Luddites and their Children

[sallyyorks]

(reply to John iv quoted above ^)      What ! They lately dug the whole graveyard up ? .
And Rawfolds mill was nowhere near "Birstal " or "Mirfield" . It was at Liversedge near Hightown going up  toward Heartshead moor and  Halifax road way. Same as St Peters . Why would someone traipse miles away  to "Birstal" or "Mirfield" ?

[dave the tyke]

Hi
Many things that were written by, about and to the Brontes were heavily censored after their deaths. Court and Libel action was threatened to the extent that some chapters of books about the Brontes were published in America but not England.
Moves were afoot to quash any rumours that were detrimental to the godliness of the family. So it is possible that the above incident fell into that category.
Having said that Patrick was a stickler for setting the record straight, even recording married women as spinsters where a child was born out of wedlock and the mother subsequently married. I find it hard to believe that a burial or burials went unrecorded in his churchyard. However a hanged man or convicted felon would surely have been buried in an unmarked grave outside the consecrated area.

Dave

[mmm45]

The wounded after Cartwrights Mill attack at Rawfolds headed up to what is now the Star Inn at Roberttown. Hartshead St Peters is the logical place to bury any fatalities.
Id heard about the burials  when I was a child around Hartshead and often wonder if there are Luddites in an unmarked grave when i walk past the church.
Patrick wouldve had to have actually been at the church as he wouldnt have seen the graveyard from his lodgings at Thorneybush Farm across the road from the church !

Ady

[J.R.Ellam]

Hi

The rumour was that they were buried by the church wall just outside of the church so there was no need to dig the graveyard up.
Liversidge, Roberttown and Hightown were all in the parish of Birstal so burials would have been there.
The burial of the hanged men was up to the relatives and some of the men hanged at York were taken back to Huddersfield and they were buried in St. Peter's.
The Rawfolds demonstrators fled in all directions and used different paths back to their homes and not just the shortest so you cannot say which road they would have been taken.

[sallyyorks]

Yes they would have come from and fled to all directions.
But some who died were not hung at York so probably had an illegal burials .
As Ady says . They died at Star Inn Robertown and folk would not have wanted to be lugging dead bodies of rioters all over the shop as that would have put them at risk too. 
There would have been Militia everywhere by then 

Iv done a googl map with routes on foot , because it is quite confusing with all the old Parish boundries  (hope link works)
A. Cooper Bridge (were the rioters/luddites  first gathered )
B. Rawfolds Mill (the riot/attack on the mill)
C. Hartshead (were Patrick Bronte was at St Peters)
D. Robertown (Star Inn Pub Ady mentions , were some of injured/dying  rioters/luddites were taken)

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=cooper+bridge+roudabout++mirfield&daddr=Rawfolds,+Cleckheaton+to:Hartshead+to:Roberttown&hl=en&ll=53.702601,-1.716614&spn=0.09979,0.216293&sll=53.702601,-1.716614&sspn=0.09979,0.216293&geocode=Few-MwMdb3Hl_yF0u7xxLF2oJimXDg_hZN57SDF0u7xxLF2oJg%3BFZuxMwMdRgTm_ykJrTpEK957SDHsn6KhSV3jyg%3BFTNgMwMdTbrl_ymDybdiQd57SDGtVHfU00bU1w%3BFTljMwMdtwXm_ynZMP4OS957SDFh9N7vn_kMJg&oq=robert&dirflg=w&mra=ls&t=m&z=12
 

[J.R.Ellam]

You mean the Yew Tree which was pulled down and replaced by Headlands Hall. A crowd gather so they were then taken to the Star Inn at Roberttown were they were tortured to death.
The old routs have since been overtaken by development and it is hard to see the old paths, the main one is from Huddersfield over kilner Bank down Long Lane then Nettleton Road, Dalton Bank Road which brings you out onto Colne Bridge were you turn left and then right onto Cooper Bridge Road, the railway as alter this rout but it is very close to how it would have been.
From Cooper Bridge you turn right at the roundabout and then there is an old footpath at the side of the Three Nuns which takes you up to Cross Hall Lane then you take School Lane then down Green Lane through the cemetery onto Clough Lane and at the end of Clough Lane you turn right onto Halifax Road and the left down Primrose Lane and there we have Rawfolds. I have done the Luddite trail and tried several of the other footpaths but I think this is the best and easiest.

[sallyyorks]

Blimey ! "tortured to death" . I hadnt thought of that J.R. Great info . I grew up in the area too and yes they  wouldnt have taken the exact route on my map . I just thought it might give folk who dont know the area and history  a general idea of events and places. Re topic , maybe we should put some of these luddites here up for the sites  Scavenger Hunt  section ? What does anyone think ?

[mmm45]

http://archive.org/stream/risingsluddites01peelgoog#page/n18/mode/2up

Theres a book by Peel (Free download above) written in 1880
Think it mentions the "torture" passed of as cauterising the wounds!

Ady

[J.R.Ellam]

Hi
It would be a good idea but the On the trail of the Luddites by Lesley Kipling & Nick Hall gives you a good perspective on the Luddites and takes you to all the places of interest, but I don't know if it is still in publication.
The interesting one about the deaths is if you look at the Huddersfield St. Peter's burial register you have John Booth, one of the dead Luddites and just 9 burial later you William Horsfall alledged victim of the Luddites.
It was one of the dying Luddites that when asked by the vicar when he was close to death to confess his sins and name his accomplices. He reply "can you keep a secret" and the vicar replied "yes" and with his last words the Luddite said "so can I."
I did trace one of the cleared Luddites and found his burial for my Kirkheaton burial booklet.

John