BRACEWELL VILLAGE 3
Posted: 25 May 2012, 08:34
BRACEWELL VILLAGE 3
We left the village last week in 1874/75 when Hopwood appears to have sold the hall and estate to a Mr Riley of Richmond of whom I know very little. I have a reference stating that Thomas Fawcett Riley of Ewood Hall, Mytholmroyd (died December 1928 aged 68) was part owner of the Bracewell Estate where he is said to have entertained many of his friends.
In 1931 there was another development at the hall and a detailed report in the Craven Herald for Jan 2nd 1931 gives us some clues.
'Bracewell Hall has been leased from the executors of the late Mr Thomas Fawcett Riley by Albert Smith 7 Ings Avenue Barnoldswick and his brother Hugh Smith of Glynn Rhondda on Greenberfield Lane. The brothers and their families are to live at the hall and develop it as a leisure attraction offering tennis, boating, miniature golf and dances. The hall has been empty for almost 30 years but is said to be in surprisingly good condition. The great hall is over 60 feet long as is panelled in pitch pine and there are twenty rooms on the second storey. Built in the Scottish Baronial style in 1869 by J T Hopwood at a cost of over £50,000 the hall then passed to the Riley Family of Richmond. It was used as a private school for boys for many years and was so successful that it had to move to larger premises'.
We have a further clue in William Parkinson Atkinson's History of Barnoldswick where he notes '1850. Bracewell Boarding School. Under the tuition of the Rev. Thomas Hayes, Vicar, sent forth several good scholars, including Clergymen, and also the late Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Sir Ralph Copeland, who held that eminent position on Colton Hill Edinburgh before the observatory was removed to outside the City on Black-man Hill, where he died a few years ago. Mr. Copeland was a native of Shropshire and cousin to his first wife, Miss Susannah Milner of the Vicarage, Barnoldswick'. Over the years I have found Atkinson to be very accurate but there is an obvious problem with the date, 1850. The hall hadn't been rebuilt then. Either Atkinson has the wrong date or the Craven Herald report is wrong in that the school, while at Bracewell, may have not been in the hall. Work in progress I think but at least you know as much as I do!
There was another school in Bracewell of course, the village school opposite the church in what is now the Institute. When I interviewed Harold Duxbury for the Lancashire Textile Project he told me “From there (Carrs House) we went to Bracewell School which is now the institute opposite the church. The teacher was a Mrs Watson and she lived in the top house at Park Road. On the long row, the little small houses. They called her husband Walter Watson. And she walked from there down to Bracewell. She could walk! She couldn't half leg it! She did it for years and there was one class from bottom to top”. This would be around 1910.
Again from the LTP interviews, Arthur Entwistle was a mine of information about the Smith Brothers Country Club as he ran a dance band in the 1930s and they played regularly at the hall. He told me that Hugh and Albert Smith were both tacklers at Edmondson's at Fernbank Shed. Hugh, the youngest left the mill and went to the hall full-time. Albert kept his job as a tackler but was a full partner. Emma Clarke (LTP) told me that she danced regularly there at that time. She described the boating lake and tennis courts and said that the lawn on the lakeside was a favourite spot for picnicking whilst sat there looking at the view. The club was a success but the outbreak of war in 1939 closed it down. We'll look at what happened then next week but let's have a diversion, there are other interesting things in the village besides the hall.
Bracewell had a manorial corn mill. Here's a description from my research notes; 'Bracewell Corn mill. (SD862491). Site visited and watercourses walked by SCG in May 1984. The site was first identified by me from the 1717 Plan of Bracewell held in the Lancashire Record Office at Preston. (DX 16q/1) and the First Ed. OS of 1853 gave further clues. The present day layout is confused by several factors. The Stock Beck has almost cut into the line of the race about 100 yards west of the site of the weir on the beck just before you enter the village coming from Barlick. The original site of the weir was identified by the 1853 6” map and the lie of the land. Fragments of stonework are visible in the north bank of the beck and there is evidence of retaining banks in the field on the North side. The race follows the field boundaries from the weir right down to the mill site but further confusion can be experienced by the fact that the course of the Flush Beck has been cleaned out and the flow in the head race reversed from its junction with the Flush Beck at Hall Lane. A new watercourse has been formed from the point where Flush Beck now meets Hall Lane down to the Stock Beck. This may of course follow the course of an original by-wash but on the whole I think that if there was one it would have been on the east side of Hall Lane. There is a water filled dyke running down to the beck from that point and one would suppose that the original construction would have been made in such a way to avoid any bursting pressure on the culvert under Hall Lane. The goit is heavily banked for most of its course and runs into the bottom beck. Another source of confusion here is the fact that the Stock Beck has changed its course and recent drainage works have been carried out to empty the bottom beck into the Stock Beck at a point 150 yards upstream of the original outlet. If the original course of the goit is followed it opens out into a clearly defined dam and the site of the clow can be seen. Directly below the clow there is a depression which must be the remains of the wheel-pit. The tail race is clearly defined beyond this point to its original exit into the Stock Beck. The outline of the foundations are clear and coincide with the shape shown on the First Edition 6” OS map. There are two millstones laid inside the perimeter of the footings and a fragment near the exit of the tail race from the mill. In the wall which runs down to the beck, which was probably built from the remnants of the mill are dressed stones, 17th C brick and stones which look as though they have been subjected to heat suggesting that the mill may have been destroyed by fire. There is a roadbed running from the site northwards to the field boundary where it passes between two stone gateposts and turns east. The road can be clearly distinguished right through to its junction with the main road at Yarlside.
Now there's a nice walk for you on a pleasant afternoon!
Enjoying the sun by the lake at the hall in the 1930s.
We left the village last week in 1874/75 when Hopwood appears to have sold the hall and estate to a Mr Riley of Richmond of whom I know very little. I have a reference stating that Thomas Fawcett Riley of Ewood Hall, Mytholmroyd (died December 1928 aged 68) was part owner of the Bracewell Estate where he is said to have entertained many of his friends.
In 1931 there was another development at the hall and a detailed report in the Craven Herald for Jan 2nd 1931 gives us some clues.
'Bracewell Hall has been leased from the executors of the late Mr Thomas Fawcett Riley by Albert Smith 7 Ings Avenue Barnoldswick and his brother Hugh Smith of Glynn Rhondda on Greenberfield Lane. The brothers and their families are to live at the hall and develop it as a leisure attraction offering tennis, boating, miniature golf and dances. The hall has been empty for almost 30 years but is said to be in surprisingly good condition. The great hall is over 60 feet long as is panelled in pitch pine and there are twenty rooms on the second storey. Built in the Scottish Baronial style in 1869 by J T Hopwood at a cost of over £50,000 the hall then passed to the Riley Family of Richmond. It was used as a private school for boys for many years and was so successful that it had to move to larger premises'.
We have a further clue in William Parkinson Atkinson's History of Barnoldswick where he notes '1850. Bracewell Boarding School. Under the tuition of the Rev. Thomas Hayes, Vicar, sent forth several good scholars, including Clergymen, and also the late Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Sir Ralph Copeland, who held that eminent position on Colton Hill Edinburgh before the observatory was removed to outside the City on Black-man Hill, where he died a few years ago. Mr. Copeland was a native of Shropshire and cousin to his first wife, Miss Susannah Milner of the Vicarage, Barnoldswick'. Over the years I have found Atkinson to be very accurate but there is an obvious problem with the date, 1850. The hall hadn't been rebuilt then. Either Atkinson has the wrong date or the Craven Herald report is wrong in that the school, while at Bracewell, may have not been in the hall. Work in progress I think but at least you know as much as I do!
There was another school in Bracewell of course, the village school opposite the church in what is now the Institute. When I interviewed Harold Duxbury for the Lancashire Textile Project he told me “From there (Carrs House) we went to Bracewell School which is now the institute opposite the church. The teacher was a Mrs Watson and she lived in the top house at Park Road. On the long row, the little small houses. They called her husband Walter Watson. And she walked from there down to Bracewell. She could walk! She couldn't half leg it! She did it for years and there was one class from bottom to top”. This would be around 1910.
Again from the LTP interviews, Arthur Entwistle was a mine of information about the Smith Brothers Country Club as he ran a dance band in the 1930s and they played regularly at the hall. He told me that Hugh and Albert Smith were both tacklers at Edmondson's at Fernbank Shed. Hugh, the youngest left the mill and went to the hall full-time. Albert kept his job as a tackler but was a full partner. Emma Clarke (LTP) told me that she danced regularly there at that time. She described the boating lake and tennis courts and said that the lawn on the lakeside was a favourite spot for picnicking whilst sat there looking at the view. The club was a success but the outbreak of war in 1939 closed it down. We'll look at what happened then next week but let's have a diversion, there are other interesting things in the village besides the hall.
Bracewell had a manorial corn mill. Here's a description from my research notes; 'Bracewell Corn mill. (SD862491). Site visited and watercourses walked by SCG in May 1984. The site was first identified by me from the 1717 Plan of Bracewell held in the Lancashire Record Office at Preston. (DX 16q/1) and the First Ed. OS of 1853 gave further clues. The present day layout is confused by several factors. The Stock Beck has almost cut into the line of the race about 100 yards west of the site of the weir on the beck just before you enter the village coming from Barlick. The original site of the weir was identified by the 1853 6” map and the lie of the land. Fragments of stonework are visible in the north bank of the beck and there is evidence of retaining banks in the field on the North side. The race follows the field boundaries from the weir right down to the mill site but further confusion can be experienced by the fact that the course of the Flush Beck has been cleaned out and the flow in the head race reversed from its junction with the Flush Beck at Hall Lane. A new watercourse has been formed from the point where Flush Beck now meets Hall Lane down to the Stock Beck. This may of course follow the course of an original by-wash but on the whole I think that if there was one it would have been on the east side of Hall Lane. There is a water filled dyke running down to the beck from that point and one would suppose that the original construction would have been made in such a way to avoid any bursting pressure on the culvert under Hall Lane. The goit is heavily banked for most of its course and runs into the bottom beck. Another source of confusion here is the fact that the Stock Beck has changed its course and recent drainage works have been carried out to empty the bottom beck into the Stock Beck at a point 150 yards upstream of the original outlet. If the original course of the goit is followed it opens out into a clearly defined dam and the site of the clow can be seen. Directly below the clow there is a depression which must be the remains of the wheel-pit. The tail race is clearly defined beyond this point to its original exit into the Stock Beck. The outline of the foundations are clear and coincide with the shape shown on the First Edition 6” OS map. There are two millstones laid inside the perimeter of the footings and a fragment near the exit of the tail race from the mill. In the wall which runs down to the beck, which was probably built from the remnants of the mill are dressed stones, 17th C brick and stones which look as though they have been subjected to heat suggesting that the mill may have been destroyed by fire. There is a roadbed running from the site northwards to the field boundary where it passes between two stone gateposts and turns east. The road can be clearly distinguished right through to its junction with the main road at Yarlside.
Now there's a nice walk for you on a pleasant afternoon!
Enjoying the sun by the lake at the hall in the 1930s.
