Street names Thornton Bradford

[northernsearcher]

Hi All
First of all I can I thank everyone who has contributed to this thread in such a helpful and positive way.  People have provided such a lot of really useful and informative comment as well as answering my original query.  My picture of the village of Thornton in the 1800’s and the information I have on the Driver family has been greatly increased.  As well as that all the diversions and sidetracks have been just as interesting. 
I checked out both the book mentioned by Deetot and those mentioned by John on line today.  The book Deetot discovered Market Street Thornton by Michael Smith, the one which finally gave us the answer to the street name question seems to be unavailable.  I wonder where you saw it Deetot?  The Nathan Driver mentioned in the book is Nathan born 1839 who was the eldest son of Samuel and Betty Driver.  Samuel was the seventh son of Thomas Driver and Hannah Wade mentioned earlier in the thread by John. The other book from the Thornton Antiquarian Society is as John said a bit expensive so I will try the library for both books.
This thread began after my first visit to Thornton to try to get a sense of the place where the Driver’s came from.  I wanted to take photographs if possible of houses they had lived in, places they had worked and worshiped and also places where they were buried. I am still not sure which house in Main/Market St the four children of Samuel lived in with their Uncle Charles and his children after they became orphans but I do have the beginnings of a real sense of the community of Thornton.
I will be going back hopefully in late spring to take more pictures including, if I can find it, Black Car Farm, John.  I will certainly revisit the Kipping graveyard and hunt for Dobsons and Drivers. Any other places of interest you would like pictures of?
Thanks again Jen

[Bridgebabe]

Hi Have been following the thread with interest, as I am in direct line of Samuel and his son Nathan Driver ( and connect with Jenny - Hi Jen!)   Just to add a little to the info on background reading resources.  The Michael Smith "Market Street Thornton" book is easily obtainable on inter-library loan in Bfd Met,  as is the "Thornton- Who'd have thought it"compiled by Thornton Antiquarian Soc.  However, 'Granny's Village' by Roger Mason is about Thornton in Craven rather than 'our' Thornton in Bradford.

[northernsearcher]

Well done Brenda. (And thanks for the picture)
Jen

[johnnyboy]

...However, 'Granny's Village' by Roger Mason is about Thornton in Craven rather than 'our' Thornton in Bradford.

Thanks for clarifying this.

John 

[johnnyboy]

Well done Brenda. (And thanks for the picture)
Jen

I think it should also be Well done, Jen. It was you who posed the very interesting question that started all of this.

Send me a PM when you get ready to set off for Thornton (I haven't been getting notified by Rootschat of replies to this thread). I may have done some additional research by then.

Regards,
John 

[northernsearcher]

Hello John
I’m not due to go to Thornton until the summer and I will let you know before I go.  Thought I might post this as a PM but then I thought others might be interested as well.  I found a website selling old maps and although they are a bit pricey you can get to have a good look at them before you decide if it’s worth it. The site is http://www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html?coords=409900,432700  There are three maps 1852, 1893 and 1894.  In the bottom left of one map, Black Carr Farm is marked.  The earliest map really shows how Thornton was “a cluster of hamlets” as someone pointed out.  Fascinating, there’s even a place called” who would have thought it”
Jen

[mariekirkwood]

Hi people, I'm new here, and am not sure if I'm putting this post in the right place, but it seems to have the most relevance.

I am researching Gilbert DOBSON and his wife Hannah nee BRUCEBANK,
parents of John Rit Dobson, born 1806 Thornton (or nearby), Yorkshire. 

John Rit Dobson emigrated to New Zealand in 1849 with the Fencibles.  His wife was Elizabeth Hannah.  The only information about his parents was found in John's obituary, and I am trying to find out more about them.

I am researching on behalf of a descendant in New Zealand.  I welcome your guidance in this. 

Thanks. 
Marie

[johnnyboy]

Hi Jen: Excuse the delay in answering. Have been busy on a writing project that's due soon.

Thanks for the pointing out the Old Maps site. I’ve used it before, but I hadn’t seen all of the maps of Thornton there. Black Carr is the name of a farm and the name of the area where the farm is located--the valley immediately to the southwest of Thornton. I've recently learned, after looking in the dictionary, that a carr is a fen or marshy area. On one of the topographic maps I looked at, you can see a number of springs near to one another that were/are the source of water for the fen.

I’m not certain whether or not Joseph Dobson lived on Black Carr Farm itself. When he bought a grave plot in the churchyard of Mount Zion Chapel (a few miles away from Thornton) for his first wife, Hannah (my 3x great grandmother), the record listed his residence as Black Carr. I do know, however, that he lived in three different places in Black Carr for thirty to forty years--in a little grouping of houses (hardly even a hamlet) called Keelham, at Lane Bottom, and at Lower Sandal Farm. These three places are bounded by Deep Lane (west), Brighouse-Denholme Road (south), Pit Lane (east), and Malt Kiln Lane (north).

Interestingly, the 1894 map of Thornton shows a Pit Lane Bottom that is nowhere near Pit Lane. It's directly across the Brighouse-Denholme Road from Black Carr Farm. But the 1852 map has that Pit Lane Bottom as Lane Bottom. The same map shows a second Lane Bottom, this one on Pit Lane. Two dips in the road, perhaps?

Regards,
John 

[johnnyboy]

Hi Marie: Welcome to Rootschat. According to the IGI, your John Rit Dobson was born in 1806 in Horsforth, which is now part of Leeds. He seems to have died 17 June 1883. Other children listed are Wm. (abbreviated as such), born 1800, Thomas, born 1807, and William, born 1810. If the information is correct, the first William probably died young and the second William was named in his honor.

This information is from Zion Calvinistic Baptist Church in Horsforth. Information was also submitted by some unknown person to the IGI. I couldn't connect the parents--Gilbert and Hannah--to Thornton.

I suggest that you put a request on the Yorkshire Look Up board for help in finding the family in the 1841 and the 1851 censuses. The 1841 census may give you additional children, but it will only tell you that they were born in Yorkshire or not. If Gilbert or Hannah is enumerated in the 1851 census, you may learn their place(s) of birth. And you might be able to get more information about John Rit Dobson's siblings.

Hope this helps.

John