Barraclough Biographies
The "Clockies of Dollymoor", Haworth
The photograph that accompanies the newspaper article (below)
(Courtesy Mick Marshall)
From the Bradford Telegraph and Argus, Saturday, May 17, 1958
By courtesy Mick Marshall of
Essex.
Farewell to 260-year-old homestead of 'Clockies of Dollymoor"
by Harry Haigh
Shouldered protectively into the flank of the steeply-shelving Sladen Valley, just below
the great embankment of Keighley Corporation's Lower Laithe resevoir beyond Haworth, are
the remains of a lone farmstead.
For over 260 years it has stood there, its old walls hunched ruggedly against the spite of
the bitter winter storms that sweep this bleak Bronte upland.
INEVITABLE DECAY
Money spent in vain.
But at last the struggle is over. "Dalemoor" - "Dollymoor" to the
locals - worn out with age and its centuries' long battle agains tthe elements, is, stone
by stone, being taken down.
When the last stone is gone it will mean not only the end of a familiar landmark in the
valley; it will also close a chapter in local history, for the farm was once the home of
the noted "Clockies of Dollymoor", who are still remembered by the older folk of
Haworth and Stanbury.
The farm, owned by the corporation, is under the control of the Water Department, and Mr
G.E.V. Boldry, the Water Engineer, says that in recent years much money has been spent in
efforts to keep the building habitable. Now it has become impracticable to continue the
struggle against inevitable decay and so, reluctantly, it has been decided that
"Dollymoor" must come down.
It has been reduced to a safe level, and demolition will be completed as opportunity
occurs. When the roof was stripped it was found that the timbers were unsquared tree
trunks laid on walls of roughly-faced stone packed with rubble and earth, which, over the
years, has disintegrated into dust.
CLOCK CRAFTSMEN
Secrets passed down.
The Heaton family, from whom descended the Barracloughs, were first associated with
"Dollymoor". It is recorded that originally the farm included barn, mistal and
smithy, and that on the lintel over the mistal door was the date 1690 with the initials
R.H. - possibly the first of the Heatons to live there - which were repeated on a stone of
the flagged floor indoors.
For many years from the late seventeenth century the Heatons, living in what in those days
must have been a truly isolated farmstead, carried on a thriving trade as clockmakers.
Inevitably, as is the way of country-folk, they were dubbed the "Clockies of
Dollymoor", and when the secrets of clock-making were passed down to a Barraclough
the name went with them.
Who originally taught the art to those hardy folk of this remote valley is unrecorded.
The Barraclough strain was introduced into the Heaton family when Jonas Barraclough, of
the "Old House at Home", Horton, married Martha Heaton.
Their son was taken as a boy to "Dollymoor" to be taught clock-making by his
uncles, and it was the descendants of Jonas and Martha Barraclough who went into Haworth
and farther afield. One started a business in Thornton, Bradford, and another in Keighley,
and a third in Leeds.
VERSITILE FAMILY
Fiddles and teeth.
One of the Thornton Barracloughs, on being told by an old historian that it seemed that
"fiddles and other wood instruments" were also made at "Dollymoor",
wrote: "I never heard before that fiddles were made at Dalemoor. Am not surprised,
for they all seem to have been a knowing family as they were noted for doctoring - teeth
extraction etc - as well as clock-making. Later my Uncle Zerubbal added cork-leg making in
which he was very successful ..."
An even earlier visitor to "Dollymoor" wrote: "I have spent many hours
watching the men weaving at the handlooms and the women winding the spools ..."
A versitile family indeed, and true craftsmen whose work was intended to last. Their
clocks marked the passing hours long after the men who made them were dead.
FINE "GRANDFATHER'
Bought for 5s
The one-time village blacksmith at Stanbury, Albert Hill, who died not long ago at the age
of 80, was one of those who had a fine Barraclough "grandfather". He had it for
40 years, having got it for 5s from a family he was "flittin" who didn't want
the trouble of taking the massive timepiece to their new home.
A "grandfather" is not the sort of thing to tuck under one's arm and take to the
shop, and in the old days the craftsman visited the cottages and farms to
"dress" (service and repair) the clocks. So, when Albert bought the
"grandfather" he called in "Young Clockie", who spread out the works
on the kitchen table, spent the whole day on the job, and charged 1s 6d.
"He told me that it had been made by his grandfather", Albert told me not long
before he died,
The custom of travelling to "dress" clocks led to a practical joke, which,
although it occurred many years ago, is still so fresh in the minds of some of the old
folk that it was told to me twice within half an-hour.
THE BITER BIT
"Tooit" had to pay
It seems that "Clockie" - no one knows which one he was apart from the fact that
he was a Jonas - called one day on a Haworth barber known at "Tooit" (Toothill)
who was himself a character. "Tooit" gravely told "Clockie" there was
a clock to be "dressed" at a remote farm beyond Stanbury.
"Clockie" plodded up the valley only to find he had been hoaxed.
Nothing was said, but a few days later "Clockie" again called on the barber,
said he was going into Keighley, had left his money at home, and asked for the loan of
eigteenpence.
He did not mention the loan again, so, after about a fortnight had gone by,
"Tooit" asked him "What abaht that eighteenpence tha owes?"
"Ah", said "Clockie", "That eighteenpence were for tha' theer
clock-dressin' up t'valley".
The score was even.
Stories like these are the foundation of folk legend, and as long as they are told the
"Clockies of Dollymoor" will be remembered, even though the hillside creeps
again over the site of their old homestead.
Note: a Mistal is a building in which cattle were kept overnight.
Last updated on 01 January 2001