Wall mark

[angler]

I was told a few years ago about a mark on the wall just past Hawkcliffe Corner which marked the place where some one was Murdered.It was when Hawkcliffe Corner was a Turn-style ,Does any-one know of its position and the story behind the murder? Angler

[Admin]

Wall mark” Hawkcliffe corner.

Apparently the toll house keeper murdered his wife, so that could very well be what you are talking about.

Jan

[Admin]

www.valendale.myby.co.uk/roads.html
From the Vale'n Dale website.......as above

Taken from Kings Highway in Craven

Steeton Bar. - This was set up in 1753 at "Steeton Cross," that is, at the foot of the steep hill by which the road then descended into Steeton.
In 1782 when the new road under Hawkcliffe was made, the bar was removed to where the cottage now known as the "Old Bar-house" stands.
The house at Steeton was ordered to be pulled down in 1788.
In 1823, in view of the opening of the new road from Keighley, the New Bar-house" at Hawkcliffe was built, intercepting the traffic by "Old Bar-house Lane" as well as that by the new road.
The initials and date (1878) were put up by the purchaser, the late Sir John Horsfall, when the trust was abolished and the houses sold.

The house has had its tragedy. Mr. John Clough in his "History of Steeton" (p. 48) tells us: "In 1861 the man who lived at the toll-bar, named Holdsworth, shot his wife from the bedroom window. His wife and her brother were walking together on the footpath, about thirty yards on the Steeton side of the house, when the shot was fired which killed his wife.
It was not certainly known whether he was aiming at her or her brother. He was found hiding on the moors; when he was tried he was brought in insane and imprisoned for life."