X17 SHI 1857 KNO

Size: 26” * 19”

Material: Paper

Scale: 40’ to 1”

Condition: good

This undated plan clearly originated from the sale of a freehold property in Shipley on behalf of the ‘trustees of the late Joseph Sutcliffe’. The plan was drawn up by George Knowles, estate agent and surveyor, of Bradford. It is annotated in pencil to the effect that George Knowles’s diaries are ‘in the reference library’, but I cannot check this at the present time. The property described has a frontage on the turnpike road from Bingley to Shipley and I didn’t anticipate that it would be too difficult to locate. It is surrounded by the Earl of Rosse’s land which helps since the limits of this important estate are well known.

The residential property is not named in this plan but is described as Shipley House in the first Ordnance Survey map (1852). It therefore joins the confusing list of Shipley halls and houses mentioned with my last map, but I’ll say no more on this topic now. The mill building is identified as Ashley Mill in the first OS map. Sheeran describes it as a small mill where cotton warps were spun: it was originally constructed in the early 19^th century. It was evidently modified and developed periodically, and today is called Mercury Quays.

It is usually easier to identify a business than a domestic property in the local press. Helpfully Ashley Mill was offered for lease in the Bradford Observer and Leeds Mercury in June 1855, by a living Mr Joseph Sutcliffe himself, together with a Jonas Sutcliffe: so the map is evidently more recent than that year. In October 1857 all the property listed in the plan is being offered for sale. The name ‘Shipley Hall’ is not used as a designation but Jonas Sutcliffe is then the resident. Ashley Mill is described as a worsted mill with a weaving shed, and the various vacant pieces of land are being advertised as suitable for building development. The name of George Knowles is mentioned so we can be quite certain that our plan was produced to accompany the occasion of this sale.

With all this information it was not hard to identify Joseph Sutcliffe (1788-1856) as a Haworth wool-stapler. The sale was occasioned by Joseph’s death. He was buried at Haworth Parish Church, the service being conducted by AB Nicholls, the curate, who is likely to have been still mourning the death of his wife, Charlotte Bronte, the previous year. Jonas was Joseph Sutcliffe’s son. In the 1851 census Jonas Sutcliffe is 25 and living with his wife Jemima and two children at New York, Shipley. He describes himself as an agent (stuff) and must be at least moderately well to do as he has three domestic servants. He was born in Haworth in 1822 and married at Bradford Parish Church in 1847. He is still alive at the time of the 1861 census describing himself as a ‘commission merchant’ and living in Saltaire Road.