Victorian Craven life within the pages of an old newspaper

The front page of the West Yorkshire Pioneer was covered in adverts - you would have to pay to see what was inside! Historian Alan Roberts takes a look.

UNDER the heading ‘The Magic Cleanser’ Sinclair’s Cold Water Soap was endorsed by a lady writing to ‘The Queen’ magazine. ‘I find it saves time and material, the clothes require less rubbing, and wash a much purer colour.’ Lovett’s American Toothache Tincture was ideal for tic, toothache and neuralgia. It never failed to cure within one minute!

John Willan of Albert Street manufactured clogs: ‘they could be repaired on the premises while parties wait’.

For sufferers from a weak stomach and general debility, Mary Ann Taylor of Bentham wrote, ‘Since I began to wear your Waist Belt and Invigorator I have been very considerably better in health… I got no relief from medicine, but I thoroughly believe your appliances will do me much and lasting good.’ For entertainment, how about a ‘grand dioramic lecture’ at the Mechanics Institute entitled ‘Under the British Flag’? Over the Easter weekend there would be a ‘Japanese Fancy Fair’ at the Wesleyan schoolroom in Crosshills. Or what about a rock band? Before their departure for America the Till Family promised to introduce their marvellous instrument formed from 60 musical stones from Skiddaw in Cumberland. At the Temperance Hall Mr Wakefield provided a very able lecture on ‘The Brain’. He described in turn the brain of the worm, ant, sea squirt and tadpole. He also showed the difference between a lunatic’s brain and that of a right-minded person’s.

The grammar school in Skipton-in-Craven reported that it had been recently rebuilt with particular attention to the sanitary arrangements. There was a cricket field, gymnasium and swimming bath within the grounds. It was also within half a mile of the railway station.

At the cattle market there was a large show of English stores due to the shortage of hay, but a slow trade was done with prices at £9 to £13 a head. 10- to 12-week-old pigs were just £1 each.

According to the latest railway timetables, Leeds could be reached in ninety minutes by stopping trains calling at all stations including Kildwick. A fast train would take half the time and was just eight minutes slower than today, while those adventurous souls leaving Skipton for London would arrive five and a half hours later.

At Bolton Abbey contractors were laying the foundations for the Cavendish Memorial. Back in Skipton George Wilson of no fixed abode was charged with begging in Canal Street. He was discharged on promising to leave town. Two cattle drovers were charged with being drunk and disorderly in Swadford Street and were each fined 2s 6d.

In Sudan, General Gordon had failed to evacuate Khartoum before being surrounded by rebel forces. After a long siege the rebels captured the city and massacred its remaining inhabitants. Tragically a British relief force would arrive just two days later. The Pioneer reported that British forces were again preparing for an imminent confrontation with the rebel armies. Victorious in battle, the overall situation in Sudan was untenable and the British troops were withdrawn shortly afterwards.

Elsewhere, German statesman Prince Otto von Bismarck had offered to act as arbitrator between Russia and Britain in Afghanistan.

The big story of the week was the funeral of William ‘Billycock’ Bracewell of Newfield Edge in Barnoldswick who had died the previous week from ‘congestion of the lungs’. Described as ‘among the remarkable men of his time’, his long and successful business career, undaunted courage and untiring industry had turned Barnoldswick into ‘an important manufacturing village’. He had constructed Butts Mill and Wellhouse Mill some forty years earlier. The two mills contained 160,000 spindles, 1200 looms and employed 1300 workers. Together with stone quarries, a corn mill and farms, Bracewell’s firm was almost the only source of employment in the village. Further afield Bracewell owned collieries in Ingleton and Bentham, and two weaving sheds in Burnley.

He presented the Wesleyans in Barnoldswick with a splendid chapel at a cost of £8,000 or £10,000. He took a very active interest in the Sunday school: its handsome and commodious premises were largely the results of his generosity.

Sleet and snow did not prevent mourners climbing out of the town to Newfield Edge to pay one last tribute. The hearse departed accompanied by twelve tenant farmers ‘wearing crape hatbands and gloves’ who acted as bearers. No fewer than twenty carriages followed. The workers walked behind on foot. The streets were lined with spectators, church bells tolled and the blinds on the houses were pulled down. The funeral cortege was three-quarters of a mile long as it headed towards Bracewell Church where Billycock was finally laid to rest.

The newspaper was discovered during the patient process of cataloguing Barnoldswick History Society’s archives. The society meets on the last Thursday of the month in the OAP Centre in Frank Street. The next meeting is in September.