(A) HIGHGATE LANE and THE SQUARE (see photos)
Highgate Lane, the old main road through Lepton, is of ancient origin probably being a section of the old high-way from Kendal to London. The name 'Highgate' sounds contemporary with the Turnpike era suggesting, as it does, the bars or gates on the Highway, but in fact the name is much older. The first known reference to the lane is in the Court Rolls of 1567, 'a tenement and close in higatlane' and in 1600 John Kay was required to 'set stylles in the ould accustomed places of his growndes betwyxt the heygat lane and the overfields'.
In 1758 was passed 'an Act for the repairing of the Road from Wakefield to Austerlands'. This Act gave the Huddersfield area its first Turnpike, leading from Wakefield through the Towns of Horbury, Netherton, Overton, Lepton, Almondbury, Huddersfield, Marsden and Saddleworth to Austerlands on the Lancashire border. There it would join with a road from Manchester which had been constructed a quarter of a century earlier, thus completing a valuable trade route between the counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire. The early Turnpike Acts required the Trustees to repair, widen and maintain an existing road but rarely at this period to construct a new road; that came later towards the end of the century. In Lepton the Turnpike followed the sections of road we know today as Rowley Lane, Highgate Lane and Station Road and it is unlikely that the Trustees diverged appreciably from the course of the old road then in use. They may have defined the roadway as it passed over unenclosed land and widened it in some narrow places by the purchase of adjoining land. They probably straightened it here and there but their main concern was the provision of a good surface. The maintenance of the Turnpike road was paid for by the tolls collected from the road users. At intervals of about a mile barhouses were built where the toll collectors, who were appointed by the Trustees, lived. There were two such barhouses on the Lepton section of the old Turnpike, both of which will be referred to later in this walk. The importance of Highgate Lane diminished with the building of the new Huddersfield to Wakefield Road in 1820.
Most of the buildings along Highgate Lane are modern but here and there are to be found pleasant eighteenth and nineteenth century farmhouses and cottages (see photo) in one or two of which can be seen traces of windows, now blocked up, which once served to light the weaving chambers of the eight hand loom weavers who lived on the lane in the mid-1800s. The other residents at that time were all, with the exception of two coal miners, engaged in agriculture either as smallholders or farm labourers. Here there were Seniors, Sykes, Claytons, Jessops, Roberts, Ibbersons and Kilners, all names that have their roots in Lepton's past.
On one side of the road, the Woodlands Estate has been built over the area of Lepton Little Wood, and on the other side the estate at Ings Way takes its name from the fields on and near to which it is built, Great Ing and Upper Ing.
The Square is the centre of Lepton with the Post Office, Pharmacy, Doctors' Surgery and Methodist Church (see Photo). Primitive Methodists are known to have been meeting in houses and preaching premises in the Lepton area from 1821 under the direction of the Barnsley Circuit. In 1835 Lepton Primitive Methodist Chapel was built at Lepton Field, on what would become Wakefield Road. By 1937 it was felt to be too small and a second chapel was built lower down Wakefield Road. It was used until 1992 by which time the centre of life of Lepton had moved away from Wakefield Road and the members believed that they needed to be in the centre. The second chapel was sold and a new one built on Highgate Lane in 1994.
In the Square is an obelisk (see photo) which was created by local artists working with schoolchildren and was installed around the time of the refurbishment of the Square in 2010.
(B) GREAVE HOUSE
The first reference to 'Grevehows' is found in 1528 and there are two possible derivations for the name of this small settlement. It could have been named because there were 'greaves' or woods nearby or because the Greaves Churchwardens of Kirkheaton had the rents.
The pattern of the old settlement changed little from 1780 until recently. In 1851 twelve families lived there. They included farmers, handloom weavers and farm labourers and there was a manufacturer who employed twenty weavers. Most of the buildings were demolished to make way for the new houses.
(C) STAGE FIELD
The name of the first field to the left after the wood is of great interest. It is called Stage Field on the 1780 map of Lepton but the name Stages is mentioned in the area c.1250 when there is a record that Stages was given for the use of the Kirk Greaves of Kirkheaton Church. Considering the proximity of Stage Field to Greave House, it is just possible that the original name of the latter was Stages and its named changed through common usage when the house or houses there were given to the Greaves.
The name Stage is from the old French etage usually meaning an erected stage or scaffolding. This field then may have been the place where, on high ground and plain for all to see, the Township gallows stood. Interestingly enough, the field below Stage Field is called Bone Close which would seem to provide an apt and somewhat macabre association of names. Sadly, however, at least for the romantics among us, it is far more likely that the name Bone developed from Bawne, a common field name, and that therefore the area had nothing to do with providing a burial ground for rotting corpses cut down from the scaffold.
(D) HIGHFIELD LANE (see photos)
The first row of cottages on the left hand side of the road is called Highfield and it is interesting to know that on many of the early O.S. maps these cottages are called Cop Riding whilst Cop Riding is called Highfield. This may be a double transference of names but it is more likely to be a rare example of a mistake on the part of the map makers.
The land on the left hand side of Highfield Lane was tenanted, in 1780, by Benjamin North and Robert Walker, and the names of their fields are of interest. North's fields are the first three, being called Daywork i.e. One day's work, Upper Close and the Close before the door. The latter is the field immediately in front of the cottages. Walker's land begins after the cottages and the first of his fields was once two closes called Little Close and Far Close. There is a roughly carved gatepost at the entrance to this field. The next field is called Four Days Work and the next Two Days Work. Highfield Cottage and the next field were Robert Walker's Homestead and Croft and he also had the house in the trees at the far side of the field, which today is called The Nale. After Highfield Cottage the road bends to the left before starting its descent into Lascelles Hall and the area to the left is called Cuckoo Hill.
The large farm house on the left is Ash Grove (see photo) and it reveals two periods of building with an 18th century house backing on to one built in the 19th century. Called Ashes Grove in the 19th century this was the home for many years of the Hudson family who were farmers of 16 acres and, principally, butchers. The business was run by two brothers, John and Thomas Hudson. John and his wife remained childless whilst Thomas and his wife Hannah had eight children, 5 boys and 3 girls. In 1841 the brothers employed one apprentice. Ten years later they had three apprentices and each household had a servant; they were obviously prospering. In 1860 Thomas' eldest son, John, joined them in the business. He was the only one the five brothers to do so. Between 1861 and 1871 both Thomas and John the elder died and John the younger took over his uncle's house and share of the business whilst his mother continued to run her late husband's share, employing three butchers who all lived in her house. Ten years later Hannah had retired and John was in sole control. So much influence had this family on the area that Highfield Lane was known locally as Hudson's Lane, a tradition that continued well into the 20th century, long after the family had gone.
On the right side of Highfield Lane is the lane to Lascelles Hall Cricket Club (see photo of sign).
(E) LASCELLES HALL MECHANICS INSTITUTE AND READING ROOMS
This building, for part of its existence, became what was possibly the oldest Working Men's Club in Lepton. Many of these old clubs had nick-names and this was no exception, being familiarly known as the Shirtneck Club, a name that probably came from the club's association with the cricketers of Lascelles Hall who, because they played in their ordinary working shirts which had neckbands rather than collars, were known as the Shirtneckers.
In 1884 a mystery occurred at the club when Abraham Thewlis, a thirty nine year old weaver, was found asleep there in the early hours of a Sunday morning. He had a black eye and a head injury and a pool of blood was found on the flags outside. Thewlis died a few days later but the mystery was never solved for the inquest, held at the Tandem Inn, could only find that he died from an injury to the head, cause unknown.
The area where you are now standing is known as Common End and it was once densely packed with houses and cottages. The story of Lascelles Hall Cricket Club is told elsewhere in these walks (Walk 2) but it is interesting to know, according to the late John Edwin Thewlis, that in the 1880s, "Down t'Common End in one row of cottages lived Ephraim Lockwood, Green, Thewlis, Dave Pollard, Shott (Wm. Shotton) and t'Amblers", six professional cricketers and "in t'hut at t'back Owd Jack t'elder lived".
(F) LASCELLES HALL VILLAGE (see photo)
The village of Lascelles Hall grew up around the ancient home of the Lassels family which was established here in mediaeval times. One of the earliest known inhab¬itants of the area was Roger Thewles, a clothier and yeoman, who was, according to a 16th century Subsidy Roll, the highest taxed man in Lepton. Roger died in 1547 and in his will he left sums of money for repairing the roads in Heton and for mending Horbury Bridge. To his wife Margerie he left: "the thirde parte of all my goodes and landes one fether bed one bolster towe coverlettes, towe blankets and 4 sheets”. The same will shows us something of the rather doubtful character of another legatee: “I give and bequeath to John Thewles my bastard son XXVIs (26 shillings) upon this condition that if the same John use hyme self honestlie and bestowe the money to his moste proffet and advantage". If he did not John was to have none of the said sum of money. The name Thewlis ramified in Lascelles Hall to become by the 19th century the most common surname in the area.
The village of Lascelles Hall grew in the 18th and 19th, with many of the inhabitants being occupied in the textile trade. Most of the cottages in the village owned at least one handloom which would be engaged in weaving fancy cloths, very different from the traditional broad cloths and narrow kerseys of Yorkshire. The fancy trade had started in the last quarter of the 18th century and by 1822 there were 102 Manufacturers of Fancy Goods attending Huddersfield Market. Lepton, with nineteen manufacturers, came second only to Almondbury with twenty four. Using cotton, silk, and worsted yarns the trade fell into three branches making woollen cords, cassinets and waistcoatings. The latter was the most important part of the fancy trade and this was the occupation of the Lascelles Hall handloom weavers. The weavers either owned their own loom or hired one from the manufacturers who distributed the yarns and collected the woven pieces from the cottages, paying seven shillings a week to the cheapest class of operatives and twelve shillings for the finest work.
In 1841 the population of Lascelles Hall was around 500 of whom 131 were fancy hand loom weavers. By 1881 the population had slowly grown to 650 of whom only 38 were still carrying on the old trade. These figures clearly demonstrate the rise of the mills with their power looms at the expense of the old cottage industry.
(G) THE LAYGARTH (see photo)
A century ago the Laygarth was a warren of alleys closely packed with small cottages. Here according to John Edwin Thewlis, there lived in the 1880s 'more than twenty professional cricketers, past and present'. Today many of the old cottages have disappeared and the Laygarth is a somewhat haphazard mixture of red brick, stone and cement rendered houses which retains very little of the atmosphere of an old settlement. That this is an old settlement there can be very little doubt for this small plateau is the highest land in the area and before the modern houses were built it must have commanded the surrounding countryside. The question of the whereabouts of the site of the first (mediaeval) Lascelles Hall has never been conclusively answered, the issue being confused by the fact that a second Lascelles Hall was built early in the seventeenth century by John Ramsden. However, most local historians favour the site of the present hall as the mediaeval settlement and if they are right there can be little doubt that the Laygarth was the site of John Ramsden's Hall. A description of the house in the Laygarth, written in the last century, says: 'The old house formerly known as Lascelles Hall is now uninhabited and fast falling into decay. It is surrounded by cottages of a very humble character but even in ruin it is distinguished by certain architectural features which stamp it as having been the residence of a family of position'.
One of the old houses here is still known as the CourtHouse and a photograph of the Laygarth taken in 1930 reveals an area then surrounded by derelict cottages which was called the Courtyard. Further confirmation that there was once an important house here came in 1982 with the discovery of a massive and impressive stone fireplace which had been hidden behind a plastered wall in an old cottage. The fireplace (which has been preserved but cannot be seen as it is in a private garden) has been tentatively dated to the late 16th or early 17th centuries and because of its age, size and position it seems probable that it was once part of one of the Lascelles Halls.
Perhaps the most conclusive proof, however, that a Lascelles Hall once stood in the Laygarth, comes through the names of properties mentioned in a deed of 1661 which records the sale for £720 to the Rev. Christopher Richardson of: 'All that good and capital Messuage in Lepton ... called Lassel Hall ... And all the old Laith and other housing to the Dove Cote with all the Garner Chambers ... with the moyety and half part of the Fould and the moyety and half part of the Courtyard and the half part of the Laithgarth.’
The large white building, now a row of houses, was once part of the Lascelles Hall Brewery which was in operation from the middle to the end of the last century. Tradition has it that this building was the granary and the authors were told that in the loft of at least one of the houses there remains a lingering smell of grain. It is worth noting that in 1661 there is mention of 'Garner Chambers' in the Laygarth and whilst we are not suggesting that this building dates from then it is an interesting thought that this may well be a 'descendant' of the earlier building. The Brewery was a substantial building consisting of a brewing room, a fermenting room with twelve ashlar fermenting squares, an office, a boiler house with a two flued 18 feet x 7 feet diameter boiler and an engine house with workshop over. The engine was a 7 h.p. horizontal steam engine with a 60 inch flywheel. In 1871 Richard Durrans, a local man, was the Brewer and he had as assistant WiIliam Wheelock who aptly enough had come here from Burton on Trent. The Brewery was dismantled in 1897 and the contents were put up for auction in Novem¬ber of that year.
(H) COWMES COMMON
This hillside was one of the last commons of Lepton and was probably left uncultivated because of its steepness. Its area can be de¬fined by such place names as Cowmes Side, which is now called Station Road, Common End Lane which runs from Station Road to Rowley and Cowmes Top which is near Greave House. The Common End area in Lascelles Hall probably marks its northern extremity. The name is derived from the Middle English 'Colm', meaning coal dust or slack, and some of the many place names in Yorkshire with a Comb or Combe element have the same derivation. The first known reference to Cowmes in this area is found in 1537 and in 1582 there is mention of Cowmbe Smythies. It is known that there was an Iron Forge at work over 400 years ago close to Spa Bottom at a place known as 'Cinders' by some local residents. In 1563 the 'smythymen' going to the forge were ordered to keep to the high¬ways with their carts whilst fifty years later a number of tenants were fined for not filling up 'the ironstone pittes' on Lepton Moor. In the light of all this it would seem that Ashes Grove on the edge of Cowmes Common was aptly if unwittingly named.
LASCELLES HALL CHEMICAL WORKS
The large house standing below the road on the right on the right of Lascelles Hall Road below Cowmes Lowe was probably once a chemical works although we have been unable to prove this. What is certain is that Lascelles Hall did, in the 19th century, have such a works and the business was formed and operated by one of the area's many Jessop families. From its earliest days the woollen industry had needed a strong alkaline substance for the process of scouring. Until the mid 1820s there was only one source for such a substance - stale urine. This nauseous liquid, known as wash or weeting, was preserved b the cottagers for scouring their own cloth or it was collected and stored in barrels at the fulling mills. In the first quarter of the 19th century a process for distilling ammonia from ammoniacal liquors was discovered and it was obvious that this new cheap scouring agent would be welcomed by the textile industry. Joseph Jessop of Common End seems to have been early in the field for in 1841 he was already being described as a chemist. Ten years later Joseph had become a manufacturing chemist and he was later joined in the firm by his sons John, Richard and Thomas. His grand-daughter, Mrs. J.F. Elgey, writing in 1944 recalls her grandfather selling ammonia to the women of Lascelles Hall at a halfpenny a pint bottle. Water had to be brought to the works from Spa Bottom in a huge barrel mounted on a cart. Thomas Jessop succeeded his father as head of the firm and later removed the business to Spa Green, presumably to be nearer to an adequate source of water.
COWMES CHAPEL (see photos)
Standing on the left hand side of Lascelles Hall Road is one of the earliest Methodist Churches in the district. Built in 1814, during the superintendency of the Rev. John Braithwaite of the Huddersfield Circuit, the chapel was well supported by the people of Lascelles Hall and the meetings held there are described as 'vigorous'. The year after the opening as many as one hundred and seventy sittings were let. When the chapel was rebuilt in 1889 it provided places for 350 persons and had a schoolroom large enough to accommodate 300 scholars. A stone tablet on the lower end of the chapel records both the building and the rebuilding. It closed in 1991 when the members joined Lepton Methodist Church.
The row of cottages below the chapel is called, appropriately enough, Chapel Row. Renovated in the 1970s these cottages over 130 years ago housed nine families of handloom weavers, an occupation that continued to be followed by the various tenants for at least forty years until power mills brought about the decline of the hand loom. The fourth cottage from the chapel is worthy of note for it was here that Luke Greenwood, the Yorkshire cricketer, was born and lived for some thirty years and here he learned the skills of the loom that were to be so beneficial to his cricketing career. The seventh cottage had a brief rest from the clatter of the handloom when for a few years around 1870 it became a co-operative store.
(I) SPA GREEN AND SPA BOTTOM (see photos)
One of the first references to the present name of this area comes in the 1780 Enclosure Award which mentions a 'private carriageway and bridal road leading from Lassel Hall Road westward over that part of Combs Common called Spaw Green'. The area had previously been known as Cowmes Smithies and Combs or Cowms Bottom. As the modern name suggests Spa Green had a source of water which was considered beneficial to the human constitution and people would come here from some distance to drink it. Round the spring where the water came to the surface a stone trough was built underneath an overhanging rock. Two steps led down to the trough, the bottom step being continually awash with the surplus water which then flowed away underground. The residents of the area were responsible for cleaning the well - a duty carried out in their own interest for it was the source of all their water for domestic and industrial use.
Piped water was not laid to the houses until the late 1920s when the underground spring that supplied the well became contaminated as it passed down the hillside through the quarry. The well which was to the right of the road was somewhere in the area of the second railway arch but it has been filled in and all traces of it have now disappeared.
A short diversion to the right into Spa Bottom passes the railway arches of the disused line. To the right is Spa Terrace (see photo) in front of which used to be the large premises of Spa Mill on the banks of the Fenay Beck. There was a mill here for at least 130 years, the first known occupant being William Dawson who, in 1838, operated a scribbling and fulling business. The mill prospered for many years first in the hands of Abraham Brierley who built and lived at Ashfield House (later Lepton Liberal Club) and then Rowland Mitchell & Co. Ltd., Fancy Woollen Manufacturers. In the 20th century the mill suffered three disastrous fires, in 1918 when the damage was estimated at £50,000, in 1943 when part of a four storey building was destroyed and in 1945 when a three storey building was gutted. Another disaster struck the mill in 1931 when a particularly severe storm caused the Fenay Beck to rise to such a height that the water was ten feet deep in the warehouse and weaving shed.
(J) LEPTON BOARD SCHOOL
Back on Fenay Bridge Lane, where the modern houses of the Fenay Bridge Park Estate now stand, Lepton Board School used to be located. Built to comply with the Education Act of 1870, which stipulated compulsory education for all children, the school opened on 22nd July 1877. The first meeting of the School Board for the township of Lepton had been held two years previously at the Poorhouse at Cowmes Side. Half an acre of land on Cowmes Lane (now Fenay Bridge Lane) was bought for £250 and the school buildings had to be built to accommodate 150 boys and girls and 70 infants and to be designed in such a way that the school could be enlarged when necessary. The first master was Mr. W.R. Jones whose salary was £90 per annum plus part of a Government grant. He also received four fifths of the proceeds of the evening school. The school was let to various local organisations for meetings and social events amongst whom were Cowmes Brass Band, Cowmes Spiritualists Society, Lascelles Hall Cricket Club and Lepton Ethiopian Minstrels.
The new infants' school was opened in 1912 when Miss Annie Stead was mistress. The log book of the school, part of which is in Miss Stead's hand, tells of epidemics of such infectious diseases as whooping cough, chicken pox and measles severe enough to close the school on a number of occasions. Her accounts of the weather too make interesting reading for she tells of severe conditions - storms, wind, blizzards and deep lying snow starting as early as November and continuing until March or April. Often, during such conditions the children could not get to school, the roads being impassable.
The Boardman's book for the 1890s shows a determination on the part of some Lascelles Hall people to resist sending their children to school. Luke Greenwood, the cricketer, for instance was fined six pence with four shillings and sixpence costs on three separate occasions because of the continual absence of his daughter, Annie. The reasons given by parents for their children's non-attendance makes fascinating reading; one girl had to 'stay home to rock the cradle', a boy was 'kept at home to keep work going' and Seth Thewlis' son, Tom, took matters into his own hands by continually running away. Many parents told the Boardman that they could not spare their children - they were needed to work and time after time there are reports that absent children were 'wiring and will wire' with their fathers and uncles. (A wirer was the handloom equivalent of a power loom's reacher-in). Perhaps the best comment to the Boardman is that of Henry Jessop who, when questioned about his daughter Sarah, reveals a growing exasperation with authority: 'I will see - you need not bother - all the Board deserves shooting'.
The school ceased to function as a Junior school in 1969 and finally closed in December 1979
(K) THE RAILWAY LINE (see photo)
Running parallel with Fenay Bridge Lane, on its right hand side, is the track of the old Kirkburton branch line. Built by the London and North Western Railway Company the line was opened on Monday, 6th October 1867 when a decorated tank engine hauled the first train from Huddersfield to Kirkburton. A great many people, braving the early morning rain, gathered by the permanent way to cheer the train along. For many years the passenger traffic between Huddersfield and Kirkburton was operated by 'motor' trains (the push and pull system), called 'Burton Dick' in popular memory. But when a reliable bus service was established the days of the passenger trains were numbered and the service was withdrawn in July 1930. Goods trains continued to use the line until 1965. In 1969 the Tandem bridge which had carried the railway across Wakefield Road was demolished and the line was lifted at the same time. A walk has recently been created along the old line.
THE BARHOUSE (see photo of site)
Before starting the climb up Station Road walk a few steps downill to where, on the right hand side next to the wall of the old railway bridge, there are traces of a small building which once occupied this site. This was the Fenay Bridge barhouse, the third such house from Huddersfield and tenth from Wakefield on the old Wakefield Austerlands Turnpike. The collection of tolls was let annually by the Trustees of of the road to the highest bidder who, in his turn, engaged the occupants of the Toll Houses whose duty it was to open the gate after collecting the proper toll. These varied, of course, according to the nature of the traffic. For a horse drawing a coach or cart the cost was 6d., a horse not drawing cost 1d., a drove of oxen or cattle cost 10d. per score and a drove of sheep or swine 5d. per score. Exemptions from tolls were granted for a variety of reasons and as late as 1820 a list of those exempted on this Turnpike included members of the Royal Family and their retinues, Mail carriers, wounded or disabled soldiers, the Vicar on his way to church and persons going to or from the church, a funeral, an election or the fields. The Fenay Bridge Barhouse was a single storey building with a small low window which allowed the tollkeeper to see traffic approaching on both sides of his gate.
FENAY BRIDGE STATION (see photo of Station Court)
Turning back to walk uphill you pass Station Court on the right. This was the site of the Fenay Bridge Station which gave the road its name. Smaller than both the other stations (Kirkburton and Kirkheaton) on the branch line this station was opened on 1st June 1868 when an excursion train picked up passengers for a three and sixpenny journey to Liverpool. The goods yard at the station handled large quantities of gunpowder intended for use in the firework factories at Rowley Hill. More dangerous traffic even than this was handled during the First World War when nearly eleven million hand grenades, which had been filled at a nearby factory, were despatched from the station on their way to the army.
(L) FLOWER POT FARM
As you climb up Station Road a seat near the bend on the left hand side is conveniently placed to allow a respite from the steep gradient. It is interesting whilst sitting here to imagine the horse drawn coaches and carts of the turnpike era struggling to reach the top of the hill especially in inclement weather when the (to our eyes) poor road surface would make conditions very difficult.
The farm building behind the row of houses on your left rejoices in the name of Flower Pot Farm, which was, in the 19th century, a kind of road house offering hospitality to travellers to whom the landlord was allowed to serve alcoholic liquor. However, this facility was kept strictly for travellers and local people might ask in vain for a drink at the Flower Pot, only to be sent empty away.
(M) LEPTON POOR HOUSE (see photo)
The group of cottages on the right hand side of Fenay Bankside, Poplar Bank, stands on the place marked Workhouse on the 1853 O.S. map. It is likely that at least one of these cottages was the original poor house and it is certain that it was in one of these buildings that Lepton School Board held its first meeting in 1875.
A great deal more work needs to be done before the story of Lepton's poor house can be fully told as the information we have to date is annoyingly enigmatic. What can be said with some certainty is that Lepton never had one of those grim institutional buildings so often associated with the word workhouse.
The Township map of 1780 shows a building, where the white cottage now stands, near to a large plot of ground called the Poor's Land. The first information we have about this building is found in the Rental of 1813 when it is described as 'an old stone and slate cottage with two low rooms and a very bad chamber, in bad repair.' The tenant at that time was John Turner. By 1822 John Turner had carried out repairs and the cottage now had an adjoining shop, a cowhouse, an ash-house and a pig cote.
In the 1851 census there are three cottages at Cowmes Side (then the name for all the Station Road area) each of which is called Poor House and in one of which lives John Turner junior aged 58, described as a farmer of four acres. Twenty years later the name Poor House has gone but John is still there in one of the cottages with his son, Joseph, living next door. It seems likely from all this that during these years at least, the poor house was not being used to house the destitute people of Lepton. In other words it was not a workhouse.
It is probable therefore that the poor benefitted from the revenue raised by letting the cottages and surrounding land to the Turners and others. A possible confirmation of this theory comes from the Charity Commissioner's Account of 1880 dealing with the sale of the property. In May of that year Frederick Michelbacher, pork butcher, of Huddersfield bought ' a dwelling house, outbuildings and several closes of land in the occupation of Joseph Turner of Cowmes Side and two cottages adjoining in the same occupation.' The purchase price of £757.6s.4d. was to be invested in Consols, the dividends from which were to be applied in aid of the Poor Rate.
Of the earlier history of the Poor House we have, as yet, discovered nothing but the fact that almost all the surrounding land belonged, in 1780, to the Earl of Dartmouth may indicate that the story is to be found not in the documents of the Beaumonts but rather in those of the Kayes.
(N) JUMBLE WOOD (see photo)
In the Yorkshire dialect a 'jumble oil' means a rough, bushy, uncultivated hollow, a very apt description for this narrow stretch of woodland which, unlike some other woods in the area, seems to have been left to its own devices. There is the usual association of deciduous trees with oak and sycamore predominating. The little unnamed stream running down the steep sided valley in the middle of the wood is crossed by an interesting old footbridge. Such bridges, known as clapper bridges, are probably one of the simplest and oldest methods of crossing water comprising as they do of large slabs of stone (or in stoneless areas planks of wood) laid on supports at either side of the stream. In the sides of the valley cut out by the stream can be seen outcropping beds of shale similar in nature to the shale quarried at the nearby brickworks. It seems likely that the very nature of the terrain here has helped to keep Jumble Wood from the encroachment of agriculture or industry so preserving for us a little of Lepton in its original state. The names of the fields in the area around Jumble Wood suggest that it is a remnant of a much larger wood stretching down to Penistone Road and across to Rowley Lane.
(O) COMMON END LANE, ROWLEY VILLAGE, ROWLEY HILL CHAPEL AND ROWLEY HILL CLUB
Common End Lane runs in its entirety through land that belonged to the Earl of Dartmouth whose family had inherited all the Woodsome Estate through the marriage of one of its heirs to a Kaye heiress. It is appropriate then that from here there is a delightful view of Woodsome Park with its beautiful avenue of mature trees running up to the old hall.
Rowley is another of Lepton Township's scattered hamlets and the houses are much the same mixture of eighteenth and nineteenth century building we have seen before. The name Rowley means rough lea or clearing. It first appears in 1175 as Ruleia and in 1202 there is mention of Roulaibikt. Byht is derived from an Old English word meaning a curve or bend. The surname Rowley is not unknown in the district today and it is just possible that people with this name are descendants of the families who settled here hundreds of years ago.
The occupations of the Rowley villagers a hundred or more years ago were the usual Lepton mixture of weavers, miners, manufacturers and farm labourers but there was also another industry which started here, grew and developed in the area. In 1847 Allen Jessop of Rowley started making squibs as a hobby and from this small beginning developed the Lepton Firework industry. By 1871 Allen Jessop was described as a firework manufacturer of Rowley Hill and, nearby, Bob Shaw and his nephews Harry and Edgar had started a rival concern in a factory built in Turner Quarry behind Rowley Hill Chapel. The Shaws traded as Globe Fireworks. In 1881 twenty one men are described as firework manufacturers at Rowley Hill and Elliott, Humphrey, Eli and Ben Jessop are called 'Pyrotechnicals'. Ben Jessop employed forty hands at this time but he had begun his career some years earlier making his fireworks in the cellar of a house in Highgate Lane. He later built a factory and by 1906 there were four factories engaged in firework production. Alongside the Shaw factory Allen Jessop’s original works was managed and then bought by the Parrett family who came from the south of England. Harry Kilner, who had been in partnership with Ben Jessop for a time, developed a new site at the bottom of Fields Road in the field where Rowley Lane School now stands. Both Jessop and Parrett sold out to Standard Fireworks, Jessop in 1917 and Parrett in the 1930s. Globe Fireworks continued until the late 1960s whilst Lion Fireworks thrived in the hands of the family until the 1970s. Many women worked in the firework factories and a tragic fire, in 1944, killed seven women and one man and burnt several others. Some of work was also put out to women at home, a practice that continued until the closure of Lion. Their job was to fill cases, put on the blue touch paper and fix on the labels. They were paid by the gross.
ROWLEY HILL CHAPEL (see photo)
Early in the year 1885, Fred Sykes, an ardent temperance worker, held a number of religious meetings in Rowley Hill. He subsequently reported to the local preachers' meeting that the small community had no place of worship nearer than Lepton or Dogley. As a result of his report four local preachers from the Queen Street, Huddersfield, Wesleyan Circuit volunteered to set up a mission in the village. On a Thursday evening in June 1885 an open-air service was held on a site opposite the Working Men's club. The service was well attended and similar meetings were held every Thursday evening until September. By this time increased interest encouraged the four missionaries to take a cottage situated near to the club in which services were held not only on Thursday but also on Sunday afternoons and evenings. By March 1886 the mission was confident enough to propose the building of a new chapel at Rowley Hill.
Money for the new venture was raised through direct giving and through bazaars and sales of work. The stone laying ceremony was on Saturday, 14th August 1886 and the opening ceremony on Saturday, 5th February 1887. The architect was Mr. J.G. Wilson of Huddersfield who chose to build not in local stone but in a warm red sandstone. The final cost of the building was £465.
The chapel soon became the centre of village life and by 1891 the Trustees were urging the building of a Sunday School. The Circuit, however, would give them no financial help and it was to be another twenty one years before sufficient money had been collected to start building. The schoolroom, built behind the church, was opened to great rejoicing on Saturday, 15th February 1913.
But times change and by the mid 1980's the congregation had dwindled to a mere handful. An attempt to prolong the life of this small chapel was made by making it a combined Anglican and Methodist Church but the venture soon failed and Rowley Hill Chapel, once the centre of so much pride, education and enjoyment, finally closed its doors to worshippers. The chapel and school were renovated and converted into two apartments.
ROWLEY HILL CLUB (see photo)
Unlike most of the other working men's clubs in the Lepton area this one does not seem to have ever had a nickname. It started in the small cottage which now forms part of its premises but for a time it moved to a larger building on the other side of the road which the members had built. However, maintenance costs proved prohibitive and the club had to sell the new premises and move back to the original ones. The second club is now a private house and can be seen a little further along the road, on the left, recognisable by the two foundation stones on either side of the door (No. 2).