THE ATKINSONSAccording to the Internet Surname Database: “Thisfamous surname is regarded as being of Anglo-Scot-tish origins, although with Norman antecedents.Found in the spellings of Atkinson, Aitchison, Ache-son, Aicheson, and Aitcheson, it is as a patronymicform of the medieval male given name Atkin or Adkin,itself a double diminutive of the Hebrew name 'Adam',meaning 'red earth'. Adam (as a baptismal name) isfirst recorded in the English Domesday Book of 1086,suggesting that it was an introduction after the 1066Invasion. “Certainly thereafter it became steadily more popularcreating further diminutives such as Adcock and At-cock, with the same meaning. Early examples includeAdekin filius Turst (Adekin the son of Turst) in the1191 Pipe Rolls of Norfolk, and John Adekyn in the1296 Records of Crowland Abbey, Cambridgeshire.William Atkyns was recorded in the Subsidy Rolls of

Worcestershire, dated 1327, and John Atkinson waslisted in the Assessments relating to the feudal lists ofthe county of Westmorland in 1402. Further examplesare those of James Aitchesoun, master of the Scot-tish Mint in 1553, and Marc Aichesone or Acheson ofAchesounes hevin (now Morrisons Haven), in 1609.A very interesting recording is that of John Atkinson,aged 24 yrs., who embarked from London on the ship"Bonaventure", bound for Virginia, on Janaury 15th1634. He was one of the earliest settlers in the NewWorld Colonies. The coat of arms granted in 1604has the blazon of a red field, charged with a goldbend cotised, and thereon three red helmets. Thecrest is a wolf head erased. The first recorded spellingof the family name is shown to be that of John Atkyn-soun, which was dated 1387, in the "Records of NorthBerwick", Scotland, during the reign of King Robert11 of Scotland, 1371 - 1390.”

THE MEANING AND ORIGIN OF THE NAME

Cordelia Atkinson was Florence

Watson’s mother, and our great,

great grandmother.

Florence herself was born in Man-

ningham, Bradford, but her mother

gives two places of birth, West End

and Thruscross, which are two tiny

and adjacent villages in West

Yorkshire, about 12 miles west of

Harrogate.

They appear on the map above,

along with Thornthwaite and Fews-

ton, and it is from this area of villa-

ges that several generations of

Atkinson had lived before Cordelia.

For example, in 1651 “it was de-manded by ..... Grane or bedell ofthe forest or their deputies shouldsummon sixteen customary te-nants of the Lords theird of theneighboroughood of the Forest thatthey should be at this court to abutlimit and seesorts to that aforesaidJohn Reynard one sufficient andcommon way from acretoyne mossin Thruscross aforesaid unto oneacre of land and meadow in Thrus-cross aforesaid called heist andLongridge and Cothams and ac-cordingly to this court came WilliamBentley Guaine of the said forestand made his returns of the custo-mary tenants he has summoned as

by his writ he was commanded todo”.Just what all that means is hard to

work out, but one of the tenants in

questions was called Robert Atkin-

son.

A study of the various Quaker At-

kinson families of West Jersey,

USA, concludes that “John Atkin-son, founder of the line at presentunder consideration, was a Yorks-hireman who lived for many years

at Newby, but about 1659 removedto Thruscross in the same county,he was among the earliest of theconverts to the tenets of GeorgeFox in Yorkshire, and he had atleast two sons, both of whom cameto Pennsylvania (John and Tho-mas).”

One internet source claims to have

traced our Atkinson line all the way

back to Robert Atkinson (born

1689) of Yorkshire and Alice

Smurthet (born 1670) of Ripley,

who were indeed married on Ja-

nuary 14, 1709. But the information

isn’t very well substantiated, and so

I only include it here as a possibi-

lity.

The theory is that Robert and Alice

were the parents of Henry Atkin-

son who married Mary Parker

(born 1706) in Darley, Yorkshire in

1733. Henry Atkinson died in 1776.

All of these events are recorded,

and Darley is another of the villa-

ges on the map, just up the road

from Thruscross, but there doesn’t

seem to any reliable evidence to

suggest that there really was a link.

That is not to say that it isn’t quite

plausible.

It is also claimed that they had six

children:

Ann Atkinson (1736 – 1776), Ro-

bert Atkinson (1738 – 1739), a se-

cond Robert Atkinson after the first

had died (1740 – 1741), James At-

kinson (1742 – 1760), Henry At-

kinson (1744 – 1812) and Alice

Atkinson (1748 – 1749).

Again, I can only assume that there

is evidence somewhere to support

this, because I have not found it.

Typical Darley countryside

107

Henry Atkinson (1744 - 1812) and Jane Meadley (1752 – 1806)It is then claimed that Robert and Alice’s son Henry Atkinson (born in 1744 in ne-

arby Hampsthwaite) was the one that was recorded as marrying in the same vi-

llage in 1769, as testified by the local parish records: “Mar. 27 Jas. lllingworthWit. Wm. Bramley, Fran. Graham � Henry Atkinson & Jane Meadley both ofthis par. by banns April 20.” The witnesses were Robert Petty and William Petty.This seems to be the first claim in the Atkinson line that really does seem likely

to be correct.

This couple definitely had two children, recorded in the Hampsthwaite parish re-

cords, Jane Atkinson (1773), who seems to have died just one year later. Then

came Henry Atkinson (1774).

It might seem unusual that they took four years to have their first child, but the

Hampsthwaite records also state that a Henry Atkinson was also father of Mary

Atkinson (1770), Thomas Atkinson (1771 – 1832), William Atkinson (1772 – ),

Ann Atkinson (1776 – ), Robert Atkinson (1780 – ) and James Atkinson (1782 –

1853).

That would be eight children in total. However, the possibly odd thing is that

Jane and Henry are registered to Henry Atkinson Jr. and the other six to simply

Henry Atkinson. Whether that matters is unclear, but maybe the other six were

born to a different Henry Atkinson of Thornthwaite. But I think that’s unlikely.

Henry and Jane would be likely to have their first child immediately after marr-

ying, and it seems odd that they should start having children precisely when this

other Henry Atkinson took a four-year break from producing offspring.

Henry died in 1812, six years after his wife Jane.

Hampsthwaite, with the

school on the left. One of

the village’s claims to fame

is having six consecutive

consonants in its name.

Henry Atkinson (1774 - ) and Elizabeth (1752 – 1806)

UK CENSUS 1851, THORNTHWAITE

UK CENSUS 1841, THRUSCROSSIt is their son Henry who continues our story, one of the two children who weredefinitely born to Henry and Jane. This Henry apparently married to a lady ca-lled Elizabeth (born 1784 in Ripon) and is the man who appears in the 1841

census as a farmer in Thurscross.

He is there with two children, Jane (1816) and James (1828). That’s a massive

gap between children, but that’s what it says on the census. Maybe there were

other children.

They had another child before Jane, Robert Atkinson (1815), who would be

Cordelia Atkinson’s father. The reason he doesn’t appear on this census is be-

cause he was already married by this point and appears elsewhere.

The address given is a curious one – Stone House. That is the name of the

Stone House Inn, in an isolated spot, but that still exists today.

But there is no indication here of any publican working at Stone House, just the

Metcalfe’s down the road at the Gate Inn (1699-1960).

After a bit of investigation (see following page), I have discovered that some un-

founded claims have been made as to the antiquity of the Stone House Inn. No

it hasn’t been an inn for three centuries, as some have claimed. In the early

19th century it was Henry Atkinson’s farmhouse.

In 1851, Henry and Elizabeth are still around, now recorded as living just up the

road in Thornthwaite, now on their own. There seems little doubt that these

are the same people, so it is curious that Henry now gives his profession as a

‘retired shoemaker’ and not a farmer as he was before.

But his son, Robert, who lived at Stone House after Henry moved back

to his home village, was recorded as both a farmer and shoe maker,

which shows that the Atkinsons were both.

Henry Atkinson died a year after that entry was made, aged 78.

I can’t work out what became of either James or Jane, their two youn-

ger children.

There are Atkinsons called James and Jane all over the place for the

next few decades, many of which don’t give any more accurate place

of birth than ‘Yorkshire’ and there are none that are immediately ob-

vious as being either of them.

Neither can I find any further record of his wife Elizabeth, who must

have died fairly shortly after.

Henry Atkinson

1744

Jane Meadley

Jane Atkinson

1773

Henry Atkinson

1774

Elizabeth Atkinson

~1784

Robert Atkinson

~1815 - 1891

Harr iet Atkinson

~1816 - 1880

Sarah Ann Atkinson

~1837

Elizabeth Atkinson

~1839

Mary Atkinson

~1842

Henry Atkinson

~1847

James Atkinson

~1849

Cordelia Atkinson

~1849 - 1913

William Watson

1851 - 1883

Jane Atkinson

~1816

James Atkinson

~1828

108

THE STONE HOUSE INN, THRUSCROSS - THE TRUE STORY

Henry Atkinson was a farmer and cobbler who in 1841 was living at a

place called Stone House in Thruscross. In 1851, his oldest son, Ro-

bert was doing the same there, with his wife, Harriet.

Nowadays, this is the site of the Stone House Inn, which was almost

closed down in 2005. As one story explained at the time “In these daysof doom and gloom it's heartening to hear of something that's goneright for a change. “The Stone House Inn, at Thruscross, two miles upthe Pateley Bridge road from Blubberhouses, has been serving thelocal community for three centuries. It was closed three years ago bythe previous owners who claimed it was no longer viable as a pub andwas due to be turned into houses. The locals mobilised, opposing theplan and Harrogate Council finally rejected the redevelopment. TheRawson family from North Leeds bought the place and reopened it inFebruary as a non-smoking pub.”Another report of the story explains that “The Stone House Inn hasexisted as a public house for at least 300 years and is thought to havebeen an old coaching house before that. A Joe Topham is known tohave sold home-brewed ginger beer there at 2d a pint in the early 19th

century and later applied for a beer licence. In 1869 a Jesse Peel took over, ins-talled a brewing plant and also sold beer wholesale on a dray. One of his des-cendants, Edith Townson, who is 90 this year, still lives nearby.”However, it really does seem that the claim that the inn had been serving the

community for three centuries is just the kind of typical historical claim that has

no basis in fact.

Our own ancestors lived there in the early 19th century, where they were both

farmers and cobblers, but nowhere is there any indication that Stone House

served food or drink to the public, and there is no census reference to it being

an inn, coaching house or anything of the sort until the aforementioned Jesse

Peel was there in the 1871 census. And the people could smoke.

Yet another site gives a slightly different version of the history of Stone House.

This one, ‘Pubs and Inns in Nidderdale and the Washburn Valley’ says that

“The Stone House was originally an 18th century built farm until in 1868 whenJesse Peel (whose brother John ran the nearby Gate Inn) was granted a li-cence and ran the pub for forty five years.”This version of events does make sense. John Peel at the Gate Inn, which

existed until 1960, does indeed appear on the census.

On the reopening of the Stone House Inn, as the first non-smoking pub in the

Dales, Thruscross Parish Meeting chairman, retired local farmer, John Verity,

said: “There have been enough difficulties in the countryside with local ame-nities disappearing. The Stone House Inn has been a local meeting place forhundreds of years and people wanted it to remain open. We are delighted thatthis is the case.”It’s nice to see the Stone House Inn open again, but the misguided claims that

it has been serving drinks for 300 years is also wiping out the history of Henry

and Robert’s noble attempts to run a farm and cobble shoes, which is what

was really happening at Stone House in the early 19th century.

It has been an inn since about 1869. Before that, it was the Atkinsons farm. Let

it not be remembered for something it was not.

109

Robert Atkinson (1815 – 1891) and Harriet Atkinson (1816 – 1880)

UK CENSUS 1841, THRUSCROSS GREEN

UK CENSUS 1851, STONE HOUSE, THRUSCROSS

UK CENSUS 1861, EAST GATE, THRUSCROSS

UK CENSUS 1871, EAST GATE, THRUSCROSS

UK CENSUS 1881, ROTTEN ROW, THRUSCROSS

UK CENSUS 1891, ROTTEN ROW, THRUSCROSS

Pretty much all that is left of Thruscross these days -

derelict and abandoned buildings.

Robert Atkinson is a kind of missing link that tied the whole of Florence

Watson’s mother’s past together.

In 1841, he was not living with his parents, for he had already married

to a lady called Harriet, whose maiden name I have not managed to

work out. I can’t find any Harriet of any surname born, as she states, in

Thruscross. In 1841, they already had their first two children, six year old

Sarah and two-year old Elizabeth.

They are living just two homes away from Stone House, where the se-

nior Atkinsons were living, theirs being one of a number of homes listed

under Thruscross Green, a place where in 2005 “signs of possible pre-historic settlement, in the form of hut circles and carved rocks” were dis-covered.

Apparently “the name Thruscross seems to have been derived eitherfrom the Norse name of Thorin or the Anglo Scandinavian Thur or Thorand combined with cross which may relate to a boundary, landowners-hip or waymarker.”There is not much left there now, almost all of the houses are now de-

relict.

In 1851, Robert’s parents had moved back to Thornthwaite, and it is

now he himnself, Robert, who is living at Stone House.

And the entry also clears up the mystery of Robert Atkinson’s father’s

contrasting professions. Robert has obviously taken over where his re-

tired father left off, and is now a ‘farmer and shoemaker’, so they did

both. And he could even take on a local apprentice in John Moorhouse,

who was living with them.

Once again there is no reference whatsoever to Stone House being an

inn, it was merely the farm, which substantiates the idea that it didn’t

really become an inn until Jesse Peel got his licence in 1869.

Robert and Harriet have all their children with them in 1851. After two

daughters to begin with, they then had two more.

First came Mary and then Cordelia. They seem to have made a right

pig’s ear of trying to work out how to write her name, here it seems to

be Kordeliah or something like that, the first of a number of different

spellings she would have over the years. Finally, came two sons, Henry

and James.

110

Attention all, baith great an' small,

An' doan't screw up your feaces;

While I rehearse i' simple verse,

A count o' Pateley Reaces.

Fra all ower moors they com by scores

Girt skelpin' lads an' lasses;

An' cats an' dogs, an' coos an' hogs,

An' horses, mules an' asses.

Awd foaks were thar, fra near an' far,

At couldn't fairly hopple;

An' laffin' brats, as wild as cats,

Ower heeads an' heels did topple.

The Darley lads arrived i' squads,

Wi' smiles all ower their feaces;

An' Hartwith youths, wi' screwed-up mooths,

In wonder watched the reaces.

Fra Menwith Hill, and Folly Gill,

Thorngat, an' Deacon Paster,

Fra Thruscross Green, an' t' heets were seen

Croods coomin' thick an' faster.

All kinds and sorts o' games an' sports,

Had Pateley chaps provided,

An' weel did t' few their business do

At ower 'em all persided.

'T'wad tak a swell a munth to tell

All t' ins an' t' oots o' t' reaces,

Hoo far they ran, which horses wan,

An' which were back'd for pleaces.

Awd Billy Broon lost hauf a croon

Wi' Taty-Hawker backin',

For Green Crag flew, ower t' hurdles true,

An' wan t' match like a stockin'.

An' Creaven Lass won lots o' brass,

Besides delightin' t' Brockils,

An' Eva danc'd, an' rear'd and pranc'd;

An gif she stood o' cockles.

But t' donkey reace were star o' t' pleace,

For awd an' young observers;

'Twad meade a nun fra t' convent run

An' ne'er again be nervous.

Young pronsy flirts, i' drabbl'd skirts,

Like painted peeacocks stritches;

While girt chignons like milkin'-cans

On their top-garrits perches.

Lile pug-nosed Nell, fra Kettlewell,

Com in her Dolly Vardin,

All frill'd an' starch'd she proodly march'd

Wi' squintin' Joe fra Bardin.

Tha're mushroom fops, fra' fields an' shops,

Fine cigarettes were sookin',

An' lots o' youths, wi' beardless mooths,

All kinds o' pipes were smookin'.

An' when at last the sports were past,

All heamward turn'd their feaces;

To ne'er relent at e'er they spent

A day wi' Pateley Reaces.

PATELEY REACES(Anonymous traditional Yorkshire poem)

Over the next decade there was a massive exo-

dus of Atkinson children. All of the girls and James

as well were gone by the time of the 1861 census.

They had also left the Stone House and were li-

ving at a place called East Gate.

Robert no longer appears to be farming, he is just

a shoe maker, and his son Henry is working with

him. Absolutely nothing had changed when the

1871 census was conducted. Same three people,

same jobs, same house.

Harriet died in 1880, leaving Robert a 65 year old

widower, and it was probably because of that that

one of their daughters, 42 year old Elizabeth, who

still hadn’t married, moved in as their housekee-

per, while her father and brother continued making

shoes (and now boots as well).

They are now living in the delightfully named Rot-

ten Row, which may actually be the same place

they lived in before, if not it wouldn’t be very far

away.

Rotten Row still exists in some form today. A hi-

king/jogging online forum suggests the following

route “Park at Thruscross reservoir car park. Runover dam, follow road up for about 1km. Take leftgate/un-signed path, above Rotten Row houses,over rough ground, head to water tower, followpath to Padside Green.”By the time of the 1891 census, Robert was in his

mid seventies, and was no longer making shoes,

having left the business in the hands of his 44 year

old son Henry, who was still single, as was Eliza-

beth, who was now 52 and still the housekeeper.

That was Robert’s last census entry. He died in

June 1891, aged 76.

Cordelia Atkinson (1844 – 1913)

UK CENSUS 1871, 53, BOWLAND STREET, MANNINGHAM, BRADFORD

UK CENSUS 1861, VICTORIA STREET, BRADFORD

UK CENSUS 1911, 35, VICTORIA ROAD, SALTAIRE

There is very little to be said about Florence Watson’s mother that

hasn’t already been told either in this section on the Atkinsons or

in the section on her husband William Watson.

She gives three different places of birth on different censuses:

Thruscross, Fewston and West End, all of which are part of the

same general cluster of villages, but it seems that Stone House

was her childhood home.

By the time of the 1861 census, she had left her country life be-

hind her and was a live-in servant for the Read family in the West

End of Bradford. I can’t read what the head of the household, Ben-

jamin Read did, but he was employing six men and three ap-

prentices. He and his wife had four daughters aged 4, 3, 1 and a

newborn baby who didn’t appear to even have a name yet. She

was just called ‘baby’.

In 1871, Cordelia was 26 at the time of the census, and was now

living in the Manningham district of Bradford, lodging at 53, Bo-

wland Street and working as a dress maker. She was sharing the

flat with another dress maker called Frances Maria Hudd , who must have been a

friend and/or colleague.

A bit of a touchy issue this one. Cordelia and her friend may well have been making

dresses, but it is also correct to say that in 19th century censuses, ladies often used

the terms ‘dressmaker’ and ‘seamstress’ as euphemisms for a slightly less reputa-

ble trade. I’m not saying Cordelia was a prostitute, just that ... well, it’s not a possi-

bility we can completely ignore.

A year later she married, in September 1872, to William Watson, who we know was

from a family of millers, but he himself was working as a blacksmith’s assistant.

William was born in 1851, meaning Cordelia was actually seven years older than

he was.

And here something curious happens. Because in the next census, that of 1881,

Cordelia is suddenly giving her age as 32. There is no way she was 32, she would

have been about 36 or 37 at the time, in keeping with her previous census entries.

111

There is no doubt that we have the right people here.

Even though they were now living in London, Cordelia gives her correct

birthplace, as does William, and they have their two children Florence and

Hettie.

Especially with Cordelia being such an unusual name, there can be no

confusion here – it looks like Cordelia, who was seven years older than

her husband, simply lied about her age.

Whether this was to impress her husband, to impress the Watsons, or had

something to do with her ‘dressmaking’, we do not know.

It is particularly interesting that her own daughter, Florence, also seems

to have knocked a few years off her age when she got married to George

Fisk. So was Florence just putting into practice a little family trick she had

learned off her mother?

It seems that the London experience was something of a disaster all

round, and Cordelia and William were back in Yorkshire by 1883, when for

some reason, William died and left Cordelia a widow at the age of 39 with

nine year old Florence and six year old Hettie to bring up on her own.

However, the 1911 census asks additional questions, one of which is not

just how many children a person had, but also how many they had had

that had died.

And here Cordelia states that she had two living children, but also three

that had died (none of them at birth).

I have no record of who any of these were, or when they were born, or

when they died, but they must all have died very young because they

never appeared on any of her census entries.

And then in the 1891 census, now back living in Shipley, Cordelia is a

dress maker once more, her two daughters are working in the mills, and

she has returned to using her correct age once again, 46.

In 1901, Cordelia was now retired, which seems quite unusual, as she

presumably didn’t have that much money to fall back on, but perhaps her

daughters, who were both in their twenties and still living with their mum

in Shipley while working in the mills, were supporting her.

By the time of the 1911 census, both Cordelia’s daughters had married

and left home. She was now living on her own on what she describes as

‘private means’ at 35, Victoria Road, Saltaire.

Both of her daughters had manged to marry surprisingly well considering

their troubled and humble background. Hettie married Ernest Bovingdon,

and lived in Shipley, where she even had a private servant looking after

her, so she could probably manage to send some money her mother’s

way as well.

Florence, meanwhile, had married George Fisk and in 1907 they left for

China. Cordelia was about 63 when Florence set sail, and it was probably

the last time she saw her daughter.

In 1913, Cordelia died in Shipley at the age of 69.

The other children of Robert Atkinson and Harriet AtkinsonFlorence Watson’s mother Cordelia was the fourth

child and fourth daughter of Robert Atkinson and

Harriet. Two brothers came after her.

Sarah Ann Atkinson the oldest of the four girls,

born in 1837. In 1851 she was 14, and still at

school, which was quite unusual for a girl of her

age in rural Victorian Yorkshire. Not that all that

education seemed to do her much good, because

by the time of the 1861 census, she was no more

than a humble housemaid, having moved to the big

lights of Manningham, where Cordelia would also

move a few years later. She and a German cook

called Johanna Luders were serving John Koppel

and his wife Mathilde, who were from Germany but

now ‘naturalised British subjects’. John was a

worsted merchant.

Sarah was still serving in 1861, this time for the

Dale family in Claremont, Bradford. The Dales ran

what seems to have been a fairly large printing, bo-

okbinding and bookselling business. Despite ha-

ving four daughters of adult age living with them

and seemingly not working, they felt it better to em-

ploy Sarah and a cook to do all the housework.

In 1881, she had moved to Skipton, not far away

from Kildwick, where all the Watsons had come

from (William Watson would marry her sister). She

was living at Carla Beck House, and serving Her-

bert Salt, who was the son of none other than

Tutus Salt himself, the owner of Salt’s Mill.

An internet site about Saltaire says that “the life ofHerbert Salt (1840 - 1912) followed a different pathto those of his siblings. Born on the 28th birthdayof his mother Caroline, Herbert - like several of his

brothers - was educated at Mill Hill School,London. Unlike his brothers, he did not jointhe textile company of his father Titus. Ins-tead he took up farming, an occupation hepursued for many years. The early 1870sfound Herbert running a farm on the Beau-lieu estate in the New Forest. He subse-quently moved to the Yorkshire Dales,living at Carla Beck House, a mansionwhich still stands outside Carleton, nearSkipton.” Herbert Street in Saltaire isnamed after him.

Herbert moved to London shortly after that,

where he married Elizabeth Farrell, and

after having four children, his wife died,

whereupon he married his wife’s sister,

who also died shortly after.

As for his former housemaid, Sarah Ann Atkinson, I

have no idea what became of her.

Elizabeth Atkinson (1839) moved to Shipley and

also became a servant, at Shipley Hall, built by Sir

Edward Leche in the 1630, and owned at the time

by a merchant called Thomas Arton. That was where

she was registered in 1861, while in 1871, by which

time she was 30, she was still a servant and still in

Shipley, but now for a George Hargreaves at 18,

Bradford Road.

A decade later, her mother Harriet had recently died,

and still unmarried, she returned to Thruscross to

keep house for her father and younger brother

Henry. When her father Robert also died, she sta-

yed there with her brother Henry, and brother and

sister, who never appear to have married, were still

living together in their late father’s house in 1901,

both now in their sixties.

Mary (1842) I have nothing on after she was nine

years old in the 1851 census. Maybe she died

young, or maybe she married, but I have no record

of either.

After Cordelia came the first son, Henry (1847). He

never left Thruscross. He helped his father with the

farm and the shoemaking, and then carried on doing

the same after Robert retired, and also after he died.

His sister Elizabeth came home to serve the family

when their mother died, and in 1901 they were still

there, Elizabeth keeping house and her brother far-

ming and making shoes.

James (1849) was only 13 at the time of the 1851

census, but doesn’t appear with the family and there

is no further record of him, so he most probably died.

Shipley Hall, where Elizabeth Atkinson was once a servant, and now a nursing home.

Carla Beck House, where Sarah Ann Atkinson served one of Titus Salt’s sons.

112

THE SUBMERGING OF THRUSCROSS AND WEST ENDIf Cordelia Atkinson were alive today, and decided to take a visit to her

childhood home, she would have a shock.

She wouldn’t be surprised to see that Stone House was now an inn.

Jesse Peel started serving ale there way back in 1869, and Cordelia

herself probably went in there from time to time when she was visiting

her brother Henry and sister Elizabeth, who still lived in Thruscross in

the 20th century.

What would shock her, though, would be the view. She would remem-

ber looking down from the Stone House on the valley below, over the

villages of Thruscross and the church at West End. But now they are

gone, and in there place is a reservoir.

In 1960, Yorkshire Water decided to flood the valley and create Thrus-

cross Reservoir. The work was completed in 1966, and West End and

most of Thruscross disappeared underwater.

The villages had been in decline for a century, all the way back to the

Atkinsons’ times. One website explains that “in 1960, the axe whichhad been poised over the village of West End finally fell and a startwas made on the Thruscross scheme.“West End could look back on an attractive past and a small measureof former importance. In the early nineteenth century, five waterwheelshad turned in this stretch of the valley, at mills working cotton, hempand corn. “As the water rose to inundate some 142 acres, it submerged the littleGate Inn of 1699 [the one run by John Peel, brother of Jesse Peel atthe Stone House], the small village school which had begun as a dameschool and the picturesque chapel of 1688 which gained church status

Cottages in West End. These were demolished to make way for the cons-

truction of Thruscross Reservoir. When the reservoir water level falls it is

possible to see the foundations of the old buildings.

in the nineteenth century. “Prior to the flooding, the remaining housesin West End were demolished, the villagerswere rehoused and a new church was builtabove the high water mark from stones re-moved from a ruined West End mill. “A century of decline and uncertainty cameto an end in the valley, which had oncebustled to the clatter of water-powered millgear, slumbered in the silence of a chain ofartificial lakes.”“As an industrial village, West End was do-omed before the administrators of Leedscast their gaze upon it, and the decay wasapparent in 1895 when Bradley wrote thatthe day of what he now saw as a dreamyhamlet had long departed:“The mills which formerly gave it some im-portance are now at rest, haven fallen intodecay, and are gradually approaching utterruin.” “At the cost of the disruption of a few va-lley households, some fine monuments toindustrial archaeology and the beauty of aPennine valley, the citizens of the teemingconurbation to the south were able to drinkmore deeply. “The Thruscross decision may well havebeen a right one, but one wonders howmany other little valley communities maylive unwittingly in the shadow of a thirstymetropolis?”

Photo taken a year before the valley was flooded. The interior fittings of the Holy Trinity Church, the

altar, pulpit, font and stained glass windows, were removed for incorporation in a new church builds a

few hundred yards uphill. Many of the bodies in the graveyard, which would have included some At-

kinsons, were exhumed and are now in a cemetery on the Greenhow Hill Toad.

The last service was held by candlelight on Monday, October 11th.

towards the water. Cross the footbridge. West End Low Mill, shown in the picture below, was closed in 1850.Part of it still sticks out above the water (right).

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In years of drought, such as the one in 1990 shown in the picture, Thruscross Reservoir becomes quite an attraction when the water level drops

and the remains of the sunken villages reemerge. The picture shows how the old bridge is still standing.

ROUND BY DEEP WATERWalking round Thruscross,

from the tops of pines

we heard the sighs

of drowned lives

whispering the names of lost fields.

Mary Sara 2005

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