By the permission of Mr. John Martin, Clerk to the Normanton Urban District Council and whose kindness I am glad to acknowledge, I have been permitted to peruse the old minute books and accounts of the Surveyors of the Highways of Normanton for a period covering forty years, and I find them very interesting and sometimes amusing.
A few entries I have extracted may give some idea of the conditions and lives of the people who lived here a hundred years ago. I print them exactly as written. Taking the accounts first. Each year accounts are headed with the names of the surveyors, which are chosen for one year only, and for the year 1826 it reads:-
"The receipts and payments of John Jackson and William Bailey Surveyors of the Highways of the Township of Normanton for the year 1826 - 7."
The payments consist chiefly of wages to roadmen, and make woeful reading to us who are living in the present generation as the following will show.
"Oct.14th 1826 -
To John Leach, 5 days 5/-.
To Samuel Brook 3 days 6/-. Oct.28th -
To George Lee, 18 days 18/-. Nov.25th -
To George Lee, 24 days £1.4.-.
Dec.30th -
To George Lee, 5 days 4/2."
It would appear that the standard rate of wages for labourers at that period was a shilling a day, for I found that where those men had worked many full weeks of six days and their wages were 6/-. for the week. It would also appear they did a good deal of work by contract. Under the date. Sept. 29th 1827, we find the following item:-
"To Joseph Keddy, 7 loads of stone breaking, 4/8. Oct.13th - To Wm.Briggs, Ch.Woodhead
and Samuel Brook for 102,000 brick making at 5/- per thousand £25.14.0."
and under the same date:-
"To - George Lee for breaking 80 loads of bricks at 6d a load, £2.0.0." On Dec. 22nd in the same year "To Matthew Hoyle, George Day and Michael Watson, lowering the quarry hill 26 yards at 6d. a yard, 13/-."
Under Jan. 26th 1828 we find this curious entry:-
"To George Lee for shovelling 2 acres at 6d. per acre, 1/-."
It would seem that Normanton was then, as now, sometimes visited by heavy snow storms, for under the date Feb. 22nd, 1828 we find:-
"To George Lee for shovelling snow, 5/6 five and a half days work". ''May 13th - To John Denton and Hoyle for 21 loads of earth taken from Woodhouse Hill at 2/2 per load, £2.5.6." ''on June 7th - To 'expenses at measuring John Denison's wall 1/6."
We also find such curious items as:-
''April 12th. - To 2 shovels for the Highways, 3/-." "June 12th. - To Wm.Briggs & Co." when the brick kiln was fired 3/-." ''July 21st - To John Denton for a hollow tool for the brickmakers, 3/-." "Oct. 27th. - To myself for attendance £1.0.0." "Oct. 1st. 1821....To Joseph Stillings as per bill £2.15.3."
There are old inhabitants in Normanton who yet remember Stillings as blacksmith. Oct.30th, the same year
"To paid for ale for passing the last accounts, 5/-." "Oct.15th.1832, To the Overseers salary £1.0.0.''
0n Oct.17 th for the same year -
"To Thomas Bailey, for ale, for Mr. Walter's accounts passing £1."
The total receipts for the year 1834 were £84.11.9. and the total expenditure £74.17.8. The accounts are signed by Samuel D.Walker, William Furbisher, George Heptinstall, Thomas Bailey and George Brook, and are examined and allowed and also signed by two Justices of the Peace for the West Riding of Yorkshire.
In order to enable us to understand what the real value of wages were in those days, I have been at some little trouble to ascertain the prices of some of the necessary commodities of life at that period, and although we find that prices were constantly fluctuating the following list may be taken as a fairly accurate average for the years preceding and during that period known as the "Hungry Forties" -
Bread per quarter loaf 1/-. Tea 6/- per pound, Sugar 6d. per pound, Loaf sugar, 9d per pound, Currants 10d, Cotton and rush candles 8d. Soap 6d. Rice 5d., Butter 10d., Coals 1/8 per cwt.
When we compare these prices with the wages paid in the same period we are left wondering how a labourer with a wife and family managed to live at all. The records of meetings and the business transacted are quite as interesting as the accounts and I will print a few extracts exactly as I found them written.
Feb. 19th. 1847. At a meeting held agreeably with a notice posted upon the church doors, the pasturage upon the sides of the highways and byways of the township of Normanton was let. Byways:- Short Butts Lane to James Benson £1.1.0. Mill Lane to ditto 5/-, Common Lane to John Bailey 3/6, Beck Brigg Lane to Wm.Wrigglesworth £1.9.-. Ash Gap Lane to John Middleton 2/6, Church Lane and Dalefield Lane to do. 14/-.
Woodhouse Common Lane to Wm.Wrigglesworth 6d. Highways:- From Wain Dyke to the Cross to John Bailey 14/-; from Snydale boundary to the Cross to Mr.Martin Horsfall 5/-; from Warmfield boundary to the Cross to Wm. Wrigglesworth 4/6. Total £4.19.-. The above sums to be paid to the Surveyor of the highways at Michelmas next, and the amount for which each lane has let to be expended in repairing the same. It will thus be seen that eighty years ago, and probably for many years after that dated cattle grazed in what are now the main streets of Normanton.
A meeting held March 15th 1847, reads as follows:-
''Meeting held March 15th, 1847, for the purpose of looking for the encroachment upon the highway made by Mr. Ramskill, betwixt Normanton and West Well. The meeting went to view the alteration made by Mr. Ramskill, and they deem the alteration a very material encroachment.
Resolved- 'That the surveyor immediately served Mr. Ramskill with a notice to remove the encroachment. That if Mr. Ramskill continue the work after receiving the notice the surveyor to apply immediately to the magistrates, and unless steps be taken to remove the encroachment before Friday week, that the surveyor apply to the magistrates on that day for instructions how to proceed.' signed J. Abbott, Chairman."
It appears that the notice was ignored, for I find that at a later meeting Messrs. Bailey, Walker and Milnthorpe were appointed as a deputation to meet Mr. Ramskill and two Justices of the Peace to settle the matter amicably if possible. I found that no result of the deputation was given. Another rather amusing entry under date June 17th of the same year reads:-
"Meeting held 17th June 1847. Complaint being made by Mrs. Barstow that John Hoyle had taken her pigs to the common pound whilst other people's pigs were allowed to run about in the street, and when she remonstrated with him on the matter he became very abusive, and made use of some most shameful language . The surveyor is requested to speak to him respecting his bad conduct, and to advise him to be civil to people in future.''
At a meeting held 9th of March 1848, we find this peculiar entry:-
That ---------- be allowed ten shillings towards his expenses to York to hear his daughter's trial for --------------.
I have refrained from stating names of the persons and the nature of the crime for obvious reasons. I take the following from the minutes of a meeting held Sept. 14th 1848:-
"Received an order from Hunslet for the removal of Widow ---------- and her son, and after discussion it was resolved - 'that a Councillor's opinion be taken as to whether, after paying to Widow---------- for 18 years whilst she was residing in the township of Hunslet, she is removeable to her original settlement'.''
It would appear that the widow's son was mentally deficient, but the obvious inference to be drawn is that everybody desired to be rid of both the widow and her poor son. I could find no further statement as to what became of them. Meeting held 22nd. Feb. 1849 -
To choose suitable persons to act as constables for the ensuing year. The following persons were chosen- George Heptinstall for Normanton, and Robert Spawforth for Woodhouse.
The following entry is brief and strange
"Meeting held 18th Feb. 1852,
A ishop's children to go to Mary Lodge at 9/-. per week."
At a meeting held 25th of March 1857, we find -
An application was made for some assistance towards the maintenance of the late Joseph Naylor's children. Resolved, to educate the two children and pay their shoe bill.
At a meeting held 25th of March 1861 we find that Wm. Watson shall be hired to Mr. Samuel Walker at an allowance of 2/6 per week for maintenance to Mr. Walker and to be provided with clothing. Meeting held 1st November, 1866, -
''that the tenants of the town's houses be requested to pay their rents weekly, or in default to be served with notices to quit. The rents to be the two end houses 2/-. each per week, the other two 1/6 per Week." The town's houses (four in number) stood opposite the Black Swan Inn."
The following minutes taken from a meeting held 25th March,1868, are very interesting.
''Resolved that Mr. Abbott be the overseer of the poor, and Mr. G Brook the Surveyor of the highways, and that Mr. C. Ellin be the Assistant overseer and Surveyor, giving security if required, at a salary of £25 a year, conditionally that he pays Mr. Abbott £10 a year as acting as clerk to the township. That Mr.Samuel Walker to be the Guardian with a salary of £3.3.-. That Mr. Pepper's offer to give £5 towards placing a pump at Woodhouse with a site for the same be accepted, and that the Surveyor be empowered to take charge of the erection paying the remainder out of the highway rate.''
The following minute adopted at a meeting dated November 5th,1863, will show what changes with regard to names and places have taken place during the last 65 years. Resolved
"that the footpath above named, now crossing the first Woodhouse Common, or Woodhouse Moor, be diverted, and that the said footpath in future be carried across upper Woodhouse Moor, leading out upon the highway adjoining the two cottages on Woodhouse Hill."
At a meeting held 26th February, 1867, it was resolved that the following list of six persons be appointed out of which to choose constables:- Christopher Ellin, James Hoyle, Samuel Walker, George Brook, Robert Leake and Robert Crowther. In all the minutes I have gone through, covering a period of over twenty years, I have found no records of where the meetings were held, not the names of those who attended the meetings, and, with one or two exceptions, all the minutes are signed by J. Abbott, Chairman.
The pump referred to above was erected at Woodhouse and stood on the site now occupied by Mr. Marsden's shop. It went out of use when the first water supply was laid to the town.
