Ossett - the history of a Yorkshire town

Ossett Spa - Little Harrogate

The area of Ossett forming the south-eastern boundary with Horbury at Spring End is known as Ossett Spa. This is a reference to the natural springs that provide a perpetual supply of water and whose health-giving properties were seized upon by 19th century entrepreneurs keen to promote the area as a Little Harrogate or perhaps a Yorkshire version of Cheltenham Spa. James Ward and William Craven built the competing Cheltenham Sulphurous Baths and the New Cheltenham Baths on almost adjacent sites off Spa Lane in the early part of the 19th century. Ossett Spa Mill, which was built in the 1860s opposite the site of the New Cheltenham Baths had a mill dam fed by a natural spring The natural spring is still there today and feeds a pond in the back garden of the bungalow owned by Mr. John Myers.

However, the history of Ossett Spa goes back before the Little Harrogate schemes to the late 18th century with the building of Spring End Mill, one of the earliest scribbling and carding mills in Yorkshire by Ossett resident John Emmerson. Ossett Spa also played host to an 18th century colliery owned by the Naylor family and Jefferey's 1775 map Of Wakefield shows the "Black Engine" used to pump water out of the mine workings. There is increasing evidence that this "engine" which looks like a windmill on the 1775 map was in fact an early example of one of Newcomen's atmospheric steam engines, which was used to keep the pit workings dry.

Later still, there was an influx of miners to the area from places like Barnsley and Wakefield to work at nearby Roundwood Colliery. Although first opened in 1847 as a small day hole enterprise, Roundwood was massively expanded by the Greaves family towards the end of the 19th century as a deep mine colliery. It was reckoned that by the year 1900, close to 1,000 men were employed at Roundwood, many of whom made their homes close to the pit in the Ossett Spa area.

Little Harrogate
Goring House, Ossett Common, once the home of Ossett author Stan Barstow, is virtually all that remains of an ambitious project at the end of the 19th century to develop part of Ossett Common as the "New Montpellier Pleasure Gardens", likened to a Little Harrogate by Batley Carr entrepreneur and former drugget manufacturer, Mathew Wharton. Goring House was built by an associate of Wharton's, John Tennant, a Dewsbury property developer and auctioneer who committed suicide in one of the bedrooms of Goring House in April 1888 after he also encountered severe financial difficulties.

Above: Goring House, once the home of Ossett novelist Stan Barstow and also previously owned by John Tennant, Joe Bentley and Alfred Kilbank. For a while it was converted into two flats.

The little Harrogate scheme, to which Goring House stands a a single memorial seems first to have been mooted in 1879. In January that year, the "Ossett Observer" reported:

"It was informed on reliable authority that the first section of a project for transforming Ossett Spa into a second Harrogate, as a summer residence for visitors, is to be immediately carried out. Land has already been purchased, several acres in extent, and the services of an experienced architect engaged to lay out the same into sites for residences, boarding houses and other buildings of a public character. The whole of the streets are to be planted with trees in the continental style."

New Montpellier Pleasure Grounds
The lime trees, which still form avenues in Goring Park Avenue and the adjoining streets were planted in 1864, but advertising of the sites for villa residences "to be purchased over a period of six years on a quarterly installment plan" seems to have had no takers and only Goring House stands as a reminder of the ambitious scheme to develop this part of Ossett.

In 1884, part of the Spa estate land was taken over by a Batley Carr manufacturer, Mathew Wharton, with the aim of developing it as the New Montpelier Pleasure Grounds with extensive gardens, a boating lake, rides and amusements. There was an advertisement in "The Era", a London Newspaper on March 22nd 1884, as follows:

"WANTED - Violins, Flute, Double-Bass and a complete orchestra. Six-month season commencing on Good Friday (rehearsal, Thursday, April 10th) for the New Montpellier Gardens, South Ossett Spa. Apply, stating terms to J.W.R. Binns, 78 Reuben Street, Leeds."

A public entertainment was staged over the Easter holiday in 1884 and the French tightrope walker, Charles Blondin (1824-97), who had who walked across a rope suspended above Niagara Falls, performed there. Sadly, the venture was no more successful than the rest of the "Little Harrogate" schemes and by June, Wharton was bankrupt. Wharton had a history of financial failures in the textile and entertainment businesses, including the loss of £1,000 leasing a pier on the Isle of Man. The first notices appeared in the local press by July 1884 ¹ :

"IN BANKRUPTCY - Notice is hereby given that Mathew Wharton, Jun., of Upper Road, Batley Carr, Dewsbury and Montpellier Gardens, Ossett Spa both in the County of York, was on the 10th day of July, 1884 adjudged bankrupt by the County Court of Yorkshire holden at Dewsbury - John Arthur Deane, Official Receiver."

At the subsequent bankruptcy hearing held in August 1884, Wharton's less than honest dealings with John Tennant were first revealed: ²

"The next examination was that of Mr Mathew Wharton, who has from some time back entered into rash speculations as a public entertainer. The debtor resides at Batley Carr. In reply to the Official Receiver, he said that from 1880 up to a fortnight before Easter, he had carried on no business. He was formerly a drugget manufacturer and when he ceased in 1880, he had a capital of £8,000, which he invested in property. He then went to the Isle of Man and lost £1,000. Since he gave up business as a manufacturer, he had kept no books except rent books. He sold his furniture at the latter end of April 1884 and went to live in a less house. He had had two sales of furniture. The one in April realised £70. It was sold to John Tennant. His father died in 1880 and left him £6,000 and at his mother's death £800 came to him. The debtor was examined by Mr. R.W. Evans, solicitor, respecting the failure of his last speculation, the Montpellier Pleasure Gardens, Ossett and the disposal of various articles connected therewith, for which he owed money to various tradesmen and admitted having sold goods which cost £300 to John Tennant for £36. He did not know where Tennant was, but he had told him that he was going to the south of England. The examination was adjourned and a restraining order was granted against Tennant to prevent him from selling a dancing platform and other fixtures in his possession."

Suicide
Goring House was the only villa residence to be erected as part of the Little Harrogate scheme and was built by a man named John Tennant, who was possibly also the promoter for the Little Harrogate and New Montpellier Gardens project and had bought into Mathew Wharton's big scheme. Tennant was a colourful character who started off in life as a joiner and builder in Dewsbury, but went into property speculation in a serious way. He was also in partnership with a Leeds man called Leon Gross in a money-lending business until the partnership was dissolved in 1888.⁴ Tennant was also in a partnership with a man called Oldroyd as "Tennant & Oldroyd, Auctioneers" in Dewsbury.

Interestingly, Tennant had been in trouble with the local magistrates in 1886, which might give an insight into his character: ³

"At Dewsbury on Thursday, Mr. John Tennant an auctioneer and large property owner, was fined £20 with the option of three months imprisonment for letting some of his house properties for immoral purposes. It was shown that the houses were of the worst possible character and Tennant's knowledge of the use to which they were put was proved to the magistrates satisfaction."

Tennant's method of paying his creditors had been to give them plots of land on the Ossett Spa Estate. The ensuing obscurity of ownership led to large areas of the land being left derelict up to at least the 1980s. By April 1888, 49 year-old Tennant was in serious financial trouble and committed suicide in one of the bedrooms of his residence at Goring House: ⁵

"SAD DEATH OF DEWSBURY GENTLEMAN - Mr John Tennant, a retired joiner and builder, late of Dewsbury, where he is well-known as a property owner, was found dead in his bedroom at the Spa, Ossett yesterday morning. The deceased gentleman got up to light the fire and shortly afterwards returned to his bedroom, telling his wife that he had done so. Mrs. Tennant afterwards went downstairs, leaving him there and about a couple of hours later, as he did not make an appearance, she went to seek him. His bedroom door was locked and eventually assistance was obtained to burst it open. The deceased was then found hanging from the top of the bedstead with a piece of clothes line round his neck and quite dead. He was forty-nine years of age. At the inquest last evening, it was stated that the deceased gentleman was strong and healthy, but since Christmas last had been in low spirits, having had trouble in his business and lost a great deal of money. In his pocket was a letter dated the previous day to his son John Thomas Tennant:- "Dear Son - This is more than I can bear. I blame no-one but myself. Forgive me, and do the best you can for yourself, mother, Clara, Sarah-Ann, and lastly Emily. - Your father in trouble, John Tennant." A verdict was returned in accordance with the facts."

The medicinal springs in the neighbourhood of Goring House, from which Spa Street, Spa Croft Road and Spring End Farm take their names, were developed commercially earlier in the nineteenth century. For a number of years in the nineteenth century, the workhouse in Horbury was supplied with water from the Spa.

"Cheltenham Sulphurous Baths"
Research by John Goodchild, reveals that James Ward (1746-1832), a Horbury stonemason was awarded land at Low Common at the time of the Ossett Inclosure (1807-13) and he was the first to recognise the restorative properties of the water. There were two separate public bath establishments at Ossett Spa, although it isn't known exactly when Ward opened the "Ossett Baths" later called the "Cheltenham Sulphurous Baths", they were still owned by him when they were offered for let in 1829.

Ward's baths were described in the advert as follows:

"The premises are delightfully situated and the waters have been analysed by several eminent men and spoken of by them as a little inferior to Cheltenham. They have gained a very high reputation from the many surprising cures they have performed. These waters are celebrated for curing gout, rheumatism and the scrofula."

This advertisement appeared in the "Ossett Observer" ¹⁴ in 1864 for the original baths, but presumably by now rented to George Shaw, but probably owned by John Chappell:

"MINERAL BATHS - The original Ossett Spa Baths are open daily from 8am to 8pm. The waters are recommended by the faculty for Scorbutic and Rheumatic complaints. Sulphurous baths 1s 3d; Hot baths 1s; Cold baths 6d. Every accommodation in Refreshments, Beds and Stabling. Proprietor: George Shaw."

Things had moved on again by 1873 and the "Old Original Cheltenham Bath" had recently been refitted with new baths and cisterns and was being offered for sale in the "Ossett Observer" ¹⁵ complete with a stable, coach-house and greenhouse by the then proprietor John Chappell, who was retiring because of ill-health.

The '"Cheltenham Sulphurous Baths" were operated from 1864 by John Chappell and then subsequently by Henry Nettleton, and was offered with a number of cottages, cottage garden and an orchard, for auction following Chappell's death in 1884. The auction was described in the "Ossett Observer" ¹⁶ and included, besides the baths, two dwelling houses, a grocer's shop, nine cottages and four parcels of land.

An advertisement in the "Ossett Observer" ¹⁷ tells us about the new proprietor of the old baths after the auction had been completed:

"Re-opening of the Old Cheltenham Sulphur Bath by J. Marsden, proprietor of the Wakefield Turkish Baths. Slipper and sulphur baths 6d each. Refreshments and stable accommodation available."

"The New Cheltenham Baths"
The second and competing bath house at Ossett Spa was called the "Spring End" or "New Cheltenham Baths" and dates back to 1823 when it was established by William Craven of Horbury. By 1826, the New Cheltenham Baths were tenanted (but not owned) by David Land. An advertisement ⁷ from that time describes the baths as follows:

"Consisting of medicated vapours, sulphurous, sitting, shower or plunge baths, with a separate establishment for the poor at a reduced rate."

Land seemed to be doing well and the baths were clearly well patronised ⁸:

"D. Land proprietor of the New Cheltenham Baths is grateful for the support last summer and that cold, warm and shower baths were available. Accommodation is also available in respectable houses in the neighbourhood."

The last comment is interesting and it seems likely that Land had premises adjoining the New Cheltenham Baths where people could stay and take the Ossett Spa waters or enjoy the apparent health-giving properties of his baths. This was common in other Spas, such as Askern, Harrogate or Cheltenham and it is likely to have influenced later generations who sought to develop the area as a "Little Harrogate".

In 1831, it is believed that David Land bought the baths and they were advertised ⁹ for sale in the local press and were described as follows:

"FOR SALE - New Cheltenham Spa and Baths and four dwelling houses, now or lately occupied by William Willison, Edward Moulson, Joseph Chappell and others. The premises recently fitted up and contain two china baths, one china sitting bath, two cold baths, a shower bath and a plunging bath with new cisterns and boilers."

A further advertisement ¹⁰ a few weeks later gives us an idea of the cost of using the baths:

"New Cheltenham Baths - D. Land, opened for the season on the 1st May 1831. Annual subscription available for bathing: one person to the warm and cold baths, 10 shillings. For a family to the warm and cold baths, £1; sulphurous baths each 2 shillings. Board and lodging available at the bath house."

By May 1832¹², Land had bought both of the competing Ossett Spa bath houses, which it is stated actually adjoin each other. This advertisement in the local press relates the announcement:

"OSSETT SPRING END CHELTENHAM BATHS - D. Land in occupation for the last six years has taken the adjoining bath establishment with medicated vapour, warm, sulphurous, sitting, shower and plunge baths. A separate establishment is provided for the poor at reduced rate. Board and lodging available. W.B. Thornton, M.D. attends the baths, Monday, Thursday and Saturday to give advice. Medicated vapour baths 3 shillings; sulphurous vapour baths 2 shillings; warm and shower baths 1 shilling; cold and plunge baths 6d."

The baths were extensively used by Ossett people and one Ossett man described how the baths helped his rheumatism¹³, but that only married couples were allowed to bathe together. Land's circular bath house had a well in the centre (see pictures below of the derelict bath house) where bubbling water could be seen. A large house (most probably Spa House) was built to accommodate those people visiting to take the waters.

By 1849, it seems that the two Ossett Spa bath houses were once again in separate ownership and the New Cheltenham Baths were owned by a man called Ezekial Goldsmith. The baths were offered for sale by his widow after his death aged 64 in early 1877. However, the baths had been offered for sale earlier in 1853⁶ and the advertisement gives us a good description of the premises:

"FOR SALE - All that messuage, tenement or dwelling-house situate on Ossett Common, with the Spa House, hot and cold baths, boiler house, stable and other buildings to the name belonging, called "THE NEW CHELTENHAM BATHS" also the close of land and garden adjoining thereto and the private road leading therefrom into the Horbury and Ossett road, containing together, including the sites of the buildings 1 acre, 0 roods, 3 perches or thereabouts and now in the occupation of Mr. E. Goldsmith. The celebrated spa well from which the baths are supplied is on this lot. The water was analysed some years ago by the late William West, F.R.S. and was found to be very similar to the waters at Cheltenham.

The baths, which were established upwards of 30 years ago by the late William Craven, Esq., of Horbury are much resorted to by persons suffering from rheumatic affections. They have also proved highly efficacious in all complaints and in cases of general debility. The baths are capable of considerable extension and improvement and will be found to be a lucrative investment."

People living in Ossett Spa still collected bottles of the spa water for their own consumption right up to the 1920s. A single small circular stone bath-house is still just about standing behind what used to be Illingworth's fellmongers. The wall of the bath-house was over five feet high until 1990, when the then owner J.T. Watson reduced it to around 18 inches and installed an iron gate across the entrance. The site was then bought by Alan Morris.

Above: The only remaining bath-house at Ossett Spa containing the mineral spring that used to feed the mill dam at Illingworth Bros. This picture was taken in the 1970s.

In 1896, Albert Illingworth set up a fellmongering business (taking the wool from sheep pelts) in buildings adjacent to the bath house pictured above, so that he could utilise the ample supply of water. One of the same Illingworth family was still running the business when it finally closed down in 1986. Later occupants of the site capped the well and demolished the walls of the bathhouse. They also drained the pond to extend the size of their car park. Sadly, important Ossett history erased for ever. ¹¹

It had been feared in 2007 that the entire site would be levelled since the site has been earmarked for a new warehouse by developers Niels Larsen. Sadly, there is still much confusion about the land boundaries and this important reminder of Ossett's heritage may soon be lost forever.

However, by March 2008, the land dispute had been resolved and the land that the bath house stands on was given to the owners of Spa Farm, who have taken steps to make sure that the site is preserved. Work is now in progress to fence off what is left of the Ossett Spa to prevent damage from horses kept in adjacent fields and to allow access for visitors accessing the site from Spa Lane.

Above: This is what is left of the old bath at Ossett Spa in July 2010. The height of the walls has been reduced to about 18", but Niels Larsen have been true to their word and have fenced off the bath. Their warehouse can be seen in the background.

Influx of Miners
Ironically, the presence of its spa waters in the many wells and springs in the area seems to have had less permanent effect on the development of Ossett Common than the opening of Roundwood Colliery, which brought an influx of miners from Barnsley and Featherstone to settle in the area.

Until the 20th century, the typical miners dwelling was still the low stone croft cottage. At Ossett Spa, a miners cottage has recently been restored (see below). In a survey of the living and working conditions of Yorkshire miners made in 1841, the inspectors describe the cramped conditions of large families living in similar cottages, usually consisting of just two small rooms.

Above: An old miners cottage at Ossett Spa that is currently being used as a stable. The two- roomed cottage was typical of the type of house that some Ossett miners lived in during the early 19th century.

Ossett Spa Mills
The earliest recorded scribbling mill in Ossett and one of the earliest in the West Riding of Yorkshire was built in the Spring End area of Ossett Spa in about 1780 by Ossett master handloom weaver, John Emmerson and his partner Joshua Thornes, an Ossett worsted cloth manufacturer. By 1782, the partnership of the mill was extended to include James Mitchell and John Oakes, both Ossett master clothiers.

 

1. "Leeds Mercury", Monday, July 21st 1884.
2. "Leeds Mercury", Wednesday, August 20th 1884.
3. "Leeds Mercury", Saturday, March 20th 1886.
4. "Leeds Mercury", Saturday, January 7th 1888.
5. "Leeds Mercury", Friday, April 20th 1888.
6. "Leeds Mercury", Saturday, 28th February 1853.
7. "Ossett Pubs ", by Brian Smith, Ossett Historic Society
8. "Wakefield & Halifax Journal", Friday, 25th May 1827.
9. "Wakefield & Halifax Journal ", Friday, 27th May 1831.
10. "Wakefield & Halifax Journal ", Friday, 10th June 1831.
11. "Ossett Spa", a detailed historic account of the Ossett Spa area, researched in 2010 by Alan Howe.
12. "Wakefield & Halifax Journal ", Friday, 4th May 1832.
13. "Ossett Observer ", Saturday, 23rd July 1864.
14. "Ossett Observer ", Saturday, 13th August 1864.
15. "Ossett Observer ", Saturday, 5th July 1873.
16. "Ossett Observer ", Saturday, 28th June 1884.
17. "Ossett Observer ", Saturday, 13th June 1885.

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