Personal Blogs

Had a day in Leeds recently, seen through the eyes of A225 and the mid-19th century middle class.

First stop was to check in where the money was coming from, before seeing by the end of the day how and where it was being spent.

This is Leeds Industrial Museum based in Armley Mills to the west of Leeds. The site originally drew on the water power of the river Aire and was for a time in the late 1780s the largest woolen mill in the world. It has milled corn as well as textiles and carried on as an active industrial site until 1969.

Wool was the mainstay of the West Yorkshire economy, but Leeds had a broad industrial base which the museum celebrates and even a small role in the history of moving pictures. There's a good case for the first film recording having been made in Leeds in 1888.

Moving into the city, my first stop was the 'Woodhouse Temperance Hall and Mechanics' Institution' that was met in unit 12 of A225 being opened by Samuel Smiles in 1851. It's still a functional building, situated in a working class area of the city and housing an independent evangelical Christian church.

You can still make out the original plaque.

Whilst the Temperance Hall might, in the OU's words, have a 'classical front [...] designed to announce this was an important building' there's 'announcement' and 'ANNOUNCEMENT!!' and Leeds City Centre is all about the maximal.

I thought this building was a great example of signalling what's important. This is the headquarters of Leeds School Board built in the late 1870s. Ratepayers (male and female I think) now had the chance elect the Board which used their resources to fund universal elementary education across the (then) town.

Leeds Town Hall is currently having a major £20 million refurbishment - so the interior is currently off-limits as the amazing organ and Victoria Hall get a complete overhaul, but I guess the exterior still captures that mid-century 'confidence'.

Temple Mill is also in the middle of a significant makeover - as it moves along with other nearby buildings from industrial to office and 'creative' space.

It is quite an astounding facade!

But it's far from the only 'working' building in Leeds that was essentially a canvas to proclaim the middle class had 'taste'.

St Paul's House was a warehouse in 1878 - but was happy if you mistook it for the Alhambra! 😂

It was owned by Leeds Mayor and Liberal MP John Barran (later of course a Baronet!) and housed the ready-to-wear clothing factory that made his fortune.

This iteration of Leeds Corn Exchange was finished in 1863 (the architect Cuthbert Brodrick would later design the Town Hall).

It has had ups and downs as the agricultural sector boomed and crashed - but now is more than happy to sell you 'middle class stuff' (in my case some artisanal chocolates for Valentine's Day 😃). 

It was shopping all the way from now on - and Leeds has a fantastic range of Victorian spaces to sell things to all classes.

The current Market Hall dates back to 1904, but the first covered market on the site went up in 1857 - appropriately for A225 its design was inspired by Paxton's 'Crystal Palace'.

Perhaps the most significant legacy it holds for the modern high street is as the location for Michael Mark's first 'Penny Bazaar' ('Don't ask the price, it's a penny'). A Polish migrant fleeing anti-semitism he arrived in Leeds in the early 1880s with no resources, unable to speak English - he would partner with Yorkshireman Tom Spencer in 1894 .... ('ambition, anxiety, crisis, confidence, decline, renewal' sounds like a typical M&S news story 😂)

Finally a few more shopping 'Arcades'. 

Thornton's Arcade was completed in 1878 - Charles Thornton was a major property developer in the town - for anyone of a 'certain age' he also owned the Varieties Music Hall in Leeds, home to the 'Good Old Days' which blessed or blighted British TV during my childhood with a bizarre nostalgia for our period (I've just discovered a few episodes lurk on the iPlayer). Whilst perhaps there's a hint of 'Moorish' in those arches - the main aim seems to be full-on 'Gothic-revival', the mechanical clock (which always seems to me to show rather too much thigh 🤣) is a tribute to Walter Scott's 'Ivanhoe'.

To end - the 'Cross' and 'County' Arcades - these went up over the turn of the century, finished in 1903. 

They are, and probably always were, way beyond my price range. 😂

I only live a few miles from the village of Wilberfoss in the East Riding where William Wilberforce's family had their roots, he went to school in the nearest town of Pocklington and of course Hull, his birthplace and first electoral seat isn't far away - so felt obliged to go on a bit of field trip in December 2025, in the end it stretched over a couple of days 😀

The column below was erected in Hull in 1834-5 shortly after Wilberforce's death - the first stone was laid on the day the Abolition Act came into effect. This is its second location - it was moved in 1935 during a period of urban reorganisation.

This is Wilberforce House - birthplace of William, the son of a local merchant who traded mainly with the Baltic ports. It's not obvious here, but the house essentially backs on to the river Hull - very close to business. A more mature William is shown in the imposing statue - however I'm not sure he was really a very physically imposing man, certainly described as a 'shrimp' at one political meeting. 

The house is home to a museum which largely focuses on the story of transatlantic slavery. Although of course there is a lot of 'Wilberforce' content I think they do a pretty good job of presenting a well rounded picture, with a strong focus on the experience and voices of enslaved people and plenty of coverage of the extra-parliamentary abolition campaign.

The image of the 'Brookes Ship' is probably very familiar - showing crowded bodies packed on a slave ship - but I'd not seen a 3D model before. Thomas Clarkson had this one made for Wilberforce to show in parliament. 

There is also a reconstruction of Thomas Clarkson's Chest - another example of the campaigning inventiveness the abolitionists showed. This displayed potential African goods that might form the basis of trade as an alternative to the purchase of enslaved people - lower layers of the chest contained shocking instruments of punishment and restraint.

Couldn't resist a bit of A111 reminiscence - here's a display of manillas - brass traded with West African communities. 

Even more directly connected to A111 and the art of Benin - the museum (for now) holds one 'Benin Bronze'. Plenty of history layered on this object - it was salvaged in its current state from the wreckage of Hull's Museum, which was completely destroyed during WWII bombing.

Day 2 of my Wilberforce-athon was today in York University library archives (I'm always astounded at what you can just request to see as a member of the public) and focused more on his life as a politician - in an as yet very unreformed parliamentary world.

For most of his time in parliament Wilberforce represented the County of Yorkshire (then with two seats) and sat as an 'independent' (though he was probably best described as a Tory). 

Shortly after the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 an election was called - Wilberforce had been elected five times before, but none of those occasions had actually required anyone going to the polls. In fact no one had voted in the County of Yorkshire since 1742!

On this occasion there was a 3-way contest - and it all got very exciting - and very expensive. Wilberforce raised his expenses via a public appeal - and ended up spending the equivalent of around £1¾ million in today's prices, his opponents each spent over £6 million each (of their families money). [If you wanted a shortish read about the election there's a great blog about it here from the Eighteenth-Century Political Participation & Electoral Culture project]

The object below is catalogued in the archive as an 'Election Ticket' from 1807. 

On one side there is an oak wreath and 'Wilberforce for ever'. The other side shows another wreath and the text: 'Humanity is the cause of the people' and 'King and Constitution' (felt there were lots of links possible with the idea of 'imagined communities'!) The medallion obviously allowed you to display your allegiance at the parliamentary election, I wonder whether it was also a marker that might have got you admission to the supporters' bars and refreshments? 

Once an election was over you could relive the best bits of invective and satire collected together in a 'squib book'. This one was produced in 1807 by the editor of the Leeds Mercury, Edward Baines. 

The two other candidates were:

Charles William Wentworth Fitzwilliam, Viscount Milton of Wentworth Woodhouse and Milton Hall (Whig) - He was young, inexperienced and his party supported Catholic emancipation

the Honourable Henry Lascelles of Harewood House (Tory) - He was from Yorkshire's most wealthy plantation owning family, had campaigned against abolition of the slave trade and was against Catholic emancipation.

As the squib book shows their opponents didn't hold back! 

Voting took place in the centre of York over 15 days, with public votes totalled up each day. Wilberforce just sneaked in on top, followed by Milton - in total just over 30,000 votes were cast (people had two votes, but didn't always use both) - the 1801 population of Yorkshire was around 860,000, so democracy was still some way away!

I've set myself the challenge of accompanying my A225 studies of the 'The British Isles and the modern world, 1789–1914' with a year of 19th century reading. I'm going to try and keep roughly to the chronology of the module and also make sure that I'm exploring the geographical spread of the course (so some Irish, Scots, ?Welsh reading). I'd started just thinking about novels, but have been persuaded that the period also featured a lot of narrative poetry, so this will also get a look in.

So here goes - probably aiming to stop somewhere around HG Wells, but that feels a long way away right now...

	William Wordsworth - The Prelude  Published: 1850 (after Wordsworth's death), but the version I read wasn't published until 1926. This was the manuscript of his 1805 revision of the 1799 original. Period covered: 1770s to 1805 A225 links: The text includes the 'Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive' section, exploring Wordsworth's experience of the French Revolution. By 1805 he had revised his original optimism, but I spared myself too much conservative retrenchment by avoiding the 1850 text. There are sections describing Wordsworth being under surveillance as a 'radical' in the Revolutionary period that link to OU examination of links between the Romantic movement and more radical politics. Another A225 connection is in the idealisation of childhood - something that underpinned some responses to child labour in the industrial revolution. Stars: ⭐⭐ (quite heavy going)
	Walter Scott - The Antiquary Published: 1816 Period covered: Summer 1794 A225 links: In one sense the whole idea of a historical novel and Scott's role in the Romantic movement is a solid A225 connection. There are definitely links to the ideas of identity formation (and the false narratives of 'invented' tradition in the Antiquary's theories. There is a section on the patriotic formation of the militia in response to an empty threat of invasion (with an English officer coming to lead them). Stars: ⭐⭐⭐ (wordy, but lighter and more humorous than I'd anticipated)
	Jane Austen - Persuasion Published: 1817 (after Austen's death) Period covered: 1814 A225 links: The meaning of aristocracy and the role of gentry (and military) in early 19th century society explored in this, as in every, Austen novel. Nature of naval lives - particularly outside of conflict - features. The naval activity often makes reference to the Caribbean - so some interesting links to the A225 content on the Atlantic world and the importance of naval dominance in enabling trade and domestic wealth. Stars: ⭐⭐⭐(a re-read, not my favourite - but good bitchy humour)
	Charlotte Brontë - Shirley Published: 1849 Period covered: 1811-12 A225 links: Radical politics, 'Luddites', patriotic conservatism, 'working class' identities are all present. There are also some interesting aspects of illness behaviour and health included (Shirley's fear of rabies was a surprise) Stars: ⭐⭐⭐(not as off the scale as Jane Eyre, but still fabulously heightened - quite a queer book, hard not to read some Anne Lister into Shirley....until she is 'mastered' 😃)
	John Banim ('Barnes O'Hara') - The Nowlans Published: 1826 Period covered: c1820s A225 links: Sectarian divide in Ireland, some referral back to 1798 uprising, several references to the 'Peelers' - the 'paramilitary' force set up ahead of police force in Britain, long discussion regarding need for education and public schools in Ireland. Stars: ⭐almost unreadable in parts, melodramatic and ridiculous plot twists. Some interestingly 'modern' aspects with mental anguish over forsaken vows of celibacy
	George Eliot - Felix Holt, the Radical Published: 1866 Period covered: 1832 A225 links: Excellent description of changing society over time in the opening section, embedded in an imaginary coach ride. There is little political theorising - Eliot seems to hope for a conservative 'amelioration' of problems, there's certainly little appetite expressed for 'radicalism'. Sections on the chaotic scenes surrounding the election were interesting - and highlight how different the process of voting was in a public forum. Important to note the book was published around time of the second Reform act, looking back on the first. There's a sense of persisting middle-class (novel writer/reader class) anxiety about further extension of the franchise. (There's an interesting sounding bit of writing by Eliot 'Address to Working Men, by Felix Holt' that's aimed directly at these new voters - worth hunting down perhaps) Stars: ⭐⭐ Felix is such a 'serious' character that he does seem to suck the life out of much of the book - I wasn't expecting quite so much 'mystery' and felt this was laid on a bit thick in parts. Not Middlemarch 😀
	Benjamin Disraeli - Sybil or The Two Nations Published: 1845 Period covered: late 1830's and 1840s A225 links: Disraeli obviously enjoys satirising the salons and shenanigans behind the Whig/Tory politics and there is a strong sense of how personal and aristocratic parliamentary government was. Chartism is central to the 'plot' and the 'poor' are shown sympathy, even if they feel pulled directly form press reports and 'Blue Books'. Disraeli's (bizarre) solution to the divided 'Two Nations'; ??young, reformed aristocratic leadership and reinvigorated feudalism?? is the real heart of the novel - definitely (unfounded) confidence and crisis rolled into one! Stars: ⭐ Hard work with barely a single credible character, except the narrator! 😀
	Alfred Tennyson - The Princess: a Medley Published: 1847 A225 links: Education, and specifically further education for women, isn't touched on much in the module - so any links are tenuous. The narrative section has plenty of 'chivalry' and 'medievalism' alongside the provocative ideas of female power and independence, evidence of some of the 'anti-modern' cultural responses of the time which are highlighted.  Stars: ⭐⭐ Odd and interesting, rather than deeply engaging - but with occasional moments - couldn’t resist quoting this speech from one of the female scholar leaders on her view of the future (still some work to do!)                                               At last She rose upon a wind of prophecy Dilating on the future; "everywhere Two heads in council, two beside the hearth, Two in the tangled business of the world, Two in the liberal offices of life, Two plummets dropt for one to sound the abyss Of science, and the secrets of the mind: Musician, painter, sculptor, critic, more: And everywhere the broad and bounteous Earth Should bear a double growth of those rare souls, Poets, whose thoughts enrich the blood of the world."
	Dinah Maria Mulock ('Mrs Craik') - John Halifax, Gentleman Published: 1856 Period covered: 1790s-1834 A225 links: There were so many, perhaps the strongest was the central theme of a man rising into the middle class - becoming 'Gentleman'. There are: corrupt elections, Catholic emancipation, vaccination (successful), steam power, food riots, fear of the French, emancipation, the Atlantic World (love-torn son flourishes in the New World)... The other inescapable theme is a domestic Christianity that seems to deliberately avoid an overly 'Anglican' perspective, with Quakers and Catholics featuring quite favourably. Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ an unanticipated pleasure, once I'd got over the omnipresent asexual crippled narrator!! Felt like it existed wholly in a Victorian sensibility - couldn't have been written/read before or after. (First time I've really felt this reading idea might be a good one 😂)
	Elizabeth Gaskell - Cranford Published: 1853 Period covered: early 1840s A225 links: First and foremost, female middle class life! The chapters also touched on the expansion of the railways (and their danger), banking collapses and their social consequences and ideas of empire and the orient. Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ a complete pleasure. I loved the gentle humour and the brilliantly captured characters. Just the right length and hardly put a step wrong in tone. Definitely my favourite read in quite a while.
	Wilkie Collins - The Moonstone Published: 1868 Period covered: (1799) 1848-1850 A225 links: The 'Indian' links are of course central - with trouble coming from the East. It is interesting to see Collins make the primary 'evil' a British affair, with pillage and murder committed to obtain the Moonstone. Oriental stereotypes abound, wily and ready to stop at nothing in the name of their religion - opium plays a central part in the mystery. There's a lot of communication and transportation infrastructure at work in the plot as well, railways, steamers, telegraph and horse cabs are key parts of moving the story and characters around. Miss Clack embodies the 'awful' end of the Evangelical spectrum, weaponising religious tracts - and the 'ladies committees' that Godfrey Ablewhite monopolises suggest some of the ways middle-class women tried to find avenues for agency!     Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I'd forgotten that it was a real page-turner, with some great surprise twists and fantastic characters. Let down perhaps only by the occasional unfeasible plot device.
	Anthony Trollope - Phineas Finn Published: 1869 Period covered: 1867-8 A225 links: [Read in progress]