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The Garthwaites I am descended from moved on from the Soothill area of Batley to the Woodkirk area early in the 20th century.
The earliest Garthwaite to move into the area, in my direct family tree, was Arthur Garthwaite. Arthur was born in Dewsbury on 14th September 1873, moved on to Soothill, Batley at some point between 1881 and 1885 and opened a shop on the corner of Baghill Road and Church Lane, Woodkirk known as Garthwaite's Corner around 1910.
Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.
This map shows Woodkirk, next to the nearby Upper Green and West Ardsley areas, both of which are within Woodkirk parish. To the north is the M62 and town of Morley.
Arthur built the business up to be a success and lived on the nearby Rein Road with his wife Edith. The shop passed to his eldest son Willie Arthur Garthwaite and his wife Marion to run until it was sold around 1953.
Links to further information
Links to further information
- View a 1920's Photograph of Garthwaites Corner at Leodis, a photographic archive of Leeds.
- View a 1971 Photograph of Garthwaites Corner at Leodis, a photographic archive of Leeds.
Garthwaite Cycles to Australia
Garthwaite Cycles to Australia
The youngest son of Willie and Marion, Peter, took on the challenge of cycling to Australia with friend Roy Johnson in the early 1970's. An article that appeared in a Australian newspaper at the time has been transcribed below:
Two young Yorkshiremen have pedalled 8500 miles from their home town Leeds, to their destination Surfers Paradise.
Two young Yorkshiremen have pedalled 8500 miles from their home town Leeds, to their destination Surfers Paradise.
Pete Garthwaite, 26 and Roy Johnson, 26, have been competitive cyclists in the United Kingdom for about eight years. They have competed in track racing, cyclocross road racing and time trials.
One night early In August last year they were enjoying the customary 'couple of pints of bitter' at the Scotland pub at Gomersal, an outer Leeds suburb, in the company of Colin Wilcock, a top British cycling journalist.
"We were discussing the London to Sydney car rally," Roy told the Bulletin. "Jokingly, I said that there was 'nothing to it' and that I could do it by bike."
That is how Roy and Pete came to leave Leeds on October 1 last year - bound for the Gold Coast of Australia 'and a bit of Sunshine'. Roy has an uncle living In Surfers Paradise so they made Surfers their goal.
First step was from Leeds to Hull, in east Yorkshire where they sailed to Rotterdam, peddled through Holland to Belgium, from Belgium to Germany, Austria, and Yugoslavia to Greece.
"We almost froze to death in Yugoslavia," said Roy. It was coming to winter and, to go to bed, we would put on every piece of clothing and crawl into our tent and into our sleeping bags.
From Greece the cyclists made for the Turkish border but they were stopped because of a cholera epidemic. "So we rode down to Athens," said Pete, "and caught a Greek shin to Cyprus." "There we rode across the island and caught a Russian ship from Famagusta to Beirut."
In Beirut Roy and Pete struck up an acquaintance with a fellow they met in a café.
"He seemed a very nice sort of guy," said Roy. "He invited us home to sleep in his front garden." "He had quite a big house and we put up our tent and turned in early."
"A couple of hours later I woke up and heard a car pull into the driveway."
"I opened the tent flap and was confronted by a man with a submachine gun."
"He pulled the trigger and it went click - but it had no magazine attached."
Roy and Pete found out that their host was one of Beirut's top gun runners - selling arms of all types to the Palestinian Liberation front.
"They had sub-machine guns, rifles, bazookas and hand grenades - many of them weapons captured from the United States."
From Beirut, Roy and Pete left for Lebanon and travelled through Syria, Iraq, to Iran and back to the route they had originally planned to Teheran.
"The road from Teheran through Meshad, or East Iran, was the worst we had to ride over." "It was nothing but dirt track most of the Way." "We damaged our cycles and had to put new spokes in and straighten wheels damaged by the ruts."
"Then we rode through Afghanistan to Baghdad to Calcutta and came down with dysentery." "I think we must have eaten some bad meat. We were very sick."
After leaving Calcutta, they crossed India but were prevented from moving across Burma as they had originally planned.
"We had to fly to Thailand and stopped at Bangkok - a great swinging city."
From Thailand the cyclists rode to Singapore where they were told they would have to wait two weeks before there was a boat for Indonesia.
"We found out that there was a 'plane to Darwin leaving that night," said Roy.
"After a spot decision, we decided to spend that cash we had left to catch the plane and we arrived in Darwin on February 16 - with about $20 between us."
The cyclists worked at an experimental cattle station near Darwin and when they had raised sufficient money travelled to Mt Isa. "We had one look at the Mt Isa to Townsville road and decided that we would have to cheat," said Roy. "We caught a bus all the way to Brisbane." Roy and Pete arrived on the Gold Coast almost six months after leaving their home in Leeds. They were welcomed by Roy's Uncle - Mr James Hodgeson who lives in Palm-Ave, Surfers Paradise. The boys like the Gold Coast and are anxious to settle here. "There is just one problem," they said. "We need a job - any job because we are flat broke." Roy said be was anxious to play some 'footy' - soccer - with a local team.
An article that appeared in an English newspaper after Peter returned has been transcribed below:
World trip took a year
World trip took a year
POISONOUS SPIDERS, Lebanese gun-runners and an outbreak of cholera in Turkey did not stop a 28-year-old Tingley man from cycling round the world. Peter Garthwaite, of Baghill Road, Tingley and friend Roy Johnson, of Chapel Lane, Heckmondwike took about a year to reach their destination, Australia. They passed through three continents on their journey and travelled in 20 foreign lands.
Peter, who is to take over Hargreaves' cycle shop at Batley Carr, when the present owner retires, has no regrets about the cycling "holiday", but says he doesn't recommend it. A member of Batley CC since he was 15, he undertook to go on his round-the-world tour with Roy following a discussion in a Gomersal pub.
The two cyclists have many unusual tales to tell about their experiences, such as when they were arrested by Baghdad police and questioned all day about an undeveloped film which they wanted to send back home. Roy was bitten by a poisonous spider in Australia and was rushed to hospital where serum was injected to combat the poison. In Beirut the cycling duo spent a night on a lawn of a local golf course gardener and while they were in their tent they were confronted by an Arab gun-smuggler who was walking across the grass with a machine-gun under his arm.
Peter says Thailand and Malaysia were the most enjoyable countries he saw because the people are friendly and the weather is always warm." With his new cycle shop and the fact that he is getting married soon, Peter realises his "time in the saddle" will be very limited in the future. He has no plans to go on an expedition like this again.
"I believe the experience of cycling round the world widened my outlook on life and I was able to compare places using first hand knowledge," he said.
Peter resumed his career after returning to England, selling his interest in Hargreaves' cycle shop. He is still a keen cyclist and remains good friends with Roy Johnson, who now lives in New Zealand.
Scans of the newspaper articles transcribed above:
article_pgarthwaite.pdfLinks to further information
Links to further information
- View the location of Surfers Paradise at Google Maps
- Visit the website of Hargreaves Cycles
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