One side road which stretches to both sides of Smith Avenue, is Royds Hall Avenue and it is clear that this refers to the manor house, across the fields from Wibsey village, which for at least two centuries was owned and occupied by the Rookes family, whose name is commemorated in another side avenue.
Around 1790, however, the Royds Hall estate was sold to a group of
business men who in due course established the Low Moor Coal &
Iron Company. One of these men was the Reverend Joseph Dawson, a nonconformist minister at Idle and a man very interested in scientific matters. Another of the group was Richard Hird, a woolstapler of Rawdon. A third was John Hardy, a solicitor. All three have their names in the estate. Of these three, Hardy was the name which in the 19th century achieved most importance on the national scene.
The son of the first John Hardy was ultimately, in 1892, created the first Earl of Cranbrook, which is the name of another side avenue. It is a long step from coal and ironstone mining in a suburb of Bradford, to some of the highest offices in the land, but before his elevation to an earldom John Hardy had been an eminent politician. He had been Home Secretary, War Secretary, Secretary of State for India, Lord President of the Council and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. His seat (estate) was at Carisbrooke castle on the Isle of Wight, and that name, too, in the post 1939 development of the Odsal Housing Estate, was introduced.
To be continued .
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