Denby & District in the First and Second World Wars

Their Ultimate Sacrifice

Chris Heath

• Editore: Pen and Sword Military
• Anno: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781399099646
• Argomento: History
• Categoria: Modern British History

Denby & District in the First and Second World Wars: Their Ultimate Sacrifice, commemorates and celebrates the lives of the soldiers from this part of the world and the role they played during hostilities. For the vast number of people the local War Memorial is something taken for granted, it has always been there and though it is respected it is not really understood anymore. The names upon it might be familiar to some but the lives and stories behind those names have largely been forgotten. The same is true of the local War graves in the churchyards. Interest sometimes peaks when a major anniversary occurs or a new film such as the recent ‘1917’ is released but this generally wanes after a while. This book provides a unique and timeless insight into our knowledge of the men of Denby Dale, Upper & Lower Cumberworth, Birdsedge, Upper & Lower Denby and Ingbirchworth and throws up many surprises. The soldier’s families are examined in detail, their civilian occupations, their homes and achievements. Their War service histories, where they fought, how they died and where they are buried are included where those records have survived. It is not just the fallen contained in these pages and the stories of many who returned from the arena of the two World Wars are printed here for the very first time. With 130 illustrations and 30 family tree’s this book is a tribute to all those that made the Ultimate Sacrifice and their comrades in arms who made it home.

Appendix 1

The Norton Family, quarry owners at Denby Delf

Earlier in this book we encountered Edwin and Herbert Norton Jackson and discovered that Herbert bore the middle name after his mother’s maiden name: Martha Ann Norton. In research undertaken prior to this work I investigated the stone quarry known as Denby Delf, now the beauty spot Mosley Roughs; its life as a sand-stone quarry and its owners through time. This is the story of Martha Ann’s father, George Norton, not to be confused with the Scissett mill owner of the same name.

On the Denby Enclosure Award Map dated 1802, some of the land at Denby Delf was owned by William Bosville, a member of the land owning family at Gunthwaite, though he was largely based in London. Because of the changes in field boundaries it is difficult to tell exactly if the Delf belonged to Bosville alone. His land was to the immediate East of Madras House (then known as Bombay) and was abutted by that of Hannah Littlewood, then Wheetman Dickinson, Sir Charles Kent and Mrs Varelst and Dickinson & Littlewood. As the Enclosure Award Map was produced to show who owned which parcels of land, it only mentions a few buildings such as the Chapel, but it is of interest to note that ‘Slate Delf’ quarry was recorded to the west of the Penistone Turnpike Road as part of a huge swathe of land owned by The Honourable Richard Lumley Savile. This delf is sited upon the same spot as the later ‘Rusby Delf’ and is almost certainly one and the same; ergo, this is where we find the Rusby family quarrying. There is nothing on the map to suggest a quarry at Denby Delf at this time.

William Bosville was described as ‘a celebrated bon vivant’. He was schooled at Harrow and entered the Coldstream Guards in 1761. He served with a regiment for part of the American War and travelled widely on the Continent. At home he lived in London where he entertained guests at his house in Welbeck Street at exactly five o’clock every weekday. He did not involve himself in his Yorkshire estates and was eccentric in his manners, always dressing in the manner of a courtier of George III. He was an ardent supporter of the reform party of the Whigs and was friendly with Horne Tooke and William Cobbett. When William Bosville died at the end of 1813, the male line of Bosville of Gunthwaite became extinct and the main beneficiary of his will was his nephew, Godfrey, the second son of Elizabeth Diana Bosville and her husband Alexander Macdonald.

Land close to that of William Bosville’s was being farmed by Joshua Mosley; this is very likely where the term ‘Mosley Roughs’ comes from and probably has its origins in the eighteenth century. Joshua Mosley may have held land further up the lane prior to Enclosure, explaining the gap between his lands and the Delf. At this time all the land around the Delf was in private ownership, and the lane known today as Denby Common was, in 1802, called the Huddersfield Road.

Quarry Owner’s & Merchants of Denby

(as listed in the Trade Directories of the Nineteenth Century)

Piggot’s Directory 1834

James Rusby (merchant in stone)

Whites Directory 1838

John Ellis (High Flatts – stonemason & Quarry Owner)

Whites Directory 1857/8

George Norton (Stone Merchant)

Whites Directory 1866

George Norton (High Flatts – Stone Mason & Quarry Owner)

Charles Rusby (Quarry Owner)

Ben Ellis (High Flatts – Quarry Owner)

John Micklethwaite (Quarry Owner)

John Moore (Quarry Owner)

James Moore (Quarry Owner)

Whites Directory 1870

John Micklethwaite (Upper Denby – Quarry Owner)

George Norton (High Flatts – Quarry Owner)

Kelly’s Directory 1901

Burton Rusby (farmer Delf House)

No further quarrying activities are mentioned from this point onwards, including directories for 1912, 1922 and 1936.

Ordnance Survey Map of 1845.

A sandstone quarry is mentioned at Denby Delf on the Ordnance Survey Map of 1845 and a further nearby one is marked as Moor Royd sandstone quarry. It is of note that Rusby Delf is also marked to the North West of Delf House Farm. Another sandstone quarry is marked at Falledge to the southwest of the farm.

As we can see, there is a concentration of quarries in the area between High Flatts and Upper Denby.

George Norton was born in 1817 at Denby to John Norton and Mary Beever. George would have been 28 in 1845, when we know for a fact that the quarry was operating. In the 1841 census he was noted to be living at Moor Royd (which could have been classed as High Flatts) with his mother and father and remaining family members, and was described as a stone miner, as was his father John (now aged 65). A brother, Benjamin aged 20, was a ‘delpher’. A delpher, or delver, was someone who worked in a stone quarry. A delver is anyone whose work involves digging, and may include coal-miners and quarry-workers.

George married Martha Hepenstall and had a family of at least eight children. By the time of the birth of their son Daniel in 1848 George was noted to be a quarryman/labourer living at Pog Hall Farm, High Flatts. By 1851 we can find George and Martha living at Pog Hall with Martha’s father, Daniel Hepenstall, who was a farmer and stone merchant, George at this time was a labourer in a stone quarry. Daniel Hepenstall died in 1852 aged 55, and it seems that George was able to take over both farming and quarrying activities as the sitting tenant.

We have seen that the nineteenth century trade directories list George Norton as a stonemason/quarry owner in 1857/8, 1866 and 1870. By the time of the 1861 census he is recorded as a farmer of 37 acres and quarry owner employing five men and two boys. His son, James, is recorded as a carter, so he may well have been working for his father; Daniel Norton, George’s younger brother was also an employee as a stone delver at the quarry as well as a lodger with the family at Pog Hall. George’s daughter, Elizabeth, worked as a dairy maid on the farm.

In the 1871 census, George was described as a farmer of 36 acres and a sandstone quarry merchant. His son, Daniel, aged 23 (labourer quarryman) and brother, Daniel, were still working at the quarry, though his brother died in 1876 aged 41, George was by now 54.

An estate sale (on behalf of the Bosvilles) advertised in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph dated Saturday 6 March 1875, is the proof that it was at the quarry at Denby Delf that George Norton was operating:

Sales by Mr A.E. Wilby.

Highflatts and Birdsedge, in the Township of Denby,…

Valuable freehold family residence, farms, dwelling-houses, land and stone quarry. To be sold at auction by Mr Arthur E. Wilby, at the house of Mr Sykes, the Rose and Crown Hotel, in Penistone, on Thursday, the 18th day of March, 1875, at three o’clock in the afternoon (unless previously disposed of by private contract, of which due notice will be given), and subject to such conditions as will then be produced.

(includes)…

Lot 6. All that quarry of Superior Stone known as ‘Denby Delf Stone’ (similar in quality to the far-famed Green Moor Stone situate near to Lot 4), and now in the occupation of and worked by Mr. George Norton.

And the several closes of land adjoining thereto, in the occupation of the late Mr Seth Dalton’s representatives, viz.,

Lot No. 30. Quarry Field, and above-mentioned Quarry therein: 5 acres, 0 roods, 36 perches.

Lot No. 31 Near Quarry Field: 2 acres,1 rood,11 perches.

Lot No. 32. Far Quarry Field: 2 acres, 1 rood, 35 perches.

Total (more or less): 10 acres, 0 roods, 2 perches.

The Quarry and one acre of the stone adjoining thereto in the close called the Quarry Field are in lease to Mr George Norton for the term of 20 years, from the 1st of March, 1873, at a minimum yearly rent of £60 for 240 yards of stone (surface measure) and 5 shillings a yard for all above that quantity.

This lot will be sold subject to the above lease, and the covenants, conditions, and agreements therein contained.

This lot well deserves the attention of stone merchants, builders, &c.: it adjoins the highway, late the Huddersfield and Penistone Turnpike road, and is within a short distance from the Penistone, Shepley, and Denby Railway Stations respectively.

NB: Lot 4 in the sale related to four closes of land adjoining Denby Lane, in the occupation of Dalerever Burdett, comprising Low Common, Upper Low Common, Far Low Common, Near Low Common, which is the area on the other side of the road.

From the records it would seem that most of this land was bought by Walter Norton of Rockwood House, Denby Dale, a member of the highly successful Scissett mill-owning family.

As we have seen, there were a number of quarries operating at this time in Denby and High Flatts so we cannot be sure of the employer in the following newspaper report regarding a Denby quarryman, though it is possible he worked at Denby Delf for George Norton:

Barnsley Chronicle 13 Sept 1879.

Attempted suicide at Denby.

John Gaunt, quarryman, Upper Denby, was placed in the dock, and Inspector Wade stated that on the 26th August he was found in Swift Wood, Upper Denby, bleeding profusely from wounds to his arms, as already published in our columns.—P.C. Thistlethwaite gave evidence as to finding Gaunt.—In answer to the Bench, Gaunt said didn’t know why he attempted to injure himself. He had apparently been recovering from the effects of a drinking bout at the time he committed the deed.—After promising never to do anything of the kind again he was handed over to PC Thistlethwaite to be conveyed to the custody of his friends.

In the 1881 census George is listed as a farmer of 45 acres, employing two labourers and one boy and a sandstone quarry merchant employing two labourers and one boy. By 1891, George was 74 years old and had moved to Laithe House, High Flatts, though he was still recorded as a farmer and stone merchant. His eldest son, James, played a major role as quarryman in his father’s business, and he was by now married to Harriet Turton with a son, Arthur.

George Norton died in 1893 and his wife in 1894 and with him, it would seem that the family’s qua...