A Day Out to Honley - Part 5

 

France Hill

Continuing my day out to Honley, having so far photographed various listed buildings on the periphery of the village, as well as collecting a sample of the Rough Rock in Honley Quarry, I had a quick walk along the main shopping street, Westgate, before making my way through the C20 housing estate to Cuckoo Lane. 

 

The Honley Liberal Club

 

Somehow missing No. 13 Cuckoo Lane, which was part of my Photo Challenge, I carried on past the Honley Liberal Club (1905) and the National School (1846), which I first thought might be a board school like those that I had visited in Sheffield. 

 

The National School

 

Continuing north along Cuckoo Lane I got my first glimpse of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin (1843), built in a Gothic Revival style to the design of the architect R. D. Chantrell, who is probably best known for his work at Leeds Minster. 

 

The Church of St. Mary the Virgin

 

Looking at the 1854 Ordnance Survey map, it can be seen that the centre of Honley had by now grown to a fair size and, as an essential part of the textile manufacturing industry, rows of tenters are shown in the area now occupied by the school playground.

 

The 1854 map showing the centre of Honley

On Cuckoo Lane and Town Head, although there are some two storied weavers’ cottages with the first floor having multi-light windows, many of the houses look like they were built for owners that did not need to combine their residence with textile manufacturing. 

 

Houses on Cuckoo Lane and Town End

 

Amongst these is Hawthorn House which, with a date of 1741, was the oldest building that I had so far encountered on my walk. Historic England suggest that this may have been built for Thomas Leigh who, with his brother William, was a very well known cloth manufacturer in Honley. 

 

Hawthorn House

 

The house, which has a stone slate roof, has been altered considerably over the years and the listing describes many of the multi-light mullioned windows as being blocked up, with this and render obscuring its probable typical weaver’s cottage features. 

 

Nos. 2- 4 France Fold

 

Off Church Street, the late C18 Nos. 2-4 France Fold is a terrace of two storied houses, where the upper floor has had its multi-light windows substantially altered, with the removal of some of the mullions. Continuing down Church Street, Nos. 31 and No. 33 (1789), which is rendered, have a similar layout of the fenestration and No. 29 has an extra storey squeezed into the front elevation. 

 

Nos. 29-31 Church Street

 

Nos. 10-14 Church Street (1692) is built out of very coarse grained Rough Rock and still retains its original stone slate roof; however, the windows to the ground and first floors have all been substantially altered, with the upper cross windows having had their mullions and transoms removed – with new sash windows being fitted to both floors. 

Nos. 10-14 Church Street

The late C18 to early C19 Nos. 3 and 5 New Street provide further examples of the multi-light windows of the weavers’ cottages that give the vernacular architecture of Honley its character but, in the 1800’s, clothiers began to install cropping frames in mills, which replaced hand working with looms and cropping shears and many families found themselves out of work.

 

Nos 3 and 5 New Street

 

Moving on to Eastgate, the last building on my list to photograph was the late C18 No. 6 Eastgate and No.18 Upper Fold, a former pair of back to back houses that now forms a single residence at an angle of 90 degrees in a group of buildings.

 

No. 6 Eastgate and No.18 Upper Fold

 

Having come to my exploration of Honley, I made my way down Eastgate and passed the former site of the Coach and Horses where, in 1812, accomplices of the Luddite George Mellor spent an evening getting drunk after the murder of William Horsfall, the owner of a mill in the Colne Valley.

 

The former council offices on Eastgate