Wednesday 5 March 2025
Hebden Bridge Local History Society Report
The experience of civil conflict:
Sowerby 1638-1660
Speaker: Murray Seccombe
Who would have thought that a book of accounts could open up the day to day reality of life during the civil war? But as Murray Seccombe told Hebden Bridge Local History Society, the rare survival of the accounts of the Constable of Sowerby during this period proved an unrivalled source of information. Those years of crisis in the middle of the 17th century were deeply felt. There were arguments, fights and exorbitant taxes alongside challenging new religious ideas.
The position of Constable was one of the most important roles in the governance of a township; he had the responsibility to raise a local militia to contribute to security, and as the conflict developed, to support the Military. He also had to collect the taxes to pay for such support. The brief entries detailing expenditure are the bones on which the bigger picture can be built. There is undoubtedly a frisson of excitement when you read "Item paid: James Dobson for quartering Cromwell Horses 2 days and 2 nights."
England had no standing army at this time, but during the reign of Charles I there was an attempt to better equip the conscripts. The Sowerby militia consisted of 8 pikemen and 8 musketeers, who would be required to gather for an annual muster, and paid for two days. This increased to 40 muster days as the threats became a reality, and the accounts record that there was an unwillingness to muster and train.
There was also an ongoing objection to the expenses incurred: soldiers passing through or billeted in Halifax had to be quartered and the costs borne by the township. In one case four troopers were billeted for 69 days at a cost of £27. Unsurprisingly, the townspeople objected to the tax burden and the disruption, and on one occasion the Constable was arrested and held for not making payments.
Money was also spent on gatherings of soldiers and townspeople as the army became more radicalised. When Royalists took over Pontefract Castle, increased taxes were needed to support the siege and pay the wages of the soldiers and provide provisions for Cromwell's horses. After the execution of the king and the end of the siege, the accounts suggest that the Constable spent 1s 6d on some kind of celebration by the townsmen and the soldiers before they marched away.
Taxation remained high during the years that followed, and may have contributed to a weakening of support for the Parliamentary regime. Sowerby seemed not to have seen many direct casualties as a result of the war, though there were more deaths from plague epidemics, doubtless more easily spread with movements of armies.
For a manufacturing town like Sowerby the slump in trade would have a longer lasting effect. The area remained strongly non-conformist and puritan even after the restoration of the monarchy. Prominent Sowerby men joined the chapel founded by the preacher Oliver Heywood in Northowram. Another legacy of this period was the growth in the strength of township governance especially in the raising and spending of taxes.
Hebden Bridge Local History Society meets from September until April on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month at Hebden Royd Methodist Church, starting at 7.30 pm. Details of the History Society talks programme, publications and of archive opening times are available on the "What's on" section of the HebWeb, on the History website and you can also follow the History Society Facebook page.
With thanks to Sheila Graham for this report
See previous reports in the HebWeb History section