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WARLAND
AND IT PEOPLE
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| Warland
is a tiny hamlet, ancient and charming, bridging the border between
Walsden and Blatchinworth & Calderbrook. The infant Walsden
Water, more commonly, and erroneously, called the River Calder by
the locals, runs through the hamlet and is the borderline between
the two old Townships. Nowadays it is the border between Lancashire
and Yorkshire.
A
lady living in a cottage situated a few yards inside the Lancashire
border showed us her ancient outside toilet shed, which is over
the border and in Yorkshire. When her son was about to start school
she wanted him to go to school in Walsden (Yorkshire). The authorities
said: "No, he must go to Littleborough (Lancashire) as that is where
you live." The lady then pointed out to the authorities that her
toilet was in Yorkshire. On this basis, he was allowed to go to
school in Walsden! |
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Calflee
Clough |
The area was
and still is heavily wooded, with Walsden Water tumbling down the
craggy slopes in a narrow ravine between the trees, known as Calflee
Clough. The water, artificially dammed to create a waterfall, flows
swiftly over and round a great number of boulders. Abraham Scholfield,
about 1830, commented that most of the year he could bridge the
river at Warland with his clog. |
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Purchased by
the Fielden family during the 1600's, the estate provided employment
for the few families who lived there. The farm, quite a large house
for its time, bears the initials of Joshua Fielden and the date
1665. The farm had the usual attached cottages for
family and workers. |
Warland
Farm |
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Ruins
of Warland Mill |
John Fielden
was the farmer in the late 1700's, paying rent of 10s.9d. to John
Ingham, who may have been a tenant himself. The lease passed to
his son, also John, on his death in 1807. The speed of the flow
of Walsden Water made a perfect power source for a waterwheel, so
John built himself a small spinning mill next to the stream at the bottom
of the hill. He became a fustian manufacturer as well as shepherd.
The yarn was prepared and spun at the mill before being put out
to local hand weavers. |
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| A
person who used to work for him on a Saturday, taking in the woven
cloth and packing it into bundles ready for market, said they always
loaded the bundles on a Sunday morning when Veevers boat came up
from Todmorden, and that after this was done, John would get ready
to attend St. Mary's church in the afternoon.
John
married late in life, taking Hannah daughter of John Fielden of
Platts House for a wife. She was a bouncing young woman and on one
occasion when being teased about the advanced age of her husband,
said, "When John buys a carriage, he means to ride". He certainly
did, for he was still fathering children after he was 60.
For
a long time John had pleaded poverty to all who would listen, announcing
he was lucky to get sixpence a cut for his cloth, but somehow managed
to earn enough to buy the estate. On hearing this, his brother Nicholas
said, "Well, our John has laid out those sixpences well". |
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There was other
potential on the Warland estate and this was the stone. John let
a piece of land to Robert Stevenson who set to work to open a quarry.
Robert, or Bob, arrived in Walsden from Scotland to work on the
construction of the canal in the late 1790's. He married Hannah
Fielden, daughter of John Fielden of Bottomley. They settled at
BOTTOMLEY where they had 5 children, and Bob raised his 4 sons to
become stone masons like himself. |
Warland
Quarry, now a
rock climbing base
Warland
Quarry was opened in 1823 and was successfully worked by Robert
Stevenson and his eldest son John for many years. Large quantities
of stone were quarried and sent away by canal boat to various parts
of Lancashire for engine-beds, churches etc.
The
excavations and the destruction of trees by tipping refuse amongst
them completely changed the landscape of these once finely wooded
slopes. |
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Warland
Quarry |
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Coinciding with
the opening of the quarry, the Turnpike Road from Todmorden to Rochdale
was altered. The original road over Calderbrook was by-passed, and
the new road was laid along the valley floor. The lane at Warland
met the new road by the old farm gate. John Scholfield of CALFLEE FARM, a joiner by trade, built a row of cottages in 1824 at this
junction, calling them Warland Gate End. |
Warland
Gate End |
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John
and his family occupied one of them where he opened a shop and carried
on with his joinery. John Stevenson, son of old Robert, lived in
one with his growing family. |
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The
Bird In Th' Hand as seen
from the canal towpath |
The hamlet was
developing, but was lacking an alehouse for the thirsty labourers
(and their bosses). There had been an inn on the old highway, but
as the traffic now used the new road it became redundant. This was
the BIRD IN TH' HAND, run by Henry Rogers. The inn was taken down
and rebuilt about 1825 on the new road almost opposite Warland Gate
End. When Henry died, the lease was taken on by his son William,
and stayed in the family until the 1880's. |
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John
Stevenson was the next to build housing in the area. He started
with a cottage for himself, building it in 1831 at the bottom of
the hill and right onto the canal towpath by the lock bridge. When
that was finished, he tacked another on to the side, and then 3
more, the last one in 1835. |
Quarry
Cottages |
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Old
Bob moved from Bottomley to live in one, John left Gate End to occupy
another, and was followed by his brothers James and Alexander. The
five cottages were known as Quarry Cottages. The end one bears the
date 1835, and also boasts a large stone engraved with the words
"Thomas Stevenson - Engraver on Stone - 1835". The Stevensons lived
there for two or three generations. |
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Not to be outdone,
in 1834 John Scholfield added another cottage to the end of the
row at Gate End, cornering onto the new road, and two more at the
canal end of the row. All the cottages are still standing. John
lived at number 1 where he raised 10 children by 2 wives. |
The
corner house at Gate End from the road,
built
1834 and occupied by John Scholfield |
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So
we now have the cast. The families who came to Warland and turned
it into a community. The Fieldens; landowners and members of St.
Mary's Church, the Stevensons; of Scottish origin, craftsmen and
merchants; the Scholfields; master joiners. John Stevenson and John
Scholfield were close friends. Not only that, but they were first
cousins with a common grandfather, John Fielden of Bottomley (not
closely related to the one at Warland), through their mothers, who
were sisters.
Grandfather
John Fielden was born and brought up as a Quaker. He was well known
in the vicinity as "Little Quaker" and was the last in
the family to follow that particular faith, and he was waining towards
the end. He started a small Sunday School in his home at Bottomley
where, no doubt, the two cousins were class mates. John Stevenson
lived in his grandfather's home at BOTTOMLEY FARM before moving
to Warland. Before long, "Little Quaker" gave a piece
of his land at Bottomley Lane Foot for a purpose built Sunday School
and Chapel to be run by the Wesley Methodists but to be open to
children of all denominations. This was in 1818 and was the beginning
of LANEBOTTOM CHAPEL. |
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Lanebottom
School and Chapel
built
1818 |
Both
Johns were elected Trustees of the school in 1818 along with their
grandfather and others. In 1848 when the school was enlarged, they
were both involved in the building work and John Stevenson was asked
to lay the memorial stone. Their brothers and sons were also staunch
supporters of this chapel. |
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| Old
John Fielden, the farmer at Warland, died in 1836 leaving the farm
to his 5 children; Mary, John, Ruth, Samuel and Thomas Fielden.
Shortly afterwards, Mary married John Haigh of the Moorcock on Inchfield
Moor, and together they took over the running of the 69 acre farm.
John Haigh remained the farmer at Warland for the next 23 years,
raising ten children there. Life continued much as one would expect
in these remote and desolate parts. One moment of excitement occurred
in December 1855 when the big barn burnt down, but there is no record
of further incidents.
Old
Bob Stevenson died in 1838 at Quarry Cottages. The quarry continued
to be leased to John Stevenson who ran it successfully for many
more years with his brothers James and Alexander. No doubt there
was many an accident in the quarry. One notable one occurred to
William Rigg in the winter of 1851 when he fell, breaking his leg.
But
who were the other families at Warland? In 1841, there was James
and Hannah Lord and children. James was a chair-bottomer. There
was Abraham and Jane Newell - Jane being another granddaughter of
"Little Quaker". At Gate End, there was Charles and Betty
Mitchell and their children. Charles worked on the canal. There
was old Abraham Stansfield, a much travelled man, with his wife
Betty, both handloom weavers. Then there was old Sam Greenwood,
a widower with four sons and a daughter who looked after the men
folk. |
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One
of these sons was Thomas, a stone cutter in the quarry. On July
22nd 1841 he went to Rochdale and enlisted in the army. He was assigned
to the 26th. Regiment of Foot, (The Cameronians). He took his oath
the day after, and on the 28th he was sent to Chatham. On December
1st. he set off for China. This would seem to be to fight in the
1st. Anglo-Chinese War. (British traders had been illegally exporting
opium to China, and the resulting widespread addiction was causing
serious social and economic disruption in the country. The Chinese
attempted to suppress the opium trade with the result that British
forces were sent in and war broke out.) A far cry from Walsden for
a young quarry worker. |
The
red uniforms of the 26th (The Cameronian)
Regiment of Foot |
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| In
1843 the whole of Walsden and Todmorden was surveyed, with each
property being measured and detailed on a map. Warland Gate End
was measured at 12 perches. As 3 perches was about average for a
weaver's cottage, there must have been 4 cottages at that time.
John Scholfield is recorded as being the owner, with Charles Mitchell
and others being the occupiers. Warland Estate was measured at 27
acres, 3 rods and 35 perches, with the quarry listed as 1 acre and
12 rods. The owners were the Executors of John Fielden and the occupier
was John Haigh. As some of the estate was outside the Township of
Todmorden and Walsden, it may be that this portion of the land was
not included in the survey. Quarry Cottages do not rate a mention
as they were wholly within Blatchinworth & Calderbrook. |
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The
track, now all grass, leading from Quarry Cottages up to the quarry |
When his father
died in 1857, John Haigh of Warland Farm inherited a share of his
land, which included 150 acres at TOP OF ALL FARM on Inchfield Moor.
This last outpost of civilisation is where John was born, and maybe
he felt he wanted to return. The family packed their bags and moved
across the valley in time for the birth of their eleventh child.
Warland Farm by then was sold to Messrs H. Kelsall and William Bartlemore
of Rochdale. |
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Hannah
Fielden, John's widow, remained in the cottage at Warland with
her son and granddaughter, Alice Haigh. Hannah was an old lady
by this time, and probably refused to move ... hence Alice was
commandeered to look after her. She died there in 1867.
A
reminder of the times can still be seen on a boulder in the river
by the side of the bridge. On it are engraved the words "PEACE
1856", celebrating the end of the Crimean War.
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Gate
End cottages on the left, Quarry Cottages
facing the lane, and the quarry overlooking them all |
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Warland
Lock looking towards Walsden |
The new owners
of the farm leased it out to Martha Dawson, widow of Abraham. Martha
was another grandchild of "Little Quaker", being the daughter
of his son, Samuel, and therefore first cousin to John Stevenson,
John Scholfield and Jane Newell. So we now have 4 cousins at Warland |
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Martha
farmed the land whilst her son worked in the quarry for the Stevensons.
In 1860 she was involved in a local court case. A man was caught
damaging one of her cows. Just how he was damaging it isn't recorded,
but he was taken into custody, brought to trial on 23rd July and
sentenced to 2 months' imprisonment.
The
quarry continued in the hands of the Stevensons, with John having
retired before 1851, but now the family branched out into cotton
manufacture, taking over the lease of the land round the old mill and building a weaving shed. This became known as QUARRY MILL.
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There had been
no building of additional houses since 1835 until the 1860's when
a terrace of double-decker cottages were built part way up the hill
side between Quarry Cottages and the farm. The row was named Claremont
Terrace, the back of which overlooked another new building, Claremont
House. The extended Stevenson family took over three of the cottages
in the terrace. Warland now had 18 households. |
Claremont
Terrace. The bottom storey cottages face the lane, whilst the upper
cottages are accessed from behind the terrace |
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In
1887 the estate again changed hands, being purchased by Alderman
Thomas Whittaker of Accrington. Charles Hetherington was the farmer
then. The estate was divided into Lots to be sold at auction on
10th. February 1887 at the Reed Hotel, Yorkshire Street, Rochdale.
The advertisement poster is transcribed below:
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1.
Warland
Farm
With
dwelling house, cottage and outbuildings, partly in Walsden and
partly in Blatchinworth, occupied by Charles Hetherington as yearly
tenant. The quarry in the said farm. A cottage adjacent to the farmhouse.
A chief rent of £1.4s.2d reserved on a lease for 999 years
of a plot of land and privileges sometime portion of said farm.
Contents
of above premises 47 acres, 3 rods, 5 perches statute measure.
A
tract of common or waste land
Part
unenclosed in Blatchinworth, near or adjoining the above described
farm containing 42 acres, 3 rods, 13 perches statute measure occupied
by the said Charles Hetherington .. |
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2
A
Perpetual Yearly rent of £24 payable
in respect of 2 plots of land in Walsden containing together 2 acres,
2 rods, 27 perches (parts being now the sites of a weaving shed
and reservoir)
Lot
3
A
Yearly Rent of £8.5s. reserved
on a lease for 999 years of a plot of land at Warland forming the
site of a dwelling house now occupied by Mr. J. Sadler and of several
cottages within the Reversion in Fee of such plot, and the mines
and minerals thereunder. |
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The
old weaving sheds can be seen in this photo. |
So
Warland was completed by 1871, and apart from one house
recently finished, there have been no further additions
as far as we are aware. The lane is tarmac, the houses have
all mod-cons and the residents have motor cars, the mill
is in ruins, the quarry is redundant apart from a few rock
climbers and the canal just has leisure traffic - but otherwise,
little has changed. |
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Walking
up the hill, past the farm and on towards the quarry it becomes
a monument to ancient rural life. Even the farmer's pigs and cows
run loose, and the sheep wander into the cottage gardens to eat
the daffodils. Sheep and cows are one thing ... but pigs are quite
another.
Warland Links
WARLAND FARM
QUARRY MILL
BACK
TO TOP
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