Know your village : Scissett in times past BAGDEN HALL
Etching of Bagden Hall. June 20, 1853
The Family at Cuttlehurst and the establishment of George Benjamin Norton had begun business as a Tammy weaver at Cuttlehurst in Clayton West in 1801. By inventiveness and hard work he had then passed through the successive stages of Clothier and Master Clothier to become the owner of a small but well-established manufacturing business of Fancy waistcoat goods. The site of the mill, later known as Cuttlehurst Mill, had been ideal as a starting point in 1801 for a Clothier's warehouse but by the late 1820s it had begun to outgrow the available premises. Nevertheless the business continued to prosper and much of the credit for this rested with Benjamin's four sons who had assisted him in the trade in their successive order of age. The business traded under the name of Benjamin Norton & Sons. A fine new house had been built in 1812 alongside the original cottage and when Benjamin's eldest son, Thomas, returned from the army to help run the business a smaller house and two cottages were added on to the east end gable of the new house. Later, when Thomas removed to Brighouse to start his own dye-wares business, William, Benjamin's second son, took his elder brother's place as his father's assistant ( living at Highbridge Mill House) but only for a short period of time before he too left his father's employ to become engaged in building his own later ill-fated Spring Grove Mills at Clayton West. Joseph, the third of Benjamin's sons, also only stayed with his father a short time before he too moved away to start his own textile business at Highbridge Corn Mill. It was now left to George, the last remaining son, to help his father run the business, and he, like his brothers, was eager to improve his position. This he realised could only be done by expanding the business, but as before remarked, the site of the mill was not one of easy development as the ground sloped steeply both to the Bagden Beck (the western boundary of the mill premises) and to Cuttlehurst Hill. Nevertheless the mill continued to prosper for these were the golden years of the Fancy Cloth business. In 1826, however, there was to be a serious setback which almost brought the mill to an end. William, Benjamin's second son, in his over ambitious project at Spring Grove, had run into serious money problems and was unable to meet his creditors and was finally declared a bankrupt and sought by the law. As his father Benjamin had stood security for him for large amounts of capital the position at Cuttlehurst looked grim. For some years the bankruptcy proceedings dragged on as Benjamin and his other sons endeavoured to keep up William's mortgage interest payments. These were honourable, though vain, attempts to save an impossible situation which in the end almost put CuttIehurst Mill itself in jeopardy. In the meantime, however, George, in 1828 had married Betty Race, the only child of George and Hannah Race of Dudfleet Mills, Horbury, and when the said George Race died leaving ~ Page 6 ~
This is the third volume of Leslie Robinson's "Know your village: Scissett in times past" series, following the publications "Remembering Marshall Mill" and "History of The Fleet: the heart of Scissett". With acknowledgements to: The Registry of Deeds, Wakefield The Nottingham Record Office for perusal of the Savile Collection. To kindly remembered chats with the late Mr Percy Norton and his sister Miss A. M.R. Norton on family history. To Mrs M. Staveacre and Mrs C. Hastewell for permission to peruse and quote from family documents. To recollections and memories of local people. The use of my own collection. To photographers, known or unknown. Published by Denby Dale Parish Council Printed by Dearneside Press, 4 Union St. Business Park, Scissett, Huddersfield HD8 9JL
About the author Born in 1920, Leslie Robinson has lived in Scissett all his life. He has had a life-long passion for local history and over the years has built up a remarkable archive, which will eventually be housed at Huddersfield University. Now a well-regarded hotel and restaurant, with a 9-hole golf course in its splendid grounds, Bagden Hall was originally built by George Norton in the th mid 19 century as a textile mill-owner's mansion. Leslie Robinson here records in detail the hall's origins and history - and its vital role in the life of the growing industrial village of Scissett.