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Diaries
Some of the most interesting details of the
social and economic life of a local community are to be found
in the diaries and notebooks of individuals who lived and worked
there. Diaries enable the historian to probe beneath the surface
of the story told by the official record, and make it possible
to come face to face with the private thoughts of writers as
they commented on the events that took place around them.
Local diaries
Several local diaries have survived in Calderdale,
covering a span of over 400 years - from the mid 17th century
down to the mid 20th century. The most significant of these,
perhaps, are of: Oliver Heywood, a dissenting minister of Coley
during the second half of the 17th century; Cornelius Ashworth,
the late 18th-century Ovenden farmer and handloom weaver; Anne
Lister, the 19th-century owner of Shibden Hall. These writers
illuminate their times with their vivid language, and provide
us with personal and informal portraits of the period in which
they lived.
Anne Lister's diaries are held by West Yorkshire Archive Service
and any enquiries should be passed on to them directly, their
website can be reached at: http://www.archives.wyjs.org.uk
Cornelius Ashworth Journals
The four volumes of Cornelius Ashworth's journal,
covering the period 1782-1816, are very well known to the historian
because they contain a wealth of information about the Halifax
district during the early years of the Industrial Revolution,
when the area was entering a transitional period which served
as a bridge from the pre-industrial domestic system to the factory
age. The wide variety of topics covered in the diaries include:
climate, during a period for which few official records have
survived regionally and nationally; farming methods in the highland
zone of the Pennines; textile production during the early years
of the Industrial Revolution; religious nonconformity; Parliamentary
enclosure; disease; crime and punishment.
Cornelius Ashworth's journal is held by West Yorkshire Archive
Service and any enquiries should be passed on to them directly,
their website can be reached at: http://www.archives.wyjs.org.uk
Use and limitations
The value of old diaries such as these cannot
be overestimated, though their possible limitations should always
be borne in mind, and the researcher should always be on the
look out for highly subjective impressions of events and issues.
At their best, however, such unofficial sources often reflect,
in a vivid and readable form, the attitudes of the dominant members
of local society and the ways in which they perceived and evaluated
contemporary events.
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