Samuel Smith , Tanner employing 15 men (1851), Tanner and Mater currier employing 150 men (1871). . Master tanner employing 67 men and 7 boys (1861).Tanner. His brother John left the property to him and his brother, William as tenants on common for their lifetimes, but left the business jointly to them. William bought out the business but not the property, so he (William) started a new brewery. "Meanwood - Village, Valley, Industry and People" by W.Arthur Hopwood and the late Frederic P Casperson in 1986. It was published for the funds of Meanwood Methodist Church, and reprinted in 1999. If you get the chance to buy one, the earlier edition is more durable - the reprint was done on a laser printer or similar and the ink runs if wetted! The photographs are also better in the original. Page 16 (concerning Highbury Works or Meanwood Tannery) A major change of use took place in 1785 when the lease was assigned to Thomas Martin, paper-maker. His need for an increased water supply was fulfilled by enlarging the mill pond; for this purpose an acre of' the Headingley waste was enclosed for which Thomas paid a rent of five guineas per annum. This sum was earmarked for teaching the 'three Rs' to six poor children at Headingley School. His son, James, took over the family paper-making business on the death of his father in 1806, and it was he with whom Edward Oates was at loggerheads over the quantity of water diverted from the beck. James died in 1850 but his son (also James), who had been in the business with his father, decided not to continue the family concern. After a brief occupation of part of the site by Wm Hill and Son, bleachers (of Weetwood Mill) the Wood Mills estate was offered for sale. Samuel Smith, 'the younger' (1829-1880), tanner, was the purchaser in 1856 - the greater part of the premises being derelict after yet another fire. Page 17 He was the son of Samuel Smith, 'senior' (1797-1858), a well to do Leeds cattle dealer, butcher and property owner, who moved to Meanwood and took on the tenancy of the old Whalley tannery where his son commenced his career after apprenticeship with William Bulmer of Buslingthorpe. No doubt it was the father's money which enabled Samuel 'the younger' to acquire Wood Mills for £5,000 and build the massive premises standing there today. The carved 'S 1857 S' over the entrance archway and the enormous Meanwood stone lintel in an ancillary building should be noted. When Samuel died in 1880, the tannery went to his sons, Samuel ('minimus') and William, the business being run by trustees during their minority. The tannery, described in 1887 as 'one of the largest in the kingdom' and 'the chief support of the inhabitants of Meanwood', covered five acres with three hundred pits capable of holding seventy thousand hides - East India kips (hides of small beasts) especially being handled. The Smith family association with tanning drew to a close at the end of the nineteenth century. The first Samuel ('senior') had set up his eldest son, John, as a brewer at Tadcaster in 1847 and in 1886 Samuel ('minimus') moved to Tadcaster, re-opening the 'Old Brewery' (home of Samuel Smith's Tadcaster Ales) which he had inherited from his uncle John. Of all the Meanwood worthies it is surely Samuel Smith's name which remains in daily and widespread use! Page 35 (about Meanwood Wesleyan Chapel) The trustees of the old chapel did not meet during the 1870s, but it was in that period that a decision was taken to build a larger chapel on a new site. Henry Harland, one of the Sunday School Superintendents, whose diary contains references to the bad behaviour of the scholars, particularly the boys, wrote on 15 April 1879 'A bazaar was held today in aid of the Meanwood Wesleyan Chapel Improvement Scheme - tea tickets 1s.0d. each.' The new chapel was built in 1881 at the junction of Monk Bridge Road and Green Road on land purchased by Samuel Smith in 1856, and it was believed at the time and stated in a leaflet thirty years later, that the land was given by him. This would not be surprising as Smith's father had been a Wesleyan Methodist and trustee of the 'Old Chapel' in Leeds, and his wife, Jane, was the daughter of John Craven of York, a distinguished civil engineer and prominent Wesleyan Methodist. Page 77 (about the Beckett's Arms formerly the Dusty Miller at the junction of Meanwood Road and Monk Bridge Road) Naylor died in 1872 and was succeeded by his son, Josiah, who with Hannah Naylor, widow, and others sold the property to Robert Cross in 1877. After extending the premises on the Meanwood Road frontage, Cross and mortgagees including Henry Herbert Riley-Smith and Frank Riley-Smith, sold the property to John Smith's Tadcaster Brewery Co. Ltd in 1896. The conveyance records that one, Alfred Brown, had originally agreed to purchase the property but that he had subsequently contracted to sell it to John Smith's for £1,100 more than the purchase price he had negotiated with Cross! The present Beckett's Arms was built in 1939 around the old inn which was then demolished.
|
| Born: Leeds, Yorkshire, England 1829 | Baptised:
| | Died: 1880 | Buried:
| | Family: Smith |
Spouses
1. Huntington, Yorks., , England 8th Jun 1859 Jane Craven
(Smith ) 1832 - post 1891
|
|
Sources
- Family Archivists: see
Smith
Census
|
Timeline
| 1829 | Born (birth) Leeds, Yorkshire, England | | 31st Mar 1851 | Head of household in 1851 census (census) Headingley, Yorks., England | | 8th Jun 1859 | Married Jane Craven
(Smith ) 1832 - post 1891 (marriage) Huntington, Yorks., England | | 1861 | Head of household in 1861 census (census) Headingley, Yorks., England | | 1871 | Head of household in 1871 census (census) Headingley, Yorks., England | | 1880 | Died (death) |
|
|