Spen Valley Magazine Spen Valley Magazine (draft) | Page 18

Gomersal Workhouse
Apart from churches, the other main buildings were cornmills on
the River Spen (eg. at St Peg Lane Cleckheaton and Millbridge),
small workshops like blacksmiths, and inns. Inns were used for
socialising, business, justice, and “local government.” If they were
on a main route they might be stopping points for the mail coach
and act as post offices, eg. The Globe, which was at Millbridge.
There were few shops: goods were bought from travelling traders
and at outdoor markets like Heckmondwike (1760). There were
some less popular buildings: a debtors’ prison at Jail Road White
Lee (1649-1800); and until 1854 local workhouses: Heckmondwike’s
was on Northgate; Liversedge’s at Roberttown; and Birstall’s at Muffit
Lane Gomersal (now a house). During this time there were Cloth Halls
for trading textiles, and Heckmondwike had a Blanket Hall due to its
speciality of blanket-making.
Haigh Hall, Liversedge
Few ordinary people’s houses survive from this
time because they were built with whatever the
owner could find. Often they were single-storey
cottages with one room downstairs and a ladder
into the roofspace where children and adults
slept. The elderly or infirm would have a bed in
the corner of the living room. Families worked
together to farm and process wool. Spinning
and carding were done in the living room by
women and children. Some two-storey homes
had special larger windows upstairs to give
enough light for men to weave woollen cloth on
a loom. Nearby were “tenterfields”, where cloth
was stretched over hooked frames to dry.
Roe Head