Hidden hamlet of the Holme Valley

Sep 1 2008 by Val Javin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

It may not feature on local roadsigns but that doesn’t mean that the hamlet of Woodroyd is a place that isn’t worthy of note. VAL JAVIN meets the man who has recorded its history.

IT HAS been called the hidden hamlet and certainly in all things official, Woodroyd does not exist.

No road signs point out its whereabouts and the post office would blanch if you used it as part of a postal address. As for the bureaucrats, the delightful hamlet of Woodroyd packs no political punch at all.

But for Peter Marshall, whose home on the outskirts of Honley, Woodroyd’s big sister is no more than a stone’s throw from this unsung cluster of homes and buildings, the area offers endless fascination.

That fascination is about to be shared by many more thanks to a new book, Woodroyd: Honley’s Hidden Hamlet which Peter has written and which has been published by Honley Civic Society History Group of which he is a member.

Peter and his family have lived in the Honley area for more than 20 years and he is happy to sing the praises of a small area on the opposite side of the valley to the village centre.

“Woodroyd, the name means a clearing in a wood, has been part of my consciousness since it has two of the oldest buildings in the village and a Methodist chapel. As a plus it has some wonderful walks, not least through West Wood at bluebell time,” he said.

Peter has been involved with a clutch of previous local history books produced by the society. They have focused on village schools, on Honley’s pleasure grounds at Hope Bank, on St Mary’s Church and on Honley, Then and Now.

“When we started the history group within the Civic Society, we decided we would carry on recording Honley’s history in a way that was manageable and readable.”

Work is already well advanced on a history of Honley’s non-conformist chapels but the project closest to Peter’s heart - and literally to his home - was that of recording Woodroyd’s history. And he says that he has been helped by many Woodroyders who have offered photographs and memories to make this book a real community effort.

The hamlet, which lies beyond the railway line which links Huddersfield and Sheffield, was once a community which thanks to its mines, its mill and its chapel, was able to provide jobs and spiritual support for those who lived there.

Many who in past centuries lived in Woodroyd’s much prized cottages and homes then worked in the mines or in the woollen industry. The coal they produced went no further than Honley.

It was a tough existence. “The Sedgewick (or Siswick or Sigg) families had been miners for several years, living at Hall Ing, Hollin Hall and Scar. John Segewick lost his son in a roof fall at Westwood pit in 1828.

“Two years later, his son James was due to commence work in the same pit and his father literally had to drag him into the mine on his first day.

“Once underground, the lad disappeared and was not found until four days later. He was in former workings where the roof had collapsed and his older brother killed. He said that he was hoping to die rather than work in the pit.”

Local names, including Copperas House and Ganister, suggest that other material was extracted from the ground at Woodroyd. Copperas is a form of ferrous sulphate used in textile and metallurgical industries and ganister, which can be seen on the hillsides still, is a mineral which can be used in furnace linings, in brick and road making.

Some of the book’s most powerful pictures though come from the dyeworks of Edwin Brook where a couple of dozen men dyed cloth in indigos, blues, blacks and browns which was then used for military and post office uniforms.

Photographs taken around 1912 show men, many wearing heavy moustaches, in caps, clogs and some in aprons. Two are clutching cats, doubtless important staff members when it comes to keeping the rat population in check.

It’s a different story in the offices where neat working clothes and order is very much in evidence. Look closely at one of these pictures and an office calendar dates the scene as June 1935.

The families of Woodroyd are what kept this hamlet together in the past and it is their personal histories which breathe life into Peter’s book today.

There are powerful links with the Women’s Suffrage movement, with Methodism and with, of all things handbell ringing.

Woodroyd Handbell Ringers, first formed in 1890, became Champions of Great Britain in 1927. When a picture of them was unearthed and found its way into the Examiner’s Nostalgia pages, more memories - and photographs - began to surface.

It was all the spur that Peter needed to begin a journey which would put Woodroyd, Honley’s Hidden Hamlet where it belongs. Firmly on the Holme Valley map.

l The 48 page book costs £3.50 from Carradine’s in Honley or from Civic Society members.