People from Norland
Willie Lang
Mabel Cottingham
Walter Widdop
Willie Lang was born on 27th August 1919 at Hollin Well Cottage (1). His father, Arthur Gerald Lang, born in Halifax in 1876, was a mill mechanic, working for Clay & Horsfall, worsted spinners, at the Wharf and Regulator Mills in Sowerby Bridge. His mother, Esther was born in Luddenden Foot in 1895. William attended St Luke's School and started to play with Norland Band at the age of 10. When he was 12, the conductor of Bradford City Band, Harry Grace, commented "Where he lives, up at Norland, he's got nothing else to do but practise." Later in life, Wilie wrote: "He was right too - it was lonely up there and it was raining nearly all the time, so that was the only thing I could do." (2) By the age of 16 he was assistant principal cornet player with the prestigious Black Dyke Mill Band. He initially trained to be a stone mason but his musical talent was so great that he was able to become a sought after professional musician. He served in WWII in North Africa, Italy and Germany and became a tank commander. In later life he played in the Halle Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. A full account of his life can be found in the Nobbut Norland section.
(1) Hollin Well Cottage (the address given on the 1921 census) implies that this was Hollin Well at the end of Pickwood Lane, rather than Hollin Well near The New Hobbit, which is a substantial house rather than a cottage. Does anybody know otherwise?
(2) In "Labour & Love: An Oral History of the Brass Band Movement" by Arthur R Taylor 1983
Walter Widdop
Mabel Cottingham
Walter Widdop
Walter Widdop was born in Norland on 19th April 1892 at 21 Sparkhouse Lane (no longer standing), and later lived at Lower Wat Ing. His family were long term residents in the village. His father, nicknamed "Norland Jack" is said to have cut and dressed the stone for the Wainhouse Tower in Halifax (1). Walter attended St Luke's School, becoming a half-timer at the age of 12, with half the day spent in a woollen mill in Sowerby Bridge. After also working for a short while on a farm, at 14 he took up a full time job at Washer Lane Dye Works. His enjoyed singing, joined the church choir at St James's Church, Halifax, and in his mid 20s saved up money to pay for singing lessons. This paid off, and he made his operatic debut in Aida at Leeds in 1923 at the age of 31. This led to a stellar career on the stage and in the concert hall both in the UK and abroad, with him often being described as Britain's finest tenor. He died in 1949, the day after singing at a Promenade concert in the Royal Albert Hall.
(1) From "Walter Widdop: The Great Yorkshire Tenor" published by Michael Letchford in 2013. (Copy in reference section in Sowerby Bridge library)
Mabel Cottingham
Mabel Cottingham
Lt-Col Tom Jagger
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Mabel Cottingham was born Mabel Eveline Gough in 1887 in Rastrick. The census record of 1901 shows her living in Rastrick with her Uncle Harry and Aunt Ada. She was then 14 and a cotton spinner. In 1911 she was still living with them, but now in Gorton, Manchester, and working in a pawnbroker's shop. In 1915 she married William (1) Ewart Cottingham (b 1885 in Elland). The 1921 census has them living in Brighouse, where William was working as an iron moulder. They had a daughter, Joan Eveline, b in 1920. In 1934 she took over the running of a shop and cafe in a green wooden hut in the garden of 1 Westfield, next to the Norland crossroads. This had been set up by her aunt in 1929, but whether it was the Aunt Ada she had lived with previously, or another aunt is not clear (any information?). In 1937 William died and Mabel continued to look after the shop and cafe. It was very popular, especially with children from the school, walkers and cyclists. It also attracted the wrong sort, for there was a break in in 1953, and another by two awol soldiers in 1956, who stole 69 chocolate bars and a quantity of tinned food. In both court cases the business was referred to as the Westfield Cafe. Mabel continued running the business for many years, only giving up in 1981, at the age of 84, and over the years she became something of a celebrity, featuring in several articles in the local press.
Mabel died in November 1985.
(1) In "Nobbut Norland" William was incorrectly called Wilfred in the caption of a photo.
Lt-Col Tom Jagger
Lt-Col Tom Jagger
Lt-Col Tom Jagger
Tom Jagger was born in a terraced house on Pickwood Scar on 14th September 1922. The 1921 census shows the only Jagger family on Pickwood Scar to be made up of Charles (47) and Martha (45), a grown -up married daughter, Hilda (21), her husband George Bedford, their infant daughter, Joyce, and another daughter, Vera Jagger, aged 15. Another daughter, Lucy (24), had already left home. Tom was very probably a late surprise, his mother being 46 at his birth.
In The Telegraph's obituary in 2002, his father was said to have been a publican, but there is no record of a pub or brew house on Pickwood Scar, although there could have been something very small scale, done as a part time income earner. Charles Jagger was in fact listed as a singer (soft g) ie he singed cotton fabrics before they were dyed to remove projecting fibres. He worked for BDA (Bradford Dyers Association, now the Freudenberg factory along the Black Brook) in Greetland. In November 1936, Tom's mother Martha died and was buried in St Luke's graveyard. Soon afterwards it seems that Tom was keen to get away and he applied to join the Royal Navy in 1938, when he was still 15. He was turned down. Then he applied to the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, claiming to be 18. They accepted him and he enlisted as a Private at Stirling Castle. He continued to serve all over the world for 40 years, including action in Crete in WWII, where he was captured by the Germans, threatened with a firing squad, reprieved, and then made to perform forced labour. He managed to escape back to the British lines. He later saw action as a machine gunner at the Battle of El Alamein. After the war in 1946 he was commissioned as an officer, and he chose to work in administration. Towards the end of his army career he was a Lieutenant Colonel and Staff Quartermaster at the Staff College in Camberley. Coming up to retirement, he admitted to his true age and was allowed to serve another three years! In retirement he worked in accountancy. As Capt. Tom Jagger, he was awarded an MBE in the Coronation Honours List in 1953 for his achievements during a tour in West Africa.
The photo above shows him when he visited Norland in the 1990s.
He died 11th May 2002 and there are online obituaries on the HeraldScotland and Telegraph websites.
James Netherwood
Lt-Col Tom Jagger
James Netherwood
James Netherwood has the most impressive grave of anybody with a Norland connection, possibly oudoing anyone from the whole of West Yorkshire, or even further afield. He was born in Warley on 21st May 1834, the fifth of ten children, to Joseph and Judith Netherwood, and was baptised at Christ Church, Sowerby Bridge, on Christmas Day 1836. The family moved to Norland when James was quite small and he grew up at Upper Sparkhouse (1841 and 1851 censuses). His father was a stone mason and James followed in his father's footsteps. It is possible that as a teenager he learnt his trade during the building of the Copley viaduct, the major construction project in the area at the time. In the 1850s, James took a bold step and decided to emigrate to America with his wife, Nancy. I can't be certain, but this may have been a certain Nancy Rawnsley from Pickwood Scar. The couple settled in Richmond, Virginia, possibly because there was a related family of Netherwoods there, who had emigrated some years previously. Here he initially worked on building the Chesapeake Railway but over the years he became a very succesful quarry owner and building contractor, responsible for the construction of several (in)famous Confederate monuments after the Civil War. The couple's graves in Oakwood Cemetery, Richmond, are truly remarkable. For the full story and photos, please go to the dedicated James Netherwood page.
John Barraclough
John Barraclough
John Barraclough
John Barraclough was a very well known figure in Norland in the first part of the 20th century. He was born in September 1853 to Samuel and Sarah Barrowcluff (as shown in the 1851 census at Kitty Moor, Norland) but he lived most of his long life at New Longley. His father died when John was only six, and by the age of 8 he was working and listed on the 1861 census as a worsted feeder. For over 20 years he continued in the trade at a mill in Triangle as a woollen piecer and cloth finisher, still single and living with his widowed mother. Then in his 30s he married Charlotte Parkinson, who was 15 years younger and also lived at New Longley. At about this time he left the mill and became an insurance agent. He worked for the prestigious Prudential Insurance Company for many years, and would have been "The Man from the Pru" to many fellow Norlanders, in the days when insurance premiums were often collected weekly and door-to-door. When he died in 1939 at the age of 87, the Halifax Evening Courier devoted a long article to him, stating that up to a few days before his death, he had continued to take an active interest in the social and civic life of the district. He had been a member of the Parish Council, represented Norland on the Halifax Board of Guardians and the Halifax Rural Council, been a member of the Sowerby Bridge Education Committee, a governor of Sowerby Bridge Secondary School and a manager of St Luke's School (Norland Primary School). This is quite unusual as St Luke's was a Church of England school and John was a very active member of Mount Zion Methodist Church, where "he held every office in the church". In the Nobbut Norland section of this website there is a photo of a Mount Zion charabanc outing, with John Barraclough highlighted. John's life is quite remarkable when you realise that his only formal education was in the Mount Zion Sunday School, where he had been a scholar (from 1864 when the church was built), and later a teacher and superintendant. His daughter, Marion (b 1894) became a teacher. Does anybody know where she taught? She was still living at New Longley in 1939.
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John Barraclough
John Barraclough
Waiting for a photo
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John Barraclough
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Waiting for a photo