The Mining Industry in the Huddersfield District
By D. A. Wray

SIXTEENTH CENTURY DEVELOPMENTS

References to ancient coal-workings now being to be more numerous, and in the sixteenth century records of the Court Leets in connection with the Manor of Wakefield there are allusions to the digging of coal at Flockton in 1515. They were, however, as yet not very numerous in the immediate vicinity of Huddersfield. Wood was relatively abundant for use as ordinary fuel, and it was only for special purposes such as smiths or lime-burning that coal was employed. From a survey of the Manor of Almondbury, made by Edward Stanhope Esq., Surveyor, in Queen Elizabeth’s reign in 1584, we learn that ‘there are not any mines of cole, lead or iron within the said Manor of Almondbury, saving a cole mine of small value digged and wrought by John Lockwood or by others, by his appointments as in the right of Francis Samwell, Esqr., Her Majesty’s Farmer there.’* This was almost certainly a small crop working in the Hard Bed or Soft Bed coal in the Newsome district. Almondbury Manor was a very extensive one, and it is clear from the above record very little had been done up to this period to mine the numerous coal seams cropping out in a very advantageous position along the eastern slopes of the Lower Holme Valley.

Stew and Cream Pots, Lindley Moor Pottery, Salendine Nook

In the middle of the sixteenth century great changes took place as a consequence of the dissolution of the monasteries. All the lands owned by Byland Abbey at Denby, Flockton, Whitely and Emley were purchased by Arthur Kaye, a member of an ancient Yorkshire family, branches of which have had long associations both with Denby Grange and Woodsome; and it has remained in the possession of their descendants to the present day. Similarly, Bentley and Bretton were granted to Richard Andrews in 1544, who had license to alienate them to the Allott family. This included Bentley Grange, the centre of an extensive iron-ore mining area, where the Allotts had for some time previously resided as the tenants of the Abbey. The land owned by Rievaulx Abbey also largely passed into the hands of the Kayes, while that formerly held by Fountains Abbey passed into the possession of the Saville family, whose descendants still own considerable portions of the original estate. Yet despite these great changes in ownership the coal industry continued to develop, while the latter half of the sixteenth century witnessed the opening out of the several beds of thick fireclay in the Elland district for the manufacture of earthenware.

Bowls and Pie Dishes, Lindley Moor Potteries, Salendine Nook

One of the most interesting of these developments took place at Salendine Nook, two miles to the west of Huddersfield. Here the rough rock forms a prominent feature at Longwood Edge and Lindley Moor, and at Salendine Nook it is overlain by a thick bed of fireclay together with a thin coal seam. The coal, though seldom more than a few inches thick, is remarkably persistent. Known in the Bradford district as the Cottingley Crow Coal, and in the vicinity of Sheffield as the Pot Clay Coal, it appears to be a continuous seam throughout the Yorkshire coalfield. A thick bed of fireclay resting directly on the massive rough rock invariably underlies it, and in the Sheffield district it has been highly prized for the manufacture of refractory goods. It contains a high percentage of alumina, and in some localities strongly resembles bauxite. At Salendine Nook it is a very pure clay and was worked for the manufacture of earthenware. These workings were originally opened out by a Scottish family of the name of Morton, who were driven from Scotland by the persecution of the Protestants about the time of the accession of Queen Elizabeth. Being potters by trade they settled down at Salendine Nook, mining the fireclay underlying the pot Clay coal, and establishing a pottery there. These were staffed in part by their fellow-countrymen, and also in part by workmen introduced from Staffordshire. For the past three hundred years the industry has been regularly carried on by the same family, and it is still being worked by their descendants.

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