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The people who shaped our lives
THERE'S the politics of Shibden Hall's Anne Lister and the lives of an industrial dyer, a cotton manufacturer, a photographer and a Calderdale woman whose influence on women's ministry in Methodism was invaluable.
The focus on the latest edition of the Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society is biographical, says its editor, Halifax historian Dr John Hargreaves.
“Some individuals have already gained recognition by their inclusion in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,” explains John, who himself wrote a series of essays for the recently re-worked mammoth volume.
“Others may not yet have achieved that distinction but their lives have nontheless contributed in significant ways to the history of Calderdale.
Owen Sellers is the son of the Luddenden Foot photographer James Thomas Sellers (1896 to 1964).
His father, he writes, was born in Derbyshire and began his working life at a paper-making firm called Brackens, which also operated from premises in Luddenden.
He was persuaded to transfer there and when the mills closed down he undertook a series of different jobs.
But he had always been a keen amateur photographer and was responsible for many pictures of local scenes which can still be seen today in local pubs and clubs.
Football and cricket teams, club committees and family groups were all recorded by him and when events such as the annual Infirmary Gala and Sports Day took place he would take photos of them, make them into lantern slides and then they would be projected on Saturday evenings at the local picture house in the church hall.
In the late 1920s, Sellers was employed by Lilywhites of Lumb Mill, Mill Bank as their local view photographer - Lilywhites was appointed as official photographers at the British Industries Fair at Olympia in London in 1930.
Travelling all over the British Isles, using a half plate camera with glass 8” by 6” negatives, he took sets of photos for local stores, post offices etc.
“On 15 January 1931, a fire completely destroyed the factory at Lumb Mills and a hand-coloured photograph taken by my father depicts the raging inferno,” writes Mr Sellers.
William Law Horsfall is a great-grandson of the founder of the firm of Joseph Horsfall and Sons Ltd, of Clarence Mills, Halifax.
He writes about Joseph’s early career within a strong Baptist culture and how he started out as a handloom weaver before becoming a manufacturer. Joseph developed his products from manufacturing basic calico to the “shewey” cotton-stuffs and during the “cotton famine” from 1862 to 1865, he managed to survive.
Joseph also gained the reputation of an inspiring preacher and a devout Christian.
Jill Liddington has spent many years writing about Shibden Hall mistress Anne Lister - not least transcribing her personal diaries which revealed her sexuality.
But it is her politics that she concentrates on in her entry.
These were shaped by the broader political tumult c 1830, she writes, when Anne sought refuge in revolutionary France - and then when she returned to Britain demanding parliamentary reform.
She writes of Anne recording in her diaries her active political canvassing of her enfranchised male tenants at election times in Halifax.
“As Anne Lister took leave of Paris for England, she began to respond more decisively to these fast-changing political currents,” Jill writes.
John himself writes about Sister Dorothy Hincksman Farrar, of Halifax - “a warmed heart and disciplined mind perfectly joined.”
“ Dorothy Farrar’s life spanned most of the 20th century, including two world wars, the economic recession of the inter-war years, the cultural revolution of the 1960s and the emergence of the women’s liberation movement in the 1970s,” writes John.
As a methodist preacher she was “one of the most inspiring preachers of her generation” and exerted great influence on the evolution of women’s ministry in British Methodism.
The book also includes essay on James William Davis, industrial dyer, geolgist and politician and James Crossley, Fellow of the Society of Antiquarians.
And departing from the biographical theme, is an article on the history of properties around Halifax Parish Church, which include The Hopkinson and Crowther Almshouses, Waterhouse Almshouses and Blue Coat School.
l Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society is priced 12 and is available at Fred Wade, Halifax, the Tourist Information Centre, Piece Hall, Halifax and from the publications officer at 3, First Avenue, Manor Drive, Halifax, HX3 0DL.
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