Quoting from "Huddersfield" by E.A.H.Haigh :- "Savage actions and coarse language ... have given place to more moral conduct and intellectual knowledge', wrote Mrs Jagger of the Huddersfield district in 1914. Other hill and mountain regions had also been 'savage' and 'coarse', but Huddersfield and its moorland hamlets and villages to the south and west seem to have been especially so, having been always isolated from main routes of communication and civilising influences, and never having felt subject to authority. John Wesley's remarks' about the extraordinary wildness of Huddersfield people are well known, as are John Pawson's in 1765 describing them as 'heathens, ignorant and wicked to a degree'. In 1825 a new doctor in Bradford wrote that Bradford people were 'little removed above the brute creation', they thought nothing of killing each other, even so 'I have been told they are worse at Halifax and Huddersfield but 1 think it scarce possible'. Even richer clothiers were crude and rough because they retained the vulgar manners of their low origins." I wouldn't know but I'm sure MY ancestors weren't like that. Were they? Respectfully, John Spivey -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Andy Micklethwaite Sent: Wednesday, 10 February 2010 9:27 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [WRY] Almondbury queries At 23:07 08/02/2010, Lesley wrote: >The quotation Andy was talking about refers to John Wesley's visit to >Huddersfield in 1757, when he said 'I never saw a wilder people in >England'. That's the one. Best Wishes, Andy.

On 10 Feb 2010 at 23:00, John Spivey wrote: > Quoting from "Huddersfield" by E.A.H.Haigh :- > > "Savage actions and coarse language ... have given place to more moral > conduct and intellectual knowledge', wrote Mrs Jagger of the > Huddersfield district in 1914. Other hill and mountain regions had > also been 'savage' and 'coarse', but Huddersfield and its moorland > hamlets and villages to the south and west seem to have been > especially so, having been always isolated from main routes of > communication and civilising influences, and never having felt subject > to authority. John Wesley's remarks' about the extraordinary wildness > of Huddersfield people are well known, as are John Pawson's in 1765 > describing them as 'heathens, ignorant and wicked to a degree'. In > 1825 a new doctor in Bradford wrote that Bradford people were 'little > removed above the brute creation', they thought nothing of killing > each other, even so 'I have been told they are worse at Halifax and > Huddersfield but 1 think it scarce possible'. Even richer clothiers > were crude and rough because they retained the vulgar manners of their > low origins." > > I wouldn't know but I'm sure MY ancestors weren't like that. Were > they? Respectfully, John Spivey > I have a copy of The Shell Guide to England, originally published in 1970, in which the Introduction to the Yorkshire section was written by the Halifax novelist Phyllis Bentley. She included the following words when writing of the Yorkshire character: "An Abbot of York write to Henry VIII: 'There be such a company of wilful gentlemen within Yorkshire as there be not in all England besides'. In Queen Elizabeth's days the men of Halifax were spoken of as behaving 'after the rude and arrogant manner of their wilde country'. She concludes: "It would be rash to suggest that Yorkshire folk have changed much since those days, and this applies to the womenj as well as to the men. A Yorkshire person has a strong backbone; lean on it but do not try to bend it." -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE