Tuesday, 22 April 2025

The University of the Third Age meeting report

It will be nice when it's done

Speakers: John and Mary Lyte

The guest speakers at the April meeting of Todmorden u3a, were John and Mary Lyte with: 'It will be nice when it's done'.

To begin, John said that one of the people who would be mentioned in the presentation would be a famous cricketer, and had a link to what we would see and hear.

John and Mary had decided on the title of their presentation because of the many times, during the restoration, many people said that to them. Their first piece of advice to us was not to take building restoration up as a hobby.

John bought a derelict property in Briestfield, between Huddersfield and Wakefield, and over a period of several years restored it and made it his family's home. He has researched the history of the property and those that resided there. Briestfield is almost in the centre of a ring of northern cities involved in the Industrial Revolution. The main occupation of the village, and many others around it, was coal mining.

The building John bought was actually three miner's cottages due for demolition on Chapel Row, Briestfield, and he showed an image of it in 1964. Going back 200 years, John told us that there were other occupations in the area such as agriculture and textiles.

We saw a montage of events, music, and cars from 1979 – which was the year he and his family bought what would become their new home – after much renovation. Around this time, John and family used to go out for a drive just to explore places that might have been of interest – and came across Chapel Row on one such trip. They made the decision to buy and renovate the property, despite having no experience or training. At the time John was a caterer, and Mary a dinner lady. The property had been unoccupied for 40 years.

John mentioned that a very common surname in the area was Pickles.

The whole village, and much of the surrounding area, was owned by Sir George Armytage who lived at nearby Kirklees Hall, where it is thought that Robin Hood was buried. The hall is now very near one of the exits of the M62 motorway. Sir George became what is known as 'asset rich – capital poor' and began to demolish some of the buildings on his estate in the mid to late 18th century. But other properties, including Chapel Row, survived and were sold off to other people, probably because of death duties which had to be paid. John showed a record which marked the sale of Chapel Row in 1922. Sixteen years later another record showed that the row was 'condemned as unsuitable for human habitation and to be demolished'. 41 years later, along came John and Mary Lyte.

The whole family, including their two sons were involved in the numerous tasks of the refurbishment, and conversion, of two cottages into one house. John said that there were few, if any, builders that would take on the job. A neighbour stepped in to help during the ten years of construction. Renovation proved harder than building from scratch – for example windows having to be created, replaced and improved. A huge amount of stone had been left after some of the demolition of the houses, and this was used to create new walls for the house and garden.

John found out from a neighbour that when the last people were evicted from Chapel Row in 1938, they may well have moved into the council houses which had been built on two sides of the village. He had a number of images of some of the people that had lived there.

The village was named in the eighteenth century, when a resident called Ruth Blackley, one of the first Methodists, moved to the area. As Methodism was in its very early years, there were few if any churches they could attend, so the Methodists met in the houses which became Chapel Row. John Wesley is said to have visited the area and described the locals as8 ` 'a wild and more fearsome people I never did see'.

John told us about a resident of Briestfield called Ann Pickles, who lived to be a hundred years old, and had fourteen children. She was sixty years old before she learned to read but never learned to write. But she became a local celebrity, having lived in the same house for 75 years, and still doing her own housework. This was according to a newspaper report about her 98th birthday. Ann lived through five reigns of Kings and Queens, and John showed an image of her when she was 84 years old and now looking after her grandchildren, presumably because their parents were all at work.

The villagers were also affected by the Combs Colliery Pit Disaster in 1893, when 139 men and boys were killed. The pit was only a mile away from the village. Eight of the people killed lived in Briestfield, and three of those lived in the row of cottages restored by John and family. Queen Victoria sent money to the fund set up for the people and village after hearing about the event.

A relative of one of those killed was Arthur Pickles, also brought up in the village, and who had worked previously at the colliery. He took part in battle of the Somme in the First World War. He was sent home from the front after gas poisoning and trench foot, but recovered after seven weeks in hospital and returned to duty in France, only to be killed in action.

Another Pickles, first name Aaron, appeared in an item in the local newspaper in 1943, reporting that he had worked at the Combs Colliery for 71 years until the age of 80 and one of the workers on what was known as 'the old man's shift'. Aaron remembered the pit disaster, but was quoted as saying, in effect, that people should continue to keep working as long as they could instead of lazing about in their old age! The report was seen by a businessman in the midlands after it was picked up by the national papers. This businessman subsequently offered a pension to Aaron of £13 a month. Not too long after, Aaron took up the offer and retired.

The benefactor was as good as his word and provided Aaron's well-earned pension – but who was he?

Mr Wilfred Hill, a chemist who became a self-made millionaire who owned the factory that made Brylcreem which, as people of our vintage will probably remember – and perhaps still use.

This took us back to the introduction of todays talk, and the famous cricketer of the 1960's - Dennis Compton; who advertised the product. For anyone not familiar with cricketers, John showed a film clip of the time which might have jogged some memories. Any gentlemen in our audience who still used the product kept their council, but some ladies with them seemed to suggest they used to?

This concluded the entertaining show provided by John, and his wife Mary, which met with applause from our members.

Not yet a member? We're always delighted to welcome new members. Contact details: website at www.u3atod.org.uk or email at info@u3atod.org.uk.

Many thanks to Colin Sanson for this report

 

Previous U3A reports on the HebWeb - click here