Stories From History And More

  Fred’s thoughts turned from disbelief to sadness and quite quickly to anger. He couldn’t believe what he was being told at first. He couldn’t understand why she would do such a thing, and become well known for it! They hadn’t been married much longer than a year in September 1917. Fred had been away in the army for a year, but so had most young men in that time period. Beatrice had grown up in the Paddock area of Huddersfield and was well known around Luck Lane which linked to the Marsh district and then on to her new marital home in Birkby. Luck Lane was where he was told Beatrice had been seen committing adultery, on many occasions. The ultimate indignity and horror for Fred was for this to culminate in her having a miscarriage at their house in Corby street. The fact that the potential father of the child was unknown only compounded the sordid nature of this event. The actual cause of the miscarriage was not known but with the doctor having been called to attend meant it c...

  To Be Involved-  In 1939 Stewart Blackburn started work as a clerk at Eaton, Smith & Downey, a firm of Huddersfield solicitors. On September 3rd  of that year the Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declared that Britain was at war with Germany. Inevitably the war began impacting ordinary peoples lives and there was a feeling of wanting to be involved and to “do your bit”. During the nights of the early 1940s Stewart volunteered as part of a Fire Watch. A team which sat in various town centre buildings and provided early warning of the effects from incendiary bombs. During 1940 Stewart’s father, Percy, gave up Tailoring for the war duration and became a Progress Clerk at Hopkinson’s engineering works as part of their war production effort. While sister Annie had taken two evacuated students into her household. Huddersfield wasn’t totally untouched by direct enemy action during these years. German bombers attempted to hit David Browns factory at Lockwood, but...

  The story which follows reflects the tragedy of an all too common personal circumstance and societies reaction to it. Yet also shows possible evidence of personal reaction and proud defiance in the face of such circumstance.   Anne Blackburn, the twenty two year old daughter of Christopher and Esther, has her illegitimate daughter, Caroline, baptised at Saint Michael's, Ashton under Lyne, on 14th July 1822. Sadly the Register entry under "Quality, Trade or Profession" is described as "Base". This probably reveals that she had no means of supporting herself or her daughter and was relying on Parish assistance. Caroline Blackburn Baptism 14th July 1822 Since 1601 the Poor Laws had required required each Parish to calculate and levy a poor rate. This was used to provide relief to the poor people of the Parish. They would also run a "poorhouse" for homeless Parishioners where work was provided to mitigate the cost. A deserted pregnant woman was pro...

  James Parkinson’s first breath of life was experienced in the dour surroundings of the Haslingden Union Workhouse in Rawtenstall, Lancashire. His mother, Alice Parkinson, was a resident in the workhouse with the obligatory “pauper” status. Even though she had employment, as a Drawer of Cotton in a textile mill, the wages were not sufficient to finance a household. Alice had to fight adversity from an early age, having lost both parents and sister before she was 10 years old. What made Alice’s situation more extreme was having children out of wedlock. Towards the end of 1887, aged 21, she had given birth to a daughter, Harriet, father unknown. Despite working as a Card Room Hand for a number of years, being an unmarried mother rendered this impossible and she lost her job, housing and was condemned to seek support of the Parish. It was into this environment that James arrived on Wednesday 9 th December in 1891, also of an unknown father and adding to his mothers now considera...