Postcard - Mono (Document ID: 101024)
View of Making Place, Soyland, West Yorkshire.
Author: Unknown
Date: not dated
Location: Soyland
Format: Postcard - Mono
Document ID: 101024
Library ID: 137
View of Making Place, Soyland, West Yorkshire, taken from a photo of a [18th/19th century?] print.
Making Place was the Soyland home of 18th century cloth merchant Samuel Hill (1677-1759). He ran his business from here from 1706 to 1759, and it was an example of early or proto-industrialisation of the wool process in the Upper Calder valley. Hill was rich and internationally famous, exporting different types of cloth throughout Europe and as far afield as St Petersburg. Phyllis Bentley's book "Manhold" is based on his life.
The house was used in the early 19th century as a 'dame school' - a private school for young children taught by women. By 1832, the building was used by William Dove and his wife for their commercial college Making Place Academy, initially with only a few pupils, but later with 200 pupils and 20 staff. Herbert Henry Asquith (born in 1852 and Liberal Prime Minister 1908-1916) was a pupil. After Dove's death in 1865, the school continued to run, but became less successful and in 1880 it finally closed.
