The Hawley Family of Yorkshire

From “The Buxton Advertiser” Saturday January 11th 1930.

91 Not Out.

Mr. T. W. Brittain Looks Back.

When He Planted Potatoes in Spring Gardens.

When in pessimistic mood the Buxton citizen thinks seriously that the burden of rates Will soon worry him out of existence, or at least bring him premature grey hairs, let him take heart from the reflection that Buxton’s oldest man is also one of the largest ratepayers. In fact, Mr. T. W. Brittain, of 71, Spring Gardens, pays more rates now than did the whole of Buxton and Fairfield put together when he was a young man. Furthermore, he has borne his burden all these years without any recourse to Dutch courage, or to “the cup that clears toDay of past regrets and future fears.” As he Will tell you in his own untrammelled verse:

“I’ve existed so far without rum, gin, whisky, tobacco and beer.
And now I am touring on my ninety-second year.”

Whether the cause be abstinence, hard work, or an inherited sturdiness, Mr. Brittain at 91 may fittingly be described as the youngest old man in Buxton. During my interview with him he wrote his name and address for me on a piece of paper, in a firm, legible hand and without the aid of glasses. To complete the picture let it be added that he has an unimpaired memory, a strong and rather sardonic sense of humour, and a most expressive wink.

His was originally a Sheffield family, but it was at Green Fairfield that Thomas William Webster Brittain was born on October 28th, 1838. He was “the middlemost of nine”, and is now the only one living, with the exception of his youngest brother, Mr. S. S. Brittain, aged 81, who still inhabits the house he built at Green Fairfield. One of his earliest experiences is associated with Buxton Gardens. At the age of five he received a free bath there without asking for it! Wombwell’s menagerie came to Buxton in 1843 and pitched its tent on the lawn near the lake. In those Days there were very few organised amusements for children, so young Thomas was brought with a brother and sister, from Green Fairfield to see Wombwell’s. They arrived too early, however, and found that the menagerie was not open. Thomas strayed away from his brothers and sisters, and was wandering round the tent, which was about two feet from the lake, when someone inside pushed the tent canvas and sent him headlong into the lake. He was fished out, and instead of seeing the elephants he was taken home, a distance of about three miles, in his wet clothes!

Joseph Slater’s school at Fairfield, where Mr. Brittain received his early education, has long since passed away as an institution, although the two cottages which were its home are still preserved. In those times the idea of sending their children to school was unfamiliar, not to say outlandish, to the great mass of the people of England. Parents who had decided to take this bold step went to much trouble to find a schoolmaster who might be entrusted with the care of their offspring, and for this reason Joseph Slater, whose reputation for proficiency and integrity stood high, received pupils not only from Fairfield but from Burbage, King Sterndale, Dove Holes, Peak Forest, Great Rocks and Wormhill. Even so, the attendance was meagre during the summer months, when most parents found their children something “better” to do in the way of work. With the beginning of winter, the prodigals trooped back again to school, and Mr. Slater found himself in need of an assistant teacher. At the age of 17, Mr. T. W. Brittain filled this position. He had charge of the infants – the “A.B.C. class” – and his wages were 4d a week!

But we are anticipating. Mr. Brittain had a stern upbringing, to use no stronger word. His father, Mr. John Brittain, was an auctioneer who carried on a Little farming at Green Fairfield as a side-line. Thomas was pressed into service at a tender age, and when he was twelve he was doing the work of a man. One Day he was working in the cornfield when the muscles of his left leg gave way, and he collapsed. His father left him to lie until he regained the use of his leg. He has never wholly recovered from his lameness. As soon as he was old enough he had to help in the auctioneering business; the roughest journey he ever had in his life was returning with his father from a sale at Eccles Hall, Hope, on October 26th, 1857, the night that the ship “Royal CHarter” was lost. On such occasions his father sat snugly in the bottom of the trap, and Thomas had to drive, exposed to moorland winds and storms.

At the age of 28 he was still working for his father, although the dour old patriarch was not giving him a halfpenny in wages. He found his position rather uncomfortable, for he had by this time a wife and two children to support. Since 1859, moreover, when he had started a corn and grocery business in Fairfield, he had been continually obliged to leave his own work to attend to that of his father. These considerations led him in July, 1867, to set up as an auctioneer on his own account. He followed this profession for over 40 busy and prosperous years. His district stretched south-eastWard to hathersage, and westWard through South Cheshire even into Wales. Livestock and property of every description came under his Hammer. One of his first pieces of work was to sell Samuel fiddler’s horses and carriages at Buxton for between £2000 and £3000. This was in 1868, and in the following year he sold the estates of the Beach family at Tideswell, Fairfield, Foxlow and Fernilee. In one year he sold and valued property to the extent of a quarter of a million sterling.

During his auctioneering Days, and for some years afterWards, Mr. Brittain maintained and extended his corn business, regularly supplying about 200 horses with hay, corn and straw. The Buxton lime Firms and the old Shakespeare Stables were among his customers. On moving from Fairfield to Buxton he also started a coal business, which he developed by the purchase of a large number of railway trucks. The old Midland Railway Company looked upon him with disfavour; they had coal depots of their own, they said, and did not want his. Hence arose many disputes between coal merchant and railway company, but Mr. Brittain came through them all. He had other business interests: for example, he was a shareholder in the Gardens Company from the time it was formed, 59 years ago, until it was taken over by the Corporation. Incidentally, he is the only living person of whom this can be said. Apart from business his interests were few; but he was a FreeMason, and is probably the only survivor of those who attended the Installation festival of the Phoenix Lodge of St, Ann, No. 1235, on February 15th, 1879.

It was a sparsely populated buxton in which th greater part of his life was spent. There were no buildings from his house at 71, Spring Gardens, to the Bull’s Head in Fairfield, and practically none on the other side except the old Midland Hotel. The lower end of Spring Gardens was decidedly the “Cinderella” quarter of Buxton. About 40 years ago the Local board would send men every SaturDay morning to scrape the mud off the street from the Grove Corner to where Messrs. Boots’ premises now stand, but they went no further, and the lower end of the street was left in complete possession of its accumulated dirt. Mr. Brittain thought it was time that things were rectified, but when he appRoached the surveyor he was told to “mind his own business.” “If you don’t scrape this part of the street next SaturDay I sHall scrape it for you.” he retorted. On the following SaturDay, having waited in vain for the scrapers, he sent some of his own men out to do their work. They ploughed up the mud until it formed ridges aCross the street. Then Mr. Brittain himself went out and stuck potatoes into the ridges, and the children of the neighbourhood spent some happy hours during the weekend in jumping and hopping on them. On the MonDay morning, however, the Local Board sent three carts to take the mud-heaps away, and the lower part of Spring Gardens has been properly swept from that Day to this.

When I asked Mr. Brittain about his family he replied characteristically, “I had a family of just half-a-score, and those have my pity that have had as many more”! Four of his sons are still living: one resides in Wye Street, Buxton, and two in New High Street, Fairfield. Mrs. T. W. Brittain died in 1917, seven years after she and her husband had celebrated their golden wedding.

    BUCKSTONE.