Charles Tiplady Pratt

“ The wheat crop is the finest remembered : oats and barley are very short in straw, and on poorer lands there is a very poor crop indeed. The hay crop has been light all over the country. Old people are comparing this drought with that of 1826) when bread was used at Cawthorne Feast (the third Sunday in July) page 169 made from the flour of that year's wheat. ”

“ Trade of every kind greatly depressed. The harvest of 1879 was very poor generally, 3-5ths of an average : the corn not so bad in this Parish as in many districts. Harvest very late: beans out till Christmas. Skating towards the end of Nov. and beginning of Dec., again just before Christmas. Terrific gales, in one of which the Tay Bridge (Scotland) was destroyed, Sunday Evening Dec. 28th.
1880. The harvest again was generally a poor one. Mrs. Stanhope arranged a course of Lessons in Cookery for women and for the School in the winter 1879-80, in connection with the Yorkshire School of Cookery. ”

“ A new Railway has been proposed this autumn which would have passed by Cawthorne a little to the West of Barnby Hall on its way from Barnsley to Halifax and the Midland main line. The Midland Railway's Bill for a line from Barnsley through Cawthorne to Kirkburton passed the House of Commons in 1865, but was thrown out by the Committee of the Upper House.
1882. The Cawthorne Branch of the Yorkshire Penny Bank, opened on Feb. 13, 1875, has 116 open accounts on Dec.31, 1881, with £1431 19s. 7d. to their credit The winter has been remarkably open and mild no skating. ”

“ W. H. Butler, D.C.L., took charge of the Parish for three months from May 1st., during [his son in law's] absence abroad. The summer was characterised by terrific thunderstorms: there was a waterspout over Silkstone. Hay still being gathered in on Aug. 29th, whilst corn is being rapidly cut. Two poplars near Cannon Hall lLodge gates--106 and 100 feet high were blown down by a gale early in Nov. The Coal Trade has been unprecedently active, and colliers' wages are now higher than ever known coal rose to 19s. ”

“ Meeting of the Ratepayers was held on Jan. 12th, 1880, to consider the Report of the Medical Officer of Health (Dr. Watson) to the Penistone Rural Sanitary Authority, showing the necessity for additional Burial Ground at Cawthorne, and also the Resolution of the Sanitary Authority desiring a local committee to be formed here, to be approved and appointed by the Board, for the provision of such burial giound. Mr. Stanhope, M P., submitted a proposal to give an acre of land for this oh lect, which was "gratefully acknowledged by "the meeting." ”

“ W. S. Stanhope.
1868. The corn harvest was begun in the Parish in Cawthorne Feast-week, wheat on July 23rd. Carrying quite general in the last week of July. No rain-scarcely a shower-from the middle of May till Aug. 11th. Very little corn out in the Parish on Aug. 12th. The pastures have been burnt up : the least possible supply of water in the Quarry Well, and the Village Fountain running very slowly indeed. Water is being brought from the Jowett-house Bore-hole The moors have been burning in many parts, and the peat is still on fire in places (15th) . ”

“ A Rate of 1s. in the £1 is passed for the Relief of the Poor. In Oct., the overseers are "empowered to purchase a "quantity of yarn for the purpose of employing widows and others "in knitting." A man and his wife are "allowed 2s. a week, she "being also allowed to be put on the proposed knitting list, and that the old Vicarage occupied by widow Moakson be allowed for their residence.
1831. 3 March, "That the Town's-house called the Sexton's "house be let to the Sexton at the low rent of one guinea per annum, "in consideration of his office. N. B.-The fixtures the property of the Parish." ”

“ School-pence. In the first year of all the Schools being under Inspection 1873-the Grant was £99 4s. The hay harvest of the Parish has been very abundant and generally well won: the corn promises very well and has been most of it carried in fine weather before the middle of September. The Rainfall at Barnsley in 1881 (see page 65) is given by Dr. Sadler as 25.81 inches, with 181 days on which .01 inch or more fell; Dunford Reservoir, 53.81, 236 days ; Holmbridge (Batley Water works) 61.50 ”

“ The autumn and winter of last year and the spring of this have been remarkable for rain and dullness of weather. Hay crops hay crops were exceedingly good and well got no corn cut till late in August.
The Winter of 1877-8, after a wet season, was very mild-no skating-scarcely frost or snow Miners' wages are now reduced below what they were before the rise of 1871 : work very scarce; wages very low.
1878-9. Winter very severe from Nov. 9, when the first great snow-storm came, to nearly the end of February, scarcely anything but snow and frost: skating for months together on the Park "Cascades." ”

“ B. Armitage, John Mimer, James Allatt, Elkanah Clegg, George Shaw, Thomas Longthorne, Charles Stones, Benjamin Wilkinson, Walter Moxon, Michael Fisher, James Barlow, T. Heslop, J. Nichols, George Terry, George Bell, Joseph Armitage, William Johnson, Giles Shaw, Robert Broadhead. In 1864, a Vestry Meeting was called to consider "the best means "of improving the public supply of water to the Townnship of Cawthorne," and a Committee appointed, consisting of Messrs. Joshua Barraclough, George Shaw, Edwin Wilcock, Chas. Turner, and B. Wilkinson, to collect subscriptions; and another Committee-
Mr. ”

“ Surveyors of the Highways, W. T. W. S. Stanhope and Charles Maish (Clough Green) , the latter in place of J. W. Shaw; Overseers of the Poor, C. Wemyss and page 167 Herbert Turner, Bamby Green, (in place of George Shaw, resigned) ;Guardians of the Poor, Benjamin Fish (Hazel-house) and Joseph Hoyland (Barmby Hall) (in place of Robert Richmond, of Norcroft) ; Assistant Overseer, with a salary, Edward Lawson (Cinder Hill) , in place of William Moxon, retired.
The following extracts are made from a private Book of "Parish Notes "1867: A public Reading Room was opened on Jan. ”

“ Rowley and Nichols, Churchwardens, have their accounts approved.
The accounts of this enlargement are given as follows in the architect's receipt and other papers : "Mason's account, £200 9s.6d. "Carpentry and Joinery, £146 12s. 21/2d.; Plasterers, £30 14s.; "Plumbing and Glazing, £29 los.; J. Whitworth's account, Plans, &c., and 5 p. c. commission on work, £21 17s. 3d : Total, "£428 13s. ”