Holme Valley - Digley, UK - UK Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Digley
The Holme Valley runs generally north to south and cuts through alternate layers of grit stone, clay and shale giving the characteristic stepped profile to the landscape. The River Holme and its tributaries drain the moorland which provides the soft water so important for the local textile industry. The valley sides in the upper valley are dotted with isolated farms fringing the rough pastures and moorland. As the villages in the valley expanded with the growth of the textile industry, many of the smallholdings on the hillsides were deserted.

STRUGGLING TO MAKE A LIVING

Hill farming in the Pennines has always been tough. With a bleak climate, the land is poor for farming and well into the nineteenth century textiles provided additional money to support the subsistence income from rearing sheep for wool and a few cattle. The early farmer weavers had worked for yeoman-clothiers, spinning and weaving and working the land.
Gradually the textile industry was mechanised but the handloom weaver continued to produce cloth using the facilities in the mills for some processes.

DIGLEY MILLS

From here in the mid 1800s you could see the smoking chimneys of four textile mills, all within the space of one mile down the wooded valley of Digley Brook. Bilberry Mill was a fulling mill run by Broadhead and Whiteley, Upper Digley Mill was tenanted by John Furniss, a woollen manufacturer; Lower Digley Mill, built in 1830 and tenanted by George Hirst, housed 34 weaving looms and Bank End Mill was a woollen mill and dyehouse tenanted by John and William Roebuck.

THE GREAT FLOOD

The Great Flood of 1852 caused by the collapse of the original Bilberry Dam wall seriously damaged the four mills in the valley below. A huge torrent of water surged down Digley Brook and on through Holmbridge to Holmfirth. This calamity and an even more catastrophic dam failure in Sheffield, led the government to introduce regulations which allowed only a limited number of experienced and qualified civil engineers to design dams. The current reservoir here was built on the site of Bilberry Mill and Upper Digley Mill in 1954.

WILDLIFE IN THE UPPER VALLEY

The open upland countryside has a varied flora and fauna. Wildflowers include crested dog's tail, hawkweed, common vetch, speedwell, harebell, bugle and pendulous sedge. Brown hare and fox are regular visitors while birdlife includes heron, little owl, meadow pipit, silkin, wren and redpoll. Look out for twite, lapwing and curlew in the rough upland pastures, while Canada geese can occasionally be seen in the reservoir.

MILES AND MILES OF DRYSTONE WALLS

Open fields and moors once surrounded the old Pennine villages. Gradually acre by acre the moorlands were tamed and hard-won farmland was 'taken in' - removing trees, roughly digging over the ground, and clearing stones and boulders which were used to build the drystone walls around the new pastures. The main period for the Enclosure of Common Land was between 1750 and 1860 and this brought about the characteristic miles of drystone walls running up and along the hillsides.

HOLME VILLAGE

This lovely old village has a good pub and a country house hotel. In the Domesday Book it was referred to as Holme and was laid waste by William I as punishment for rebelling against Norman rule. Two centuries later there is on record that in 1308 Adam, son of John of Holme, was fined 12d for selling land to his brother who was also fined 12d for selling the same land back to Adam! The fines were for by-passing the Court fees due on the sale of the land. Holme School endowed in 1693 was one of the earliest village schools in the area and served both religious and educational purposes.