William Stott Banks (1820-72) was a self-taught, self-made man. He only had a few years of formal education and that was in the Wakefield Lancasterian School – in the Lancasterian system, the teacher taught the top pupils and they taught the younger or weaker pupils, so saving the cost of paying more teachers and ensuring that in large classes a child got at least some personal attention. He started work at the age of 11 as office boy for a local solicitor and when he was 18 he kept his family with his wages. So it was by self-education and by hard work that he became a solicitor, clerk to the Wakefield Borough Magistrates, and mainstay of the Mechanics' Institute. Never forgetting his own past, he was impelled by a strong desire to help the education and well-being of others.
He had an appreciative eye for distinctive features of the landscape, describing Roseberry Topping as "that sweet green cone" and Freeborough Hill as "peculiar, round topt Freeburg". And he liked facts and figures, so in this article he includes, for example, details of the number of cobles at Staithes.
The litany of names in his opening paragraph has a lyrical quality:
Cleveland is bounded by the Tees and Sea Coast from near Newstead Hall, two and a half miles above Yarm, to East Row Beck the same distance N.W. of Whitby; then by this beck for a mile inland, whence the boundary, turning south, crosses Swarth Howe to the Esk opposite Sleights; follows the Esk and the Murk Esk and the beck below Hazle Head to Wheeldale Howe; runs westward along the high tops of the moors, Shunner Howe, Loose Howe, White Cross, Ralph Cross and Flat Howe, and by Stoney Ridge, over Burton Head; continues by Hasty Bank, Coldmoor End and Cringley Moor; bends south at Carlton Bank for above two miles and then again goes west over Arncliff, north of Mount Grace, and down the Wisk, and turns round Appleton up to the Tees again – thus taking in a good deal of moorland and sea coast, beside the broad level of the Cleveland vale.
This is a picturesque and valuable tract of country, has lands good for farming, fine woods, much ironstone and alum shale – the former fast altering the aspect of many parts – numerous country mansions, villages and towns and enterprising fishing population, places for sea side visitors, a large centre of iron smelting (Middlesborough), two or three alum works, passenger and mineral railways completed and in progress. It is now more interesting to holiday tourists than it probably will be after further development of its mineral wealth, when others of the hitherto quiet dales shall be busy with furnaces and black with their smoke.
He and his friends began this stretch of their Yorkshire walks by making for the coast:
Travelling after dark towards Redcar, the glare of successive furnaces accompanied by clouds of smoke, alternating with the gloomy breaks that come in between, give a striking appearance to the iron-smelting country.
The works were within 4 miles of Redcar but the locals assured him that the smoke didn't reach them. He calculated that at the end of August 1864 there were 250 lodging houses and inns in Redcar and Coatham, catering for above 1,000 visitors, and as for fishing, there were only 8 or 10 cobles, carrying 3 men a piece.
From Saltburn by the Sea,
a new place so called to distinguish it from the little old village of two or three houses, lying just below in a hole near the level of the seashore
"gang doon t'gress an you'll get t'liberty o' cuttin off a vast o' gains" and so [we] came to Skinningrove by tortuous footways over the wasting sea cliffs, some cut down to mere gables of soft soil and destined soon to fall under the influence of sea and wind. Timid people would find the narrow tracks difficult in a strong breeze with the rough sea beneath.
Harvesters were busy with "machine as well as scythe and sickle" cutting the wheat. They followed the path along the cliff edge to Boulby Cliffs
In many parts we find no more space between the boundary wall of the fields and the edge of the upright cliff than is needed for the feet, and some of us were led for assurance of safety to hold by the wall ...
These cliffs, partly from their perishable nature and partly from alum workings – extensive at Boulby – are continually falling; but for folk with steady heads this is one of the finest walks in the county
They walked down to Staithes, passing the Boulby alum house "half way down the long steep bank which ends at the Staithes hollow". He writes appreciatively of Staithes, of its situation and its people:
The ordinary tides come almost up to the houses and the sea is continually making breaches. On ground now covered by shingle, houses and shops and a sea wall stood fifty years back. There was the drapery and grocery shop kept by Saunderson whom Captain Cook served for eighteen months in his youth, but about 1812 the sea broke in and Mr Saunderson's successor removed stock and furniture and took the stones of the building and rebuilt the shop in Church street where it may still be seen.
The fishermen of Staithes are strong, brave men ... and the women are helpful and as handy as they ...
Sixteen yawls belong to Staithes each carrying ten men and boys, and in the same months when these are employed twenty cobles manned by three men each are used.
He discusses how much they might earn – the large boats at least £20 a week an the cobles £6 a week – and he describes how, having stayed the night at the Black Lion
One of the party went in the morning to see what herrings were in but the wind was blowing strongly from the north-east and only the large boats could go out and catches were down. A fish buyer said
"Neen at t'other 'ed neen; bud ah 'eerd somebody saying as ah coom doon t'street Mark ed six or seven thoosan – oo monny es eh?" "About five unerd ah 'eerd!" "Shotten uns?" "Ahs seer ah deen't knaw"
(Shotten herring were fish that had spawned)
He describes the fish – which "comes to several West Riding towns" – "salted and drying in the air, long white rows of it stretcht on rods upon the cliffs". There being no safe anchorage for the yawls, from Saturday morning to Sunday evening and when unemployed, they were taken into the Port Mulgrave harbour. As they walked over to Rosedale Wyke, they saw 15 yawls sailing round to Staithes.
He was struck by Runswick –
a fine bay ... the sloping banks, furrowed by streams, are large enough to hold a town of 5,000 people; but the village is stuck on ledges in a nook not unlike (in relation to available space) a corner cupboard in a room ... They say there is no horse and cart in the place and only ten fishing cobles and the population is about 410
... In the shale across the bay are the caves called hob-holes; and at the corner of a deep furrow which has a little beck through it the footpath goes up the steep and slippery Claymoor Bank and thence through fields to Goldsboro' and Lyth. Climbing Claymer bank was found a serious business by some of us. We were told by a farmer it was a road that did not please anybody, but we all got up and I hope those who likt it least may live long to remember it.
We had pleasant views on our way of the broad blue sea with numerous ships, for the wind had changed and was now off the land, and we passed several tumuli, one remarkable for its size and position, on which stood a quiet horse patiently enjoying the splendid outlook over land and sea
Towards evening we strolled into Mulgrave Park by the Lyth gate and walkt through the grounds to the ruins of the old castle, a mile or so from the present house; saw the fine prospects down the slopes to the sea and to Whitby, with its abbey and lighthouses, and lookt into the deep and woody glens that cross the Park ... We stayed that night at the Ship Inn at Lyth and were very comfortable
Lythe, he wrote
stands on a hill which ends in the alum shale rocks of Sandsend Ness where are alum works. The alum house is at Sandsend, the last sea side village of Cleveland, a tidy place contrasted with Staiths and Runswick, most of the residents of which are employed in alum making. A little further on is East Row Beck, the Cleveland boundary, and stepping across that we entered the liberty of Whitby Strand opposite Dunsley Bay, and from there followed the new highway to Upgang and thence the cliffs into Whitby.
Do those examples of William Stott Banks' attractive, easy evocation of familiar scenes invites you to read more of his work? You can find the volume Walks in Yorkshire: the North East, comprising Redcar, Saltburn, Whitby, Scarborough and Filey, with intervening places; and the Moors and Dales between the Tees, the Derwent, the Vale of York, and the Sea by W.S.Banks (Pub. London and Wakefield 1866) for free in Google Books [4]. Or you can buy a modern reprint. The companion volume for the North West of Yorkshire evidently hasn't been scanned but secondhand copies of the original 1866 edition of Walks in Yorkshire: In the North West & In the North East can be found via online booksellers.
Notes
[1] The Wakefield Free Press was a newspaper of eight pages, published every Saturday and costing one penny. It ran from 1860 to 1902 and was owned by William Rowlandson Hall, a master printer aged 30.
[3] Short(ish) and slightly tedious explanation of wapentakes etc:
A wapentake was a sub-division of the North Riding of Yorkshire; both wapentake and Riding are names that date back to the Danelaw – Yorkshire was divided into three Ridings (= thirds).
For centuries, the wapentakes were a unit of civil administration (including justice) but the rapid and radical social change of the 19th century meant reform was needed and so in 1889 the administrative county of the North Riding came into being, governed by a County Council with Middlesbrough being a Borough Council.
Then in 1967, local government in the area around the River Tees was reorganised and the short-lived unitary County Borough of Teesside was created. It lasted until 1974 when a reorganisation of local government in England created another short-lived authority, the two tier Non-Metropolitan County of Cleveland (which lasted from 1974 to 1996). At the same time, it was decided that Langbaurgh would be the name of one of the four districts of the new Cleveland authority and that it would be pronounced Langbar. I can't remember why they came to that decision; perhaps someone will tell me. Previously, the name was pronounced Langbarf, as can be seen from the Victoria County History (published 1923), which can be found on British History online here
Cleveland was replaced by unitary authorities in 1996: Redcar and Cleveland, Stockton-on-Tees, Middlesbrough and Hartlepool. Now, together with Darlington, these authorities are members of the Tees Valley city region (that is, a combined authority with a directly-elected mayor) administered by the Tees Valley Combined Authority. The current Mayor is Ben Houchen.
Cleveland was also the name of the Parliamentary constituency created in 1885; it was replaced by the Redcar constituency and the Cleveland & Whitby constituency in 1974.
Biographical notes on William Stott Banks
There is a wikipedia entry for him and he appears in the Dictionary of National Biography, which notes of his books, "Both works are remarkable for their completeness and happy research". He was a good friend of the parents of the novelist George Gissing (1857-1903).
He married Susanna Hick of Wakefield, daughter of Matthew Hick, watch maker, on 5 January 1850. They lost four children as babies or in early infancy: William Henry; Oliver; Godfrey (died aged 3); and Alexander.
William Stott Banks died at home in Northgate, Wakefield, at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon of Christmas Day 1872. He was 52 years old. His health had begun to fail some time earlier and in August he left for a tour of the Continent in the hope of recovery; he had been home a few weeks when he died. He left his widow Susannah and two children, Dorothy aged 7 and Roland Campion aged 4. Susannah died little more than a year later on 18 February 1874, and on 21 February 1880 Roland died. Only Dorothy survived and she married in 1888 and had a family. Her husband was the Revd Thomas Alexander Lacey, M.A, later Canon of Worcester Cathedral. I think she may have been living with her mother's sister Arabella, who had married Joseph King. They lived in Clifton, near York, and it was there that Dorothy's wedding took place.
The Sheffield Independent of 28 December 1872 recorded William's death:
Death of Mr W S Banks, of Wakefield
Mr W S Banks, of the firm of Iansons, Banks, and Hick, solicitors, Wakefield, died at his residence in Northgate, about three o'clock on the afternoon of Christmas Day. Mr Banks, who was a self-made man, was well known amongst the legal profession. He was the author of 'Walks in Yorkshire' and some other similar works. His health gave way some time ago, and in August he started for a tour on the Continent. He returned home a few weeks ago, and gradually sank.
And the Wakefield Express of 4 January 1873 described how the funeral procession started from his home in Northgate at 11 o'clock. There were members of the Borough Police Force, headed by the officers, marching in double file, and six feet apart and then followed between forty and fifty gentlemen (councillors etc). Behind came the mourning coaches carrying his widow and members of her family, including her sister Mrs King. There were magistrates, the mayor and aldermen were there.
It was observable that several of the principal tradesmen along the line of route to the Cemetery had caused two or three shutters to be put up as a token of respect, and a great number of persons were to be seen as the funeral cortege passed along, notwithstanding the gloomy weather, witnessing the last of one so highly esteemed.
He was interred in the vault where his four infant children lay.
The Wakefield Express of 18 January 1873 carried a report of the Borough Magistrates' meeting. They appointed a new clerk in Mr Banks' place and one of the magistrates, Dr Holdsworth, paid this tribute:
... Mr Banks was a self-made man – he was one of those gentlemen who had to work his way up in the world almost from obscurity.
He was brought up in the Lancasterian School, and the only education he received in early life was in that institution, which he appears never to have forgotten. He had devoted an amazing amount of time in past years to the cause of education, the value of which he could well appreciate; and after personally struggling very hardly with those difficulties which will ever beset the path of self-educated men, his great anxiety was to promote the intellectual and social well-being of others.
By assiduous application to business and study, at the early age of eighteen he attained such a position that he became the support of his family; and, like a truly worthy young man, he maintained the, saving them from the bitter experience of poverty, and rendering happy an otherwise perchance needy home.
As a public man, we know that for the past twenty years he has been connected with the Mechanics' Institution, which, in a great measure, owed its origin to his exertions, and to which he rendered invaluable assistance in the capacities of librarian, treasurer, and secretary; whilst he assisted other institutions in a variety of ways. Nor must we omit to express our regret at the loss of a public official of this court – who both in his capacity as a lawyer and as clerk to the magistrates has performed his duties most efficiently.
Having seen a very great deal of Mr Banks in his capacity as the clerk to the magistrates, I personally acknowledge the good advice and counsel I have always received from him. So far back as 1862 and 1863 – upon the occasion of the marriage of the Prince of Wales, when there were many regulations necessary to be made – when his services were especially called into requistion – I personally received great kindness and assistance from Mr Banks. His legal knowledge then proved, as in other cases of emergency, to be very extensive; indeed, he could be looked up to for sound advice upon all occasions of difficulty.
