Betty Dewhirst visited her grandmother at weekends, who lived opposite The Alma Inn during the 1930s and 1940s.
Interview date:
Betty was interviewed by Ruth Beazley in 2025.
I was born in 1933 and would visit my grandmother nearly every weekend. She used to live in a cottage opposite The Alma at Cottonstones (Four Lane Ends). This was from when I was five in 1938, through the war years until I was 11. My Grandmother was still there when I got married and had my first child.
My grandfather was John William Dewhirst. He and Louisa, my grandmother, had four children, all born at The Alma. They were Frances May (called May), John William (my father), Winifred and Horace.
Winnie and May both married and moved away from Mill Bank. Horace lived in Mill Bank all his life. He married Isabelle (Belle) Atkinson, and their son was Stuart, who became a chef and worked in different areas, before coming back to Mill Bank and working for the NHS in catering management. He died aged 66 in about 2014.
John William married Pamela Doris Blackburn, and they ran the Railway Hotel in Halifax where I grew up with my sister Margaret.
Grandma owned lots of cottages. When we were young, she had a little red rent notebook and a special pencil which she licked (a copying ink) when people came to pay the rent. In much earlier years my father used to be sent round to collect the rents. He was only a kid and resented having to do that job. He hated it. Dewhirsts had owned these properties since the 18th century. I used to feel they had ‘grown out of the soil’. They had earthen floors and were just part of the landscape.
At different times the Dewhirst family owned Upper Claypitts Farm, the cottages at Four Lane Ends, The Alma, and Upper Lumb.
My father’s uncle and aunt, Jonas and Beatrice Dewhirst lived at Upper Lumb. I think they were brother and sister.
My uncle Horace and Belle moved to Upper Claypitts from Pleasant View during the war, when it was necessary to inhabit and work the farm to avoid it being requisitioned by the Government.
Horace was a joiner before he started farming, and he had a workshop in a field above the farm, on the corner by Pleasant View.
Belle’s father worked at Kebroyd Mills. They lived opposite The Beehive Inn and left home to catch the 6am bus every working day. They moved opposite The Alma eventually. They’d come home exhausted and only had candles to light the house.
Belle’s mum, Mrs Atkinson, used to forage for food and caught fish (trout). She was considered quite an expert on plants and she made potions. She was a dab hand at growing geraniums, and she used to go collecting herbs. She was a really lovely kind woman and was much admired. Life was taken at a slower pace then.
Belle’s dad’s cousin Joe Broadbent with his dog
We had oil lamps and granny trimmed them every morning and there was a shop at Lighthazles where we went to get Paraffin – Mrs Riley’s.
We used to draw pails of water from the well in the garden. There was a stone-built hut which was the outside toilet and ‘Shit Jim’ used to empty it. We had a two-hole seat with a small one for the children and a larger one for the adults. It all smelled very sweet and was keep very clean with a white powder – which I think was probably lime. It was shared by the four cottages, and they would take turns in cleaning it.
There was a wash house with a big mangleA mechanical mangle (or wringer) is a laundry tool that uses rotating rollers to either squeeze water out of wet clothing or to press and smooth clean fabrics like sheets and tablecloths and granny would put out the washing to dry in the garden. There wasn’t much ironing. We slept on it. The flat sheets would be put under the mattress to smooth them out. Irons were flat irons heated on the fire.
Staying with my grandmother was wonderful. We had such freedom – there were no rules. After breakfast we would go off and play and might not come back till night. She never worried.
I was friends with the Radcliffe’s daughter at Lower Clay Pitts, Pat’s Pantry, in the 1950s and into the 1960s. Like a lot of children on local farms, she had chores to do before she could play out. I’d get bored waiting for her but once she had finished we were free.
I remember the Anchor Pub and a fish and chip shop a bit lower down [at Berry’s corner]. All the youngsters would sit on the wall near the fish shop and do a bit of courting. We would take grandma a fish back, which she liked. It was lovely.
We also tickled for troutTrout tickling is the art of rubbing the underbelly of a trout with fingers. If done properly, the trout will go into a trance after a minute or so, and can then easily be retrieved in the stream, and Mrs Atkinson (Auntie Belle’s mother) would cook them.
I was considered a ‘townie’ from the big city – well it was Halifax – but we had the ‘New Look’ in clothes after the war. The Mill Bank children came out to see us. My mum used to make all our clothes. She was a fantastic dress maker. She had a Singer treadle machineSinger treadle sewing machines were entirely mechanical that used a foot-operated pedal and a leather belt to power the mechanism and then she got a smaller electric one which she loved.
Reggie Weir had a riding school or stables which was before our time and there’s some pictures of Auntie Belle and her sister Olive and their cousin Edna with Reggie’s horses.
Olive Atkinson and Reggie Weir on horseback
Auntie Belle introduced us to Lighthazles Methodist ‘New Connection’ Chapel when we were quite small and we went to their Sunday School. We were always welcome.
Auntie Belle once dressed as the Vicar in the Sunday School cast of ‘The Wedding of the Painted Doll’ around 1920.
Belle Atkinson dressed as the Vicar in the play ‘The Wedding of the Painted Doll’ around 1920
The people who bought the farm after that I think were dentists in Halifax. They were good neighbours to Horace and Belle.
The Fishlocks lived at the farm higher up. Stuart used to help on the farm and we all enjoyed harvest time, although I lost an earring in the hay field!
Stuart Dewhirst on Bob Fishlock’s horse
We have a very big family chest from the 1600s, owned by my grandfather, which was sold together with one of the farms. My grandfather would not let my father have the chest, so my father went to the farm sale and bought it. It was in my grandma’s sitting room at the cottage for many years. We never knew what she kept in it. She was very secretive, and we thought maybe she kept diamond rings in it, but we never saw them! When she died, my father arranged for it to be loaned to Shibden Hall. It is still there on display in the dining room, and it belongs to me and my sister.
My sister and I were very close. We were like twins and still are. She’s 92 now. Belle lived till she was 90 as well.
