Felks Style Farm sold to Standard Fireworks

The young sister of these 4 brothers, Harriet Ann, ( we all used her two names jointly, sounding like ‘arrier tan' ) worked hard on the farm long before leaving school. She was a tough but merry rosy-cheeked Yorkshire lass, and worked at the spewer factory from leaving school to getting married and enjoyed sport and competition. We used to be concerned at her dangerous job, handling gun-powder etc. but she would say it was safer than working in t’delph . Fortunately she survived two major explosions during her time there. She courted (for about 3 years I think) Jack Haigh before marrying him. Jack worked in a mill but was also keen on sport and keeping fit. When he wasn’t refereeing or coaching they would set off on a full day’s walk, and thought nothing of going for a 10 mile ‘stroll’ for a couple of hours in the evening after a full days work. After marriage they bought (or perhaps rented) a stone cottage at “The Rock”, Gilroyd, Linthwaite, then a provision shop that Uncle Willie had built near The Lodge, Cowlersley Lane, and later, a similar shop business not far from Royd’s Hall School.

William, the elder of the 4 brothers was making a name for himself as a builder and master mason. He married a weaver from Linthwaite called Emily Dunning and they lived in a house of which the only door was reached via a paved back entry cut into the hillside, one of a group of buildings known as the Slaides, Heath Road, just above Rye Croft. A paved pathway from the Slaides led down past Rye Croft to a ginnel by some farm buildings, thence a stony cart-track down to Church Lane. It was that farmhouse, an attached cottage and adjoining fields that Uncle Willie bought (or mortgaged) in August 1932, from Benjamin Holroyd. In 1934 or 35, Grandad Mellor finally sold out to the Standard

Fireworks Co. Ltd., Felks Stile Farm and adjoining land. ( At a tanner a yard, it was said). With the resulting capital he went into partnership with Willie as a building firm, and he and Grandma moved into the farmhouse cottage next door to Willie’s.