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FOREWORD
The following text and subsequent pages relate to the area around which I live. Brockholes is situated down the hill from Thurstonland, a distance of half a mile, in the valley of the River Holme. The Holme valley is situated on the southern outskirts of Huddersfield and is set amidst the beautiful Pennine hills.

INTRODUCTION
Built on a hilly ridge that stretches from Sheffield to Castle Hill, the inhabitants of Thurstonland have enjoyed magnificent views ever since Scandinavians first settled it in the late 9^th century.
Most of the village lies on the gentler dip slope on the lee side from the prevailing winds that blow from the Pennines only 7 miles away.
Though predominantly built in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, there has been a healthy growth in the number of houses, with building in the 1950’s, 60’s and 90’s. This has ensured that the community, it’s school and clubs continue to thrive without being swamped by rebuilding as has occurred in many villages.
The old township of Thurstonland was extensive, stretching from the River Holme in the west to Thunderbridge Dike in the east.
Its main occupation for centuries was agriculture. Weaving, mining, quarrying, and brick making have also played an important role in recent times.
These stories, tales, descriptions and anecdotes by the people of Thurstonland are important in that they encapsulate a village lifestyle which is rapidly disappearing as we move into the third millennium.

THE CHURCH CLOCK
The following is an extract from the Thurstonland Thunderer from February 1981: -
“In the last issue it was mentioned that arrangements were in hand to have the clock and bell working again. We wish to point out that it was realised that winding was all that was required and synchronising striking to time."
The recently overhauled monument was made by William Potts of Leeds in 1889. A brass plaque commemorates Louis Haigh of Sydney and formerly of Blackhouse in Thurstonland who donated the clock on 13 July 1889.
Fortunately, the beautifully engineered movement with its quality gravity escapement is protected from the nitrogenous ravages of Thurstonland’s pigeon population by a glass-fronted cabinet in which the original instructions to the attendant are still displayed.

WE ALL WALKED TO SCHOOL (1919)
I went to Thurstonland Endowed School, which entered for all local children from 5 to 14.
Everyone walked to school, some from 2 miles away. They all brought a packed lunch and a paper twist of cocoa and sugar in the winter. The infants’ teacher would boil a pan on top of the coal stove and the steaming mugs of cocoa were passed round the circle of eager children and then topped off with a spoonful of condensed milk.

SPORTS AND DANCES
During the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, Stocksmoor ladies formed a cricket team and competed for quite a few summers in a knock out tournament against other ladies’ teams from the Holme Valley. The regular village men’s team gave us some money coaching and lent us their gear. Through these matches, money was raised to swell the funds of Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, which like many such institutions are the time was financed through the efforts of local charities. In the mid 1930’s, it was decided that a tennis club should be formed in Stocksmoor. We were able to rent a plot of grass from a local farmer and through much hard work this was transformed into a grass court. Later, after £100 was raised by various means, it was possible to lay a tarmac surface and buy a pavilion. We were also able to surround the court with netting. Membership was limited as there was only the one court. During the war years, with the introduction of double summer time, it was often possible to play tennis until 10 at night. Unfortunately, after the war, membership fell as many of the young men did not return to the village. Some of them met and married while in the forces and found employment elsewhere. Not many people know that a tennis club existed in Thurstonland at one time. The court was situated in the field immediately below Moor Top Avenue and adjacent to the cricket field. No permanent records have been unearthed, however, tennis was played on a private court behind the vicarage, when people from the village were allowed to play.

BRENDA MELLOR
Potato picking allowed 20 half days off school to finish potato picking. There were no school buses from Stocksmoor when I started School – I had to walk. Mrs Andrew helped to get the school bus. Just 9 0’clock and 4 o’clock buses at first. Still at school – we took homemade rice puddings to be warmed up for our dinners.
Miss Moorhouse lived at Kirkburton and there was no school for several weeks in 1947 due to snow. A friend and I walked to the Co-op in Thurstonland to shop for people in Stocksmoor.
Miss Moorhouse once washed my mouth out with soap and water because I said a swear word.
Several evacuees came to Stocksmoor. We went into the cellar if there was an air raid. The day war broke out my mum wouldn’t let me go to Sunday School. Evacuees came from Sheffield as well as the London area.
The Fire Service Post was in a garage where Audrey Taylor lives, my dad was a special fireman, he had to sleep in the garage if he was on duty.
In the middle 50’s before 1955, most mornings, my dad went to fetch wagonloads of coal from Grimethorpe Colliery. I remember it was November time because of the fog, don’t remember the reason as coal and coke were delivered by goods train to Stocksmoor station. Dad worked for Vernon Hirst and Walter Noble, he got £1.10s a week when he started and got married in 1932.
Joyce Booth and I walked to Kirkburton once a month to the baby clinic at Shelley Lane, for the babies to be weighed, etc. I took David, Joyce took Andrew, we left Brian with my mum on the way down, Joyce left her girls with her mum-in-law. We made a day of it having a fish and chip dinner and taking them to my Aunties in Kirkburton.
Mobile clinic came to the village when Nicola was a baby.

THE FEAST (Amy Jackson's Recollections)
Thurstonland Feast was an event to be looked forward to from the minute we’d finished our last Easter Egg. The weeks were counted off on the calendar and Whitsun went by almost unnoticed.
The week before the event we had our new clothes, and houses were thoroughly cleaned from attic to cellar, curtains were washed and re-hung and then began the big ‘bake-in’.
‘Feast Loaves’ and rich fruit cakes were made first so they would have time to ‘come to’. Baking took place for two days so there would be a laden table on Feast Saturday and Sunday.
Every house in the village would have it’s quota of visitors; aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. They didn’t have to be invited, they just came.
For the schoolchildren the big moment came when the chug of the Steam Engine could be heard coming up Greenside. At the first sound, necks were craned in competition to see who could spot the engine first as whispers spread round the classroom “____ feast’s coming – I can hear the engine – “.
At playtime the more daring children would dash to the site of the fair, which was in Mr Holmes’ field next to the vicarage
.On the Saturday the ‘schoolfeast’ took place. This took the form of two processions through the village – one by Sunday School scholars from the church and one from the chapel. These were headed by two separate bands and there was great rivalry between the scholars of each faction.
At 2pm the processions set off from their starting points and walked round the village, stopping at various points to sing various hymns, which had been carefully rehearsed for several weeks before. Hymn sheets were handed out among those who gathered along the way.
After going their separate ways, the two bands and singers would meet half way up the village for the final hymn before dispersing to the separate schools to be served with tea. Then followed an hour of quiet as children ate at their schools and visitors gathered round tables in their relative’s houses.
At 6pm the village came alive again as the respective bands assembled in the fields allotted to them, and played selections. The Wesleyan Chapel hired Hepworth Band and their venue was in the field at the back of Lancaster Cottages. Whilst the church had the Mirfield Military Band and played their music in the field at the back of what was Mr Disney’s farm.
Later on in the evening it was all the ‘fun of the fair’. Both children and parents, aunts and uncles all vied with each other as to who could win the most coconuts and glass dishes, who could eat most brandy snaps, hot mushy peas or fried “chats”. The day you were big enough to ride on the “chair-o-planes” was a big day in your life but swings, roundabouts and everything else at the fair were greatly enjoyed by both young and old.

Sunday was the day of the ‘sing’. For this, a large tiered platform was erected in the cricket field. Singers and musicians came from far and wide to participate in the ‘Thurstonland Feast Sing’. The conductor was a well known local music teacher named Edred Booth and the ‘Sing’ was known to be the finest in the area. The music consisted of selections from various oratories interspersed with hymns, and it was a very inspiring sound to hear all those voices raised in ‘And the Glory’ from Handel’s ‘Messiah’.
An enclosure was provided for those who could afford to pay half a crown, but the rest just put their sixpence or shilling collection in a wood and canvas receptacle at the gateway. For teenage young ladies it was a real fashion show, new clothes were worn even if it was blazing hot and feet were killing you in new shoes. Tea was then served in the school for the musicians and visitors who had no relatives in the college.

Monday night was well known as Ladies Night. Husbands, boyfriends and brothers treated the ladies to rides on chair-o-planes and won trophies at hoop – la stalls, shooting galleries and coconut shies. The merrymaking went on till midnight and then later in the evening, the more daring the young men got, in daring each other as to who could swing the highest or twist the chairs on the roundabout most.
After that came the dismantling of the fairground equipment, and the children were searching the ground for pennies that had been lost over the weekend. The departure of the steam engine and the colourful caravans was viewed with regret by the children, but there was always next year to look forward to. Altogether the ‘Feast’ was an enjoyable weekend for all the village, but above all it was a great act of witness. There are some people in Thurstonland today who have never known anything like it and there are many, like myself, who regret its passing.

THURSTONLAND BIRD LIFE
The two most common species of garden birds are the house sparrow and the starling, simply because they are on the premises as it were. The starling is notable for his glossy, iridescent plumage. Many people do not know what a good mimic he is, and they could be forgiven for thinking that a yellowhammer or a curlew were nearby.
A great favourite is the robin. Many people believe that only the male has a red breast, but adults of both sexes do, whereas juveniles have a speckled breast.
The blackbird is a common visitor. The cock is black with a bright yellow beak but the hen is less spectacularly marked being brown with a speckled breast.

Thrushes are normally seen in winter time. They are beautifully speckled and about the same size as a blackbird. Occasionally a mistle thrush is seen when cold. He is a bigger version of a song thrush.
Another favourite, the blue tit, with his yellow breast, blue head and grey back. He is extremely acrobatic and much enjoyment can be simply by watching his performance when attacking a string of unshelled peanuts.

The great tit is easily distinguished from the blue tit by size and markings. He is slightly bigger and has a bold black head and breast to go with his yellow and grey plumage.
The wren is also seen. This tiny bird has a remarkably loud song in comparison with his size and is the smallest of garden birds normally seen.

This last severe winter, three visitors pleased me. Firstly tree-sparrows – distinguished from the house sparrow by chocolate brown heads and a black spot on a white background on either side of the head. Secondly a bullfinch. He is regarded as a pest by fruit farmers but he is a very beautiful pest with a bright pink breast and black, grey and white elsewhere. Thirdly the chaffinch, with pinkish breast, blue grey head and black rump with white wing bars. These birds are not often seen in gardens, though fairly common elsewhere.

The foregoing was written in the ‘70’s. Since then more and more people have become interested in wildlife and particularly birds. They have encouraged birds into their gardens by providing food so we have a wider variety of visitors than we used to do. People now know what they are looking at in their gardens and while out walking or on holiday.

In the township of Thurstonland I have seen more than 50 species of birds-there may be more I have not been able to identify. We are lucky in that we have 4 different habitats in the area – open fields, heathland, woodland and nature gardens. Each habitat, of course, has its own inhabitants, too numerous to list in a short article like this. Get out there with a decent pair of binoculars – 8 by 40 or, my preference 7 by 50, a good identification book and have a good look!

CHILDHOOD IN WARTIME IN THE PARISH OF THURSTONLAND
In 1939 Stocksmoor was just a hamlet where everyone knew and cared for everyone else. The grown-ups met and chatted while waiting for the train or for one of the two buses of the day. The ladies would meet in ‘The Shop’, diligently run by Mr and Mrs W Charlesworth – rationing was a serious business. The men of course had their discussions in the pub, ably run by Mrs Roebuck, and where we children had our Christmas parties.

The war came, but our lives as children were idyllic. We had the fields and woods to roam, looking for birds’ nests, fishing in the streams, making ‘dens’ in the woods. Visits to the many small farms where we ‘helped’ to feed the cows and chickens; turning the churn; collecting the eggs; watching Fred and Arthur milk the cows by hand and being given a crafty squirt of milk when we least expected it. Riding the haycart – oh! The delicious smell of newly mown hay. Playing in the barn, jumping into the hay from a high window. Summer days were gloriously long, warm and sunny due to double summer time. We had a weeks holiday each October for potato picking, which we diligently did and were paid for our labours – the joy of earning sixpence.

The winters were harsh. We had a kaleidoscope of weather – fog-ice snow, heavy falls, then the snowplough, pulled by horses, turned out. We children made ice-slides and snowhouses and loved every minute.

We attended the Thurstonland Endowed Church School travelling by bus which our local councillor had made possible. In the infants’ room was a blackleaded stove with an oven and surrounded by a huge fireguard. Along one wall was a fitted cupboard which contained ‘Special’ toys to be used only on ‘Special’ occasions. We were shown these treasures but never played with them.
They were reserved for upset children or to help to settle evacuees. Miss Moorhouse, our teacher, was the most wonderful of teachers. To our eyes, elderly, but she was superb. The lessons she taught, the moral message she gave, her influence is with me today nearly sixty years on.

The war ended, out came the bunting and Union Jacks; a bonfire was prepared and a special tea. Front gardens were planted with lobelia, alyssum and geraniums so that they could reflect their patronism. No longer did we have to carry our gas masks or be careful with the blackout. Such joy and thanksgiving at church and in school – we were quite intoxicated by happiness-----and now, the evacuees gone, we children – scattered in pursuit of careers and marriage. Some have died. A few of us remain here – close to our roots.

THE TANYARD GHOST (A TRUE TALE)
Sometime in the 18^th century the Old Tannery was built and provided work for the village people. One day one of them went for a lunchtime drink in one of the local pubs (of which there were three at the time). He returned to work, probably the worst for wear, and unfortunately fell into the tan pit and died.
The tannery closed in 1910 and , until 1960, the building was used as a barn. Since that date windows were put into the large arches and the building converted into a house. To take advantage of the views, the living accommodation is upstairs and the bedrooms downstairs. Outside, a large stone slab was placed over the tan pit.

Since that time occupants of the house have heard unaccountable noises. Footsteps go up the external stairs in the middle of the night, continue through closed doors and cross what is now the sitting room floor. A chair is heard being dragged across the floor and the footsteps halt when they reach the place where the hides used to be hung. Earlier in the evening, footsteps can be heard crunching through the sand outside, but there is no-one to be seen.
These manifestations seem to be the strongest around the 23^rd and the 24^th of the month, especially when the weather is wild, or when the house has been left unoccupied for a few days. It seems more possible that this is the ghost of the poor tanner who died so tragically.

THE CHURCH
In the southeast corner of what is now the churchyard a Chapel of Ease was built and completed in 1810. it was built by subscription from the people of Thurstonland which included Church of England, Wesleylans and Independents. Unfortunately, differences between the sects caused the Wesleylans and Independents to withdraw in 1834 when the chapel of ease came under the patronage of the Vicar of Kirkburton.

In 1864, negotiations by the Curate of Thurstonland resulted in the acquisition of an acre of ground adjoining the chapel as a site for a church and graveyard. The foundation stone for the new church was laid by the Countess of Dartmouth on 26^th July 1869. The new church was consecrated on 3^rd October 1870 by the Bishop of Ripon. The Chapel of Ease was later demolished. The cost of a building in the Geometric Decorated Style consisting of Chancel, nave, organ chamber, south porch and a 57 foot high tower with a stone spire of 52 feet containing a clock and one bell. The east window was given by the parishioners.

The font was given by Mrs Benstead of Lockwood Rectory; the communion plate was given by Mrs Bill of Storthes Hall; the sanctuary chairs were given by the Rev’d G Dalton of Kirkburton; the hymn books, prayer books and cushions were given by Mr Joseph Hirst, J.P., of Wilshaw. He also made a generous donation to the building fund providing he could see the spire from his land. The organ is a rare Kirkland Jardine and is over 100 years old. It was restored in 1990.

During World War II the vicarage cellar was used as a sort of communal bomb shelter.

In the earlier part of this century children from Stocksmoor walked to and from church 4 times every Sunday in their Sunday best clothes which had to be changed for workaday clothes each time they went home. One lady, a former organist, was presented with a gift of £5 from the P.C.C. when she got married. That £5 bought her 3 articles, one of them being a splendid bedspread.

To celebrate the centenary in 1970 the ladies of the P.C.C. made new altar frontal in white, red and green. They also replaced the door and choir stall curtains with gold velvet hangings and new seat and floor coverings for the choir stalls.

The 1970’s and 1980’s saw the activities at the church at a low ebb. Congregations were often counted in single figures and even a congregation of two was not unknown. Communion services were held once every two weeks with a Mothers Union Communion being held on a Wednesday morning once a month. Sunday schools would be started up but would then fade away after a period. Young wives groups met occasionally. It was altogether a difficult period and the church was kept going by a small group of faithful worshippers to whom a huge debt of gratitude is owed.

In 1986 the west end of the church was remodelled internally to provide a church room together with a kitchen, toilet and storeroom. At the same time central heating was installed and electrical rewiring and redecoration carried out.

Since the church was built there have been 15 incumbents – the present one being the Rev’d Sean Robertshaw who also has responsibility for Christchurch, New Mill and St. Andrews, Thongsbridge.

A SAD OCCASION
UNITED ANCIENT ORDER OF DRUIDS
Prince Albert Lodge 387
40 The Village
Thurstonland
Nr Huddersfield

On Monday March 26^th, 1979, the Secretary, treasurer and Trustees of the Prince Albert Lodge 387, United Ancient Order of Druids, met to prepare the Final Balance Sheet and so wind up the Lodge, which was the wish of the present members. Founded in 1851, it’s aims were, for a small weekly contribution to help members who were sick. Also a funeral grant was paid on the death of a member his wife, or even a second wife, but no provision was made for a third or subsequent wives. The grant was also payable on the death of his widow.

The ceremonial sword, which was no doubt wielded bravely by a trooper in the Napoleonic wars and which initiated many new members into the Lodge, has been presented to the cricket club and will be hung above the bar in the Tea Room. We hope that it will be admired for many years to come by would be Geoff Boycotts and Freddie Trumans, or whoever is the hero of the time, as they munch their bag of crisps and drink their bottles of pop.

The centenary of the Lodge was celebrated by a day’s outing when 3 buses packed with members and wives left for Skegness. On the return journey at a pub outside Doncaster only 2 buses arrived, the third driver getting lost. However, he managed to find his way back to Thurstonland, so a good time was had by all. The assets of the lodge were shared between 11 widows and 49 members.

STUMPED FOR A TITLE
The sun shone down in torrents
From a clear and cloudless sky,
The first eleven were batting
And I was standing by,
Tom Freeland was at the wicket,
He smote with might and main
Till his middle stump went spinning,
Then he toddled back again.
John Asquith took up the running,
He gave a sudden roar,
The ball removed his knee-cap,
Said the umpire “Leg-before”.
Then Oldham, Shaw and Hinchliffe
Went in to try their luck,
But each came back defeated,
And each one got a duck.
John Paterson came to where I was standing
With tears in his eyes he pleaded
“Arise and put your pads on,
the last hope of the side”.
On hundred runs were needed,
For Thurstonland to win the match;
I pulled, I drove, I cut,
Till the bowlers fell down exhausted,
And the fieldsmen cried ‘Enough!’
Then, “For goodness sake stop snoring”,
Said my wife in deep disgust,
And she shook my shoulder with vigour
And my lovely dream went bust.

FIFTY YEARS AGO
Last Saturday was the fiftieth anniversary of the marriage of John Walker-White, of Thurstonland, and Hannah Maria Jenkinson, of Shepley. Mr. White in an interview, stated that 50 years ago he and his wife were married according to the simple rites that then existed. They met at Shepley, and accompanied by two friends, proceeded on foot to the parish church at Kirkburton, where they were married. They are both now 71 years of age, and have 5 sons and a daughter and 8 grandchildren. Since their marriage they have lived mostly in Thurstonland, and have occupied the house in which they now live for 30 years.

Mr White is a farmer at present but at first when he was married he was a handloom weaver. Those were the good old days, he remarked, when men wove at nights in order to be able to go hunting during the day. He stated that he remembers there being over 20 donkeys in Thurstonland, of which he owned one. This he used for fetching the yarn from Hoylehouse Mills, Linthwaite, where it was woven into cloth and then returned to the mills. The journey from Thurstonland to Linthwaite and back used to take about 8 hours.

It was not a common thing to travel by train in those days. The compartments were long and used to seat 50 passengers. Mr White on one occasion walked over Mytholmbridge viaduct just before its completion when a single line only was being used. Six hours afterwards the erection collapsed. A train was due and a catastrophe averted by a friend of Mr White’s who ran to Brockholes and stopped the train in the nick of time.

Mr White said that he had been told that he went to school for a while, but the period was so short that he himself had no recollection of it. In fact, he commenced work as a bobbin winder when 7 years old. Mrs White’s earliest recollection is of her mother telling her that her uncle had had a horse drowned in the Holmfirth flood.

The old couple were patients of Dr. Moorhouse, of Stoney bank, who wrote “The Graveship of Holmes” and “History of the Parish of Kirkburton”. They remember Dr. Moorhouses love of riding and they grey horse of which he was so fond that he had a tombstone erected to its memory.

WORLD SCOUT JAMBOREE 1979 - BY ALAN EARLY
On Sunday, 15 July all 32 members of the International Troop West Yorkshire congregated at Heath Grammar School, Halifax with the 4 leaders. After the press photographs had been taken we left by coach, arriving in London later that afternoon. We stayed in Baden-Powell house for the night. The following day we flew from Gatwick just before midday in a Boeing 747. during the flight we had two meals and saw a couple of films. We arrived at Dallas about 4pm due to the 5 hour time difference. Sweltering in the heat we boarded an air conditioning coach with green tinted windows. We tore through Dallas, many of us taking photos of the impressive buildings, down the highway towards Camp Tahuaha, near Temple, where we spent our first night in America, in tents.

The next day we were split into groups of 2 and met the first family we would be staying with. Over the next 8 days we stayed with 3 different families in different areas of Texas. Jonathon Black and I were paired up and the first family we stayed with, the Labajis took us to Austin, the state capital and inner Space Caverns. We then moved on to Copperas Cove, near Fort Hood which is one of the biggest military bases in the world, which we visited. Finally we went to McGregor where we stayed with the Allisons and we were both given a cowboy hat while we stayed there.

On Tuesday the 24^th, much to our disappointment we left Texas and travelled by coach through the night to Philmont Scout Ranch, New Mexico; 200 square miles of scout-owned territory inhabited by bears, rattlesnakes, lizards and locusts. On our first day there, we locked away all our luggage not needed for hiking and planned our 12 day hike. The next day we set off, and within 10 minutes we met our first rattlesnake, our leader was just about to tread on it. During that 12 days we went through camps such as Devil’s Wash Basin, Clark’s Fork, Cypher’s Mine, Red Hills and Shaeffers Pass. We did various activities, including pole climbing, scaling the Tooth of Time, Black Mountain and the biggest of them all Mount Baldy.

We hiked back into the main camp on Sunday 5 August. We left the same night, after the campfire and once again had an overnight drive back into Texas, where, at Wichita Falls we got bad news; the plane home had lost an engine on the runway. Instead of staying we had to rush to Dallas for a ½ hour flight to Houston, from where we flew home on a DC10. Due to the time lag, last night lasted about 4 hours and we were all shattered on arriving at Gatwick.

We then got bad news that our luggage was still in America so we spent the day touring Brighton and Bognor Regis and returned to Gatwick for our luggage about 7pm. Finally, we travelled back to Halifax, arriving there at two in the morning to meet our parents.

A GREAT THRILL
The first motor car in Stocksmoor was an open tourer with a canvas top. It was owned by four men jointly and was known as “Wheel a Piece”. One Sunday one of the sharers took my brother and me out for a ride. It was a great thrill. We were rounding a corner on a rough road and one of the wheels came off. We had to walk home from the Red Lion at Jackson Bridge back to Stocksmoor.

THE FARMER
John Holmes was born in 1917 at Farnley near Otley and lived at Hasling Hall Farm. His family moved to Thurstonland in 1921, their household effects were moved by a wagon and some by horse and cart. The horses were so exhausted on reaching their new home, that they had to lie down for two days. The farming implements and cattle were moved by train to Stocksmoor. Their new home was Manor House Farm which is next door to the Rose and Crown. He then commenced school at Thurstonland.
When Mr Holmes was a child there were only three cars in Thurstonland, the butcher’s van, the parson’s motor, and Albert Gill’s car, which because he was the undertaker could easily be converted into a hearse.

“AH WERE FAIR CAPPED”
….said local landlady Elsie Vile after being given surprise gifts of flowers, a teasmade and a cheque for £100 by regulars at the Rose and Crown. They were to commemorate 20 years of regular service by Elsie and John on the 18^th March. A memorable vote of thanks was made by Max Turner – an intellectual giant and Conservative and a week later, beer and spirits were on sale at 1960 prices together with an excellent cold buffet. With the £100 Elsie bought a hostess trolley with an automatic pressure cooker. Landlord, John Vile said, to our reporter that night “from the amount of business you give me, Wings, you’re lucky to have your press card with you tonight”.

WHIFFS OF NOSTALGIA
Mrs Clara Harrison, my great aunt, used to live at Scar End, at the bottom of Thurstonland Bank, in the end house. She then moved to Ireland with her daughter, but having spent about 80 years in the area before she left, she has some interesting memories of her life hereabouts.

In her childhood she can recall the water was of course not piped to houses, but had to be brought from troughs and, until recently, there was a large one at the bottom of the bank which supplied them with most of their needs. However, drinking water had to be brought from the troughs at the end of ‘Occy Lane’. They had a water carrier on wheels – with a brake! Another trek up the bank had to be made for yeast which was bought from one of the village shops. She can also remember the arrival of “Th’weetindob” – a horse drawn ‘Wee-Tin’. I don’t know whether this ever reached Thurstonland, but certainly at the bottom of the bank buckets of urine were worth saving. Ha’penny a bucket was the going rate. The cart came from the local mill and urine was used for it’s ammonia content in the scouring of wood.

In Auntie Clara’s mother’s day, possibly in the 1880’s a number of women from Thurstonland worked at the silk mills in Meltham. They walked to work and had to leave home early. It was a tiring, dirty walk and mud gathered on their patterns. They walked with arms linked and for a good reason taking it in turns to close their eyes and rest while being swept along and guided by their friends.

TWO THURSTONLAND GEMS
Scene 1: The Rose and Crown Taproom.
AH, aged 79, was engaged to be married to Mrs.Q.
Ensued the following conversation.
HC: I’ear tha’s bahn’t to get wed ageean, Arthur.
AH: Aye, lad, Easter tahm.
HC: What’s up? ‘As ter getten ‘er in t’ family way?

Scene 2: Ash Farm yard.
Well known local butcher, TG, knocks on the kitchen door. The following conversation took place:
TG: Nah then, Alan, tha bloody dog’s just bitten ma leg
AD: Aye, an’ if this bloody leg tastes owt lahk thi mate he’ll nooan bath thi twahce!

THE MAIN ROAD THROUGH THURSTONLAND
How many times have you passed the guided post at Farnley and wondered why railing surround it? It is probably one of the best preserved guide posts in the district, and it provides a clue to forgotten routes and lines of traffic. It even had sundial on top that has long since disappeared, as have many stoops – used for roadmaking or someone’s gatepost. It is there because in 1698 an Act of Parliament said that ‘stoops must be sett up in Crosse highways with the name of the next Market Town to which each of the joining highways leede’, and in 1733 they had to be set up on ‘ Moor and Commons where intelligence was difficult to be had. Later, the distance to towns had to be marked.
The post is on the old Huddersfield to Penistone Road, and after leaving Huddersfield it went through Almondbury via Almondbury Bank and continued to follow the present No. 18 bus route to Farnley Tyas. Here it turned right along Farnley Moor and after passing the stoop it avoided Thurstonland by going along Greenside, turning right into Broad Lane and Browns Knoll Road, and then via the road into Stocksmoor, where it went through Stone Wood and into Shepley. Thereafter the route followed much of the present route into Penistone.

This is how the surveyor describes the main Penistone Road coming from Farnley on ‘May ye 12^th, 1719.’

“Descend Farnley Moor End. Blackhouse House on a bearing south at 30 poles distant. Thurstonland on a bearing SW 22 degrees. Descend Leasurely. Leave ye Moor and Close on both sides. Descends again. A rd. on ye lift to high Burton. At ye bottom, cross a Rill which runs into Phinny Beck at about a mile downward. Ascend a Hill open on ye Left. At ye top and descends”.
He was now at ‘Moor Bottom’, or West View or ‘them-there-white-houses-down-there’. One of these was once the ‘Druids Arms’ and a smithy. Near Butts Farm there is another post, set up later.
We live in what was once a busy neck of the woods. As well as the nearby Penistone Road, the main Richmond-Halifax-Huddersfield-Kirkburton-London Parkhorse road went via St Helen’s Gate, Almondbury to Kirkburton via Woodsome Hall.

THURSTONLAND CRICKET CLUB
Cricket at Thurstonland was first played in 1874 approximately 4 years after the present Church of St. Thomas was built.
The earliest traceable scorecard is for a game played on the 6^th May 1876, against a team from New Mill. It was played at Thurstonland on the first of the 3 grounds the Club has had during its existence.
The first was held on the left past the Post Office on Hawcliffe Lane. It was not long before a move was made to the Club’s second ground at Disney’s Field, near the road junction in the centre of the village. This was the club’s home until 1900 when the move was made to its present headquarters on Marsh Hall Lane.

It is interesting to note that quite a number of names playing in the late 1800’s –early 1900’s are still around locally, i.e.. Pontefract, Thewlis, Gill, Charlesworth, Mitchell and Booth, indeed three players with the latter name play for the club toady, some 124 years later.
Another of these names-Charlie Mitchell-is associated with a nice little aside. Charlie Mitchell was the founder of a local motor engineering firm at the turn of the century and had one of the few motorcars in the district. During the years leading up to 1914 he was able to persuade a number of talented players from other areas to turn out for Thurstonland. Among these players was a gifted slow spin bowler from Goole. A railway employee, he travelled by train to Goole to Wakefield where he was picked up by Charlie Mitchell in his car. Rumour had it that in addition to his cricket tackle, his bag often contained tobacco smuggled from the docks in Goole and sold in Thurstonland.

In 126 years there have been many ups and downs and good years and bad, the most successful being the 1980’s particularly 1987 when Thurstonland won the 1 XI Allsop Cup competition for the third year running and both 1^st and 2^nd Elevens were league champions, a record that still stands in the Huddersfield Central League today.

There have been many local characters whose tales have been passed down in the club over the years. This one can stand for all of them. Apparently Herbert Walter was a ferocious hitter of the ball, he had the misfortune in an accident to lose the finger of his right hand so anyone fielding in close was never quite sure whether he would be called upon to catch the ball, or the bat, as it occasionally flew from ‘Erbs’ grip after a particularly big hit. In spite of his handicap he was no mean performer and thoroughly enjoyed his cricket. He must typify all that’s best in village cricket – long may it continue.

SMALL SCHOOLS BEST, SAY EXPERTS
Small is beautiful, say Thurstonland parents about their village school – one of the tiniest in Kirklees. They are not alone in that view. Two Canadian professors of Education have come up with a research conclusion that small schools like Thurstonland are not only merely beautiful – but best. Dr E.L. Edmonds and Dr Frederick Bessai picked out 5 schools in Kirklees as part of a survey which also looked at small village schools in Cheshire and Prince Edward Island.
Kirklees assistant education officer Mr. Ian McMillan said: “It’s nice to receive the compliment, but in Kirklees we have always recognised that small schools are extremely valuable.”

In Kirklees there are about 6 primary and junior schools. Thurstonland’s head, Mr George Anderton, has 2 teachers – one on a part time basis – to help him run the 2 classroom school which has 25 infants and 22 juniors.

INDUSTRIES AND OCCUPATIONS
Thurstonland is named in the Doomsday Book along with Cartworth, Fulstone, Wooldale and Hepworth and is described as ‘Waste’.

Over the years the principal occupations of the township of Thurstonland have been hand loom weaving and agriculture.
It is noticeable that, apart from Mytholmbridge, there are no mills in Thurstonland. As far back as at least the 16^th century there was both a corn mill and a fulling mill at Mytholmbridge. The mills were owned by the Lord of the Manor and, in common with other estates, they were the only mills available to the tenant farmers and clothiers. Milling and fulling being essential to the respective industries, the mill owners could dictate their own terms. For some reason no other mills were ever built in Thurstonland even though in later years there was no legal restriction. This is probably why handloom weaving continued here longer than in most other areas.
Evidence is still visible of the weaving industry in Thurstonland e.g. the numerous windows in the upper rooms of the cottages: the stables for the donkeys beneath the entrance to the cottages: the wuzzing holes in the barn at Manor Farm; and of course the still plentiful supply of the raw material – wool.

The agriculture industry has changed radically under the influence of scientific/mechanical/political pressures over the years. Thurstonland has not been spared those changes and the following figures show the stark result:-

1851    30 farms
1936   18 farms
Today   4 farms plus a few smallholdings and equestrian units.

Other important industries included coal mining. Now defunct but at various times there have been some 28 pits in the area. Most of these have been small drift mines of short duration. But overall mining was big enough to warrant a plate road which ran from Top of the Hill down to Brockholes with gas lamps lighting the road the whole way.
After the coming of the railway to Stocksmoor, in 1850, many changes were made. One local farmer began to send his milk in churns to Huddersfield by train. People were able to travel to Huddersfield, Holmfirth and Meltham, and so could take up a variety of occupations, such as engineering, work in the chemical industry, shops or textile mills outside their immediate area.
At the nearby village of Thurstonland, a brickworks was opened for the manufacture of bricks for lining the many tunnels required on the route from Huddersfield to Sheffield. There was also a small tannery and a blacksmith.

In the local Hamlet of Thunderbridge, a water-driven corn grinding mill was set up to meet the needs of local farmers. There was also a small works making ammonia, which was used by local housewives for washing blankets.
During the 1930’s depression, local unemployed people were set to work building sewers. Many had previously worked in the local textile industry where jobs had dwindled.
Quarrying too has been an important industry. A number of stone quarries are recorded in the area with the Longlet Quarry at Runlet End still working in the 20^th century. Clay too has been quarried with Thurstonland Brick Co. being a sizeable business. The brickwork’s chimney was a local landmark for many years.

In the 1850’s smaller industries in Thurstonland included 3 blacksmiths, joiner/wheelwright. Maltster, 2 masons, 3 shoemakers, 2 Millwrights, Manufacturing Chemist, Miller, 2 Carriers, Constable surveyor, 7 shopkeepers plus the Co-op, 2 public houses, Boarding Kennels, Coal merchant, Manufacturing chemist.
Today’s list? Joiner/undertaker, builder, shopkeeper-postmaster, 2 public houses, Boarding kennels and dry-stone waller.
With the present trend towards the home-working computers internet etc. we may find the number of smaller industries increasing in the future. Perhaps the wheel will turn the full circle.

“ PLUS ÇA CHANGE……….”
‘Coin Clipping’ is said to date back to the 13^th century. By the end of the 17^th century the practice was so widely indulged that an Act of Parliament was required in 1698 to put a stop to it. Coinage was called in and the effect of clipping was found to have cost £2.2 million was a disaster and a window tax was introduced to offset some of the loss.
Towards the end of the 17^th century there were many cases of “clipping and coining” but few relating to respectable people – and clergy, too.

The Rev’d Edmund Robinson’s claim to fame was that he was a counterfeiter of some repute. A history of the area says of him, “there was an air of mystery in his general behaviour, in consequence of which he was vulgarly supposed to be deeply imbued with the black art.” Actually what he was doing in the huge cellar underneath Bank End was “Makin’ brass.” Assisted by his 18 year old son, he carried on his work with “diligence, secrecy and success” for some years without suspicion. “He got a deal of money; people knew not how,” until of course, the gaff was blown and he and his son were sent for trial to York Castle. Not all of the people involved in the enterprise were caught. “There was a tunnel from Bank End to a building in one of the fields, and while the parson was being arrested at one end, others were escaping at the other”, it is said.
Mr Robinson was found guilty and executed sometime around 1690, but the son was reprieved on the grounds of his age and being under the influence of the parson. Ironically enough he was sent to London to work at the Royal Mint where he stayed to make a legitimate fortune!

THE PACE EGG PLAY – 1980
I first came into contact with the play when I saw it performed by the boys of Calder High School in the streets of Hebden Bridge and surrounding villages at Easter time. The Hebden Bridge version has only about 8 characters.
When I was at Ilkley, I found a version of a mummers play which I recognised as having much the same plot as the Pace Egg Play, i.e. a fight between ‘evil’ and ‘good’, between ‘saints’ and ‘foreign warriors’, representing the holy wars perhaps. The Christian mummers play had about 20 characters including Father Christmas.

Our present production is a mixture of the other two versions and involves as many characters as there are juniors available. This year, we did not need a pantomime horse, for instance!!
One benefit of learning the words of a play of this nature is that the characters become familiar with each other’s parts and so become interchangeable. This year, we had two different fools, two Saladins and two dragons. If any character forgets his lines, then the whole company is to prompt him by saying his part. If a combatant breaks his sword, then he is to stop fighting at once and shout out the impromptu line ‘A sword, a sword, give me a sword’. A supply of spares is carried.

This year, we have performed at the Rose and Crown, the Clothiers Arms, the Middle School and Brockholes Junior School, in addition to our home fixture in the school yard. Collections at the first two public performances totalled £32, which just covered the cost of the production this year. If we are asked to do it again next year, we should be able to collect for a charity.

ONE OFF BAND HERE TO STAY
The Wafentuffen band was formed by Thurstonland and Farnley Tyas schoolchildren especially for a silver jubilee gala in 1977, but people demanded it should become a permanent feature.
Response from villagers as the band formed part of the weekend’s gala procession through Farnley Tyas, Thurstonland and Stocksmoor was overwhelming, Mr George Anderton, head of Thurstonland Junior School, said: “We were amazed at the reaction. The children from my school and Farnley Tyas Junior School formed the band just for one occasion. A permanent band was neither our aim nor our intention.” Mr Anderton said that in light of the band’s success they may start playing at other local functions. “Already we have 2 invitations in the pipeline. It is nearing the end of term, but we may continue the band next summer.” He added. “The children really enjoyed themselves. Part of the fun was dressing up in red white and blue.”
The name Waffentuffen was chosen because it is though to mean beating and blowing.

THURSTONLAND CURIOSITIES
Although the only pubs now in existence are the Rose and Crown in Thurstonland and the Clothiers Arms in Stocksmoor, other pubs and clubs existed in the area in years gone by. The New Inn – now No. 60 The Village – and the Druids Arms at West View were both well patronised, as was the club – now number 72 The Village – which was a non-political men’s club.

From the air the village has changed very little over the years. There have been no major developments since 1966 within what is now a conservation area. Development in the area has been confined to the conversion of derelict barns and the renovation of dilapidated houses/cottages – some of them dating back to the 17^th century and now listed buildings. Many properties are still occupied by people born in the village or who have been there many years, but in recent years “outsiders” have moved in. They have been largely professional people and there has been a subtle change in the village. Few many now actually work here and in that sense it is becoming more or less a dormitory village.

The village has not been immune to scandal. Some time ago a certain lady had become acquainted with a boyfriend through the medium of a lonely hearts club. Eventually it transpired that the boyfriend was married but had murdered his wife by poisoning her. The story was featured in the News of the World and was known as “The Green Bottle Story”.

One of our senior citizens attended the village school as a little girl. At the time there were 92 pupils in attendance – all sitting at desks in straight rows, all day, and under very strict discipline.

For many years a farmhouse and a cottage in Top O’the Hill were left derelict, the owner living in the Hemsworth area. Both properties have been renovated and extended in recent years, but shortly before that the farmhouse was occupied by a team from Leeds University making a documentary film. For several weeks a friendly neighbour spent quite a lot of her time making cups of tea for them. She is not quite sure what happened to the film!

Travelling down Thurstonland Bank, a house on the right hand side of the road stands in quite extensive grounds and is known as Bank End Green. It is now quite a nice looking property, but in years gone by it was owned by John Henry Heywood who was a proprietor of a large department store in Huddersfield. The grounds of Bank End Green in those days were a by-word locally for the magnificence of its floral displays and the general public were allowed to walk through the gardens to admire.

Donkeys have an interesting place in the story of Thurstonland. Until the 20^th century transport was a difficult problem. Even with the arrival of the canals and railways isolated communities such as Thurstonland had problems transporting heavy, bulky loads. The cottage weavers in particular had problems. A clothier could walk, say, from Thurstonland to the Cloth Hall in Huddersfield with a length of cloth on his back, but other transport was needed for larger loads. Donkeys was chosen as the beast of burden. It was said that there were more donkeys than people in Thurstonland, but one recorded instance is of a wedding where 42 donkeys were in attendance.

The name Charlie Mitchell crops up from time to time. He was one of a limited number of owners of motor cars, and he enjoyed hill climb racing. The sport was carried on between Holme Village and Holme Moss. On one occasion he was reported to have beaten Malcolm Campbell of “Bluebird” fame. It was whispered that he may have “doctored” the track but whether he did or not, he was a remarkable man and lived into the eighties.

Before the days of television, leisure time was taken up with all sorts of activities. One such in Thurstonland was a course of instruction in the art of cake icing. One of the pupils was a man noted for his dirty hands. His “grey” icing became quite famous.

Over the last 20 years or so many houses in the village have been “done up”. One in particular was originally two small cottages, one of which was exceptionally small. A lady lived there by herself, her name was Isobella. She was not married but had a son and daughter, both of whom had grown up and deserted her and never came back to visit. In the house all the furniture she possessed was a small table and chair, together with two sacks sewn to make a carpet. It was assumed that she had a bed of sorts. Her income, from charity, was 6d per week. Every night, without fail, she thanked God for all the things she had.

No-one seemed to know the reason why, but one lady in the village was known to sleep every night on the settee downstairs while her husband slept upstairs in bed. Eventually, the husband died and was buried. It was some time afterwards that she could bring herself to go up to the bedroom to sort things out. On the floor under the bed she found some false teeth. Realising they must have been her husbands, she said to her neighbour “he’ll be missing his teeth” and went to the grave yard, dug a hole in his grave and buried them with him.

An elderly couple who had lived in one of the houses up the village all their married life were well liked, good living and very house proud, but they were not very well off. The house was very much as it had been probably since it was built. The lady of the house was very good at crochet and it was used as a decoration everywhere around the windows, doors, fireplace, everywhere. In those days sugar was delivered to the shops in bags and the couple would collect these bags, repeatedly wash them until they were white, and then turn them into pillow cases, sheets etc. they were living there when all the houses in the village acquired land from the field at the back for gardens. Unfortunately, this couple could not afford to put in a back door so they simply climbed in and out of their window to reach the garden.

At one time there lived in Top O’the Hill the families Sparrow, Swallow and Crow and in the village the families Weaver, Woollen and Wragg. Not to be outdone three consecutive post masters were Brown, Green and White.

With the supply of mains water into the village in the 1920’s, bathrooms were steadily introduced into private houses, and the use of communal bath house at the Council Office declined in proportion. Eventually only one elderly gentleman was left and every Friday afternoon saw him walking up the village with the towel rolled up under his arm. Less than five minutes later he would be seen walking back home. His constant response to the remark that “It hadn’t taken him long” was “ you can only wash t’outside, you can’t wash t’inside”.

Inevitably, there was the family particularly noted for it’s fleas. A brave neighbour agreed to take a mattress to the tip for them, carrying it on the top of his car. Travelling up the village someone shouted to him that the mattress had fallen off. “Oh leave it” came the reply “In a few minutes it’ll walk off by itself”.

The new convert to Wesleylan faith, returning home from a revival meeting, walking and leaping and praising God, starting a well known Hymn;

At Jacob’s Well a stranger ‘Sowt’
His drooping heart to cheer
At this point he leapt over the low hedge by the side of the footpath and landed in a cesspool, he continued singing;
But Jimmy Johnson little ‘thowt’
There were a sore-hoil theer.

After the second world war one of the members of Parliament for Huddersfield, Mr J P W Mallalieu, was brought to dance in Thurstonland by the Local Councillor, thinking it would be a good way to meet some of his constituents. As they came to the door, the doorman stopped them saying “that’ll be five bob gentlemen”. The Councillor stepped forward to explain that his guest was the MP for Huddersfield. The doorman said “Oh, that’s alright then – but it’s still 5 bob”.

Thurstonland had it’s village idiot – Sneckum. He used to make a few pence for himself collecting sticks and selling them for firewood. Meeting one of the villagers in the street, Sneckum asked him if he would like a bundle. “How much?” asked the villager. “Two and Six” said Sneckum. “Alright” said the villager “just drop ‘em off int’ yard”. Arriving home later the villagers wife said “that was a good bundle of sticks I’ve paid him”. To which her husband replied “Oh, aye, so have I”,.

SUCCESS ON A PLATE
In the Easter holidays the scouts, as part of the competition sponsored by Kentucky Fried Chicken, cleaned up part of the footpath from Top of the Hill towards Brockholes. Many helpers, photographers, local dignitaries and representatives of the Thurstonland Thunderer turned up, and for 3 nights the air was full of cries such as “you can have a drink of lemonade when you’ve carried another sod down to the bottom,” and bonfires of rubbish and old field burned well into the dusk.
A really excellent job was done, and the boys won £75 prize. Special thanks are due to Mrs Mellor for her excellent wall-top refreshment facilities.

Other scouts groups have undertaken projects; cleaning up rivers and villages, but our footpath clearance is a specific task with a more obvious ‘before and after’ effect. There have been several articles and photos in the local press, and the council has written a pleasant letter of thanks.
The footpath is a ‘plateway’ – the long, flat stone on either side of the central setts being the plates to carry the wheels of the coal wagons and the setts themselves providing traction for the horse or pony. The coal itself came from several small coal pits or day – holes locally. There were at least 10 of these in the vicinity as well as the larger Red Gin colliery, the mound on which the Gin stood, being still visible. At scar End, by Round Wood there used to be a Rope Walk, obviously significant in a mining area.
At the bottom of the ‘grass road’ near the stream are visible remains of a day – hole, an arched stone entry to an adit. The pathway down to Brockholes Station was formerly lit by gas, and indication of how many people walked this way.

WESLEYLAN CHAPEL
In the Wesleyan Methodist Circuit plans in the 1790’s Thurstonland was included in the Huddersfield Circuit which stretched from Barnsley to Saddleworth. Services were held in cottages and Methodism certainly flourished in Thurstonland. When the Chapel of Ease was built in 1810 Methodists, sharing the building with other sects, had a membership of 38.
After their withdrawal from the Chapel of Ease following a disagreement Methodists reverted to holding their services in cottages. The foundation stone for a new chapel was laid by Robert Jenkinson of Stocksmoor on 7^th April 1836.

In the early days the chapel had no organ and it is thought music was provided by a violinist. An organ was required eventually but at a date unknown. However a new organ was installed for the centenary celebrations in 1936. the site of the chapel being so exposed caused the atmosphere within the building to be both cold and damp, conditions which were not helpful to the performance of the new organ. As a result certain notes refused to play from time to time to the embarrassment of the organist. Indeed special precautions were taken for feast days by bringing in an organ builder the day before to check it over.

The last wedding in the chapel was that of Mr and Mrs Edmund Gill in December 1960. The chapel officially closed in March 1978 but it was opened up for the funeral of Mrs Gill’s mother in May 1978. An electronic organ was borrowed especially for the occasion. After the chapel was closed services continued to be held for a time in the home of Mrs Collins. The chapel building and its Sunday School remained unused until quite recently when both were converted to private residences.

PUMPS AND WELLS
Prior to 1920 in Stocksmoor, all household water was obtained from pumps in the yards or carried from local wells when the springs dried up. We were the first family in the village to have water piped into the house, and a neighbour had the first upstairs bathroom. It had a bath and washbasin but all the water used in it had to be handpumped from the kitchen sink downstairs.

THURSTONLAND MOTHERS UNION
In November 1998, Thurstonland Mothers Union was 90 years old. At the preset time we have 20 members and our new branch leader takes over the running of our M.U. in January 2000. We meet in the Church Room on the last Wednesday of most months when we have various speakers. Every meeting starts with a short service; we pray for members worldwide and any ‘indoor’ members. We finish each meeting with coffee and cakes. Indoor members are members no longer able to get to our meetings but who still belong to the M.U.
January is always party time where we all help make a buffet supper and play pencil and paper games. In December we have a dinner for all church ladies at the Rose and Crown. The church cleaning ladies are also invited as they all give up their time to clean the church.

THE CONSERVATION AREA
On the 31^st March, 1981, Thurstonland became one of the conservation areas in Kirklees. All residents and property owners in the conservation areas have to be aware of the facts.
Thurstonland is blessed with many buildings of interest, and several of these are ‘listed’ – that is placed on a list of buildings which are of special architectural or historic interest. These receive statutory protection but this does not imply that the building will necessarily be preserved, but it makes sure that the case for reservation is fully examined and any proposed alterations must preserve the character of the buildings. Consent for altering or demolishing must be obtained from the local planning authority or the Secretary of State. The penalty for not obtaining consent can be a fine of unlimited amount, or imprisonment, or both.

WAR IN THE VILLAGE
During the war when everyone was urged to “dig for victory”, an Allotments Association was founded in Stocksmoor Village. It became a thriving organisation with meetings held in the local pub and an annual show. When soldiers were billeted at Kirkburton, they loaned a big marquee to the Association of the annual show. One year this was erected behind the Clothiers Arms and a dance floor was put down for entertainment this evening.
When German bombers flew to bomb Sheffield their route lay over the village of Stocksmoor and I remember one night when only mother and I were at home, we were terrified as we sat in the dark listening to the pieces of anti-aircraft shells rattling on the farm roof.
Stocksmoor was surrounded by listening posts during the war I used to go on the train to Shepley where the army put on a dance and provided the band.
After the bonfire on VE day the men of the village got talking in the Clothiers Arms over a celebratory pint. They decided that the village needed was a village hall and a fund was started that night. It was 28 years before their dreams were realised and a purpose-built hall became a reality.

OFFICES OF THURSTONLAND AND FARNLEY TYAS URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL
The Council Offices at No.40 The Village were extensively used for a variety of purposes. In addition to their use as offices for council business. They served as a library on Mondays; a communal bath house on Thursdays and Fridays; a cash office 4 times a year where villagers paid their bills for rates, gas, electricity, water; a store of sundry items such as commodes, bed pans, stone hot water bottles, etc., which were hired out for villagers as required; a meeting room for the Prince Albert Lodge of the United Ancient order of Druids; public toilets and clothes handing ground for the people of the upper part of the village. Toilets for the people of the lower part of the village were provided in the area now housing the garage for No.72 The Village. No 72. now a private residence, used to be a nonpolitical club.
As council offices the building used to contain some beautiful furniture which mysteriously disappeared when Kirklees M.C. sold the property! The council built the council houses in Stocksmoor and Oakes Lane – both providing good examples of council house building.
Mr H Harker attended to residents minor ailments and injuries for many years. You could hire such aids as a commode chair, bed pans and bottles, rubber rings and sheets for a weekly rent of 3d or 4d when caring for sick people in their homes. When Mr Harker passed away these items went to the council offices.

JUBILEE AND CORONATION
In 1935, for the Silver Jubilee of George V, a carnival procession was held through the villages of Stocksmoor and Thurstonland. It was a very hot day and concluded with a bonfire built on the highest point in the area, lit by the oldest resident, who was presented by a silver topped cane. In 1937 a bonfire was built to celebrate the coronation of George VI. Some malicious person lit it before the official time – despite the fact that most of the day had been wet.

STORTHES HALL PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL
The first part was opened in 1904 and completed about 1908. It was then known as ‘Storthes Hall Asylum’. It was fairly modern in comparison with many other hospitals which had previously been built. It had a large catchment area from Todmorden in the West to Barnsley in the east. The number of patients varied, at one point during and just after the Second World War there were about 3,000 because patients had been transferred from hospitals in Lincoln and Wakefield. In those days “Asylums” or “Mental Hospitals” were built in the country as people did not want to see or know them. For some unknown reason anyone with a mental illness was looked on as a disgrace on the family.
Storthes Hall like any other hospitals of this type, was self sufficient, having its own farm, gardens, bake-house, laundry and cinema. Unfortunately most of these departments were staffed by patients and it wasn’t until the 1960’s that it was realised that they were not economically viable. It also had its own band; in fact one way of getting on the Nursing Staff was if you played an instrument or excelled at football or cricket.
The most exercise that the majority of patients had was walking around the outside of the wards, or a couple of times a week the better patients went up to Lower Greenside where people called Emerson ran a small shop and sold cups of tea.

Over the years things began to change, but probably not quickly enough. Patients were allowed more freedom, locked doors disappeared patients were allowed to go anywhere on their own into Kirkburton or Huddersfield. There were more activities and entertainment inside and outside the hospital. They now had their own shop, boutique and bar also holidays at the seaside, trips out and in some cases holidays abroad. Previously it was just the weekly cinema show and monthly dance, where incidentally the male patients had to sit on the side of the hall and the females at the other. Of course the big event those days was the Sports Day held in July; on this occasion staff families were involved.

Storthes Hall for many years was part of Thurstonland parish until the changes in its local government boundaries when it was passed to Kirkburton. For religious services it was covered by the Vicar of Thurstonland and many patients were buried in Thurstonland Churchyard.
When the hospital opened it brought many people from other parts of the country to work, some accommodated within the hospital. Houses within the grounds were built for doctors and senior officials and in Storthes Hall Lane for staff. Also many people from the surrounding area were employed in the hospital. The big social occasion for the staff was the “Staff Dance” held in January.

THE UNDERTAKERS TALE
The Gill family have been joiners and undertakers for over 100 years. The undertaking side of the business developed rapidly with the opening of Storthes Hall Hospital in 1904. their first recorded ‘paupers funeral’ was carried out in 1905 at a cost of less than £2.
At that time transport was provided by horse and carriage. Using a pony and a trap for their other business and hiring a horse and hearse funerals it was quickly realised that buying a heavy horse and a horse drawn hearse would reduce their costs considerably. Their young apprentice was given the job of looking after the horse and it was a regular sight to see a horse and hearse trundling along driven by a small person wearing a tall silk hat and short trousers.

The progress of the automobile brought the firm to the point where they bought a vehicle and fitted a flat back to it. They then designed different covers to bolt on the flat back – a hearse, a truck for the joinery business and a bus with which to carry the cricket team around, amongst other things. It could be argued that this must have been one of the first multi-purpose vehicles on the road.

Mains electricity was not available in 1923 but the firm had made its own provisions based on an upright boiler. One Monday the only person left in the joiners shop was a young apprentice and the boiler was not firing properly. The lad took a petrol can from the store, opened the boiler door and threw some petrol in with the predictable result of a huge flash back. The lad was badly burned, the joiners shop went up in flames and the cricket club lost all of their tackle as it had been left in the shop from the previous Saturdays game.

LOCAL DEFENCE VOLUNTEERS
In the second world war many were called to the cause even Thurstonland and Stocksmoor had a group of men who daily volunteered to defend their country. They carried out many military tasks while carrying out their normal employment, whatever it was. The following were members of the LDV:-

SGT GEORGE BEST
SGT FRANK LINDLEY
JOHN HOLMES
CHARLIE CAMPBELJOHN
ALAN DISNEY
HAROLD WHITE
ROGER MELLOR
BOB BEAUMONT
CLIFFORD HILL

They were on duty twice a week. They were armed initially with a shotgun between the lot of them but only one barrel of this weapon would fire. They were going to be issued at one time with pikes. They had a bell tent which they pitched one day at the Trig point at the top of Thurstonland Bank and there was a great gust of wind and the whole lot blew away.

Eventually they were given Winchester Rifles, a Bren gun and full uniform. A lot of time was spent observing from the top of Thurstonland Bank and you could see on a clear night the bombing of Sheffield. Manchester and Liverpool by the German Air Force. One day as they were watching they could see two lines of bright lights in the sky as an English fighter plane pursued a German bomber after it had tried to attack the David Browns factory at Lockwood. The bright lights were the incendiary bullets form the fighter’s machine guns.

POST OFFICE
Thurstonland Post Office was opened in 1905 at 94 Tanyard. The first post master was Hannam Taylor who had to walk to Stocksmoor Station to collect and sort mail for delivery on his return journey. The Post Office remained in the Taylor Family until January 1961. It moved from the Tanyard to No1 The Green in 1951, then to Council Offices in 1957. After 1961, it was taken by Frank Beever at No. ? The Village, but after a year it passed to Wilson Green at Hawcliffe Lane, where it has remained. There have been several changes of Post Masters until Gene Barden took it over.

THE “CO-OP”
The post office is now the only shop in the village, but in the past there have been several – confectioners, bakers, butchers and greengrocers. The Co-op, once two cottages, served the community from 1902 up to 1964 and has now reverted to being a house.
The shop had two large windows for display and over the door was the imposing 11ft wide green sign stating; “Brockholes Industrial Co-operative Society, Thurstonland Branch” in cream letters. With no perimeter wall, carts were able to pull up, reverse, unload and load up whatever goods have to be delivered. Usually this would take place at the lower end of the building, near the boiler shed where a winch and pulley system protruded from an upper opening.
Once inside the door wooden shop counters extended round two sides of the spacious square room and under foot were floor boards that were swept daily with the aid of used tea leaves. Two chairs were available on the customer side of the counter – shopping was slower then – and also a rack of biscuit tins stood waiting to be weighed – perhaps a luxury item to tempt the waiting customer. More essential items were arranged on the many shelves behind the counters. In latter years there was a fridge containing bacon and next to it a bacon slicing machine. On top of the counter were scales used for weighing almost all the goods sold. Bags, sometimes coloured, were required for these, for example sugar in 1, 2, and 4LB bags, peas in green bags, sweets in cone shaped bags known as kites, flour, barley, wheat and Indian corn and oyster shell grit.

As this list implies many people were self sufficient to a degree, some keeping their own livestock and most making food from basic ingredients – yeast being one of the many essential items sold.

The main room of the shop could supply customers with the produce mentioned as well as butter – Irish or Lurpak; a selection of teas; cod liver oil; chocolates; stationary; candles and soap. Donkey stones came in red, yellow or grey, and dish cloths were also sold.
There was also a small drapery department which contained the safe and a kettle for teabreaks. Some goods were stored upstairs, but not a lot, as most were kept at Brockholes – Thurstonland was only a branch Cooperative

Shop hours were from 8am until about 7pm, and 12.30pm on Saturdays. The staff wore brown overalls, but on Fridays and Saturdays wore white. In charge was the branch manager – Horace Marsden was the last. The shop assistant was Mary Charlesworth and Norah Haigh was the part-time worker who walked round the district collecting the shopping orders. These would be made up at the shop and delivered by cart by Ces Harrison or Stanley Walton. When goods were bought the customers was always given a receipt – the divided cheque – which showed the price and type of goods as well as the customer’s own Co-op number. A carbon copy of this was kept and placed in a metal container, twice a year at the end of February and August, the customer would look forward to receiving a share of the Co-op’s profits – the famous “divvy” – in proportion to the amount of their purchases. This could range from a shilling to half a crown in the pound – a day worth waiting for.

In August 1959 Richard Rowden was standing in for the branch manager. Arriving for work at 8am he was dismayed to see a broken window above the main shop and realised there had been a break-in. The burglar had reached the window by climbing on to the sloping roof of the brick built paraffin shed. He had placed some sacking coating with treacle against the glass before breaking it silently. Inside the storeroom many cigarettes and cigars had been stolen, but tins of tobacco and cigars in tubes had been left. The Brockholes Police were called, finger prints taken, and eventually the burglar was caught. Unfortunately it was Richard’s job to work out exactly what was missing – an onerous job involving detailed stocktaking.

The co-op amalgamated with Berry Brow in 1960 but with more cars in the village, people travelled further afield and the largest shop in the village eventually closed in 1964.

DEREK'S STORY
I was 6 ½ years old in 1941 when my brother and I were taken from a children’s home in Lewes, East Sussex, and brought to Yorkshire as evacuees. Brian went to a family in Farnley Tyas. I came to Thurstonland.

My first impression of the village was of feeling totally lost and rather scared, but quickly I realised that it was far better than what I had left behind.
I moved into a cottage on East View with a wonderful couple who became my foster parents until 1947, when at an age of 12, they legally adopted me. I then gained an identity of my own and finally I knew this was where I belonged.
When I was 13 we Moved to Halstead Farm and to make my pocket money I used to go round the village with a horse and cart selling potatoes, giving 6 free turnips with every bag.

My lifelong involvement with the Cricket Club started as a young lad in the days when you could neither have a bat or ball until you had done your share of odd jobs, like rolling the wicket etc. I eventually ran the junior section for about 10 years.

I never regretted at 12, making the decision to stay. The village of Thurstonland was then and still is a great place to be adopted into.

THURSTONLAND AFC, 1973-1983
There had been a soccer club in Thurstonland but it had been defunct for a long time. It was decided from a new club in 1973 and at one time or another, most of the young men fit enough to play, i.e. under the age of 40, played for the team.
The late John Shaw of Scotgate Works, Honley, provided us with a strip and a pair of goal nets.
Our first game was a friendly against a YEB side. We lost 1-7, but the event was noteworthy because, unfortunately, one of our opponents collapsed and died in the Rose and Crown after the match.
We applied to join the Huddersfield and District Sunday Football League and were accepted, playing the first season in Division II because of the withdrawal of another club. The season after we had to start in Division V. Over the years the club did reasonable well but folded in about 1983 because the players were aggrieved at not receiving runners-up medals.

THE HUDDERSFIELD AND SHEFFIELD JUNCTION RAILWAY
The Huddersfield to Penistone line opened on 1 July 1850 when the inaugural train stalled in Thurstonland tunnel. The engine, which was evidently not equal to both the heavy load and wet rails, had to draw the front half of the train to Stocksmoor and return for the remaining coaches which had been left inside the tunnel, hopefully with sufficient handbrakes applied.

The villages of Stocksmoor and Thurstonland have many physical features indicating that the railway is beneath. There are three air vents changing the air in the tunnel and getting rid of the exhausts. The nearby village of Brockholes was the junction point for the line to Holmfirth and on its way it passes under Thurstonland Bank Road. This was a double track for Brockholes and was quite a busy place with it’s own signal box and water tower plus a number of sidings on some of which coaches were stored awaiting their next turn. Coal was dropped through chutes on one siding and this coal was used by Brockholes Co-operative Society and was sold in the Thurstonland and Stocksmoor area. The tunnel underneath Thurstonland is very wet and engines often struggled up the gradient towards Stocksmoor where the engines could have taken on water from the adjacent dam. There was a mixture of trains both passenger and goods, the coal trains came from Skelmanthorpe and Clayton West Collieries.

Each day the one famous train came through, it did not stop at small stations, this was called the South Yorkshireman. It’s starting point was Bradford and it went via Sheffield to London, the engine for this was usually a B1 Class 4.6.0. Express Locomotive.

Huddersfield Engine Shed provided engines for most traffic up the branch as it was known, but some engines came from Bradford. Stocksmoor was a station which received goods wagons carrying coal for the local coalman, Walter Noble & Sons. The coal came from the coal fields in South Yorkshire and the train was sorted out in Huddersfield into a correct sequence so that each wagon could be dropped off at each station en route from Huddersfield to Clayton West. This train was known as the Drummer. The motive power for this was an Austerity engine built during the second world war.

At Stocksmoor you can still see where the sidings were and you could unload from adjacent trucks. The coal was taken from the wagon and placed into sacks of 100cwt. The customers had many preferences as to which coal they liked best but coal from Grimethorpe and Hickleton were two which sold well. Some people liked to buy bags of Nutty Slack, this was very small coal which you placed on top of the fire at night causing it to burn slowly so that in the winter the fire remained in, lasting all night and keeping the house warm.

Thurstonland tunnel was constructed between 1846 and 1850, when the railway was opened. It was a large project and the village still has links with the people who built it. William Moorhouse, also known as, “Billy Bah’t ands”. He was working in Thurstonland tunnel when his hands were blown off by some explosive. Emily Moorhouse was William Moorhouse’s daughter and she was born in 1864. Emily Moorhouse married Johnny Herbert, a miner, in 1890, and they lived at Marsh Hall Farm. Her daughter, called Clara, was Amy Jackson’s mother. Clara was born at Shepley Wood End and Amy, her daughter, our current verger, was born in 1920.

MOLLY MANGLE
You may not have heard of Molly Mangle but she occupied an important position in the culture of Thurstonland. Molly Mangle lived in the yard of Manor House Farm opposite the end of Hawcliffe Lane. The story goes that this house which had very small windows all of which faced to the north, in other words towards Huddersfield, she was the only person in the village with a mangle so villagers would queue on wash day, which was a Monday, to use her mangle and wring out the clothes before they were placed on the washing line, hence her name Molly Mangle.

THURSTONLAND MEMORIES
My first awareness of the village was a sort of subconscious anticipation. Ever since childhood, when left with a pencil or crayon, and a few moments to while away, I have drawn the same doodle – a clump of trees with a church spire sticking out of the top. Psychiatrists may make of it what they will – but there it was.
Later, at the age of 34, a more tangible presentment of the place occurred in Brian Turner’s Estate Agents in Huddersfield, when I picked up the details of a house, and saw that magic name – “Thurstonland”. It had the feeling of a little kingdom all of its own – definitely not part of the British Empire – but a land set apart – a spot on the Earth’s surface ruled entirely by itself. Brian’s mother, noticing my interest, remarked “You’ll be right away in the woods and the fields there”. The fact that her words echoed one of my favourite pieces of music, increased my curiosity even further, and I got in my car without further ado. And then suddenly there it was!! Rounding the crest of the hill beyond Farnley Tyas I realised that my childish doodle had been made flesh – in the shallow dip before me behold the clump of trees and in its midst the slender Victorian Gothic spire of St Thomas’ Church. Needless to say I bought my house, and remained there for more than a third of my life.

The basic position of the village is best realised when looking east from the Pennines around Black Hill. There in the grey-blue distance are two low hills, and between them a long saddle, with a sharp spike at its centre. On closer inspection the spike resolves into the church spire, and the place is seen to have all the basic requirements of rural life – a school, a pub, a main street, a few farms, one very large field, and a great medley of very small ones – the field divisions being partly hawthorn hedges, and partly stone walls. The fields I later discovered, all had names such as “Hanging Royd Shrogg”, “Lancaster” and “Hawcliffe”. Some of these names preserved fragments of local history, such as “Old Maids Field” – so called because the hay-making there was always done by two old maids wearing shirts and sun bonnets. There was also an “Old Maids Well”. Tradition had it that any young girl who lingered near it would remain a virgin forever. It goes without saying that the local maidens passed it at a brisk trot.

Over the years I got to know the face of the village in all it’s seasons. In Spring the daffodils would splash yellow along the churchyard path; bluebells would soften the lower slopes of Pike Stye; and the Heights would be vibrant with spring-flowering gorse. Hay-making in the summer was now the province of farmers, tractors, and small boys – who helped load the bales onto the low flat wagons.

During the long light evenings, the whites of the indefatigable cricketers would be silhouetted against the gathering dusk of the fields beyond. On the waste heaps around the tunnel vents, rose bay willow herb would be blooming in all its magnificence. Autumn saw the potato lifting on Farnley Moor. The big field would now be in stubble – looking superb in the late afternoon sunlight. And as November approached the children gathered every bit of spare timber, and built a gigantic bonfire on the “rec”.

Finally there was winter – with the holly trees in berry at the edge of Black Gutters wood; the J.C.B’s clearing great snow drifts from Marsh Hall Lane; and numerous rehearsals in progress for the annual Christmas Festival.

The people of course – I mustn’t forget them – for they are not just figures in a landscape – they are the landscape. Many anecdotes come to mind which could not possibly find a place in this short article. I will therefore content myself with just one. It concerns a gentleman brought up in the village, who decided to emigrate to Canada. He said good-bye to all his friends, and set off with his bag of belongings. At the old mile-stone near the heights he paused to take one last look at his place of birth. He stood there for a long time, and then reputedly muttered: “My bonny Thurstonland – I canny leave thee”, picked up his bags, trudged back to the village, and remained there until the day he died.

I know how that man felt – I felt the same, and nothing less exciting than a woman could have tempted my away. But meeting Catherine on a Bronte Society excursion set in a motion a train of events which eventually led to my moving to Todmorden on the snowiest day of the winter of 93/94. there was too much to think of at the time for nostalgia.

Now, when I think of Thurstonland, it isn’t really that tangible place which I still sometimes visit to keep in touch with my old friend Ralph Adamson. To some extent it is the view from the Pennines – the two low hills, and the long saddle between. But in a sense it isn’t even that: just the childish doodle, with the clump of trees, and the tall church spire sticking up from their midst.

MEMORIES OF THURSTONLAND AND STOCKSMOOR