Birstwith in its earliest days would not have been a village as we know it today. The word Birstwith denoted a township, covering a larger area than the current village which bears its name, the township consisting of small isolated hamlets. The very earliest history of human occupation of Birstwith, in fact all of Nidderdale, is extremely sketchy. The earliest local artefacts found around Birstwith are Neolithic axes.
The name Birstwith is believed to be of Norse origin, Byr-stath, meaning farm stead. Other local names are of similar derivation
A map of name origins can be found in the map appendix.
It is apparent from the list of place names that the Nidderdale area must have been settled by the ancient Britons, the Anglo Saxons, the Norse and the Danes at various times in its early history.
Before the Norman Conquest most of the Nidderdale area was under the control of five landowners: King Edward the Confessor, Gospatric, Gamelbar, Merlesuan and Archill. The distribution of their estates is shown on map Figure 56. Hampsthwaite and Birstwith were under the control of Gamelbar whilst Felliscliffe is under the control of King Edward. Part of Birstwith is also under the control of Gospatric, lord of Kirkby Malzeard.
The Norman Conquest, and in particular the Northumbrian rebellion which was suppressed in 1069, led to sweeping changes in ownership of the land. Gamelbar's estates were given to Gislebert Tison and William de Percy. Many estates were laid waste, ie raised to the ground, after the Northumbrian rebellion, Birstwith being listed as wasted in the map of Figure 57.
At sometime between the Domesday book (1086) and 1167 the Forest of Knaresborough was formed which covered the areas of
The word 'forest' in this context refers largely to hunting land and rights, rather than large scale wooded areas.
In the early middle ages most land was held by tenancy and the land cleared and farmed by the tenant farmers. The clearance of land slowed with the Great Plague and practically ceased between 1360 and the sixteenth century. By the early sixteenth century most of the land in the Birstwith area had been enclosed.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries woollen looms started to appear in Birstwith, with linen looms in Felliscliffe and Hampsthwaite. There were woollen looms in Kettlesing during the sixteenth century but they disappeared by the mid seventeenth century. Looms would be small in number per domestic location, this pre-dating the industrial revolution.
In the 1790’s Messrs Arthington and Blessard built a cotton mill at Wreaks in Birstwith. The mill was adjacent to an existing corn mill, a common practice that had occurred in West End in 1791. The original corn mill was erected in 1596 at a place originally known as Clynts Wreaks in lieu of an even older one which had stood on Tang Beck near Hampsthwaite. In 1803 the cotton mill had 1400 spindles and employed 150 workers, including 36 on a night shift. The mill was badly run according to John Hannam (who had worked at the mill and gave evidence to 2 parliamentary inquiries into factory conditions in 1832 and 1833) , partly because the overlookers did not understand the work very well. Blessard sold out to a Mr Willett who went bankrupt after a few years. John Greenwood bought the mill in 1805 and ran it in partnership with William Ellis. The mill remained in the Greenwood family for over half a century. The American civil war caused a cotton famine which eventually closed Wreaks Mill.
Coal mining had been undertaken at Swarcliffe from at least 1743 according to the Hampsthwaite parish records. Coal mining was practiced near Megyate from about 1820 but the quality was indifferent. In 1830 three shafts were dug and an engine put up but the enterprise failed.
Before 1827 the main access to Birstwith was from the Skipton Road down the church bank to the village green. The road to Hampsthwaite was opened up from being a track. In 1821 the Hampsthwaite road was improved to take a horse drawn hearse and by 1897 it was given passing places in commemoration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.
The road from Clint continued into Nidd Lane with just a track leading down to a ford at Wreaks Mill. Wreaks bridge was built in 1811. Upstream, at Newbridge or the Packhorse, there was a wooden structure and the present stone bridge was built in 1820 and is still called Newbridge.
The railway did not reach Birstwith until May 1st 1862, work having started on the line in September 1860. There were four trains a day. The arrival of the railway made coal cheaper and contributed to the demise of the small scale coal mining activity around the Birstwith area. However by March 31st 1951 the railway closed to passangers and closed completely by 1965.
John Greenwood owned a mill at Keighley. In 1805 he bought Swarcliffe, the cotton mill and the corn mill that was on the same site at Wreaks, both powered by the river Nidd. Greenwood quickly enlarged the estate and bought more property in the village. The population was some 700 (similar to today) with most work in the two mills and some in the local coal mines. This coal was used in the gas works which were built in 1820 to provide lighting in the cotton mill. The cotton mill and the gas works closed in 1864 when cotton spinning concentrated into large Lancashire mills. It was to be another 50 years before gas was piped from Harrogate.
Soon after the arrival of the Greenwoods, social pressures mounted that more should be done to improve the lot of workers. A school was built by John Greenwood in 1814 near his mill at Wreaks, although it does not appear to have had endowed income. An inquiry into the state of education in 1833 showed that the 50 children at Wreaks school were all paying fees of the order of 2 or 3 pence per week. The local medical officer Edward Warburton found in 1873 that the the houses at Wreaks concealed “some of the most vile and filthy places” in the dale. There was the nearby example of Ingleby building the model village at Ripley and, of course, Sir Titus Salt creating Saltaire. These trends were to influence the actions of the Greenwoods and the future nature of Birstwith.
The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 provided for the establishments of unions of parishes to administer poor relief, under the control of elected Boards of Guardians. The Pateley Bridge Union was set up in 1837 which Birstwith joined.
John Greenwood was a Wesleyan and he went to services held in Wesley Cottage in the Allotments. Soon, he built a chapel on Darley Road. Later, in 1855, this was to be used for the village school, displacing the earlier school, and for Anglican services conducted by the Curate the Rev Charles. Longley until St James’s was completed in 1857. The chapel was demolished by Frederick Greenwood in 1879. The Wesleyans found a site for their new chapel outside the Greenwood estate along the Kettlesing road beyond Clapham Green.
John Greenwood died in 1846 after which his eldest son Frederick took over the Keighley estates and his second son Edwin took over Swarcliffe. Edwin rebuilt the Hall to a new design by M. Rhode Hawkins Esq, the man who was to design St James’s church, but died shortly afterwards in 1852.
John, Frederick’s son, then came to live at Swarcliffe. He was another remarkable man. He became an MP, was renowned for good work and had prompted his father to endow Birstwith Church.
In 1711 John Richmond, a yeoman of Skelding, bequeathed in his will monies to provide a free school at West Syke Green for all boys under the age of twenty living in Felliscliffe or Birstwith.
Before 1817 there would appear to have been little education in the village itself. The first “little school on the hill” ,which was later to be used as a Sunday School by Frederick’s son John, was founded opposite the present site of the church. It was funded by subscription and managed by trustees : - John Greenwood (snr), the Vicar of Hampsthwaite the Rev. Timothy Shann and William Houseman of Clint. In 1846 the school moved to the corn mill and in 1855 it moved again to the Wesleyan Chapel on Darley Road, where it remained until the present school and school house were built by Frederick Greenwood in 1879. In 1902 a new infants classroom was added by Capt. Greenwood and a further classroom added by public donation in 1998.
The “Reading Room”, opposite the school, was built by Capt. Greenwood in 1897 as his Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee gift to the parish.
In 1856-7 Frederick Greenwood built St. James's church, after overriding the opposition of Thomas Shan, vicar of Hampsthwaite. The church was designed by M. Rhode Hawkins. He was the son-in-law of Frederick Greenwood and architect to the Privy Council Office. He used a 13th - 14th century Gothic style with a tall slender spire. Stone for the building came from the Moss Quarry and finer stone for windows and carvings was obtained from a Greenwood property in Warsill. The church was consecrated on August 2nd 1857 by the Right Rev. Robert Bickerstaff, Bishop of Ripon, and dedicated to St. James the Apostle.
In 1883 the oak reredos was given to the Chapel of Ease at Burnt Yates and replaced by the current one of alabaster and glass mosaic which was presented by Mrs Rhode Hawkins who was John Greenwood’s sister. The mosaic was designed by Charles Hargrave and made by Powell and Son of Whitefriars and the alabaster was carved by Messrs. White of Kennington Park.
In 1907, Capt. Greenwood gave the tiles that cover the walls on both sides of the reredos as a gift for the church's golden jubilee . The tiles were again the work of Powell and Son.
The Choir Vestry was added in 1892 (one source says 1894) by subscription of the whole parish in memory of John Dury of The Moss .
Methodism also had a strong following in the area. The Methodist Chapel at Kettlesing has particular associations with the Marston family. There has been a chapel, capable of accommodating 200 worshippers, at Kettlesing from as early as 1800. By 1930 the construction of a new chapel costing £2,500 was started. The construction had been planned from as early as 1911 with funds being raised by the proceeds of 428 sewing evenings. The cutting of the first sod at the new chapel site was noted in the local press (see appendix) in March 1930. By May of the same year the 29 foundation stones were laid. Among those laying the stones were Miss Hilda Marston and Master Eric Marston.
In 1931 thirty five golden tiles were laid under the Mrs Harper memorial window of the chapel. The tiles carried the initials of the donors. Amongst the layers of the tiles were Audrey Marston, daughter of Herbert Robinson Marston, and Gwendoline Wroe, daughter of Annie Wroe nee Marston.
The chapel opened for weddings in 1933, although the chapel was used as the back ground for the wedding photos of Frank and Eileen Marston as early as 1931.
George Marston (1871-1949) had been a keen activist attached to the new chapel. He had been a member of the Methodist choir for 52 years, a Sunday School teacher and superintendent for 50 years, the Sunday School secretary and treasurer for 28 years, and Society Steward for 20 years. Before George Marston, Edward Marston had been secretary and steward of the Sunday School, located opposite the new chapel.
In June 1853 workmen digging foundations found 2 cwt of copper coins perporting to come from the reign of Charles I. The coins have since been deemed by experts to be forgeries.
The population of the area in the Victorian era increased because of the early industrial activity, however it declined in the middle of the nineteenth century. This population decline is mirrored by the migrations of our third and fourth generation ancestors. The population levels for Birstwith and the overall UK are shown below.
|
|
1801 |
1811 |
1821 |
1831 |
1841 |
1851 |
1861 |
1871 |
1881 |
1891 |
1901 |
1911 |
|
Birstwith |
630 |
694 |
621 |
747 |
676 |
630 |
655 |
570 |
490 |
474 |
482 |
490 |
|
UK millions |
10.5 |
12 |
14 |
16 |
18.5 |
21 |
23 |
26 |
30 |
33 |
37 |
41 |
Population Statistics
