Embsay With Eastby History – The Life Of A Young Servant In Eastby In The 1870’s

By Admin on December 10, 2024

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Sarah Tibbot was 12 when she came to work as a servant at the Mason’s Arms Eastby in 1876. Her parents had recently moved into one of the wooden huts at Black Hill (Halton Height) which were built to accommodate the navvies and other workers employed in building Upper Barden Reservoir. Her father Richard worked as a navvy, whilst her mother Bridget not only had 6 children but also ran a navvy lodging house.

Bridget Tibbot arranged for her eldest daughter Martha, who was 15, to be taken on as a servant at the Tennant Arms at Kilnsey, and in November 1876 asked Mrs Elizabeth Greenwood of the Mason’s Arms to take on her younger daughter Sarah as a general servant. On 13^th November Elizabeth Greenwood recorded in her diary: ‘A little Welsh Girl came to stay with us, if she suits us. Her mother seems a decent woman. I have to pay her one shilling per week & give her our cast-off clothing.’

Elizabeth Greenwood, who was a widow, was helped by her older children Annie aged 21 and Richard 16. And to avoid confusion with her 14-year-old daughter Sarah she decided that the ‘red-haired’ Sarah Tibbot should be called ‘Ada’. She was quickly absorbed into the Greenwood family and attended Embsay Church with them every Sunday.

Ada’s tasks were no different to those of Elizabeth’s daughters and included cleaning the various rooms of the house and pub, and doing the arduous work of washing, drying and ironing. In February 1877 Mrs Greenwood wrote that ‘Ada and me washed and used our new Patent Dolly’ [see photograph]. Mrs Greenwood also kept dairy cows and ‘Ada’ sometimes cleaned the dairy, and in the summer helped with the haymaking.

It was not all work for young ‘Ada’ as Mrs Greenwood occasionally took her into Skipton, as did Annie and Richard. She also shared in many pleasurable activities with the four Greenwood children, which included 9-year-old Tom, as on 8^th May 1877 when ‘Tom, Sarah, & Ada went down to see “Sangers Circus” in Skipton.’

On 14^th February 1877 ‘Sarah, Annie & Ada got Valentines’. And on Whit Sunday 1877 ‘Ada went to be christened at Bolton Abbey.’ In fact, all the Tibbot children were christened that day.

Apart from Haymaking Ada and Sarah Greenwood picked fruit growing in the garden including raspberries, gooseberries, and damsons with Annie doing the preserving.

After her first year Mrs Tibbot negotiated two shillings a week plus the Greenwood’s old clothes and Elizabeth wrote that she gave Ada a shilling as ‘her Godspenny’. This was a traditional payment when hiring a servant.

However, apart from sometimes being ill and staying in bed, Ada also had tantrums. On 15^th February 1878 Mrs Greenwood wrote that ‘Annie got another Valentine’s card’, but this year there was no mention of Ada getting one, and Annie wrote in her diary for the same day that ‘Ada was taken ill with Violent Hysteria.’ Mrs Greenwood sent for Dr Jackson [William Jackson, 15 High Street Skipton] ‘who pronounced Ada convalescent, but to be aware of her temper.’ However, two days later as she was ‘suffering still from Hysteria we sent her up home.’

Her fits of temper and ‘feigned illness’ continued and on 20^th March 1878 Mrs Greenwood wrote ‘Before breakfast I went up onto the Moor to see about Ada. Mrs Tibbot sent her back with me & told me to give her more work.’ So, she clearly got no sympathy from her mother, who three weeks later gave birth to another baby.

When Annie and Ada later called on Mrs Tibbott to see her new baby boy, Annie wrote that ‘Mrs T gave Ada a good lecture’. But to be fair to ‘Ada’ she was still only 14 and probably found the work hard, and on 7^th June 1878 Annie wrote that ‘Ada fell asleep in the W.C. for two hours.’ Two weeks later ‘Mrs Tibbet came down, gave Ada a good talking to & told her to do her duty & obey her Mistress’.

The summer of 1878 was busy for Ada who apart from haymaking and her duties at the Mason’s Arms, also had to spend time up at the hut because her mother was ill, where she no doubt had to do the cooking and washing for the family and their lodgers, and on a visit to the Tibbot’s Annie wrote that ‘Ada was very anxious to come back’.

As Ada’s second year came to a close Mrs Tibbot came down to discuss another year and Mrs Greenwood recorded that she ‘Paid Mrs Tibbott £2 on Ada’s account, £1 ten shillings in gold and ten shillings in silver’, and that ‘Mrs Tibbot gave Ada a good lecture’.

This also coincided with the christening of Mrs Tibbot’s new son Richard at Bolton Abbey Church which Annie wrote was a ‘very large affair’.

From the age of 16, Mrs Greenwood paid Ada three shillings a week. Ada also had the opportunity to go to Skipton fair with young Tom Greenwood, and in the summer Ada and all the Greenwood children attended Embsay Feast (the annual Embsay Fair). In the winter they went to other village events including talks at the Mechanics Institute and a Choir Concert, and on 11^th December Mrs Greenwood wrote that it was a ‘very fine winters day. Annie, Sarah, Richard, Ada & Tom went Skating.’ Ada also went to Revival Meetings at Eastby Chapel.

Christmas 1879 was significant for the Greenwood’s as they bought a Sewing Machine and Miss Betty Biker of the Manor House, the Embsay Dressmaker, came on to show them how to use it and Mrs Greenwood wrote that she “made Ada a pair of drawers first”.

In early 1880 ‘Ada had a nice letter from Corporal McKinley’, who she had met when he was visiting relatives working on the reservoir.And later in the year she began courting with Jim Chapman, an Eastby neighbour, which continued after he got a position as a groom at Rudding Park, a large house near Harrogate. Annie tells us ‘Ada was in very high spirits all day through having a letter from her dear little Jim’. He came home for Christmas as we see from Annie’s diary for Christmas Day: ‘Beautiful, frosty & all covered with snow. A few children about singing Christmas Songs. Jim Chapman came to see Ada. All very agreeable in the latter part of the evening. Ada in good spirits because of Jim being here. And in the New Year ‘Ada busy & full of her love for Jim.’

At Whitsuntide 1881 Annie wrote: ‘Jim Chapman came, Ada went to Ilkley to meet him & he was a swell’. And the following day ‘Ada went to Bolton Abbey Woods with Jim Chapman, “young love”.’

In August 1881 Mrs Greenwood treated Ada, Sarah & Tom to a day trip to Morecambe.

She wrote later that ‘They all returned about ½ ten. Richard met them, Ada & Tom had been sick, they did look tired.’

Over the next year things must have cooled between Ada and Jim Chapman as she began meeting Mitchell Shackleton, a navvy working on the reservoir. By August 1882 Ada was ‘off to Blackpool with Mitch’, and by September ‘Ada is busy preparing for her wedding’. On 15^th September ‘Ada gone to Skipton to procure the Licence, she is in “blow”. Returned with the ring &c.’ And four days later ‘Poor little Ada left us today.’

Sarah Tibbot (Ada) married Mitchell Shackleton at St Mary’s Church, Embsay on 9^th October 1882, and for the next few months lived in one of the huts on Barden Moor. When the Upper Reservoir was completed in May 1883 Sarah left with her husband for Barkisland near Halifax where Ringstone Edge Reservoir was being built. Sarah continued to write to Elizabeth Greenwood into the 1890’s telling of the births of her children, and no doubt had fond memories of her early life in Eastby.

Sarah went on to have 10 children, including a daughter she named ‘Ada’. Mitchell Shackelton later became an Inspector of Public Works and they settled at Delph near Saddleworth in the early 1900’s in a stone built cottage called Friar Lodge [photograph], where they lived for the rest of their lives.