New book published on the history of Saddleworth

In Mercy of The Lord

Local historian, Peter Hurst, has published two books on ancient Saddleworth in the last two years with a third book having just been published that covers the period 1641 to 1660 to include the English Civil War. The books have had over 200 pages painstakingly translated from their original Latin and contain lots of local place names.

Peter told Saddleworth News: “Whilst researching at Huddersfield Library archives I came across  Almondbury Manor Court Rolls and to my amazement found that they included many records for Saddleworth folk. Apparently in ancient times Saddleworth had to present offences in the area, and elect their Constables and the 4 sworn men every year, at Almondbury Manor Courts. These records begin in 1627 when Sir John Ramsden acquired the manor from the Crown. But for hundreds of years before this Saddleworth had a connection with Almondbury – although sadly all the early medieval records have been lost over the years due to various historical traumas: The Peasants’ Revolt in the 1380’s and the English Civil War in the 1640’s. The manor of Saddleworth itself also became a Ramsden possession strengthening the ties between Almondbury and Saddleworth.

“Over a number of years I extracted and translated the records from the original highly abbreviated Latin prescribed for such records. To do this I had to relearn Latin and find a quick method of advancing my skills to address the issue of translating a very large volume of material written on parchment membranes, many defective due to damp and poor custody over the years.”

This research resulted in the publication of 3 books, all very substantial at over 200 pages each. The first one subtitled ‘In mercy of the lord’ covers the period 1627-40. Almondbury manor included in addition to Almondbury 6 other townships, namely, Huddersfield, South Crosland, Slaithwaite, Meltham, Honley and Quick (Saddleworth). Naturally most records concern the other townships , but there is a substantial amount of material for Quick. This book has been well received, and marketed by Waterstones.

Homagers for the Lord Protector

“The second book subtitled ‘Garsomes, geld rents and gould’ records all entries for Saddleworth only from 1590-1760 extracted from the manor court records and the Ramsden Account books. There is a wealth of information here containing hundreds of citations of people and places in ancient Saddleworth. I should add that none of this information has ever been published before due, I suppose, to the difficulty in translating the material as well as the voluminous extent of it. My purpose in publishing these details was simply to make the information widely available to those interested in Saddleworth local history. It has been a ‘labour of love’ and I could not disguise the effort involved ‘callouses’ on my brain!

“The third book, just out, is subtitled ‘Homagers for the Lord Protector’ and is a complete translation of Almondbury manor court rolls 1641-60, and again there are many records concerning Saddleworth folk and places included therein. Again Waterstones are marketing the book. But I really want to make these books as widely available as possible to Saddleworth folk- which means publicity. I don’t want publicity for mysef – just the books. In particular, Book 2 ‘Garsomes etc’ is still virtually unknown to local folk,” he added.

Peter is selling the books locally via the two second hand book shops as well as directly from himslef (which he states is cheaper). He is selling them at an excellent price given the printing costs, the amount of material in each book and the years of effort involved. He says he does not make a penny from the sales and just tries to the cover printing costs.