Author: Chris Page 3 of 6

On the 11th October the same year, I again led the Skelmnthorpe Reformers to Huddersfield to a great franchise demonstration. The first meeting was held in St. George’s Square. About 40,000 people were present. The speakers were W H Leatham, M.P., E A Leatham, M.P. and Charles Bradlaugh, M.P. They had put some large letters on my head which said I was a relic of the past. I was looked at with great interest as we marched through the crowded streets. My vanity was satisfied and I came home well pleased. 

The year is 1884 and the story is being told by none other than the Flag itself.

My dear old master wishes me to write the story of my life, he thinks no one can do it so well as I can, and, as I lay neatly folded in my cosy drawer I let my mind go back to the day of my birth, a day in October, 1819. So I am 107 years old. 

These quotes come from an article written by Fred Lawton, weaver and historian, for the 1926 edition of Hirst Buckley’s Annual. The Flag was made in Skelmanthorpe in 1819 in the wake of the Peterloo Massacre and Fred’s article is written entirely from the Flag’s perspective.

Fred’s article was reproduced in Huddersfield Local History Society’s Journal (Vol. 2, Spring 1991)

And there is more information about the Flag on Skelmanthorpe Historical Society‘s website

Writing to the Huddersfield Chronicle in December 1886, J.W. Scholes listed 17 suggestions which he thought could benefit the town. His was an ambitious list which included a free library, a public art gallery as well as a museum and comfortable waiting rooms with toilets in different places. However, two of his ‘improvements’ related to the railway station and one to the Square itself.

10.- Lavatories at the railway station for both ladies and gentlemen.

11.- A booking-office at both ends of the railway station for Tuesdays, Saturdays and busy days.

AND

17.-Fountains and trees in St George’s Square, with a statue of the Queen, in commemoration of the jubilee.

Huddersfield Chronicle, 16 December 1886

Mr Scholes was referring to the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria due to take place in the following year.

In the same week S. R. from Calton Street wrote to the Huddersfield Daily Examiner with his suggestion relating to the ‘clock at the station’.

SIR,- Will you kindly allow me a little space in your valuable paper, just to say when passing through St George’s Square, yesterday, and looking to where the clock should be, I could not help hoping that the next time it showed its face it would be accompanied by some fire (gas), not only to keep it warm, but at dark to light up its face, so that railway travellers might see the exact time, and it would also be a boon to the public.

At the Children’s Christmas Fairy and Electric Palace, which Messrs. H. B. Crawford and Co, (Limited), 28 Queen-street, have opened in St George’s-square, a veritable world in miniature is presented. Such a magnificent display of toys has never been seen in the town before. There are no less than 200,000 separate articles, and you can purchase anything from a half-penny doll to the more costly armoured train, made to wind up and go. Toy soldiers, including both Britons and Boers, guns, swords, drums, trumpets, &c., are much in evidence – in fact, a whole army of boys could easily be equipped at this establishment. The show is so vast and varied that it almost defies description, and must be seen in order to be fully comprehended

Huddersfield daily chronicle, 15 December 1900

Of the four businesses listed as being in Lion Arcade around 1856, two were owned by women. Mary Lombardini was recently widowed and seems to have carried on the family business for a short time. Her husband Jean Baptiste Lombardini had been born in Switzerland while Mary was from Holbeck in Leeds. Jean Baptiste was not only a carver and gilder but a print seller and ‘Geneva dealer’ and, while in Huddersfield, his business had moved from the Market Place to Westgate and then to Lion Arcade. At the time of the 1851 census Jean, Mary and their three daughters were living at 37 Trinity Street and Jean is described as a carver and gilder employing one man.

Ellen or Helen Ratcliffe had a draper’s shop in the Arcade but she obviously thought the most important thing about her business was that she was an agent to the Ladies’ Industrial Society of Ireland. Set up in 1847 as a response to the Great Irish Famine, this was one of a number of organisations set up to encourage the Irish ‘peasantry’ to turn to cottage industries such as lace making. Before she moved to Lion Arcade Helen had run her agency from premises in Northgate. She regularly advertised in the local press:

MISS HELEN RATCLIFFE begs to announce to the LADIES of Huddersfield and its Vicinity, that she has been appointed AGENT to the LADIES’ INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY FOR IRELAND, and has OPENED a DEPOSITORY at No. 103 NORTHGATE for the SALE of their Goods, which consist of 7-8, 4-4, 5-4 Linens; 6-4, 8-4, 9-4, 10-4, 12-4 Sheeting; 4-4, 5-4, Cloths, Towelling, Huckaback, Hollands, Rubbering, Ginghams, hands-on. Knitted and Netted Goods, Men’s Cotton Socks, fancy ribbed and plain; Ladies’ Mitts, Fancy Stockings, Balbriggan ditto, Knitted and Crochet Edgings, Crochet Caps and Collars, Babies’ Embroidered Robes and Caps, some beautiful Limerick Lace; Jacket Sleeves, Lappets, &c.; Embroidered-Cambric Handkerchiefs; some beautiful Irish Poplins.

Open from ten in the morning until six in the evening

Huddersfield and holmfirth examiner, 3 april1852

By December 1853 she was informing her customers that she would shortly be moving her business to Lion Arcade. In an advert in the same newspaper in August 1855 she describes her business as a ‘Baby Linen Warehouse’ now at Lion Arcade but again calls attention to the Goods of the Ladies’ Industrial Society of Ireland, reminding her customers that she is the Society’s Sole Agent in the district but adding that her stock is ‘remarkably cheap’.