Street names Thornton Bradford

[dave the tyke]

So the main road would have gone along what is now Old Road, across the missing bit to Bronte Old Road, Market Street (Main Street) and Kipping Lane. Nice one Deetot

[johnnyboy]

Hi Deetot: Thanks for your reply. I think it settles the question.

But as a footnote to the search: Last week I read the descriptions of some of the 1861, 1871, and 1881 census enumeration districts in Thornton. I wrote a reply to this thread the other day about Market Street's probably being Main Street, but I decided not to post it because I could not get a definitive answer. The enumeration district descriptions that I read used the phrase "the main street" when describing the boundaries of the district in question. "Main Street," the proper noun, was not used in the descriptions. It was only used on the actual census pages themselves. And it was almost impossible to figure out where streets actually were just from reading a description of the borders of the enumeration district.

The big surprise is that Main Street is not the only problematic street name in Thornton. Some time after 1861 there seems to have been a renaming of streets there. How many new or renamed streets there were, I'm not sure. But I did find Commercial St. and Industry St., both of which should have been near Market Street, what is now Thornton Road (New Road in 1871), and Green Lane.

The 1861 census had Rose Cottage, New Road Side, Old Mill Yard, for example. By 1871 those names were gone.

Searching an online map just now, I can't find Commercial St. or Industry St. And Green Lane seems not to be there either.

John  

[dave the tyke]

John,
Commercial Street and Green Lane run South from Market Street. Green Lane crosses (New) Thornton Road and runs for some distance before becoming Headley Lane. I don't know about Industry Street. Info from W. Yorks Bradford, Halifax etc A-Z Street Atlas

Dave

[northernsearcher]

Hello All
I am wondering where we are getting to with this one. I have just re-read the Bradford Metropolitan District Council Conservation Area Assessment doc. (written Oct. 2003).  Here are a couple of bits of info. transcribed - or copied! from that document which may give some more clues.

As late as 1800 there were still only 23 dwellings forming the village, 3 of these were public houses (it seems that at this time that Thornton was a "cluster of hamlets".  I suppose an example of which was School Green where some of my Drivers lived).

The Bronte family lived at 72 -74 Market St (BMDC description of the street) between 1815 and 1820. Interesting that they give this street the name Market St as far back as 1815 but there is, as far as I can see, no Market St. in Thornton on the 1841, 1851 and 1861 census records.

Thornton Road was constructed in 1829 and therefore the old village was preserved and unchanged etc.

Now, I have Drivers - who were both Hand Loom Weavers - home based, and Power Loom Weavers who presumably worked in one of the 3 Thornton Mills, living in main or Main St. Thornton in 1861.  As far as I can tell there were more older properties in what is now Market St than in Thornton road but.... there were some older properties in Thornton Rd. aa well.

Jen

[johnnyboy]

John,
Commercial Street and Green Lane run South from Market Street. Green Lane crosses (New) Thornton Road and runs for some distance before becoming Headley Lane. I don't know about Industry Street. Info from W. Yorks Bradford, Halifax etc A-Z Street Atlas

Dave

Hi Dave: Thanks for that. Multimap (now Bing Maps) didn't show either of those two

John 

[johnnyboy]

In doing some research for AntonP (another thread) I found a book compiled by Michael Smith, 2003 which is called "Market Street, Thornton" and produced by the Thornton Antiquarian Society.  This has lists of residents of many of the older properties over the years............................................................... ..........The book has 116 Market Street lived in by Nathan Driver "shopkeeper" in1893 but no Dobsons.                                                                                                                          

Hi Deetot:
I saw this Michael Smith quoted at length in an article about Thornton that appeared in the Bradford newspaper a few years ago. I found the article in a search related to Thornton. Mr. Smith was described as the "town historian"--or something to that effect.

My Dobsons lived for many years in the valley that paralleled Thornton Road, south of the village. The area was called Keelham. They lived on Pit Lane and Black Carr Farm. There is now a golf course near Pit Lane.

John 

[johnnyboy]

Hello All
I am wondering where we are getting to with this one. I have just re-read the Bradford Metropolitan District Council Conservation Area Assessment doc. (written Oct. 2003).  Here are a couple of bits of info. transcribed - or copied! from that document which may give some more clues.

As late as 1800 there were still only 23 dwellings forming the village, 3 of these were public houses (it seems that at this time that Thornton was a "cluster of hamlets".  I suppose an example of which was School Green where some of my Drivers lived).

The Bronte family lived at 72 -74 Market St (BMDC description of the street) between 1815 and 1820. Interesting that they give this street the name Market St as far back as 1815 but there is, as far as I can see, no Market St. in Thornton on the 1841, 1851 and 1861 census records.

Thornton Road was constructed in 1829 and therefore the old village was preserved and unchanged etc.

Now, I have Drivers - who were both Hand Loom Weavers - home based, and Power Loom Weavers who presumably worked in one of the 3 Thornton Mills, living in main or Main St. Thornton in 1861.  As far as I can tell there were more older properties in what is now Market St than in Thornton road but.... there were some older properties in Thornton Rd. aa well.

Jen

Hi Jen: I think you're wondering whether or not this thread is "completed." One question, the one you first brought up, has been answered, but there are always many more to be answered.

In case anyone is interested: I found two books on Thornton that might be interesting: Granny's Village by Roger Mason, published 1977, and Thornton - Who'd 'Ave Thought It?, which apparently is a collection of newspaper articles about Thornton and its people from 1751 to 1938 compiled by the Thornton Antiquarian Society. It's published by Bank House Books, but is expensive. If you want it, you should hunt it up in a library.

John 

[johnnyboy]

I forgot to mention that the description of Enumeration District No. 1 in the 1891 census for Thornton did mention Market Street (rather than Main Street or "the main street."

Also, the description for Enumeration District #2, 1891 census ended at Isaac Dobson's Beerhouse. The census taker was probably glad of that. Perhaps Isaac Dobson's Beerhouse was the local for Charles Driver's sons. Unfortunately, I have not connected my Dobsons with Isaac Dobson. 

John 

[dave the tyke]

As late as 1800 there were still only 23 dwellings forming the village, 3 of these were public houses (it seems that at this time that Thornton was a "cluster of hamlets".

And therein lies the probable answer .. Thornton wasn't big enough to hold or didn't hold a proper market until after 1861 and because it was more or less a one street village the main street would be the logical place to hold it.

Dave