Words & photos: Mark Stevenson
In 1851 Elizabeth Jones was living at 245 Fartown, Pudsey with her five children and one lodger (who was aged six).
She was 53, having been born in 1798, and she was a shopkeeper. Her youngest child George Andrew Jones was 12 and still at school.
Move on ten years and Elizabeth is still a shopkeeper in Fartown but now only living with her son George, who is now a Stuffwarehouseman, and her grandson William Hainsworth who is a Woollen Spinner.
In 1871 Elizabeth is now retired and living with George and his 11 children and wife in George’s own house at Hilltop (Hillthorpe Road) in Pudsey. George is now a Worsted Manufacturer.
In 1881 Elizabeth, now 83, is still going strong – and living with her son. George seems to have been rather good at what he did because now he is a Worsted Manufacturer employing 272 persons and a farmer of 30 acres.
George’s house has had a few names over the years. Originally it was called Hilltop in the 1840’s. By the 1890’s it was called Hillthorpe.
It may have been one dwelling back then now it seems to be more than one. It looks like the original house has had an add-on either side.Â