Description
Alan Petford was a gifted and inspirational teacher who transmitted his passion for the history and landscape of the South Pennines through his popular adult education courses and as a regular guest speaker for local history societies in Saddleworth, Hebden Bridge and Marsden. He died prematurially in 2015, much mourned by the many he had touched with his enthusiasm and love for the history of his native district. This book, a collection of essays by his students, is a small tribute to him. The topics are varied, but all reflect his interests.
Three chapters are devoted to Saddleworth. Mike Buckley’s study of medieval and early modern settlement in Saddleworth is the first account of Saddleworth’s development from the earliest times up to the beginning of the eighteenth century. Based on probate records, Elizabeth Paget presents a pioneering study of domestic linen production in Saddleworth in the seventeenth century which reveals much about the way of life of the local textile worker at this time. Completing the Saddleworth section of the book, Victor Khadem essay ‘Landscape, History and Folklore in Samuel Bottomley’s Greenfield – a Poem by Samuel Bottomley’, is a powerfully written account of the significance of the first literary work to be written about Saddleworth. Published in about 1780, by a local weaver, the son of the inkeeper at the Cross Keys, the poem celebrates the landscape of Saddleworth and narrates the local folk legend of two giants Alphin and Alderman and their love for local nymph Rimmon.
