IN THE SHADOW OF THE ROSSE - Shipley

December of the same year they were told to keep their w.c’s in good repair, and when
the repairs were not done within the specified time they were threatened with prosecution.
22
All the evidence above suggests that, in order to maintain standards, the local authorities
had to keep a continual check on the housing situation throughout the town. Even
when it involved, what might be assumed to have been, a respectable business such
as a building society.
In 1885, the Bradford Commercial Joint Stock Banking Company sold a plot of land at
the junction of Ashley and Bingley Roads to the Windhill Independent Co-operative Society
[16]. Permission was then given by the Local Board for the building of two shops
and three houses on the site. The Ordnance Survey map of 1889, shows that the three
houses, two in Ashley Road, and one fronting onto Bingley Road, were built first. Some
time later, the Bingley Road house was converted into a shop, and an additional building
was added to its side. The whole block then consisted of: a butchers, a grocers and a
drapers. They survived as such until the demolition in the 1960s, albeit with the grocer’s
having been converted into one of the new self-service ‘supermarkets’, not too
long before the demolition.
Over the next few years things seem to have improved for the Rhodes firm. Elizabeth
Ann Rhodes started to buy back much of the land taken under the control of the Bradford
Commercial Bank at the time of the bankruptcy. In January 1890 Mrs Rhodes, operating
as Rhodes Brothers, received permission to build a block of 8 back-to-back
houses in Ashley Road, just behind the Co-op [17]. A year later the firm built a second
block of 7 houses adjoining [18]. The houses were financed by a mortgage for
£1000 taken out with Mr Robinson Bramley of Outwood Hall, Wakefield.
These houses were different from earlier ones that the firm had built, in that the ‘back’
houses faced into an enclosed yard. Prior to this time all the houses constructed on this
site had faced out onto their own streets, with the majority of the houses having their
own yard and lavatory. In this particular case, each pair of houses, front and back, had to
share a lavatory, as, indeed, did those who lived on the opposite side of Ashley Road. Presumably,
these houses were designed for tenants who required a lower rental accommodation
than those who took the earlier houses [see below].
The lavatory blocks were situated within the enclosed yard, and were sited only a few
feet away from the houses they were to serve. The lavatories themselves were below
ground level and were accessed by a flight of steps.
On completion, in 1891, both blocks of houses were sold to Mary Hannah Brooksbank,
the wife of Alfred Brooksbank of Shipley. Mrs Brooksbanks sold all her Ashley Road
properties to Sir Titus Salt Bart and Sons Ltd. in 1920, at a time when several textile
mills were expanding their housing interests. Elizabeth Ann Rhodes also sold another
small block, [29], to the Saltaire firm at the same time.
Following her sale to Mrs Brooksbank, Elizabeth Ann Rhodes bought another plot
from the Bradford Commercial Joint Stock Bank, an area of 1600 sq yds, bounded by Oastler
and Bingley Roads [19,20]. A row of five wooden shops were erected on that part
of the site fronting Bingley Road [19]. Among the first occupants of these shops was a
confectioner, a hairdresser and a plumber. There was also a small stable at the Oastler
Road end. Behind these shops were the remains of an old quarry. This land was never
developed and remained as waste land until the time of the modern re-development.
14