IN THE SHADOW OF THE ROSSE - Shipley

The Rhodes’ firm received permission for another block of 8 back-to backs to be built in
Ashley Road in 1878 [14]. This was on a plot abutting onto the Kay’s property [13].
These houses, along with some properties in Bromley Road and Otley Road, which
they owned, were mortgaged to Dr. John Terry, a Surgeon of Bradford. A second mortgage
was then taken out to James Robert Singleton a Bradford timber merchant. The
bankruptcy of the brothers, in 1882, [see below] was probably the reason for them failing
to repay the mortgage, because in 1896 Mr Singleton sold these houses, along
with others in Bromley Road, to Ferguson Marshall Jowett, formerly the landlord of
the Junction Inn, Shipley. In 1902 Mr Jowett bought the other mortgage from Dr.
Terry. Mr Jowett himself then took out a mortgage on all this property for £2000, repayable
at £4 5s % per annum. He died in 1919 and the heirs of his estate sold the
houses in Ashley Road to Edith Clough of Ivy Grove for £1000.
In 1877 permission was given to the Rhodes firm for the erection of a temporary
wooden building on Bingley Road, for the use of the Bradford Coffee Tavern. The
idea behind the Coffee Taverns was to provide a non-alcoholic drinking establishment
as an alternative to the public house; and was part of the on-going campaign, during this
period, to encourage people to give up the ‘demon drink’. The precise location of this
building is not yet known, as the Coffee Tavern does not appear in any of the trade
directories of that time. However, if the tavern ever opened, it was probably at the junction
of Ferrand and Bingley Roads, as there was a wooden building on this site around
about this date.
It would appear that the dispute of 1875, which had cause the break-up of the family
business, worsened over the years. In July 1881, William and Murgatroyd Rhodes were
charged with an assault on a bailiff, Edward Frost, who was attempting to retrieve
goods from Murgatroyd, on behalf of their brother, Thomas. Thomas’s wife, Elizabeth
Ann, was also assaulted in the mêlée. The full details of the family quarrel were not
disclosed in court, but William was fined 20 shillings, i.e. £1. 14
In spite of their problems, the firm of Rhodes Brothers Ltd. remained very active
as building contractors throughout this period. Among their other Shipley projects
were houses in Bromley Road (1877); Dallam Road (1881); and the Salvation
Army Citadel in Rhodes Place (1893). They also had several contracts from the county authorities,
for building work on various schools throughout the West Riding; and from
railway companies for various station buildings. 15
In the 1881 census, Thomas and Elizabeth Ann Rhodes are shown to be living at 11,
Oastler Road, which was the largest house within this block [11]. The census also shows
Thomas at this time to be a, ‘Contractor - employing 60 men and 20 boys’. The Rhodes’
seem to have moved house quite often. Over the years, they lived in many of the houses
that they had built within this area. At the time of his death, in 1917, Thomas was residing
at No. 4 Robinson Street [27], which backed onto the houses facing Ashley Road.
In the early years of this building project, the Rhodes firm had their base at the northern
end of the Queen’s Rd/Ferrand Rd site, fronting Bingley Road [15]. The evidence
for this comes from a threatened prosecution from the Local Board who were reacting
to a complaint about the amount of dirty smoke coming from their engine chimney (a
steam crane?) in their builders yard. 16 But later, in 1877, they moved to new premises,
in a worked-out quarry at the top of Oastler Road, which would be their main base for
the next forty years [21]. They then sold the vacated site to Mr John Burgess, their
10