Frederick Walker Gomersall and the Milner Field Connection

Frederick Walker Gomersall, pictured here with his family, was the cousin of Charles Frederick Walker. It is difficult to explain when many family members have the same name of Frederick -  Margaret being another name given to many female family members.

Frederick Walker Gomersall was the son of Sarah Ellen Walker, the eldest Walker child of Robert Walker, a farmer of High House, Goldsborough, near Knaresborough North Yorkshire. Frederick Walker, the father of Charles Frederick Walker, was Sarah Ellen's younger brother who lived with her and her son in her boarding house in Bradford for a time before marrying Elizabeth Mary Hornshaw.

Sarah Ellen was very close to her brother Frederick Walker, naming her only son after him.  She was widowed not long after her marriage to a man from a silversmith's family in Sheffield.The family ran a boarding house in Manningham, Bradford at one time.

In later years, Frederick Walker Gomersall's son purchased a farmhouse which once belonged to the estate of The Knoll, Baildon. He bought a pony for his daughters and inspired his family's love of horses. The Knoll was the former home of Charles Stead, the land originally being purchased by Titus Salt Senior before being sold to Charles Stead a director, of Salts Mill, Saltaire, who built The Knoll. The Knoll was later owned by James Roberts MD of Salts Mill and lived in by his son, Bertram. Both Charles Stead and Katherine Salt were involved in opening Crow Gill Park, Shipley in May, 1890 as mentioned in my book.

The farmhouse, now called West Garth on Bertram Road, Baildon, was at one time Bank House Farm and the dower house of The Knoll. It  was also originally associated with the Fairbank family.
This branch of the Walker Gomerall family who owned West Garth, married in to the Rolfe-Dickinson family who came to Saltaire from the north east and the Rolfe-Dickinson's lived on Titus Street and worked in Salt's mill. A member of their family also once lived in one of the Milner Field gate houses. Oddly enough - one branch of the Dickinson family also came from Goldsborough, the same as the Walker family.

Not long after all this we get to the spooky bit and my contact, made unexpectedly, by my Walker Gomersall cousins - see my website link below.


Visit the Milner Field Website

Richard Hornshaw - Our Great Great Uncle - Director of Manningham Mills (Listers Mill) Bradford West Yorkshire

Our great (x2) uncle (or great grand-uncle to put it another way) - was a man called Richard Hornshaw, a descendant of the Hornshaws of Whyns Farm, Thorpe Arch, Yorkshire, who became a director of Manningham Mills, also known as Lister's Mill, in Bradford.

Lister's velvet was world famous - the mill even supplied velvet curtains to the White House in Washington DC and also supplied and dyed the coronation velvet for the royals. Growing up we had of course, got Lister's velvet curtain in out home.

The Hornshaw's were, collectively, all characters and originally, for 100's of years, farmers.

Charles Frederick Walker's mother, Elizabeth Mary, was the sister of Richard Hornshaw, who lived at a house called Woodbrow, in Heaton, Bradford.

John Hornshaw, Richard and Elizabeth's father, was our great great grandfather.  He was originally from Whyns farm at Thorpe Arch in Yorkshire but ended his days living in Manningham, Bradford.

Richard Hornshaw died in September, 1918. He had been ill and had an operation from which he was expected to recover but unfortunately, this was not to be the case.

A number of notables of the time attended his funeral - one was Mr Augustus E Ingram, USA consul for Bradford and there were floral tributes from Mrs Reixach and family - (Reginald Reixach, son of Jose Reixach) from the Trumpeter's House, Richmond. Reginald Reixach, a friend of Richard Hornshaw, attended personally.

Salts Mill, of nearby Saltaire, a kind of rival to Manningham Mills, also respectfully sent a representative, a Mr H L Searle, who was Salts Mill's export manager in 1918.

Uncle Richard is mentioned  in the 'Letters to Lister' archives and even features during the Manningham  Mills strike, of 'gassers' (spinners), of the early 1890's. He is, in his own right, an interesting notable, part of the tapestry of late 19th century and early 20th century northern English  mill history.

Bradford Daily Argus, September 1918