Study Day - Mytholmroyd, September 2011

The South Pennine History Group, bringing together enthusiastic local historians from Hebden Bridge, Saddleworth and Marsden, held a highly successful study day at Mytholmroyd on Saturday 24th September.

More than eighty visitors had only to look from the windows of the Methodist Church Hall to see the typical landscape of the Pennine hills with its patterns of dry stone walls. It was the formation of this landscape and its links to the enclosure movement that was the focus of the study day, hosted by the Hebden Bridge Local History Society.

Where the enclosure of moors and commons took place by act of Parliament it was often a cause of dispute, but left an unmistakeable mark with new stone walls checkering the previously open moorland hills. Professor David Hey, who has written many books about the history and landscape of Yorkshire, provided an overview of the processes involved and the results of such enclosures in the Pennines.

To those who unfamiliar with the Pennines, such as 19th century journalist A B Reach, the moors could be seen as 'high naked and sterile', but Alan Petford, local historian and lecturer, revealed the richness of the resources offered by the moors, from millstones to heather besoms, and from peat for fuel to pasturage for sheep and cattle. The open moorlands were also used for sport – horse racing and cock fighting as well as grouse shooting. High they may have been, these moorlands were neither naked nor sterile.

Local historians studying local parliamentary enclosures added more detail to the broad picture. Sheila Graham described how the parliamentary act was a last resort after years of dispute as landowners independently took in land from the common, eventually angering those who felt they were not getting their fair share. Minute books kept by the landowners of Stansfield, and the enclosure commissioners in Ovenden provide a real insight into the processes involved in enclosure. Richard Comber focused on the small enclosure of Shipley, which still shows the hand of the encloser in the roads that made it such an attractive place for development in the nineteenth century. Another fascinating notebook kept by farmer William Longbottom of Sutton in Craven, was explored by Paul Longbottom, revealing the day to day work of transforming the rough land awarded by the enclosure into worthwhile farmland.

Finally expert in vernacular architecture David Cant explored the kinds of buildings that appeared on the enclosure lands – ranging from laith house barns to the spectacular ambition of Castle Carr.

The South Pennine History group has big ambitions too – they will be co-operating to transcribe and explore wills and inventories from 1400 to 1750. In Hebden Bridge history has a bright future!

The Hebden Bridge Local History Society runs a series of lectures through the winter and spring details are on the website and in local libraries.