Harold was the last born in a sprawling family of 8 children. Considering that it was four years since the last baby and that his mother, Mary, was already 45 years old, Harold might have been a not-so-welcome surprise. Father was 48 years old and deeply involved in the political affairs of Leeds with less time than ever for children, much less babies.
Before moving to Headingley, the William Glover Joys had lived in central Leeds at 7 Springfield Mount. Leeds had become a manufacturing powerhouse with a diverse economy of engineering, chemical, textile and leather industries. The downside of this industry was stifling smoke, terrible smells, and rampant disease. The river Aire running through Leeds was as filthy as the air above it.
In 1848–1849 a cholera epidemic ripped through Leeds, leaving more than 1,600 people dead, a devastating toll for a population of about 250,000.[i] Even though they lived on a hill on the western side of Leeds, upwind of the most affected neighborhoods, William and Mary must have been deeply concerned about their young children succumbing to cholera. At the time, cholera was believed to be caused by the miasma that permeated Leeds, and was especially foul in the crowded slums that huddled around the factories spewing their toxic wastes. The common view among the middle class was that a further cause of cholera was the “fecklessness and ignorance” of the lower classes,[1] conveniently ignoring the miserable living conditions of the workers in factories owned by the middle classes.
No wonder that the nearby village of Headingley beckoned with its fresh air and open spaces. By 1855, the Joy family brood had grown to five. William’s business had done so well that they could finally afford to build a grand home away from the filth of Leeds.[2] William Glover Joy bought a 10-acre parcel of land that had been sold off from Lord Cardigan’s estate as a result of the 1832 Headingley Enclosure Act. In 1856, the Joys joined the migration of wealthy merchants from Leeds to Headingley.
Figure 1 Leeds from Woodhouse Ridge, painting by John Atkinson Grimshaw showing William Glover Joy home in the distance
John Atkinson Grimshaw painted this watercolour of the Headingley moors and fields in 1868. The buildings he painted here are still standing, although the lush, rolling fields are now mostly covered in buildings.
The prominent building in the centre of Grimshaw’s painting is Ashfield House, designed by the architect of Victorian Leeds, Cuthbert Brodick who also designed Leeds Town Hall and the Leeds Corn Exchange, and the Mechanics Institute (now the Leeds City Museum). The Weetwood[ii]Estate lay beyond Headingley Moor, and to the west was John Marshall’s extensive New Grange Estate, part of which survives as Beckett Park. The spire of St. Chad’s Church shows in the distance. And finally, faintly in the far right, sits the Joy’s Moorfield House built in 1856.
The main view this painting is the serene expanse of green rolling hills. From the vantage point of the 21st century it looks like the ‘good old days’ before these lovely fields were smothered by urban sprawl. But Grimshaw’s vantage point from the 19th century was quite the opposite. What he saw when he painted were formerly pastoral lands that had recently been pock-marked by the rapid expansion of new estates like the Joy’s. He was contemplating the changes wrought by the infamous Enclosure Acts that upended the centuries-old traditional English rights of landownership, which forced small farmers off the lands they’d farmed for generations and into the grim factories of the Industrial Revolution.[iii], [iv]
William Glover Joy would have been 18 years old when 1832 Headingley Enclosure Act was passed by Parliament and would probably have been aware of this fraught history. William and Mary’s children, on the other hand, probably had no idea of the history of their grandiose estate. It would not have been part of their school curriculum, which focused on Latin, Greek, rhetoric, grammar, and other essentials of a Victorian education—which did not include lessons about class struggles.
For his new home in Headingley, William turned away from the prevailing Greek Revival style with its preponderance of white marble, grandiose columns, and geometric forms. Instead, he went with the new wave of philosopher-architects who argued that the neoclassicism of Greek Revival was rigid, cold, and soulless. The Gothic Revivalists aspired to bring back the drama, intricacy, and romanticism of medieval architecture that they felt had been eroded by the hard edges of the Industrial Revolution. They favoured high arched windows, vaulted ceilings, and extensive use of natural materials, which this new generation of architects felt were more harmonious with nature than the overly formal Greek Revival Style.
Taking it even further, the Gothic Revivalists contended that their new style reflected a moral and spiritual purity that neoclassical designs lacked.[v] Their intention with this revolutionary style of architecture was to construct a warmer setting for people to observe Christianity.[vi]
William Joy’s choice of the Tudor Gothic Revival style was thus more than a style choice. It was a philosophical statement.
With the inclusion of his 3-story octagonal chapel, he literally built the church into the bones of his home. It was an uncommon addition, even for these times.
When the April 1861 census was taken, which was nine months before Harold was born, the Joys had been living in Moorfield House for just about three years. The house was full of Joys, but not completely full. Seventeen-year-old Arthur Holt Joy was the oldest son and he lived at home. Arthur was working as a clerk in a warehouse, presumably to learn the family business and eventually become one of the “William Joy & Sons” successful oil merchants. Also living at home were Charles (age 15), Amy (age 12) and little Lottie (age 5). The three of them were listed on the census form as “scholars.” The next two siblings, Douglas (age 11), and Frank (age 8) were away at Oakwell Hall School boarding school, about 10 miles from home. Last of all was Percy who would have been in the midst of his terrible twos. And then, on January 1862, Harold was born and family was complete.
It might have been hard to keep track of eight children, but there was help—right from birth. Wealthy women of that day hired wet nurses and Mary most likely followed the norms. When Harold was born, there were three live-in servants (Martha Heath, Ann Wood, and Sarah Jane Iredale[3]), plus the gardeners, groundskeepers, carriage drivers, and so on. Mary’s main role with the children was to ensure that they had the ‘proper’ religious, educational, and social instruction. In addition to that, she was very involved with charitable works, as was expected of a devout and prosperous Methodist wife.
By the time Harold was born, the fabulous gardens at Moorfield House would have just begun filling in. In the years to come, they would produce gorgeous flowers and ferns, regularly winning prizes at the annual Leeds Flower Show.[4]
Harold spent his childhood in this idyllic countryside. On the surface, a young boy couldn’t have asked for more. He would have been as unaware as any young child of the complications of growing up and finding one’s way. And just like any young child, he would have been eager to learn anything and everything, and want to be safe and loved.
—END HERE, FOR NOW—
MENTION JAMES SNOW? NEED TO SORT OUT TIMELINE
John Snow, the brilliant father of epidemiology, had showed in 1854 that the cause of cholera was contaminated drinking water, but William Far was chief statistician at the General Register Office in London and he held on to the miasma theory. It wasn’t until the next cholera epidemic in 1866 when William Farr conducted his own investigation, which totally supported John Snow’s results. He issued immediate orders that no one in the affected areas should drink unboiled water. The epidemic ended soon after. Leeds followed the same advisory.
[1] Sigsworth, Michael. 1991. Cholera in the large towns of the West and East Ridings,
1848-1893. Sheffield City Polytechnic, PhD Thesis
[2] TBD. There might also have been an inheritance
[3] Sarah Iredale was 17 years old, born in Brighouse (1844). By 1851, she lived with her parents and sister (Mary Elizabeth) in Kirkstall, Headingley in 1951. Her father, Joseph Iredale, was a tannery laborer and her mother, Sarah Iredale, was a “warper woollen,” (i.e. she worked in a wool mill).
[4] CUT MAYBE USE ELSEWHERE: Although the prize announcements, such as the one in the October 20, 1874 edition of The Sheffield Daily Telegraph, would be awarded to “Mr. William Glover Joy,” Thomas West, the gardener at Moorfield House would also be mentioned, albeit in a much smaller font. It’s not clear who really earned those prizes. Both the prize-winning blooms and Thomas West’s tenure at Moorfield, would outlast the Joys.
[i]wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Leeds [6 Feb 2025]
[ii] The Oates family lived here. They rented but didn’t lease. See YouTube from the Thoresby Society. They were Unitarians. Staunch liberals. George Oates was a staunch liberal, MP I think. Very successful.
John Atkinson Grimshaw’s painting. The most prominent in Grimshaw’s view can be identified as Ashfield House, built about 1860 and attributed to the architect of Leeds Town Hall, Cuthbert Brodick. Moving left, we can see Wheatfield Lodge built about 1855 and possibly also by Brodick, and finally furthest right, Moorfield House built 1855-6 for William Glover Joy,
[iii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headingley
[iv] [source: https://www.headingleyleeds.com/far-headingley-walk]
[v] Source: https://www.architecturecourses.org/learn/gothic-revival-architecture
[vi] https://www.strikemagazines.com/blog-2-1/a-look-at-how-gothic-culture-has-evolved-from-architecture-and-literature-to-a-lifestyle#:~:text=Gothic%20architecture%20had%20a%20few,for%20people%20to%20observe%20Christianity.
Joy Family Histories, Scattered Lives 
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