Eyes of small birds, and insects small, The tiniest living thing That soars on feathered wing, Or crawls among the long grass out of sight, Has just as good a right To its appointed portion of delight As any King." THE "THROSTLE NEST OF OLD ENGLAND," BINGLEY. 85 WILD BIBDS OF BINGLEY DISTEICT. LAP ! flap ! What is that ? Bingley by the sea ! No, that cannot be. yet the great white wings of the sea-gull pass close before my window, the birds doubtless making for their old accustomed haunts by the quiet reaches of the river near Marley. I have seen them sometimes, too, in the retired marshy hollows about Beckfoot. Are they instinctively scouring the land in search of some long-lost prehistoric sea ? I trow not, although the vagaries of migration are yet but imperfectly understood. In this district it is generally accounted a sign of approaching stormy weather when the gulls are seen ; but they do not stay long, merely making this a halting-place in their quick passage from coast to coast. Flocks of wild geese also fly inland, resting in the same spots as the gulls, and I have noticed that their presence here has been followed by sudden storms of wind, rain, or snow. The delicate organisms of birds are, no doubt, more susceptible to atmospherical changes and alterations of season than are the larger animals. This is unquestionably one of the motives for seasonal migration, inasmuch as an equable climate conduces to the comfort and consequent health and maintenance of the species. To trace the complexities of migration to their source, and to explain the reason for the preferences of certain birds to particular climates and surroundings we must again go back to the remote Ice Age. Then there must have been a forcing southwards of certain northern types and a re-installation of certain species on the amelioration of climate as the ice withdrew. The common red-grouse of our moors, for example, possesses a close affinity with the willow-grouse (Lagopus albus) ; the latter, however, is arboreal in its habits, and the differentiation of the species can only be explained by isolation at some remote epoch when the changed 36 aspects altered the food supply. The red-grouse is now strictly confined to the cold, bracing moors of the north, and the theory of its continuance in these latitudes since the Ice Age is very ingeniously set forth in an interesting chapter of Mr. Chas. Dixon's " Migration of British Birds." Most of our so-called resident birds are more or less migratory, and this is especially applicable to a district like Bingley, where altitudinal range is so marked. It is also noteworthy that in any general migration southwards the female birds of some species greatly preponderate, and this fact did not escape the vigilant eye of Gilbert White, who, writing from Selborne in 1770, remarks upon the vast flocks of hen chaffinches appearing in that neighbourhood in winter time, and Linnaeus remarks the same thing. In this district "resident" birds are usually more markedly numerous in summer than in winter, and this is especially the case in high or exposed situations, like, for example, the Park top, whence there is a general exodus of bird-life on the approach of winter's cold. The winter season, however, has its compensations in the appearance of many interesting species driven by the hyperborean cold and insufficient food supply to pass the winter with us ; also some moorland types occasionally seek shelter and nutriment in the lowlands. About Crow Nest and in Priesthorpe, the ring-ouzel, which appears to be only a partial migrant, will sometimes come down for a meal to the gardens, and even hop among poultry. Large numbers of these birds are to be found on the Sussex downs in winter, and also in North Africa, and they return to our moors in spring. Harden Moor is one of their early and favourite haunts in this district. Fieldfares and redwings, which belong to the same genus, also visit us in some numbers in winter. Both these interesting species breed in Norway and Sweden, building their nests, which are most like those of the ring-ouzel, against the trunk of the spruce fir or birch, at varying heights from the ground. Flocks of wild ducks also generally pass the winter in one or two places near Bingley, and there are water-hens also to be found. 87 Among the rarer winter visitors to this district have been noted, principally by Mr. E. P. Butterfield, of Wilsden, the 'siskin, great crested grebe (P. cristatus), green sandpiper (T. ochropus), pochard (F. Fevina], greenshank (T. canescens), common buzzard (B. vulgaris), once an abundant resident among the crags of north-west Yorkshire, and hooded crow (C. cormx). A handsome specimen of the honey buzzard was shot by Scott, the keeper, in Blakey Wood, Marley, some ten years ago, and is now at Cuckoo Nest. In the severe weather of January, 1895, Mr. Butterfield observed several snow-bunting (P. nivalis) in the Main Street, Wilsden. I have seen numbers of these pert little birds about the snow on the summit of Ben Nevis in the warm days of mid-August. Its nest has been found as far north as Grinnel Land, at latitude 82 0- 83'. In February, 1896, an immature specimen of the great northern diver (C. glacialis] was shot on Baildon reservoir. It was sent for preservation to Mr. Fred. R. Kirby, taxidermist, of Bradford. It is a very rare visitor to this district ; its nearest home and breeding-place being in the far-away Western Hebrides. The true Canada-goose (B. canadensis) is also reported from the Bingley district, and I am assured by the Eev. J. Beanland, of Calverley, that it has nested on the tarn side near St. Ives, in 1887, and that he obtained three eggs from the nest. The nest was very large, and built of twigs, grass, &c., and originally contained six eggs, but three were hatched when the nest was found on June 24th, 1887. Of all seasons spring is the best time to enjoy the company of the birds, to learn something of their ways, and delight in their varied notes and songs. Who, after the long, dull, winter-time, does not rejoice at the arrival of the first summer migrants, seeking their old accustomed haunts by stream, or moor, or woodland ? Who does not welcome the familiar twin notes of the cuckoo as they issue from the depths of the green, awakening woods, or perchance a little later are heard in the solitudes of the far-extending moorlands ? In the glistening skies of April the lark, too, keeping tune by the vibration of his wings, floods the air with joyous melody. 38 " Now rings the woodland loud and long, The distance takes a lovelier hue, And drown'd in yonder living blue, The lark becomes a sightless song.' As Tennyson hymns the praise of spring. Now is the time when Bingley's woods . are fresh and fair, and a thousand feathered choristers have gathered about the "Throstle Nest," and are filling the air with amorous song. Some birds, however, which are with us all the year round, sing at all seasons. Such is the redbreast, whose smart, vivacious airs enliven many a cold and frosty day's walk. But in Spring, when haunts are "green and bright," with light heart and buoyant step we take to woodland paths, climb the invigorating heights, and join the living voices of wild nature once more. I invite my friend, Mr. E. P. Butterfield, of Wilsden, to join me in some of these pleasant rambles, for to him, more than to anyone else, I think, we owe our best and fullest knowledge of the wild birds of this district. Away, then, we go one day by Beckfoot, and by the river side to Cottingley; another day up to the heights of Marley ; and on another through the lovely Harden valley and by the sequestered shades of Hallas. All these ways are ways of pleasantness, and abound with much and varied interest. Mr. Butterfield is a keen and accurate observer, and has devoted a large portion of his leisure to the study of Nature, and of local birds particularly he has made a special study. On one occasion I met him by appointment in the neighbourhood of Beckfoot. While we stood discussing some object, "There," said he, "keep your elbow off that wren's nest." I suddenly looked round. " Where, pray, is it?" I asked. ''Why, there," he answered, pointing to a very small aperture in the grassy bank, which none but the eye accustomed to such haunts could have detected. I peered in, and there was the curious dome-shaped nest, evidently just completed. The female bird is usually the architect of the home, but the male amuses himself often with nest-building, though he does not give his work the same delicate finish which is peculiar 89 to that of the female. Many of these male nests are to be met with during the breeding season unoccupied, and generally go by the name of " cock nests." Some good people may think these nests had been robbed or deserted, and, doubtless, too many nests are, yet be it remembered with respect to the wren and the robin, who cheer us with song all the year round " Who hunts the robin or the wren Will never prosper, sea or land." Once a robin built its nest in a watering-can suspended from the roof of a greenhouse at Wilsden. This bold little bird makes its home in odd places sometimes. The Beckfoot district is a good locality for observing many kinds of birds and their ways. In and about the stream the handsome wagtails, both pied and grey, are commonly to be met with, and it is also a favourite haunt of the thrushes. Bingley well deserves its title of the " Throstle Nest of Old England," for these birds were formerly very abundant here, and the throstle's rich and fluent notes could be heard on every hand. Strange to relate, for two or three years after the almost Arctic winter of 1879-80 they were remarkably scarce, but they are now fairly numerous again, and in Spring-time, when the hedgerows are green and the milk-white flowers of the thorn spread a delicious fragrance around, it is a treat to listen to the male bird pouring forth his love-song to his mate from some blossoming bough. But come, now, let us take a walk, the day is quite perfect ! Along the verdant glade we leisurely go, listening to the many gladsome voices, as the golden sunlight streams down among the tall trees upon the moss-velvet of the old walls, also brightening our onward path. Ah ! soon we stop and peer into a bush close beside the way. And what do we see ? A throstle's nest, with its lovely freight of speckled eggs, snugly laid among flowers, gray lichen, and bowery fern, and screened by full, overhanging trees. A pretty sight, surely ! Brush the screen away, and now, my friend, step into the picture, and let us try to commemorate your good work and the IN THE HARDEN VALLEY. 41 " Throstle Nest of Old England ! " Mr. Butterfield, after some hesitation, meets the wish ; a camera is brought, and the tout ensemble is transferred to the sensitive glass, eventually to form the illustration prefacing this chapter. Now, going towards Harden, we notice several sparrow- hawks, whose flight very much resembles that of the cuckoo, and when on the wing the latter is often mistaken for it. Hundreds of cuckoos for this reason are sacrificed to the keeper's gun every season throughout England. The sparrow-hawk, by the way, is not now a common bird in this district, though a few still breed here. In the woods owls are not uncommon, and on a calm night it is impressive to listen to their vehement conversation : "Quotha! tu whit; tu whit! tu whoo ! oh-h, h, h!!" ringing on the night air. Mr. Butterfield tells me he once found a tawny owl's nest in a rabbit-hole near Wilsden, a most unusual place. The stockdove also breeds in the woods, and for more than twenty years a colony of jackdaws have reared their sable nestlings here. Some jackdaws have been taught to talk very fairly, but in this respect they do not equal either the magpie or the raven. Continuing our walk by Bank End, my friend related a singular discovery he once made here. Everyone knows a wasp's nest, made from particles of sound timber, which are kneaded up with the insect's saliva, and then moulded into fine combs. Well, one of these curious structures was found in a hole in the ground, and it was resting partly on the back of a toad, which lay motionless in a state of torpor. The creature had, perhaps, been drawn by the warmth of the nest into its remarkable hiding-place, and had it moved afterwards would, no doubt, have been stung to death. In the charming Goit Stock valley we meet with a great variety of bird-life. The lanes are alive with redbreasts, chaffinches, throstles, blackbirds, and titmice. It is amusing to watch the great titmouse and blue titmouse pegging away at the bark of some well-crusted elm trees to obtain the larvae. Here, too, we get a sight of the handsome little gold-crest, whose true home is 42 among the Norwegian pine-forests. He is the smallest of European birds, and remains with us through the severest winters, a few probably remaining to breed in suitable places. In early autumn he may sometimes be seen with the gathering swallows, wheatears, tits, &c., in Bingley Park, and how interesting it is to see some of the birds tossing themselves into every conceivable attitude whilst hunting for food ! The rare hawfinch has also been noted in the Goit Stock valley, and at Manywells a specimen was shot. The lesser white-throat, green and great spotted woodpeckers, kingfisher, and pied flycatcher have likewise nested in the district. The beautiful kingfisher was once numerous in the Bingley becks and about the river, but the rapacity of traders in their plumage has greatly diminished the numbers. Happily, however, an improved taste has brought about a decline in the demand, and the birds, I understand, are everywhere becoming more numerous. Both the kingfisher and the dipper used to nest in the vicinity of Goit Stock waterfall. To get to its nest the wet-loving dipper has sometimes been known to dash through the torrent of the descending cascade. He has been met with far north, even within the Arctic Circle ; a true denizen of mountain and upland streams, and in his lonely hermitage, if not molested, is as happy as the day is long. But my ramblings after these fairy wights at Bingley must here end. How long some of them may have dwelt here or have come hither, God alone knows. But during those bleak ages, in the very twilight of our history, when the bright moon silvered the wide-sheeted ice, casting a glamour over the lone, frosted wilds ; or the bristling sun at mid-day pierced with his rays the lofty glacier- walls in Bingley's time-wrought vale, the fowl of the air were moved by an irresistible impulse, and came hither at God's bidding. And here, forsooth, they remained until by the beckoning of His hand that bade the ice-storm cease, man once more appeared. THE ADVENT OF MAN. THE ABOKIGENES. HE deluge following the Ice Age rendered, as I have said, this immediate district uninhabitable by man for a long period subsequently. In some parts of North England evidences of a post-glacial people are to be found in implements made of the bone of reindeer and in the galleried tombs and dwellings, which are identical with those of the Esquimaux of the present day. Implements and weapons of bone and stone were used at this time, and it was not until the commerce in flint had been established by Neolithic traders that flint was adopted in the manufacture of these articles in this district. The rude flint implements picked up on our moors are probably of more recent date than is generally supposed ; mere crudeness of make cannot be accepted as a criterion of antiquity, and the oldest of these articles are, as I hope to shew, not older than the late Goidelic settlers of the great Celtic immigration. Metal, of course, was well- known to the ancient Britons as well as to the Romans, yet stone and flint continued to be used even down to historic times. Not, however, until the Goidelic immigration have we any positive knowledge of man and his work in this district. THE CELT. On the westward emigration of the In do- Celtic races the aborigenes were driven further and further north, and that branch denominated the Goidels or Gauls of France and Switzerland overspread Britain, and eventually 44 obliterated the existence of the original inhabitants of the island. Gradually they died out in the remote western isles of Scotland, though in St. Columba's time 1,800 years ago, we are told their language was still living ; a few men of rank being found on the mainland opposite the Isle of Skye with whom the great missionary could not converse in the Goidelic tongue.* These Goidels from Gaul were in turn driven to the western and northern mountains on the great Brythonic irruption or second Celtic wave, yet so largely and firmly had the original Goidelic or Gallic tribes established themselves in Britain that their language in this country was almost universal, and even so late as the Roman conquest was spoken by the bulk of the people in the north and west. It is with both of these Celtic peoples that we are concerned in our district. They have long since gone, but some little knowledge of their mode of life and language has been preserved in our midst even to the present day. In the primitive sheep-scoring numerals, hereafter mentioned, and in such names as bailey, bel, beldune, cat or cath, bron or brown, pen-y-thorn, crummach, and possibly Dobrudden, we have evidences of dialectal forms of these old Celtic tongues. An immemorial tradition also exists in this district respecting the Druids' Altar, and in the ancient earthworks, marked stones, and stone circles, single and double-ringed, on the moors, as well as in the tumuli and their contained remains ; these all point to the possession of this district by the first as well as by the second family of Celtic invaders. The best example of a stone circle in the vicinity of Bingley lies on the moor close to the parish boundary, on land belonging to Mr. Fawkes, of Farnley Hall. It is a complete circle, consisting of about twenty stones, placed close together (a very unusual arrangement), from two to four feet high, the circumference being about 35 yards. An excavation was made in the middle of it some years ago, when bits of flint were found, but no trace of burial. * Cormac, writing in the 9th century, gives us to understand that the larn, a non-Aryan language, lingered in Ireland until the 8th century. 45 It is built on a slight slope of the moor, facing the south, and is now much concealed by heather. It is, doubtless, the oldest known evidence of man's handiwork remaining in the neighbourhood of Bingley, and there is small doubt that it was originally intended to fence a burial, such " Druids' Circles " being primarily meant to enclose places of sepulchre in the same way that walled enclosures came to be adopted round our churchyards. A large flat stone on the top side, about three yards distant, is marked with cups and channels, and probably was in the centre of the circle originally. The Goidels were Druids, and they worshipped the sun, moon, and stars ; the Brythons, so far as is known, were ANCIENT STONE CHICLE, NEAK BINGLEY. not under the sway of Druidism, but were polytheists of the Aryan type. Caesar goes so far as to say that Druidism originated in Britain, but with his limited knowledge of the country, the statement must be doubted. It is more than probable that it was the common religion of the aborigenes of the Continent as well as of this country, although some authorities maintain that it was introduced into Britain by the Phoenicians, and did not entirely disappear until the Roman idolaters cut down the sacred groves, and ultimately suppressed the practice. I cannot, however, conceive that Baal worship prevailed at 46 Baildon because the present name lends itself to that convenient construction. In the oldest records the name is spelled Beldune, which is pure Goidelic for a ford (bel) at a hill (dune) (its Irish equivalent dun, genitive dune), having reference in all probability to the old road which came up the valley, and forded the Aire at Baildon Bridge, then ascending the old foot-road up the hill to the Celtic encampment on the common, with its stone circles and tumuli, existing to our own day. 5 S rt^^ S 0*0 5 Bfi-B Q feb c HO c 'li p " 2 ' SZKOtn 5^J o o tT d S "^ C3 ^^ *S o r ti ^|o^ J 1st ^ 5JI 00 ON 'sii? s^ 1 s^ Q Q ^ 'o -2- o |g J-n rQ C g-^ ^2 C U W Q Q, fl> M J3 < a ~"S g I^M o s J>^ II u U fl) "_T ^rt rj^rl c ^OScu_rCfi w^O in -C "9 ? fi 2 -8 ;*i *R E "o -a CSTJ C N 1 en T3 o J3 H 1 TJ o ^ _> C gj illgi o in ^ r^ S i!T3 - j- 5 K.2 r^ O C ^ s -^Isi n HS3 o e 2-g S o O *S ^Q ^ts| |< <*r o g-ss < *o o O M ^ aj 3 o u 1! T3 2^* . ti M ^ Q TJ 0) S .-J 5 fc4 "^ JoJd s g II 4j < g > '" CU > '"^ja P T3 3 T3 ao^ o .2 "o o 3 9 gM H /5 C '^ ^ T1 'S O cQ ^ rt S " S "C . c 1^ "g-32 s s l S-|s 1 j-1 i I ^J3 fe S w >- _|1|lf " 1 Fl II '* " c-S~S c |^.s s -11 114 2^"|q ^ **- 'S3 fi **2 is l" -- 3 ^! s -s*s. JD^^ j^oJ c w u _ilssi s^is < iri^s 75 OLD ROADS. I HIS might be made a very long chapter, as the subject is one that extends over a long period, from the time of the first Celtic invasion to the day when the stage-coaches rattled along the Main Street. Doubtless, the original roads in the parish made by Goidel and Brython were mere forest tracks, and no paved ways existed before the Kornans came. The Romans were the great pioneers of road-making, and from them the Celts learnt that a paved track was a better means of passage and a safer guide from place to place than a trodden path, often badly denned, through forest and morass. The oldest road of which we can speak with certainty is that which came up the Aire valley by way of Cottingley and Beckfoot Lane, through Belbank Wood, parallel with the present road, but high up in the wood, where it is still well defined. It entered Bingley by the well-marked depression in the wood bottom opposite Ireland Bridge. This was doubtless the first road across the river on to the original settlement on Bailey Hills (see p. 48). This road by Beckfoot Bridge was the old bridle and pack-horse route to and from Bingley for centuries before the Aire bridge was made at Cottingley and the road thence along the Main Street became a public thoroughfare. It was the main highway through Bingley from Scotland and Cumberland through Craven to the south, and doubtless it was along this flower-banked picturesque lane by Beckfoot that the stately cavalcade of Henry, Lord Clifford, the great and gallant Earl of Cumberland, passed on its way from Skipton to London in the sunny May days of 1526. Probably there was an old track on the north side of the Aire from Leeds, the capital of Elmet, by way of Horsforth, Rawdon (where a British torque of gold was dug up on the Billing), and thence by Baildon to Bingley. The road from Bingley to Eldwick is undoubtedly also of 76 British antiquity, of which more presently. There was also a foot-track across the Bailey Hills from the church to Crossflatts or Castlefields Mill, and this ancient path continued in use down to the present century. The late Richard Dawson, of Byshworth Bridge, used to say that in his young days, now nearly a century ago, old inhabitants spoke of this path over the Bailey Hills as " The Bridge of Earth," which seems to recall the time when impassable waters surrounded this long dry bank, making it really what it must have been in ancient days a bridge of earth. The old cobble-paved road from Bingley Bridge to the Druids' Altar, as well as that diverging through the Middle Hollins to Marley and Keighley, may be safely put down to British origin, as the latter is undoubtedly the original forest route northwards, in use ages before the highway was made through the valley. I present a view of it, showing a portion of the track before the recent felling of the trees there. The pavement, of course, cannot be ascribed to any particular date ; its age is unknown. The road must originally have gone forward through the Domesday hamlet of Marley, but as that site in former times must often have been inundated and impassable, another way seems to have been made through Smith Fold, and thence by the lane to Currer Lathe and Long Lee to Keighley. Another old road out of Beckfoot Lane left the Belbank descent to Bingley, and ascended Blind Lane by Cross Gates and White Cote, west of the Altar Crag, and over Transfield Top, joining the same road at Currer Lathe for Keighley. Coming down to the ford at Bingley Bridge, which existed long before the bridge was built in Norman times, there is some doubt as to the precise direction the road took across the valley. Doubtless, the making of the canal in 1772, and of the railway in 1846, diverted then existing roadways, although the Plan of the Canal kept in the Registry at Wakefield does not unfortunately mark all the roads and footpaths. Before the railway was made, the late Robert Longbottom farmed some land behind the old smithy, now occupied by the site of the Midland Goods 77 Yard, and at that time a cart-road out of his land crossed the canal in the direction of Beck Lane and Gawthorpe, and when the canal was made his family claimed a right of way for carts along the canal bank, which he himself ANCIENT BRITISH ROAD THROUGH HOLLINS WOOD. used in lieu of the old highway. From the ford an old road also crossed the foot of the Main Street, opposite the White Horse, and went past some still -remembered thatched cottages in the Goods Yard, skirting the south 78 bank of the canal into the same road past Gawthorpe. As this road lies very low, the probability is in wet weather the river was crossed a little way below the bridge, and old inhabitants say that sixty or seventy years ago several large stepping-stones remained in the bed of the river, opposite Ferrand Lane, which circumstance points to the fact that there was an old crossing here, which continued up Ferrand Lane, and then went " high and dry " across the Main Street, down " Treacle Alley " (now Commercial Street) into Longbottom's land behind the old smithy, as above described. I find also that in 1777 Mr. Ferrand agreed to give up so much land from the side of the Dove Croft as may be wanted to widen the present road leading from the Vicarage House to the gate above to the width of seven yards, provided the township will take the road upon them to widen and keep in repair for the time to come, and also build him a new fence wall of five feet high, and take the present causeway which goes down the side of Dove Croft into the highroad, and hang a gate at the top of the lane. It was agreed that Mr. Ferrand's proposals be accepted, and that the surveyor for Micklethwaite hamlet be desired to proceed upon it without delay. Bingley Bridge up to 1685 was a narrow wooden structure, available only for horse and foot-passengers. No cart could cross it, nor was it necessary, as wheeled carts were not generally adopted in this district till about this time. In the year named the bridge was re-built of stone, and repaired and widened in 1775; it being then "very ruinous, narrow, and in great decay." Formerly it was the rendezvous of the gossips of the town, for here young and old were wont to congregate and gather news from passing travellers and from the drovers of the pack-horses who regularly crossed this way between Otley, Ilkley, and the villages between here and Halifax. It is generally spoken of as " Ireland Bridge," a name of comparatively recent date, given to it because the river here separated two manors and ownerships, and to cross the water was a facetious comparison with the passage over the channel between England and Ireland. Similarly, when the 79 property on the Mornington Road side of Bingley was built it was called " Little Dublin," because one had to cross the canal to get to it from Bingley. In the early part of last century the old road through the wood to Harden was abandoned, and the present excellent carriage road made, which during this century has undergone further improvements. The bridge at Harden Beck was then of wood, and, as appears by the following order, which I have copied from the Sessions Records, it was rebuilt of stone in 1711 : HALIFAX, JDLT 12, 1711. Whereas it was ordered last Skipton Sessions that Ten Pounds should be estreated on the severall Wapentakes of Agbrigg and Morley and Skyrack as a grant towards making a stone bridge over Harden Beck (which divides the said wapentakes) instead of an old wood bridge there. And whereas this Court is satisfied that it will be very convenient and advantageous to the public to make it a stone bridge, but being of opinion that it is more convenient the said gratuity should be charged on the whole Riding. It is therefore ordered that the said Order made at Skipton be discharged, and that the sum of Ten Pounds be estreated on the said Biding, and paid to Robert fferrand and Willm Busfield, Esqrs., as a gratuity to the parishes of Bradford and Bingley towards the charge of altering the said wood bridge into a stone bridge. On the completion of the road and bridge, an upright stone was fixed against the wall, facing the road, near Cockcroft Fold, on which was cut the crest of Ferrand, with this inscription beneath : " The soil and ground of the way from hence to Bingley Bridge belongs to Benjamin Ferrand, Esq., 1713." At this period the old Roman road from Manchester to Ilkley (39 miles) was in evidence, and visible nearly the whole of the way. As already explained, it traversed Bingley parish several miles. The late Mr. F. A. Leyland, of Halifax, says that in 1849 Mr. King, of Luddenden (then in his 80th year) told him that his, Mr. King's, grandfather, who lived to an advanced age, had travelled the whole distance from Luddenden to Ilkley by this old Roman road. In 1834, Mr. Leyland, in company with several gentlemen, including Mr. Watkinson, of Halifax, an aged and interested antiquary, then on the verge of 80, who acted as guide, traversed the same Roman road from Cockhill, in Ovenden, as far as Mount Tabor, in 80 Warley. So far as it concerns the parish of Bingley, I have denned the direction of this lost Roman iter. The ancient Dolphin Lane, one of the oldest roads in the parish (called, perhaps, after old Dolphin, son of Gospatric, lord of Bingley before the Conquest; or may be from some later family of that name), leaves the Bingley and Cullingworth highroad to the east of Cowhouse, and runs up to Harden Moor, leading now from nowhere to nowhere else in particular. Whether this old lane has been continuous with the old road from Cullingworth, or whether it has been connected with a thoroughfare from Wilsden, I have been unable to make out. There is a very old stone stoop at the foot of the lane, inscribed " To Kighley, 2 M." ; but the road from Cullingworth to Keighley followed, as I have shewn, the old Roman road west of Ca-tstones through Hainworth Shay. Moreover, the distance from this stoop (assuming it to be in its original position) to Keighley is fully three miles. At the top of Dolphin Lane its continuance is lost on the moor, so that it is doubtful which direction it took. Some very old roads are mentioned in the early grants of Paganel to Drax Priory. One of these mentions the road from Priesthorpe to Gilstead, a portion of which still exists as a bridle road at Crow Nest. The road was continuous with the one leaving Bingley by Park Road, crossing the wood-yard from Longbottom's smithy, off the east end of Charles Street and up Priesthorpe Road, then a very narrow way, with a stile at the top on to the existing road to Crow Nest, where it turns to the left at the cottages, and goes up to the crag side, behind the Cottage Hospital, joining the present road to Gilstead further on. The road from Cottingley Bridge to Gilstead over Primrose Hill and past Milner Field is also very ancient ; at least as old as the Domesday record. Up to the farmhouse at the top it was, in the middle of last century, a narrow hedged way, with deep ruts, subsequently improved, and about thirty years ago widened to its present dimensions. Well may his Majesty's liege subjects in their " coaches, carts, and carriages," have run " great danger of their lives " by attempting the passage of this hedged 81 quagmire in times when highways were mostly left to take care of themselves. Had we records of all the adventures and mishaps of passengers by this lane in former centuries, there would doubtless be some pretty anecdotes to relate. I find by the Sessions Records that in October, 1759, a fine of 40 was to be levied upon the inhabitants of Bingley if they did not repair the road. At the Sessions held at Bradford, 27th July, 1758, the following indictment was made against the inhabitants : And that from the time whereof the memory of man is not to the contrary there was and yet is a certain common and antient King's Highway leading from the Village of Ilkley in the West Biding of the County of York to the Village of Halifax in the said Biding used for all the Liege Subjects of our said Lord the King and his predecessors by themselves and with their Horses Coaches Carts and carriages to go return pass ride and labour at their will and pleasure. And that a certain part of the same King's Common Highway at the parish of Bingley in the Biding aforesaid (to wit) for the space of one thousand seven hundred yards in length of a certain Lane there called Cottingley Bridge otherwise Gilstead Lane from a certain Gate situated at the South West side of the Village of Gilstead in the parish aforesaid commonly called the Town Gate [opposite the present Post Office] to the Turnpike Koad on the North West end of a certain Bridge called Cottingley Bridge situate upon and over the Biver Air in the same parish the twenty second day of July in the thirty second year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the second now King of Great Britain &c. and continually afterwards until the day of the taking of this Inquisition at the said parish of Bingley was and yet is very ruinous miry deep broken and in such decay for want of the due Beparation and amendment of the same so that the Liege Subjects of our said Lord the King through the same may by themselves and with their Horses Coaches Carts and Carriages could not during the time aforesaid nor yet can go return pass ride and labour without great danger of their Lives and the Loss of their Goods to the great damage and common Nuisance of all the Liege Subjects of our said Lord the King through the same way going returning passing riding and labouring and against the peace of our said Lord the King his Crown and Dignity and that the Inhabitants of the parish of Bingley aforesaid the Common Highway aforesaid (so as aforesaid being in decay) from time whereof the memory of man is not to the contrary have been accustomed and of right ought to repair and amend when and so often as it shall be necessary. This ancient highway went over the then unenclosed Gilstead Moor (by what is now Warren Lane) to Eldwick, and across Rumbalds Moor to Ilkley. There were also other 82 recognised routes across the moor to Otley and Ilkley before the present moor road was made from " Dick Hudson's." One of the most frequented went by Crossflatts, up Micklethwaite Lane, past the chapel, and on the old Kiln Lane, up the brow, over Drake Hill, passing the present keeper's house, and by the moor-path to the Ashlar Chair, as at present existing. The old road previously mentioned from Ferrand Lane to Beck Houses appears to have led by the Spa Well, near the Pinfold, through Oakwood, almost parallel with the long snicket, on to Lady Lane, then close to the east side of Cross Butts Farm (now Ogden's), where the old causeway was until this year in situ. This old farmhouse up to about forty years ago was a " public," called the Plough Boy Inn, the last tenants of the inn being a family named Wilkinson. It was a familar resort of the " jagger-men " passing between Otley and Ilkley and Bingley, and many are the stories one might relate of this out-of-the-way " travellers' rest." The road hence went over the Height down to Tewett Farm, and by the well-known " Saddle Loin " past the reservoir, emerging on the carriage-road near Eldwick Hall. Then it turned along the old lane opposite Eldwick Hall, but a "short cut" opposite the " Saddle Loin " crossed the fields, where the old pave-stones have been removed, on to the same old Otley and Ilkley road. This old road under Eldwick Crag, by Gaping Goose, was formerly a narrow, miry way, like most of the other roads about Eldwick at that time. It had been kept in repair by Joshua Crompton, Esq., of Esholt, who owned considerable property at Eldwick, but in 1786 Mr. Lobley, his agent, at a meeting held in Bingley to discuss the desirability of making a new road at Eldwick, proposed to give up such land as would be wanted for the said road, and also to allow the sum of fifteen guineas provided the inhabitants undertook to maintain the road at Eldwick Crag side in repair. Soon afterwards, in May, 1786, the surveyor was ordered to prepare an estimate for a road from Glovershaw Beck to Knapling ; and also another estimate for making a road from Eldwick Hall to Eldwick 88 High Gate (" Dick Hudson's "). This was intended to divert the old pack-horse road to Otley, which went by the lane, now existing, opposite Eldwick Hall, by Whinney Hill to Robert Atkinson's Gate, on the Otley road, a little beyond the chapel. At first it was intended to utilise this old road, but Mr. Crompton would not consent to it, owing to the sharp angle at Whinney Hill and Bill Nook, so the idea was abandoned, and the narrow, hedged lane up to the High Gate, or "Dick Hudson's," was adopted instead. This important road up to " Dick Hudson's," which is now travelled by thousands of people every summer making their way between Saltaire and Bingley and Ilkley, was consequently approved, and made in 1787. At a vestry meeting held on January 23rd, 1787, it was agreed as follows : FIRST, Mr. Crompton agrees on his part, in case the road be carried up the Old Road from Elwick Hall to the High Gate he will give up his property in the Lane to the Town of Bingley for ever, in consideration of the inhabitants of Bingley taking upon them the making of the roads at all times hereafter to maintain the same and keep the same in repair. And also of their paying him a valuable consideration for such of his grounds adjoining the same as shall be necessary and wanted for the widening of the same. And Mr. Crompton further generously offers to give such Consideration Money for the benefit of the Sunday Schools of Bingley to which said proposals the inhabitants have consented. And also Mr. John Hartley having on his part as proprietor of lands adjoining the said road made the same generous proposal. It is agreed upon the said inhabitants to accept of the same. N.B. It was agreed that Fences shall be made all the way on both sides the road equal to the Fences made for Mr. Ferrand and Mr. Sharp. (Signed) JOSA. CROMPTON, JOHN HARTLEY, BENJN. FERRAND, J. LOBLEY, JAS. MURGATROYD, JOSEPH HEATON, Jun., THO. DOBSON, JOHN OLIVER, JONAS WHITLEY, THOMAS EASTRICK, JOHN ANDERSON, ROBERT ATKINSON. Mr. Crompton was a generous friend to education and progress of any kind. He started the first Sunday School in his own neighbourhood of Esholt, and his amiable daughters taught it for many years. When the above road was completed, it was decided to transfer the licence from the old Rattlebank " public " to the farmhouse at High Gate, 84 then occupied by John Anderson. It was named Fleece Inn. A gate was hung across the road, the stoops of which still remain. In 1790, it may be interesting to note, a rate of 9d. in the pound was levied " on all and every occupier of lands, tenements, woods, tythes, and hereditaments " in the townships of Bingley and Morton, for the use and benefit of the highways in these townships. Thomas Hudson, the Bingley constable and pinder, took the Fleece in 1609, and his son " Dick" succeeded on his father's death in 1850. and kept the house until his death in 1878, when he was succeeded by his son John, who died here in 1893. I have heard it said that " Dick Hudson's " must be known to at least a million folks ! Connected with these roads out of Bingley were some branch paths, one of which left the ancient Gilstead road (above described) at a thatched cottage below Mr. Alfred Green's house, at the top of Priesthorpe Road, and took under the quarry (now gardens) to Priesthorpe Green and Beck Houses, as above. Another path ascended to an old barn which stood near the well at Mr. Pickard's garden ; it then continued up Stony Lane and along the hillside through Langley (Kennels), and out on the Gilstead Moor road to Eldwick, as above. The road from Eldwick by Glovershaw Lane and Acre Howe to Hawksworth and Baildon is also one of the very oldest in the district ; but that portion of it extending from Eldwick Beck to Glovershaw Gate was only widened and improved in the year 1777. At this time application was made to Sir John Goodricke (lord of the manor of Bingley) for as much land as was required for widening Vicarage Lane, leading to the church. In the year 1778, I may add, the old pack-horse bridge over Hawksworth Beck was replaced by a new and substantial carriage bridge ; and at the West Biding Sessions held at Leeds, on October 8th, it was represented that the inhabitants of the several townships of Bingley, Hawks- worth, and Baildon were expending large sums of money in the erection of this bridge. Eventually, on the 15th July, 1779, the townships named received 25 as a gratuity out of the Riding stock, and an additional 25 was allowed at the Sessions held at Pontefract, April 3rd, 1780. 85 When coaches began to run in the time of Charles I., more attention began to be paid to the highways, and in 1662 the first Turnpike Act was passed, and in 1679 the first toll-bar was erected on the London and Harwich Road. But it was nearly a century afterwards before any real headway was made in the improvement of roads in the north. In 1664, a violent flood had partly undermined the foundations of the old wooden bridge over the Aire at Cottingley, and some twenty years later it was re-erected COTTINGLEY BRIDGE. in stone, but not widened for some time after the turnpike was made for the coaches (about 1752), which now ran this way through Bingley to the north. The old Beckfoot route, the scene, doubtless, of many a grand cavalcade, such as the one previously mentioned, became impracticable to any but those on foot or on horseback. When the highroad was completed, some improvements were made in the Main Street, and the fine Market House was erected here 86 (now in the Park), which bears the date 1753. This year is memorable for the terrible riots that followed the completion of the turnpike roads about Leeds, when a shocking tumult prevailed ; the military being called out, and on one day, in Briggate, eight persons were shot dead, and fifty more or less badly wounded. After the bars were erected, it was usual to offer for public competition the letting of the tolls throughout the country. An advertisement stated what the tolls had realised on each particular road in the year previous. In 1797, I find that on the road from Bradford to Keighley the turnpike- gate at Stock Bridge yielded 210 ; at Cottingley Bridge, 180 ; and at Toller Lane, 112, after deducting expenses of collection. These items afford some idea of the amount of traffic a century ago between Bingley and Keighley, as compared with the traffic between Bingley and Bradford. Doubtless the ancient British ways through the Hollins and over the Bailey Hills were less frequented on the Norman settlement, when the present main road through Crossflatts existed as a bridle- way. The road is mentioned in grants to Drax Priory in the 12th and 18th centuries. It was widened by Act of Parliament in 1752, when the Keighley and Kendal Turnpike Trust was granted. Although an Act had been passed for repairing the highways as early as the reign of Queen Mary (1556-7), the roads throughout the kingdom remained in a deplorable condition for nearly two centuries afterwards. The statute, as old Harrison tells us, was constantly being evaded ; parish surveyors taking care to have good roads to their own fields, but neglected those which led from market to market. At Bingley, for example, I find that in 1710 one John Skirrow was overseer of the highways, and, as appears by his account presented March 2nd, 1710, he had disbursed the magnificent sum of 1 12s. lOd. in keeping the highways in repair for two years ! He had a balance of 3 11s. 3d. in hand, of which 3 was ordered to be paid to Dr. Swain for amputating and curing the leg of one Christopher Colton. How the said Colton came to injure his leg is not recorded, but it is not at all unlikely it was by accident on the beautiful highways of the period. 87 At any rate, the accident (if it were such) cost the parish nearly four years' price of maintaining the highways. Happily we are wiser in these days, and know it is cheaper to the community to keep the roads in good repair. The road out of Bingley to Cottingley Bridge was called Leeds Lane, and I find that at a meeting of the Bingley overseers, held on December 2nd, 1782, it was ordered that James Hudson do apply to Mr. Moore for the different admeasurements of the land taken from each proprietor for the purpose of widening the said Leeds Lane, beginning at the Nab Gate, and ending at the township road at Cottingley Wells. He was also to make a just estimate of such new fences as have been built by each proprietor of land in consequence of widening the said road. This action arose out of a charge preferred against the inhabitants of Bingley in 1776-7 for neglecting the repairs, and consequently five or six years elapsed before they were finally completed. It appears that the expenses incurred by the town for this improvement in widening Leeds Lane reached the modest total of 69 10s. 5d. The items of expenditure are interesting, as shewing the price of land and labour about a century ago : GROUND TAKEN FROM MR. WICKHAM'S LAND. Town Paid. 1294 yards of land at 3d 18 17 5 J 98 8J 165 roods of walling at 5/- . . 41 7 6 i 20 13 9 80 roods of road-making at 8/6.. 34 | 8 10 GROUND TAKEN FROM MR. HOLLING'S LAND. 641 yards of land at 3jd 9611 4 13 5| 58 roods of walling at 5/- . . . . 14 10 i 750 Road-making 17 11 6 | 4 7 10$ GROUND TAKEN FROM MR. ISAAC SMITH'S LAND. 33 yards of land at 3d 9 7 J 4 7f 11 roods of walling at 5/- . . . . 2 15 | 176 5 roods of road-making at 8/6.. 269 f 0118J Mr. Lobley's Bill 23 i 11 10 Mr. John Moore's Bill for planning 0176 089 James Hudson's Bill for setting out, Ac 0180 090 Total 69 10 5 88 Bingley Bridge, as I have said, was not widened until 1777, and Cottingley Bridge, on the coach road, a year or two later. Great difficulty was experienced in getting proper foundations for the piers of Cottingley Bridge, owing to the great thickness of loose gravel overlying the boulder-clay in this part of the valley. The contractor, Barnabas Morvill, who was one of the contractors, in 1770, for the mason-work at the Three-Rise and Five-Rise Locks on the Canal, and apparently an able and conscientious workman, was considerably out of pocket by the Cottingley Bridge contract, and on laying his case before the West Riding Justices at Pontefract, on April 3rd, 1780, it was ordered that a gratuity of 40 be given to Mr. Morvill in respect of the extraordinary expense he had suffered in the proper execution of the work. The Morvills (an old West Riding family) were living at Beckfoot in 1620. All the principal wooden bridges in the district were now giving way to more durable erections in stone. The stream at Beckfoot, which had been spanned by rickety wooden structures from at least the time of the Crusades, being on the chief highway into Bingley, was in the year 1723 supplied with a serviceable one of stone. As this bridge lies in one of the most visited and picturesque nooks in the vicinity of Bingley, I give the particulars of its erection in full, as they appear in the parish books. A view of it is also presented from a photograph by Mr. G. Whitaker. THE BUILDING OF BECKFOOT BRIDGE. 7th, 2nd, 1723. Whereas the Constablery or Township of Bingley have this day paid by Willm. Ellison, the p'sent constable, to Benja. Craven and Josa. Scott, masons, ye sum of Ten Pounds, for building a Stone Bridge ovr Harden Beck at Beckfoot. In consideracon whereof ye said Benja. Craven and Joshua Scott doe hereby promise joyfully and severally to uphold and keep the sd Bridge in good and Sufficient repair during the terme of seaven years from the day hereof, as witness our hands the day and year above sd. Test : BEN CRAVEN. WILLM. ELLISON, The mark of JOSHUA SMITH, JOSHUA x SCOTT. This is interesting. Imagine a couple of contractors at the present day building a serviceable stone bridge and 89 keeping it in good repair for seven years for a five-pound note apiece, and withal thankfully rejoicing at the job ! I regret that the space at disposal prevents me from dwelling on many of the old roads in the outlying parts of the parish. One of the most frequented of these in the old days was that which led into Bingley from Haworth and the west country, and it was a sight to see the strings of pack-horses and drovers meeting those from Halifax and Otley, as sometimes they did, at Bingley Bridge. The BECKFOOT BRIDGE. Haworth road came by Cross Eoads, and ascended the moor-side by an old bridle-way, still known as Bell-horse Lane, emerging in Goff Lane, near the old Goff Well. This was a famous resort of gipsies before the moor was enclosed in 1861. The road went then over Harden Moor, by the Harley, or Early Stone, and above the Altar down to Bingley. The descent intersected the old British track-way through the Hollins, and was by a rough 90 cobble-stone pavement, which old inhabitants tell me was one of the best " bone-shakers " in the district. Had anyone attempted the descent of this road with a load of pots they, the pots, would have been smashed into a thousand fragments. Yet this is the way that funerals came from the high moors in olden times. The coffin was borne on a hearse-litter, suspended between two horses, and the cortege proceeded, by way of the bridge, to the Parish Church. The litter continued in use in this district long after the introduction of wheeled vehicles, as owing to the narrowness and condition of the lanes no other means, save pole-carriage by hand, was practicable. The last time the hearse-litter was employed in the parish was probably when the body of old Mr. Wm. Garnett, of Lane Head, Eldwick, was conveyed to the Parish Church for interment, now about seventy years ago. Old Mr. Wildman, of High Crag Farm, Eldwick, tells me he remembers following the cortege in this manner when a boy. Gilstead Moor was then, of course, unenclosed. I may here also record the interesting fact that Mrs. Martha Moulding (aged 80), of Gilstead, who is a granddaughter of the above Wm. Garnett, is one of the very few persona still living in Bingley who took part in the local celebrations of the Queen's coronation in 1837, and who lived also to participate in the local rejoicings on the completion in 1897 of Her Majesty's sixty years' reign. One of her surviving sisters is Mrs. Waddington (aged 76), now of Beck houses, Bingley. Mr. Wildman informs me that the tinkling of the bells suspended to the necks of the pack-horses was a familiar sound along the road which crossed the moor from Morton to Otley, and in the early part of the century, when the house he now occupies at Eldwick Crag Side was built, all the lime used for mortar was brought in sacks by saddle- back out of the then distant solitudes of Lothersdale. 91 OLD DYKES AND BOUND AEIES. ||F prehistoric tribal dykes the parish of Bingley retains but scant evidences. A word upon them, however, is here necessary in pursuing the sequence of the handiworks of man. The subject of these early landmarks has been little dealt with, and nowhere that I can discover has it been broadly or comprehensively taken up. One must turn here and there to local topographical productions for any allusions to them, and when found there is by no means a concensus of opinion with regard to their origin or design. So far as our present knowledge of the subject will enable us to decide, there seems little doubt but that they are pre-Koman works, not intended as military defences, but as defining lines separating one tribe from another. In my " Richmondshire " I have described in some detail one of these remarkable excavations, known as " Scots' Dyke," which extends through Richmondshire in a northerly direction to the borders of Scotland, a distance of over 70 miles. The so-called " Danes' Dyke," at Flamborough is another Yorkshire example, which it is now safe to affirm has nothing to do with the Danes, but must be classed as coeval with the above and other similar lines of entrenchment which are to be found in various parts of the country, and especially in those tracts peopled by the ancient Celts. By the term " tribal dykes," I do not include the various earthen enclosures on Baildon, Harden, and Cullingworth Moors, which are distinctively " camps," or fortifications intended for defensive purposes only. I allude to the continuous entrenchments, traces of which are here and there apparent, and such as can have served only as boundary lines, and in places even where natural impedimenta might, but have not been so utilised or regarded. One of these entrenched lines seems to have extended in a north-west and south-east direction over Cullingworth Black Moor, a little to the west of " Castlestead Ring," or " Blood Dyke," as it is locally called ; thence to have 92 taken in the direction of Denholme and Queensbury, and so towards Bradford. Perhaps Black Dike, at Queensbury, and Laister-dyke, to the east of Bradford, may be parts of the same line, although the Queensbury Dyke is believed to derive its name from an old -water-course in the peat, which formerly ran near the old Black Dike farmhouse, the site of which is now occupied by the mills. But the source of the stream and extent of the dike are uncertain. A portion of the Scots' Dyke, near Housesteads, by the way, is known as Black Dyke, and this word Black, which is commonly met with in out-of-the-way districts in Celtic territory, appears to be as distinctly Celtic as the word Brown, already explained, and occurring in similar solitary and waste places (see page 53). On the opposite side of the valley, on Gilstead Moor, near Eldwick, we have, or rather had, another of these ancient dykes, which no one seems to have regarded as anything very particular. Old inhabitants tell me it was locally known as the " Old Dyke Cam," but why so called they cannot explain. But cam is used both by the Gaelic and Cymric Celts to indicate anything crooked or bent ; as for example Morecambe, anciently mor-cam, which may mean the great bend, as applied to the bay. Cambus is a creek or inlet of the sea ; Mor, cognate with the Latin mare, Teut. meer, also means the sea, so that "Morecambe " may be either the great bend or the crooked sea, as its contour shews. The Eldwick, or Gilstead cam was likewise a crooked dyke. It extended from the west of Eldwick Beck, on the top side of Eldwick Church, in the direction of Sheriff Farm, where it made a marked turn, but why is not obvious, as the ground did not necessitate such a curve ; it then continued in a pretty straight line across Gilstead Moor towards Stubbin House, whence its continuance is not remembered. It is noteworthy that this dyke ran almost parallel with the Bingley parish boundary, now formed by Glovershaw Beck and Eldwick Beck, past Load Pit (or Loopit) Bridge, down to the Hurst ; Trench Wood lying to the east, and the old homestead, Trench Farm, just over the boundary, but whether this word, " Trench," has anything to do with the dyke I cannot say. 93 Many of these ancient dykes constitute parish and township boundaries to the present day. We need not go very far away for evidence of this kind, as Thoresby in his Due. Leod. mentions a dike that divides the manor of Leeds from that of Hunslet, as well as the wapentake of Skire-ake (Skyrack) from that of Ake-bride (Agbrigg) and Morley. Is it possible that the name of the present Sheriff Lane, on Gilstead Moor, which is almost coextensive with this dyke, is as old as the Anglo-Saxon occupation of Bingley ? The ancient farmstead here appears to have been known from time immemorial as Sheriff House. Was this, then, at one time the limit of the local Anglo-Saxon jurisdiction at Bingley, of the ward of the scire-reeve, or sheriff, while the land beyond was held by the Cymric Celts ? But the cam, as I have said, was no doubt originally a British tribal boundary, made upon the irruption and undoubted settlement, as I have sufficiently shewn in a preceding chapter, of the Brythonic Celts at Bingley, when the Druidical Goidels were driven to the moors, and ultimately as a distinct tribe wholly exterminated in this district. If we take a map and pair of compasses and fix one point at Bingley, then with the other strike a radius of say three miles, we should describe a circle embracing all the higher ground occupied by the two classes of Celts, while the lower lands between bear the strong impress of Anglo-Saxon possession. This sweep of the compass would take in Kivock, Faweather, Baildon Common, Cottingley Moor, Stony Ridge, Old Allen, Burn Moor, Hewenden, Black Moor, Crummach, Castlestead Ring, Harden Moor, Cat-stones, Druids' Altar, &c. To define the Celtic occupation southwards and eastwards from its chief stronghold (Wilsden) in Brythonic times we should take in Burn Moor (of which more anon) and Old Allen ; thence at the same elevation by Black Dike Lane and Bell Dean top over Storrs Heights towards Allerton, or southwards along the tops to Queensbury and Clews Moor. The well-known picturesque opening of the sea on the west coast of Ireland, known as Clew Bay, seems to point to a Goidelic or earliest Celtic occupation of this similarly-named portion of high land. 94 To quit, however, the region of speculation with regard to these ancient Celtic boundaries, let us consider the lines of demarcation taken over or adopted by the Anglian conquerors here. From what I have said in a previous chapter, there is little doubt that the boundary was already fixed which defines the limits of the parish to this day. Take the Anglian word Mytholm, or Myth-holm, the name of a small district, extending from near old St. Ives to Harden Beck Bridge, which tract separates the ancient parishes of Bingley and Bradford, as well as marks the dividing-line of the deaneries of Craven and Bradford. Dr. Bosworth defines my t has as bounds, limits ; and holm, a green plot of land environed with water, which exactly suits the situation of Mytholm, lying as it does on the limits of the two parishes, and on low land between Mytholm and Harden Becks. There are other Mytholms in Yorkshire, which are similarly situated on the boundaries of parishes. Thus in this one word we have confirmatory evidence of the limits of the parish in this direction having been accepted in Anglo-Saxon times, and an investigation of places at other points would doubtless establish equally interesting conclusions. But not to dwell longer on these definitions, let me now record the boundaries of the parish as they have undoubtedly existed from its original formation. Starting on the west from where the Carr Clough Beck enters the Aire, the boundary follows the river past Stock Bridge to a short distance beyond East Biddlesden Hall, when at the boundary-stone, opposite the causeway end, it turns southwards close to the Keighley Gasworks (which are in Bingley) ; then east of Thwaites Houses, up Thwaites Bank, where the wall on the left side of the road separates it from Keighley ; then passing close by the west side of Jackfield Farm and Currer Lathe, it continues southwards over Harden Moor to Harden Gate, thence westward to the Harley Stone ; then northwards to the beck at Long Lee, which flowing down through Hog Holes to Woodhouse Bottom it enters the river Worth. The latter stream defines the parish boundary forward by Ingrow Bridge (Ingrow Station being in Bingley) for nearly two miles to 95 the Vale Mill (Bingley parish including the populous districts of Cross Roads, New Road Side, Hermit Hole, and part of Ingrow, which are now taken into Keighley) ; then it turns up west of Mytholme Mill, following Lees Sike above Ebor Mill, near Cross Roads, within 500 yards north-east of Haworth station, whence it passes through Lees Mill Dam, and pursues the water-course up to Brow Moor, near Flappit Springs. Hence southwards three furlongs west of the cross roads at Laverock Hall, crossing HARDEN BECK BRIDGE. (On the boundary of the parish, deanery, and wapentake). the Allotments south of Castlestead Ring, and then by the Manywells Beck that flows eastward under Ive-stone Bridge (on the Halifax and Haworth road), and down Brown Hill, under the railway viaduct at Cullingworth Gate, where this stream marks the boundary of the parish, deanery, and wapentake. The same stream then continues through Cullingworth, and in perambulating the boundary it was necessary to creep along the beck under Cullingworth 96 Mills, following the beck to Cow House Bridge, where the Eller Carr Beck joins the main stream. The united waters then form the boundary to Goit Stock Mill, where the Hewenden Beck enters it from the famous Goit Stock waterfall (which is not in Bingley parish). Hence the combined waters are known as Harden Beck, which flowing through the Harden valley, by Harden Beck Bridge, form the parish boundary, as well as that of the deanery and wapentake, to its junction with the Mytholme Beck below Harden Grange. Then it takes a sharp turn up Ruin Bank Wood, and southwards by the long wall over the Black Hills, keeping a little west of March Cote (which is in Bingley) to Stocker Gate. Then it continues over Cottingley Moor, crossing Cottingley Beck close to Stoker House, which is the farthest point it reaches southward. Then keeping .west of the Moor Eoad and Moor Dike, the boundary is by the field- wall for more than a mile in a north-west direction, passing Cottingley village a little to the east, on to the Bingley highroad at Nab Wood end. Then it strikes north to where the railway crosses the river, and the river hence on its west side to Seven Arches, and forward by the north bank to the Loopit or Eldwick Glen Beck, which enters the Aire opposite Hirst Mill, forms the parish boundary towards Saltaire. The above beck now forms the boundary up to its junction with the Glovershaw Beck at Spring Wood, Eldwick, whence it follows the Glovershaw Beck by Golcar Side to the old boundary-stone, and thence eastward past Sconce to the Gill- Beck at Hawksworth Spring ; Sconce, Hollins House, and Low Spring being all in Bingley parish. It then turns back north-west up the Gill Beck a little east of Faweather, over Knapley Ing, following the beck up to its source, close to the west side of Horncliffe House, where the boundaries of Burley and Hawksworth meet. Then two miles over Rumbalds Moor to the Ashlar Chair,* north of Redman Spa ; thence to the * The Ashlar Chair has been stated to be a relic of Druidism ; in shape it is like a couch or chair, and bears numerous cups and grooves. It is the boundary of the four lordships of Bingley, Burley, Morton, and Ilkley Moors, and upon it are the initials : M.M. ; B.T.P. ; I.S.P. ; I.W. ; and I.G., 1826. 97 West Buck Stones, in a south-westerly direction over Eivock Edge, down the west side of Elam Wood, by the beck course to the Aire and point of starting. The circuit of the parish by the bounds thus defined is 28 miles, its greatest extension from east to west being nearly 8 miles, and from north to south 5 miles. At the time of the Norman Conquest Baildon was also included within the bounds of the soke of Bingley, and its exclusion at this day seems a physiographical anomaly. But ethnologically considered, the anomaly disappears, for it presents a wedge of Celtic ground in the midst of Anglo-Saxon territory, or, to employ a common illustration, it is like an apple held in the mouth of a boar ; the apple representing Celtic Baildon, while the jaws define the protrusion of the Anglian boundaries as now existing. On the west the line of demarcation is strongly marked, and it must have existed from a very remote period. I concur with the authorities named a few pages back that it formed the westernmost boundary of the British kingdom of Elmet, though I do not believe the province embraced the large extent of country usually ascribed to it. I take its bounds to have been very nearly coextensive with the old wapentake of Skyrack, with Leeds as its capital, and the Shire Oak, Headingley, as the headquarters of the wapentake courts in Anglian times. By this demarcation we should have Burn Moor and the Hadelstone, or Early Stone, Harden Moor, on the west, passing eastwards over part of the parish of Otley, including Baildon, where, by the way, is another of these remarkable memorial stones, called Harley or Early Stone ; thence northwards, embracing the parishes of Guiseley and Adel and the township of Bramhope, and eastward including the parishes of Barwick-in-Elmet and Kippax, as far east, perhaps, as Haddleston, adjoining Sherburn-in-Elmet on the west. Its southern limit would be defined by the Aire by Allerton -By water to the parish boundary north of Bingley, above described. This, roughly, embraces the wapentake of Skyrack, and includes an area of little more than 90,000 acres, and I consider it to have formed the small Celtic province of Elmet, which so long maintained 98 its independence of the Anglian authority. The area agrees almost exactly with old Camden's statement from an ancient MS. that Elmed-Setna (that is the inhabitants of Elmet) possessed or occupied 600 hides of land. Wight Gora (Isle of Wight) is stated in the same MS. to contain 600 hides of land, and as the area of that island is about 86,000 acres, it agrees very nearly with the area I have defined of the province of Elmet. Although the area implied by this tribal hidage was not the same in all localities (and it does seem to have been an areal measurement, not like the fiscal hide of Domesday) ; yet considering the importance and strength of Elmet, and its population in British and Anglo-Saxon times, when the moors were as valuable as the richest pastures (a sheep for its wool was worth as much as a cow), does it not seem likely that the average hide of land in this locality maintained as many people and was worth as much as that in the Isle of Wight at the same period ? The riding of the boundaries in the old days was at Bingley attended with considerable animation. The parties usually assembled at the King's Head, when, accompanied by the lord's steward, they went up to Eldwick, and walking up the beck, followed the line I have defined by Hawks worth Springs, and past the Gaping Goose across Eumbalds Moor. Thomas Hudson, father of " Dick," who lived over sixty years at the well-known " pub." on the moor edge, used to come up about noon with a cart laden with cheese and bread and ale ; then each would find a seat among the rocks and heather, and thoroughly enjoy the ample repast provided at the lord's expense. Sometimes fifty or sixty men and boys would attend on these perambulations, and it may be imagined with what gusto they sat down to this welcome provision after the scrambling, joking, and antics that took place during a long morning in the bracing air of this high moor. Two centuries ago the parish made a substantial gratuity on the occasion of these perambulations, and in 1704 it was agreed that the sum of 10s. be allowed at each gathering. The "meets" were looked forward to with the most pleasurable anticipations, both by young and old, and 99 many a youngster would be "up with the lark" on the morning appointed for the ramble, calling upon his comrades to be up early on the moors, and then to join hi the fun of the throng : " Come ! will you not go where the bilberries grow On their beautiful bushes of green ; Whose ruby bells smiled, in the desolate wild, On the far-away moorland scene ? We are up and away, at the dawn of the day, Young cottagers moving in scores, Ere the dawn of the day we are up and away Away to the bilberry moors." And here on the "bilberry moors" many a youth would have cause to remember the gathering, for it was usual to take one or two and give them a good-humoured " ducking " or drenching in some stream or ditch that lay on the line of march, that the boundary might be " well -remembered unto the next generation."* It is now, I understand, more than forty years since the last perambulation, which arose out of a dispute between the boundaries of the Bingley and Burley lordships, when Mr. Kell (Mr. Fox's steward) and over one hundred followers traversed the bounds from Glovershaw Beck forward until darkness came on, and its completion was postponed to another day. But they never came again, and the question of the boundary was settled without a visit. The boundaries of the manor of Bradford were, I believe, last traversed in 1823. * The Bingley moors were famous for their abundance of bilberries and cranberries, but for some cause or other they are not now so plentiful. Old William Greenwood, of Eldwick, who was born early in the century, used to say that he could gather plenty of cranberries on the site of Ben Preston's garden when a boy. nx. MANORIAL HISTORY. ANTIQUITY OF THE BOUNDARIES. ITH the advent of William the Conqueror and the absorption of the old Anglo-Norse population in a new element and under a new code of laws, we reach a great revolution in the progress of local history, yet one that did not immediately violate a pre-existing order of government to the extent generally supposed. Customs as old, may be, as the first Anglian settlers continued to direct local affairs long after the Conquest (vide Dom. Book, I. 298 b). The boundaries, too, were fixed and immutable, and with the exception of the loss of Baildon (probably at De Burun's forfeiture, though it did not go to the Archbishops till 1222), the dominion of the parish from the Conquest forward has retained the same strong demarcation which I have explained belonged to it from at least the Brythonic or Welsh conquest even antecedent to the Christian era and down through the Anglian and Norse occupation. It is probably to the Anglians that Bingley owes its name. Let me now endeavour to explain THE MEANING OF BINGLEY. It is usually accounted the field of Bing, but before pronouncing on the origin of a name we should trace it back through the various changes it has undergone. Literally there was originally no such person as Bing. This name is really composed of two words : B-ing, signifying the sons of or descendants of some settler, probably called Bui, which means a dweller, as in Norse nah-bui, German nach-bar, Danish nye-bce, a neighbour. It 102 afterwards became a personal name, and Bui-ing, a family name, now seen in Boyen, Bowen, Bing, &c., which are English and Danish proper names at the present time. Bingley was therefore the ley, field or possession, of the descendants of Bui. It enters into the name of Bingham, in Notts., and perhaps in Bingen-on-the-Rhine, and Bingendorf-on-the-Nied, in Lorraine, the first of which, like the Yorkshire Bingley, came to William Paganel from Eoger de Buinley, or Builli. So far as Bingley is concerned, the original settlers were undoubtedly kinsmen. The Anglo-Saxon ing is equivalent to the Scotch Mac, the Irish 0', and the English son. We have other examples of its occurrence in this district, such as Cott-zw^-ley (field of the sons or descendants of Gotti, as in Gottingen) ; Cull-mg-worth (descendants of Coll, or Guile), Fris-^-hall (hall of the sons of the tribe of Fries, which manor had its pleas in the lord's hall), Mann-tw^-ham (home of the sons of Manan) ; all these being indicative of old Anglian or Norse clan stations. Without travelling the wide realm of England for comparisons, we have in the single county of Worcester a group of Domesday names almost the exact counterpart of those in the parish of Bingley ; thus Buington (Bui-ing-ley), Mortune (Morton), Colingvic (Cullingworth), Hageleia (Hagenwurde, Hainworth), Hatete (Hateltun, Harden), Merlie and Mertelai (Marthelai, Marley). In Domesday we find again the name of Bingley written Bingheleia, which spelling seems to denote that the old Anglian compound was pronounced or handed in by a Danish or Norse inhabitant to the Norman compiler of Domesday. In the final leia we have a close affinity with the Norse and Icelandic Ijd, equivalent to the Anglo-Saxon ley. Likewise the recorded carucates of Domesday support the same idea of Scandinavian occupancy. THE COMING OF THE NORMAN. I have said that under the Viking rule a stiff tax was imposed on the Anglo-Saxon people, and in a hard- wrought (by this I mean a rather backward than a very fertile) and comparatively populous district like Bingley such a levy 108 must have rancoured like a sore in the midst of the community, and many a murmur must have gone forth. To make matters worse for the home people, much of the spoil was remitted by these insatiable money-robbers to their poorer kinsfolk abroad. In 1040 Hardicanute wrested 32,000 of good Saxon money from the people of England, a large portion of which was shipped out of the country. Well may the water of delicious expectancy have dripped from the mouth of the future Conqueror when he heard of the strife between Saxon and Dane, and of the golden flow from the shores of England to the barren dais of Norway. He resolved on invasion, ostensibly to assist the Confessor against the potent Godwin, but really to crush for ever the Saxon power. It was in truth to be no half-hearted effort, but flame and steel were to do their very worst, and death or victory was to be the watchword of every archer and pikeman who set foot on English soil under the Norman flag. The fact that a compact was made before the invasion deciding that in case of victory the land was to be partitioned out among the Conqueror's counsellors and leaders, affords some indication of the determined character of the intended conflict, and reminds us of the events I shall describe hereafter, when, during the great Crusade to the Holy Land, the infidel Saracens trailed clanging chains with them on to the field of battle in order to carry away the Christians captive, so certain were they of victory. The first decisive blow was struck at Hastings ; the south soon yielded, but in the north matters were not so easily settled. The old sturdiness and grit of the Anglo-Saxon and the old fierceness of the Viking pirate mingled to withstand the terrible onslaught of the Norman warriors. The great chief Archil, father of Gospatric, lord of Bingley, fought for very life and country, but eventually was obliged to flee (see page 73). York fell, and the whole country was harried and wasted in a manner such as hardly any other part of England had been. It is plain from the testimony of Domesday that there was not a man in Bingley who had the strength who did not in one way or another participate in the great struggle. The whole parish was utterly laid waste ; that is to say, the 104 1,400 acres, or thereabouts, comprised within the manor and soke of Bingley, which had been in a profitable state of cultivation in 3066, were before 1086 utterly abandoned. The old church went to decay, the inhabitants were killed or had fled. There were no oxen to plough the land, and what people were left here, or how on earth they were living, God only knows. Let us now turn to THE DOMESDAY BECOKD, from which there is more to be learnt than it is possible for me to describe in these pages. Briefly, there were four carucates for geld within this manor, and twelve if we include the soke. But these carucates were to be tilled by only half the number of ploughs ; that is, one plough managed every two carucates of land. Now "land for one plough '' means as much land as one plough will till in the course of a year, while the " carucate for geld " is the amount of land which one plough tills in one field in the course of a year. It is therefore obvious that in Bingley the manor was a two-course manor, and lay in two common-fields. If we accept the carucate as containing 120 acres, and this appears to be the unit after a great many comparisons in the carucated counties of England, we find there were 480 acres of ploughed land within the manor of Bingley before the Conquest. It was then valued at 4 annually, or 1 per carucate, if we exclude the soke, showing how greatly over-rated Bingley was, but it also shews that the land was as valuable here as the average of England in 1066, although the general deduction from Domesday is that land decreased in value going from east to west. In the west also the population was thinnest, but this does not appear to have been the case at Bingley. The number of people and comparative affluence of this district was doubtless in some measure owing to its distinguished ownership before the Conquest. I have spoken of Gospatric, and of the power and influence this noble proprietor of Bingley exercised in English affairs. It was a grand thing, indeed a splendid privilege, in that day to have so great a noble as Gospatric at the head of the estate, because the greater the influence of the 105 lord of the manor and the more freedom and advantages the people really enjoyed, as we learn from the laws of ^Ethelred and Edward the Confessor. Indeed, this lordly influence continued to the advantage of Bingley for several centuries after the Conquest. But to continue the Domesday record. We find that within the soke of Bingley were the following carucates : Beldune (Baildon), two ; Cotingelei (Cottingley), two ; Helguic (Eldwick), one ; Muceltuoit (Micklethwaite), one ; Mardelei (Marley), one ; and Hateltun (Harden), one ; together eight carucates. The demarcation of this judicial area is fixed and certain, yet from the wording of the record we are unable to state the precise nature or manner of the soke, which is not the same everywhere, being affected often by local circumstances. It is safe, however, to conclude that the men of Baildon, Cottingley, &c., were answerable in all pleas of court and other undefined service to their lord, who by the acknowledgment of soke had the right to keep a court and exact suit within the province described. There was in Bingley a considerable area of wood pasture ; in fact, one-fourth of the whole manor was woodland, affording pasture for numerous swine, and providing for the people in times of scarcity oak-mast, &c., for food. The venerable Norman rate-book the oldest rate-book Bingley has to show does not specify, as in the case of many other places, the number of swine these woods will fatten ; but we may be sure that the people of Bingley in 1066 would have a plentiful supply, at any rate, of bacon and bread, not to mention a copious flow of beer, which was consumed in almost every arable parish. Indeed, it has been computed that one-third of the sown land in England contributed to the manufacture of beer. Everybody drank beer ; it was for ages the provision of every meal to everyone but the poorest. In the 13th century we read that the canons of St. Paul's had a weekly allowance of 30 gallons of beer each, and they were by no means a privileged class in the matter of drink. Even so far back as Saxon times, we gather from the laws of Wihtred (A.D. 696) that excessive drinking was so common among clerics that special allusion is made to the fact by 106 the law requiring any priest who is so drunk that he cannot properly perform the rites of baptism to desist from doing so until the Bishop should judge his case (see Boniface Ep. to Cuthbert, 10). On the partition of lands, Erneis de Burun got Gospatric's manor of Bingley, as he also got his manor of Masham. Bingley, however, can have yielded precious little revenue to Burun, as long after the Conquest the district was in a deplorable state. From the earliest Pipe Boll (A.D. 1131) we learn that the whole of Yorkshire had yielded a geld of but 160, or not half the amount of such counties as Wiltshire and Norfolk, though it is obvious from the donum of 2nd Henry II. that Yorkshire was then recovering. Burun was ancestor of the noble house of Byron, which was settled in Lancashire in the reign of King John, on the marriage of the heiress of Clayton, of Clayton. In the Black Book of Clayton there are said to be upwards of 300 charters of the Byron family. The family, failing direct heirs early in the reign of Henry I., lost the manor of Bingley, which, along with many other Burun estates, was given by the Crown to William Paganel, who died about A.D. 1135. He was the founder of Drax Priory, to which he gave the church at Bingley. His brother Elias was Abbott of the neighbouring monastery at Selby. William Paganel, lord of Bingley, had married into the powerful family of Bomille, who, according to the " Castle Evidences " at Skipton, gave name to 'the " great mountain, Bumels Moor." Cecily, daughter of Bobert de Bomille, married William de Meschines (founder of Embsay Priory), brother to Banulph, Earl of Chester, who died ca. 1129. William Paganel's daughter Alicia, who was heiress of her mother, Avicia, daughter and co-heir of William de Meschines, became the second wife of Sir Bobert de Gaunt, Lord High Chancellor of England, and owner of no fewer than 12| Knights' Fees.* He owed 6 10s. for scutage in 1190. This Bobert de Gaunt was lineal ancestor of Matilda, the wife of. Thomas, son of Geoffery Chaucer, the distinguished * See " Glossary of Historical Terms " in the author's Romantic Richmondshire. 107 poet, and author of the grand old Canterbury Tales. His son, Maurice de Gaunt, inherited Leeds and Bingley ; the latter he raised to the status of a burghf, borough, or market town, and obtained from King John in 1212 a charter to hold a weekly market. The said Maurice had concord with the Knights Templars hi the same year. (See Surtees Soc. Pub. vol. 94, page 153 ; also the second volume of the TJwresby Soc. Pub., pages 135 to 141 ; also the fourth volume, containing pedigree of Paganel, of Leeds, showing ancestry of the said Maurice de Gaunt.) The Bingley charter is as follows, and is a copy from the original Charter Bolls, 14th John : GRANT OF MARKET TO BINGLEY. J del gratia &c. Sciatis nos concessimus et hac carta nostra confirmavimus Maurico de Gant quod habeat unum mercatum apud manerium suum de Bingelay singulis septimanis per diem Dominicam, ita tamen quod mercatum illud non sit ad nocunnentum vicinorum mercatorum Quare volumus firmiter precipimus quod predictus Mauricus et heredes sui habeant predictum mercatum in predicto manerio de Bingely in perpetuum bene et in pace libere et quiete cum omnibus libertatibus et liberis consuetudinibus ad hujusmodi mercatum pertinentibus sicut predictum est T. domino P. Winton episcopo W. Comite Sarrum fratre nostro W. Comite Arundell Willielmo Brimerr Hugone de Neuill Johanne filio Hugonis Datum per manum magistri R. de Marisco archidiaconi Northumbr apud Turri Londoniensi xix die May anno regni nostri xiiii. [TRANSLATION.] John by the Grace of God &c. Know ye that we have granted and by this our Charter confirmed to Maurice de Gant that he have one market at his manor of Bingley every week on Sunday. So nevertheless that the same Market be not to the injury of neighbouring markets. Wherefore we will and firmly command that the aforesaid Maurice and his heirs have the aforesaid market in the aforesaid Manor of Bingley for ever well and in peace freely and quietly with all the liberties and free customs to such market pertaining as is aforesaid. Witness the Lord P. Bishop of Winchester W. Earl of Salisbury our brother W. Earl of Arundel William Brimerr Hugh de Nevill John Fitz Hugh. Given by the hand of Master R. de Marisco Archdeacon of Northumberland at the Tower of London the 19th day of May in the 14th year of our reign [A.D. 1212] . This important grant affords another instance of social development under a great manorial owner. Bingley t For an explanation of this term see BOROUGH in Buchanan's Dictionary of Science and Technical Terms. 109 subsequently possessed the right, a very important one at that time, of sending two members to Parliament, although there appears to be no record of the fact until the llth year of King Edward I. (1282), when it was ordered that four knights be sent from each county, and two men from each borough and market town. The Parliament then met at York for counties north of the Trent ; but unfortunately the returns of its constituents have not been discovered. The monks of Drax owned the church, and it is not improbable that the markets were originally held in the churchyard, a custom that was abolished by Act of Parliament, 13th Edward I. (1284). But the old practice, in spite of this enactment, prevailed long afterwards. The Sabbath, too, was the most convenient day for holding the markets in many parishes, where a number of villages lay remote from the church ; and the ways being rough and difficult, there was the great advantage of being able to attend divine service and dispose of produce or make any purchases at one and the same time. The market-day was subsequently altered to Tuesday, but an epidemic of fever, locally known as the " Black Plague," which broke out in Bingley in 1789, sent a great many regular frequenters to Otley, and the Bingley market never afterwards recovered its former importance. The Market House was erected in 1753. Maurice de Gaunt being deprived in 1216, Bingley was retained by the Earl of Chester, who held the manor of the King in capite for the service of half a Knight's Fee. In 1229 it was granted to William de Cantelupe in the terms of the following charter : Henry King &c. greeting. We have inspected the charter of Kandolph Earl of Chester and Lincoln in these words Kandolph Earl of Chester and Lincoln to all present and to come who shall see or hear this present charter greeting know ye that I have given and granted and by this my present charter have confirmed to William de Cantelupe junior for his homage and service the whole vill of Bingelay with all its appurtenances and demesnes services and free [customs] and countrymen with all liberties and easements to the same as well within the vill as without belonging. To have and to hold of me and my heirs to him and his heirs as freely fully and quietly as I the same fully freely and quietly ever had or held the same Saving to me and my heirs the knight's fees which are 110 without to the aforesaid land belonging doing therefore to nae and my heirs from him and his heirs service of half a knight for all service and exaction to me and my heirs from the aforesaid land belonging. And I and my heirs to the said William and his heirs the said land against all men and women will warrant. In witness whereof this present charter strengthened with my seal I have caused him to have These being witnesses Philip de Orreby then justice of Chester Hugh Despencer Walter de Dayuill Emeric de Lacy Bichard Fitun William de Vernun Eudo Kalecot Ralph de Carevill, Philip de Orreby junior Ealph de Say, Eichard de Coventry William de Benigsworth his clerk and many others. We having ratified this grant have confirmed the same for us and our heirs. These being witnesses H. de burg &c. H. Earl of Hereford Philip de Albin Hugh de Neuill Stephen de Sedgrave Ralph son of Nicholas John son of Philip and others. Given &c. at Westminster xxvi. day of February. In 1252, Eobert de Cantelupe obtained the right of Free Warren at Bingley, and in the same year his son George was born at the Castle of Abergavenny, which had been the inheritance of his mother. These Cantelupes were of Norman origin, but the English family was undoubtedly named after the manor of Cantalupe, in Shropshire. Robert de Cantelupe was a Crusader in 1096, and bore for arms lozengy, or and sable. Walter de Cantelupe occurs in the oldest Pipe Eoll, A.D. 1131. The family was settled in Yorkshire at an early period, but does not appear to have had any residence in Bingley. (See my Nidderdale, pages 135, 189, &c.) William de Cantelupe died in 1254, when his son George, the next lord of Bingley, was only two years old. The latter died when he was a young man of 21, and by an inquisition post-mortem, taken in 1273, we obtain an interesting glimpse of the prosperous state of Bingley at this time. BINGELE. EXTENT OF THE LAND, &c., OF GEORGE DE CANTELUPE, made by Robert Vileyn, Hugh de Hannewrth, Simon Vileyn, Hugh de Ledes, John de Kihele, John son of Walter of the same, John de Marthele, Hugh de Leyes, Richard de Marthele, Walter de Harnewrthe, Lovetot de Bingele, John Vileyn, William de Helewike, and John de Gildestede, who say that There is no capital messuage. There is a water-mill worth yearly 8. Formerly there were 30 acres of land in demesne let to farm, which yield with meadow by the year 36/-. A certain meadow there is worth by the year 10/-. Toll with the oven is worth yearly IS/-. Ill There are 21 free tenants who pay yearly 4 Os. 3d., of whom eight do suit at the Court of Bingele from three weeks to three weeks. Eichard de Kihele holds 2 carucates of land in Kihele at 8d. rent, and owes suit to the court. There are in Bingele burgesses who pay yearly 36/5 at Martinmas and Whitsuntide, and bondmen who hold 27 bovates of land with 9 assarts, and they pay yearly at the said terms 4 18s. 9d. The Court of Bingele is worth in common years one marc. Pannage with wood thrown down by the wind is worth in common years one marc. Milisand, wife of Ivo la Suche, and John, son of Henry de Hastings, are heirs of George de Cantilupe ; Milisand of full age, and John aged 15 years. There is no advowson because the Prior of Drax has the church in his own use, and there is not a knight's fee. The jurors know not of whom the said tenements are held. SUM TOTAL ... 23 2s. 9d. A considerable dissertation might be written on the economic facts pertaining to this inquisition, and from it might be drawn an instructive picture of the social and civil life of the parish six centuries ago. In the first place, we are told there was no capital messuage in 1273, although there had been thirty acres of land in demesne, which fact knocks on the head any theory regarding the existence of a tenantable castle or capital mansion-house at this important period. There was a valuable mill (doubtless on the site of the present mill at Bingley Bridge), which must have enforced mulcture from the whole soke, and a good investment it was, surely, to its owner, as its value was equal to a full third of the profits of the whole parish. The lord, too, it will be noted, had a public oven, whereat the tenants were obliged to take their bread, and pay a certain toll called furnage.* Bingley had then its own manor court, which, though the outcome of the feudal system, marked a certain social advance, advantageous to both lord and tenant, and possessing powers not wholly obsolete even at the present day. As there was no aula, or capital messuage, these early courts were doubtless held at an inn. There were both free tenants and tenants in bondage within the manor, and it * There was a public bakehouse in Leeds, at the top of Kirkgate, which in 1609 was worth 120 per annum. It was abolished in Thoresby's time. There was also a similarly ancient bakehouse at Skipton, known recently as " Seddon's House." 112 was at the Court Baron the freeholders only were bound to attend. The bondmen, though paying rent, were mere slaves, held as chattels, like the stock of a farm, and might be bought or sold any time as part or parcel of the estate. This species of servile tenure prevailed in Airedale to a late period, and was not actually abolished by statute till the reign of Charles II. (see my Airedale, page 200, &c.). To continue. George de Cantilupe being dead in 1273, his sister Milisent, who married John de Montalto, inherited Bingley ; but on the death of Montalto, s.p., she married, secondly, Eudo la Zouche of Ashby, co. Leicester, who died in 1289. (William la Zouche was Archbishop of York in 1342.) The manor of Bingley next passed to Alianore la Zuche (see Kivkby's Inquest, A.D. 1284), and in 1302 John de Harcourt, who had married the heiress of Eudo la Zouche, answered for half a Knight's Fee in Bingley, at the rate of 20/-. In 1315, he was returned lord of the manor of Bingley. From him is lineally descended His Grace the Most Eev. Edward Vernon Harcourt, Archbishop of York (1807-47), whose grandson is the eminent statesman, Sir Wm. Harcourt, late Liberal leader of the House of Commons. In 1325, William de Harcourt, at the age of 26, succeeded his father to the manorial title, as appears by a royal grant obtained by an inquisition, dated 19th Edward II.,* taken at Bingley before Simon de Grymmesby, the King's escheator. It then appeared that the manor of Bingley was held of the King in chief by knight service : to wit by homage, fealty, and scutage, when it happens for half a knight's fee for all service. It was also stated that the said manor was then worth per annum in all issues according to the true value 100 shillings. It will be remembered that the revenue of the manor, exclusive of the church, in 1273 amounted to upwards of 23 ; but in the interval up to the date of above grant, 1325, there had been the disastrous inroads of the Scots, following the victory at Bannockburn in 1314. These predatory incursions brought ruin and loss of revenue on many Yorkshire parishes ; Craven was terribly * In 1324 this monarch probably passed through Bingley en route to Skipton Castle (see MOBTON). 113 harried, and Bingley did not escape. The canons of Bolton Abbey, we are told, took refuge in Skipton Castle, though the town was reduced to ashes. The raiders drove away the cattle, pillaged the churches, destroyed the granges, and committed other enormities. Bradford, Guiseley, Knaresborough, and other towns were sacked, and at Hipon they were paid 1,000 marks to save the town from burning. In 1820, Bolton Abbey was again pillaged, and the story we hear in many places is, " There are no tenants, the cottages have been burnt." It was useless sowing corn. In 1825, the lord's dues at Bingley were declared to be worth, " in all issues," 100 shillings, while a few years before (1318), the King having authorised an enquiry to be made as to the amount of damage done by the Scottish raiders, with the object of ascertaining the value of church livings, it was found that Bingley had suffered considerably, and that the living, which in 1291 had been fixed as worth 30 per annum, was now declared to be worth only 22 marks, or 14 18s. 4d. Keighley remained the same as in 1291, viz., <8. Was this spared because the church was supposed to have been dedicated to St. Andrew ? The value of the soke must have seriously declined, and this may have been let out to. farm, as it was not unusual for the King to grant away a demesne manor, and retain not only the exclusive soke (i.e. the soke over the pleas of the Crown), but also the common soke in his hand ; while, on the other hand, a great man may by purchase acquire soke within his own manor or over land not his own (vide Leg. Henr. 20 2). Bingley was held by the Harcourts only till the close of the 14th century, when Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Richard Harcourt, married Sir Thomas Astley, Kt. For more than two centuries the manor was held by this old Staffordshire family.* In 39-40th Elizabeth (1596-7) the manor, with appurtenances, was sold by Thos. Astley, Esq., and Margery, his wife, to Anthony Walker for the sum of 400 sterling. This transfer I shall refer to again in the chapter on CHRONICLES OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. * See Astley Family Collections, including 20 pedigrees, &c. o o 116 BINGLEY DURING THE CRUSADES. [HE importance of Bingley as a centre of religious life before the Conquest (a subject I have discussed on another page) was fully sustained by the interest it afterwards took in the prosecution of the Crusades to the Holy Land. Extensive possessions in our parish were given at a very early date in support of that object. Some gifts were apparently made even before the Priors of Drax obtained the church property within fifty years after the accession of William the Norman. Many of these gifts are of such antiquity that it is now impossible to say how the bulk of the possessions of the Crusaders came to be held by them, and their tenures in many other places besides Bingley go back before the time of the monasteries, though hardly a charter exists to prove when or how they became possessed of their fees. But in the multiplied subinfeudations which took place in the llth and 12th centuries (a practice afterwards restrained by statute) it was not uncommon for the knights to grant out their lands to laymen, who gave them once more to the religious houses in their respective localities. (See Whitaker's Craven, 3rd ed., page 28.) The Priory of Bolton-in-Wharfedale held many estates by this tenure, and in Bingley the brethren of the Hospital of St. John received an annual rent of one shilling for a piece of land lying on the south side of the church, between the road and river Aire, which had been given to the canons of Drax by Richard de Castelhay. These Crusades to the Holy Land, so far as they relate to Yorkshire, are amongst the most remarkable episodes in the history of the county. From the period of the institution of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, some forty years after the Conquest, up to about the year 1260, when Richard Plantagenet, Earl of Cornwall, founded Knaresborough Priory for the purpose 116 of redeeming Christians taken captive during the Crusades, hundreds of thousands of pounds had been expended and hundreds of thousands of lives had been lost in the effort to rescue Palestine from the infidels, which, however, finally fell into their hands in 1291. In the time of Eichard, Coaur de Lion, when public enthusiasm for the salvation of the East reached its zenith, there was hardly a man of substance who was not willing to give away even his last acre, or lay down his life for the cause which all had at heart. It is said that in response to the King's call to arms, thousands mustered under the banners of their respective knights, and swore they were ready to " penetrate mountains and walls of brass," should they (the lords of the soil) but give a nod ! Many a wealthy Yorkshire knight, including many an ancestor of old Bingley families, such as the Gaunts, Cantilupes, Harcourts, Ferrands, &c., made the difficult pilgrimage to the Holy Land, returning, mayhap, with the blunted battle-axe or scars of conflict upon them, and with many a story of strange adventure upon their lips. It was largely the warlike tendencies of the age ; the desire to satisfy the military ardouf for fresh conquests and glory after the settlement of the Norman Conquest, when peace reigned in the land, that brought about these great Crusades. Churches and monasteries were everywhere being rebuilt or established, and the people were daily listening to the story of Our Saviour's sufferings in the Holy Land, and the wrongs and sacrileges which had been perpetrated by the infidels in places specially sacred to the Christians. Without enquiring too closely into the theological aspects of the question, they felt themselves wronged, and thus the whole world of Christians ultimately rose in one grand corps to wreak vengeance on the violators in that remote clime. It was a gigantic craze ; a wild craze ; a Craze with a capital C. Hallam speaks of it as an " epidemical frenzy " ; but it was an epidemic of no short duration, continuing as it did, with more or less severity, for more than two centuries. The Mohammedans were just as firm believers in their own light as the Christians were, and they greatly out-numbered them. 117 They were, too, a turbulent, hardy, warlike race. Both they and the Christians believed, though differently, in a future Paradise, and both thought the certain way to it was by death in battle with an Unbeliever. It was Greek fighting Greek. The first Crusade took place in 1096, when it is computed that from 800,000 to 1,000,000 Christians lost their lives. The western armies were not only ignorant of the character of the country, but were totally unacquainted with the cruel artifices of the barbarous and cunning Mohammedans. Such means of destruction they had never before seen or heard of, and they found themselves unable to cope with the difficulties that surrounded them on all sides. Showers of a fearful consuming liquid, called Greek Fire, met them whenever they got within range of the enemy. The infidels also played many tricks in order to lure the Christians to destruction. On one occasion, a contemporary chronicler tells us, as the two armies were encamped on either side of a river, a Christian observed a large water-melon floating in the water not far from the shore bordering upon the Christian camp. He jumped in, thinking to obtain a prize, when to the consternation of the onlookers he was seen to be dragged rapidly to the opposite bank. The water-melon had been scooped out so as to admit the insertion of the head of a stalwart infidel, who was an expert swimmer, and he dragged his man away to be mercilessly crucified, within sight of his comrades, in the enemy's camp. The suffering, cruelty, and miseries undergone in this single campaign would, one would have thought, have been sufficient to quell the ardour of any further enterprises in the same direction. But otherwise. All who died in the cause were accounted martyrs, and the promise of eternal bliss was vouchsafed to them. Incited by the priests, there was a universal cry for vengeance on the whole race of Mohammed, and so once again men began to array themselves in " the armour of God." In the meantime there was called into existence an order of military monks, whose chief duty was to shelter and attend upon sick and way-worn pilgrims journeying to and from the Holy Land. They were known as the 118 Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, but this St. John was not the Evangelist, nor yet the Baptist, but a certain Cyprist, surnamed the Charitable, who had been patriarch of Alexandria. Shortly afterwards, about A.D. 1120, a second and somewhat similar order was established, called the Knights Templars, or Soldiers of the Bed Cross, because on their habit of white, which was worn over a suit of mail, there was displayed a blood-red cross, this being the symbol of martyrdom. The principal duty of the Templars was to take charge of the highways, and by protecting the pilgrims through the difficult and little-known passes that led to the Holy Land thus minimise the dangers of the road. They also took the field, and were in the van at all the great battles against the Saracens, including those of Gaza, Jaffa, and Ramleh, as well as at the relentless sieges of Jerusalem, and the still more terrible one of that at Acre, when some hundreds of thousands of human lives were sacrificed, and the country and rivers ran with blood. These two great military orders rose rapidly in favour; the people of Bingley, or rather their over-lords, rejoicing in the cause, and within a comparatively short period both the Hospitallers and Templars were in possession of enormous wealth. Between them, it is computed, they owned 28,000 manors and farms, about 19,000 of these belonging to the older order of Knights Hospitallers. In Yorkshire they had extensive properties, and in Bingley some of their possessions can to this day be identified by the stone lanterns and double crosses still preserved on the buildings appertaining thereto. All this vast wealth, amounting to millions of pounds sterling per annum, was squandered in these gigantic and for the most part fruitless expeditions to the East. In 1147, a second Crusade was undertaken, in which the Emperor Conrad III. and Louis VII. of France took part, each with 70,000 cavalry, and an immense number on foot, but nearly everyone perished in the campaign. Then came the third great Crusade, commenced in 1190, in which the flower and chivalry of Europe were engaged, with the three principal European potentates at the head, 119 namely, the Roman Emperor, Frederick II. ; King Philip Augustus of France ; and Richard, Coeur de Lion, King of England, the latter of whom was absent four years, including 14 months spent in prison. The deeds and exploits of this gigantic expedition exceed anything that happened before, and may be compared with anything that is most astonishing and illustrious in the records of history or romance. The chroniclers of the period tell us that the renown of this expedition spread so quickly that tens of thousands of pilgrims, including men of all ages the greybeard and the youth in his teens besides numberless women and children, flocked under the banners of the knights, and prayed to be allowed to accompany the armies in so glorious an enterprise. Monks and priests quitted the cloister for the camp, and exchanging the cowl for the sword, wished to prove themselves truly Christ's soldiers. When in the spring of 1190 the united armies assembled on the field of Vezelai (see illustration on page 114), the spectacle was one of unexampled greatness and splendour. Representing the chivalry and blazonry of three empires, there appeared thousands of mounted warriors, each bearing lance and battle-axe, and upon his shield was pictured the arms or device of his family, while the spears and lances of 200,000 foot-men glittered in the brilliant sun ! Never since in the history of warfare has such vast multitudes been gathered together, united as they were in one common bond, and determined to perish or retrieve the insult that had been given to their guiding Light and Master. Meanwhile Saladin had mustered a vast army of trained warriors, together with the forces of all Asia, from the Tigris as far as India, as well as from the parts between the Tigris and Eiiphrates. Thence and from the southern districts there came hundreds of thousands of swarthy sling-men inured to the hardships of war, followed by troupes of women and their families, even to the babe, bearing and trailing cuffs and chains wherewith to bind the Christians captive, so reckoned they on victory. From Africa, too, there came countless tribes, the Getulians, Nadaburi, and Numidians, who came dancing to war to the spirit-rousing strains of cymbals and pipes ; while from 120 the scorching south streamed hordes of black Moors, or Mawritians, with their bows of bamboo and poisoned arrows. The earth, it is said, trembled under the vast hordes. Thus it was the two great Mahommedan divisions of 'the globe attacked the third and only one which acknowledged the name of Christ. Into the details of this mighty conflict I have not space, nor is it needful, to enter ; sufficient if I make some brief allusions to those Yorkshire families, and particularly to those identified with this district, who participated in it. There was the famous Roger de Mowbray, who was taken prisoner at the desperate battle of Tiberias ; Ralph de Glanville, whose heiress founded Coverham Abbey (he fell at Acre) ; Robert Trussebut, a kinsman of the founder of the Preceptory at Ribston ; the De Stutevilles, owners of the Forest of Knaresboro' ; the De Courtenays and Albemarles, with the knights in their pay ; and Roger de Harcourt, who distinguished himself bravely at the victory in Cyprus. From the chronicles of an eye-witness, Geoffrey de Vinsauf, we learn many particulars of the heroic conduct of the French and English knights, and of the dangers and hardships they suffered in their marches and contests against the Saracens. At the siege of Acre, when an attempt was made to storm the city by a single desperate onslaught of 12,000 fearless Danes not a hundred of whom returned alive we are told of a remarkable incident that happened during the confusion of the Christians that followed. A knight named Ferrand, who had been wielding his battle-axe with great vigour, got hemmed in by a band of Saracens, and was so badly bladed and pierced that he fell, and was left for dead among the heaps of slain. But in the night-time this strong man rallied, and managed with difficulty to reach the camp. But his face was so cut that it hung in shreds, and his body so much gashed and covered with blood that he could not be recognised, and it was some time before the guards accepted him as one of their side and allowed him to pass. Whether this Ferrand was any ancestor or ally of the Ferrands of Skipton and Bingley I do not know, but the Ferrands became janitors, or guards-men, of Skipton 121 Castle under the Earls of Albemarle, and bear for their crest a cubit arm wielding a Crusader's axe. In this part of Yorkshire the Templars were represented by three houses, namely, Temple Hurst, founded by the Hastings family in 1152 ; Temple Newsham, founded in 1181 ; and Ribston, of the foundation of Eobert de Eos, in 1217. In the organisation which the order attained the country was divided into a number of ballias, and in every place where they had considerable possessions they established superintendents, called in this country preceptors (receivers), and in foreign countries more commonly commendatores, whence commanders and cornmanderies. The Knights Hospitallers were also similarly organised, and wherever they had large properties they held their courts and had similar receiving-houses. In and about Bingley they had, as I have said, many estates, and the courts of the manors of Bingley, Crosley, and Pudsey were sometimes held at Bingley and sometimes at the preceptory at Newland, near Wakefield. Portions of this ancient court-house of the Crusaders still remain attached to the present Newland Hall, which, with some 300 acres of land, was purchased in 1860 by the late Mr. Locke from the trustees of Sir Matthew Dodsworth, Bart. About fifty years ago the chapel attached to the preceptory was taken down, and some of its old glass bearing coats of arms was removed to Thornton Watlass. Both the Hospitallers and Templars enjoyed many privileges, immunities, and revenues from various sources, such as the right to hold markets, multure from wind and water-mills, tributes of poultry, eggs, and swine, and services of so many days in a year for ploughing, harrowing, hay-making, sheep-washing and shearing, mending ditches, leading stones, and so on. They were exempt from aids and various kinds of taxes, from stallage and pontage, and from all forced labour on royal parks, castles, or palaces, with right to take timber and essart woods which they possessed within the limits of royal forests, without leave of the royal bailiffs. Their houses also enjoyed the great privilege of sanctuary, by which anyone who had committed a felony or misdemeanour of whatsoever kind was, with 122 certain reservations, safe from harm. This remarkable custom, which is first prescribed by the laws of Ina (ca. A.D. 690), was abolished by King James I. in 1625. From early times all who lived on lands that had been granted to the Crusaders were obliged under a penalty to erect a stone or stones in the form of a double cross upon their houses, or in some conspicuous place in the walls enclosing their domains. This was proof visible of their identity with the Knights of the Cross, and of exemption from such suits and services as I have enumerated. As early as 1345 I find that at the Court of Bingley the Prior of Drax was mulcted in the heavy fine of 3s. 4d. " because he has not erected the cross." As late as the reign of Elizabeth it was still penal to neglect the erection of the cross. Thus at the Court of Bingley held in 1600 it was enforced : That everie man that houldeth any land of this manor shall sett a double crosse of his house or ground at or before the 25th day of March next in the most viewe to be scene that hath not one already, on payne XLs. every man. Such double crosses may still be seen on buildings at Cottingley, St. Ives, and Greenhill, and formerly at Eldwick, &c. Although some of the immunities claimed have become obsolete by an altered state of life, yet some of them are still in force ; never having been annulled by the dissolution of their houses, with the monasteries, in the time of Henry VIII. Many interesting facts concerning these old local properties of the Crusaders are preserved among the records at St. Ives. Thus going back five and a half centuries we learn something of the then tenants of Greenhill, which from its name and documentary evidence must have been cultivated grass-land, amid heathery moors, soon after the Conquest. In 1338, John Heyr acknowledges rent per annum 4d., with arrears for two years of tenements in Greenhill, therefore to levy of the aforesaid John for 8d. for these arrears. The same John also acknowledged rent per annum 2d. for tenements which belonged to Alice, who was wife of John Millison, in Greenhill, with arrears for five years, &c. There had been a steady decline in rents from the time of the wars with 123 Scotland, as I have explained a few pages back, and there was no genuine return of prosperity for fully a century and a half afterwards. In 1338, Ralph, son of Symon, clerk, came to Bingley, and shewed a certain charter, by which he purchased his tenement in the Leys, namely, the Hospital Rode, which contains 6 acres of land, of Hugh le Marshall, but he knows not what estate the aforesaid Hugh has in the said tenement, therefore he places in respect to the next, if the same Ralph had any estate, the aforesaid Hugh held the same. Then in the same year, 1338, we have an inquisition taken by Robert le Longe, William, son of Hugh, Walter of Ravenrode, William, son of John of the Leyes, jurors, who say upon their oath that John of Paris brews contrary to the Assize, therefore he is amerced 6d. Also William atte Kyrksteyel brews and bakes contrary to the Assize, therefore in amercement 5d. William, son of Alan Barkar, brews and is a rogue, contrary to the Assize, therefore is amerced 5d. Again, they say that Roger, son of Richard de Stanbyry, struck and other enormities committed on Ralph, son of Symon, clerk, tenant of the Hospital, therefore he is summoned by letters of citation. In 1345, William of Paris and his wife were fined 6d. for brewing and selling ale contrary to the Assize of the manor. In 1415, Robert Smyth and his wife are similarly fined 4d. for brewing beer and baking bread, whilst Robt. Watson, of Keighley, is fined 2d. for receiving the same. These indictments against Bingley brewers have reference to the precautions that were taken in every manor and in every town and village throughout the country to prevent the adulteration of drink with peony seed, garlic, salt, and other provocatives to thirst, and the ale-house keepers were forbidden to tap their ale until they had given notice to the official ale-taster that they had ale on sale, and until he had certified that it was pure and of proper age (see Fourth Report of Comm. Hist. MSS.J. Ale, as I have before said, formed an important constituent in the daily dietary at this time, when few other drinks were known. Tea and coffee had not been heard of. The 124 law also obliged every ale-house keeper to hang a lantern at his door, which was to be lighted in the dark days until nine every evening, when it was to be put out and the inn closed. Specimens of the old tavern lanterns, cut in stone, may be seen on the farm at Beckfoot, and also on Harden Hall. At the Court of the Prior of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem held at the Commandery of Newland, in 1482, an inquisition concerning certain tenants in Bingley was taken on the oaths of Walter Bayldon, Eobert Wodde, John Wood, and Robert Champynot, jurors. They say that William Stede, Richard Wilkinson, Richard Rawson, John Heton, Christopher Morevill, and Thomas Cromoke owe suit to the Court ; but they came not, therefore each of them is amerced 2d. It is also ordered that each tenant erect a cross upon his land, under pain for each cross not erected 6s. 8d. At the court held 26th August, 42nd Elizabeth (1600), the Jury found that the Probate of all Testaments and the granting of all administrations of all and every person and persons dying under the cross, or upon any lands belonging to the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, doth of right belong to Her Majesty. And that Her Majesty's Steward of the same possessions for the time being hath used " tyme out of mynd of man " to prove the wills and grant the administrations after the death as well of all Her Majesty's free tenants as of all others dying under the cross, &c. The Jury further say that Her Majesty ought to have, after the death or change of every of her free tenants, a " releyf certayne," which is two years' rent. Furthermore, a pain was laid that every tenant belonging to the manor of Cottingley, within Bingley, do from henceforth grind all their corn at Her Majesty's mill in Cottingley growing upon his grounds in his occupation upon pain of every default 6s. 8d. It was also ordered that Thomas Dixon and Walter Kighley do bring in their milner at the next court to be sworn, and that his moulter-dish be tried, and his strike and peck likewise be tried, upon pain of 20s. This was a requirement of the manorial courts for a long period. 125 At the court held at Cottingley, April 3rd, 1616, the Jury present that William Long, Edmund Fairburne, William Scott, William Wright, and John Symson " be common typlers and ale-house keepers," and that they have not kept the Assize of Ale, but sold contrary to the statute in that case provided. Therefore they are amerced as in the statute. The Jury lay further in pain that the administrators, executors, or dealers with the goods and chattels of Richd. Jowet, late of Helwicke, deceased, who died under the cross at Helwicke aforesaid, shall make their appearance here at the next court, and then prove the will of the deceased or take administration of his goods upon pain of 80s. In 1617, at the court held at Cottingley, with William Baildon as foreman, the jurors find that William Francke made affray and drew blood upon William Lange, of Cottingley, and they amerce him 10s. ; viz., 6s. 8d. for the blood, and 3s. 4d. for the affray. They further find that the said William Francke made affray and drew blood upon Steven Francke, his father, therefore 10s. Further, Abraham Willman be amerced 3s. 4d. " for playing football upon the Sabbath." They also find that certain inhabitants of Cottingley have suffered their swine to go unyoked, as it is presented to them, viz. : Stephen Franck, three ; Eobert Lister, four ; William Long, two ; and John Wright, one ; and therefore they are amerced for every swine 6d. All these records reflect the customs and manors of the times. Football, for example, had been a national sport from at least the time of Edward III., and it had been played on the Sabbath ; but pulpit admonitions against the declared profanation of the Lord's Day ultimately led to some restrictions being put upon the practice of this and other games. It is evident they were strictly applied in the Bingley district up to the time of King James' proclamation, published 24th May, 1618, whereby it was ordered that " after divine service our good people be not disturbed, letted, or discouraged from any lawful recreation, such as dauncing, either for men or women, archery for men, 126 leaping, vaulting, or any other such harmless recreation." During the Commonwealth this order was revoked, and the King's declaration burned by the common hangman. In 1619 we have an account, in the form of rents and hereditaments accruing to Eichd. Sunderland, Esq., of Coley Hall, of certain houses and farms in Bingley lately belonging to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. In this rental appears Marley Hall, in the occupation of Wm. Currer, Esq., for which John Eishworth, gent., acknowledges Is. 6d. The same John Eishworth pays 6d. for a tenement in Thwaites occupied by Eobt. Francis Wilkinson, and in Thwaites another tenement, late the lands of Sir Thomas Fairfax, Kt., is paid for by Christ. Hall, 6d. John Eawson has a tenement in Greenhill, for which he pays 5s., and he acknowledges also for parcel of certain lands and tenements called Eoide Field, the old farm above Marley, belonging to Mr. Ferrand, where is a stone bearing the initials and date : I-PW'H'I-H-E-1660, Wm. Whitley pays Is. for a tenement at Greenhill, and there are a number of free rents at Cottingley, &c., paid by the Eawsons and Morvells, of Beckfoot, &c. Also Wm. Baildon pays for one tenement and certain lands in Baildon called Temple Eoide als Temple Eode-ynge and Temple Croft, as tenants-at-will the sum of 4s. Eichard Sunderland died in 1633, and appointed his sons Samuel and Peter executors of his will. Samuel came to reside at Hill End, Harden, and his brother Peter at Fairweather Green. A long list of tenants within the manor of Bingley at this time is interesting, as supplying us with the names of those local families who occupied the lands and houses once belonging to the old Crusaders. It is as follows : AN ABSTRACT OF THE FFYNES AND AMERCEMENTS WITHIN THE MANOR OF BINGLEY FROM 1631 TO 1638. John Savil, gent, for not doeinge his suyte and service for May 1631, xiid ; and for not comeinge to doe his fealty and pay his releife xs ; 2th Deer. 1631 for the like xis ; 24th April 1632 xiid ; 17th April 1633 xis ; 2th May 1634 xiid ; 22th Aprill 1635 xiid, in all 1 16 Lewes Sheffeild, gent, for not doeing his suyte and service for May 1631 xiid ; 2th Dec. 1631 for the like xiid, 127 24th Aprill 1632 for ye like xiid, 17 April 1633 for the like xiid 040 Willm. ffranke, gent, for not comeinge to p'forme the last will of his father for May 1631 xs ; 2th Dec. 1631 for the like xs ; 17th Aprill 1633 for the like xs, and for not doeinge his suyte xiid, 22th Apr. 1635 for ye like xiid 1 12 Thomas Brooke for not doeinge his suyte for May 1631 iiijd, 24th April 1637 for the like iiijd 008 Willm. Kawson for not doeinge his suyte for May 1631 iiijd, 24th of Aprill 1637 for the like iiijd 8 Robt. Emott for not doeing his suyte for May 1631 4d, 2th Dec. 1631 for the like 4d, 24th Aprill 1632 for ye like 4d, 2th May, 1634, for the like 4d, 24th Aprill 1637 for the like 4d, 18th April 1638 for the like 4d 2 Jonas Lister for not doeinge his suyte for May 1631 4d for not comeinge to make his accompts xs ; 2th Dec. 1631 for the like xs ; 22nd April 1635 for not doeinge his suite 4d, 24th Aprill 1637 4d, 18th Aprill 1638 4d. ... 1 1 4 The following are charged "for not doeinge suite." John Whitley Is 8d ; Sam Longbothome 2s ; Henry Lambe Is 4d ; Thomas Townend 2s 4d ; Thomas ffirth Is 4d ; Lawrence Taylor Is 4d ; Anthoney Whitley Is 8d ; John Barber 4d ; Abra. Bines Is 4d ; James Beane 4d ; Stephen Dobson 8d ; James Walker 8d ; John Bairstowe 8d ; Lawrence ffarrer 4d ; Richard Hogg 4d ; Willm. ffisher 4d ; Thomas Angram Is ; John Crabtree 8d ; John Hudson 4d ; Robt. Hardcastle 4d ; Thomas Holdsworth 4d ; Robert Keighley 4d ; Humfrey Hartley Is 8d ; Willm. Hartley Is ; Thomas Morvell Is 4d ; Walter Taylor 8d ; Leonard Exley 8d ; the execr. of Willm. Baildon gent. 2s ; Stephen Slater 4d ; John Rawson 8d ; Robt. Hall 4d ; John Hustler 4d ; Jonas Illingworth Is ; Robt. Blakey 4d ; Stephen Piggells 4d ; Samuel Tennant 4d ; ffrancis Leach 4d ; Symeon Collier 4d ; Richard Snawden 4d ; George Beane 4d ; ffrancis Wilkinson 4d ; in all ... ... 1 12 4 Thomas Mitton of Baildon and Jno. Mitton of Hawkes- worth for not comeinge to make their accompta according to a payne laid, for May 1631 10s ; 2th Dec. for ye like 10s ; 24th Apr. 1632 20s ; 17 Apr. 1633 10s 2 10 James Sagar and Willm. Rawson for a ffine for haveinge the ad in. of the goods of John Rawson deceased graunted unto them 18th of Aprill 1638 10 Jennett Midgley, for a ffine of adm. of the goods of Willm. Midgley her late husband deceased, 18 April 1638 ... 5 Sum of Bingley Estreats 9 14 129 Although the residences of the tenants are not stated, many of them may be identified, such as the Saviles of Marley. It was John Savile who built Marley Hall in 1627, and it was his wife apparently who died there, and was buried at Keighley in 1683. But he is stated to have died at Marley a widower in 1629, and left an only son, Eobert, " a wastrel," who squandered his patrimony, and disposed of his inheritance to the above Samuel Sunderland in 1666. The Sheffields were akin to the Fairfaxes, of Thwaites and Denton ; Mary, daughter of Edmund Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, having married Ferdinando (ob. 1648), father of Thomas, Lord Fairfax, of Civil War fame. The Franks were long resident at Cottingley Hall , Stephen Slater and John Hudson also lived at Cottingley. Anthony Whitley was of Eishworth Hall, and died there in 1689. Jonas Lister lived at Lees in the Hospital Eoyd ; Sam. Longbottom was living at Eldwick "under the cross" in 1619, and in 1634 John Eawson was living at Greenhill, and Wm. Midgley at Marchcote. The Eawsons also lived at the picturesque old farm at Beckfoot, which, according to a date over the doorway, was built in 1617. It was also a property of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, whose symbol of proprietorship is still indicated by the stone lanterns at the gable corners. In the cow-house opposite are some remains of what has been conjectured to be a pre-Eeformation chapel, but the masonry has every appearance of later date. A large pointed arch of substantial masonry occupies the east end, the supporting columns being mortised evidently for the reception of a cross-beam or screen. The walls and roof have been altered and partly rebuilt this century, and only a portion of the north wall is original. It has a doorway (now blocked), and close to it and the "chancel-arch" is an aperture with a basin bottom, which looks not unlike a stoup for holy water. There are no records, nor any traditions, respecting the origin of the building ; but a field at the end of Beckfoot Lane, adjoining Cottingley Bridge, has been known from time immemorial as Chapel Close. 130 BINGLEY IN THE FOUETEENTH CENTUKY. I INGLE Y had never before reached such a high state of prosperity as it did towards the close of the 18th century ; but this was soon afterwards followed by a shocking period of decline. The " victory " at Bannockburn in 1314 put back the dial-hand of civilisation fully two centuries. The Scots invaded Yorkshire, sacked Bingley, destroyed the church (see page 113), no doubt after it had served as a refuge for the people, and, like many another northern edifice of the kind, as a fold for cattle and sheep. The King, Edward II., visited Airedale in 1323-4, obtaining quarter in Skipton Castle, and it must have been with bitter reflections that he viewed the scenes of universal desolation and depopulation that followed these savage inroads on our beautiful and erst prosperous valley. The churches were pillaged and then burnt, villages and houses were abandoned, and the land all over was going out of cultivation. People for a time were wandering about like beggars, and there was poverty and sickness in the land. Bad as things were, David, King of Scotland in 1347 again invaded England, and Yorkshire was ravaged and burnt as far as the city of York. This verily put an end to hope ! Famine was now abroad, and the cruel monster Plague also showed his blackened hand in almost every parish ! Up to 1350 this " Black Death " carried off the people, sparing neither high nor low, and in Yorkshire, we are told, fully half the clergy died from its effects. In 1365 we have the first mention by name of that terrible malady the " small-pox," which played havoc at that time of imperfect sanitation and medical science. The Scottish war-scare having subsided, the people began to concentrate themselves in fresh efforts to recover their former prosperity, but they were sadly hampered by heavy taxation. In the second volume of the Thoresby Society's Publications is a list of Bingley families who contributed to the war-taxes of Edward III., ca. 1830 ; but 181 a good idea of the population of this district at the time may be gathered from the Poll Tax returns of 1878-9, although their value is as important in other ways as that of a census of the place. They furnish us with the actual names, and in some instances with the callings, of the families then resident here, many of whose descendants, it is interesting to note, are still living in the parish. A comparison with the published lists of other West Biding towns shows that Bingley was then much more populous than either Leeds, Bradford, or Halifax, and that the tax it paid exceeded double the amounts contributed by either of these towns. At that period Pontefract, Doncaster, Sheffield, and Selby appear to have been the principal centres of population in the Riding. The following is the Bingley return : Nicholaus de Stansfeld, ffranklan, & ux. (wife), 3s. 4d. ; Johannes Lowcok, hostiler, & ux. , 12d. ; Johannes Chartres, hostiler, & ux., 12d. ; Thomas Collyngworth, talour, & ux., 6d. ; Willelmus de Wyke, carpenter, & ux., 6d. ; Thomas Bosell, sutor, & ux., 6d. ; Nicholaus de Ilton, talour, & ux., 6d. The following married men paid 4d. each : Ricardus del Grange, Johannes Coke, Willelmus Lyster, Willelmus de Rowlay, Johannes Kytson, Adam Wade, Johannes de Ledes, Eicardus Walker, Adam Wilson, Jordanus Thorneton, Willelmus Tumour, Hugo filius Hugonis, Adam Balle, Johannes de Collyng, Johannes de Newerke, Ricardus Talour, Henricus Suter, Johannes Smyth, Johannes Milner, Johannes Vylan, Johannes Yole, Ricardus Lang, Willelmus de Ilkelay, Johannes Judson, Johannes Huetson, Johannes Wade, Johannes Curtays, Henricus Couper, Henricus de Stubbyng, Thomas de Parys, Johannes ffouler, Ricardus Wyn, Johannes Ilkelay, Johannes de Bowland, Petrus Studehird, Thomas Grenehill, Thomas de Brunlay, Johannes Yarkar, Symon del Wode, Johannes Dykehouse, Adam Myryman, Johannes Diconson, Johannes Hanneson, Robertus Ibbotson, Willelmus Dyconson, Adam ffydcok, Johannes ffydcok, Henricus Capiman, Rogerus Webster, Johannes Collyngworth, Thomas fflecher, Robertus Gybson, Johannes Elysson, Ricardus Millner, Willelmus Tumour, Johannes filius Rogeri, Willelmus ffrerson, Adam del Wode, Johannes mecher, Ricardus Hunt, Johannes Kytson, Thomas de Crosselay, Willelmus Sugden, Johannes del Rodes, Johannes del Syke, Willelmus Wyllesden, Thomas de Rode, Johannes Couper, Johannes Dobson, Adam de Rauenrod', Nicholaus de Cottyngley, Johannes de Parys, Henricus del Cote. The following single persons paid 4d. each : Anabilla Collyng, Matilda Blawer, Matilda Costyne, Isabella Balle, Johannes Wade, Cecilia filia Johannis, Johannes Huetson, 132 Matilda Cosyn, Margaret Newerk, Matilda filia Johannis, Cecilia Milner, Johannes seruiens Johannis; Isabella seruiens Thome, Johanna de Scheplay, Matilda Mylan, Agnes del Wode, Alicia de Northall, Alicia ffouler, Johannes ffouler, Matilda de Ilkelay, Matilda de Parys, Juliana Bonet, Eicardus Wyndhill, Eogerous Wade, Hugo Eylyng, Agnes Couper, Willelmus Diconson, Johannes Symson, Willelmus de Pillesworth, Eicardus seruiens Vicarii, Alicia de Preston, Thomas seruiens Vicarii, Alicia de Wyndhill, Eogerus seruiens Johannis, Johannes filius Willelmi, Johanna de Helwyk, Agnes de Claton, Anabilla Blolk, Elisabet de Knapton, Willelmus filius Willelmi, Adam filius Ade, Johannes filius Willelmi, Juliana de Haworth, Agnes del Syke, Matilda Milner, Cecilia de Parys. Married couples, 80 ; single persons, 46. Sum 47s. Whether Bingley actually paid the whole or part of this levy is open to question, as we gather that many towns and districts were utterly incapable of meeting the call through sheer want, brought about by recurring plague and famine, and that remissions were granted to such impoverished places. But the above represents the amount due as by law enacted, which obliged every householder (married couples counting as one) and individual above the age of 16, (notorious and privileged beggars excepted), to contribute their quota of the tax. The clergy and monastic orders do not appear in these lists, which include only the lay gentry, tradespeople, and agricultural classes. It will be seen that in Bingley there were two hostilers, or licensed innkeepers, two tailors, a shoemaker, and a carpenter, but no one followed the important vocation of blacksmith, although the name of Smyth appears, but this person is taxed at the agricultural rate. The bulk of the population, it is plain, worked upon the land. A quarter of wheat at this time I may say sold for 5s The tax had been imposed by Richard II. to carry on the costly wars with France, but we may be sure that the people of Bingley, and the north generally, were little in favour of these wars, and cared little whether Calais belonged to the French or to the English. What with plague and famine and the ravages of the Scots, they were pressed unto death, and it is not surprising that there was a widespread revolt among the peasantry and poorer classes. When work could be paid for, they were thankful to earn ld. or even Id. per day. Again the war-call forced in 1881 133 another tax on the starving people, when the sturdy, independent character of the Yorkshire folk was especially felt. The clergy, too, were in thorough sympathy with them, for they had been taxed at a higher rate than the laity, and many a priest and ill-paid curate was as badly off as the working classes. Wheat was also at famine price, and it was impossible to till and work the land properly. Hundreds set out to the county capital to aid the insurrection there, when the King commanded the sergeant-at-arms to proceed at once to York, and bring to the Council in London the heads of twenty-four of the rioters. Then the people rose en masse, and thousands of famished men and women gathered excitedly under Wat Tyler, who led them to London ; their constant cry and motto being, " We will never be slaves ! " Hundreds, alas ! fell and died from want and exhaustion on the way ; Tyler lost his life in a violent squabble with the royal escort at the abbey of St. Bartholomew, and when the Bloody Assize came on many of those unfortunate beings whose names appear in the Poll Tax lists were laid " shorter by the head," or otherwise put to death. It may be noted that many of the families recorded in the Bingley list of 1378-9 are found among the tenants of the dissolved order of St. John of Jerusalem in the local court-rolls for the year 1338 and 1848, cited in the last chapter. 184 CHRONICLES OF THE SIXTEENTH AND SUCCEEDING CENTURIES. HETHER any Bingley men took part in the celebrated battle of Flodden Field, A.D. 1513, when " Shivered was fair Scotland's spear And broken was her shield," we have no means of ascertaining, as in the manuscript list of Lord Clifford's followers, preserved among the Household Books at Bolton Abbey, Bingley is not mentioned, though Morton Banks is put down as contributing 11 men. Nicholson, the Bingley poet, in his Lyre of Ebor, introduces some of the stalwart heroes of Craven as follows : Old Giggleswick beneath her craggy scar Had fifty sons, who bravely fought in war Stackhouse and Preston, with good bow and bill, Fought with the Brayshaws on old Flodden hill ; The Summerscales from Settle cut their way Through files of Scots on that eventful day ; And Keighley's warriors, led by Smith and Hall, Unparted fought, and made the Northerns fall. Among the 47 Keighley men appear many names common to this district, as Butterfield, Hanson, Shackylton, Hartley, Sharppe, Beanlands, &c. But it is to the Letters and Papers of Henry VIII., some years after Flodden, that we must turn before finding the actual names of Bingley men who were liable to be called to action. In a muster taken at Wyke, near Harewood, 26th March, 1538, before Sir Wm. Gascoigne, &c. (vide Thoresby Soc. Pub.), there appears the following " abyl persons " in the township of Bingley : George Pasloo, horse and harness, a sperman, abyll person. [By the Statute of Winchester, A.D. 1284, which was repealed in 1553, every man was bound to provide and keep armour and weapons according to his estate or goods.] Thes be archers, abill men, horsid and harnessed : John Beyne, Henry Wylkynson, John Long, John Tomlyngson, John Markytrod, John Wood, Christofer Stansfeld, John Wylson. 135 Thes be archers, abyl men, parcell harnassed and horsed : John Bawson, a horse, Willm Hollyngrake, a horse, John Laycoke, a horse. Thes be billmen, abyll persons, horsed and harnassed : Antony Foster, John Beyne, Thomas Lyster, John Mylner, John Harvye, Thomas Leth, Wm. Beyn, Gyles Beyn, Bichard Kyghley, Thomas Moberley, John More, John Hollyngrake. The " abyl men " of Morton are likewise given. This was the stormy period of the Ke formation. In 1536 Henry VIII. dissolved more than 300 of the lesser religious houses whose incomes did not exceed 200 a year, and this was followed by the suppression of the larger monasteries, and the appropriation of an immense revenue. The dissolution came as a hard blow, especially upon the poorer agricultural classes, who were largely dependant upon the monasteries. Thousands found themselves without any kind of employment, and the roads became filled with freebooters, sham pedlars, gipsies, &c., while many endeavoured to eke out a subsistence as wandering minstrels, pipers, &c. These became so numerous and troublesome that it was ultimately necessary to pass an Act whereby " all tinkers, gipsies, pipers, and fiddlers wandering abroad " were to be apprehended by the constables and watchmen and taken before the nearest magistrate, to be dealt with according to law. In the Bingley Parish Kegisters for April 13th, 1595, appears the baptism of Isabel, daughter of Eaulphe, the piper, and in 1608 is Robert Hodgson, a piper, buried. In the Leeds Parish Registers, under date July 29th, 1592. is the burial entry of John Morvell, fidler, of Bynglay, doubtless one of the Cottingley Morvell s. At the back of the White Horse inn, Bingley, is a piece of land known as " Piper Acre," which may have something to do with events of this period. There were no monasteries at Bingley, but the monks and canons of various religious houses had large properties in the parish. Queen Mary in the 4th year of her reign, 1557, also revived the old order of Knights Hospitallers, and endowed it with lands in this neighbourhood that had never been sold, including the manor of Cottingley and lands in Baildon, Harden, Bingley, &c. Little progress, however, was made around Bingley in the way of house building until the very close of Elizabeth's reign, and the 136 poor must then have lived in wretched hovels. To remedy matters but, unfortunately, it had often the opposite effect it was enacted that no cottage was to be built unless " four acres of ground at the least " be appurtenant to it, and this old law survived until comparatively recent times (see Jacob's Court Keeper's Guide, p. 35). The following laymen in the township of Bingley contributed to the levy laid by the despot King Hal in 1523 : Thomas Magelay, for goods, 20s. ; John Bene, for goods, 5s. ; Antony Eltoftes, gent., for lands, 10s. ; Thomas Eltoftes, labor, 4d. ; Chrystofer Kauson, for lands, Is. ; Thomas Morgatroyt, for lands, Is. ; Boger Thornton, for goods, Is. ; Hie. Wilkynson, for goods, Is. ; Edward Fether, lab., 4d. ; John Elyngpage, lab., 4d. ; William Bristo, lab., 4d. ; Robert Bygheley, lab., 4d. ; John Martlay, lab., 4d. ; John Ferandes, lab., 4d. ; Henry Magelay, lab., 4d. ; Antony Foster, lab., 4d. ; William Long, lab., 4d. ; John Morgatrowyd, for lab., 4d. ; Hugh Glover, lab., 4d. We do not gather what was the amount of the rate, but it was a percentage on the movable possessions of the tax-payer, as also in some instances on lands, and in others on the value of a man's labour. There was little chance of escape indeed for anything that could be taxed. The ashes of disaffection continued to smoulder for generations after the Reformation ; indeed, the dissolution of monasteries by Henry VIII. upset the peace of England for fully 150 years. The great contest between King Charles and his Parliament was fundamentally a religious war. The Puritan party dreaded any reassertion of the Roman Catholic autocracy, and so it was largely the desire to uphold and strengthen the Protestant religion that led to the peoples' revolting against their lawful King, who was perforce a High Churchman. When THE CIVIL WAR broke out Bingley sided with the Parliament, although there were not a few who honestly liked the King and his indulgent ways, who loved feasts and mirth better than fasts and psalmody; who, as we have seen in our court-rolls for this period, revelled in field games and the fun of May Day and in sports which the stern soul of 137 Puritanism was fain to repress. But over the moors in Wharfedale there lived the great Ferdinando, Lord Fairfax, a sedate, austere, but able and zealous Puritan, and it was to his nod that the people bowed. He was a property owner in this neighbourhood, and, singularly, was one of the very few noblemen in the north who rose in arms against the King. When it became known that he was to lead the Parliamentary army in the north, men in this district, and in the Aire valley generally, between Keighley and Bradford especially, gathered round him, for everyone had faith in his ability and experience. His family was blazoned with martial achievements, and had a fine old military fame ; his grandfather, Sir Thomas Fairfax, was with Bourbon at the sack of Kome, in 1527, and his son, Thomas, was knighted for valour before Rouen. Lord Fairfax enlisted under him the Currers of Kildwick, Gawthorpe, and Marley, the Drakes of Coates, the Lamberts of Malham, the Listers of Thornton, and other heads of leading houses in these parts. His son Thomas, who succeeded to the title on his father's death in 1648, was made a Captain of Horse, and subsequently this adroit and valorous soldier rose to high distinction, becoming eventually General of the Parliamentary forces throughout England. At this time Henry, Earl of Cumberland, of Skipton Castle, was Lord- Lieutenant of Yorkshire, and to him there fell the onerous duty of rallying his Majesty's forces for the defence of the country, and for the "repression of the enemies of his Majesty's peace." On the issue of his proclamation, he was loyally supported by the flower of the nobility in the north. Abraham Sunderland, elder brother of Samuel Sunderland, of Harden, whose monument is in the tower of Bingley Church, joined the Royalist forces, and died in the siege of Pontefract Castle, March 25th, 1644, leaving a son and heir, Langdale Sunderland. The latter was a Captain of Horse under Marmaduke, Lord Langdale, and on the accession of the Commonwealth paid dearly for the part he took on the side of the King. The war, so far as it affected this district, really opened at Bradford, in December, 1642, when, as Joseph Lister, 188 the historian of the Siege of Bradford (who at one time lived at Bingley), tells us that a number of horsemen on the approach of the enemy were at once " despatched to Halifax, Bingley, and the small towns about, who came with all speed with such arms as they had, and did much service." Captain Hodgson, of Halifax, came to their aid, " a man of military skill, who instructed us in the best manner possible how to guard and fortify ourselves." The Eoyalists had pitched their tents " on that part of the common called Hundercliffe, in three separate bodies, where they entrenched themselves." They next approached Barker End, some 300 paces from the church, and raised a battery against it ; but the steeple had been protected with wool-packs, and garrisoned by some of the best marksmen, one of whom succeeded in killing one of the enemy's canoneers. Then they made a rush on the enemy's camp, and there was a harid-to-hand fight, the defenders of the town being mostly armed with clubs, scythes, spits, flails, sickles fastened to long poles, and such like rustic weapons. It was a deadly struggle, in which victory hung in the balance until a furious onslaught of Bingley club-men dealt so severe a blow that the Royalists, crushed and defeated, were compelled to fall back on their trenches. While this was going on at Bradford, the castle at Skipton had been garrisoned with a force of 300 men, under Sir John Mallory and his lieutenant, Major Hughes. Subsequently there was a good deal of skirmishing from Skipton in different directions, and in the Keighley Parish Registers for 1643 to 1645 are various burial entries of soldiers slain on the moors, &c. On February 17th, 1645, a party of about 150 horse from the Skipton garrison, led by Major Hughes, fell suddenly upon the Parliamentary quarters at Keighley. They had learnt of Colonel Brandling's absence, and entering the town took about a hundred prisoners, sixty horse, and other plunder. But Colonel Lambert, hearing of the attack, was soon on the spot, and after a severe encounter succeeded in recovering the prisoners and most of the booty. The conflict is believed to have taken place on the old Corn Mill Bridge ; Guard House being the site of the Parliamentary camp, 189 where sometime since a lead cannon-ball was found. Major Hughes in this encounter was badly wounded, and his burial is recorded in the Skipton registers for Feb. 19th, with the encomium, "a most valiant souldier." During the siege of Skipton Castle, which continued for fully three years (1642 to 1645), the forces of the Parliament were much harassed by sallies from the Royalist garrison. It is very probable that the traditional battle of Harden Moor took place at this time, but there appears to be no documentary evidence whatever of any encounter here. There are, however, traces of a line of excavation a little to the west of the Druids' Altar road, which has been always known as " Fairfax Entrenchment." It extends southwards as far as the long Pan Hole cave, which some think is part of the entrenchment covered in. Also in the fir wood adjoining, a short distance beyond the high wall, are a number of mounds, lying east and west, which are reputed to be the graves of about a hundred soldiers, slain perhaps during a night attack of the King's forces. When this piece of ground was planted by the late Mr. Ferrand, about sixty years ago, he gave orders that the mounds, which were then very distinct, were not to be disturbed ; the space was therefore kept open, and the graves are now much concealed by an overgrowth of grass and heather. Perhaps some day a little investigation may be made of the ground to ascertain the truth of the tradition. At the corner of a wall on the moor is the stump of the old " Fairfax Pinnacle," erected as a memorial of the battle. While the Eoundheads remained on Harden Moor, Lord Fairfax or his son lodged at Harden Hall, and an old stone table in the garden is said to have been used for writing despatches upon. It is octagonal in form, and is now in the summer-house at St. Ives, and bears this inscription upon a brass plate : " This table was at Harden Hall when the troops under General Fairfax were encamped at Harden Moor, MDOXLII." Some years ago a bullet was found in a rhododendron bed at St. Ives, near the scene of the traditional conflict, and in 1890 a sword with recurved blade, 36in. long, and iron hand-guard, was found partly embedded in turf on the moor between Morton and Ilkley. 140 The great turning point in the events of this horrible warfare was the decisive battle of Marston Moor, when 50,000 men of one blood, one tongue, servants of one realm, including the flower of the gentlemen of Yorkshire, and the best bone and sinew of her hardiest sons, drew swords upon each other in mortal combat.* Having collected a force in Lancashire, Prince Rupert hurried through Craven by way of Skipton and Bolton Bridge towards York, taking with him some of the garrison from the Craven stronghold. The writer has an old sword, with wooden handle and iron hand-guard, which is said to have been used by one of his ancestors at this fatal conflict. The man, named John Moorhouse, was one of the Skipton garrison, and a member of an old Craven family, which had been settled in Skipton parish from at least the time of Bannockburn. He appears to have gone north and returned with the Earl of Newcastle's army in 1642. His sword was kept by the Moorhouses at the family home at Skibden, near Skipton, from the time of the war till 1747, when they removed to Elslack, and the sword remained there, with other coeval relics, till about 1870, when the present writer obtained them from his great-uncle, John Moorhouse. The latter's grandfather, John Moorhouse, was born at Skibden in 1729, and died at Elslack in 1807. He had two sons, Thomas and John, and a daughter, Nancy. The latter married Richard Ayrton, of Scale House, Rylston, whose daughter Ellen married Wm. England, of Bingley Corn Mills, and from whom descend the present families of England of Bingley. A daughter of John Moorhouse married James Haggas, of Keighley, from whom the present family of Haggas of Keighley descend. Thomas, the elder brother, had a daughter, Nancy, who is the present writer's grandmother. She * Mr. Ferrand, of St. Ives, has a copy of a MS. that belonged to the late Mr. Wm. Murgatroyd, which appeared to be a fragment of an original Order Book of the Council of the Northern Parliamentary Army. It had formerly belonged to Captain Ibbetson, of Bradford, who left it, with other valuable manuscripts, to two maiden sisters, and by them the whole were destroyed, except the remnant copied, which fills about 20 folio pages of Mr. Ferrand's MS. volume. There is, however, nothing in it appertaining to this neighbourhood. 141 married John Aldersley, of the family of Aldersley of Lothersdale, owners of the limestone quarries and barytes mines, inherited by the Spencers through marriage with the daughters of Peter Aldersley, of Raygill. (See the author's Airedale, page 215.) After the battle of Marston, which was fought on the 2nd of July, 1644, some of the Royalist army fell back upon York, and others returned to Skipton. Prince Rupert's hot-headedness is acknowledged to have lost the day. His men were led immediately into action after the fatigues of a hot summer day's march, and many of them succumbed as much from exhaustion as from their wounds. The wells at Marston, it is said, were drunk dry. Many of the men who managed to struggle back into quarters died soon afterwards. The parish registers at Skipton record the burial of the above John Moorhouse on July 27th, 1644, or twenty-five days after the battle. He is described as a " soldier," while the Parliamentary men in these registers are invariably described as " rebels." Cromwell returned by way of Otley to Skipton, either through Morton and Bingley, where his friends were numerous, or by the road through Addingham. The Bingley registers do not contain many evidences of the conflict. In 1647 there are two entries of soldiers buried, but this was after the King was a prisoner of the Parliament. The Parish Books also contain items of payment to lame or wounded soldiers in Bingley during the time of the Commonwealth. But alas ! for the short-lived Puritan rule. The speedy restoration of the monarchy under Charles II. showed that the Government which preceded it was not suited to the spirit of the times. The people still clung to the old ways, they loved their feasts and May-games ; so when it came to pass that the King was proclaimed, joy-bells pealed from tower and steeple throughout the land as augurs of happier times, and the old parish accounts show that Bingley shared in the national hope and rejoicing. Before the 29th of May, 1660, when the streets of London were carpeted with evergreens and flowers, and many an old English village was gaily decorated with May-bloom and 142 posies, even the grave Lord Fairfax rode out of Wharf edale to smile benignantly upon the King. He submissively asked, we are told, pardon for all his offences, kissed the royal hand, and presented him with a beautiful horse from his own stud, upon which the King deigned to ride gaily to his coronation. I should state that at the close of the Civil War, and up to the year 1672, there was a scarcity of copper coinage in England, and certain tradespeople were permitted to issue their own pence and half-pence. Several persons did so at Bingley, including a certain " John Tomson, shoomaker," whose half-penny, dated 1663, is figured in Bowman's Yorkshire Tokens. The respected chairman of the Bingley Free Library Committee (Mr. Jesse Thompson, bootmaker, in the Main Street) tells me that this was probably an ancestor of his, as his family have been shoemakers in the district for many generations past. Mr. Thompson also informs me that he has seen another copper trade-token of one Thomas Smith, of Bingley, dated, he thinks, 1666, but I have failed to discover any further information about it. A remarkable method of raising money for imperial purposes at this time was the obnoxious Hearth Tax, which was a charge of 2s. on every hearth or stove in all dwelling-houses except cottages. It was first imposed in 1662, and repealed after the revolution of 1688. In the Thoresby Society's Publications (vol. I. pages 186-7) is a list of those who paid the tax in Bingley, amounting in 1672 to 434 hearths. I have said, on page 113, that the manor of Bingley belonged to the Walkers, of Gawthorpe Hall. The transfer in 1596-7 included 12 messuages, 12 tofts, 12 cottages, 12 barns, one water-mill for corn [the old mill mentioned in 1273], one fulling-mill [these mills were erected by statute in 1376, as no woollen cloth was to be exported before it was fulled], 12 gardens, orchards, 140 acres of land, 50 acres of meadow, 100 acres of pasture, 20 acres of wood, 1,000 acres of furze and heath, acres of moor, 500 acres of turbary [peats for fuel], 500 acres of mossy ground, and 100 sohdates of rent, with appurtenances in Bingley, Micklethwaite, Gilstead, &c. It was probably this Anthony 143 Walker who rebuilt the old house at Gawthorpe, which continued for a century and half afterwards to be the residence of the lords of the manor. The above description of the manorial property more than bears out the assertion that one-third of the whole of England was moor and waste in the time of Queen Elizabeth. At Bingley the proportion of moor and moss to the cultivated area looks excessive, but the population it is obvious was proportionately small, as appears by the number of messuages and cottages. There must then have been a fair reach of woodland on the Priesthorpe side of the town, and a small vestige of this old forest tract still remains. Fish in the river and game on the moors must have been plentiful at this time. Doubtless a good many sheep were maintained on the wastes, too, as wool was in great demand locally ; many neighbouring towns, such as Leeds, Halifax, Bradford, and Wakefield, were at this time, Leland tells us, " standing by clothing." There were several thousand acres of moorland, and the heather probably at one time descended nearer the town than it does at present. A small patch still exists near the park gates. May this bright spot of golden furze and purple heather of Nature's planting long continue here as a reminder of Bingley in the olden days ! Before the Civil War the manor had been acquired by Hugh Currer, Esq., of Marley, a connection of the family of Currer who purchased the manor of Kildwick in 1558. His cousin, Henry Currer, of Holling Hall, co. York, left a family of two sons and two daughters ; the younger of the latter was Elizabeth, who married Nicholas Walker, of Gawthorpe Hall. Anthony Walker died in 1629, and there was a Nicholas Walker, apparently his son, who died before him in 1617, and was buried at Bolton Abbey. During the Commonwealth Henry Currer, grandson of Hugh, was living at Gawthorpe Ball. He sold the manor of Bingley in 1668 to Robert Benson, father of the first Lord Bingley, who had purchased the manor of Elslack shortly before. When the Treaty of Seville had been completed in 1729, the roads in England, we are told, were full of 144 disbanded soldiers. John Walker was at this time Recorder of Leeds. Thoresby mentions that he was the son of John Walker, of Headingley, who was descended from " a very ancient family formerly residing at Gawthorpe Hall, Bingley." If the family was " very ancient " in Thoresby 's time, it must have been of some standing long before the Reformation and the date of parish registers. The Bensons were living at Red Hall, near Wakefield, when they purchased the manor of Bingley, and, Robert Benson, son of the purchaser, was a gentleman who occupied a prominent position in the State. He was some time Chancellor of the Exchequer, and was raised to the peerage in 1713 by the title of Baron Bingley, of Bingley, co. York. He built the mansion at Bramham Park, and established the famous pack of fox-hounds. Occasionally he came to Bingley and resided at Gawthorpe Hall. He died in 1731, and was interred with much honour in Westminster Abbey. His wife, Dorothy, was a daughter of Toby Jenkins, Esq., of Grimston, by his wife Ann Wickham ; whose granddaughter, Mary Jenkins, married at York, in 1707, Sir Henry Goodricke, of Ribston. His son, Sir John Goodricke, M.P. for Ripon, who died in 1789, aged 81, held through his wife, Mary, a natural daughter of Lord Bingley, the Bingley estates for life. The same Sir John Goodricke, by warrant dated 6th Oct., 1773, appointed James Willoughby, of Guiseley, one of his gamekeepers within his manor of Bingley. (See Publications of the Harleian Socy., vol. 38, for pedigree of Lord Bingley ; also C. A. Goodricke's History of the Goodricke Family). Lord Bingley 's daughter, Harriet, married in 1731 George Lane Fox, Esq., who was elevated to the peerage in 1762 by the title of Baron Bingley, of Bingley, co. York. He left an only son (described in the Wakefield Sessions Records for July, 1765, as the " Hon.- Robert Lane, Esq., lord of the manor of Bingley"), who dying in 1768, without issue, the estates descended to his cousin, James Lane Fox, Esq., of Bramham. His grandson, the late George Lane Fox, Esq., the popular sporting squire of Bramham, succeeded to the lordship of Bingley, &c., in 145 1848. He retained the old manor house at Gawthorpe until 1854, when it was sold to the late Mr. John Horsfall. Mr. Fox died in October, 1896, aged 79. He had at different times disposed of extensive properties at Bingley. and in 1882 the Bingley Improvement Commissioners bought from him the market rights for the sum of 800. Mr. Fox occupied in many respects a unique position in Yorkshire country life, and the following abstract from the Field for Nov. 7th, 1896, will be read with interest : Mr. George Lane Fox, who was born in the year 1816, was the only son of Mr. George Lane Fox, of Bramham, his mother being a daughter of Mr. Edmund P. Buckley, of Hampshire. The deceased gentleman was educated at Eton, afterwards going up to Christ Church, Oxford, where he followed, as frequently as opportunities allowed, one or other of the packs which hunt almost up to the gates of that city ; and at Oxford it was that he gained his first experience of mastership, for he was master of the " House " pack. At that time stage coaching was about 'at its best, and Joe Tollitt, who died some years ago, used to speak of Mr. Lane Fox and Lord Macclesfield as two of the best pupils he or Will Bowers (commonly known as " Black Will ") ever had in the undergraduate population of the University. Will Bowers was one of the heavy division, Tollitt was a light man, while Mr. Lane Fox exceeded them in weight as much as he over-towered them in height. He was one of the early members of the Four-in-Hand Driving Club, and in years gone by used to bring his coach to town for the season, when he frequently turned out in the Park with his club, while for a long time he never missed driving his team from Bramham to Doncaster during the St. Ledger meeting. On the box he sat as gracefully as he did in the saddle, and, in the days when he used to go, no more elegant rider for so big a man was ever seen in the hunting field, either in Yorkshire or anywhere else. In 1837 he married Katherine, daughter of Mr. E. Stein, M.P. She died in 1873, and since that day the master of Bramham never exchanged the black coat he then donned in the field for the pink which he had previously worn. A countryman born and bred, Mr. Lane Fox was an admirable landlord, and no service of plate that ever yet formed the subject of a testimonial spoke so eloquently of success as the fact that about the year 1856 the whole body of Mr. Lane Fox's tenantry' came forward and offered to raise their rents for him.' That complimentary offer was declined in kindly and grateful words, but the tenants, with their hearts full, presented Mrs. Lane Fox with a portrait (by Sir Francis Grant) of her husband mounted on his fine horse Courtier, together with an address. This was surely a compliment of which any man might be proud.* * Portraits of Mr. Fox appeared in the Illustrated London News and Black and White for Nov. 14th, 1896. -.If 147 THE PARISH CHUECH. " Ye everlasting piles I Types of the spiritual Church which God hath reared." Wordsworth. | BIHTEN God mildsa thu saulum ussa leoda " [Lord God, have mercy on the souls of our people], was the dying utterance of the Christian King Oswald as he fell in battle against the heathen King Penda, A.D. 642. It is the first recorded cry of a Saxon Christian, and became a household prayer in Northumbria long afterwards. Penda fell at Winwsed (Whinmoor), near Leeds, in 650, and with him fell paganism in Yorkshire for ever. Christianity, as I have previously related, then most likely reached this district. Twelve monasteries were founded in Northumbria in commemoration of the event, and of these the house of St. Heiv (Ive), at Healaugh, near Tadcaster, exercised its ministry over a wide area of the surrounding dominion. St. Heiv, as Bede tells us, was really the first woman in Northumbria who embraced the monastic life. She was a woman of considerable influence in the work of Christianising the heathen population of Yorkshire, and founded the monastery at Heruteu (Hartlepool) before A.D. 649. Anxious to extend her sphere of usefulness in the west, she established herself at Healaugh (Heiu-lagh?), and was succeeded at Hartlepool by the celebrated St. Hilda. ST. HEJV'S MONASTERY. From what I have said of the Celtic occupation of Bingley, and the boundaries then fixed and determined by the edict of A.D. 680,* and retained ever afterwards as the limit, civil and ecclesiastical, of the parish, deanery, and wapentake, it is more than probable that St. Heiv had established a cell from her monastery at Healaugh on the verge of the now Christian province of Elmet. This would be the .old St. Ive's, in the territory of Harden * See Newman's ed. of Fleury, vol. I., p. 51. 148 (perhaps Hilda's bounds ; but see page 64) within Elmet, which extended, as already explained, from near Sherburn and Tadcaster to the western boundary of the parish of Bingley. But in the quest of our monastery at St. Ive's we have in truth to grope through a valley obscured in the densest mist of mediaeval ages, and to try and make the light shine where all is darkness. But we must not despair ! There are several aids to our endeavour ; the stories to wit of contemporary chroniclers, the precious but barbarously used rune-stone now in the church, and the ancient name of St. Ives, a name full of meaning, apparently little corrupted, which still clings to the locality. Nennius, who lived in the 8th century, tells us that Ceretic was the British King of Elmet, and that Edwin, the Christian King of Deira, expelled him, and annexed his kingdom to his own, which included Yorkshire, ca. A.D. 620. The annexation was fruitful of good alike to civil and religious progress, and never before had this territory enjoyed such happiness and freedom from the danger of enemies as during this good King's reign. A woman with her new-born babe, it is said, might have walked from one extremity of his dominion to the other without fear of molestation (see also the author's Richmondshire, page 358). This annexation took place during the archiepiscopate of the venerable St. Lawrence, and the motive appears to have been revenge for the treacherous death of Edwin's nephew, Hereric, who had been poisoned by order of Ceretic while sojourning in Elmet, whereof Bingley was part. Hereric was the father of St. Hilda, the successor to St. Heiv at the monastery of Hartlepool, and afterwards at Whitby. St. Hilda died in 680, and Mr. Holmes thinks she has left her name in the Bingley Harden, which in Domesday is spelled Hateltun.* Of St. Heiv locally we know but little. In the year 1842 an ancient and peculiarly sculptured stone cross was dug up in Healaugh churchyard, bearing the name MADUG (a Celtic priest) on the dexter side of the stem and HEIV * Harden, in the parish of Clapham, in Yorkshire, is in Domesday suggestively spelled Heldetune, i.e. Hilda's town. 149 on the sinister side. As the synod of Whitby in 664 did away with the Celtic priesthood, the stone is doubtless of an age anterior to this date. Accepting, therefore, these facts of the establishment of Christianity by St. Heiv in these parts, the monastery, or cell, at Bingley must prior to 664, when the Romish principle was adopted, have been built and reared on the old British Christian methods. During the latter part of this same century the Northumbrian Church was, as Dr. Bright justly observes, conspicuously the backbone of the Church of England. But now let us turn to THE BINGLEY RUNE STONE, which Professor Stevens, of Copenhagen, bravely maintains is an Anglo-Saxon font, and which the Rev. D. H. Haigh as stoutly asserts is the base of a memorial cross. I am sorry I can agree with neither of these conclusions, and briefly for the following reasons: (1) The remarkable variance in the reading of the inscription by these two authorities ; (2) the absence of any evidence as to the existence of such like fonts of the age of this stone ; (3) because the hole in it is of later date, having been driven horizontally at one end right through the interlacing pattern, which was thereby damaged and partly broken away. Is it likely that if the hole was coeval with the inscription and ornament that this " labour of love " would be so ruthlessly spoilt ? (4) that it is not the base of a cross because of the internal shape of the stone, its sides sloping inwards ; (5) because of the rebate round the brim of the aperture, as if a lid, which I contend has fitted it, and (note) there are no traces of fastenings ; (6) because both fonts and memorial-stones of the character implied by the authorities named are absolutely unknown. The latter, however, is not a fatal objection, as we possess so very few objects in stone of this period that it would be unwise to reject them wholly on this ground. But we learn from Bede (who died in 735) that stone fonts were not used in his time. Professor Stephens, however, reads the inscription as follows : EADBIERHT, KINO, HOTE [ordered] TO HEW THIS DIP STONE FOR us. BID [pray thou] FOR HIS SODL. 151 Whereas Father Haigh's rendering is : EADBKRHT SON OF EATTA KINO DTTBBED A GRACIOUS BAN. ONGOS VISITED BlNGLEY. Thus it will be seen that they agree only in respect to the first word of the inscription, which, with all due respect to their special knowledge, means that the remaining. portion might be construed to mean anything else. The fact is the inscription appears to be hopelessly lost, being so far obliterated that "the best men may differ, and widely differ, as to its meaning." .(Vide Stephens.) It is a pity that Professor Stephens has neglected to reproduce in an engraving the actual inscription itself, while he furnishes (vide " Eunic Monuments ") engravings of his own and Father Haigh's renderings.* Eadberht, who was King of Northumbria, reigned from 737 to 758, when he abdicated for pure love of religion, and became a canon in his brother Egbert's metropolitan church at York. It may thus be argued that Bingley being an important centre of Christian missionary work at this period (which no doubt it was), the King, with the consent of the Archbishop, ordered this " dip-stone " to be made, with the view to promote the rite of baptism in his dominion. But, as I have said, fonts of this pattern were at that time unknown, all those which were made down to the Norman Conquest being capacious enough to admit of total immersion, according to the canon of the Church. The laws of Ine (A.D. 690) certainly ordain the baptism of infants within thirty nights from birth ; but this was done by the administrator in the open bath, nor have we any certain knowledge of baptism by sprinkling from the small font until after the erection of the new churches in Norman times. In the seventh century thousands were baptised in the open rivers. Father Haigh's reading, I agree, fits admirably with the history of the time, but the shape of the stone strongly opposes his theory with regard to its use as the socket of a cross. At the rune end the external measurement at the top is 32 inches, and internal 17| inches, while at the opposite end it is 25 and 15 inches respectively ; thus the * His omission is provided for by the illustration opposite. 152 irregular slope of the cavity, with its sloping interior, is quite unsuited to hold the upright shaft of a cross. Moreover, the rebate round the edge of the cavity has, I do not doubt, been made to receive a cover ; and as there are no indications of fastenings such as the protection of holy water would require, I shall venture the opinion that it was no font, but nothing else than a relic chest, and that the inscription has not been correctly read. There were, of course, other Eadberhts and Eatas besides those suggested by Father Haigh. There was an Eadberht, Bishop of Lindisfarne when the twelve northern monasteries I have mentioned were founded (ca. 650). He it was who caused the tomb of St. Cuthbert to be opened, and the body to be re-laid in a new shroud in a wooden chest, and set above the pavement as a shrine. Eata was also Bishop of Lindisfarne (the oldest of the Northumbrian monasteries) when the seat, of the northern episcopate was removed to York, where it remained till A.D. 678. Eata received from the King of Deira (in which province Bingley was situate) an estate of 80 or 40 hides at Kipon for the erection of a monastery, afterwards held by the sainted Wilfrid. Wilfrid visited Home in 679, knelt at many shrines, and viewed the venerated cist holding the precious relics of the Christian martyr, St. Lawrence. Many relics he brought back with him, together with many other things " for the adornment of the house of God," including & fivivilegium for the monastery at Bipon. Again he visited Rome in 704, and brought back " a store of relics duly catalogued." He was a zealous, able, and active churchman, "riding about incessantly to baptize and confirm, holding ordinations, and forming new church settlements," as we learn from the venerable Eddi, the contemporary biographer of Wilfrid. In the face of these facts, and of the actual object itself, I hazard the conjecture that the Bingley stone was a relic-chest, or stone shrine, holding the holy things of some worthy saint, of whom we now know nothing, or, perhaps, belongings of the venerable St. Lawrence himself, whose name was preserved in the dedication of the new church at Bingley in Norman times, and whose festival is 158 still commemorated here by the chief annual fair or feast. Every church at this time, be it remembered, had its reliquary, or relic-chest, either in wood or stone, and when of the latter material, as at Bingley, the cover would be fitted in the rebate and cemented down, that no sacrilegious hands might molest the sacred contents. Such an inscribed sarcophagus, containing the relics of St. Innocent (from the catacombs at Eome), is preserved at the altar in the beautiful church of St. Paulinus, at Brough, near Richmond, in Yorkshire. (See the author's Richtnondshire, page 140.) Still, for whatever purpose the Bingley stone may have been intended, or whatever may be its inscription, there can be no doubt that it is a Christian memorial of early Saxon times, probably unique, and as such ought to be respected and carefully preserved. As the very basis of the Christian church in Bingley, carrying us far beyond the Norman centuries, when the faint but cheering light of Holy Scripture spread from the little chapel in the wood like, indeed, unto the inscription on one of the Bingley bells : " Ring out the darkness of the land ; ring in the Christ that is to be," this age-worn monument of piety, with more than eleven hundred years of history upon it, is an heritage from the past, valuable as it is rare. I can only express the hope that it may ere long find a suitable and safe resting-place in the present restored church as an object of Christian interest, and which perhaps a more enlightened knowledge in the future may adequately explain. At the Norman Conquest a great many wooden churches were burnt or destroyed, while many that remained were neglected, and went to ruin ; and being of no value, were not mentioned in the survey of A.D. 1086. The church at Bingley was refounded (when peace was restored) by the new lord of the manor, William Paganel, who gave it, with other possessions of his, to Drax Priory in the time of Archbishop Thurstan (A.D. 1119 to 1140). The church was apparently at this time DEDICATED TO ST. LAWRENCE, but whether this was a resumption of an older dedication, 154 or what may have been the actuating motive for this ascription, we have not sufficient authority for stating. It was retained by one of the chapels in the later church dedicated to All Saints, and the church at Eldwick has been happily dedicated to St. Lawrence also. The parish church was sometimes dedicated after the name of the principal patron, or one who had greatly assisted or contributed to the erection of the building ; but most frequently it was dedicated to the saint of the day when BURYING " LAWRENCE " BY TORCHLIGHT AT BINGLEY. the church was consecrated. This was probably the case at Bingley. St. Lawrence, whose anniversary day is the 10th of August,* was a very popular saint in England. He was martyred in Kome, A.D. 259, by roasting on a large gridiron. The instrument of his martyrdom was long preserved in the temple erected at Rome in his honour. At the Eeformation of the Church in England by * The Parish Feast is regulated by it, the method of reckoning from August 22nd being due to the 12 days added by the alteration in dating last century. 155 Henry VIII. , a very large number of early Christian relics were torn from their caskets, exposed, and destroyed ; amongst them were many fragments of coal which were traditionally believed to have roasted St. Lawrence. It was probably after the restoration or rebuilding of the Norman structure, which had been plundered and so much injured by the invading Scots after Bannockburn, that the church at Bingley was re-consecrated to All Saints. In this district ; ' Lawrence " used to have a bad name, but I have found some difficulty in allying this circumstance with the old guardian saint of the parish. An idle person, or vagabond, is said to be as bad as Lawrence ! " I see Leng Lawrence has getten howd on tha," is said of any person who has got into loose or idle ways. Some sixty or seventy years ago, when things were not very prosperous at Bingley, the local wool-combers vowed that Lawrence was at the bottom of this evil time, and so they decided to revenge themselves. A wooden coffin was made, an effigy of the supposed offender was put into it, and at night a procession was formed, which proceeded by torchlight to Bailey Hills, when amid the bitter remonstrances of the whole company poor Lawrence was consigned to earth. Mr. Thomas Longbottom (nged 80) tells me he well remembers as a boy following the mock cortege to the site of the present cemetery, and amid the strange glare of the torches seeing the coffin lowered with all the solemnity of a real funeral. I cannot, as I have said, get properly at the root or meaning of this custom, but at Nun Monkton (see the author's Nidderdale] I find a similar feeling towards the patron saint of that village prevailed. Every annual feast-day a wooden image of St. Peter was placed in a box coffin and carried in procession, and buried with proper ceremony beneath a large sycamore tree on May Pole Hill. This performance was always spoken of as "Burying Peter," and the image, rudely dressed in any odd manner, lay undisturbed until the ensuing "Little Feast Day," that is the Saturday before the 29th of June, when a procession of villagers, usually led by a fiddler, marched to the spot and the ceremony of "Rising Peter " took place. 157 DESCRIPTION OF THE CHURCH. The old Norman church was doubtless so utterly despoiled by the invading Scots after the battle of Bannockburn in 1314 that its re-erection in a later style would be necessary, as was the case at Bradford and many other places during this era. This building was, again, removed early in the reign of Henry VIII., when the fabric now existing was erected. The upper portion of the tower was added in 1737. During the restoration made in 1870-1 several bases and capitals of Norman pillars were discovered, which were utilised for the foundations and repair of the pillars. A fragment of a Saxon cross, with interlacing pattern, in addition to the Runic-stone, already described, has been also preserved. As affording some idea of the character of Paganel's building, it may be stated that one of the original capitals, which now rests under the centre pillar of the Busfeild Chapel, measures at its narrowest part 31 inches, consequently these Norman pillars must have been very large and massive. The choir was erected in 1518, at the cost of the Rev. Richard Wylson, Prior of Drax, and Suffragan Bishop of Negropont, afterwards Bishop of Meath, Ireland, who is believed to be a native of Bingley, and if so he is the only bishop, Catholic or Protestant, known to have been born within the deanery of Craven. Dodsworth, in 1621, noted a Latin inscription in the east window, with twelve coats of arms, including those of Paslew, arg. a fess between three pierced mullets, sa ; Marthley, arg, three squirrels, sej. gu. ; Eltofte, arg. three chess rooks, sa ; Maude, arg. a lion rampant, sa. over all two bars, sa; also Ryshworth, Kighley, Warde, &c. The following was the inscription translated : Pray for the good estate of the Most Eeverend Father in Christ, Richard Wylson, Bishop of Negropont, Suffragan of York, Prior of Drax, and for the souls of his parents, who caused this choir and window to be made, in the year of our Lord, 1518, and the 26th day of the month of March. In the account of Bishop Wylson in Wood's Atlwna Oxon. it is stated that " 'tis probable he was born at Bingley, but when he died appears not." A copy of the original inscription is now to be seen in the west window of the 158 tower, with the arms of the Bishop and those of Paslew of Biddlesden, Mohaut (Maude; of West Eiddlesden, Eltofte of By sh worth, and Marthley of Marley ; also those of Mr. Johnson Atkinson Busfeild, by whom these arms were restored in 1847, the originals having been lost or destroyed. Several of these arms, cut in stone, but now much defaced, appear on the outside of the west entrance. A thorough restoration of the church took place in 1870-1, when the west gallery and organ-loft were removed and the tower arch and west window opened to the nave. The roof of the latter is of simple but massive oak, while additions of beautifully pannelled oak were made to the roofs of the chancel and aisles. The old square pews were replaced by commodious oak benches, and provision for warming with hot air introduced. The handsome memorial font to Mrs. Emily Busfeild, with its richly- carved canopy, and the beautiful pulpit presented by George Alderson Smith, Esq., 'as a memorial to his late wife, were also provided. The Ryshworth Chapel, on the north side of the chancel, and the Riddlesden Chapel, on the south side, are doubtless coeval with the church. There is also a private chapel of late date belonging to St. Ives in the centre of the north aisle, above the vestry. The South Chapel, dedicated to St. Lawrence, is now occupied by the organ-loft, and the north, dedicated to Our Lady, was the ancient burial-place of the Eltoftes, from which family it was purchased in 1591 by Edward Bynns. In 1672 Abram Bynns, J.P., of Ryshworth Hall, sold the same to William Busfeild, of Leeds, merchant, and it is still the property of his family, now represented here by Mr. Ferrand, of St. Ives. This chapel was greatly improved and beautified by the late Mr. Busfeild, of Upwood, at the general restoration in 1870-1. Upon the handsome oak screen, which divides the chapel from the chancel, the following inscription is carved in old English characters : In pious remembrance ot his ancestors this chapel hms restore*) tog Johnson Jltkinson Jftuefeilb, A.D. 1870. The south entrance is by a substantial stone porch, 159 built at the same time in place of an old, dilapidated one. The windows have all been renovated with the exception of the one at the east end of the south aisle, which retains its original stone-work. The short buttress under the great east window is curious, and I know of no similar instance of a buttress in this position save the one at Whalley Church, in Lancashire, which ancient edifice had originally a five -light east window. Within the church is some good stained glass, including a window in the Busfeild Chapel, designed by Sir E. Burne- Jones, and executed by Morris; and there are numerous mural monuments and inscriptions, details of which are recorded in the third edition of Whitaker's History of Craven. At the restoration an exact account was taken of those memorials on the floor which it was necessary to cover in, while some of them were erected against the walls of the tower. The principal families commemorated are Ferrand, Busfeild, Sunderland, Leach, Currer, Eishworth, Lamplugh, Stansfield, Hartley, Hudson, &c. Formerly there were two tattered banners hanging in the church, one of which remains. They were the colours of a local corps of volunteers, which on being disbanded were, as usual, placed in the parish church. Many thousands of interments have taken place in the churchyard, which is crowded with memorials of old Bingley families. Formerly all poor people who received town's pay were buried on the north side of the yard, unless their friends came forward and paid the funeral expenses. A pauper's coffin, it may be added, cost a century ago from 4s. to 5s. But, then, what of that? The magnificence of the pall is no certain introduction to heaven. The world will always keep many poor, but God knows where to look for a soul ! Amongst the interesting memorials is a table-stone to the Airedale poet, -John Nicholson, which was erected at the cost of the late Mr. Geo. Lane Fox, lord of the manor of Bingley. Another stone commemorates Hezekiah Briggs, a noted bell-ringer, who died in 1844, and who was sexton for 43 years, during which period he interred, as is recorded on his tombstone, upwards of 7,000 bodies. 160 A list of the vicars of Bingley from A.D. 1275 is printed from Torre in Whitaker's Craven. To these I may add two others, viz. : Jordan de Bingley, collated to Gisburne in 1228, and Gilbert de Bingley, collated to Thornhill in 1234 (vide Archbishop Gray's Register, 1215-1255). Probably others may be found in the chartulary of Drax Priory, in whose presentation the church remained from the 12th to the 16th century. At the dissolution of monasteries, the appointments were made by the Crown up to 1837, and from that time by the Bishop of the diocese. The benefice is declared in Pope Nicholas' Taxation (A.D. 1291) to be worth 30 per annum ; in the New Taxation (1318) 14 18s. 4d. ; in the Liber Regis (Henry VIII., A.D. 1539) 7 6s. 8d. ; and in the Parliamentary Survey, vol. xvni., page 343, it is stated : "Vicarage, 26 per annum. A thousand communicants." The following account of the tithes is copied from an old paper addressed by Mr. Currer, of Kildwick, to Benj. Ferrand, dated 28th April, 1772 : The Eectory of Bingley and the tythes of that parish were parcel the possessions of the Priory of Drax, and upon the 20th May (3rd James I. (1604-5) were conveyed by Sir Thomas Sherley of Whiston in Sussex, Kt., and from others (who probably were grantees of the Crown after the Dissolution of Monasteries) to Richd. Sunderland of Coley Hall, Anthony Wade of King's Cross, Wm. Currer of Marley, Abm. Binns of Bishworth, and John Oldfield of Gilstead, subject to a yearly fee farm rent of 22, payable to the King, his heirs, and successors. Wade, Currer, Binns, and Oldfield some time afterwards conveyed their share of this Rectory and tythes to the same Mr. Sunderland. Which Mr. Sunderland, or some of his family, at different times conveyed the greatest part of the tythes of the parish of Bingley to the owners of estates there in order to make them tythe free. In one of the conveycs. above mentioned, Rd. Sunderland in 1608 grants " all the tythes of sheaves, grain, grass, wool, flax, hemp, and lambs, which shall arise from the purchaser's estate, and it is supposed that most of his other grants of tythes are in the same words. In some, small rents or modus's are reserved, in others none. It has been said that John Sunderland of Purston, gent., a descdt. of Rd. Sunderland above mentd., in or about the year 1712, conveyed all the tythes of the parish of Bingley, which had not before been granted to the proprietors of lands there, and also the modus's or rents reserved by those grants to James Roberts, Clerk, And that Mr. Roberts conveyed them to Thomas Fell, Esq., 3rd Nov. 1721, under which title Mr. Solomon Fell, as heir or devisee, has claimed either the tythes or modus's out of several estates within that parish. 161 Within the important period of the last sixty years the extension of trade, the increased number of houses, and consequent development of religious work among all sects in the parish has been most marked. When the Rev. James Cheadle, M.A., was instituted to the living of Bingley in the year of the Queen's accession, 1837, the parish church had to suffice for the spiritual needs of the whole parish, which at that time had a population of about 17,000, of which about 10,000 were in Bingley-with-Micklethwaite. There were schools in Bingley only, and there was no THE REV. JAMES CHEADLE, M.A. proper vicarage-house. Mr. Cheadle's predecessor, Dr. Hartley, had, there is no doubt, centred his attention on the Grammar School, of which he was headmaster, and consequently the large parish was much in need of organization, and additional schools and churches. His being the first appointment by the Bishop, special interest was taken in the event, and it was soon seen that Mr. Cheadle was the " right man in the right place." He entered upon his new labours with a devotion and energy 162 which only terminated with his death, after 25 years of fruitful service. During this time the church, parsonage, and schools were erected at Morton ; the church at Eiddlesden and the church and schools at Cullingworth were likewise built. Mr. Cheadle also turned his energies towards obtaining an adequate residence, and this was in due course granted him, and completed in 1841. He had previously resided at the Grammar School House. The Grammar School was also rebuilt. A new organ was put in the parish church ; in 1856 a new clock was placed in the tower in place of the old one erected in 1704,* and the interior of the fabric was partly re-pewed. Additions were also made to the churchyard, which was now railed off, and the wall built alongside Bellman Eow. Previously the sacred enclosure had been open all round and used for various purposes; not the least objectionable was as a drying-ground for clothes, &c. Mr. Cheadle also took an active share in almost every public movement for the welfare of the town and parish. He took a great interest in the Mechanics' Institute ; and the Temperance Society should revere his memory for the splendid service he rendered in reforming the very widespread drinking habits that then prevailed. During the harassing period of the Chartist excitement he likewise did good work quietly and persistently, sometimes addressing large gatherings on the moors, and he was always listened to with respect, and was never, I think, molested. He was very fertile in argument, and ever had a pithy answer. On one occasion, I am told, when he was presiding at a local entertainment, a stranger in the audience got up to express his interest in what had been said, remarking on the progress Bingley had made, but adding, " I really do not know whether I should now call the place a village or a town." Mr. Cheadle promptly replied, " We pride ourselves, sir, that Bingley is a market town.'" Mere dimensions could not upset this historic fact. The audience naturally smiled at the aptness of the reply. * See "The Old Church Clock's Petition " in the Bingley Chronicle for Jan. llth, 1895. 163 Here is another anecdote of Mr. Cheadle told by Wallet, " the Queen's Jester," who once came to Bingley with a travelling theatre. He says : Our next stand was at Bingley, where a very pleasant circumstance occurred. "We were erecting the large booth, when the vicar came up, and addressing me, inquired, " What are you doing here ? " "I am erecting a large portable theatre, sir." " Oh, indeed ! have you any ladies with you?" "Oh yes, sir, we have at least twenty." " Dear me," said he; " I hope you don't represent anything immoral." I assured him we did not. I did not know at the moment who he was ; but as he bade me good morning, he shook me kindly by the hand, and said, " I shall come and see you, and, in return, you must come and see me on Sunday; I'm the vicar." I promised to do so, and we both kept our words. The worthy vicar was a frequent attendant at our theatre, and, I think, never had cause to regret the countenance he gave us. We made up a large party, and on the first Sunday visited the old parish church. The subject of the sermon was the value of a good name. Valuable on earth, he said, even supposing, as infidels would make out, that there was no world to come. I must tell you that our party had been ushered into the large scarlet-cushioned pew belonging to the minister's family, where, of course, we were the " observed of all observers," and immediately under .the preacher's eye. In the course of his sermon, he quoted the entire passage from Shakespeare, commencing, "A good name is the immediate jewel of my soul," delivering it with admirable emphasis. At its conclusion, he looked down upon us with a peculiar expression of face, as if to say, "I, too, am a disciple of Shakespeare, and there's a sop for you in your own element." After the service, we waited for the reverend gentleman, to thank him for his kind invitation and the accommodation afforded, and also for the high intellectual treat we had enjoyed. This was one of the pleasantest episodes of my life. For the first fifteen years of his vicariate Mr. Cheadle had no curate, with the exception of the first few years when he was responsible for services at Morton and Morton Banks, and though at times feeling the active work of this large parish too much to sustain, he managed to take three full services every Sunday, together with all marriages, baptisms, and funerals. He was a widely-read and accomplished scholar, and when graduating at Cambridge, in 1831, he took the high position of 13th wrangler out of 300. He was devoted to history and literature, and on one occasion lectured to a large audience on Bingley history. He was also regarded as an authority on ecclesiastical law, and was often asked for counsel and advice by the clergy 164 in the diocese. Overwork had partly undermined a naturally vigorous constitution, and he died Feb. 2nd, 1862, at the comparatively early age of 52. He was a native of Nottingham, and had been previous to his coming to Bingley incumbent of Colne. The accompanying portrait was taken shortly before his death. His son, Dr. W. B. Cheadle, of London, married Anne, daughter of THE KEV. A. P. IRWINE, M.A. Wm. Murgatroyd, Esq., of Bankfield, Bingley. She died in 1889, and to her memory there is a beautiful stained glass window in the church. His successor, the Eev. Arthur Parke Irwine, M.A., found ample scope in still further extending religious work in the neighbourhood. Within six years of his appointment as vicar of the parish, he had the pleasure to see the large 165 and handsome church of the Holy Trinity, in Bingley, erected and opened. Largely through his efforts, too, the important restoration of the parish church, in 1870-1, took place, which cost upwards of 2,500, raised by subscription. Mr. Irwine was also instrumental for good in other directions. He established Church services at Harden, in a room licensed by the Bishop, and raised a large sum of money towards the erection of a church there. The Bingley National Schools were enlarged and improved, and Cottage Meetings were begun at Eldwick. In 1875 Mr. Irwine was appointed Kural Dean of South Craven. He was also chaplain to the Volunteer Corps (Duke of Wellington's), and was chairman of the Bingley Grammar School. After a long illness, Mr. Irwine died on the 14th of September, 1889, aged 75. Before coming to Bingley, he had been curate of Prestbury for two years, and left to take up the appointment of first organising secretary to the Pastoral Aid Society, which office he filled with success for about twenty years. The Kev. Charles Edwards, M.A., Honorary Canon of Ripon, succeeded Mr. Irwine as vicar of Bingley and Rural Dean, and during the short two years of his ministry made himself exceedingly popular with all classes. He was a thorough Churchman, and an assiduous worker. For 25 years before his appearance in Bingley he had served, and served well, the populous parish of Holy Trinity, Bradford, and greatly did his parishioners regret his removal ; he being their first vicar. They presented him with a handsome testimonial of the value of about i'500. In most practical questions relating to the well-being of the community he took a prominent part. Among other activities, he had associated himself with the various temperance movements in Bradford, especially of the Church of England Temperance Society, of which he was president. He was also a director of the Bradford Coffee Tavern Company, and chaplain of the 2nd West York Artillery Volunteers. He was also on the committee of the Rawdon Convalescent Home, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the Blind Institute, and was one of the stewards of the West Riding Charitable Society. He took 166 a great interest in the subject of education, and from 1876 to 1882 sat as a member of the Bradford School Board. Canon Edwards died on the 29th March, 1892, aged 55 ; his death being greatly regretted in this parish. During his brief residence here his natural activity and love of work were productive of much good. He was succeeded by the Rev. Francis Chas. Kilner, M.A., the present vicar, and previously vicar of St. Martin's, THE REV. CANON EDWAKDS, M.A. Potternewton, Leeds. He is a son of the Rev. Jas. M. Kilner, chaplain of Chester Castle, and was born in June, 1851. Mr. Kilner, who was educated at Rugby, Keble College, Oxford, and Cuddesdon Theological College, was ordained by the Bishop of Chester, deacon in 1874 and priest in 1875. He was curate of Christ Church, Bootle, Liverpool, 167 up to 1879, when he was appointed Wilberforce Missioner for the diocese of Winchester. On his appointment to the vicarage of Bingley in 1892 he became also Eural Dean, and on September 29th, 1896, he was instituted at Bipon Cathedral Archdeacon of Craven, vacant by the death of Archdeacon Bardsley, vicar of Bradford. Under Archdeacon Kilner church work in the parish has made good progress ; many improvements have been effected in the parish church, and two beautiful new churches, at Harden and Eldwick, have been erected and opened for public service. Little comment is necessary on what is still going on, but of the vicar's ability and interest in his work there is ample evidence in the crowded congregations at the parish church. He is ably assisted by his two curates, the Rev. S. Rogerson, M.A., and the Rev. M. Power, B.A. The previous curate, the Rev. Emil B. Smith, it should be added, accomplished a great deal of excellent work during his residence in Bingley, and on March 9th, 1896, received a handsome testimonial of the respect in which he was held by the parishioners on his appointment to the living of Kippax, near Leeds, where he is now vicar. From old wills and other documents much information might be given respecting earlier vicars and their work and actions in times past. Thus I find that in 1415 Robert Emsey, who was instituted to the living in 1899, took on a lease of ten years a close called Wadecroft, an acre of land lying at Wythcrosseyat, in a certain parcel of meadow called Moseyeng, paying to the lord of the manor of Bingley, Thomas de Astelay, annually 6s. 8d., and he gives to the lord as fine for entry 6s. 8d. It would be interesting to locate these lands now. Again, of the Rev. Saml. Oley, vicar of Bingley, who died in 1618, we learn that he left to the poor of the town and parish the sum of 40s., " if the inhabitants of Bingley p'sh will pay my adms. or exors. within three months of my death the xi I spent for the schoole and poore there." He also mentions his son, Samuel, and his married daughters, Jane Wright, Rebecca Whitley, and Sara, wife of Edward Shackleton, of Morton Banks, &c. 168 Parish registers were first ordered in 1538, but there are none at Bingley earlier than 1577. They are for the most part in good condition. As the original order provided that the register-book was to be taken out of the parish chest only every Sunday, and all christenings, weddings, and burials of the week before then entered, we cannot be certain that strict accuracy in the matter of THE VEN. ARCHDEACON KILNEK, M.A. dates was always ensured. For example, the vicar of Barkston, in Leicestershire, entered in his register : " 1689, Ellen, the daughter of Bryan and Ellen Pun, was baptised April 23rd." But the entry may have been made weeks after the event, and his memory had probably failed him, for he adds the following apologetic note : " Lord, pardon me, if I am guilty of any error in registering Ellen 169 Dun's name." In the Rotherby registers appear some allusions to a crisis in which Bingley also was closely concerned : " 1643. War ! 1644. War ! 1645. War ! Interruption. Persecution ! " During part of the Commonwealth the Bingley registers appear to have been disregarded ; Cromwell having made other provision for parochial registration by his well-known publication. The old Churchwardens' Books at Bingley are interesting and valuable, as they go back to the period of the Commonwealth, and from them I have drawn much curious and various information, reflecting bygone habits, manners, and customs of the parish, which are referred to throughout this work. Should any additional volume on local history ever be issued, many other items for reflection may be adduced from these interesting collections. The post of churchwarden, procurator, synodsman (or sidesman) is an ancient and honourable office that has existed in the Church of England from time immemorial. Civil obligations, as may be gathered from the Bingley accounts, rested with them in ancient parishes till the legislation of 1894 removed these duties. The churchwarden of the past has, however, not always been regarded with that respect due to the importance of his office, and we are apt to associate him with those ecclesiastical desecrations known as " Churchwardens' Gothic," and to picture him with the long clay pipe and mug of " nut-brown," which he was prone to enjoy whilst discussing the doings or misdoings of his parish. That the churchwarden at Bingley appreciated his pipe and grog is evident from an entry in the accounts for 1783, wherein it is ordered that each member of the committee who attends by rotation be allowed a tankard of ale for his trouble, and those who do not attend to pay 6d., to be spent by those who do ; but the discussion of the grog and parish business was wisely ordained to cease at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. It would be interesting to ascertain if the discussions did always terminate at that hour ! At Giggleswick, I learn, these wise men actually sold the bell-ropes " to cover their refreshment bill." Pray, let us draw the curtain here ! 170 The members of the committee usually met in the vestry of the church, but sometimes they assembled at one of the inns in the town ; thus it was ordered that a general meeting of the committee be called on Wednesday, the 29th April, 1778, to meet at the White Horse, by 3 o'clock in the afternoon, "on special business." On Nov. 1st, 1782, I find that it was ordered to receive plans and estimates for a new vestry and a house for the reception of a hearse. The latter was situated in Bellman Bow, near the churchyard, where the old bone-house formerly stood. It is now about forty years since the parish hearse was given up. Up to the restoration of 1870 the vestry was in the tower of the church. Payments were ordered for a variety of objects : For crying the fairs, for crying parish matters in the church, for ringing the eight o'clock (curfew) bell, as well as for ringing the bells on certain anniversaries, for ridding the district of a superabundance of foxes, crows, hawks, hedgehogs, badgers, &c., which a century or two ago were very numerous in upper Airedale. " Window money " is also mentioned in the accounts, an obnoxious old tax, which shut out health-giving air and light, and was only repealed in 1851, when a duty was put on certain inhabited houses instead. It seems to have been a custom in Craven to pay any clergyman who came to preach at a church the sum of one shilling, and there are records of this payment at Giggleswick down to 1846. At Bingley, in 1704, I find it was ordered that " nothing shall be allowed to be spent with strange ministers," and also that nothing shall be allowed for fox-heads, &c. Either a spirit of necessary retrenchment must have prevailed at that period, or that the custom was being openly abused, for example by breeding foxes, &c., in captivity, and claiming the sum allowed per head, and the tippling parson, with his convivial friends, being probably no better in this respect than his Norman or Anglo-Saxon brother elsewhere alluded to. The settling of poor apprentices upon owners and occupiers in the parish, by rotation, also gave the parish 171 wardens a good deal of work. Payments to the poor was also the heaviest tax on the parish. In 1780, for example, I find a rate of 2s. 3d. in the pound raised the sum of 343 4s. 8d., apportioned as follows : Bingley 69 10s. l^d., Micklethwaite 142 6s. 0|d., and Harden 131 8s. 6d. This was paid by a total of 270 inhabitants, as follows : Bingley 78, Micklethwaite 95, Harden 97. How this contrasts with the improved condition of the working classes at the present time, when the rate for precisely the same purposes is now (1897) Is. 2d. in the pound, yielding a revenue of 3,500, paid by about 5,500 persons in the same places. Taking the whole of England, the decline in pauperism is similarly marked. In 1858 about 50 persons in each thousand of total population of the country were in receipt of relief, while at the present time there are less than half this number. The bells of Bingley Church are famous in the history of English campanology. The rich-toned peal of six bells was raised in the tower in 1773 ; Mr. J. A. Busfeild being the principal benefactor. They bear the following interesting inscriptions : 1st Bell. Although I am but slight and small, I will be heard above you all. 2nd Bell. If you have a jealous ear, You'll own my voice is sweet and clear. 3rd Bell. At proper times our voices we will raise To our benefactor's praise. 4th Bell. Such wondrous power's to music given It elevates the soul to heaven. 5th Bell. Ye ringers all, that prize your health and happiness Be sober, merry, wise, and you'll the same possess. 6th Bell (Tenor). This peal was raised in 1773. Johnson Atkinson Busfeild, Esq., was the principal benefactor. Two other bells were added in 1873, the gift of Mr. Walter Dunlop, of Harden Grange, making a peal of eight. Says Mr. T. W. Green in his interesting booklet on the subject : " The excellent natural situation in which they are placed, on the banks of the Aire, amidst hanging woods, and with hills >n every side, all combine to give a peculiar sweetness to their tones, and no one could better describe the beautiful effect of their musical echoes than 172 the author (poet) of Airedale." The following excerpt from the same little work will be read with interest : "Though not the first deserving of notice, the first to record will be a peal that was rung in 1793, on the occasion of William Busfeild, Esq., of Myrtle Grove, attaining his majority. The company on that day rang seven whole peals of 720 changes each, in all 5,040 changes, on the most difficult of known methods, all "Snappers," namely: Chester, London, Carlisle, Chelsea, Lincoln, Lichfield, Wells. On Shrove Tuesday, Feb. 7th, 1826, the society met in the tower, and rang without a single breakdown, or a false change, the extraordinary number of 36 twelve scores, in all 8,640 changes, on the following various methods, viz. : Oxford, Violet, New London Pleasure, Duke of York, Kent, College Pleasure, College Treble, City Delight, Tulip, Primrose, Oxford Reverse, London Scholars' Pleasure, Morning Exercise, Cambridge, Morning Star, Evening Star, Coventry, Ely, Rochester, Treble Bob Reverse, Morning Pleasure, Symphony, Cheapside, College Delight, Royal Bob, Worcester, Chichester, Durham, York, Bristol, Lichfield, London, Wells, College Exercise, London Delight Evening Exercise. The ringers on this occasion were stationed in the following manner : John Briggs, Treble ; David Bailey, Second; Hezekiah Briggs, Third; James Lilley, Fourth; Henry Dickinson, Fifth ; Isaac Khodes, Tenor. The peals were conducted by Hezekiah Briggs and Isaac Ehodes. Time occupied in ringing, 5 hours and 11 minutes. The above is the greatest number of peals on record rung by one company, all living in the same town ; and was acknowledged to be a masterpiece by the best authorities of the time. The performance, so far as is known, is without a parallel in the history of change-ringing. In this wide field the Bingley Society continued to range, with occasional extra " touches " and red-letter days, which would occupy too much space to enumerate. On the 18th April, 1843, the remains of John Nicholson, the Airedale Poet, were interred in the Bingley Parish Churchyard, and the company rang a solemn slow-beat mourning peal, with the bells muffled on the occasion, in respect to the memory of the bard, who had so often made the bells his theme. The poet was a frequent visitor to the belfry, and a warm friend of the ringers, who have 173 treasured up many of his quaint sayings, when he was enjoying a social chat with them." The following names compose the society of change- ringers at Bingley, from its institution in 1773 to 1873, when the alterations were made in the peal : Joseph Longbottom, William Moulding, Henry Moulding, James Tillotson (Treble), Hezekiah Briggs, Isaac Ehodes, Baldwin, William Gott, David Bailey, William Wilkinson, John Smith, John Briggs, Henry Dickinson, HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, BINGLEY. James Lilley, Jonas Bailey, Thomas Green, Joseph Dickinson, William Bailey, John Wilkinson, T. Wilkinson Green, Edward Walbank, Thomas Walbank, James Ingham, Jonas Ainsworth (Treble), Alfred Anderson (Treble), Samuel Green, J. Aihsworth with B. Lightfoot. A new set of Cambridge chimes was added in 1897, as a Jubilee memorial of Her Majesty's sixty years' reign. 174 By an order in Council, dated March 17th, 1869, a district chapelry was assigned to Holy Trinity Church (all fees being relinquished by the Mother Church), and it thenceforward became a new vicarage. The foundation stone of the church was laid by Alfred Harris, Esq., of Eyshworth Hall, on May 21st, 1866, and the building was consecrated Oct. 22nd, 1868.* Mr. Harris contributed ,1,000 towards the 5,000 required for its erection. As the seats (numbering 700) are all free and unappropriated, the offertory system was from the first introduced, and during the first year yielded about 420, exclusive of 230 at the opening services. In 1870 a new organ, built by Messrs. Kadcliffe and Sagar, of Leeds, was placed in the church at a cost of 350, raised by subscription ; also a beautiful reredos was presented by Alfred Harris, junr., Esq., from a design by Mr. B. Norman Shaw. In 1880 a substantial Gothic steeple, 170 feet high, was erected over the chancel, at a cost of 1,140, also raised by subscription. In 1884 the church was thoroughly restored, and re -opened on August 5th, by the new Bishop preaching on the occasion his first sermon in the diocese after his consecration as Bishop of Bipon. The services in the church are now well attended, and with the large increase in the number of houses of late years in the parish, the parochial responsibilities have proportionately increased. The following have been the vicars of Holy Trinity, with the dates of their induction : Oct. 20th, 1868, Albert Hudson, M.A., who died April llth, 1877, aged 35 ; Aug. 14th, 1877, Henry Lewis Williams, M.A. ; Aug. 7th, 1888, Fred. Wm. Bardsley, M.A., the present vicar. 'The schools in connection with the church were opened on Nov. llth, 1871. In 1879 a new wing was added, including one school-room and three large class-rooms, at a cost of about 800, as a memorial of the late Bev. Albert Hudson. This extra provision was utilized for Day and Sunday Schools, and was much needed. The vicarage was built in 1872. It is proposed to erect a permanent Mission Church at Gilstead in place of the present wooden structure, on a site given by Mr. John Walker, of Gilstead. * A full description of the church will be found in the Ripon Diocesan Calendar for 1869, pp. 163-5. 175 THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL. Definite information with respect to the origin of the Grammar School is wanting; but as early as the year 1529 a certain piece of land and some closes in Greenhill, in Bingley parish, had been bequeathed in trust for finding a schoolmaster to teach grammar within the town of Bingley. Also certain messuages, with some lands thereto belonging, within the township of Bingley " had time out of mind been assigned and employed for and towards the maintenance of a schoolmaster, teaching grammar within the town, and that three several rent-charges of 13s. 4d., 13s. 4d., and 6s. 8d. had in the year 1570 been granted out of lands and premises in the parish of Bingley to trustees upon the same trusts. Also by deed of feoffment, dated 19th October, 1602, a house with the appurtenances in Bingley were conveyed to trustees, in trust that the yearly rent and profit should be employed for the maintenance of a schoolmaster." Under the will of William Wooller, dated March 27th, 1597, the rents of certain closes called Buredge Close, Lightfoot Close, Hanging Acre, Mastall, &c., were by indenture, dated 1616, assigned to the use of the poor of Bingley and towards the maintenance of a schoolmaster at Bingley. Michael Broadley, by will dated in 1613, gave to the school the sum of 40, to be disposed at the discretion of his executors, Nicholas Walker and Thomas Howgill, then schoolmaster, and in 1618 vicar of Bingley. Furthermore, in 1691 Samuel Sunderland gave certain lands, &c., in Heaton and Wilsden for the benefit of the school, and lands, &c., in Manningham for the benefit of the poor of Bingley. In the Report of Endowed Charities for the West Biding of Yorkshire (Parish of Bingley) published in 1894, and from which I have taken the above abridged information, there is a schedule of lands and hereditaments given exclusively to the use of the Free Grammar School at Bingley. It fills four folio pages, and in it there is stated to belong to the school in 1862 the sum of 348 Os. 6d. in stock, and 135 8s. 2d. in the bank, besides 78 15s. from the Sunderland Charity for the 176 benefit of the schoolmaster. This endowment fund continued to increase in value, and in 1891 it amounted to 968 10s. 7d. ; but with grants from Government and the County Council, and a few sums from other sources, the total was raised to the handsome sum of 1,212 4s. 9d. This is independent of the boys' and girls' fees, which in the same year amounted to 407. The following are some of the properties of the school in 1845, with their then tenants at Bingley. The names are curious and interesting, and nearly all can be identified : Pinfold Acre (site of Olive Terrace), Mastalls, Dubbfield, Croft, Hanging Acre, Louse pasture, Apothecary hill, &c., together about 11 acres, in occupation of Thomas Wetherhead ; Lady House Ing, Clover Close, Puggle-field, Square field, the Eoughs, &c., together nearly 10 acres, in occupation of Thomas Wild ; Six days' work, Four days' work, Three days' work, &c., together 7^ acres arable and 1 acre grass, in occupation of Francis Whitley ; three houses and shops, garden, coal-yard, and cottages, occupied by Samuel Atkinson (at corner of Park Road and Main Street) ; the Grammar School and garden, occupied by Leonard Metcalfe. The old abandoned school, near the Parish Church, of which I give a view, was built early in the 17th century. Its interior length is 50 feet, and width 21 feet, while the walls are nearly two feet thick. It is a two-storey building. The lower room has been lighted with four mullioned windows on each of the two long sides ; the south gable of this room having a five-light and the chamber above a four-light window, shewing that the school was once open at this end, and looked out on to a pleasant garden. A massive stone fire-place appears in the middle of the east wall of the lower room, while the upper chamber was warmed from a fire-place in the south-east angle. In 1781 it was ordered that all certificates, &c., respecting the town's business " be lodged in the chest in the school chamber." The roof of the building has now fallen in, and the floor is heaped up with debris and a thick growth of dockens and wild flowers. Though the old school be now in ruins, it must ever be 177 remembered for the many interesting associations that surround it. Within its now crumbled walls many a Bingley youth received the education that helped him to rise in the world ; and some, too, were trained here who achieved no small distinction in after life. Nicholson, the Airedale poet, was educated here ; so, too, was Richard Thornton, who went out to Central Africa with Dr. Livingstone, and perished in the effort to extend otir knowledge of that wild Land of the Unknown (see under OLD GRAMMAR SCHOOL, BINGLEY. COTTINGLEY). The late Mr. H. W. Wickham, M.P. for Bradford, and some time Chairman of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company, went as a boy to this school, I am told, from his home at Cottingley. Canon McCormick, Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen, and formerly vicar of Holy Trinity, Hull, was never, I am informed, at the Grammar School, but was a private pupil of Mr. Dixon when he was master of the school. Mr. John 178 Hardy, first M.P. for Bradford, was a pupil of Mr. Hudson, at Bingley, and entered the school at the tender age of seven. Mr. Hardy, who was born in 1773, was father of the Eight Hon. the Earl of Cranbrook, ex-Home Secretary, Secretary of State for India, Lord President of the Council, &c. His lordship, who is now in his 84th year, has communicated to me some interesting particulars respecting his father's first introduction to the Bingley schoolmaster. He was then preparing to retire for the night, and saw the tall man in a big wig leaning over his bed. The youngster was so terrified at this, his first strange glimpse of his future mentor, that he ran down stairs and out of the house, and was with difficulty overtaken and brought home on horse-back. Very soon afterwards the master won his affection by his tact and friendship, which was retained as long as Mr. Hudson lived. Mr. Hardy was also always a great friend of the two Hartleys, who succeeded as head masters of the school. Lord Cranbrook, I may add, was well acquainted with Bingley and its neighbourhood in his younger days, when staying with his godfather, Major Walker Ferrand, at Harden Grange. The late Mr. Ferrand, M.P., of St. Ives, was a pupil at the school under Dr. Hartley, and among other of Dr. Hartley's scholars at this time was the late eminent surgeon and naturalist, Dr. George Busk, F.R.S., F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c., who was born at St. Petersburg, in 1808. He was one of the founders of the Microscopical and Anthropological Societies, and for many years was editor of the Journal of the first-named society. While at Bingley he had good opportunities for the gratification of his natural history tastes ; his love of nature and retiring habits would often estrange him from his school-fellows when bent on some errand of investigation, or in search of objects in the surrounding woods and lanes. His contributions to the publications of the learned societies are very numerous. When Mr. Hudson died, in 1785, he was succeeded by the Rev. Richard Hartley, whose son, Dr. Hartley, was master of the school for 45 years, and the school then enjoyed a high* reputation. He died in 1836, when Mr. Anthony Metcalfe, a native of Marsett, in Semerdale, 179 where he was born in 1797, was appointed. Mr. Metcalfe had been assistant master for some time previously, and although the School Trust required the principal to be a University graduate, Mr. Metcalfe's qualifications were such as to enable him to hold the position for many years with satisfaction to all concerned. His failing health eventually obliged the Governors to appoint the Rev. Thomas Dixon, M.A., of Cambridge, and Mr. Metcalfe continued to assist him until his death in January, 1855. He is interred in the Parish Churchyard. In 1853 a new school was built, at a cost of about 1,000, but in a few years it had to be abandoned, as it shewed signs of giving way ; the site unfortunately being close to the treacherous Bingley Bog, which gave the railway contractors so much trouble. In 1863 another school was erected on a new site belonging to Wooller's Charity, close to the highroad between the town and Crossflatts. Under the provisions of the Endowed Schools Commissioners' Scheme (1873) the benefit of the endowments was extended to the education of girls and the teaching of science, in connection with the Bingley Mechanics' Institute. By this scheme Mr. Dixon, the head master, ceased to hold office, and received an annual pension of 125 for life. This sum has been regularly paid to him, and for many years he has held a chaplaincy at Barcelona, in Spain. Mr. Sutcliffe, the present head master, succeeded Mr. Dixon, and under his management the school has continued to hold a leading position among the educational institutions in the north. His son, Mr. Halliwell Sutcliffe, is a well-known novelist of good repute, being author of A Man of the Moors and other works. The present Governors are : The Vicar of Bingley, Messrs. John Walker, Robert Clough, William Town, Rev. J. Martin, J. Bedford, Samuel Smith, Thomas Smith, W. Greenwood, William Rhodes, R. Conchar, Henry Dunn (Shipley), Herbert Sharp, Mrs. Edwards, and Mrs. Angus. Head Master ; Mr. John Sutcliffe, B.A. Assistant Masters : Messrs. S. C. Hodgson, B.A., and W. Bartley. French Master : Mr. A. Messiaen. Drawing Master : Mr. C. F. Dawson. Clerk : Mr. Alfred Platts. 180 THE NATIONAL SCHOOLS. The Parish Church Sunday School at Bingley was one of the first established in this part of England. In his Journal for Sunday, July 18th, 1784, the Rev. John Wesley mentions that he preached that day in Bingley Church, and before service he stepped into the Sunday School, which, he says, " contains 240 children, taught by several masters, and superintended by the curate." It was then the only school of the kind for a large district, and was shared both by Church people and Dissenters. At first it had paid teachers, but as the movement spread these were abolished, and voluntary workers took their places. Mr. Crompton was one generous helper, and he also opened a school at Esholt about the same time. Subsequently at Bingley there arose some differences respecting forms of prayer, when the several denominations concerned separated, and henceforward carried on the schools at their respective places of worship. The Church party not being satisfied with the education imparted on the Sabbath only, took up the subject of secular education, while at the same time religious teaching was to accompany it. This led to the erection of the National Schools for boys and girls living in the parish. The schools were erected in 1814, on a site in Park Road belonging to the St. Ives estate. The land was then in the occupation oT Messrs. Collier & Hodgson, and for some years before 1840 Mr. Thomas Foulds was the tenant, and he received a ground rent of 2 2s. a year from the trustees. The cost of raising the buildings was about 1,600, towards which the London National School Society gave 300. The rest was contributed by voluntary subscription ; amongst the principal donors being Lieutenant-General Twiss 340, Rev. Dr. Hartley 200, Walker Ferrand, Esq., 190, Edward Ferrand, Esq., 166 15s., William Ellis 100, and the York Diocesan Society 50. Subscribers of 5 a year, or 25 to the Building Fund, were to be members of the committee. The late Mr. William Ellis, of Castlefield, took, perhaps, the most active part in the management of the 181 school for nearly the first thirty years of its existence, and for some years had sole control of the building. On the appointment of Mr. Cheadle to the vicarage of Bingley, in 1837, a committee was formed, consisting of the vicar and six others. A local woolcomber, named William Davey, was appointed to teach writing and accounts at a salary of 4 a year ; but in 1840 that method of instruction was given up, and a more qualified master was appointed in the person of Mr. Richardson, who was postmaster of the town from the year 1830 to 1862. In 1870, when the Education Act was passed, the school took its place as a part of the great educational machinery of the country. In 1884 four class-rooms were added ; the funds for this provision being raised by means of a bazaar. There are about 450 children now on the books. The Management Committee consists of the trustees, the churchwardens of the Parish Church, and four other members chosen as representatives of the parents. The present trustees are the Ven. Archdeacon Kilner (vicar), George Lane Fox, William Ferrand, John B. Sharp, Benjamin Broadbent, and Chai-les W. Dunlop, Esqs. 182 BINGLEY NONCONFORMISTS. THE INDEPENDENTS. I HE followers of Oliver Heywood and George Fox are doubtless the oldest representatives of the Dissenters in Bingley. Heywood's house, where he lived and died, and wrote nearly all his books, was in a little yard called " Speight's Fold," at Northowram, the home of the present writer's great-grandfather. Heywood began to preach in Airedale about 1650, when a very young man. His first visit to Bingley was in September, 1667, and he stayed at Marley Hall, belonging to Eobert Parker, Esq., of Browsholme, but then in the occupation of Joshua Walker. In the evening he preached to a considerable audience, " who were much affected." On the following day he called on his " good friend, Mr. Bentley," who had been compelled by the rigours of the Five Mile Act, of 1665, to fly from Halifax and seek a temporary home in this parish. In 1672 he returned to Halifax, and eventually died there. Mr. Heywood doubtless made a very good impression on the hearts and minds of his congregation at Bingley, and his exceeding piety and eloquence, and thorough earnestness of purpose quickly bore fruit. His congregation gathered in strength, and in October, 1679, he again passed through the town, on this occasion sojourning with Thomas Leach, Esq., at West Eiddlesden Hall, where he preached, tradition says from the staircase facing the spacious entrance hall of this historic mansion. This visit was quickly followed by another in the month of January, 1680, when a numerous congregation assembled at Ryshworth Hall, then the residence of Mr. Joseph Walker. Here he calmly exhorted his hearers to profit by the truth as recorded in his text, taken from the Psalms cxix., 158. In February he was again at West Riddlesden, and other visits followed ; his fervent preaching constantly gathering fresh auditors, so that on the passing of the Toleration 188 Act in 1688 the community at Bingley decided on having an adequate place of meeting for public worship of their own. For a year or two they worshipped in each others houses, which had been licensed for the purpose. Then, it is said, Mr. Walker built the " Old Chapel," as it was latterly called, at Bingley, which became the mother church of the Independents for a wide district until the year 1730, when the Dissenters of Keighley began to worship in a place of their own. But for two long centuries the old Independent Chapel, at the corner of Chapel Lane, Bingley (illustrated on the opposite page), stood as a monument to the persevering evangelism of the great apostle of Independency in this district, the Rev. Oliver Hey wood. When he died in 1701 we are told that in some parts of upper Airedale there was a woeful religious relapse, and the people fell back on their old ways, playing football and indulging in other ardent sports on the Sabbath, in which even the clergy joined. It was verily an attempt to revive the days of the " Merry Monarch." Such a relapse does not appear to have taken place among the Puritans of Bingley, which had really now become a citadel of strength among the Protestant Dissenters in this part of Yorkshire, and whose numbers were greatly augmented at a later period in Bingley by the soul-stirring visits of John Wesley. The Rev. Accepted Lister, son of Joseph Lister, of Thornton, the historian of the Siege of Bradford, was the first resident minister of the newly-founded church at Bingley, and here he preached in 1694, and finally settled in May, 1695 ; the house and chapel being under the same roof offered a strong inducement to the new minister, who suffered much from physical infirmity. A sketch of his life and family, by Mr. T. T. Empsall, appeared in the Bradford Antiquary, vol. II., page 239. He remained at Bingley till 1702, when the Rev. T. Wainman, of Eastwood, near Halifax, succeeded him, efficiently sustaining the good work begun by Mr. Lister. After a faithful pastorate of more than 43 years he died at Bingley, and was buried in the Parish Churchyard, where his tombstone may be seen. From 1746 to 1753 the congregation was without 184 settled minister, when the Rev. Thos. Lillie was elected, an account of whom will be found in the Protestant Magazine for May, 1832. He died in 1797, aged 77, and was buried in the old chapel, but in 1819 his remains were removed to the new chapel, where a monument describes him as " the diligent, peaceful, useful, and much-respected pastor of the Congregational Church for forty-four years." His successors were the Revs. W. Stephens (1797), Abraham Hudswell (1800), and Abraham Clarkson, the latter OLD CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, BINGLEY. entering on his duties here in the summer of 1817. Largely through his exertions, the new chapel, near the old Market House, was erected, and the building was opened for service on April 29th, 1818. It cost upwards of 1,200. The deeds relating to the chapel property, which have been placed in my hands, go back to the time of Queen Anne. At that time, and up to the building of the chapel in 1818, I find there was a good messuage on the site called Lead House, besides several cottages, an 185 orchard, and a croft. Lead House was the property of Joseph Hammond, and by the Act of Indulgence was licensed for public worship, and was one of the first houses in Bingley so privileged before the erection of the " Old Chapel," in Chapel Lane. In 1708 it became the property of John Hammond, who left two daughters, Anne and Elizabeth, the latter of whom acquired Lead House in 1735. It was subsequently divided into two tenements, one of which in 1773 was occupied by the pastor, Mr. Lillie, and the other by Judith Smith. The ministers continued to reside here till Mr. Clarkson's time. By indenture made Aug. 3rd, 1773, the Chapel estate (which included all the tenements, cottages, &c., granted and demised in 1740 unto Thos. Dobson, of Vicarage, Bingley, gentleman, by Thos. Law, ropemaker, and Elizabeth, his wife, of Bradford, in mortgage for the term of 500 years, and which in 1768 were assigned to the said John Atkinson in trust for Joseph Atkinson, of Huddersfield, merchant) was by Joseph Atkinson assigned to Joseph Hollings, Thos. Leach, John Coates, Joseph Smith, and Abm. Broadley, or the survivors of them, or the heirs of such survivors, that they with all convenient speed convey the said premises unto nine trustees, with intent that such nine trustees, or the survivors of them, shall pay and apply the rents and profits of the said premises granted and released for and towards the support of an Independent Calvinistic Minister of the Gospel in the Chapel at Bingley, such rents and profits to be collected half-yearly by the said nine trustees. In 1817 these trustees were : Wm. Wilkinson, Thos. Leach, John Illingworth, David Whitley, Samuel Whitley, Michael Booth, Thos. Bairstow, John Stephenson, and John Hagar. Mr. Clarkson was very diligent and active in his ministry, and regularly visited the surrounding villages, forming and organising congregations, and preaching with great earnestness on the necessity of personal duty to God and to His church. Physical affliction obliged him to resign his charge in 1837, and he died, much lamented, in May, 1850. He was succeeded by the Eev. John Protheroe, during whose ministry the chapel at Harden was erected. Next came in 1841 the Rev. Win. Atherton, a very able and industrious young man, who remained at Bingley till 1848. During his pastorate the chapel and schools were enlarged, and the chapel at Morton was also erected. Mr. Atherton died at Idle, at the early age of 38, in July, 1850. The Rev. Wm. Orgar was his successor at M 186 Bingley, and held the charge about eleven years, when the Eev. E. S. Heron accepted it, and on July 20th, 1862, had the satisfaction of witnessing the laying of the corner-stone of a Memorial Bicentenary School (to commemorate the ejected Two Thousand) by Alderman Brown, of Bradford. REV. JOSEPH MARTIN. On the completion of the school, which is at the rear of the chapel, it was opened Nov. 19th, 1862, by a tea party and public meeting, over which Mr. Win. Murgatroyd, J.P., presided. Mr. Heron removed in 1870 to Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S.A., and died there; his eldest daughter 187 having married Mr. Jas. A. McCampbell, a prosperous farmer in that State. The Rev. J. H. Taylor, of Colne, was the next minister, and after four years service he resigned, and withdrew from the ministry. He was succeeded by the present pastor, the Rev. Joseph Martin, who is a native of Thaxted, in Essex, both his parents being of Huguenot descent. His father, William Martin, was for many years a deacon of the Congregational Church at Thaxted (then known as the " Old Independent Meeting House"), and a superintendent of the Sunday School. The son was put to the business of a corn-miller, which he followed till 1872, when he entered the Countess of Huntingdon's College at Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire. After four years of study there, he took the Soper Theological Scholarship, and he settled at Bingley in October, 1876. Mr. Martin has been an active and faithful servant to the cause at Bingley, and his geniality and liberal views have helped to cement the good feeling between the various denominations in the town. In 1889 extensive alterations and improvements were made in the chapel, necessitating an outlay of about 850. Subsequently a new and more convenient entrance was made to the chapel, which cost about 200. The whole of these charges have been met by subscriptions and the proceeds of a bazaar. From the erection of the church, about 1690, there have been 12 settled ministers, giving an average ministry of 17 years to each one, and in an interesting " Manual of the Congregational Church at Bingley," by Mr. Martin, and to which I am indebted for some of the facts here narrated, he observes : " Through the exceeding goodness of God, and the great kindness of His people, the present pastor has been permitted to go beyond that average." This is now the 22nd year of Mr. Martin's pastorate. The present trustees of the church are: Messrs. Jonas Atkinson, James Bailey, Alfred Bolton, Charles Dawson, Edward Foulds, William Foster, Jonas Howgate, Lawrence Lee, Ellis Longbottom, William Parker, Matthew Richardson, Benjamin Stephenson, and Sydney Waddington (secretary). 188 THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. Although the Society of Friends is now practically extinct in Bingley, it was formerly a rather numerous sect, and there were several local houses in the seventeenth century, notably in Bingley and Crossflatts, where its members assembled for divine worship.* In this district the Society dates from the time of the Commonwealth, and, as befel other dissenting bodies, suffered severe persecution during the reign of religious intolerance that followed. When George Fox, the founder of the sect, visited Skipton in 1658, he held " great meetings," and he tells us that many journeyed from distant places to hear him preach, and became converts. Around Bingley and Keighley many joined the new sect, and eventually under the Toleration Act a Meeting House was erected in Keighley (1690) ; one was built at Skipton in 1693, and another at Bradford about 1712. The Bingley Friends were originally included in the Keighley Meeting, and visited the Skipton Preparative Meeting, which continued to be headquarters of this meeting down to 1853, when it was "arranged that Skipton, Addingham, and Lothersdale comprise the Skipton Preparative Meeting, and that Keighley be included in this meeting, which was to be held at such times and places as may by the members generally be deemed most desirable. At the same time it was arranged to hold the Monthly Meetings as follows : Bradford 4, Leeds 3, Brighouse 1, Halifax 1, Huddersfield 1, Settle 1, and Skipton 1. This arrangement is at present in force, with the exception that Bentham takes the place of Skipton, where the Society has died out. Bentham in 1853, I may add, was included in the Settle Preparative Meeting, which embraced also Settle, Airton, and Newton. The Quarterly Meetings are now held at York, Leeds, Bradford, and Sheffield, and the Yearly Meeting in London. From the old Minute Books at Keighley it appears a general subscription was opened towards the expenses of * Thus in the Quaker Registers at York I find that the house of one William Frankland, at Bingley was licensed as a meeting-place, and here in 1698, 5 mo. 31 day, a marriage was solemnized between Abraham Grimshaw and Elizabeth Bond, both of Calverley. 189 building the Leeds Meeting House in 1789, as the former subscriptions had fallen short ; the cost having exceeded the estimates considerably. Similarly in 1779 a subscription list was opened towards defraying the expense of building the Meeting House at Otley. The like of other places. On the 24th day, 10th month, 1784, the Skipton Preparative Meeting was favoured by visits from the following Friends, who, with others, had been appointed to* visit the several Preparative Meetings, viz. : William Tuke and Esther, his wife, John Hoyland and Elizabeth, his wife, and David Priestman, " which has been to the satisfaction of this meeting." The William Tuke here mentioned was a wealthy and influential Quaker, the founder of the Friends' Schools at York, and of other good works. One of his daughters was the celebrated Quakeress, Mrs. Sarah Grubb, and another, Elizabeth, married in 1795 Joshua Wheeler, of Hitchen, great- grandson of Joshua Wheeler, who was a Quaker prisoner in Bedford Gaol with John Bunyan, "the prating tinker," whose immortal book can now be read in eighty different tongues. Mary, daughter of above Joshua Wheeler, became the wife of another noted Quaker, James Ellis, of Bradford, who was born in 1793, and died in 1869, leaving 3 sons and 2 daughters ; the second son being the Kev. Joseph Ellis, who was formerly in business with Mr. Thomas Holmes as worsted manufacturers at Dubb Mill, Bingley. He left the Society of Friends, studied at Cambridge for holy orders, became curate under the vicar of Bradford, and was eventually vicar of Wilsden. Eobert Ellis came to Bingley, and married a Bingley lady. He took the old Dubb corn mills about 1818, and was joined by his elder brother, the above James Ellis, about 1822. James and Eobert had another brother, John Ellis, who was M.P. for Leicester, and Chairman of the Midland Railway Company. They were, by the way, not related to the Ellis's of Castlefields, Bingley. Eobert Ellis while in Bingley occupied the bay-windowed house off Chapel Lane, now the Vine Tree inn, where he had a store for the sale of corn and meal. The ascent by the flight of steps adjoining has since been known as " Quaker 190 Hill." He and his brother James used generally on Sundays to drive to Bradford to attend the Meeting House there. In 1824 Mr. James Ellis, in conjunction with Messrs. Joshua and Samuel Priestman, took the old soke mills at Bradford, and there carried on the business of corn millers until 1836, when Mr. James Ellis, having left Bingley, went into partnership with his brother-in-law, the late Mr. John Priestman, of Bradford, carrying on the business at the same place, under the name of James Ellis & Co. In 1847 Mr. Ellis retired from the firm, and purchased an estate at Letterfrack, in Connemara, an old Quaker settlement in Ireland. At that time the potato famine was at its height, and thousands had to be fed out of the magistrates' hands, while hundreds of hunger- stricken people died on the moors or on the roads while endeavouring to reach the relief depots. Many Yorkshire Quakers went out to render what assistance they could by carrying provisions with their own hands to the cabins of those who were too weak to walk. Among these helpers were the Eight Hon. W. E. Forster, M.P. for Bradford, then a young man, and the late Mr. James Ellis. Mr. Ellis cultivated his estate in order to benefit the peasantry, and his generous actions among the Friends and others in that lonely Irish settlement will long be remembered. In the old Quaker Kegister preserved at York are recorded the names of many Bingley Quakers, among the oldest being the Shackletons, of Harden dale, whose voluminous history I have compressed into the short account of Shackleton House, in that, beautiful and interesting valley. Then there were the Taylors, Lees, Heatons, and Mauds, of Bavenroyd, which during the early part of last century was quite a little metropolis of Quakerism. There was also a pretty numerous family of Maud, of Gawthorpe Hall, Crossflatts, and Castlefield, who were influential Friends in their day. The Friends had a burial-ground at Crossflatts, and used to meet for divine worship in an old house still standing at Crossflatts, shewn in the accompanying engraving. Timothy Maud on his marriage in 1684 lived at Castlefields, and about 1700 removed to Crossflatts. He had a son, Timothy, who was 191 living at Gawthorpe Hall in 1720. William Maud, his orphan nephew, of St. Martin's parish, York, came to reside with him, and they cultivated the Hall farm, and in winter employed their hinds in spinning and weaving ; being the first family, I understand, who introduced hand-loom weaving into Bingley. William Maud purchased property on Elm Tree Hill, and resided in his house there before 1760. There was a large garden attached, and a picturesque old summer-house, which possessed a striking feature in an ornamental flower-pot chimney. The OLD QUAKER MEETING HOUSE, CROSSFLATTS. windows commanded a fine view down the river, and in the building was a fire-place and a cupboard, the door of which bore the owner's initials and date, " W.M., 1760." The property had belonged to a Mr. Jonathan Casson, who got into financial difficulties, and in order to avoid arrest for debt locked himself in this summer-house, and his wife, I am told, used to bring his meals in a basket, which he pulled up by means of a rope through an upper window. 198 On Sundays only dare he walk out, as his arrest on that day could not legally be made. But eventually he gave himself up. The above William Maud married a Waterhouse, of Hill End, who lived to an advanced age. He had a family of four sons: (1) James, a Quaker, who lived at Spring Head, now Myrtle Grove, which had been licensed for public worship. (2) Abraham, who died unmarried, and is buried in Bingley churchyard. He was apprenticed to Timothy Maud, of Gawthorpe, who in the deed of apprenticeship, dated 1st May, 1746, is described as a stuff weaver. He and his younger brother (8) William were also Quakers. (4) Timothy, the youngest, attended the Parish Church, and occupied the family property on Elm Tree Hill. He married Sarah, the youngest sister of Mr. James Murgatroyd, of Greenhill, and died Jan. 26th, 1822. She died in April, 1843. They left two sons ; William, who lived in the old homestead on Elm Tree Hill, and James Murgatroyd Maud. William sold his inheritance at Bingley to Mr. Thomas Jowett about 1847. and settled in America. He married, and left a family of one son, Timothy, who died in Seattle, U.S.A., in 1885, and two daughters, Sarah, the elder, married to Mr. William Moore, and Ann, now living at Seattle. The latter resided at Bingley till she was 24, and has since travelled extensively at home and abroad. In December, 1896, when over 70 years of age, she visited Bingley, when the writer had the pleasure of a few hours' conversation with her ; her recollections of old Bingley being most vivid and interesting, and she imparted most of the information I have here given respecting the old Quaker family of Gawthorpe, &c. It was in the house adjoining the residence of the Mauds on Elm Tree Hill that the Friends met for divine worship. Miss Maud tells me that as a girl she had always heard it spoken of as the old Quaker Meeting House, and in this house she says the Rev. Dr. Hartley, vicar of Bingley (of the Eldwick Hartleys), was born in 1745. Next to it was Mr. Christopher Hanson's house and furniture shop, shewn in the annexed view. The old 194 Meeting House consisted of one large room, and there was a chamber above it. It was a plain, two-storey building, while the house behind, occupied by the Mauds, consisted of three storeys, owing to its position on the slope of the hill. The lower one was entered by a side door in the yard, while the main entrance was from the hill into the second storey, up a flight of solid stone steps, with a broad landing on the top. The Meeting House at Crossflatts is one of several 17th century cottages ; being the oldest block of houses now standing in this neighbourhood. Sixty years ago these old tenements and the houses at Castlefields were the only buildings existing about Crossflatts. All else has sprung up since then. In deeds belonging to Mr. Joseph Poster, of Crossflatts, the names of the tenants are given in 1825, when the property was conveyed to Mr. William Ellis. The old Meeting House has a spacious mullion-window (now modernised) and a small side-window, originally a door-hole, which was kept well bolted, and only opened after dark when suspicious persons were about and the inmates could receive a message or parcel without unfastening the main door. Such precautionary openings were common in houses of this period. Upon entering there was a stout stone partition wall separating the entrance from the lower room (pulled down some years ago), and the meeting-room was upstairs, and originally consisted of one large apartment, with a "speaker's stand." or square pedestal, about twenty inches high, placed at one corner at the head of the stairs, and removed from outside observation at the window. Here the few ardent members of this humble society used to meet in bygone days to worship God in their own simple way. Their burial-ground, as I have said, was close by, but I cannot hear that more than four grave-stones have ever been observed, and one of these is inscribed to a William Lister. Where Mr. Longbottom lives, in the Main Street, next door to Gawthorp's basket shop, seems also to have been occupied by a Quaker family named Walker, and many years ago one or more grave-slabs were dug up in the garden behind the house. 195 THE WESLEYAN METHODISTS. I have told how the teachings of Oliver Heywood and George Fox roused religious life in this part of Airedale. It was therefore not surprising when wonderful John Wesley visited Bingley during the great Evangelical Revival in the middle of last century that the whole town and neighbourhood nocked to hear him, and so great was the crowd on each repeated visit that the occasion was always spoken of as " Wesley Fair." The active pioneer of Methodism, it is said, paid more turnpike toll than any man who ever lived. He travelled on an average 5,000 miles a year, and during his active life preached more than 40,000 sermons. His fervent oratory, observes Green, the historian, broke the lethargy of the clergy. In Airedale the Church of the Establishment was at a low ebb. Mr. Collins, vicar of Keighley, though suffering from infirmity, refused to employ a curate. At Bingley, under the Hartleys, church work made no progress. At Skipton clergymen joined the populace at football and other sports on the Sabbath. John Wesley's coming to Bingley was the signal of a religious awakening. He was an Oxford scholar and clergyman of the Church of England, and more than once he preached in the Parish Church at Bingley, which was filled to overflowing. Never had such large congregations been seen in the church for probably a hundred years. This I gather from a remark in his Journal for 1776. Wesley visited Bingley in all thirteen times, from his first appearance in May, 1757, to his last in May, ] 788. He died three years later. Bingley was to him a haven of happiness, and he was always sure of a hearty welcome whenever he came here. Saviour of man that he was, he had in some towns been pelted with earth and stones ; but at Bingley people ran out to meet him with open arms, and literally strewed his path with flowers. On one occasion, in April, 1779, while staying with Mr. Busfeild, at Myrtle Grove, he called the place " a little paradise," and it was all this to him in the spiritual as well as to the bodily sense. W CO o H O - o 03 W 1-5 a Q 197 Soon after Wesley's first visit a society was formed at Bingley, and in 1763 we have a list of its then members. They were : Thomas Middlesbrough, John Wildman, Benjamin Wilkinson, John Gott, James Farrah, Sarah Moor, John and Martha Curtiss, Wm. Maud, Wm. and James Whitley, John and Mary Whitaker, Wm. Haughton, Sarah Harrison, Thos. Patrick, Eobt. Watson, Ann Dobson, Abraham Hartley, David Binns, Joseph Brown, John Jackson, Christ. Townend, Abm. Mitchell, Grace , Eliz. Wood, Robert \Valsh, Mary Middlesbrough, Hannah Wild, John Walker, and John Whitley. According to Mr. Ward, their first place of worship was a blacksmith's shop on Elm Tree Hill, near to the entrance of Gott's Yard. The next place appears to have been a large room over a block of buildings which occupied the site where the first chapel was erected. At the Sessions held at Bradford, 15th July, 1762, I find that a certain house called Short's House, facing the Market Place, was certified by John Skirrow and Thomas Middlebrook to be a place of meeting of Protestant Dissenters to preach the Gospel, and that the same was recorded as such pursuant to the statute. This I take to be the Wesleyan Boom mentioned by Mr. Ward, who says that John Skirrow and others seceded to the Baptists somewhere between 1760 and 1766. As his name does not appear on the list of Wesleyan members for 1763, he must have joined the Baptists immediately after the license for Short's House was granted. He died in 1785, and was interred in the Baptist Chapel, Bingley. The old Methodist Chapel in the Main Street appears to have been built about 1790. The principal entrance was close to the old Market House, and there was another at the side on Elm Tree Hill. Mr. Thomas Whitley purchased the property for 800, and when the place was sold in 1817 the following were the trustees : John Moorhouse, Joshua Briggs, Joseph Cryer, John Dean, Matthew Foster, Wm. Whitley, Wm. Foulds, John Wild, David Binns, Josh. Barraclough, and Thomas Nicholson, father of the poet. Bingley was originally in " Haworth Round,' 1 but in 1776 Keighley was made head of a circuit, and it was 198 joined to that. In 1808 Bingley was made head of a circuit, and has since continued as such. Many are the " good men and true " who in the present and the past have laboured for the society in this district. Among the earlier members was John Whitley and his son Francis, of Toils Farm, Eldwick. John died in 1813, aged 90, and his son in 1821, aged 77, as is recorded on their tombstone in the Parish Churchyard. John Wesley, it is said, used to call at the old rnoorside farm on his journeys between Bingley and Otley. (See ELDWICK.) The following are recorded as among the active local workers in the cause in the early part of this century, many of whose descendants are still living in the neighbourhood : John and Nancy Horner, Susan Bentley, John Moorhouse, John Dean, David Walbank, James Speight, John Cryer, Samuel and Wm. Curtiss, Wm. Cockshott (the last three local preachers), John, Matthew, and Thomas Longbottom, John Smith, John Wilkinson, Stephen Snowden, John Wild, David Binns, steward of the chapel property, &c. Mr. Ward in his little volume recounts the circumstances which led to the erection of the new chapel in 1816. It cost nearly 4,000, and stood where the present station of the Midland Railway now is, having to be removed when the station was built about eight years ago. In 1816 there was scarcely a house, where there are now hundreds, between the chapel and the Dubb. Among the original trustees of the chapel was Mr. John Sharp, elder brother of William and Jonas Sharp, whose family have been liberal benefactors to the Wesleyan cause in Bingley. Mrs. Paulina Wyrill, a daughter of Mr. John Sharp, died, after a short wedded life, in 1839. Mr. Ward relates how shortly before her death she purchased a writing album, intended principally for contributions from ministers and eminent Christians. The author has this album before him, and it contains a number of beautiful autograph poems from the pens of several well-known Yorkshire and other worthies, including James Montgomery, Hartley Coleridge, Edwin Waugh, " the Lancashire Burns " ; George Ackroyd, J.P., of Bradford ; William Dearden, the bard of Caldene, &c. Not 199 very long before Edwin Waugh's death in 1893 the author had the pleasure of meeting him at the house of his friend, Mr. George Ackroyd, when this interesting album was produced. From it I quote the following admirable Paraphrase of Psalm 42, verse 5, written nearly forty years ago by Mr. Ackroyd. It bears the date 20th April, 1859: " Why art thou cast down, my soul ? " How oft when in distress we mourn, And Hope is well-nigh fled ; Some kind and providential turn Believes our souls of dread ; And then how soon our fear departs, And we, ashamed to own Our weakness, wonder that our hearts Should ever be cast down. Could we but more undoubting trust "**>. Our heavenly Father's care, We oft should find He loves us most When least he seems to spare. While changes last, dark hours will come, Yet why renew our fears, Since faith can penetrate the gloom The heaviest trial wears ? A little, and our fears forlorn Disturbing nature's sight, Shall vanish with the opening morn Of everlasting light ; And then, rapture ! we shall see The Lord of Life above; And chant throughout Eternity The wonders of His love ! Mr. Ackroyd is still with us, and his two sons have for many years carried on business at Stanley Mills, Bingley. The present handsome Wesleyan Chapel in Mornington Road, which has almost the proportions of a cathedral, was erected in 1874, and opened by the Rev. Dr. Punshon, President of the Wesleyan Conference, on September 23rd. It cost more than 13,000, towards which the two brothers, Messrs. Alfred and William Sharp, of Bingley, contributed about 6,000 (including the organ and manse). It has a fine tower, with spire, 160 feet high, which in June, 1897, was improved by the addition of a very useful clock, a Jubilee gift of Mr. Herbert Sharp, as a memorial of his 200 late father, Mr. Alfred Sharp. Mr. Herbert Sharp has also quite recently come forward with the generous offer to erect and fit up at his own cost a new Mission Church for the Wesleyans on a site belonging to the trustees which adjoins York Street and North Street. It is expected to commence the work in June, 1898, on the expiration of the tenancies of the land it will occupy. In addition, the trustees of Mornington Eoad Church have acquired land adjoining for the erection of Sunday Schools. The laymen who have sustained the cause of Methodism in Bingley stand out more prominently because of the constant change of ministers. Foremost among those who have been unwearied in their efforts to build up and maintain the cause was the late Mr. Alfred Sharp, of whose services and varied benefactions I shall speak in the chapter devoted to the EXTENSION OF THE TOWN AND TRADE. A remarkable revival, which occurred more than fifty years ago, brought into the church a number of young men, who infused into it fresh life and vigour. Among these were Messrs. Alfred Sharp, William Whitley, Samuel White (who built up the Park Road Leather Works), the sons of Mr. John Craven, of Burrage House, and Mr. Robert Waterhouse. Mr. Francis Butterfield was a popular local preacher for forty years. Others had been " pillars in the church " for many years, as Messrs. William Anderton, Thomas Hodgson, Isaac Smith, and John Harrison. Mr. John Smith, who came from Addingham, and died at Bingley, April 23rd, 1898, aged 78, was a local preacher for fully sixty years, being one of the oldest in England at the time of his death, and a man of marked originality. The tall, stooping figure of " Father " Thomas Longbottom and the burly form of Mr. Samuel Atkinson will also be remembered. Messrs. William Haigh and Matthew Platts were also staunch supporters to the end. Mr. Platts was of a Derbyshire family, but had been in business in Bingley for a number of years. When quite a young man he joined Mr. William Haigh in a drapery business at Keighley, and subsequently commenced manufacturing at Dubb Mills, Bingley, in partnership with Mr. Field, an arrangement, 201 however, which only continued for a short time. Mr. Platts started on his own account at Peel Mills, and afterwards at Britannia Mills. Eventually the present extensive Albert Mills, on the canal bank, were erected, where the business is still carried on by his sons. Mr. Platts died in June, 1892, aged 68. His family is still strongly attached to the local Wesleyans, and one of his sons, Mr. Henry Platts, is circuit steward, together with Mr. William Thornton, who has been for many years a most useful local preacher and class leader. Mr. Nicholas H. Walbank, the respected secretary of the Bingley Building Society is now, I believe, the oldest local preacher in the circuit, and has been usefully and prominently identified with local Wesleyanism for more than forty years. His literary tastes have been shown by his frequent contributions to the local press and by his valuable public lectures. Dr. James Crocker has also been a life-long and most valued friend in this body, and has held, and continues to hold, many important offices. He is a native of Wincanton, in Somersetshire, and comes of an old Wesleyan family long resident in that part of the country. As a medical practitioner he settled at Bingley about 1870, having previously resided at Wetherby . He has been a local preacher over forty years, and is widely known and appreciated outside his own church and neighbourhood. He is a member of the District Local Preachers' Committee ; also honorary member of the Local Preachers' Mutual Aid Association, and has been chosen as a delegate to their annual congresses. He is a class leader, and has been circuit steward nine years, and during that time has represented the Bingley Wesleyan Circuit at the synods ; several times he has been elected by those synods as one of the lay representatives of the Halifax and Bradford Districts at the annual Wesleyan conferences. He is also a trustee of several chapels, schools, and other Wesleyan property in Bingley and elsewhere. As a layman and medical practitioner, holding various public appointments, Dr. Crocker has rendered valuable and self-sacrificing services to the cause of Wesleyan Methodism, and is deservedly one of the most honoured members of the society in this town. 202 In the old chapel a flourishing day school was carried on in the lower room up to 1861, when the present large and handsome buildings in Hill Street were erected and opened. The first master was Mr. T. J. Reynard, who was followed in 1866 by Mr. George Severs, a Wesleyan by birth, and a native of Eipon, under whose prosperous management the school has been conducted to the present time. Some of his old pupils have won University distinctions, and others are occupying prominent positions in art, science, and medicine in England as well as abroad. Mr. Severs, who is an Undergraduate in Science of London University, introduced the Government teaching of chemical and physical science into the Bingley Mechanics' Institute, and also into the old Mechanics' Institutes of Bradford and Saltaire. The success of these and other classes led eventually to the establishment of Technical Schools and to the teaching of science in the Day Schools. In addition to his thirty years' connection with the Wesleyan Day Schools at Bingley, Mr. Severs has been from the first closely connected with the Sunday School as teacher of select classes and superintendent, and most of the churches in the town and neighbourhood have made use of him to address their children at their school anniversaries. In church matters, also, he has been indefatigable. As society and circuit steward, and as trustee of various Wesleyan properties, he has been most active and useful in promoting the welfare of Wesleyan Methodism in the town. In Band of Hope work, and as local representative of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, he has also rendered invaluable service. His portrait accompanies that of Dr. Crocker on page 196. I have not space to dwell on the good Christian effort that has been carried on from last century to the present by the numerous ministers and their co-workers in the circuit. Much has already been written on this subject by the Eev. John Ward in his little volume, Methodism in Bingley, published in 1868, when he was one of the ministers here. The book also contains brief notices of other places in the circuit. 208 The following have been the ministers since 1863 : 1864-5 Samuel Taylor, Thomas Waterhouse, William Hawken. 1866 William Lees, William Pritchard, William Hawken. 1867 William Lees, William Pritchard, Matthew C. Pennington. 1868 John Walter, William Pritchard, Matthew C. Pennington. 1869 John Walter, William H. W. Evans, Thomas Hackett. 1870 John Walter, Thomas Hackett. 1871 John Morris, Thomas Hackett. 1872-8 John Morris, Josiah Mee. 1874 Jonathan Henshall, Josiah Mee. 1875-6 Jonathan Henshall, Edward A. Wain. 1877-9 Thomas A. Eayner, Joseph Olphert. 1880-2 John Gunnel, William Kirkman. 1883-5 Abel Wood, George S. Meek. 1886-8 Abraham Pearce, John Nayler. 1889-91 Joseph Charlesworth, Frederick Hunter. 1892-4 W. Norton Milnes, Robert Dixon. 1895-8 Thomas Hepton, Robinson Lang, who remove in August, 1898. 204 THE BAPTISTS. As is well known, the Baptists in Yorkshire suffered severe persecution under the Conventicle Act of 1664, but in Bingley they were not a numerous body for a full century after this date, when their first public meeting-place was established. Previously services had been held in the houses of the scattered Baptist families. They, in common with other Yorkshire Baptists, enjoyed the occasional ministrations of the eminent and courageous William Mitchell, who for his "unswerving loyalty to the truth " was twice cast into York prison. Prominent also among those who assisted the cause here was the Eev. John Fawcett, of Bradford, author of the well-known hymn which begins with " Blest is the tie that binds Our hearts in Christian love." Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Fawcett rose to high distinction among the Baptists in England, and a Life of him, written by his son, was published in 1818. In 1759 he married Susannah, daiighter of Mr. John Skirrow, of Bingley, who at that time was a principal leader and local preacher among the Wesleyans at Bingley. As I have explained in my account of the Wesleyans, it was in July, 1762 that this John Skirrow obtained from the West Eiding magistrates a certificate to preach the Gospel in a house facing the Market Place in Bingley, called Short's House, a name that is not now remembered. It must have been about this time that he seceded from the Wesleyans, and shortly afterwards he was, along with nine others, publicly baptized in the river Aire. Many others joined, and the cause prospered, so that in 1764 a chapel was erected in the Main Street, which until recently stood on the site of the present Co-operative Stores. A year after the erection of the chapel, a Mr. Butterworth, of Goodshaw, was appointed pastor, and he worked so assiduously that when John Wesley visited Bingley in August, 1766, we find him lamenting " with an heavy heart " that so many Methodists here had gone over to the Anabaptists. John Skirrow died in 1785, aged 74, 205 and was interred in the Baptist Chapel, and many of his descendants lie entombed in the old burial-yard adjoining the former ministers' house in Chapel Lane. The succeeding ministers were : In 1768, John Dracup ; 1779, William Hartley; 1797, Joseph Harrison; 1800, Abraham Greenwood ; 1806, John Greenwood. For nine years subsequently the pulpit was supplied by lay preachers, students, and neighbouring ministers. At the end of that term, in 1820, Mr. Bottomley, of Horton College, was ordained pastor, and he laboured for nine years, when he resigned. Mr. McKaeg succeeded, and during his ministry the chapel was enlarged. At one time the church was very generously helped by the Yorkshire Association of Baptist Churches. It, however, lost possession of its manse and burying-ground in Chapel Lane, and must at some period, extending over several years, have buried its dead under the floor of the old chapel, because in 1876, when the place was sold, the remains of more than 60 interments were found in the ground beneath. The old burial-ground in Chapel Lane is, as stated, no longer used for burials. It contains eight memorial stones to the families of Skirrow, Beck, Leach, Burdett, and Penney, dating from the first interment in 1825 to the year 1856. The Skirrows and Mouldens appear to be the oldest families connected with the Bingley Baptists. In 1831 the Eev. Mr. Bottomley was invited, after an absence of 21 years, to accept the pastorate again, and he continued to labour with much favour. He was succeeded by the Eevs. Eodway, Burton, and Dawson, the latter coming to Bingley from Princes Risborough, subsequently removing to Bishop Burton, and returning to Bingley in 1865, where he died, August 9th, 1870. For some years afterwards the church was without settled pastor ; but in the autumn of 1864, as the result of an application to the Eev. C. H. Spurgeon, Mr. J. C. Forth, of the Pastors' College, commenced the ministry, and did much good work during the seven years of his residence at Bingley. In August, 1871, Mr. Forth removed to "Wirksworth, Derbyshire, and was succeeded in 1872 by the Eev. Thomas o Q 207 Hanson, a native of Lockwood, who died August 14th, 1873, after a brief year's work. But the ministry of Mr. Hanson was, I believe, the true beginning of a better and fuller life in the church. He came to Bingley with excellent credentials, having laboured with marked success at Haworth, West Bromwich, Burton-cn-Trent, &c., and he had also been invited to settle at Liverpool, Manchester, and Bradford. Some preparation was made for building a new chapel, and the site in Park Road was purchased, and the pastorate of Mr. Hanson altogether gave the church a position in the denomination which it had not previously attained.. The late pastor's widow, Mrs. Hanson, still resides in Bingley. Mr. Hanson was succeeded in 1875 by the Rev. F. E. Cossey, son of Mr. R. Cossey, of Laxfield, Suffolk, and grandson of the late Rev. Edward Manseur, founder and first pastor of the Baptist Church at Horham, Suffolk, Mr. Cossey in 1868 accepted the pastorate of the first Baptist Church at Shipley, and continued there till 1875, when ill-health obliged him to resign. After a few months' relaxation he accepted an invitation to settle at Bingley, the members of the Baptist Church at that time meeting in the large hall of the Mechanics' Institute ; the new chapel in Park Road being then in course of erection. The chapel was opened in 1876, and the entire cost of the building, about 5,000, was largely through Mr. Cossey's efforts paid off within a very few years. In this and other undertakings for the welfare of the church he had the help and hearty sympathy, not only of his own congregation, but generous assistance from members of other denominations, notably from the late Mr. Ferrand, of St. Ives, and the late Mr. Alfred Sharp. Mr. Cossey applied himself energetically to outside work in the villages, and he is said to have preached in more than 80 pulpits in Yorkshire alone. Having laboured here with praiseworthy ability and success for 16 years, Mr. Cossey in 1891 decided to accept a call from the Baptist Church at Eye, in his native county of Suffolk. Thither he departed, bearing with him the esteem and hearty good wishes of his congregation at Bingley. 208 The new chapel is a large and handsome edifice in the Gothic style, and has seat room for 700 worshippers. There is a commodious school-room, with class-rooms attached, under the chapel, and the cost of the building was about 4500. The foundation-stone was laid on June 20th, 1874, by Mr. Thomas Aked, and the chapel was opened on July 19th, 1876, by the Eev. Arthur Mursell, of London. The present minister is the Eev. E. B. Lewis, a native of Ystrad, Glamorganshire, where he was born in 1860. He was educated at the Academy, Aberavon, and Manchester Baptist College. Subsequently he became pastor of the Bethesda Church, at Barnoldswick, where by his industry and ability the church was raised to a high degree of spiritual prosperity. He is the author of a history of the Church at Barnoldswick, containing most important discoveries. So far as is known, this church is the oldest Baptist Church in Yorkshire, and the first in the county to possess property in trust for the use of Baptists. Mr. Lewis came from Barnoldswick to Bingley in September, 1893. He has recently opened a Mission Room at Dubb, where there is a flourishing Sunday School, and where service is held every Sabbath evening. There are also a well-attended Sunday School and Christian Endeavour Society connected with the Church, which is at present in a very prosperous state. The present officers of the church are : Mr. James Roberts, the Knoll, Baildon ; Mr. W. Town, J.P., and Mr. W. N. Town, the Hills, Bingley ; Messrs. T. Foulds, A. Green, and J. W. Smith, Bingley. 209 PRIMITIVE METHODISTS. On the introduction of Primitive Methodism into the West Eiding in 1821, some friends in Bingley took up the new doctrine, and very soon afterwards a society was formed, subservient to the one at Silsden, where and at Hull it had first taken root. Mr. John Flesher, said to be a native of Otley, was the founder of the sect in Yorkshire and the bordering districts. By permission of the Editor of the now extinct Airedale Magazine, Mr. Flesher's portrait appears on the next page. He was born in 1801, first preached at Silsden in 1821, and lived to be present at the jubilee celebration of the parent society at Silsden, in 1871. He is said to have been one of the best grammarians of his time, and was for several years Connexional Editor. Silsden for some years continued head of an extensive circuit, and included societies extending from Accrington and Colne in one direction to Settle and Otley in another, while it embraced societies in many places in the Aire valley between Shipley and Malham. As the cause prospered, the Keighley circuit was formed in 1824, and Bingley was ultimately joined to that. From a copy of an old Preachers' Plan, dated 1823, supplied to me by the Bev. T. Baron, formerly of Silsden, I find that in this year there were already societies formed at Cottingley, Cullingworth, and Morton, in addition to Bingley and Eyecroft. It was really from the latter place, in the Harden valley, that the truths of the new sect first found their way to Bingley, and the remote little village has ever since remained one of the strongholds of the society. On April 20th, 1823, I find one Crawshaw preached at Bingley and at Micklewood and at Faweather on June 29th. This Crashaw, or Crawshaw (as it is differently spelt), was once a family of some consequence in this neighbourhood, and particularly numerous in the Wilsden district, where the name is found as early as the reign of Elizabeth. It is, indeed, not improbable that the eminent sacred poet, Eichard Crawshaw, author of the " Musical Duel " (one of the finest compositions in the language), was of this family ; it having been conjectured he was of Yorkshire 210 descent. He died in 1649. William Crashaw (1572-1626) was another distinguished poet and Puritan divine, and although of undoubted Yorkshire descent, little is known of his ancestry. In 1587 Richard Crashaye, gent., appears as plaintiff concerning purchase of land, C5 X' 221 EXTENSION OF THE TOWN AND TRADE. HAVE had much to say about Bingley in past centuries, and some words are now necessary on the great changes that have passed over the town during the century that is just closing. The completion of the sixty years' reign of Her Majesty, which was celebrated in Bingley in " Queen's weather" on June 22nd, 1897, was witness to a marvellous advance in the general condition of the people. But a wider contrast still is presented if we go further back in the century. Its opening years saw the dawn of new methods of existence, which to many minds were auguries of disaster to the physical and moral well-being of the country. Dr. Whitaker, when writing of Bingley, did not disguise his feelings in this light. But in spite of all the evils of conjested population and of manifold difficulties which have beset the path of commercial development, comforts and advantages have resulted to the bulk of the people which a purely agricultural life could not have effected. Bingley at the beginning of this century had still a comparatively large agricultural population. The census returns for 1801 yield the following particulars : Inhabited Engaged in Houses. Males. Females. Husbandry. Trades. Bingley .. .. 306 688 751 77 ' 261 Micklethwaite . . 242 535 576 133 150 Harden .. .. 306 778 772 125 281 854 2001 2099 335 692 Thus it will be seen that in 1801 nearly one-half of the working population was employed on the land. In 1811 there were 931 inhabited houses, and a total population of 4,782, of which 105 families were engaged in farm work and 829 in trade and manufactures. This was a rapid change in ten years. Only about 10 per cent, were then obtaining a livelihood in farming, while in 1821 the number 222 of families employed in trade had increased to 1,035, and in farming to 188. The population was then 6,176, shewing how the agricultural interest had declined in this period, and the manufacturing industries extended. Prior to the introduction of power-looms, about a century ago, spinning and weaving were done by hand in the cottages of the workers, which were often connected with farm buildings, and here they reeled, spun, and wove the yarn, and delivered the pieces to country merchants. The principal mart for cotton goods was Halifax, whither traders from Manchester proceeded and made purchases. The inmates of the Poor House at Bingley were also obliged to do a certain amount of spinning, &c., and in 1776 I find it ordered that if one Hannah Gregory does not spin 8 hanks a day for the future she shall immediately be sent to the workhouse at Bosendale. In 1778 it was ordered that Joseph Lund be appointed to reel the yarn spun in the House. In 1779 a stocking-frame was ordered to be obtained for the use of the town, and negotiations were to be entered into with John Armistead, of Bradford, for its hire or purchase. At this time cotton spinning and the manufacture of cotton goods was the staple industry about Bingley, and Mr. James Parker, of Great Horton, tells me that several sisters of the name of Clark, who had learnt cotton-spinning at Bingley, removed to Great Horton, and instructed a number of workpeople in the same trade at the mill then lately built by Messrs. John and Benjamin Knight (see Wm. Cudworth's Horton and James Parker's The Factory Child's Friend, published in 1832). In 1780 the first cotton mill ever erected in Yorkshire was begun at Keighley by Messrs. Ramsden, of Halifax ; but many years passed before the venture so far prospered as to encourage the adoption of the factory system at Bingley. By and bye came the application of steam to machinery, and what a revolution it has wrought in the capacity for production since the old hand-spinning days ! Then one woman could manage only one spindle, while now one girl can tend over a hundred ! In the first decade of the century several cotton mills had been erected and opened at Bingley. Providence 223 Mill, adjoining the old Grammar School, appears to be the oldest, and it was built by the brothers William, Charles, and Thomas Hartley, cousins of Dr. Hartley, master of the school, and vicar of Bingley. This mill was afterwards taken by Mr. John Sharp, being the first establishment run by the Sharp family in Bingley. Mr. Sharp put down a gas plant about the year 1822, for lighting his own premises only, and this was some years before the town adopted the new illuminant. The mill took fire on November 20th, 1872, doing damage to the extent of about 12,000, and has not since been occupied for mill purposes. Another cotton mill stood at the corner of Park Road and Main Street, and was run by Mr. Whitley ; while a third stood over the way, the Elm Tree Mill, started by the Messrs. Gott. This was suspended about 1825, and the mill turned into cottages. The small mill-pond was also filled up. The old mills at Castlefields, and Cottingley were also originally devoted to the production of cotton goods, and also Dowley Gap after the Walkers ceased to run it. It was built for a worsted mill about 1818 by the brothers Matthew and Thomas Walker, and they ran it continuously up to about 1848, when the partnership was dissolved ; Matthew retaining the mill premises, which were occupied for a short time by him, when the mill was let to Messrs. Hilton, of Ovenden, who ran it for some years up to 1865. Then it was taken by Mr. Samuel Rushforth and partners, and subsequently by Messrs. Ira Ickringill & Co., now of Keighley. Mr. Matthew Walker died in 1864, and the property, which is now unlet, is still held by his trustees. Thomas died in 1870, aged 79. His son, Mr. John Walker, of Gilstead, is now the oldest trustee of the Bingley Grammar School. To Castlefields Mill belongs the distinction of being the first factory in Yorkshire that was lighted with gas, shortly before Mr. Sharp adopted it at Providence Mill. In the notice of West Riddlesden Hall I have given some particulars of the Sidgwicks, and it was Mr. James Sidgwick, of Leeds, father of Mr. John Sidgwick (who died in 1791, and was buried in Bingley Church), who was one of the original partners and, I believe, founders of Castlefields Mills. The 224 partners were Wilmer Mackett Willett, James Sidgwick, Joseph Wood, and Johnson Atkinson Busfeild, trading under the name of Sidgwick, Wood & Co. This partnership was dissolved 26th December, 1793, and afterwards carried on by Mr. Willett and Mr. Busfeild only, under the style of W. M. Willett & Co. Subsequently Mr. Lister Ellis took the mill, and had it up to the time of his death in 1829. His son, William Ellis, had the misfortune to labour during the great Chartist agitation, which so seriously affected his own and other trading concerns in the parish. He was a useful man in the town's affairs, and died much respected in 1856. It was he who built the mansion called The Hills, now occupied by Mr. Town. The Ellises were a very respectable family, who came to Bingley from Bolton-by-Bolland, where one of the Ellises married an aunt of the first Lord Eibblesdale. Lister Ellis, his grandson, died in 1780, leaving a son of the same name, who was the first to settle at Bingley. He built Castlefields House, and married a daughter of Thomas Garforth, Esq., of Steeton, and left two sons, James, of Greenhill, Bingley, and above-mentioned William Ellis. The latter married in 1810 Mary, sister of Mr. Chapman, of Gilstead Hall, a retired East Indian officer, and only daughter of the Eev. John Chapman, vicar of Baildon, to whose memory there is a stained-glass window in the church at Baildon. William Ellis had issue five sons and three daughters ; the eldest son being William, who was born in 1813, and married in 1845, at Bath, Sophia Charlotte, daughter of James Woodman, Esq., M.D., of Chichester. His younger brother, George, continued at Bingley, and died here a few years ago. The Ellises are a very ancient family, and notices of its various branches from the Conquest to the present time have been published in a volume of 300 pages, collated by William Smith Ellis, Esq., of the Middle Temple. When the worsted industry began to revive and reached Bingley, Messrs. Ellis used to give out yarn and warp to people living at Harden, Cullingworth, Wilsden, and even as far away as Burley Wood Head. The woolcombers' and weavers' strike of 1825, which continued in and around 225 Bradford for more than five months, followed by a mutinous opposition to power-looms, seriously interfered with local trade, and it was a long time before things became fairly prosperous again. Within a few years, however, more spacious factories began to be erected. The three brothers, John, Jonas, and William Sharp,* had been worsted spinning at Harden Beckfoot, and Jonas and William came to Bingley, and Jonas built Prospect Mill, in Chapel Lane, and afterwards Airebank Mill was erected by William, and both of these establishments were subsequently owned and run by Jonas Sharp ; the premises and business being still used and carried on by his family, under the name of Jonas Sharp & Sons, Limited. Providence Mill, near the Grammar School, was owned and occupied by Mr. David Wilkinson Sharp and his son. The Sharps are an old local family, and appear in documents relating to the parish as far back as the time of Agincourt, A.D. 1415. In that year John Scharp appears at the Court of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, held at Bingley, and complains of one Robert Langrode in a plea of trespass. They have taken a useful part in the conduct of the town's affairs, and have been liberal benefactors in most philanthropic movements. Mr. John Sharp married, and left an only son, the above Mr. D. W. Sharp, and two daughters, Mrs. Wyrill (see page 198) and Mrs. Hannah Popplewell, of Ilkley, who died January llth, 1898, in her 90th year. Mr. Jonas Sharp, the youngest of the three brothers, married a daughter of Mr. Bairstow, of the Corn Mill, Steeton, and died March 24th, 1864, leaving a family of nine sons and daughters. The eldest, Edward, died at Gilstead Hall ; he married a Miss Park, of Leeds ; Fred, the next, married, and died at Ravenroyd, leaving no issue ; William died, unmarried, at Myrtle Grove ; Alfred married Elizabeth, daughter of George * The father of the three brothers was presumably, James Sharp, of Cowhouse, who died in 1798, aged 49, and his wife, Hannah, died in 1820, aged 68. Their grave is in the Parish Churchyard, under the south windows of the nave, and the stone also records the burial of two infants of John Sharp, of Beckfoot, one of whom, Paulina, died in 1810. Another daughter of John Sharp was also named Paulina (see page 198). 226 Walker, Esq., of Park House, Lindley, near Huddersfield, by whom he leaves a family of six sons and daughters. Mr. Alfred Sharp died on June 1st, 1896, aged 72, and is buried in Bingley Cemetery. He takes uudoubtedly in MR. ALFRED SHARP, J.P. modern times the first place among local benefactors. He held many offices, and his unbounded charity was given without ostentation, and in so many ways that the extent of it can never be known. He was a native of Bingley, having been born at Elm Tree Hill, June 12th, 1823, and as a boy went to the school at the low end of the town kept by Mr. Bichardson, the postmaster. Early in life he became a Sunday school teacher in connection with the Wesleyan Methodists, and was prominently identified with that body to the end of his life. He was practically the builder of the Hill Street Wesleyan Schools, for without his help such spacious buildings, which at that time were considered models of their kind, would not have been thought of. The same may be said of the new Wesleyan Chapel, to the erection of which he and his brother contributed, as elsewhere related, several thousands of pounds. For more than thirty years he was circuit steward. In 1881 he was the recipient of a handsome illuminated address from the teachers, scholars, and members of the Wesleyan congregation. From that year up to 1888 he resided at Carr Head, Lothersdale ; but having in the meantime purchased the Myrtle Grove estate, he came back to Bingley, and continued to reside at Myrtle Grove up to the time of his death. Mr. Sharp became a member of the Board of Improvement Commissioners in 1852, eventually becoming chairman of that body, a position which he filled until his retirement from the Board in 1878. He was elected chairman of the newly-formed School Board in 1875, and was president of the Bingley Technical Institute. He was also the principal benefactor on the establishment of the Bingley Free Library, contributing 1,000 towards the purchase of books. The library was opened on April 2nd, 1892. In 1878 Mr. Sharp was made a J.P. of the West Riding, and on the death of Mr. Ferrand in 1891 was chosen to fill his place as Chairman of the Bingley Bench of Magistrates. Mr. Sharp discharged so many and various duties, and gave of his bounty to every deserving cause with such a liberal hand, regardless of sect or creed, that his 'name must ever remain conspicuously associated with the progress of the town and trade of Bingley. Other children of Mr. Jonas Sharp are James, who married Sarah, daughter of Thomas Townseud, Esq., of 228 Attleborough Hall, Nuneaton ; Elizabeth, married Count Francis Bagienski, of Warsaw ; Martha, the wife of Abraham Bamsden, Esq., of Micklethwaite ; John Bairstow, married Elizabeth, daughter of Eagland Bray, Esq., of Halifax ; and Sarah, wife of John White, Esq., merchant, of Bradford. Another early worsted mill was built at Dubb by Messrs. Joseph and Samuel Moulding, who also built the residence adjoining, now occupied by Mr. Lund Thompson. About 1825 Mr. William Anderton came from Cullingworth, and occupied part of Dubb Mill, but shortly began to build premises of his own in Dubb Lane, where combing and spinning were carried on. The buildings were afterwards occupied as a cotton mill by the Ellises of Castlefields, and were subsequently raised and enlarged, and a new mill was erected on the opposite side of the road, now and for some years past owned and run by Messrs. Eushforth. The large mills by the canal side, now occupied by Messrs. Butler, Wood & Co., Gatecliff Bros., Sargeant & Coupe, and Smith & Sons, was built by Mr. Anderton also, and during his occupation suffered from a disastrous fire on March 20th, 1858, when property to the value of 15,000 succumbed to the flames. A melancholy incident is remembered in connection with this fire, when George Anderson, a man in the prime of life, while endeavouring to save some of his master's stock, was crushed by falling timbers, and burnt to death. Mr. Samuel Rushforth, J.P., who built the new mill above mentioned, was one of Bingley's "popular men." He was born at a house in Carrier's Row, Chapel Lane, on April 16th, 1844, and died at Moorfield,. 1300. 298 (North Hall) may have been one of the messuages in Bingley purchased by the Gascoignes of Gawthorpe, in the parish of Harewood (see fines 1554, &c.), and for this reason the place may have then acquired and retained the distinctive title of Gawthorpe from its belonging to this well-known family (see also page 73). But without the actual aid of documents I shall offer no further premise. In 1565, or before the rebuilding of Gawthorpe Hall in its present form, there was a " capital messuage called New Hall '' in Bingley, the location of which I have not been able to fix, though it was apparently in Priesthorpe. Proceedings in Chancery were entered in the above year by Gilbert, son and heir of Thomas Astley, lord of the manor of Bingley, for the recovery of the capital messuage, which it was stated had descended as of right to John Beeston, son and heir of Robert Beeston, of Priesthorpe, and that Stephen Tempest, John Morvell, and Eobert Banes were tenants at will of the said premises, and were receiving the issues and profits therefrom. The abstracts of proceedings are too long for quotation, but going back to the 12th century I find (but do not vouch for the connection) that Hugh, son of Roger de Newhall, quit-claimed 18 acres of land and four tofts in Priesthorpe, and also gave an annuity of 3s. to be paid by Robert, son of William de Alwodeley, out of one oxgang of land with a toft 'here. In the 24th Edward I. (1295) Roger de Aldwodeley held one messuage in Newhall of the annual value of 5s., and three bovates and seven acres of land worth annually 12s, 10d., and he held 18 penny rents in Newhall by service of paying yearly 3s. 2d. to the manor of Harewood. This may be the Newhall near Otley. Alice, the eldest daughter and co-heir of above Roger de Alwodeley, became the wife of William, son and heir of Robert Franke, an influential family, long owners of the manor of Cottingley, near Bingley. Agnes, daughter of Nicholas Franke, married William Gascoigne, Esq., of Gawthorpe Hall, Harewood, and Anthony, son and heir of William Franke, married Rosamund, daughter of Nicholas Tempest (temp. Queen Eliz.). This Nicholas Tempest was third son of Sir Richard Tempest (of Flodden Field fame), by Rosamund, his wife, who in 1540 had 294 property at Wilsden and at Mytholme, adjoining Harden Beck, and also a moiety of the manor of Hainworth (see Cudworth's Bowling, page 156). A daughter of Sir Richard married one of the Gascoignes, of Shipley, who were lords of the manor of Shipley, at that time. Ralph Gascoigne held lands at Bingley in 1554, and Sir John Tempest sold lands in Bingley and Hainworth to Richard Sunderland in 1563. The Ferrands also held land in Priesthorpe in the time of Queen Mary, and George Ferrand died at Priesthorpe in 1738, aged 31, and his wife, Elizabeth, died in 1752, aged 45. I have elsewhere stated that the lords of the manor of Bingley were non-resident at Bingley up to the end of the 16th century. There was no proper manor-house here, although Gawthorpe Hall, after its purchase with the manor by Anthony Walker, in 1596, became the property of the lords of the manor, as well as for a long time their residence, down to its sale in 1854 by the late Mr. George Lane Fox to Mr. Horsfall. The Walkers were an old local family, and had been living at Bingley from at least the time of Edward III. They had been gradually acquiring property at Bingley before the manorial rights were purchased by them in 1596. It was most likely in the life-time of Anthony Walker that the present Gawthorpe Hall was built. He married in 1580 Agnes Wooller, a connection, doubtless, of the William Wooller, who in 1597 left 50 for the purchase of an estate in Bingley for the benefit of the poor. In 1576, I find that a Walter Wooller purchased from the Paslewes certain lands, &c., in Bingley. There was also an Anthony Walker, of Gilstead, clerke, who died in 1607. The Walkers were living at Gawthorpe Hall in 1634, and they sold the estate and manor to Henry Currer, Esq. (grandson of Hugh Currer, of Marley), who resided at Gawthorpe in 1654, if not up to its sale in 1668* to Robert Benson, father of the first Lord of Bingley. Lord Bingley was an eminent public servant. He was * In 1661 Mary Currer, of Gawthorpe, was party to an agreement concerning a messuage and land at Frizinghall (vide Cudworth's History of Manningharn, &c., page 266.) 295 an active member of the Legislature, and was for some years Chancellor of the Exchequer. He died in 1731, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. I was informed by the late Mr. Lane Fox that he occasionally resided at Gawthorpe Hall, Bingley ; but the mansion which he built at Bramham Park became the family seat, as it remains to this time. His daughter, Harriet, married into the Fox family, as previously explained, and Gawthorpe Hall remained their property until its sale in 1854 to Mr. John Horsfall. The latter re-sold it in 1870 to Mr. David Salmohd, J.P., and he again sold it in the spring of 1890 to the late Mr. Samuel Weatherhead, whose family are the present owners and occupants of the mansion. For many years, up to about the middle of last century, the Mauds, a Quaker family, (see page 190), tenanted the Hall on Lord Bingley leaving it, and they were followed by the Heatons, also Quakers, who were long resident here. Subsequently, Mr. Thomas Whitley, a prominent local Wesleyan, resided at the Hall, and here the Eev. Dr. Beaumont, on his retirement from the circuit about 1828, spent a considerable time as the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Whitley. Next followed the Scotts, who were children of Christopher Scott, by his wife Mary Wood, of Morton, whose sister Dorothy Wood married Thomas Hulbert of the Old Vicarage. Christopher Scott left a family of thirteen ; John, the eldest, was born December 20th, 1792, and died, unmarried at Gawthorpe Hall in 1849 ; Thomas, the third son, also lived at Gawthorpe up to his marriage, when he resided in Leeds. Jacob, the next son, went into the malting business at Goole, but died at Gawthorpe Hall in 1857. The other sons were William, Jeremiah, and James Wood. Of the daughters, their names were Ann, who married James Garnet, of Luddenden ; Jane and Mary died at Gawthorpe unmarried ; Eliza died unmarried ; Sarah, married John Wood, of Morton, father of Mr. Horatio Scott Wood ; and Rebecca, twin, died in infancy. Christopher Scott was a maltster, living in the house now occupied by Dr. Crocker. He was drowned in the canal in November, 1828, and was interred in the Parish Churchyard. He had several brothers and sisters. One 296 of his brothers, William, was a distiller in London ; another, John, was a tanner at Horsforth ; and a third, Jeremiah, was a maltster at Wortley, and died in 1799. The latter had a son, William, who took over from his cousin, William Scott, son of Christopher, the brewery at Skipton-in-Craven, which is still owned by his descendants. Another son of Jeremiah was John Scott, of Potternewton, who married Margaret, daughter of the above Thomas Hulbert, of Bingley. She died in 1871, aged 75. This John Scott inherited the largest part of a fortune of 90,000, left by a William Bellhouse, his cousin, who was a corn-factor in Leeds, and* whose mother was a sister of Christopher Scott, of Bingley. He died Nov. 5th, 1833. Singularly, not a penny of this large fortune went to his father's family, the Bellhouses, but entirely to the Scotts and their immediate connections and friends. Edward Bellhouse, of Leeds, was said to have been a near relative. His son, William Bellhouse, married in 1825 Jane Mellin, whose sister, Elizabeth Mellin, married Benjamin Speight, of Halifax, the author's grandfather. Sums ranging from 250 to 10,000 were left to about forty members of the Scott family ; John Scott, of Potternewton, cousin of John Scott, of Gawthorpe Hall, being one of the executors and residuary legatee. Elizabeth, wife of Jonas Whitaker, of Burley, near Otley, received 1,000 ; the testator's late wife's niece, Mary Ann Thompson, daughter of Benjamin Thompson, gent., of Park Gate, Guiseley, a like sum. Currer Fothergill Busfeild, of Bradford, chief constable, received 500, and Thomas Cooper, apothecary, of Bingley, the same. Old Dr. Cooper is still remembered in Bingley. He was the Scotts' family doctor. Jeremiah Scott, son of Christopher, is also well remembered as the Bingley " huntsman." A pack of hounds was kept in the town in the early part of the century. They were what is known as "trencher fed," that is, each person maintained his own dog. "Jer Scott," as he was familarly called, used to come down into the Main Street, and with several blasts of his horn call the hounds together for a merry spin over the moors. Some of these 297 runs were famous, and have been well described by R. C. Wildon in his Voice from the Sycamore. There are indications that the present hall, erected in the time of James I., absorbed portions of an older and much stronger building that stood on the site. Immediately upon entering by the east front there was a wall on the right fully six feet thick, continuous with a wall of equal thickness which led to the kitchen. This wa"ll has been removed, and the space left open to the library. Marks of ancient iron staples in the jambs of the doorways also point to the entrances having been altered or enlarged at different periods. When Mr. Horsfall purchased the property he effected many alterations about the house, both internally and externally. Formerly the grounds on the north-east side extended further than they do at present, and there was no wall separating them from the adjoining field. This was all open, and a portion of the site was occupied by the old stank, or fish-pond, which is now drained. The description of Gawthorpe Hall, Harewood, in 1656 would almost apply to the Bingley property, excepting that the Harewood Gawthorpe had " a parke in former tymes stored with deere." There is, however, at Greenhill, a little above Gawthorpe Hall, an ancient enclosure still known as "Deer Park," which at one time formed part of the Ryshworth Hall estate. Close to the present turnstile leading up to Greenhill was the pinfold, which was removed further on the lane to its present position behind the spa well. There is an old dove-cote in the field, about one hundred yards west of the Hall, which has been renovated, the roofs having got very dilapidated. Its internal arrangements, however, remain the same. In conclusion, it must be remarked that the situation of the Hall is beautiful in the extreme ; from its terrace commanding a lovely distant view of the valley, while the luxuriant woods below the Druids' Altar form a charming background. 299 THE OLD VICAEAGE. R. Henry W. Hardcastle, of Priesthorpe Hall, is now the owner of this ancient and pleasantly- situated homestead. It has evidently derived its name from having been the residence of the vicars of Bingley in former times, although the present house does not appear to have been occupied for such purpose since its erection early in the 17th century. Doubtless it stands on the site of a much older house, which was the residence of the priests at the time Bingley Church was a possession of Drax Priory. The canons of Drax, as stated in the preceding chapter, obtained early in the 12th century the whole township of Priesthorpe, in which the Old Vicarage* is situated. From a charter of ' ' Robert, son of Ralph, villayn of Bingley," we learn that the said Robert ordered his body to be interred in the Priory at Drax, and he gave to the Canons residing at Priesthorpe two acres of arable land in the territory of Bingley, of which one abuts upon Brigflat on the one part and Brerilands on the other. The other acre lies in Northfield ; all which Simon, his son, confirmed. These lands can still be identified between Bingley and Cottingley Bridge. It is, moreover, evident from this ancient bequest that the vicars were then living at Priesthorpe, and apparently they continued to do so up to the Reformation, when their house was occupied by the last vicar of Bingley whom the canons appointed before the dissolution of monasteries. The following interesting deed is a copy from the original in the British Museum : This indenture made at Bingley, Sept. 20th, in ye 28th yeare of ye reigne of our Sufferande Ld. the Kinge Henry ye 8th, 1536, between Sir [i.e. Eev.] John Long, the vicar of Bingley, in county of Yorke, on one parte, and George Passlow, of Marlow, gent., on the other part, witnesseth that Sir John hath demised and to farme, lett to George and his assigns the Church of Bingley for the terme of three years next ensuing, with all tythes, profits, commodities, Ac., paying yearly to the said vicar 10 at the Feast of St. Martin in * It may be stated that " Old Vicarage " is only a modern appellation to distinguish it from the present Vicarage. Formerly it was called Vicarage only. 800 winter and St. Mark by even portions, within the space of 20 days, &c. And the vicar shall pay all duties, ordinary and extraordinary, to the churche of Yorke and to the Kinge, and also to discharge the cure of the said church as he will answer to it, to God, and to man. And the said George shall lay no claim to the Vicarage House nor the ground thereto belonging to the canons right, which is 3 of money, and six acres of land lying in Bingley Field and Micklethwaite Field, &c. Witnesses : WALTER PASSLOW, ESQ. , MILES HARTLEY, JOE DOBSON, and others. George Passlow, the lessee, and Walter Passlow, witness to the deed, were brothers ; the former residing at Marley and the latter at Eiddlesden (see post, RIDDLESDEN HALL). Vicar Long is stated to have died in 1536, so that he must have died soon after the completion of this agreement, although his successor, the Rev. John Scholay, is recorded to have been instituted to the living on June 15th, 1586. Whether the Priesthorpe vicarage continued to be occupied by the vicars of Bingley subsequent to this period I have not ascertained. Some of the vicars combined the office of masters of the Grammar School, and resided at the Grammar School House until the present vicarage was built in 1887. There was, however, a very old thatched building in Bailey Fold, on the site of the Midland Railway Goods Yard, which old inhabitants used to speak of as the vicarage house. Possibly it may have been occupied by some of the vicars before the School House became their residence. It was pulled down when the railway was made in 1847. Early in the 17th century the Priesthorpe Vicarage was in the occupation of an old local family of good standing named Dobson. Among the wills of this family proved at York is one dated May 2nd, 1635, of Elizabeth, widow of Michael Dobson, of Priesthorpe ; and another dated February 9th, 1639, of Thomas Dobson, of Priesthorpe, whose son Thomas was constable of Bingley in 1664-5, and his son's baptism (another Thomas) is recorded in the church registers for 1666 : Thomas, son of Thomas Dobson, of Vicarage. The father died in 1704, and the son in 1747. A monument in the church records that by his marriage with Ann, daughter of William Beaumont, Esq., of Darton, 801 he had three children, viz. : John, who died a student at Lincoln's Inn, 1782 ; Martha, married to Miles Staveley, Esq., of North Stainley [descended from a family that traces its lineage back to the heroes of the Conquest] ; and Sarah, married (1) in 1728 to Benjamin Ferrand, Esq., of St. Ives, and (2) in 1737 to Gregory Khodes, Esq., of Kipon. This Sarah Rhodes inherited the vicarage property from her father, and shortly before her death in 1785 she left by will a rent-charge of 15 a year upon the estate towards the maintenance of five poor widows in the almshouses then lately established by her in Priesthorpe, which are still maintained. In 1765 Dr. Johnson Atkinson, afterwards of Myrtle Grove, resided at the vicarage, and a few years later the family of Hulbert became the tenants, and continued to reside there until the death of Miss Ann Hulbert in 1883, aged 84 (see page 296). There is a fine old "grandfather's clock" kept at the vicarage, which was provided by Mr. James Hulbert, who died here in 1799. The clock is dated 1772. The vicarage property was sold in 1879 ; Mr. Joseph Hardcastle being the purchaser.* After the death of Miss Hulbert the house was occupied by Mr. David Binns England, and subsequently by Captain Boulton. Mr. Thomas Orchardson is the present tenant, and he is a cousin of the distinguished artist, Mr. W. Q. Orchardson, R.A. The oldest part of the present residence is of early 17th century date, while the south front appears to have been erected during the tenancy of James Hulbert, who was interred at Guiseley Church in 1799. The old-fashioned gardens about the house are nicely and attractively planted, and there are several aged yew trees, in all probability planted by the monastic owners of the estate before the Reformation. A large circular bed on the lawn is completely filled with a single rhododendron tree, now in fine foliage, and measuring 118 feet in circumference. Near the gardens is a spacious old tithe-barn, supported by massive oak props, &c. * For pedigree of Hardcastle of Fewston, Bingley, &c., fee the author's Nidderdale, pages 406-7. 803 EYSHWOETH HALL. I HE family of Eyshworth, or Bishworth, was at a very early period connected with the Ryshworth Hall estate, and was also of such consequence as to possess a private chapel, which went by their name, on the north side of the Parish Church. In this and the neighbouring parishes the Eishworths have continued to the present time. A descendant of the old line, one Ellen Eishworth, died about 1640, and in her will she requests that her body be laid " in the queere of Bingley Church, which was once her deare and lovinge father's." A family of this name, supposed to have sprung from the same stock, was living at Gillgrange (Howden Gill) more than two centuries ago, and a son of William Eishworth, of Gillgrange, settled at Thwaites, and died at an advanced age in 1772. In 1779 Thomas Eishworth leased from Mr. Ferrand, of St. Ives, the farm called Eoydfield, above Marley. Thomas Eishworth died at Thwaites House in 1809, aged 70. The estate at Eyshworth eventually came to the Eltoftes, who appear as property owners at " Mylnewro," Bingley [is this Mill Eow, near the Corn Mill ?], in the year of Agincourt(1415),and Christopher Eltofte possessed Eyshworth in 1519.* It was by them sold in 1591 to Edward Bynns, in whose family it remained till 1672, when Abraham Bynnes, J.P., sold the house and lands to William Busfeild, merchant, of Leeds. This William Busfeild was Mayor of Leeds in 1673, and died in 1675. He left an only son, William, then an infant, and his widow, who was a daughter of Hugh Currer, Esq., of Kildwick,| married, in 1685, Eobert Ferrand, Esq., of * The manor of Farnhill, Kildwick parish, came to the Eltoftes through the marriage of an Eltofte to Margaret, daughter of John de Coplay, who was lord of Farnhill in 1385-6, and it remained with the Eltoftes till 1636 (see also page 158). t Hugh Currer formerly lived at Paper Hall, Bradford, afterwards (1720) bought by Robert Stansfield, who married a daughter of William Busfeild, of Ryshworth Hall (see Mr. Wroot's paper in the Bradford Antiquary for 1896, pages 60-63). 304 Harden Grange, by whom she had an only son, Robert Ferrand, who died unmarried in 1742. In the meanwhile Ryshworth had been let to Mr. Joseph Walker, a local friend of Oliver Heywood, the Puritan divine, and he continued at the Hall until a short time before 1700, when it was let, to Richard Appleyard, of Halifax, whose brother, Jonas Appleyard, was then living at Harden Grange. Robert, eldest son of Richard Appleyard, who was born at Ryshworth in 1703, had a son also named Robert, who was married in 1764, and was secretary to the Lord Chancellor. William Busfeild, on reaching manhood, settled at Ryshworth, and it continued the family residence until the death of Thomas Busfeild in 1772, when the estate passed to his niece, Elizabeth, wife of Johnson Atkinson, of Myrtle Grove, who thereupon assumed the name and arms of Busfeild. In 1803 it was sold by Johnson Atkinson Busfeild to Peter Garforth, Esq., of Skipton (the friend of Wesley, and one of the founders of Skipton Wesleyanism), for 12,000, reserving the Rishworth Chapel. In 1815 Mr. Garforth's son and successor again sold it to the Ferrands of St. Ives, by whom it is still possessed. Mr. Timothy Horsfall, of Hawks worth Hall, resided at Ryshworth for several years before Mr. Frederick Greenwood took the Hall in 1828. The Greenwoods lived here about twenty years, and subsequently settled at Norton Conyers and in Nidderdale (see the author's Nidderdale, pages 894-7. Mr. Fred. Greenwood was brother to Mrs. Sidgwick, who lived for many years at West Riddlesden Hall, and was a cousin of the late Mr. John Greenwood Sugden, of Eastwood House, Keighley, and Steeton Hall, the father- in-law of Mr. Charles W. Dunlop, a subsequent tenant of Ryshworth Hall. ' After the Greenwoods the Hall was occupied for some years by Mr. Johnson Atkinson Busfeild, father of the present Mr. Ferrand, of St. Ives. Then in 1854 Mr. Alfred Harris (whose elder brother, Henry Harris, lived at Longwood, Bingley, up to the time of his death in 1872), one of the proprietors of Harris & Co., now the Bradford Old Bank, Limited (founded by Mr. Edmund Peckover in 1808), occupied the Hall for about twelve 805 years, when it was taken by Mr. W. Middleton (a former mayor of Norwich), who came to Yorkshire and established himself as a manufacturer at Cononley, near Skipton, and his firm, Messrs. Middleton, Ainsworth & Co., had also a warehouse in Bradford. He resided at Ryshworth for three years prior to 1870, when Mr. Dunlop took over his lease. Mr. Dunlop, now of Embsay Kirk, near Skipton, retained the Hall for more than 25 years, leaving it in 1896. Mr. Charles E. Sugden is the present tenant. The Hall, which is situated about a mile out of Bingley, on the Keighley road, is a picturesque old mansion, combining various styles. It has an open prospect towards the Altar crags, and is surrounded with pleasant gardens, and in ancient times there was a large park attached. The Deer Park at Greenhill has also at one time formed part of the Eyshworth Hall estate. In the Warburton Collections in the British Museum is a south view of the original Hall as it appeared about the end of the 17th century. At that time the highroad passed before the south front of the Hall ; the road having been diverted when the turnpike was made in the middle of last century, now passes at the back of the house. The west wing was erected about 1750 by Mr. Thomas Busfeild, but the chimneys were rebuilt about fifty years ago. The additions on the north side were made about 1884, but the east end still retains its old-fashioned character, having sturdy, ivy-covered walls, with antique leaden gutters, and small leaded windows. The walls are nowhere more than two feet thick. Some alterations and additions have been made, and the bays in front of the house, shewn in the illustration, are also additions made in the early part of this century. In the spacious yard adjoining the highway is a magnificent old, lime-tree (the finest in the district), which presents a very luxuriant and lofty crown of foliage. The trunk spreads at the base, and measures 35 feet round, while at four feet from this ground measurement it is 19 feet in circumference. The tree appears to be still vigorous and flowers annually. 807 EAST RIDDLE SDEN HALL. HAVE elsewhere spoken of the importance of the old Anglian settlement at Bingley, and of the determined onslaught and ultimate annexation of it by the Viking invaders in the ninth century, and it is noteworthy that Eiddlesden defines almost the exact boundary of the Norse and Anglo-Saxon place-names in Airedale. Lower down the valley, or east of Eiddlesden, there are no Norse names, if we except Micklethwaite, close by, which I have explained was probably the original Norse settlement in the parish. Is it possible that the mound, or eminence, above the river, on which East Eiddlesden Hall stands, was the place of meeting, assembly, or Council of the Anglo-Saxons and invading Northmen, called by them Danes, which is, moreover, on the division of the two Dane-made wapentakes of Skyrack and Staincliffe ? From Dr. Bosworth, author of the well-known Anglo-Saxon dictionary, I gather that raedels (counsel) and Den (Dane) would mean the place of counsel of or with the Danes. At any rate, I can offer no better explanation of the meaning of this name. The red earth theory and the red lion's den (in allusion to the arms of Maude) interpretation seem to me untenable, especially the latter, which is not old enough. The site was chosen at a very early date for a residence of considerable consequence, and was the home for some centuries of families occupying the highest position in the parish of Bingley. Eiddlesden is even mentioned in Domesday as a manor that had belonged to the Dane, Ardulf (see page 78), but at that time (A.D. 1086) was held by the King. It was said to be then worth 16s. Although the King had deprived Ardulf of his possession, he in all probability continued as tenant, or under-lord of the estate, for a little later we find his kinsman, Simon de Monte Alto, or Montalte, in possession as feudal lord of the manor. He was most probably a grandson of Gospatric, son of Gospatric, lord of Bingley in 1066, and was living in 1165. If this be the case, and there is no evidence to 808 disprove it, we have the remarkable instance of an estate having been but once sold in the course of nearly a thousand years. This Simon is said to have been a younger brother of Robert de Montalte, who held the lordship of Hawarden, in Flintshire, a place that is interesting at the present time as the home of the late Prime Minister (Mr. Gladstone). Burke derives the descent of the present Earl de Montalt, Viscount Hawarden, from these Montaltes of the Bingley Riddlesden. Some little time after the Conquest the manors of Morton and Riddlesden were granted to the Romilles, lords of the honour of Skipton, and henceforward continued to form a part of the Skipton Fee. For more than two and a half centuries the Montaltes, alias Mobautes, now Maude, continued to hold the undivided manor of Riddlesden. But towards the close of the 14th century a change took place. Simon Montalte, or Mohaute, died, leaving a family of daughters, but no son, and the eldest of these, Elizabeth, married in 1402 Robert Paslew, sometime Master of the Rolls. He succeeded to a portion of the lands, which included East Riddlesden Hall, while the remainder, or West Riddlesden, was bestowed on Robert Montalte, or Mohaute, who was son of a younger brother of Richard, father of Simon, last lord of the whole patrimony, and consequently was cousin of the last-named. From this Robert the Maudes of West Riddlesden derive their descent. The Paslews now continued as lords of East Riddlesden for the ensuing two centuries. They were an old family of good standing, long resident at Potternewton, in the parish of Leeds, and when they settled at Riddlesden they attended the Parish Churches both at Bingley and Keighley, in each of which they had a chapel of their own. In 1341 John Paslew wag a free tenant at Leeds Woodhouse, holding there a messuage and two oxgangs of land. Robert Paslew was a Baron of Exchequer in the time of Henry III (vide Maddock's Exchequer), Robert Paslew, " de Ledys," was vicar of Leeds in 1408. Thomas Paslew was a monk in Bolton Priory in 1379, and Thomas Paslew was Abbot of Fountains in 1484. 309 Alexander Paslew, of Riddlesden, was interred in the choir of St. Lawrence, at the east end of the south aisle of Bingley Church, in 1518, and one of the supervisors of his will was the celebrated but unfortunate Abbot of Whalley, Sir John Paslew, who was hanged before the walls of his own Abbey for the brave part he took in the Pilgrimage of Grace. He was of the same family as the Riddlesden Paslews, and bore the same coat-of-arms as they, with a crescent for difference. In 1540, or shortly after the suppression of Drax Priory, Walter Paslew, son of above Alexander, obtained a grant from the King of the manor of Harden, and in 1566-7 his son, Francis, who had married a daughter of Sir William Calverley,* disposed of the manors of Harden and Riddlesden and certain lands in Bingley, Marley, and Priesthorpe apparently for political purposes. His family were staunch Catholics one of them, as we have seen, being principal of one of the largest religious houses in the north, and they naturally felt the effects of the hard reforming hand very bitterly. Walter Paslew, son of Francis, of Riddlesden, seems to have joined the crusade against the downthrow of the monasteries, which, however, so far as he was concerned, ended with his lodgment in the Tower of London. An old inscription on the walls of the Beauchamp Tower reads: "Walter Paslew, 1569," along with the motto: " Extrema anchora Christus, 1570," and the figure of an anchor. It has been doubted whether this actually refers to the imprisonment here of Walter Paslew, of Riddlesden, but from what we know of the family there is a strong probability that it does. This Walter Paslew married a daughter of Richard Clapham, of Beamsley, and left a son (who died young) and two daughters. Ellen, the eldest, married John Rishworth, and to this family the East Riddlesden estate came. His son, John Rishworth, turned out a spendthrift, and according to the Rev. Oliver Heywood, died miserably poor at Keighley. During the time of the Civil War the Hall and appurtenances were sold to the Murgatroyds, of * In the Bingley Parish Registers, under date, 1579, April 12th, is an entry of the baptism of Thomas, son of Francis Paslewe. 310 Warley, near Halifax, a family who also held lands and tenements in Shipley, which they had purchased from the Rawsons in the time of James I. They likewise gradually extended their possessions in the neighbourhoods of Bingley and Keighley. James Murgatroyd rebuilt East Riddlesden Hall in its present form, and his initials and those of his wife, with the date 1640, appear on one of the outbuildings. When completed, the house, with its new and handsome decorative features, must have presented a stately appearance, and at that time it was one of the largest, if not the largest and most costly residence of the kind in the Aire valley. But the builder was a rich man, and his income is reckoned to have been not less than 2,000 a year ; worth at least five times that figure at the present day. His eldest son, John Murgatroyd, continued to reside at the Hall ; but alas ! like many another rich young squire of this unsettled period, he ruined himself by a debauched life, and died in 1662, leaving a family, who unhappily quarrelled over the crumbs of the wasted patrimony. John's sister, Mary, married Nicholas Starlde, of Huntroyd, Lancashire, and after a long and painful litigation with creditors and much family trouble, arising out of the reckless conduct of the younger Murgatroyds, the East Eiddlesden estate finally came into the hands of Edmund Starkie, second son of the above Nicholas and Mary Starkie. It is said that some members of the builder's family were even forcibly to eject from the premises ; but popular sympathy with them ran so high in the neighbourhood, a tradition exists that the river Aire, like the classical river of Troy, mourned their fate, and altering its course, ceased to flow beside the Hall. Edmund Starkie appears to have been in possession prior to the year 1692, as in that year he made some alterations in the buildings, as is evident from a stone over the garden door. Thoresby speaks of him as residing here in 1702, though it was not until 1708 that Mr. Starkie became owner in fee of the Hall and land. This family continued to reside here up to the beginning of the present century, when on the death of the wife of Nicholas Starkie, who was best known in this locality as Madam 811 Starkie, the Hall ceased to be their family residence.* Madam Starkie is remembered as a woman of very masculine habits, who could fire a gun or ride to hounds with the best sportsman in the field ; while woe betide the person who raised her tantrums ! A story is told of how on one occasion while hunting she had failed to clear a fence, and in the fall had dislocated her ankle-joint. Her husband, hearing she had fallen upon her head, bounded up, and on learning the full extent of the injury, exclaimed with an oath : " It's the wrong joint ! " Nicholas Starkie left two daughters, who married gentlemen living at a distance, and the Hall has since been let to tenants, and is now a farm-house. Our illustration, reproduced from a recent photograph by Mr. Whitaker, depicts the west front, with its handsome rose window and battlemeuted roof. The gardens in front are doubtless as old as the original homestead of pre-Eeformation times, while the spacious fish-pond at the rear of the buildings retains in all probability the same place and dimensions as it did in the time of the second Edward, when it is mentioned in the domestic accounts of Bolton Priory. In the gardens at the north end there are some old but specially well-built peacock-houses, a very unusual adjunct of a family residence in this part of the country ; shewing, at any rate, the elegant style in which the family then lived. The ancient corn-mill at Riddlesden is interesting as in former times all tenants within the manor were obliged to grind their corn here, but whether they were compelled to bake their bread at the manor-oven, as was the case in Bingley, no evidence is forthcoming. About 1150 Simon de Montalte gave the tithes of the mill here to Bingley Church, and he also gave the same tithes of all bees within the manor. Mead made from honey was a favourite drink of the old Danes in England, and it seems at this time that bee-keeping was a local industry of some value. * More detailed information respecting the various owners I have named appear in an interesting paper on East Biddelsden, contributed by Mr. W. A. Brigg to the Bradford Antiquary in 1892, and to which I must express my indebtedness. . 818 WEST BIDDLESDEN HALL. I HEKE is no evidence to shew that any house of importance stood here before the partition of the Biddlesden estate about A.D. 1 400 (see page 308), when West Riddlesden came to Robert Montalte, or Mohaute, in whose family it remained till the 17th century. Most of the present mansion is of the latter date, having been built in 1687 by Thomas, son of John Leach, who married in 1684 the heiress of the Mohautes, or Maudes, of West Riddlesden. On a beam of black oak in the roof of the hall are cut the initials and date, T.L., 1687, which agrees with the statement of the Rev. Oliver Heywood that Thomas Leach rebuilt the house in that year. Heywood preached here in 1679, 1680, and again he preached and slept here on Thursday, May 25th, 1682. The old broad oak staircase, however, with the window and the north wing, appear to be part of a previous homestead. A quarry of ancient stained glass in the window bears a coat-of-arms, a crescent on a chevron between four mullets, three and one, with the partially obliterated name, Arthur de Mohaut. This Arthur Maude made his will in the year 1534, and gave 20s. to purchase a bell for the church of St. Andrew, Keighley (see page 113). The Leach family had been settled at Bingley long before they acquired West Riddlesden. Some memorial tablets of them may be seen in the Parish Church. They parted with Riddlesden to John Greenwood, Esq., of the Knowle, Keighley, in 1809 ; but one portion of the Hall continued in the occupation of the Leach's till 1854, when by the death of William Leach the family here became extinct. Captain Greenwood, of Swarcliffe Hall, Nidderdale, is the present owner of the estate, and James Nicholson Clarkson, Esq., the tenant. The Hall occupies a pleasant and well-sheltered position on the north side of the valley above the canal, about a mile from Keighley Station and three miles from Bingley. The south front, of three pointed gables, commands a wide 814 and beautiful prospect. The porch-tower and bay-window at the west end are additions made after the purchase of the Hall by the Greenwoods. The ancient gardens enclosing the Hall contain a variety of choice shrubs and flowers. On the west side is a handsome acacia tree ; this tree being a native of North America, and it was not known in England till the 17th century. At the bottom of the vegetable garden is a large old mulberry-tree. A year or two after the death of Mr. Leach, in 1854, the Hall was let to Mr. John Benson Sidgwick, of Stonegappe, Lothersdale (called Stangap in 1340 ; vide Glusburn Charters in Coll. Top. et Gen., Pt. xxiii.), and on his decease in May, 1872, it continued the home of his widow, Mrs. Sidgwick (who was a daughter of Mr. John Greenwood, of the Knowle, Keighley), until her death on Dec. 27th, 1887. I may note in passing that when at Stonegappe Mrs. Sidgwick employed the afterwards distinguished novelist, Charlotte Bronte, as governess to her children for a short time, from May to July, 1839. The Brontes were then living at Haworth, only a few miles distant, and Charlotte had left Miss Wooller's school some months previous to her going to Stonegappe. Mr. J. B. Sidgwick, I may add, was elder brother of the Rev. William Sidgwick, M.A., master of Skipton Grammar School, who died in 1841, aged 35. His youngest daughter, Mary, married in 1859 the late Eight Rev. Edward White Benson, D.D., Archbishop of Canterbury. The Archbishop's grandfather, Captain White Benson, who died in 1806, had a sister, Ann Benson, wife of William Sidgwick, owner of the High Mills, Skipton, who was father of the above Mr. J. B. Sidgwick and Rev. William Sidgwick. William Sidgwick's father, John Sidgwick, lived at Bingley, where he died August 15th, 1791, aged 75, and was bhiried, with his wife, in the nave of the Parish Church (see also page 223). Mr. Arthur Christopher Benson, eldest surviving son of the Archbishop,* kindly supplies the following interesting account of his visit to West Riddlesden when a boy : * For other particulars of the late Archbishop Benson's Bingley ancestry see HILL END, HARDEN. 815 In the summer of 1874, just before I went to Eton, my father, then Chancellor of Lincoln, took Martin, my elder brother, and myself to visit our relations in the North. We went first to West Biddlesden Hall, near Keighley, where my great aunt, Mrs. John Sidgwick. then lived. It was an old manor house, with quiet spacious gardens, bordered by a canal, with the moors behind. I remember the stained glass, with the arms of the Montaltes, in the great staircase window, and a long low room with an alcove formed by a little projection over the porch where we slept ; my uncle, John Benson Sidgwick, had been dead some time, and my only knowledge of him was derived from a photograph, which represented him sitting at ease in an armchair, with a black velvet skull cap on his head, and his patriarchal snowy beard growing over his chest. My great aunt Sarah, a Greenwood of Swarcliffe, was a little woman with a sweet face, who received us with gentle cordiality, and won our hearts at once ; I remember her telling us that she used to call my father " the little Bishop " when he was a boy. My cousin, Charles Sidgwick, was master of the house, and there was also there " Tiffy " Drury, his sister, with her children ; we fished for crawfish in the canal, and paid a visit to Old Eiddlesden, a stately old house, now a farm, with large monastic barns. I am told that on one of the last visits of the Archbishop to Yorkshire he called, as usual, at Riddlesden Hall, and was descending the old oaken staircase previously referred to, when he remarked with a pleasant smile : " Ah ! I wonder what the Rev. Oliver Hey wood would think if he knew that the Archbishop of Canterbury was occupying the very place where Nonconformity was preached by him with so much fervour ? " an observation which may in turn be humorously contrasted with possible events in the future. Who can tell, for is it not a truism that history often repeats itself ? w 817 MABLEY HALL. ARLEY, or Mardelei, as it is written in the Domesday record, is another of those pre-Conquest places afterwards embraced within the soke of Bingley, which gave name to a family of some consequence in the Norman period. They appear to have been under-tenants of the Montaltes, or Maudes, one of whom, Thomas de Mohaut, held six bovates of land, with appurtenances, in Marley in 1209. Alice, daughter and co-heiress of Simon de Montalte (living in 1254), married Thomas de Martheley (Marley), and by this marriage may possibly have brought Marley to this family. In the Nomina Villarum (1325) Prior (Peter) de Martheley and Ralph de Ilkton are returned as joint lords of the neighbouring manor of Morton. John and Richard de Marthele were jurors at the inq. of George de Cautelupe in 1273 (see page 110), and a Margareta de Marlay appears in the Poll Tax of 1378 for Newsholme, in Keighley parish. The Marley estate, at any rate, was afterwards held by the name of Maude. A capital messuage has undoubtedly existed at Marley from Norman times, probably on the site of the existing Hall. It is described in the Patent Roll, 4th and 5th Philip and Mary (1556-7), as producing a rent of Is. 6d. annually due to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, as parcel of their possessions attached to the late Preceptory of Newlands, and late of Walter Paslew, Esq. William Martheley was one of 12 jurors sworn at the Court of the Knights held at Bingley in the year of Agincourt (1415) to determine whether a certain " garthraw lying between the field of Priesthorp and the meadow of the lord of Bynglay, called Ryckyeng," was the property of the Prior of Drax or of Thomas de Astley, lord of Bingley, and they decided in favour of the Prior, excepting that three ash trees growing there and another ash tree of ancient growth belonged to the said lord.* In a particular of all the manors, rents, &c., of Richard Sunderland, Esq., of Coley Hall, in A.D. 1619, lately belonging to the dissolved Priory Court Bolls, Pt. 211, No. 18. 818 of St. John of Jerusalem, appears the rent of Is. 6d. due from Mr. John Bishworth for one tenement called Marley Hall ; he being the owner, although the Hall was then in the occupation of William Currer, Esq. This John Eishworth had married Ellen, daughter and co-heir of Walter Paslew, Esq., who is thought to have been one of the Eeformation insurrectionists imprisoned in the Tower of London, A.D. 1569 (see page 309). Early in the reign of Elizabeth, William Currer was owner of the Hall estate, apparently by marriage with a daughter of Christopher Maude, and in 1572 a fine was entered between Christopher Wade and Thomas Hudson, plaintiffs, and Walter Paslew, son and heir of Francis Paslew, Esq., and William Currer, deforciants, respecting the " messuage called Marley Hall, with lands in Marley and Bingley, which Francis Paslew, aforesaid, and Alexander Paslew, brother of the said Walter, hold for their lives." William Currer (brother of Henry Currer, of Kildwick, whose wife was a daughter of Christopher Wade) was then living at Marley Hall, which was after the year 1600 occupied by his son, the before-mentioned William. William Currer removed to Farnhill about 1610, and subsequently to Stainton Cotes, in the parish of Gargrave, where he died in 1622. Hugh Currer, of Marley, purchased, as elsewhere related, the manor of Bingley from the Walkers, and his grandson, Henry Currer, of Gawthorpe Hall, sold the same to the Bensons in 1668. The Hall estate was sold to John Savile, Esq., whose family had held lands and tenements in Marley and in Bingley for nearly a century previous. In 1606 " Miss Savile, of Marley," was married at Keighley to a son of the Rev. Richard Dean, of Saltonstall, who was Bishop of Ossory, in Ireland, in 1611. John Savile, soon after his purchase of the estate, rebuilt the Hall in its present form, A.D. 1627. It is stated that he died at Marley in 1629, apparently a widower, leaving a son, Robert, and two daughters, Isabel and Ann.* But there was a John Savile, evidently of Marley, who was fined for not doing suit and service at the court (ordained by the dissolved order of the * See Bradford Antiquary, 1893, page 167. 319 Knights Hospitallers) between the years 1631 and 1635. In the year 1633 the wife of John Savile was buried at Keighley ; presumably the wife of Mr. Savile, of Marley. The Saviles lived in great style at Marley, and kept their own fool, hal, or jester, who is still traditionally remembered in the neighbourhood as " Sil o' Marley," and of whom many laughable anecdotes are related. The office of "jester" was in ancient times of no mean importance, and was often held by gentlemen wits of good family or education. Will Somers, Court fool to Henry VIII., was a man of standing, and his portrait is preserved at Hampton Court ; while going back even to the days of the Norman we read of one, ~Ber