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WOODFIELD TOP FARM
(FLOWERSCAR BOTTOM)
SOURHALL
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Woodfield Top is one of three Woodfield Farms, the others being Higher and Lower Woodfield. The three farms are within a few hundred yards of one another on Todmorden Moor at Sourhall. Which one of the three came first is impossible to determine now, and definitive history of each is lost to time as many old documents simply refer to Woodfield. |
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Despite its name, Woodfield Top is the lower of the three, standing on an old track that crosses the moor from Cloughfoot to Flowerscar Road, passing the two Hangingshaw Farms on its way. It was sometimes known as Flowerscar Bottom Farm. It is a bleak and windy spot, but has magnificent views over moor and meadow. |
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Little is known about its early days, or when it was built. The registers of St. Mary’s show that Betty Mills was born there to John and Susan in 1803, and that John and Susan moved on soon afterwards. In 1804, Tabitha Smith died there, and in 1806 Samuel Wild died there. In that same year Esther Woodhead’s daughter Mary was buried from there.
Early in the 1800's the farmer was George Stansfield, known as "Old Scriking George". At the time, the road from Gauxholme to Bacup was being re-made and George went regularly to watch the proceedings. He was very pessimistic about matters and frequently made a nuisance of himself, warning all and sundry it would be a "devil of a road". He was convinced it would be a haven for robbers and thieves, saying the valley was too narrow with too many hiding places. The sides of the valley were heavily wooded, and he said that when carts or waggons travelled that way with sacks of flour or malt, it would be easy for robbers to tie a rope to a tree and snag a sack as the horses were going along. He was ignored, but probably proved correct.
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Sometime prior to 1838 Thomas Stansfield was farming at Woodfield Top. It is likely he was Old George's son. His wife was Hannah Ratcliffe, the daughter of John and Mary Ratcliffe who was born and brought up at Sourhall. She had died by 1841. |
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Widower Thomas was making a living by handloom weaving in addition to farming and his married daughter Mary Farrow and family were living in one of the attached cottages. His wife’s sister Mally Newell was at Higher Woodfield, and her brother John was at Lower Woodfield. |
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By 1851, Thomas Stansfield was gone and succeeded by James Hollows son of Ellis who occupied nearby Hangingshaw Farm. James was married to Susan Mitchell. They moved to Woodfield Top from Acre Nook with their seven children. |
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The well |
In 1851 he is farming 20 acres, and by 1861 he is farming 34 and also working as a carter. This latter work was most likely at one of the several stone quarries on the moor that provided work for the locals. |
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1871 sees the arrival of a new family at Woodfield Top. New to the farm, but not to Sourhall, Samuel Dawson was the son of William and Mary who farmed all their married lives at one farm or another at Sourhall. His widowed mother was at neighbouring Higher Hangingshaw when Samuel moved in and began to farm the 20 acres. He married Sarah Eastwood, daughter of William and Maria who ran the beerhouse at Sourhall. So both Samuel and Sarah were born and brought up at Sourhall and well used to the conditions. Before very long, Samuel and Sarah moved on to Lower Hangingshaw leaving Woodfield Top to Samuel’s brother Joseph Dawson. |
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Joseph married Margaret Blacka in 1876, taking her to live at Woodfield Top with her young son Arthur. Margaret was not from hilltop farming stock, being more used to a comfortable life in the valley with her trades-people family. |
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icicles on the grass on this inhospitable moor |
She was a granddaughter of Frances and Margaret Blacka whose story can be read from the link below. Life on Todmorden Moor must have come as quite a shock to her but she stuck it out until after her husband died at the farm in 1898 at which point she returned to the valley. |
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