Showing posts with label 19th Century. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 19th Century. Show all posts
Saturday, 19 January 2019
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
The Meadow Lane Memorial
At the Leeds Bridge end of Meadow Lane, beside the forecourt of a petrol station, stands a stone tablet upon which is affixed a commemorative plaque. Although it does not refer to Beeston, it provides interest for those who can make the connection.
Over the years Meadow Lane has seen many changes, not least in recent times. Even the line of the road has been altered towards the Leeds Bridge end and it has been widened beyond recognition since the days when Beeston Bar, the toll gate on the turnpike route through Beeston to Morley and beyond, stood there.
There were houses, of course, some of them buildings of importance, for this was an important road leading to the junction with Hunslet Lane which is now reduced to the rank of a bus bay. Here all traffic from south of the river was funnelled towards the only bridge over the River Aire. At the close of the seventeenth century, when Thomas Kitchingman chose to build a house near here, it was also a desirable place to live. His house was behind the petrol station where Tetley's boundary fence now stands.
So, what of the link with Beeston? Well, as you may read in 'The Manor of Beeston', Thomas Kitchingman was the man who became Lord of the manor of Beeston upon the purchase of Beeston Hall, Cottingley Hall and Stank Hall in 1712. There are two plaques on the stone tablet; the inscriptions are reproduced in full here:
Over the years Meadow Lane has seen many changes, not least in recent times. Even the line of the road has been altered towards the Leeds Bridge end and it has been widened beyond recognition since the days when Beeston Bar, the toll gate on the turnpike route through Beeston to Morley and beyond, stood there.
There were houses, of course, some of them buildings of importance, for this was an important road leading to the junction with Hunslet Lane which is now reduced to the rank of a bus bay. Here all traffic from south of the river was funnelled towards the only bridge over the River Aire. At the close of the seventeenth century, when Thomas Kitchingman chose to build a house near here, it was also a desirable place to live. His house was behind the petrol station where Tetley's boundary fence now stands.
So, what of the link with Beeston? Well, as you may read in 'The Manor of Beeston', Thomas Kitchingman was the man who became Lord of the manor of Beeston upon the purchase of Beeston Hall, Cottingley Hall and Stank Hall in 1712. There are two plaques on the stone tablet; the inscriptions are reproduced in full here:
MATERIALS OF THIS MEMORIAL ARE FROM THE HALL WHICH STOOD AT THE CORNER OF HUNSLET LANE AND SOUTH BROOKE STREET. IT WAS BUILT BY ALDERMAN THOMAS KITCHINGMAN, MAYOR OF LEEDS IN 1688 AND 1705. ALDERMAN JOHN BROOKE WHO WAS MAYOR IN 1736 AND 1754, AND OTHER 'LEEDS WORTHIES' LIVED THERE.
ON 23rd JANUARY 1643 A 'SCONCE' RAISED IN THIS VICINITY BY ROYALIST SOLDIERS UNDER SIR WILLIAM SAVILE WAS STORMED BY THE PARLIAMENTARIANS WITH SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX, WHO OCCUPIED THE TOWN.
THE RIVER OVERFLOWED IN OCTOBER 1775 AND FEBRUARY 1795 AND ON THE 16th NOVEMBER 1866 WATER WAS ABOUT 2 FEET DEEP ON THIS SITE. IN 1872 THE 14th CENTURY FOUR ARCH STONE BRIDGE WAS REPLACED.
-----------------------------------------
ERECTED IN 1933 BY THE ANGLO-AMERICAN OIL COMPANY LIMITED AND UNVEILED BY THE LORD MAYOR, ALDERMAN R H BLACKBURN JP.
___________________________________________________________
THIS PLAQUE WAS UNVEILED BY THE LORD MAYOR OF LEEDS COUNCILLOR ALAN S PEDLEY DFC ON OCTOBER 2nd 1975, AFTER RE-SITING
Monday, 14 June 2010
The Heart of Old Beeston
There are Beestoners and Beeston Linnets. Annie Benge is a Beestoner. She brings to these pages a lifetime of experience that only one born and bred in Beeston can tell and in the process explains the difference between those two qualifications.
Readers may be interested to have some background knowledge as to what old Beeston was like before most of the old property was demolished by Leeds Corporation in the 1950s - a heartbreaking time for many old people who had to be re-housed in other parts of Leeds/
From 1901 to 1917 my father, a shoe repairer, occupied a small wooden lock-up shop (one of four shops) which were sited where now is the frontage of the working men's club. In 1917 he moved to 3 Town Street / 5 Webster Fold, a shop formerly occupied by Mr Roberts, a tailor. From 1917 to 1956 father carried on as a shoe repairer. In 1956 this property was demolished and during the last few years there he attended to Leeds United football boots and running shoes.
These stone-fronted cottages ran from Old Lane to Town Street. The electricity sub-station was built in what used to be a farmyard and was just behind the first cottage - the sub-station still stands, although clad in new brickwork to form a bridge in the passageway beside the Co-op. The farmyard belonged to Mrs "Farmer Wood who lived on the other side of Old Lane in a little white-washed cottage below the level of the road.
When I was a small child in our early days at No.3, stables adjoined our shop and ran parallel with Town Street. I well remember hearing the horses stamping and neighing when things were quiet at night. These stables were set back a little from Town Street and were hidden from the street by hoardings.
The hoardings and stables were pulled down in the 1920s when Beeston Picture House was built, and later a garage and billiards hall covered most of the old farmyard site. A row of lock-up shops between our shop and the Picture House completed the development. Before the farmyard and stables disappeared, in the farmyard was a garage for a Crawford's Biscuits delivery van.
In Roger Row, off Town Street at the far end of the Co-op, a woman and her son used to make brushes. In front of Roger Row was Amblers Printing Works, a small family business with house adjoining and a pretty garden; I well remember as a small child a summer-house with rambler roses climbing round it. I believe there was originally a large farmhouse somewhere near Amblers and a pond near Back Lane.
Parallel to St Anthony's Drive was Taylor's Laundry, approached from Mill Fold. At the junction of Old Lane and Town Street were two red brick cottages and hoardings. One cottage faced Webster Fold Cottages and was occupied by Paddy Mills who for years was caretaker and bell ringer at St. Anthony's Church.
Beeston was well served by a variety of good private shops- and even had two Co-ops! Leeds Co-op and Butcher's Shop was beyond the White Hard and Beeston Co-op was opposite Beeston Hall which was where the Oldroyd Estate is now situated.
Public services included a good and frequent tram service. This was a railway station and a Police Station opposite the old school with policemen who walked their beats - no patrol cars then.
Churches and chapels swerved our religious needs. Beeston Parish Church of St Mary replaces an earlier building ad was reconsecrated in 1886; this has been a religious site since at least the thirteenth century. St Anthony's Church in Old Lane was built in 1904 to give a permanent home for Roman Catholicism in the village. There was a Methodist Chapel in Chapel Fold until the new Chapel was built in Town Street, the foundation stone of which was laid on Whit Tuesday, 1865, and the chapel opened on 30th July 1866. The Primitive Methodist Chapel was almost opposite Beeston School and I seem to remember it being in use in 1945.
The Methodist Cricket and Tennis clubs were in a field behind Ivy Cottage, Town Street and alongside Back Lane opposite what is now Thackray's. The 1939-1945 war put an end to this. Much of the social life centred round the churches and chapels, their dramatic societies, concerts, guilds, socials, etc.
To be called an Old Beestoner one must have been born here. A Beeston Linnet is one who was born in the old village, beyond Old Lane. I am an Old Beestoner but do not qualify to be a Linnet. I wonder how many readers can say they are true Beestoners - or even Beeston Linnets!
Readers may be interested to have some background knowledge as to what old Beeston was like before most of the old property was demolished by Leeds Corporation in the 1950s - a heartbreaking time for many old people who had to be re-housed in other parts of Leeds/
From 1901 to 1917 my father, a shoe repairer, occupied a small wooden lock-up shop (one of four shops) which were sited where now is the frontage of the working men's club. In 1917 he moved to 3 Town Street / 5 Webster Fold, a shop formerly occupied by Mr Roberts, a tailor. From 1917 to 1956 father carried on as a shoe repairer. In 1956 this property was demolished and during the last few years there he attended to Leeds United football boots and running shoes.
These stone-fronted cottages ran from Old Lane to Town Street. The electricity sub-station was built in what used to be a farmyard and was just behind the first cottage - the sub-station still stands, although clad in new brickwork to form a bridge in the passageway beside the Co-op. The farmyard belonged to Mrs "Farmer Wood who lived on the other side of Old Lane in a little white-washed cottage below the level of the road.
When I was a small child in our early days at No.3, stables adjoined our shop and ran parallel with Town Street. I well remember hearing the horses stamping and neighing when things were quiet at night. These stables were set back a little from Town Street and were hidden from the street by hoardings.
The hoardings and stables were pulled down in the 1920s when Beeston Picture House was built, and later a garage and billiards hall covered most of the old farmyard site. A row of lock-up shops between our shop and the Picture House completed the development. Before the farmyard and stables disappeared, in the farmyard was a garage for a Crawford's Biscuits delivery van.
In Roger Row, off Town Street at the far end of the Co-op, a woman and her son used to make brushes. In front of Roger Row was Amblers Printing Works, a small family business with house adjoining and a pretty garden; I well remember as a small child a summer-house with rambler roses climbing round it. I believe there was originally a large farmhouse somewhere near Amblers and a pond near Back Lane.
Parallel to St Anthony's Drive was Taylor's Laundry, approached from Mill Fold. At the junction of Old Lane and Town Street were two red brick cottages and hoardings. One cottage faced Webster Fold Cottages and was occupied by Paddy Mills who for years was caretaker and bell ringer at St. Anthony's Church.
Beeston was well served by a variety of good private shops- and even had two Co-ops! Leeds Co-op and Butcher's Shop was beyond the White Hard and Beeston Co-op was opposite Beeston Hall which was where the Oldroyd Estate is now situated.
Public services included a good and frequent tram service. This was a railway station and a Police Station opposite the old school with policemen who walked their beats - no patrol cars then.
Churches and chapels swerved our religious needs. Beeston Parish Church of St Mary replaces an earlier building ad was reconsecrated in 1886; this has been a religious site since at least the thirteenth century. St Anthony's Church in Old Lane was built in 1904 to give a permanent home for Roman Catholicism in the village. There was a Methodist Chapel in Chapel Fold until the new Chapel was built in Town Street, the foundation stone of which was laid on Whit Tuesday, 1865, and the chapel opened on 30th July 1866. The Primitive Methodist Chapel was almost opposite Beeston School and I seem to remember it being in use in 1945.
The Methodist Cricket and Tennis clubs were in a field behind Ivy Cottage, Town Street and alongside Back Lane opposite what is now Thackray's. The 1939-1945 war put an end to this. Much of the social life centred round the churches and chapels, their dramatic societies, concerts, guilds, socials, etc.
To be called an Old Beestoner one must have been born here. A Beeston Linnet is one who was born in the old village, beyond Old Lane. I am an Old Beestoner but do not qualify to be a Linnet. I wonder how many readers can say they are true Beestoners - or even Beeston Linnets!
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Beeston Station
Some thirty years have passed since we had a station in Beeston. Another thirty years before that Cyril Clark lived in the station house, so who better to recall the years between the wars when the railway was an integral part of village life?
My father was appointed Station Master at Beeston from a station in Lincolnshire in 1927. He remained and lived there for about six years till 1933 when we moved to Lofthouse.
I followed his footsteps on the railway. Within a year of leaving school saw me in 1932 as lad porter then telegraph lad at Ardsley LNER. 1936 saw me going to Lincolnshire as a signalman where I have remained ever since in the Boston district, the last thirty years as relief signalman from which position I retired four years ago after 48 years railway service.
I can well remember as a boy of twelve arriving at Beeston with father, grandfather, grandmother, my elder brother and two sisters and on alighting from the train taking my first sight of Yorkshire and of the station house. I was not very impressed with its black walls in the middle of the other station buildings on the Up Platform.
My bedroom was above the office and general waiting room. At about 5.30 am, after my first night, I was awakened by strange sounds and voices unlike any I had ever heard before. I looked out of the bedroom window and was amazed to see the platform full of miners in their clattering, wooden soled clogs going to the train which would take them to their respective collieries in the district and was further surprised at about 3 pm to see them returning with blackened dusty faces and clothes. (No baths, showers and changing rooms in those days!)
Breakfast time saw many people catching trains to Leeds for work, among them Mr Drury, the then station master at Leeds Central, who lived in a Station Road house high above the station in the hollow. The same people started returning on trains from 5 pm.
Saturdays saw hundreds of football fans arriving at Beeston to walk to Elland Road to watch Leeds United when playing at home. The waiting rooms and platform were so crowded whey they all returned to travel home after the match.
Later on I got to know very well Ernest Hart, that great Leeds and international player of the time, (along with his partner and right half, Willis Edwards) who also used the train to Beeston from his home and then walked to Elland Road on match and training days. After the match, while waiting for his train home, he would sit talking to me about the match etc.
Being railway minded, having lived all my short life on stations, it was not long before I became "part of the station" and big friends of all the staff.
There was Harry Cramm, dad's clerk, who lived in Old Lane, Jim and Walter the signalmen, porter Charlie Ingram from Leeds, John Capstick at Beeston, and a lad porter Clifford. Charlie later went to Leeds Central and was followed by Harry Fant from Morley. After the early morning trains Clifford used to load up his two wheeled parcel cart with parcels to deliver all round Beeston. On Saturdays and school holidays I often went with him to help and got to know a great many people in Beeston.
I also well remember that tragic day when the afternoon Kings Cross - Leeds express, coasting full speed on the falling gradient from Ardsley tunnel to within a couple of miles of Leeds, ploughed into the Beeston gang of platelayers working on the line between Beeston Junction and Beeston Station killing with terrible injuries either three of the five man gang, of five of seven; of which I can't quite remember.
I know the tragic scene of the accident shocked and upset father for weeks after. Being young I cannot remember the outcome of the ensuing enquiry and inquest into the fatalities, as to why the lookout man gave no warning and no one else saw or heard the approaching train.
In the winter when the lines were greasy father was often also called out to trains sticking on the sharp incline from Beeston Junction to the Tingley branch.
The goods yard dealt with all manner of goods, from coal for the merchants to waggons of shoddy manure from the mills and bones from the bone factory down the road being loaded and sent away. So with the goods yard, parcel and passenger traffic, Beeston in those days was a very busy little station.
My father was appointed Station Master at Beeston from a station in Lincolnshire in 1927. He remained and lived there for about six years till 1933 when we moved to Lofthouse.
I followed his footsteps on the railway. Within a year of leaving school saw me in 1932 as lad porter then telegraph lad at Ardsley LNER. 1936 saw me going to Lincolnshire as a signalman where I have remained ever since in the Boston district, the last thirty years as relief signalman from which position I retired four years ago after 48 years railway service.
I can well remember as a boy of twelve arriving at Beeston with father, grandfather, grandmother, my elder brother and two sisters and on alighting from the train taking my first sight of Yorkshire and of the station house. I was not very impressed with its black walls in the middle of the other station buildings on the Up Platform.
My bedroom was above the office and general waiting room. At about 5.30 am, after my first night, I was awakened by strange sounds and voices unlike any I had ever heard before. I looked out of the bedroom window and was amazed to see the platform full of miners in their clattering, wooden soled clogs going to the train which would take them to their respective collieries in the district and was further surprised at about 3 pm to see them returning with blackened dusty faces and clothes. (No baths, showers and changing rooms in those days!)
Breakfast time saw many people catching trains to Leeds for work, among them Mr Drury, the then station master at Leeds Central, who lived in a Station Road house high above the station in the hollow. The same people started returning on trains from 5 pm.
Saturdays saw hundreds of football fans arriving at Beeston to walk to Elland Road to watch Leeds United when playing at home. The waiting rooms and platform were so crowded whey they all returned to travel home after the match.
Later on I got to know very well Ernest Hart, that great Leeds and international player of the time, (along with his partner and right half, Willis Edwards) who also used the train to Beeston from his home and then walked to Elland Road on match and training days. After the match, while waiting for his train home, he would sit talking to me about the match etc.
Being railway minded, having lived all my short life on stations, it was not long before I became "part of the station" and big friends of all the staff.
There was Harry Cramm, dad's clerk, who lived in Old Lane, Jim and Walter the signalmen, porter Charlie Ingram from Leeds, John Capstick at Beeston, and a lad porter Clifford. Charlie later went to Leeds Central and was followed by Harry Fant from Morley. After the early morning trains Clifford used to load up his two wheeled parcel cart with parcels to deliver all round Beeston. On Saturdays and school holidays I often went with him to help and got to know a great many people in Beeston.
I also well remember that tragic day when the afternoon Kings Cross - Leeds express, coasting full speed on the falling gradient from Ardsley tunnel to within a couple of miles of Leeds, ploughed into the Beeston gang of platelayers working on the line between Beeston Junction and Beeston Station killing with terrible injuries either three of the five man gang, of five of seven; of which I can't quite remember.
I know the tragic scene of the accident shocked and upset father for weeks after. Being young I cannot remember the outcome of the ensuing enquiry and inquest into the fatalities, as to why the lookout man gave no warning and no one else saw or heard the approaching train.
In the winter when the lines were greasy father was often also called out to trains sticking on the sharp incline from Beeston Junction to the Tingley branch.
The goods yard dealt with all manner of goods, from coal for the merchants to waggons of shoddy manure from the mills and bones from the bone factory down the road being loaded and sent away. So with the goods yard, parcel and passenger traffic, Beeston in those days was a very busy little station.
Beeston Station was opened in 1860. It was built on the Great Northern line from Leeds through Tingley which was the Bradford, Wakefield and Leeds Railway at its incorporation in 1854. The Low Moor Company's ironworks was close by (opposite Stank Hall, this side of the Woodman) so a station in Beeston was a commercial necessity. The line passed from GNR ownership to LNER and British Railways before the station closed to passengers on 2nd March 1953. It remained as an occasional halt until it was dismantled early in the 1960s.
Tommy Wass's
Properly, it should be "The Tommy Wass Hotel" but I've never heard anyone call it that. Tommy Wass's it is and will continue to be; and Tommy Wass's it always has been, even before it was a pub. But why? Regulars should be able to tell you because there is a framed history of the house on the wall, signed W R Thorpe, December 1982. By kind permission of the management we are able to reproduce the text here.
The Tommy Wass wasn't always a pub; it was originally a farmhouse, and is named after my great-grandfather Thomas Wass. Like the sorcerers of old I will conjure up for you some visions of the past, so fill up your glasses and I will tell you the history of the house.
Let us go back to the early 19th century, just after the Napoleonic Wars, one Stephen Wass, a master carpenter and wheelwright, and then a single young man, came down from Easingwold to stay with his uncle William Wass, a linen draper who had come to live in Dewsbury some years earlier.
In 1820 Stephen Wass married Judith Locock, a farmer's daughter. They settled in Morley where Stephen followed his trade up to his death in 1868. Of their large family of eight sons (two died very young) and one daughter, Stephen trained his boys to the trade of carpenter and wheelwright, but only one son, John, remained in that trade. Most of the others became farmers like their forebears.
Thomas became a prosperous farmer and was well known in the district as Tommy Wass. By the early 1870s he had moved into this house which was new, and was a substantial farmhouse and he lived here and farmed the land around until his death in 1887; his wife Rachel having died a few years earlier. After his death he was followed by his son, Asa Wass, who remained here until around 1910. Asa had a brother also a farmer, who lived here for a time, as did other members of his family.
The land on which this house is built had belonged to the Church Commissioners, and there was covenant in the deeds which forbade the making, storage or sale of any alcoholic liquor.
Inside the house there is a well, which my mother told me was forty feet deep, and on the warmest of summer days gave up icy cold water. Adjoining the house were stables and cowsheds. Below this was Woodland House, Beech Cottage and Woodland Cottage, properties all owned by my maternal great-grandfather, Henry Wadsworth. His daughter married Asa Wass, and was my grandmother.
For a great many years Hunslet St. Peter's Church had a thriving cricket club and a tennis club, who rented a cricket field where Chatswood Avenue now stands, and tennis court adjoining Oakhurst Avenue from Tommy was. The players were also given the facility of using the house as a changing room, and during intervals the family supplied refreshments. The place very soon became known as the Refreshment Rooms, and that name stuck for many years.
Asa Wass lived nearby and died in 1924, but a lady called Mrs Iles and her daughter were now resident here, and had converted part of the house into a shop. In the late 1920's the former Melbourne Brewery Company bought the house and by some means got over the covenant, and converted it into a public house.
A name for the new pub was discussed, and an "old hand" at the Melbourne Brewery said, "Goodness me. Everybody knows that place as Tommy Wass's. That's the only name for it." The Wass family's consent for the use of the name was sought and eventually given. That is how it came to be known right to the present day as the Tommy Wass.
My family's personal connection ended a great many years ago, and there are no members of the Wass family in this area today, but we do feel a little pride in the fact that the one time farm house with which we once had a long association still carries the family name. Tommy Wass would be pleased with this. Let us drink to his memory. Good health.
Disaster at the Pit
Although Madelaine Jackson now lives in Pontefract she remembers her native Beeston with affection and comes "home" whenever a nostalgic visit is possible. She has good, family reasons to recall the tragic events described here.
By the gateway to St Mary's Cemetery in Beeston stands a monument. The inscription reads "In respectful memory of James Metcalfe, George Elliott and Benjamin Richardson, all of Beeston, who lost their lives in the accident at Park Pit on November 10th 1902. This monument was erected by the subscriptions of fellow townsmen and friends.
The monument, by its existence, commemorates more than the men who lost their lives. It is a tribute to the kind hearts and neighbourly ways of the people of Beeston who, in austere and difficult times, subscribed to this handsome and very costly memorial.
James Metcalfe was my great-grandfather. Generally believed to be a Dalesman by birth, he came to Leeds around 1875 with his Scottish wife Margaret. I believe they lived in Old Lane for a short time but very soon moved to Back Lane. They had three children, Ada Maggie, Mary and James.
Remnants of Back Lane can still be seen - only just - but in those days it was a busy thoroughfare. Tracing its course on an old map suggests that it ran behind the library and followed the course of St Anthony's Drive to where it meets Old Lane. The house was No.17 and there is a photograph of this house in "Pages from our Past" with a child called Pauline sitting on the steps.Sadly, Margaret died in childbirth in 1881 and it seems that the child did not survive either.
James remarried in 1883. His second wife was Mary Ann Parkinson, daughter of Joshua who seems to have been a neighbour. The family moved to No. 2 Back Lane and it appears that a widow by the name of Jane Kirkbright, a mild dealer, soon took over N. 17.
James was the son of a stonemason and had followed his father's profession. He could also turn his hand to other allied trades and so had obtained employment as a bricklayer at Beeston New Pit, also known as Park Pit.
On Monday 10th November 1902, at around 4 pm, James Metcalfe, George Elliott (of 11 Cross Flatts Crescent) and Benjamin Richardson (131 Town Street) were engaged in the task of placing the coping stones on the top of the brickwork at the head of the shaft. They had scaffolding across the top of the shaft and a crane was lifting the coping stones, each of which weighed between 10 and 15 hundredweights, into place. All three men were killed when one of these stones slipped from the clutch of the crane causing the scaffolding on which they were standing to collapse and all were thrown 470 feet down the shaft.
Margaret, James and Mary Ann are buried together quite close to the monument at St. Mary's. The sad legend beneath their names reads, "In the midst of life and happiness we are called away."
Park Pit was to claim another life on 15th April 1909 when Thomas Barker of Elland Road, who had worked for the company for 40 years, was apparently "filling coal in a cart, when he threw down his shovel and walked to the lower level round the shaft."
Soon after, a man working nearby heard a splash, as of something heavy falling into the sump below. On investigation Thomas Barker's body was discovered.
Park Pit was owned by the Low Moor Iron and Coal Company, as was much of Beeston village. The pit was sited in what is now Westland Road. It seems appropriate that some of its history should be told as the site is at present offered for sale (summer 1992) and all trace may disappear completely.
James Metcalfe's son, likewise James, also married a lady by the name of Mary Ann! She was the daughter of William and Jane Verity who lived with their seven daughters at 3 Back Lane. At the time of his daughter's marriage William was described as a greengrocer of 33 Town Street - a change of job for him since he was a coal miner when living at Back Lane.
James and Mary moved to Wesley Street and had eight children. He is the lamplighter whose life was so well described in "Pages from our Past". His daughter, Edna, who wrote that article, also wrote the history of Wesley Street in the same book. James' son, Arthur, was also a lamplighter and may well have been one of the last men to work in this capacity.
James and Mary married in 1905 at Beeston Methodist Chapel in Town Street and the witnesses at the wedding were James' sister, Ada Maggie ( who eventually went to Australia) and Samuel Elliott. I wonder if he was the son of George Elliott?
Ironically, James' other sister, Mary, married a gentleman by the name of Herbert Richardson. Benjamin Richardson was a single man, so the newspapers said at the time of the accident, but it may be that the long arm of coincidence has intertwined the three families by Mary marrying a brother or nephew. We may never know for sure - unless someone out there knows and wants to share the information with me!
By the gateway to St Mary's Cemetery in Beeston stands a monument. The inscription reads "In respectful memory of James Metcalfe, George Elliott and Benjamin Richardson, all of Beeston, who lost their lives in the accident at Park Pit on November 10th 1902. This monument was erected by the subscriptions of fellow townsmen and friends.
The monument, by its existence, commemorates more than the men who lost their lives. It is a tribute to the kind hearts and neighbourly ways of the people of Beeston who, in austere and difficult times, subscribed to this handsome and very costly memorial.
James Metcalfe was my great-grandfather. Generally believed to be a Dalesman by birth, he came to Leeds around 1875 with his Scottish wife Margaret. I believe they lived in Old Lane for a short time but very soon moved to Back Lane. They had three children, Ada Maggie, Mary and James.
Remnants of Back Lane can still be seen - only just - but in those days it was a busy thoroughfare. Tracing its course on an old map suggests that it ran behind the library and followed the course of St Anthony's Drive to where it meets Old Lane. The house was No.17 and there is a photograph of this house in "Pages from our Past" with a child called Pauline sitting on the steps.James remarried in 1883. His second wife was Mary Ann Parkinson, daughter of Joshua who seems to have been a neighbour. The family moved to No. 2 Back Lane and it appears that a widow by the name of Jane Kirkbright, a mild dealer, soon took over N. 17.
James was the son of a stonemason and had followed his father's profession. He could also turn his hand to other allied trades and so had obtained employment as a bricklayer at Beeston New Pit, also known as Park Pit.
On Monday 10th November 1902, at around 4 pm, James Metcalfe, George Elliott (of 11 Cross Flatts Crescent) and Benjamin Richardson (131 Town Street) were engaged in the task of placing the coping stones on the top of the brickwork at the head of the shaft. They had scaffolding across the top of the shaft and a crane was lifting the coping stones, each of which weighed between 10 and 15 hundredweights, into place. All three men were killed when one of these stones slipped from the clutch of the crane causing the scaffolding on which they were standing to collapse and all were thrown 470 feet down the shaft.
Margaret, James and Mary Ann are buried together quite close to the monument at St. Mary's. The sad legend beneath their names reads, "In the midst of life and happiness we are called away."
Park Pit was to claim another life on 15th April 1909 when Thomas Barker of Elland Road, who had worked for the company for 40 years, was apparently "filling coal in a cart, when he threw down his shovel and walked to the lower level round the shaft."
Soon after, a man working nearby heard a splash, as of something heavy falling into the sump below. On investigation Thomas Barker's body was discovered.
Park Pit was owned by the Low Moor Iron and Coal Company, as was much of Beeston village. The pit was sited in what is now Westland Road. It seems appropriate that some of its history should be told as the site is at present offered for sale (summer 1992) and all trace may disappear completely.
James Metcalfe's son, likewise James, also married a lady by the name of Mary Ann! She was the daughter of William and Jane Verity who lived with their seven daughters at 3 Back Lane. At the time of his daughter's marriage William was described as a greengrocer of 33 Town Street - a change of job for him since he was a coal miner when living at Back Lane.
James and Mary moved to Wesley Street and had eight children. He is the lamplighter whose life was so well described in "Pages from our Past". His daughter, Edna, who wrote that article, also wrote the history of Wesley Street in the same book. James' son, Arthur, was also a lamplighter and may well have been one of the last men to work in this capacity.
James and Mary married in 1905 at Beeston Methodist Chapel in Town Street and the witnesses at the wedding were James' sister, Ada Maggie ( who eventually went to Australia) and Samuel Elliott. I wonder if he was the son of George Elliott?
Ironically, James' other sister, Mary, married a gentleman by the name of Herbert Richardson. Benjamin Richardson was a single man, so the newspapers said at the time of the accident, but it may be that the long arm of coincidence has intertwined the three families by Mary marrying a brother or nephew. We may never know for sure - unless someone out there knows and wants to share the information with me!
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