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History of Barnbow
Part 5
ENCLOSURE, CENSUS AND ORDNANCE SURVEY

From The Barwicker No. 63


Map of The Barnbow Area
Reproduced from the 6 in. to 1 mile Ordnance Survey map published in 1849, with the permission of the West Yorkshire Archive Service.

Undoubtedly the most significant local event of the early years of the nineteenth century was the Barwick Enclosure Award of 1804, following the Barwick Parliamentary Enclosure Act of 1796 (see 'The Barwicker' No.12). This was the last stage of a process that had been taking place in a piecemeal fashion in the parish for centuries and which brought about replacement of the remaining open fields, ings and common land by separate closes which could be farmed independently of the surrounding land. After awards of land (called 'allotments') to individual people such as the lord of the manor and the rector, and to charities, the land available was shared between the owners of land in the open fields and the ings and those who enjoyed rights of common.

The Award is not easy to follow as the accompanying maps have disappeared. The award did not affect Barnbow to a great extent as regards redistribution of land as there were no open fields remaining there and only about 40 acres of common at Barnbow Carr. Sir Thomas Gascoigne, the lord of the manor, was awarded about 10 acres of land at Barnbow Carr in recompense for his coney warren, about which we know nothing, and which was described as 'totally destroyed and discontinued'. In addition, as part of over 100 acres he received for his 'right of soil', he was given several small allotments on Barnbow Carr.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the Enclosure Award with respect to Barnbow was the creation of three new roads and a drain. The descriptions of the sites show the importance of the vanished maps and also of local knowledge. The first road was "a private carriageway or road called 'The Barnbow Road' of breadth 30ft. beginning at the said township of Austhorpe near the colliery of William Wilks Waud and leading from there eastwards and northwards over Brown Moor to and into an ancient lane called Barnbow Lane near a certain messuage in the occupation of George Ingle". Without the Enclosure map, it is unclear which road this is. It is unlikely to be Barrowby Lane, which does not turn north to the site of Barnbow Hall. What we now call Barnbow Lane is a more likely candidate as it turns north at Shippen and approaches the hall from the south. However to say that it crosses Brown Moor is puzzling, unless this feature occupied a much larger area than it does now.

The second road was to be called 'The Scholes Road over Barnbow Carr'. It was "a private carriageway or road of breadth 30ft. beginning at Barnbow Lane End and leading from there westwards over a certain common called Barnbow Carr to and into an ancient lane leading to Scholes". At that time Barnbow Lane ran up from the south and from the above description probably ended at the bottom of the slope to the north of the Hall. One section of this new road is now called Barnbow Lane and the other Bog Lane.

The third road was to be called 'The Barnbow Carr Road'. It was "a private carriageway or road of breadth 30ft. branching off from the said last mentioned road northwards between allotments . . . . on Barnbow Carr and leading from there over the said Carr to a messuage belonging to the said Sir Thomas Gascoigne in the occupation of Mr Thomas Braime". The road now forms the eastern part of Barnbow Lane.

The new drain was to be

"a public drain or watercourse which we shall call 'The Barnbow Carr Drain' of width 3ft. at the bottom and of sufficient depth and a foot better on each side for each foot in depth . . . . for the purpose of carrying the water at all times freely along the same beginning at the north-west side of an allotment awarded to Elizabeth Tireman over the said common called Barnbow Carr and from thence south-eastwards and then across the same to and into the said Barnbow Carr Road and across the same road to and into an allotment awarded to the said Sir Thomas Gascoigne upon the said common called Barnbow Carr and from thence into certain ancient enclosures of the said Sir Thomas Gascoigne on the said common called Barnbow Carr".  


The Award ordered that the drain should be "from time to time effectively dressed and scoured at the expense of the occupiers".

The drain forms part of what is now called 'Carr Beck'. It runs from the fields east of Scholes village, under Barwick Road to the east of the Coronation Tree, then south-eastwards across now cultivated ground and pasture until it eventually crosses Garfoth Golf Course and empties into Cock Beck. (see map). The most artificial part runs in two straight sections between Barwick Road and Barnbow Lane. In the most northerly part of this stretch infilling or other agricultural processes have caused the eastern bank to stand several feet above the other.

The drainage of Barnbow Carr and the creation of the roads which opened up Barnbow from the north would have made agriculture more efficient in the area and probably set off further consolidation of land into more manageable units.

The Valuation Book for Barwick township dated 1803 records the rates payable on all land and property taking into consideration the changes brought about by the the Enclosure Award which was published the following year. There is no separate section for Barnbow but it gives details of the land which Sir Thomas Gascoigne rented to individual occupiers in Barnbow at that time. These included



The Account Book of the Gascoigne-owned Garforth and Barnbow Collieries for the years 1809-1811 shows that coal mining activity in the parish was greatly reduced. The records show that no coal was raised from the Barnbow area during this time and the only entries refer to debts incurred by customers in the previous years.

During these years Willam Dawson was preaching in Methodist chapels throughout the north of England. He held a weekly 'class' at Barnbow where a group of fellow worshippers sang hymns, read the bible and prayed together. In the mid-1830s, a fund was set up by the Leeds Methodist community, which provided him with an annuity and he left Barnbow in 1837 to live in Burmantofts. He died in July 1841 and was buried in Barwick churchyard. As the long funeral procession travelled slowly from Leeds, the mourners sang hymns at Seacroft and Scholes, and it is reported that they stopped and gazed across the fields to Barnbow where the famed local preacher had lived so long.

The census returns for 1841 has a section for Barnbow clearly marked. There are 19 dwellings listed with a total population of 86. There are four farmers listed, with no details of their holdings - .

Other occupations were: . It is likely that the male servants were farm workers rather than domestic workers. The economy of the hamlet seems to be based on agriculture with coal mining playing a significant part, along with male and female crafts. . What is surprising is the size of the population which is half as many again as any totals we have seen earlier. It may be thought that the census enumerators have included other places under the umbrella term 'Barnbow' but this seems unlikely as such surrounding places as have their own separate listing. The Enclosure Award with its conversion of common land to arable and good grazing land would have made farming more profitable and increased the demand for agricultural labour but one would have expected this to occur in such places as Winmoor rather than Barnbow where the land had been enclosed earlier. And where were the 19 dwellings needed to house such an increased population?

The census reurns for 1851 show that the number of dwellings in Barnbow was 20 plus one uninhabited, with a population of 90. There is no distinction in the returns between Barnbow and Barnbow Carr. There were three farmers: These details show how much concentration of land holdings had occurred since the previous century producing, in the first two instances, what we would consider to be modern farms.

In addition there were 16 agricultural labourers, one 'labourer' and two 'servant labourers male' (probably farm workers living in), so it is clear that farming was the most important part of the economy at this time. The number of coal miners had fallen to four, who presumably walked to work in other parts of the neighbourhood. One house servant, a gamekeeper and a plasterer complete the picture of employment in Barnbow. There were two female paupers who would receive 'out relief', that is payment by the parish poor law authorities for them to live at home rather than in the workhouse.


In addition the census shows that there were four houses in a settlement called 'Barnbow Springs', with 13 inhabitants. Here there was
These figures bring the total number of houses in Barnbow to 24 with a population of 103, much the greatest total we have seen The 1849 Ordnance Survey map shows Barnbow Springs as an area running east-west just to the north of Cock Beck and Ellis Lane between the present Garforth Golf Course and Barnbow Lane. It is surrounded by old coal pits especially to the east, land which now forms part of the golf course. The map shows three widely spaced buildings in Barnbow Springs. Rather confusingly there is a quite separate area of woodland labelled 'The Springs', running eastwards from Carr Beck about a quarter of a mile south of Barnbow House (now Upper Barnbow Farm) In the mid-nineteenth century, maps for the the whole of Great Britain were drawn under a scheme known as the 'Ordnance Survey'. Their six inches to one mile series especially have been of great importance to historians in the study of this period. They show not only the boundaries of civil parishes (or townships) but also boundaries within them, producing areas used for administrative purposes, such as the collection of local taxes.

The 1849 maps for the region show Barwick-in-Elmet township divided into five such areas - Barwick, Scholes, Potterton and Kiddal, Morwick and Barnbow. The map above was made by combining two sheets preserved at the Leeds District Archives at Sheepscar. It demonstrates the changing nature of the geographical entity we call Barnbow. In medieval times, it had a separate section in the surveys of Barwick manor. In the parish records it was recorded as separate from many small settlements round about and this was continued in the census returns. The map however shows Barnbow as a much larger territory with an area of 1206 acres.0 roods.24 perches. Its boundaries are marked to include such places as Lazencroft, Shippen and Barrowby Grange, which had formerly been in different manors. It occupies a large part of the southern region of Barwick township and is shown to be bounded on the west by Austhorpe, to the east by Parlington and to the south by Barrowby (Austhorpe detached) and Garforth.

This present work is a study of 'traditional' Barnbow, the area covered in the earlier parts of this series. The larger area shown on the Ordnance Survey map, what I will call 'new' Barnbow, with its ancient settlements of Shippen, Lazencroft, etc. is of much historical interest and is worthy of further study but this must await some future time.

The two new roads over Barnbow Carr are shown as Bog Lane and Carr Lane. The map shows the site of Barnbow Hall with an unexplained 1677 date. Some buildings are shown on the site and its well is labelled, as is another well two or three hundred yards to the north. A little to the north of the Hall some small buildings are shown and perhaps (the map is not clear) there are one or two more farther down Barnbow Lane a hundred yards or so before the junction of Bog Lane and Carr Lane. Other buildings are shown on the western side of Barnbow Lane just north of the Cock Beck. Were these buildings used to house Barnbow's increased population?

The buildings in the small settlements labelled Barnbow Carr, Barnbow House and Carr Head may have included some cottages to house the comparatively large population at the time. Bog House, presumably a dwelling, is shown on Bog Lane near its northern junction. Three old limestone quarries are marked south and east of Barnbow House. A few hundred yards south of the crossroads at Barnbow Carr is a small close marked 'osiers'. Is there a history of basket weaving in Barnbow? Barnbow Wood is shown and labelled. South of the present Garforth Golf Course is a large area marked Barnbow Common. This is a surprising name as the area appeared to be enclosed on the 1772 Flintoft map. The 1849 Ordnance Survey map, with its meticulous measurement and wealth of detail, is of huge importance to historians but it can raise some puzzling questions.


ARTHUR BANTOFT



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