Bentley Shaw (1816-1878)

Bentley Shaw was born 16 January 1816, the son of local brewer William Shaw and his wife Ann. Ann’s father was Timothy Bentley who had established a brewery in 1795 at Lockwood, making use of Horse Bank Spring to provide water.

On 16 June 1842 he married Jane Elizabeth Lancaster (~1818–1893), daughter of local auctioneer John Lancaster), and they had at least nine children together.

Shaw lived at Woodfield House, near Lookwood, and inherited :Lockwood Brewery:, also known as “Bentley and Shaw”.

Due to the fact that the proposed route was close to Woodfield House, he was a vocal opponent of the :Meltham Branch Line:, which led to local people proposing to boycott his company in March 1861.

Shaw appears to have joined the local Emmanuel Church in Lockwood in the 1860s and was baptised there, along with his younger sister Mary Anne, on 4 February 1863.

By 1870, the Bentley and Shaw brewery had expanded to cover 12 acres of land and was using so much water from Horse Bank Spring that little was left over for the local population. A bitter dispute over the spring continued until Lockwood began receiving water via a mains supply. The former brewery, much of which was demolished in the 1970s, is now the home of the Huddersfield Rugby Union Football Club.1

He died in 1878, aged 62. He was buried at Emmanuel Church on 23 March 1878.

Towards the end of the 1890s, the Huddersfield Corporation purchased Woodfield House for the purpose of converting much of the land into the new Lockwood Cemetery.

Links

Documents

1816: Birth Register

40612_B0150043-00062

1841 Census: Woodfield House, Lockwood

WRYHO107_1274_1275-0172

1842: Marriage to Jane Elizabeth Lancaster

32355_248915-01479

1851 Census: Woodfield House, Lockwood

GBC-1851-4277831-00265

1861 Census: Woodfield House, Lockwood

GBC-1861-3269-00182A

1863: Baptism, Emmanuel Church, Lockwood

32355_249114-00322

1871 Census: Woodfield House, Lockwood

GBC-1871-4374-0132

1878: Burial, Emmanuel Church, Lockwood

32355_249115-01591

  1. For more details, see Discovering Old Huddersfield: Part Four (2000), pages 87-91.

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