Richard Hird was an original partner of the Low Moor Company though he died during the early years of the company. His name is given to an avenue parallel with and immediately north of Halifax Road. Richard Hird had no son and when his daughter Mary married the Reverend Lamplugh Wickham, he changed his surname to Hird. This was the same, not then uncommon, procedure as Edward Rooks of Royds Hall had followed when he married Mary Leeds, an heiress, in 1740.
The sons of Lamplugh and Mary Hird were both given a baptismal name and also the name Wickham. After the death of the Rev. L (Wickham) Hird, his sons reverted to their father's original name which is the name given to a small avenue on the Odsal estate, exiting into Halifax Road to the west side of Smith Avenue. One interesting result of the change of name from Wickham to Hird and back again to Wickham is that both sons ultimately were known as R Wickham Wickham and W Wickham Wickham. I wonder what Richard Hird might have thought about that development.
There is a Richardson Avenue which may refer to the Richardsons of Bierley Hall. Although that family had no direct connection with the Low Moor Company, in the 17/18th century Richard Richardson had been a renowned botanist; whilst in the 17th century the Rooks of Royds Hall and the Richardson were the original founders and endowers of Wibsey Chapel, now known as Holy Trinity parish church.
The reasons for the use of other names for some avenues on the estate are not so easily explained. Crawford, Donald, Sharp, Priestley, Ormondroyd and Collbrook — of these only Collbrook can perhaps be explained. It may refer to a stream and old maps show a fairly substantial one in the vicinity.
Col (only one I) is a geographical term and can mean a depression in a 'mountain' ridge (though the land does drop away, we're hardly on a mountain at Odsal!) Until twenty or thirty years ago the large Coll mill stood on a triangle of land between Huddersfield Road and Halifax Road almost abutting the Odsal roundabout; and there is still Coll Place nearby.
Stella H Carpenter
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