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Also by Terry Spencer

The following studies by Terry Spencer are now available on the Knottingley website:

KNOTTINGLEY CARNIVAL
By the last quarter of the nineteenth century the August Bank Holiday period at Knottingley abounded in fun and frolic with the Feast as the hub of the festivities. The fair was supplemented by community sports and of the sporting element within the town none was more prominent than Knottingley Town Cricket Club.

KNOTTLA FLATTS:
Situated on the southern bank of the River Aire, to the north side of Aire Street, lies Knottingley Flatts. Today, the Flatts occupy only a small portion of the original layout which comprised the greater part of Knottingley Ings.

KNOTTLA FEAST:
The modern image of the fair is one of outdoor entertainment for pleasure seeking people but such a concept is one which has developed over the last two centuries being born as a result of the Industrial Revolution.

HOSPITAL SUNDAYS:
Prior to the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948 local people relied for health care in the event of sickness or serious injury upon charitable institutions such as Pontefract Dispensary and Leeds Infirmary.

KNOTTINGLEY COAT-OF-ARMS:
The application by Knottingley Urban District Council for a grant of arms was made to the College of Arms, London, in mid 1942.

FERRYBRIDGE GLASSWORKS:
That there was a glassworks at Ferrybridge is indisputable for it was both documented and photographed. That it was situated on the north bank of the River Aire "..where the Parish of Brotherton merges into the Parish of Ferrybridge" is confirmed by map reference. The doubt lies not in the existence or location of the furnace but with its origin.

NINETEENTH CENTURY KNOTTINGLEY:
The township of Knottingley, situated three miles north-east of Pontefract in the Wapentake of Osgoldcross, developed from a 6th century Saxon settlement in a forest clearing on the south bank of the river Aire. By the time of the Norman Conquest of 1066 the settlement had acquired the status of a manorial vill

KNOTTINGLEY PLAYING FIELDS:
As the process of industrialisation and urban development gained pace in the second half of the nineteenth century the provision of public spaces such as municipal gardens and parks for the purpose of public recreation and amenity became increasingly desirable.

CAPTAIN PERCY BENTLEY:
Percy Bentley, scion of a prominent Knottingley family, was born in that town on the 18th January 1891, the son of James William and Helena Bentley, and was baptised in the parish church of St. Botolph on the 11th February.

KNOTTINGLEY WAR MEMORIAL:
On Wednesday, 25th September 1918, a committee previously sanctioned by Knottingley Urban District Council in meeting assembled, met in the Council Chamber at Knottingley Town Hall to consider the form of memorial to the men who had fallen during the Great War.

FERRYBRIDGE WAR MEMORIAL:
No less than the citizens of its larger neighbour, the inhabitants of the village of Ferrybridge decided to honour those drawn from the community and slain in the Great War.

THE 'K' SISTERS:
For approximately a decade from the mid 1940's the 'K' Sisters, Marjorie and Pamela Kellett, were prominent throughout the town and district of Knottingley as all-round entertainers who harnessed their talent to providing public enjoyment and in so doing raised large amounts of money for local charities.

THE PALACE CINEMA:
The new cinema, one of the earliest purpose-built picture houses in the country, was situated on an oblique strip of land some 560 square yards in extent, adjacent to Ship Lane at the junction with lower Aire Street. The hall was designed to seat 600 people: 500 in the area and 100 in the balcony.

KNOTTINGLEY PUBLIC HOUSES & BREWERIES:
In 1752, eighteen residents of the township of Knottingley in company with John Mitchell, the Parish Constable, agreed to be bound over in the sum of £10 each to observe the legal and moral obligations attendant upon being granted a licence as an innkeeper.

KNOTTINGLEY TOWN HALL CLOCK:
In the Spring of 1994, the recently deceased and much lamented Edwin Beckett arranged for the installation of a clock at the top of the Town Hall turret. The event was celebrated in verse by Mrs Joyce Bell who concluded her eulogy by stating that her mother, Dolly Lightowler, had always wished to see a clock set in the "bare face" of the Town Hall - a wish which had now come true.

STATUE OF THE BLACK PRINCE:
Awareness of a link between my native Knottingley and the Prince's statue came quite recently when Mrs Shirley Bedford of Knottingley informed me that her great grandfather was the master of a barge which had transported the statue from Hull to Leeds in 1903.

KNOTTLA NICKNAMES:
It was in the course of a recent conversation with Roger Ellis that the subject of nicknames arose, following which, in an idle half-hour, I casually began to compile a list of those I recalled. My list quickly exceeded fifty in number and I was seized by a natural desire to list as many more as I could obtain.

KNOTTINGLEY SILVER BAND:
The origin of Knottingley Band is obscure. In 1980 the Band celebrated its conjectured centenary year, the date being taken from an old letterhead of 1880.  However, a subsequent documentary source has been located which indicates that the genesis of the Band may lie much further in the past.

KNOTTINGLEY TOWN HALL:
The burgeoning spirit of civic pride found practical expression on 29th October 1864, when a group of prominent citizens of the town formed the Knottingley Town Hall & Mechanics’ Institute Company Limited.

FIELD SYSTEMS AND PLACE NAMES OF OLD KNOTTINGLEY:
The purpose of this study is to consider the topography of modern day Knottingley and formulate a theoretical model concerning the development of the settlement during the medieval and post medieval eras as reflected in the field systems adopted.

GAZETTEER OF KNOTTINGLEY PLACE NAMES:
An A-Z listing of Knottingley field and place names.

LIME GROVE AND THE CARTER FAMILY
One of the most impressive and graceful houses ever built at Knottingley was Lime Grove. The large attached house was the residence of the Carter family and was built to the orders of Mark Carter at Mill Close, Hill Top, about 1808.

WAR SAVINGS WEEKS:
Conflict is fuelled by finance so it is unsurprising that following the outbreak of war in 1939, local savings committees were established to encourage people to curb personal expenditure and invest surplus cash in the National War Savings Scheme in order to assist the cost of the war.

SELECT VESTRY RIOTS 1874:
The township of Knottingley became a semi-autonomous parish in 1789 following the ecclesiastical reorganisation of that period but remaining under the patronage of the Vicar of Pontefract until it became an independent parish in 1846

 
Knottingley and Ferrybridge Local History

FIELD SYSTEMS AND PLACE NAMES
OF OLD KNOTTINGLEY


TERRY SPENCER B.A. (Hons), Ph D.

INTRODUCTION : BEGINNINGS : DOMESDAY : PORT OF KNOTTINGLEY :
MANORIAL RE-ORGANISATION

GAZETTEER OF PLACE NAMES

INDEX | A-B | C-D | E-F | G | H | I-J | K-L | M-N | O | P | Q-R | S | T-U | V-W | YARDS |

TANNERY The
Leather, together with wool and wood, was one of the three indispensable items in common usage and manufactured locally throughout the medieval and pre industrial eras. The production of leather was a lengthy process and required the use of much water and oak bark. The tannery at Knottingley was situated at the edge of the common, where wasteland trees and streams provided a natural resource for processing hide and in a location where the noxious smell of the process of manufacture would be at maximum distance from the local inhabitants.

TANNERS BAR CLOSE
A parcel of land in excess of two acres close to Low Green and located on the north side of South Moor Lane. The presence of nearby buildings, shown on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey Map, indicates a tannery abutting the entrance to the Common Lane situated on the site now occupied by Thistle ton farm. In the early nineteenth century the Tan Yard and croft were occupied by Charles Turner who leased the site from Philip Schofield.

TARRAN HOUSES
Prefabricated houses situated at Southfield Lane, Knottingley and Crewe Avenue, Ferrybridge. Built in response to the Temporary Housing Act immediately following the end of the Second World War, these pre-cast concrete, bolt together dwellings, described as the architectural equivalent of an instant dinner, were a temporary measure to alleviate the housing shortage of the period. Named after the designer, the dwellings were supposed to have a maximum utility of fifteen years but are still occupied almost sixty years later, many having been given a modernising facelift.

TEAZER TERRACE
Located in Marsh End, the name of this group of houses suggests a connection with the local glass industry for although the date, 1866, predates the establishment of the industry in Knottingley, it may reveal a connection with Ferrybridge Glassworks. A teaser prepared the ‘batch’ materials which provided the molten glass for working by the glassblower. The name ‘teazer’ arises from the function of the founder in skimming off the impurities from the molten metal which was achieved by dropping a turnip into the furnace which caused the impurities to rise to the surface for ease of removal.

TEMPERANCE HOUSE
A detached house situated in Womersley Road near the cemetery. Brick built in the late nineteenth century, the house is notable for the stone bearing a bass relief of the Temperance Movement badge situated above the door.

TEMPEST GARTH
Two acres of pastureland situated opposite Green House farm in Spawd Bone Lane.

TENTERS CLOSE / BALK
A reference to the area in which cloth-stretching frames were located, the cloth being hung on tenterhooks. Tenters Balk was situated on the south side of what is now the bottom end of Ropewalk, providing access to the said close. The site was subsequently occupied by the Methodist Chapel and the National School.

THORN BANK
An area of land slightly in excess of three acres on the edge of the South Field which probably takes its name from hawthorn trees on a balk or banking marking the field boundary and the adjacent rough land.

THORN TREE FLATTS
A series of single strip holdings of about 26-27 perches situated within the Middle Field and lying between middle Lane and Racca Field Lane. The area containing the Flatts was rich in limestone and extensively excavated from the mid nineteenth century. One strip, the ownership of which could not be identified, was left unexcavated and forms a ‘breasting’ or land barrier between the defuct Jacksons Quarry and the lime quarry formerly owned and worked by the late Mr. Jack Hargraves’ Knottingley Lime Co., until about 1962 and now the operational base for the Plasmor company.

THISTLETON CLOSE
The above site does not feature in the Enclosure Award Schedule but is listed in the town rate Books of the mid nineteenth century. It is probable that the close formed part of the holding situated at the Low Green end of Common Lane, known as Thistleton Farm. The close name is most likely based on the prevalence of thistles within or near its confines.

THROSTLE ROW
Not as may be thought named for the modern housing development but a reference to the medieval strips in part of Longlands Field in the great South Field close to its western extremity, hence the variant prefixes such as Near / Far / Little / Throstle Row. The name is derived from the Old English ‘ruh’ meaning rough arable or grassland and the bird element from the profusion of thrushes within the Longlands area. Following the abandonment of the open field system consolidation of elements of the common fields occurred and as a result the holding known today as Throstle Farm was established.

TITHE BARN / LANE
In the earliest period of Anglo-Christianity the church and clergy were maintained by offerings from the laity with one quarter being utilised for the personal support of the clergyman and the remainder used for the upkeep of the church fabric and alms for the poor. At an indeterminate date the system became regularised as a tithe which consisted of payment by all inhabitants of one tenth of all the produce of the land. Following the reorganisation of the parishes in the twelfth century each parish had its own vicar or curate to whom such annual offerings were made. In addition, the incumbent was allotted a series of strips within the open field system. To accommodate the fruits of the land and the profits of the labour of the peasantry, each parish had a tithe barn. In Knottingley the tithe barn was first located in a foldyard close to the site of the Wildbore Manor House, adjacent to the Church but at an unknown date it relocated to Primrose Vale, close to the site of the present Elim Church and is well remembered by the writer as a large limestone, cement rendered building, its size seeming disproportionate to the size of the township and its population in earlier times. At some point, probably during the eighteenth century, the barn and its accompanying holding was leased out and the site became an urban farmstead (tithes for the most part being commuted to money payment). With the widespread urban regeneration of the town from the late 1950s, the Tithe Barn area was scheduled for redevelopment and the barn and farm buildings were demolished.

TOWN HALL The
Built by a limited company of local inhabitants on a parcel of land at the top of the Ropewalk sold by Fanny and Emma Smallpage in 1865. The foundation stone was laid by Sydney Woolf on the 29th September 1865 and the building was opened on the 14th September 1866.
In 1902 the Town Hall was purchased by Mr. J.G. Lyon and donated to the township of Knottingley and served for many years as the social hub of the town as well as its administrative centre, being the offices of the Urban District Council before transfer to The Close in the 1960s.
Following the reorganisation of local government in 1974 the Town Hall was declared surplus to requirements by the new local authority and was in danger of eventual demolition. In 1976 a management committee of local citizens was formed and hard work and dedicated leadership has enabled many crises to be overcome and ensured that the Town Hall remains of value to the community to this day.

TRAMWAYS The
These were situated along the middle of Hill Top in the area between Forge Hill and Marine Villa Road.
As the limestone quarries lying to the immediate south of the Hill Top were developed it became necessary to convey the stone from the quarries to the river (and later canal) wharf at the north side of the road. Tunnels were excavated under the pillar of limestone left to support the highway and wagon tracks were laid to enable trucks to pass under the roadway.
One tramway, belonging to William Moorhouse, was located close to the Bay Horse Inn while a second was located slightly further east, serving the quarry site now occupied by Morrisons’ supermarket.
The tramways were operational for a limited period of time and as excavation progressed further away from the centre of the township recourse was made to transport by horse and cart and numerous lime routes between the quarries and the waterways bisected the length of the town.

TRUNDLES LANE / CLOSE
Lying between Marsh lane and Weeland Road, the name derives from ‘trendle’ describing something circular in shape such as the nearby bend in the river known as bank Dole Reach at the eastern extremity of Marsh lane. Trendles Lane, eventually becoming linguistically transformed as Trundles Lane, connected the fields and water meadows alongside the river with the common grazing land of South Moor.
Trundles Close was formerly known as Rye Royde, the name arising from the profusion of rye grass in that location, being a common indication of woodland clearance.

TOWN’S QUARRY
Originally the site of the manor house of the Wildbores, lords of the manor of Knottingley during the sixteenth century. The house was demolished in 1844 to facilitate the excavation of the underlying limestone. By 1871, when Forrest wrote his History of Knottingley, the site was described as “a green and stagnant pool”. Part of the site was infilled in the late nineteenth century to enable St. Botolph’s Churchyard to be extended and landscaped and thus provide a new entrance to the church yard and later, (1895) space for the erection of the parish rooms. The remaining part was used as a refuse tip for almost a century before being refurbished as St Botolphs Memorial Garden in the 1970s.
The origin of the name, Town’s Quarry, is obscure. In 1844 Michael Bentley, a limeburner, purchased the site which had formerly belonged to the Long family. Bentley was a prominent member of the Select Vestry and employed parish paupers in the quarrying of the limestone on the site and thus by occupational association, producing the name Town’s Quarry. Forrest states that the Aire & Calder Navigation Co., were the owners in 1871 and the township minute books reveal that the site became Church property about that time. Regardless of ownership, the site was identified as the Town’s Quarry for more than a century.

TURNERS ROPEWALK
Situated between Skew bridge and Kemp Bank and lying opposite the chemical works to the east of the town, the land was owned by Thomas Seaton and was the site of a ropewalk, shed and house worked by Hickson Turner and established there following the opening of the canal in 1826.

TURNPIKE CLOSE
Turnpike Close was an enclosure of a little over 3 acres situated on the south side of the Weeland Turnpike Road and took its name from its closeness to the toll bar which was located just west of the said enclosure.

TURNPIKE ROAD / TOLL BARS
The Weeland Road Turnpike Trust, which was established by an Act of Parliament in 1740, ran along the Pontefract Road and through Knottingley via the Headlands and Spawd Bone Lane before skirting Racca Green and the Low Green en route to Weeland near Snaith from 1745.
Tolls were payable at booths erected at Shilling Lane at the western extremity of the town and at a bar house located at the east of Low Green. Initially, tolls were granted for a period of 21 years but the entitlement was extended and only ceased to be levied officially in 1879. However, in practice, apart from an occasion in 1875 when 13 donkeys were passed through the Low End bar at a charge of one penny each, no tolls were collected there after 1858.
The decline in the collection of tolls was probably due to the increased use of the Hill Top – Banks Lane route after the construction of the canal between 1820-1826 which resulted in a gradual decrease in the use of the Turnpike route. The decline in the use of the Turnpike route was reinforced by the construction of the Wakefield – Goole railway in 1848 which cut through the line of the road close to the bottom of Spawd Bone Lane. The existence of the toll bars was increasingly regarded as an imposition and in 1877 when William Worfolk refused to pay a charge at the Shilling Hill barrier his action was endorsed by the presentation of a public petition seeking the closure of the toll bars and the winding up of the Turnpike Trust. As a result, the year following the trustees decided not to seek renewal of their franchise and the Trust ceased to exist in 1879.

TWISTLETON CLOSE
A five acre site situated at Common Lane end and named as Twistleton Close in the Enclosure Award Schedule, the site probably developed into the urban farmstead known as Thistleton farm during the second half of the nineteenth century.

URBAN FARMSTEADS
By the mid nineteenth century land consolidation had resulted in the existence of numerous homesteads within the more populated central area of Knottingley and the presence of large agricultural units in the peripheral areas of the township. As the pace of commercial and demographic development intensified and presaged the industrial development of the last quarter of the century, the former semi-rural homesteads were in effect transformed into small urban farmsteads. Varying in size from between 10 and 20 acres, compared with those in the still open areas of the town being from 80 to 120 acres in size, the small urban sites were increasingly unviable so that the owners of such units were generally compelled to combine farming activity with pursuance of a trade or occupation to attain sufficient livelihood. The pressure of urbanisation allied to national legislation and the agricultural depression of the final quarter of the nineteenth century resulted in the gradual decrease in local farmsteads from 17 in 1871 to 8 in 1901. Nevertheless, a few urban sites survived well into the last century and as late as the 1930s working farmsteads were in existence at Spawd Bone Lane, Racca Green and two sites at Low Green.

Terry Spencer

INDEX | A-B | C-D | E-F | G | H | I-J | K-L | M-N | O | P | Q-R | S | T-U | V-W | YARDS |


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