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How
It All Happened
A study of the legal deeds of Lindley Liberal Club gives an insight into how the club has developed from small beginnings into the large and successful club of today. The first entry we find was on July 21st, 1887, when land known as "The Acres" comprising of about 780sq. yards and owned by Mr Thomas Hey, a local grocer, was sold to Lindley Liberal Building Company Ltd for £195. The land purchased at that time did not include the present bowling green nor the spare land nearby. The stalwarts, who signed for and on behalf of Lindley Liberal Building Company Ltd on that historic day, were chairman Frederick William Sykes, Secretary Henry Kilner, and trustees Mr Arthur Walker and Mr Joel Crosland. Building commenced at once and the foundation stone laid the following month on August 9th, 1887. The club came into use the following year. In 1891 the club was registered with the friendly societies as Lindley Liberal Working Men's Club.
We move on to December 28th, 1910 when Lindley Liberal Building Company Ltd sold the building and land to Lindley Liberal Club for the princely sum of £500. The building was subject to "Trust" clauses. Quote: We are therefore still committed by the deed to permit the Liberal Party access and use of the club premises for political purposes. At this time the number of trustees required was no less than seven and no more than seventeen. There is no mention of committee or officials. On August 1st, 1910 deeds were signed on behalf of the club with Mr Frederick William Sykes, Green Lea, Lindley for the land situated on the bottom side of the club. To be used as a bowling green and tennis courts. The rent under agreement being a "peppercorn". This must be handed over on Christmas day each year. This has been done "religiously" every year. The club are not allowed to build on the land. The club were responsible for all road repairs halfway across Daisy Lea Lane and Occupation Road, until both highways were adopted by Huddersfield Highways Department. The club must have ticked along nicely for the next entry of note being April 14th, 1965 when the club borrowed £2,500 from Samuel Webster Ltd. With a further £3,500 available if required, for alterations and improvements. The interest rate charge, being ½ % under current bank rate. The trustees who signed for the club at this time were Mr Dennis Peel, Leonard Walker, Harry Cropper and Fred Donkersley. The debt was paid in full on April 14th 1970. On August 18th 1969 outline planning permission was obtained for further extensions and alterations. On February 17th 1970 a resolution was passed at a special general meeting that the club borrow £18,000 from Bass North Ltd. The resolution was proposed by Mr Harold Taylor, seconded by Mr Stanley Ling. On April 24th 1970 agreement was reached with Bass North Ltd to borrow £18,000. The sum borrowed at 1% above the current bank rate and to be paid back at £100 per month. In accordance with a letter of agreement with the Brewery of the same date, the club honoured its obligation to follow certain trading agreements and concessions and as a result Bass Yorkshire Ltd waived all payments of interest chargeable on the loan. The total sum repaid on September 15th 1983 when Bass Ltd handed back the deeds of the club. The trustees signing on this occasion were Mr Leonard Walker, Mr Ernest Fearnley, Mr John Nestor and Mr Ronald Oldroyd. Lindley Clock Tower
Lindley Clock Tower was commissioned in 1901 by Mr James Nield Sykes, Mr Sykes was a well known local businessman. His support of local charities and gifts to his native village of Lindley were well known. The Clock Tower was probably his most well known gift. The structure is unique and familiar landmark, which can be seen from many parts of Huddersfield. The tower is situated in a commanding position at the junction of five roads, Lidget Street, Acre Street, Plover Road, Daisy Lea Lane and Occupation Road. The tower is built of a finely textured local stone. The concave pagoda roof is covered with copper which with weathering etc; is now green. The mullions, gargoyles and sculptures are all carved from the same fine textured local stone. The clock faces are 6 ½ feet in diameter with roman numerals, and plain hands. Originally the clock was fitted with a Cambridge and Westminster chimes which tolled every quarter and full hour. In 1969 the mechanism was found to be badly worn and was replaced by the clock mechanism from the old Market Hall Tower, which was situated in King Street, Huddersfield, and had been demolished the same year. The replacement mechanism did not have any chimes or strike the hour. This did not suit the good people of Lindley. They organised an appeal and the then local authority installed new chimes in 1971. The tower was designed by Mr Edgar Wood A.R.I.B.A. Mr T. Stirling Lee, who worked regularly for Edgar Wood, was responsible for all the sculptures and copper work. The dimensions of the tower make one realise the strength of the building. The tower is 83 feet high. The walls are 2 feet thick. It is squarely built and the width of the sides including the buttresses at the corners is 11 feet. The tower was completed in December 1902, and the estimated cost being between £3,000 and £4,000. The clock was officially started on Christmas Eve, 1902 by Miss Mary Alice Sykes, the draughter of James Nield Sykes. The significance of the many sculptures which adorn the tower are of interest and may not be known by many. The group sculptures over the doorway has, as its central figure, TIME, standing on a winged world, and holding his scythe and hour glass. He is shown to be moving straight ahead, turning to either left or right and to be in full youth, never growing old. On his right is a figure of YOUTH sowing seed and on his left is OLD AGE reaping. Above the figure of TIME is a winged figure standing on clouds and recording the acts of time while enshrined in the niche of ETERNITY. Near the tops of the four buttresses and level with the clock faces are figures representing the eternal virtues. Facing east is TRUTH with the book of truth, and reflecting in her mirror, Christ crucified. Her foot is on a serpent representing falsehood. LOVE is the figure facing south. She is shown bearing her child in her arms over thorny paths of life. Facing west is PURITY with dove and purifying torch, crowned with bay leaves and standing on "The Flowing River". The fourth buttress figure is JUSTICE holding her scales perfectly balanced, and her sword, with her feet on oppression and vice. The four seasons are shown on the frieze. A blossoming almond symbolises SPRING, a rose, SUMMER, an apple AUTUMN and holly WINTER. The four gargoyles on the four corners of the roof represent the beasts fleeing from the tower of time. They are LAZY DOG, the VICIOUS DOG, the CUNNING DOG and the GREEDY DOG. If one studies the seasons portrayed on the frieze it will be seen that they are linked to the solar pattern. Winter which sees little sun is on the northern frieze, spring, which heralds longer days and earlier sunrise is on the eastern frieze to receive the morning sun. Summer sees the longest days is on the south frieze. Autumn is on the western frieze where it receives the afternoon sun. In conclusion I would add that the Lindley Clock Tower is more than a time piece. It is a beautiful building of which the people of Lindley are rightly proud.
Nineteenth Century Lindley Probably the best way of studying the development of Lindley and its immediate neighbourhood around that part of the nineteenth century when liberalism in the village flourished and the liberal club was erected on its present site in 1887 is to study the two Ordnance Survey maps of the district applicable to that era. The earlier of the two is dated 1854, the other 1893. Therefore we have a survey each side of the erection of the club. The earlier map 1854 shows that Lindley was already a small village and mainly confined to Lidget Street, West Street and East Street ( then known as Long Lane which was possibly also the name of West Street) Marsh, Oakes and Salendine Nook were each small hamlets. Quarmby was larger than these three but almost entirely restricted to the fold. Another hamlet was situated at Burn, the district we now know as Birchencliffe. The remaining land was pasture or woodland, moorland or waste. However, the industrial revolution had already had its effect on the district as can be seen by the presence in Lindley of Acre Mills, at that time shown as a woollen mill, Temple Street Mills, Plover Mills and Plover Mill Dye works, the latter on the site of the present Wellington Mills. The road on which each of them stood was named Sparks Lane running from Oakes Road South ( then called Oakes Lane) to the crossroads beside St. Stephens Church. This shifting of the textile industry from cottages to the mills can also be seen by the presence in Marsh of factories at Hollin Carr and one near the bottom of what is now Carr Street, not then existent. In the fields adjacent to all the mills we find "tenters"- frames used for stretching cloth to dry. Industry was also to be found by the presence of Grimescar Colliery in the deep bend of Grimescar Road and Action Flats Colliery off Lindley Moor Road. There was also a colliery in the land above Field Tops with an adjacent sandstone quarry. Education represented by only one building, the National School sited in a corner of St. Stephens Churchyard. In those days of course the churches were the forefront in instructing the working classes and in addition to St. Stephens, there were already in the village, Zion Methodist New Connexion Church and the Wesleyan Methodist Church on its existing site. The area on which the club now stands was named Trough. St. Stephens was its only immediate neighbour though as now five roads met there. Down Occupation Road there was only the Vicarage on one side of the road and a few cottages at Spring Place lower down on the opposite side of the road. Acre Mills and the Globe Inn stood in almost isolation amongst the fields that bordered Acre Street. Other inns marked on the 1854 map are the Fleece and Black Bull situated as now, plus the Red Lion in West Street near the top of Birchencliffe (Hill) Road. Salendine Nook consisted of only a few houses, plus the Baptist Church, the Spotted Cow, (opposite which there was a sandstone quarry) and the potteries up Laund Road then called Salendine Nook Road. Up Potovens Road( Moorhill Road) a lane went off into the fields and to a workhouse. Birchencliffe was described as Burn but Burn Road that now is was then Brian Lane and stretched from Halifax Road across Grimescar Road and up to Fixby Lodge. This land together with a parcel of land around the Warren House being classed as "Quarmby detached". A woollen mill with attending Tenter stood at the stone. There was a sandstone quarry down Yew Tree Lane below the existing Cricket Club. That then was, sketchily, the Lindley twenty three years prior to the building of the Liberal Club. Let us now note some of the changes that appear on the Ordnance Survey Map of 1893 by which time the Club had been operating for six years. Firstly, where the Clock Tower now stands had been erected four cottages, which were later demolished for the distinguished edifice which has become the symbol of Lindley. At the top of Occupation Road eight houses had been built, one of which, I believe, later became a fish and chip shop. There was no Black Horse marked as such on the map of 1893, but the Albion Inn now stood in Plover Road, the Bay Horse and Highgate Oaks on their present sites and at the bottom of Daisy Lea lane, a beer house, the Hope Inn. Along the village, Thorncliffe Street Methodist Reform Church had strengthened the Nonconformist presence, as did Oakes Baptist Church and Sunday School, erected between Wellington Street and Baker Street. The Liberal Club was pioneer of club life in the village because by 1893, Lindley W.M.C., Oakes W.M.C. and the Conservative Club, which is the building now used by Lindley Band, had still not been built. A brewery is shown occupying land at the junction of Weatherhill Road and West Street, while at the bottom of Long Lane (East Street) there appears Royd Steam Brewery a building which I can remember later as the workplace of a well known ice cream manufacturer whose name I recall but cannot spell, Ben M……….. |
