PAST EVENTS RECALLED
From the Ossett Observer

JANUARY 1898
A new branch of Ossett Cooperative Society was erected on Junction Lane at a cost of £800. It was opened by the president Mr SE Langley. Samuel Edwin Langley and his brother John ran a mungo and shoddy business from Langley’s Mill which once stood on Dale Street, next to the Horse and Jockey.In the 1960s the mill was taken over by Northfield Industrial Fabrications

JANUARY 1923
Work was begun on Ossett Corporation’s Pildacre Waterworks on January 18th.

FEBRUARY 1923
Albert Illingworth of Ossett Spa, farmer and fellmonger, died suddenly in a tram car between Horbury and Wakefield. He was 68.

FEBRUARY 1878
Out of 89 samples of beer tested by the Inland Revenue, 61 were either adulterated or illegal.

MARCH 1923
14 Dearden Street was sold at auction for £440.

MARCH 1923
In view of the probability of the construction of a new road leading off Station Road near the Drill Hall, it was suggested that the town’s War Memorial should be erected opposite to the entrance to that road. Herbert Harrop offered to give the necessary land.

MARCH 1878
The old church school on Dale Street(erected in 1816 for use as a CofE Sunday School and to commemorate the signing of peace after the Battle of Waterloo) was sold at auction for £540 to the trustees of the Wesleyan Chapel.

APRIL 1923
Ossett ladies raised £25 toward the restoration of the “Seven Sisters” window at York Minster.

APRIL 1878
Corner stones of an enlargement of the Primitive Methodist Chapel at Ossett Common were laid on Good Friday April 9th.

MAY 1923
Plans for 47 houses in Warneford Avenue were approved by Ossett Town Council.

MAY 1898
A local man won a wager of £1 by drinking half a gallon of beer in 8 seconds.

MAY 1878
Ossett Local Board decided to set up a system to regularly empty ash pits. One tenant had told the chairman that an ash heap had been going for 10 years!

MAY 1898
Two shops on Bank Street occupied by Messrs Nichols (draper) and Wallace (grocer)realised £1,325 at auction.

JUNE 1878
Four cottages at Ossett Streetside with yards and gardens (460 square yards in total) were sold for £420.

JUNE 1878
Ossett Local Board decided that the handle be taken off the town’s pump on the old church site.

JUNE 1898
There was a record entry (1,128) for Ossett Agricultural Show, held on the football field near the station on June 11th.

JUNE 1923
Close to 1000 people took an excursion to London on June 19th. It was organised by the Chambers of Trade, Ossett, Dewsbury, Batley and Birstall.

JUNE 1878
Joseph Brook, woollen extractor, bought 6,352 Square yards of land on the North side of the GN Station, Ossett, at auction for £650.

JULY 1878
The greater part of Ossett Feast found new grounds. The former site – the old church ground and Bank Street and Dale Street – was let as a whole to a Batley man.

JULY 1898
Ossett Mechanics Institute (founded in 1850) and Technical School (established 1885) were transferred to Ossett Corporation on July 1st. The foundation stone of the building in Station Road was laid in August 1889 by Joshua Wilson of Leeds. The building was opened the following year by Swire Smith on behalf of the Clothworkers’ Company.

AUGUST 1878
Several wells in Ossett were ordered to be filled in. They included those at Healey Lane, Giggal Hill, Storrs Hill and Emerson’s Well.

AUGUST 1923
Ossett Common Rovers AFC acquired a new ground, “The Ten Acre” off Station Road.

AUGUST 1898
Alfred Frudd of The Green raised a choir of 41 to take part in the Cooperative Festival at Crystal Palace on August 20th.

AUGUST 1923
When a house in Wesley Street was entered during the night the intruder boiled the kettle, made tea, ate half a loaf with plenty of butter and drank all the milk. On leaving he took with him boot brushes and polish which, after using, he left in a nearby field.

AUGUST 1878
A spirit licence was granted to the Great Northern (Thorn Tree). It was stated it had been used as a beer house for more than 60 years. The licensee has added a three stall stable, with a large band room over.

SEPTEMBER 1878
For four jobs as lamplighters there were 25 applicants. The job paid 13 shillings a week.

SEPTEMBER 1878
A butcher’s shop, stable, six cottages and vacant land in Dale Street, occupied by David Nettleton and others were bought by David Lucas for £760.

OCTOBER 1923
When Gawthorpe Hall, formerly the property of the Rowley family, was offered for sale the first bid was £200. It was sold for £500 to Mr Whittle of Dewsbury.

NOVEMBER 1923
An oak tablet was unveiled by Major GS Mill, RAMC at Healey Mission Rooms in memory of the men of the district who fell in the Great War.

NOVEMBER 1898
An Ossett cattle dealer was fined for driving a bull on the highway and not having it secured by a ring and a rope.

NOVEMBER 1898
The trustees of the Pickard Scholarships recommended that the trust be transferred to Ossett Corporation and the income appropriated so as to provide each year two scholarships of £15 a year each instead of one of £30.

NOVEMBER 1923
Bethel Chapel, Flushdyke celebrated its diamond jubilee. The work was begun by Helen Haigh who worked at Tolson’s Mill and the first permanent home was the “Foss ‘Oil”, a cottage near the mill.

DECEMBER 1898
Work began on the building of the Gunson Almshouses on Wakefield Road.

DECEMBER 1878
A curious accident led to the death of an Ossett pork butcher. Whilst adjusting his sausage machine, which was working by horse power, the horse started unexpectedly and the man lost two of his fingers. His death was caused by tetanus.