From time to
time, I would say things to Sharon such as: “Mrs. Harker made wonderful ginger biscuits” or “Mrs. Harker gave me some cool things that
her brother brought back from Nigeria” or “Mrs. Harker and I walked over the moors to Ilkley for my birthday”. Not unreasonably, Sharon would then ask me
about Mrs. Harker and I did not have all the answers. This account is an
attempt to provide some of these answers.
Mrs. Harker (late 1950s). Taken on the lawn in her back garden.
Mrs. Harker
was a neighbour who lived close-by at 31, Unity Street. I spent many hours in her company as a child
but really knew very little about her. Until now. When I started my research, I located a
remarkable online transcript of an interview with her that was conducted in the
late 1960s as part of a study “The
Edwardians; Family Life and Work Experience Before 1918”. This project was created
by Paul Thompson, Research Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex and
is now archived at the University. It, together with sites such as Ancestry and
FindMyPast enabled me to compile something of Mrs. Harker’s story.
Mrs. Harker
was born Frances Thornborough in 1895 in Casterton, just across the River Lune
from Kirkby Lonsdale in Westmorland. Her parents were James and Margaret (née Nicholson),
also from Kirkby Lonsdale. At the time they were married, Margaret was a cook
at Casterton Hall (note: there are no less than three buildings that lay claim
to this name). Frances attended Casterton National School, founded in 1823 by the
Reverend Carus Wilson.
Casterton National School which Frances Thornborough attended
before the family’s move to Riddlesden when she was about six years old.
James was
employed as a gardener (as was his father, Edward) but also had a
less-reputable source of income.
“Apart from his gardening? Well he'd go
poaching. Everybody in the village poached you see, except the parson and the
policeman. The River Lune was at the bottom of the wood. And if the bobby saw a
man coming out of the wood with a sack on his back, he'd just say, Goodnight
Jim. Next day, he would call at mother's to see how the babies were; there was
always one in the cradle. And there'd be his little paper parcel on the table.
He said nothing, mother said nothing. But he picked up the parcel and when he
got home, it was his piece of salmon. That's how they did it in Casterton. And
the parson knew. And he also used to call to enquire about the babies. And he
got tomorrow's dinner. There were great goings-on in that little village. I
wish I lived there now. No, that would be the only other job he did, besides
his gardening, just his bit of poaching”.
By 1901, the Thornborough
family had moved to Morton Banks (Riddlesden), near Keighley. James Thornborough
first worked as a gardener for James Clarkson at West Riddlesden Hall, a fine
17th century manor house near the Leeds-Liverpool canal. Clarkson
was a solicitor at a well-known Keighley law firm. James was later employed by
the Keighley Rural District Council in the road maintenance department.
West Riddlesden Hall circa 1920 where James Thornborough worked as
a gardener
Frances had
two elder brothers, Isaac Edward and John (Jack), a younger brother Henry
(Harry) and a younger sister, Annie Elizabeth. The 1911 census shows Isaac and
John as solicitors’ clerks (with Clarkson’s firm), Frances as a blouse maker
and Henry as a doffer (one who removes bobbins holding spun fiber from a wool spinning
frame). Apparently, James and Margaret had a total of seven children but two
had died in infancy. The youngest child, Willie, died when he was three but
nothing is known about the other.
A child-doffer in the Yorkshire textile industry
Upon moving
to Riddlesden, the Thornborough family lived in a decent-sized cottage (converted
from two smaller ones) near the Hall. Around 1905, they moved to 31, Unity
Street though goodness knows how they all fit into the two-bed terraced house.
Riddlesden taken from Thwaites Brow (2014). The steep Unity Street
can be seen just right of center.
Frances had a
very happy childhood though life was not always easy but that was true for many
families in those days. The weekly washing was done in a boiler that had a burner
underneath it. Margaret made all the children’s’ clothes. and knitted the boys’
socks. James bought a last and bought already-cut leather to sole the children’s
shoes. Bath-time would be in a tub in front of the fire: the cleanest got in
first, the dirtiest was last.
Unity Street (2014). Number
31 was in the middle of this row of terraced houses on a nerve-challenging
cobbled street.
The Thornboroughs
apparently ate well. “Liver in those days
was about tuppence a pound: liver and onions with dumplings in. And roast
potatoes because they all went in the oven you hadn't to bother with a pan. And
then a rice pudding after that. Another day it would be a meat and potato pie.
And the crust would an inch thick; beautiful flaky suet crust. But there was one thing that puzzled me for
many years. Oh, I think I was grown up before I knew the reason. It was a great
big pie like that, she had two enamel dishes, one held a quart of milk, that
she could make a rice pudding you see and the other held the meat. And one
corner always had a cross in it. I never knew until I was grown up that this
corner of crust with the cross on it was dad's. There was more meat in it. Our joint was always cooked on Sundays. Mother
was a good cook, we had glorious meals.”
Margaret must
have been an avid reader: Frances recounted on several occasions how her
mother’s choice for relaxation was to disappear with her book. James seems to have been a good husband and
father. He lit the fire every morning
and have a good blaze going by the time his wife got down. “He
would have done anything. Any mortal thing we'd asked him. He would have - when
we were tiny he always took us out. And as I tell you he went to church every
Sunday morning and in due time shepherded five children in. He would have laid
his soul open for us”.
As a child, Isaac
had been diagnosed with diseased vertebrae but must have recovered as he went
to Nigeria at some point, returning in 1914. However, he died two years later,
possibly from diabetes. During the Great War, Jack served in the Duke of Wellington’s
West Riding Regiment and was killed in action in 1916. He was buried in the
Lonsdale military cemetery in France. 1916 was clearly a terrible year for the
family.
Above: Jack Thornborough.
Below: the Lonsdale military cemetery where he is buried
Harry served
in the Scots Guards in the Great War, being discharged in 1919. In 1915, when he was 18, Harry married Sarah Catherine
Briggs who was 12 years his senior. In 1954, he married again, to Dorothy
Charnley who was 28 years younger than he.
There is some anecdotal evidence (the 1939 register) to suggest that
Harry did have at least one child. During our acquaintance, Frances never spoke
of Harry or his family.
Frances left
school at 13 and for two years stayed with aunts back in Kirby Lonsdale while
she learned dressmaking. She then went to work at a shop on North Street in
Keighley. Frances was courting a boy around 1916 but he went to the Great War
and was killed in the following year. She remained close friends with his sister and
became godmother to her daughter.
In 1938, the then
43-year-old Frances married one Joseph Harker. Joseph was born in Lodge Green,
Melbecks in Swaledale in the North Riding of Yorkshire, son of James Harker, a lead
miner. Joseph’s mother was Alice Bell. In
the early 1880s, the Harker family moved to Keighley. Alice died shortly
thereafter, when Joseph was only 8 and his father subsequently remarried, to
Sarah Ann Greenwood. By the time he was only 12, Joseph was working as a worsted
spinner in Keighley, as was his 10-year-old younger brother. Some researchers have estimated that in those
days, children under 13 comprised up to 20% of the work force in the wool mills.
Sadly, his father, James ended up as a resident of the Pauper Lunatic Asylum in
Menston where he died in 1913.
In 1903,
Joseph Harker, by then a colour matcher in a wool mill, married Susan Smith of
Keighley, with whom he had two children, Alice Muriel and Eric Smith. Susan died in 1932. His later marriage to Frances Thornborough
was quite short-lived, as he died only four years later. They had no children.
Frances
referred to Joseph and his then-wife when reminiscing about entertainment
options with her friends during the War years. “There was only about the pictures that you could go to for sixpence.
You got a beautiful seat for sixpence with plush tip-ups. And then you could go
to the Temperance Hall every Monday evening when the Glee Union used to give a
concert there. It was a glorious all male concert. In due time, many, many years after, I
married the conductor of the Glee Union. Not that me going to the sixpenny concerts
led up to it: his wife was alive and kicking in those days”.
In her later
years, Frances Harker became a genteel member of the Riddlesden community. She
was Chairman and President of the local Conservative party and was a regular
member of the congregation at St. Mary’s Church. Frances died in Riddlesden in
1980. Probate listed her assets as £8977, most of which was presumably made up
by the value of her house.
St Mary’s Church, Riddlesden where Mrs. Harker was a regular
member of the congregation
I do not know
how the relationship between Mrs. Harker and the Hudson family became
established. My elder brother remembers Frances’ mother, Margaret, from the
early 1940s who continued to live in Unity Street after her husband died.
Throughout my childhood, I clearly remember spending many hours with Mrs.
Harker. I would just go over and knock on the door at Number 31. She was a good cook and certainly I enjoyed
the afore-mentioned ginger biscuits on occasions. I remember the house very well, including the
attic where her brother’s Nigerian artifacts were stored and her cellar where
her delicious elderflower wine was kept. On one birthday occasion, she and a
friend of hers walked with me over the moors to Ilkley and we then went for
afternoon tea before taking the bus back. That would have been an all-day
affair. On occasions, her sister, Anne would come to visit. Miss Thornborough
was considered exotic by the village.
She lived in London, wore heavy make-up, had horn-rimmed glasses and
smoked cigarettes using a cigarette-holder. Mrs. Harker gave me various
artifacts that her brother brought back from Nigeria and also, his stamp album
that today probably would have been quite valuable. These gifts gave rise to my
own father’s somewhat unjust comment “Hasn’t
she got a dustbin?”
A horn from an Ibex-like creature that Mrs. Harker’s brother
brought back from his African assignment.
Last of the artifacts that she gave to me.
Sadly, my
mother and Mrs. Harker had a falling out in my teen years, probably over a
misunderstanding. As I grew older, our relationship also faded. After I left
for University in 1966, I have few memories of going to see her. With
hindsight, that is a matter of some regret.