User Home Pages: THE HOLDEN FAMILY: HUDDERSFIELD, KIRKBURTON, SHEPLEY, EMLEY
THE HOLDEN FAMILY: HUDDERSFIELD, KIRKBURTON, SHEPLEY, EMLEYUpdated April 19, 2003 | |
Timothy Gerald Holden Linfield, Howden Farm Gifford Edinburgh,East Lothian EH41 4JS 01620-810236 | The surname ‘Holden’ seems to originate in Lancshire, probably around the present village of Holden close to Bolton, Lancashire.It is also in Lancashire that the largest concentration of people with that name live today. Some time in the early 17th century, or before, members of the family moved over the border into West Yorkshire where many, continued to be, or became involved with the cloth industry. There are several concentrations of Holdens in West Yorkshire with one close to Halifax at Elland/Hebdon Bridge, one at Saddleworth. Closer to Huddersfield there is a small pocket to the South West of the city around the villages of, Kirkburton, Emley, High Hoyland, Cawthorne, Almondbury and Shepley (all with in a 10 km radius). The earliest records I have found are from Emley parish records. The family seem to have lived around Emley until the 1770’s at which point they disappear from the record there.It is not just that they move to a non-conformist church because there are no marriage records either (these, I understand, still had to be recorded in the parish church). Meanwhile at Farnley Tyas, less than 2 miles W of Kirkburton and 5 miles W of Emley another Thomas Holden appears in the record. His will is dated 1758 and he died in 1760. Soon after members of the family also start to appear in the Parish Register at High Hoyland and also at West Bretton so it would seem likely that a part of the family at least moved in this direction (family names George, John and Joseph are common there). At the beginning of the 19th century one of the Holdens from High Hoyland moved back to Fulstone/Shepley so re-introducing his branch of the family into the Shepley area. By the time of the 1841 Census there are no Holdens living in the parishes of Emley or High Hoyland. This is in keeping with a common demographic trend of the times. In the late 18th century many clothiers and woolen cloth manufacturers moved away from the uplands and into the valleys. This was seen all over the Huddersfield region and marks the end of a tradition where weavers took advantage of the upland pasture for their sheep and streams for washing and dying of their wool. This gave way to one where the wool was largely imported and access to water powered fulling and scribbling mills, canals, the markets and eventually the railways were of prime importance. A family tragedy and the death of three children in one family seems to have prompted one branch to emigrate to Iowa in the 1870s (details of the journey of one of their neighbours to Iowa is coincidentally given a book by A Pickford 'Westward to Iowa' (1940). The Holdens certainly began as cloth manufacturers on the moors above the Fenay Beck preparing the wool and weaving this at home. At some point, in the Shepley region at least, they moved into the role of tailors or higglers. They took advantage of the improved transport, especially the railways, to travel the surrounding towns with pattern books, selling and taking orders.Deposits would be taken. The suits were made up in back rooms in Shepley, mostly by women and then returned to the customer on the next trip. Credit was often allowed and collected regularly.Early in the 19th century there were at least seven tailors with the surname Holden in Shepley. This pattern continued in a similar vane into the 1980s although by this time there had been a shift from hard-wearing work clothes for agricultural clients to fashion cloths for workers in the industry and the building trade. I don’t believe there are any Holdens still living in Shepley and doubt whether any of the Shepley descendents still work in the cloth trade. The attached family tree is chnging all the time - particulary the early entries which are being researched presently. Please get in touch if you would like further information or if you have family annecdotes photos etc that you could share. |
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