While rummaging through yet another Pamphlet Box – the “unidentified photographs” one – I came across this small sketch. On the back was a typed label which read “Particulars on back of original framing: Drawn by William Hardaker 1840.” The initial Google search brought up a Bradford-based confectioner named William Hardaker who deliberately poisoned several children in 1858, which was a bit of a “how did he get there from here, oh no” moment, but more searching revealed the more likely identity of this artist – William Hardaker of Todmorden, 1824-1904, a clogmaker and also painter and natural history collector. But we can’t prove it; and we need your help. Read on to find out more about the presumed artist and what you might be able to do to help.
Hardaker was born in Todmorden in 1824, the second eldest child of his parents William and Anne (Butterworth) Hardaker. His father was originally from Carleton in Craven, having come to Todmorden in 1801 at age 14 as an indentured apprentice to Benjamin King, a clogger. William Sr.’s occupation was listed as “clog and pattern maker” on the 1841 Census, and William was also listed as the same. He also, at that time, was a more than passably talented sketcher as we can see from the little drawing that started this search off. He married Harriet Smith in 1845 and they had eight children altogether, and was ultimately buried at Cross Stone cemetery above Todmorden when he passed away at age 80 in 1904.
Every subsequent Census said the same about William Jr.’s main occupation – once he started in the clogging trade, he never looked back. His obituary in the Todmorden Advertiser and Hebden Bridge Newsletter from 14th October 1904 has little to say about the quality of his clogging, but instead describes how he incorporated his self-taught artistic talents into his working life:
“Perhaps one of the most interesting of his works was one which was obtained from a single sitting, under the following circumstances: the individual, a native of one of the outlying districts, was well-known in his day, but if we were to name him he would be remembered now only by a few of the older generation. He was a character in his way, having both his personal and mental peculiarities. Whilst this subject was waiting for his clogs in the workshop where the artist followed his craft as a clogger, the attitude, physiognomy, battered hat and dress, all appealed irresistibly to Hardaker’s sense of humour, and the artist’s desire for a unique subject. No better means being at hand, he sketched his unconscious subject upon a clogger’s chip, and then at his leisure transferred it to canvas. The work remains a testimony to what an indomitable will can do to overcome great difficulties.”
This anecdote within the obituary is interesting, because two decades later, the Centre Vale Museum (housed in what was the Military Hospital, and pulled down in 1947 due to dry rot) had its very own room named for Hardaker. The “Hardaker Room” contained artwork and some of his collection of natural history artifacts. The brief mention of its opening in the Todmorden Advertiser mentions a portrait of Tim Bobbin as one of the works of art by him displayed there. Tim Bobbin, aka John Collier was a famous “character”, supposedly from Rochdale, who wrote a number of small pamphlets in the mid to late 1700s filled with stories, songs and poems in phonetic Lancashire dialect. Collier famously painted a number of self-portraits which exaggerated his facial features to comic effect and referred to himself as the “Lancashire Hogarth” due to the style and subject matter of his other oil paintings. Hardaker was perhaps inspired in both style and subject choice by this earlier artist who found pleasure in stranger sorts of people.
“Self Portrait”, Tim Bobbin aka John Collier, c.1750
But we don’t know, really, because his artwork is entirely missing from the internet – no mean feat, frankly, isn’t everything online?! A librarian can tell you the answer to that one – and only this small item is now here online to show what could, might, be the humble beginnings of a respected local artist and collector. When the Museum closed, Malcolm Bull in his Calderdale Companion states that many people were contacted to find out who would take ownership of Hardaker’s collection, but does not state who (if anyone) came forward. Nothing can be found at West Yorkshire Archives and our own Local Studies is empty of anything apart from the pencil sketch. Hardaker was a man of many interests and it would be a strange thing indeed if those interests had disappeared forever.
Our only clue is a single photo inside the late Roger Birch’s Todmorden Album Volume One, taken by William’s grandson Herbert, of the interior of the Hardaker Room at some point. It shows two walls covered in artwork and tables laden with display cupboards for scientific specimens. Frustratingly, William’s artwork is on the wall which is facing sideways, and little detail can be gleaned from it. How do we know it’s his artwork? Because in the centre is a clear pastiche of the Bobbin/Collier self portrait shown above. If that doesn’t give it away I don’t know what does! But that’s all it gives away.
Detail from photograph on p.82 of Todmorden Album Volume One by Roger Birch
So this blog post is a two-parter. Part one, this one, is a plea to the wider public – who can show us what William’s artwork looked like? Can we identify this little sketch as his? And what else ought we to know about his life? His obituary mentions his careful curation of a collection that incorporated shells, beetles, fossils, and other items that he was happy to show to Sunday schools and lend to local exhibitions during his lifetime – what happened to them, and his artwork, after 1947? Let us know, and in part two, we will share what we’ve gathered from your submissions. Email sarah.browning@calderdale.gov.uk with anything you’re happy for us to share in part two. And thanks as always for reading along with us here in Local Studies!
We’ll close with the opening text from his obituary;
“All who knew the late William Hardaker will feel that with his demise there has passed away one whose life was of a singularly pure and worthy type. None the less so that his distinctive traits and lofty character were displayed in uncommon lines, and in ways that were comparatively unseen by the “world.” Of humble origin, and all his life belonging to ranks where “fortune’s” smiles seldom fall, his character may well command our admiration and respect. His early education was of the most meagre kind, and he never became what we may call a learned man. Yet he acquired a culture and taste for some of the noblest and purest things of life, which become the more striking when we consider the crude beginnings and the difficulties of their development. He was always shy, reserved, and absolutely without self-conceit, and a good deal of what we know about him had to be gathered from relatives and close acquaintances. Yet beneath a quiet and grave exterior was to be found a keen sense of humour, and a lively appreciation of everything that was beautiful, noble, and worthy. To the very last he was always ready and eager to listen to anyone who had something to tell worth hearing, realising that to be a good listener is a quality a good deal more worth cultivating than is at all common in these days of noisy obtrusion and vulgar sensationalism.”
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