1877

  A HISTORY OF FEATHERSTONE

 

1877

HOME RULE PART THREE

  The approval for a Featherstone Local Board was finally given and a public meeting was held at the Junction Inn in March to nominate suitable and competent persons to sit on the Board. The nominations were: for Purston - John Waller and Richard Cowling; for Ackton - George Earle and Thomas Gill; and for Featherstone - Thomas Phipps, Edwin Goddard, Joseph Fearnley and Ernest Andrew. It was decided to nominate only three for Featherstone and on a show of hands Ernest Andrew got least votes. It was expected there would be other nominations in which case an election would be held.

  The expectation proved to be true and in all there were 25 nominations for the nine seats. They voting was:

Joseph Fearnley, land surveyor, Featherstone Mill   395   elected 

Ernest Andrew, colliery manager, Featherstone   441   elected

Thomas Jackson, bootmaker, Wakefield   21

Thomas Phipps, builder, South Featherstone  237   elected

Thomas Collins, grocer, North Featherstone    50

Edwin Goddard, grocer, South Featherstone   186   elected

Joseph Blackburn, colliery manager, South Featherstone   65

William Gower, schoolmaster, North Featherstone   withdrew

Abraham Wardman, colliery manager, Purston   168

David Longstaff JP, farmer, Monk Royd    163

John Waller, farmer and publican, Purston   264   elected

Richard Cowling, shopkeeper, Purston   285   elected

James Eley, colliery manager, Purston   149

Robert Walker, gentleman, Purston   withdrew

Tinley Simpson, schoolmaster, Purston   withdrew

William Goodworth, farmer, Purston   withdrew

George Wilson, gentleman, Purston   55

Joseph Hemmingway, farmer, Purston   withdrew

George Earle, farmer, Whitwood   266   elected

Thomas Gill, shopkeeper, Loscoe   111

Robert Massey, shopkeeper, Streethouse   231   elected

Joseph Walker, butcher, Streethouse   264   elected

John Rhodes, colliery owner, Snydale Hall   withdrew

Morris Allsop, Farmer, Snydale   38

Henry Wilson, grocer, Streethouse   withdrew

  The first meeting of Featherstone's new Local Board was held in Mr Mason's Hall, George Street on  April 11 at which Joseph Fearnley was unanimously elected chairman. It was agreed to advertise for the officers required, and to divide the district into wards, each ward to represent a township.

  In May Dr Alexander Buncle was appointed medical officer at a salary of £40 a year, and Andrew Cross was appointed surveyor at £75.

A RAILWAY STATION ACCIDENT?

  A case was heard in the County Court in July in which a Mr Milthorp sued the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company for £60 damages. He said he arrived at Featherstone Station last April at 8.30pm. The station was badly lit with only one oil lamp covered with dust. As he alighted the train jerked and he fell on his shoulder and fractured his arm. Dr Buncle attended him at home the next day and found him in great pain with the arm fractured near to the shoulder. He got Dr Wood to assist him to set the broken bone. His charges were six guineas and it was a question whether the plaintiff would be able to work again.

  Benjamin Pickard and Joe Blaydon said the train jerked forward two yards and then stopped. Alfred Dawson, station master, said there was no complaint made to him until seven days later. Thomas William Dobson, parcel porter, John Spencer, signalman, Sam Wood, guard, and Henry Cockhill, train driver, all said the train did not jerk forward. The jury returned a verdict for the railway company.

 Featherstone Station. A Tony Lumb collection photo.

BREACH OF PROMISE 

  A Sherriff's Court was held at Leeds Town Hall in November to assess the damages due to Mary Hannah Asquith, the daughter of a Featherstone farmer's widow. She had accused Thomas Wolforth, the son of a farmer and beerhouse keeper in Featherstone, of breach of promise and seduction. He had not defended the action so it was only necessary for the jury to assess damages.

  Mr Heaton Cadman, for Asquith, said Wolforth had courted her for two years and eventually told her to prepare for her wedding. Then a few days later he married another woman. That was heartless and downright wicked cruelty.

  Miss Asquith told the jury she went to see Wolforth after his marriage and told him he would have to pay, and also pay for her child. His wife said "Alright, we can pay". Mr Ferns for the defence sought to discredit her, but in the end the two solicitors consulted and agreed the defendant would pay £5 damages, and extra for the costs of the case and also for the case of seduction which would not now take place.

 

1877 NEWS ITEMS

JANUARY  William Burnley summonsed the Featherstone Main Coal Company for £3 11s in lieu of 14 days notice. He said he was stopped from working by Mr Crossley, the underground viewer, and told to go until he could find work for him elsewhere. He had been several times to the pit but was told there was no work for him. The Bench made an order for the full amount.

  Richard Hill and William Woodhouse were charged with annoying passengers on the train from Tanshelf to Featherstone. It was said in court they commenced fighting when they got on the train to the great terror of the female passengers. Woodhouse was shown to be the first aggressor and he was fined £2. The charge against Hill was dismissed.

MARCH  William Levers was charged by Richard Habberley with assaulting him in the New Inn and biting his ear off. PC Grimshaw said he went to Habberley's lodgings and examined his ear. It was hanging down and surgical assistance was obtained. It could not be sewn back so plaster was used to unite the parts. Levers was fined £2.

  John Waller and John Atkinson were summonsed to show why the call of £168 by the Pontefract Union had not been paid. The clerk to the Guardians said the money had now been paid. Mr Waller said they had been greatly hampered by their assistant who had neglected to collect the rate, and he had been obliged to pay £100 out of his own pocket.

APRIL  An inquest was held on John Henry Dixon who was killed by a fall of coal at Snydale Colliery. The coroner said it was fortuitous the night deputy had examined the pit that morning or he might have been indicted on a charge of manslaughter.

  The Guardians attendances at meetings in 1876-77 were George Bradley (Ackton) 1, Joseph Fearnley (Featherstone) 18 and John Waller (Purston) 14.

MAY  Robert Gibson, landlord of the Travellers' Rest, was charged with permitting gambling on the premises. PC Benn said he visited the house in plain clothes and saw four men in one room playing a game called tippet with buttons. The men said they were only playing the game for amusement. PS Grimshaw said the Travellers' Rest was the quietest house in the neighbourhood, and well conducted. Gibson was discharged on payment of the costs.

JUNE  George Bradley applied to the Board of Guardians to buy the Featherstone Bede Houses. The Pontefract Union had communicated with the Revd B Hinde who said the property consisted of almshouses of which the Vicar of Featherstone was the trustee. The income should have been £7 3s 4d but was only £6 because George Bradley was 12 years in arrears, and the sale of the property would only lead to interminable disputes. The Guardians decided it was a matter for the Charity Commissioners to deal with.

  Jesse Bowden "a notorious fowl stealer" was found by farmer Henry Stead of Featherstone Common asleep in his cart shed with two fowls by his side. He was sent to Wakefield Jail for two months with hard labour.

JULY  The West Riding Petty Sessions were asked to confirm the appointment of Thomas Phipps as assistant overseer for Featherstone in place of Charles Wroe. A parish meeting considered Mr Wroe had treated them with contempt so they elected Mr Phipps in his place. The appointment was confirmed.

  Three Featherstone miners were summonsed for stealing a suit valued at £2 6s and pawning it at Mr Gledhill's for 8s 6d. They were sent to prison with hard labour.

    At a Board of Guardians meeting Mr Goddard, the overseer for Featherstone, asked for more time to pay the call of £170. He said Charles Wroe had refused to give up both the books and the money. The chairman said the money must be paid when due and no extension could be given. Mr Goddard paid the money out of his own pocket.

  Charles Wroe was summonsed to show why he had not delivered up the rate books. He did not appear at court so a warrant was issued for his arrest. He appeared the next week and was ordered to hand over the rate books to Mr Waller by 7pm that day, where they would remain until balanced and agreed by Mr Wroe and Mr Goddard.

  AUGUST  The original parish of Featherstone had now been split into three separate parishes so the Charity Commissioners issued an order appointing the vicar, churchwardens and overseers of the original parish of Featherstone, together with the incumbents and churchwardens of Purston cum South Featherstone, and Whitwood and Whitwood Mere to be trustees of Thomas Bailey's Charity from which "the clear net annual income is for the benefit of deserving and necessitous inhabitants of the whole of the original parish of Featherstone by providing them with clothes, bedding, fuel, medical or other aid in sickness, food or other articles in kind, or with pecuniary aid in special cases as shall be considered by the said trustees to be most advantageous to the recipients, and most conductive to the formation of provident habits".

  Charles Williams went into the Junction Hotel with a friend. Samuel Taylor, Charles Cranswick and Abraham Burnley told the landlord not to serve a "black" fellow like him. (A reference to him continuing working during the Featherstone Main strike the previous year.) So Williams left but the three men followed and assaulted him. In court the Bench said they had hoped the differences of the recent strike had subsided, and if a similar case turned up they would commit the offenders to prison, but in this case each would be fined £5.

SEPTEMBER  A ratepayers meeting was held in the Junction Hotel to consider petitioning the Local Board to light the streets of Featherstone and Purston by gas lamps. A resolution was passed that gas lamps should be erected in several of the most frequented streets.
  A letter in the Leeds Mercury complained about the dismal flicker of the oil lamps at Featherstone Station, and urged the company to install gas lighting.

OCTOBER   PC Thurlby heard a noise in Whiddop's Buildings and on entering he found between 20 and 30 drunken men stripped to fight. On of them told him to go home and struck him in the eye. He arrested him but was set upon by the others and struck about the head and body. In court Dr Buncle described the injuries and said the constable was in danger for two or three days. The only man the constable could identify was one who was very bow-legged (Joseph Bytheway) and he got four months in prison with hard labour.

  The Pontefract Advertiser commented on the infant mortality rate in Featherstone, Purston and Snydale: "The unhappy infants who have the misfortune to be born in these townships have more than the natural causes to contend against. Must there not be some unnatural evil in action in these three townships to produce so marvellous a disparity". The rates referred to were for infants under two years of age and were in Tanshelf 21%, Pontefract 39%, Featherstone 52%, Ackton 53%, Snydale 58% and Purston 66%.
  At the Local Board meeting, the surveyor was ordered to inspect the Went Beck, into which the sewage of Purston and South Featherstone flowed, and to see it was thoroughly cleansed.

NOVEMBER  The Featherstone Board met to consider what could be done in the way of isolation to prevent the spread of fever in the district.

  Charlotte Jeffrey was charged with being a disorderly prostitute in Purston. She claimed her mother lived in Nottingham, but the Nottingham police said she could not be found at the address given. The Bench ordered her to be removed to Nottingham in the charge of a railway guard and to be better clothed. The expenses were to be defrayed from the poor box.

DECEMBER  Mr Macdonald MP addressed a meeting of miners in Featherstone and advised them to organise with a view to restricting the output of coal to the requirements of the country. He also contended if they could induce a considerable number of their young men to emigrate, or if they would work four days instead of six, the effect would be a rise in the amount of wages for a given amount of work.

 

  Travellers had to pay tolls on the Weeland Turnpike Road, one toll booth being in Purston at the Junction with Hall Street. The legislation for the collection of tolls would run out on November 1 1878, so the trustees held a special meeting to determine whether or not to apply for an extension, and decided against.