The LNER Encyclopedia

How can I find informaion about James Grange. he lived in Knaresborough and was working on the railways for some time from around 1850. he died in 1898.
Any help appreciated thanks.
Kevynne

Hello Kevynne,

Could you give a little more detail on what particular information you would like to discover about James Grange?

Is it just his employment history, or just a more general life story?

It would be useful if you could provide his date of birth, or even just his birth year because the name is not uncommon and there may be more than one person with that name in railway employment during the period.

The ten year census returns will often give a clue as to his railway job, and possibly the company for which he worked. Do you have access to these, because if not - then I do and am happy to have a look, but I need to eliminate some of the other James Granges that also appear.

(Edited to say that I suspect he might be the James Grange aged 62 on the 1891 census who was living in Bilton with Harrogate and was described as a Foreman Engine Cleaner.)

hi John,
it is James employment with the railways that I am interested in. He was born in Kildwick in 1828 or 29 and married in 1850 .
I don't have access to the census ,I would really appreciate if you could look at them for me please.
thanks
kevynne

The majority of the census returns give the birthplace as Cononley, which is as close as makes no difference, although one does say Skipton but that is probably because the enumerator was not local and so asked for the nearest town that he recognised.

Although the family did move to the Harrogate area in later life, for much of his career James resided in Wortley, which must have been a world away from the wilds of Kildwick.

Unfortunately there is no clue to the company he worked for, and I suppose it could be one of many which had a base in Leeds, but if he started work at his local station it would have been the Leeds and Bradford Railway, which soon became part of The Midland - but this is all guesswork I'm afraid.

What the census does show, is that in 1851 aged 22 he was a "Locomotive Engine Fireman" and living in Whitehall Road, Wortley with his wife Elizabeth.

By 1861 he had been promoted to "Locomotive Engine Driver" and was living at 42 Wallace Street, Wortley with Elizabeth and five children under 10 years old.

1871 finds him at number 26 what looks like 1st Avenue, Holbeck, Wortley. He is still an engine driver but now has 7 children, the eldest of which - David has followed his father and become an engine cleaner.

In 1881 he is still a "Railway Engine Driver" but has moved to 3 Forest Moor, Knaresborough and only Elizabeth and youngest son Arthur remain at the house when the census was taken.

My 1891 suspicions were correct, and he is (as stated in the earlier post) a "Foreman Engine Cleaner". This means he was taken off driving duties for some reason, possibly due to age restrictions, or declining health, or maybe an injury of some sort - but once again this is only guesswork. Just James and Elizabeth are listed living at Fir Grange, Bilton with Harrogate.

Hi John,
Thank you for all that great information. James died 25.2.1899 and hid eath certificate says that he was a foreman railway engine cleaner.
As we are researching from New Zealand I wonder if you could please give me an idea of distances between Leeds, Wortley and Knaresborough

thanks
kevynne

Wortley is now part of Leeds metropolitan area, although in the 19th century the parish of what is now Wortley was mostly rural.

I suspect that where James was living was more towards Holbeck, but still in the Wortley district. He may even have been working out of Holbeck engine sheds.

Therefore the distance from the centre of Leeds to the part of Holbeck that includes Whitehall Road is no more than 2 miles in a basic Westerly direction. Much of the area has now been rebuilt with more modern buildings, roads and motorways, so bears little resemblance to how it looked then.

If you go to Google and search for Armley Gyratory and call up a map, then go southeast towards the M621 motorway, you will be in the area that I think Wallace Road must have been, although I have not found it on an old map.

Harrogate and Knaresborough are much more upmarket towns well to the north of Leeds. I suppose they must be about 15 miles north of Leeds. There was a decent sized loco shed there called Starbeck from the latter part of the 19th century and named after the village almost midway between the two towns.

I have done a search of what few railway employees records are available online, but the only James Grange I could find was in the signalling department at Carlisle, but was a much younger person, so is not who I was looking for.

I'm afraid that many records seem to have been destroyed in the years after The Grouping, so there is not much hope of finding out the more interesting details of his service.

If you want and old map of Leeds then go onto http://www.alangodfreymaps.co.uk

He does old maps of the U.K and Leeds has seveal areas in print dating around 1909

Although I live in Leeds I don't have any of the maps for that area being more interested in Sheffield area myself

You would need 217.08 Leeds and Wortley to cover the area I suspect is where you are interested in

They are very reasonable priced as well.

Boris

Boris i have a few map reproductions of Sheffield and Rotherham including some duplicates, when im home next i will check and let you know what i have. you can have duplicates gratis.

Thank you to eveyone who has helped me find out about our james Grange.
Kevynne

Wallace Street, Wortley was west of Leeds centre, between today's Bruce Lawn and Holdforth Place, all of which is fairly new.

For those skilled in Ordnance Survey grid references it was at SE 283331 -- or you can go to
http://www.old-maps.co.uk/index.html
put 428320 and 433070 in the coords boxes and have a choice of many old maps, all centred on Wallace Street.

For First Avenue, a few hundred yards to the west, use 428050 433110

Thanks very much for that.

Do you know, I had looked in that area but couldn't find it and it is a long street as well. Maybe that was my problem, I was looking at all the short streets and cul-de-sacs.