Scissett, Yorkshire, England. Further historical information.

SCISSETT

SCISSETT, the village now known as Scissett was originally three or four scattered cottages and a corn mill in the bottom of the River Dearne valley in the parish of Emley. Early in the 19th century a local small time clothier bought this mill and as his business grew, he built houses near his factory for his weavers. Other houses quickly followed and the village came into being. A church dedicated to St Augustine was built in the late 1830's and consecrated in 1839 as a chapel in the parishes of Emley and High Hoyland. The village did not increase much in size in the later 19th century due to a depression in the textile trade but the turn of the century brought some revitalisation. The textile trade has now virtually disappeared from the area but other industries have taken over the buildings and Scissett, although small, still thrives.

Today, in Yorkshire the Textile industry is a mere shadow of its former self but in 1830, when this story really starts, the trade was going from strength to strength. One textile family out of the many was that of Benjamin Norton, a small time clothier in Scissett who not only wove himself but put out weaving to others. He supplied the raw material and marketed the finished goods out of which he paid the weaver. Benjamin's sons were brought up in the true textile tradition and knew every aspect of it and were all at one time or another, to make their mark in the local trade.

In 1825 one of them, Joseph, purchased the Highbridge Corn Mill and most of the land on which the village of Scissett was later to stand. Using the water power to drive scribbling and fulling machines he continued with the same method of business as his father, supplying the yarn to out weavers and collecting the finished goods. The out weavers at this time were situated in the older villages of the neighbourhood as they had always been, but the inconvenience and waste of time in carrying raw and finished materials backwards and forwards must have quickly become apparent, and as soon as funds were available, he built himself a row of 28 back-to-back houses much more convenient to his manufactory.

This row of houses was not planned in isolation but as the first principal street in a future larger development. This first row of houses was called Fleet Row and although much criticised a century later were, in their day, purpose built, designed with peoples' comfort in mind, an almost unheard of objective at that time in working class property.

Built two storeys high, the upper room was built to house the hand loom and weaving accessories. Large sash windows gave maximum light to all the rooms and the open flight of steps to the first floor led directly from the outside door giving easy access for the bringing in of raw material and the taking out of finished goods. A large trap door closed off the whole of the top storey whilst weaving was being done, all of these features being far in advance of contemporary thinking. Each house had its own well in the cellar, the feed for which was a natural spring and always said to be good water and, in addition, each house was provided with a pig sty.

However, trade fluctuated in the years immediately following and capital was not always available for further building and so the land to the east of Fleet Row was sold to an enterprising group who formed themselves into a Building Society and were to be responsible for all further development in that area. Saville Street and Water Street quickly followed but these houses were no longer planned with weaving in mind, for this occupation had, by now, almost entirely moved out of the home and into the mill.

During the next 30 years or so, the village thrived and grew. A number of ancillary trades grew up and the village had a wide variety of shops and three public houses and of course the fortunes of the Norton brothers, who had been the moving force behind this expansion, also grew.

Joseph Norton was not the only member of his family to make a success in the textile trade. His brother George was also a mill owner - brought up in the same practical way as his brother - both of them able to turn their hands to any task they would expect one of their operatives to do.

It was the common practice with textile men that, when they had elevated themselves from manufacturer to gentlemen, they left their Mill House and moved to a site at some distance from the mill but from which they could still see some part of it. In this tradition, Joseph built himself Nortonthorpe Hall and his brother George built Bagden Hall.

The two Norton brothers now employed between them about 1,000 operatives and the trade in which they were employed, along with many others in the immediate locality (mainly south-east of Huddersfield), was known as the 'Fancy Trade' and was fairly specialised.

One of the latest novelties amongst the aristocracy at this time was the fashion of wearing fancy waistcoats, a fashion which engendered a tremendous boom period which reached such proportions that many manufacturers described themselves as 'Fancy Waistcoat Manufacturers'

In the very early days, towards the end of the 18th century, this 'fancy' was no more than a bright spot or combination of spots in silk or coloured cotton - well within the scope of an experienced weaver. The intricacy of any textile pattern depends on the number of different working ends and the combination of that number which can be usefully employed. In a simple handloom, twelve such working ends is a good number - more than that invites certain complications.

By the early 19th century a device know as a 'witch' came onto the scene. Fixed onto the loom and working on the same principle as the pinned cylinder of a musical box, the 'witch' allowed an increase of up to 36 working ends. This was superseded about 1820 with an 'engine' - again fixed onto the loom but capable of working 160 working ends. Each of these improvements opened up vast areas of design to the enterprising manufacturer. With the 'witch' simple spots became small flowers and with the 'engine' the flowers grew to full foliage, animals and intricate tracery. Men were now employed solely to design work for other weavers and such men rose to prominence while better qualities of yarn and silk were called for to further extend the work.

By the mid 1820s a new machine was being discussed in the district - the Jacquard - a French invention which, because of the Revolution and the Napoleonic wars had been late in making its appearance in England. This machine still fitted onto the handloom, worked from punched cards and was capable of working 300 or more different working ends. It was now possible to weave almost anything.

One of these machines was exhibited at the George Hotel in Huddersfield in either 1830 or 31 but it was poorly received by the majority of manufacturers who were slow to adopt it. However, William Norton, another of Joseph's brothers, did see its potential and it may well have been with this in mind that William left his father and built his own Spring Grove Mill. Disastrously, though, the completion of Spring Grove Mills coincided with the worst slump that the trade had had to endure and William's business failed. However, a manufacturer in Almondbury recognised William's talent and took him into his employment. With their smallest Jacquard, having four hundred ends, they quickly eclipsed every other manufacturer by offering elaborate designs which no other Fancy Manufacturer could produce. Thus any of the other employers who wished to stay in business had to adopt the Jacquard whether they wanted to or not!

From that time the beauty of such cloths increased and only by examining the work of that time can one truly appreciate its quality. Amongst the greatest designing families of that time was that of Joseph Etchells, a Huguenot descendant who settled in Almondbury in 1796 and commenced business there. His sons and grandsons all became designers of the highest calibre and both Nortons employed one of them and they resided in the village.

The introduction by President McKinley of a tariff on wool and silk imports into the USA and the improvement in the printing of patterns caused the Fancy Trade to collapse almost overnight in 1895. Some local firms with decades of experience never recovered, others, like the Nortons, after a period of partial closure, recovered to start in another branch of the trade using the knowledge they had gained in following the Fancy trade. Thus was pile fabric weaving germinated and nourished in the district and Scissett and Skelmanthorpe became recognised as a centre for this branch of the industry.

SH note: If your ancestor is described as a 'clothier' he did NOT make or sell clothes. He was a hand loom weaver - working in his weaving loft above his own home. He was not an employee as such, although he may have been provided with raw materials and his output sold by a man such as Joseph Norton. But some handloom weavers bought their own yarn and sold their own 'pieces' in the Cloth Hall at Huddersfield or the Piece Hall at Halifax.

They were a fiercely independent breed of Yorkshiremen and many faced starvation or were forced to break up their looms for fuel before they would consent to working in the mill - an occupation that, to them, was more like penal servitude than a working life. (The above data for Scisset kindly researched by Shirley Herbert in June 1999).