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| Honley Bridge |
On the weekend after my monthly day out with the Sheffield U3A Geology Group, to visit a few sites to the east of Leeds, I returned to West Yorkshire on the train. This time, my intention was to explore Honley as part of the British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge, although I did not expect to be able to visit all of the buildings that came up on the postcode search.
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| Results of the Photo Challenge for Honley |
After a short walk down the hill from the railway station, my first stop was to photograph Honley Mill, which was built in the C18 as a corn mill, with later C19 additions when it was converted into use as a scribbling mill – one of about 20 mills in and around the village that made various textile products during the C19.
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| Honley Mill |
Seeing nothing of great architectural interest from a distance, I just took a couple of record photographs before retracing my steps along the Huddersfield Road until I reached the Grade II Listed Honley Bridge (1791) over the River Holme.
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| Honley Bridge |
Looking at the geological map of the area around Honley, apart from the Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation strata along Station Road, the route that I had prepared for my walk is essentially underlain by the Rough Rock.
The 1897 Ordnance Survey map shows the quite substantial Scot Gate Head Quarry to be still operating, with other old quarries marked on the map, and this formation probably supplied stone for most if not all of the historic buildings that I saw on the day.
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| Views of Far End House |
Walking up Old Turnpike to the Grade II Listed Far End House, a pair of late C18 houses with hammer dressed walling stone and more massive quoins, I stopped only to take a few general photographs before continuing to Field End (1799), but I didn’t look closely at the stonework of either of these buildings.
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| Views of Field End |
According to the Honley Civic Society, cloth making has been a staple activity in Honley since the C11 and, before the onset of factory production in the Industrial Revolution, the home was often also the workplace. The very distinctive north-country weavers' cottages had practically the whole of the upper floor, the loom shop, occupied by looms and spinning jennies.
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| No. 2 Grasscroft Road |
Walking down Stony Lane, which is essentially lined with a wide variety of C20 houses, I continued to No. 2 Grasscroft Road where there is a very large early to mid C19 dwelling and weaving building. Good light was essential in this cottage industry, so long bands of mullioned windows were installed to let in the maximum amount of daylight.
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| Inter-war semi-detached houses on West Street |
Continuing along Grasscroft Road, I stopped at West Street to take a couple of photos of the stone built inter-war semi-detached houses, where the ground floor 3-light mullioned windows echo the style of the weavers’ cottages.
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| Nos. 22-24 Grasscroft Road |
Nos. 20-24 Grasscroft Road are a much more modest terrace of early to mid C19 two storied cottages, which don’t obviously have a loom shop, but the 3-light mullioned windows have been presumably employed to provide sufficient light to allow some kind of cottage industry to be undertaken in them.
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| The rear elevation of Nos. 22-24 Grasscroft Road |
Immediately to the north, the wall of Nos. 28-30 are built in a sandstone that seems to be a more thinly bedded variety of the Rough Rock, which is highlighted by the very thick sand and cement pointing, and it is also seen in the boundary walls and the stone slates for the roofs.
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| Nos. 28-30 Grasscroft Road |
Arriving at Scotgate Road, I turned up quite an obvious slope, where the Rough Rock dips 3 degrees to the east, before stopping briefly to photograph a new housing development, where there is again a strong emphasis on multi-light mullioned windows in the design – even though it is not built inside the Conservation Area.
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| A new housing development on Scotgate Lane |
Before leaving the village, I had to reach above the boundary wall to take a couple of snaps of the late C18 Clitheroe Farmhouse and its attached barn. Although I got just a partial view, I could see that wide mullioned windows on both floors again provide the house with plenty of light.
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| A view of Clitheroe Farmhouse and its barn |
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