Such is the transience of mortal fame that a recently published book containing biographical sketches of almost two hundred people associated with the town of Pontefract made no mention of T. J. Sides, the town’s most prominent citizen during the period 1916-1937.

Thomas Jeffries Sides was born in Phillipsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., in 1874 of English emigrant parents who came to live at Henry Street, Featherstone, when he was about twelve years of age. Obtaining employment as a boy labourer at Featherstone Main Colliery, Sides worked there for some 15 years, becoming foreman of the coal screening plant before leaving in February 1902 to become the licensee of the recently built Featherstone Hotel.

As the tenant of the Featherstone Hotel, Sides was well ahead of rival licensees in attracting customers by promoting regular events as diverse as dog shows, shooting competitions, brass band contests, billiard matches and athletic competitions held on a specially constructed track located next to the hotel.

An accomplished musician, Sides played the violin at local festivals organised by the Free Churches of Featherstone and was for a time a member of a locally based orchestra. The wide circle of friends and acquaintances gained through his cultural and church activities was doubtless influential in his decision to enter local politics, somewhat surprisingly given his social background, as a member of the Conservative Party. By the turn of the twentieth century Sides was a member of Featherstone Urban District Council and in due course its Chairman.

As the representative of the North Ward in the 1904 local elections Sides revealed a talent for self-promotion which is almost breathtaking in its opportunism. Standing against William Sykes, a local miner and Labour Party candidate, Sides upstaged his opponent by presenting himself as “the true ‘labour’ candidate” heading the poll with a majority of 191. A local pro-Conservative newspaper editorial acknowledged Sides’ power of persuasion stating that : -

“The result indicated that in Mr. Sides the ratepayers feel that they have a man of some substance, who is likely to attend to their interests per se and not sacrifice them in the same way as his opponent.”

Sides, who was described as having “The power of throwing himself without reck into events of the moment”, also had an innate ability matched by boundless self-confidence which thrust him to the forefront of local affairs and ensured that criticism of his actions and motives was not wanting. An indication of the passion aroused by Sides is seen in the turmoil arising from his fractured association with St. Peters’ Mission Church at Featherstone in 1911.

Friction arose when the Vicar of Featherstone, Reverend F.G. Stebbigs, announced at a vestry meeting that his warden, T.J. Sides, would henceforth have sole control of the financial affairs of the church. The Vicar, the parish incumbent for over 20 years, was highly esteemed by the local populace, having been instrumental in raising over £100 per week for relief of the local miners during the period of industrial upheaval subsequently designated as the ‘Featherstone Riots’ in 1893.

Sides, who lived in the Mission Church district and had been active in the affairs of the Mission Church for a number of years had, however, had a disagreement with the ‘elders’ of the congregation and had ‘defected’ to the parish church at which he had been confirmed by the Bishop of Beverley in 1909.

The announcement of the Vicar annoyed his curate, the Reverend F.H. Jackson, who had resided at Featherstone about 16 months, having been appointed curate by the Archbishop of York, Dr. Lang, with whom he had earlier been associated at Stepney. The Curate therefore petitioned the Archbishop, objecting to Sides’ financial control and followed up his action by preaching a sermon at the Mission Church stating the reason for his objections and making derogatory remarks about Sides. In a public statement refuting the remarks of the Curate, Sides accused him of being the Archbishop’s ‘placeman’ and said that he objected to his preaching of “socialist sermons”, a charge denied by the cleric. The incident caused a bitter schism in the local church at Featherstone. Nevertheless, the ire of opponents had never deterred Sides in his pursuit of his political and business interests nor prevented his rise to prominence in local affairs and by 1910 he was the Chairman of Featherstone Urban District Council, having been a member of the Board of Guardians and the Local Burial Board since 1903, and also Secretary of the local Licensed Victuallers’ Association and Treasurer of the Yorkshire District Licensed Victuallers National Defence League.

As the result of a letter from Private E. Wilks who was on active service on the western front, Sides, who was too old for enlistment, was inspired to assist with recruitment and training and to this end raised the Featherstone Company of Volunteers under his command and successfully obtained a Court grant to facilitate this patriotic effort.

As the tenant of Carters’ Knottingley Brewery Company Limited, Sides used his contacts and influence in the service of the company, obtaining land and properties and facilitating business deals and on occasion acting as the Company’s representative such as the presentation in 1914 to the War Relief Committee on behalf of the Brewery of £15 to the Distress Fund and a further £10 to the Belgian Refugee Fund. Simultaneously, Sides was building up a portfolio of shares in the company. Recognition of Sides’ value to the company and his potential future value resulted in an invitation to join the board in 1916. Such was Sides’ business skill and energy that within two years he was appointed managing director. Commencing at a yearly salary of £500, itself not an insignificant sum at that time, by 1920 Sides’ annual income from the brewery alone was £1,500, plus expenses and provision of a company car.

At the time of his appointment as managing director of the brewery company, Sides left Featherstone and took up residence at ‘Fernhill’, a detached house in the Nevison district of Pontefract. The following year Sides, having resigned from Featherstone Council, was elected to Pontefract Borough Council and a year later, in 1918, was elected Mayor of Pontefract, remaining in that office for four consecutive years. Sides’ first official civic duty was to publicly proclaim the end of the Great War of 1914-1918 thereby inaugurating the first of seven mayoralities each of significance in the wide context of national developments.

Raised to Alderman status in 1920, Sides was again called upon to assume the style and title of Mayor in 1924 when Alderman R.P. Husband died in office. In 1921 Sides was appointed a County magistrate and became a Borough J.P. two years later. Sides was also the representative member of the Knottingley Division of the West Riding County Council and until its obsolescence, a member of the Pontefract Board of Guardians. In 1928 Sides was made an honorary freeman of Pontefract Borough for services to the town.

His term as an alderman being due to expire in late 1926, Sides resigned his office in order to contest the West Ward in the forthcoming Borough elections. Some indication of public dismay, perhaps with Sides political opportunism, was evident in his defeat at the polls. Beaten by 475 votes to 386, Sides was presented with a further opportunity to stand in the same ward when his recent opponent Councillor Brittain, was nominated as an Alderman, but in a three cornered fight Sides was again rejected. Shortly thereafter, the resignation of Councillor H. Holmes created a vacancy in the Central Ward of the town and Sides was duly elected by a comfortable margin. Re-elected in 1927 and again, unopposed, in 1930, Sides successfully faced two opponents in 1933.

Elected Mayor in 1935 and again, for a seventh time the year following, Sides’ period in office encompassed the abdication crisis and the coronation of George VI, the effect of mass unemployment on local industry and the increasing threat of war arising from the rise of fascism in Europe. The dramatic nature of these events allied to those of peace, post war reconstruction and industrial unrest which had characterised earlier mayoralty’s combined to make his periods as mayor more memorable than most.

Sides effected a great affection for children and used to carry sweets and small change in his pockets to distribute to children he met and at Christmas 1912 gave away 500 new pennies to local children. At the time of the general strike in 1926 Sides advocated that local miners be relieved of the burden of debt which they had incurred in consequence of the dispute and throughout the strike adopted a Saturday ritual, giving a penny and an orange to local children, the result of which action it was subsequently recalled, reduced their strike-hardened fathers to tears.

Sides propensity to hurl loose change amongst groups of children, when electioneering, had near fatal consequences for his social standing and political career when following his involvement in a local election in 1909 he was subsequently arraigned on three charges of giving money to voters, a number of whom had comprised an incidental element of the throng in receipt of Sides’ largess.

The case was heard at Leeds Assize Court on Monday 18th August 1910 when Sides was charged with bribery under the Corrupt Practices Prevention Act of 1854 with regard to events concerning the municipal election at Pontefract West Ward in November the previous year. Charges of perjury were also brought against Councillor W. Archer and Dr. Moxon in connection with the case.

It was alleged that Sides had given seven pence to one Arthur Millet, son of a voter and one shilling and seven pence halfpenny to Ernest Rowe, son of another voter as well as to sundry others, having thrown an handful of small silver and copper coins onto the ground for them to pick up.

Sides was presented as a “highly respected publican” and erstwhile secretary of the Licensed Victuallers Association who were supporting the Conservatives in the local election. Admitting that he had obtained ten shillings worth of small change from a local shop, Sides also stated that he had thrown money to groups containing children during the afternoon and evening of the day in question and had encouraged them to sing “Vote, vote, vote for Mr. Archer...”

Without vacating the jury box, the jury announced a verdict of not guilty on Sides, a verdict enthusiastically applauded by the attendant public while

“A large number of friends heartily congratulated Sides on his escape from a position into which, but for a political rancour and ill-feeling, he would never have been forced.”

At the subsequent meeting of the well attended Yorkshire District Licensed Victuallers’ National Defence League at Harrogate, a resolution couched in flattering terms was passed congratulating Sides on his acquittal and was carried with great acclamation. Sides “responded feelingly”, doubtlessly thinking of his co-defendants who had fared less well, Archer being barred from public office for five years and Moxon for seven years, although the suspension was eventually lifted in the latter case. Yet again an incident involving Sides and from which he emerged relatively unscathed, left a legacy of bitterness and alienation. To show his disapproval of Corporation employees who had signed the petition accusing Councillor Archer of corruption, the Mayor, Colonel Shaw of Darrington Hall, cancelled the annual dinner held for Council workmen. The dinner went ahead, however, when the manager of the Midland Bank and a group of associates undertook to pay the cost of the event in opposition of the mayor.

The sundry public bodies of which Sides was a member at various periods of his civic life mirror his interests in child welfare and particularly the provision of educational opportunity. Sides was sometime Chairman of the local Education Committee, Vice Chairman of the Association of Education Authorities of Yorkshire and a long serving member of the Advisory Council of the Examination Board of Yorkshire Training Colleges. Chairman of the Governors of Pontefract & district Girls High School and a Governor of the King’s School Foundation, Sides was also a Manager of the Pontefract Evening & Technical Institutes and of All Saints Infants’ School, Pontefract.

In the sphere of social welfare Sides was a member of the Osgoldcross Assessment Committee, Pontefract Old Age Pensions Sub-Committee and a co-opted member of the Pontefract Charity Trustees. A member of Pontefract & District Board and Sherburn District Smallpox Hospital Committee, Sides was also a Freemason, being a member of the De Lacy Lodge. In October 1936 he was instrumental in organising the attendance of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Yorkshire at Pontefract for the first time in almost sixty years. Shortly afterwards Sides was appointed to the post of Assistant Grand Director of Ceremonies in the Grand Lodge of England, bearing the rank of Grand Lodge Officer. Appointed a member of the Supreme Chapter of Freemasons, a national group, Sides was the first such appointee from Pontefract since the honour was conferred on Mr. T.W. Tew more than half a century earlier.

In the mid 1920s when economic adversity threatened the future prospects of the Pontefract Race Company, formed in 1919, Sides was appointed managing director and assumed responsibility for its recovery. Through reorganisation involving severe financial cuts which did not endear him to the shareholders, Sides ensured the survival and long-term prosperity of the company which still functions today, almost three-quarters of a century after his demise.

Progressing from Chairman and musical director of the Queen’s Theatre Company, Castleford, Sides became managing director and was instrumental in overseeing the transition of the building from a theatre to a cinema. Sides had a long connection with theatre management. As early as September 1901 he had taken out a lease on the Theatre Royal, Featherstone, and reopened it following several months of closure with an eclectic programme of drama, opera and cinematography. Also in connection with social events at Castleford, Sides was prominent in the introduction and promotion of the ‘Reight Neet Aht’ with its famous taws (marbles) and tiddlywinks contests and rolled the first marble to inaugurate the charitable event in 1936. Featuring nationally known celebrities, the now defunct event outlived Sides, reaching its apogee in the immediate post Second World War period when graced by the wealthy industrialist Sir Bernard Docker and his wife who arrived at the town in their gold plated Daimler.

Ever the demagogue and self publicist, with an eye open for a photo opportunity, Sides was omnipresent at events such as local fetes, charitable demonstrations and fund-raising activities, or accompanying church and school trips to the seaside. While none can dispute Sides’ interest and generosity, the taint of opportunism and vested interest seems to have permeated the atmosphere of many such events.

One occasion in which the hard-headed business persona pierced the carefully cultivated image of working class tribune was Sides’ appearance at the annual Knottingley Infirmary Sunday Demonstration in August 1920. Present in the multiple capacity of Mayor of Pontefract, Managing Director of Carters’ Knottingley Brewery and Member of the Local Hospitals Board, Sides was introduced by the presiding official, Mr. H.L. Lyon, as “one of the best Mayors that Pontefract has ever had or ever will have”, and received with rapturous applause from the assembled crowd. The hearty reception was reinforced when Sides announced his intention to stimulate funding for the local hospitals by donating a silver Cup (to be known as the Sides’ Cup) which was to be presented annually to the licensee of any public house owned by Carters Brewery which had collected most money for the cause throughout the year, the trophy to be retained if won in three successive years. Sides then forfeited all the goodwill by stating that the recent increase in wages had led him to the expectation that local workpeople would have given more than they had done. The crass comment, made at a time of deepening industrial recession to a crowd, many of whom had lost their breadwinners in the recent war or had returned maimed and disabled from that unparalleled conflict, would have been even more resented had it been known that the critic was earning in excess of £1,500 per year while the bulk of the accused were struggling to maintain a bare existence. Sides’ blunder drew a firm but restrained rebuff from Councillor G.W. Reynolds as President of the Hill Top Workingmens’ Club and Treasurer of the local Infirmary Committee. stating that while they should not be complacent the “workmen did well and [the Committee] ought to receive more from the other side.” [i.e. the bosses]

More unerring was Sides’ intervention concerning the fate of the tank which following the conclusion of the Great War had been presented to the Corporation by the National War Savings Committee and placed in the entrance of Pontefract Castle grounds as a pseudo-memorial and visitor attraction. By the mid 1930s a combination of material deterioration and public indifference led to the decision by Pontefract Borough Council to sell the tank to the highest bidder. Two bids were received from scrap merchants when to the surprise of all concerned on the 4th July 1934, Sides outbid the bidders. Claiming to save the tank, which but for his intervention would have been scrapped, enabled Sides to present himself as a public benefactor. Following Sides’death the tank, having usefully served its purpose, was quietly disposed of, being sent for scrap during the Salvage Drive of World War II, thereby meeting the fate from which it had gaineed temporary reprieve by Sides’ beneficence. Sides’ pose as the guardian of the public heritage rings somewhat hollow when consideration is given to the fate of a more historically significant object. For many decades the whereabouts of the unique and beautifully sculptured fireplace located within the Ingram Manor House (later the premises occupied by the White Swan Inn) Hill Top, Knottingley, has been the subject of speculation. It was feared that the fireplace had been dismantled and illicitly exported at the time of the demolition of the property in the early 1960s. A recent disclosure by someone resident on the site at the time the fireplace was removed reveals that the objext was dismantled on the order of T. J. Sides, using his authority as the managing director of Knottingley Brewery Co., the owners of the Swan Inn property, in 1929, a fact recently confirmed by the writer who has uncovered evidence of the removal and sale of antique fireplaces and panelling from other Carters’ Brewery properties at that period. Once dismantled the Knottingley fireplace was then sold and ultimately sent abroad, its destination thought to have been America.

By the mid 1930s the strain of his hyperactive life had begun to effect Sides’ constitution as the nationally deteriorating economic situation constrained business opportunities, requiring greater effort for diminishing returns. A comparative decline in the profitability of the Knottingley Brewery Co., undermined Sides’ dominance of the Board and resulted in a power struggle for control of the company in 1933, triggering a protracted and expensive legal dispute which weakened the company leaving it vulnerable to predatory action by trade rivals. A take over battle between the Tadcaster Brewery Co. and Bentley’s Yorkshire Breweries of Woodlesford, Leeds, resulted in a victory for the latter company in 1935. The terms of the take-over agreement imposed the curtailment of the legal dispute upon the parties involved and enforced the resignation of Sides and his nephew T.A.S. Whitehead from the Board with immediate effect.

Intimate knowledge of the business affairs of the Knottingley Brewery Co., allied to an extensive circle of social and business contacts rendered Sides invaluable to the new regime and in June 1936 he was re-engaged by the newly constituted company on a temporary basis. Sides, offered employment as a consultant or as a member of the board, chose the latter option and although the appointment was initially subject to quarterly renewal, proved so indispensable that by September 1935 he was appointed the permanent manager of the company at an annual salary of £500.

Despite the fact that on site brewing had ceased at Knottingley following the take over by Bentleys, Sides undertook many responsibilities he had formerly executed in his much more remunerative role as managing director. It is unsurprising therefore, that having proved his worth Sides stated that his salary was inadequate. The company responded by suggesting that Sides write a letter to the directors suggesting an appropraite figure. However, no further detail is recorded concerning the subject, which may perhaps be explained by the fact that within a few months Sides suffered a serious incapacitating illness followed by a second and fatal one the year following, hence the hiatus.

The accumulative strain took its toll on Sides and towards the end of his period of office as mayor in 1935 he suffered the breakdown in health which necessitated a serious operation. It was while recovering in a Leeds nursing home that Sides was informed of his re-election as mayor. Following a three week convalescence in a Pontefract nursing home, Sides returned to civic duties, appearing to be fully recovered. However, Sides’ underlying condition belied outward appearance and August 1937 saw a recurrence of his illness, culminating in his death the following month, leaving a wife, Lily, who was a J.P. and continued to reside at ‘Fernhill’ until her death in 1951.

At a specially convened Council meeting a genuine sense of loss was palpable as Sides’ fellow councillors led by the Deputy Mayor expressed their sorrow in fulsome tributes to a man whose

“..innate ability brought him to and carried him through a life of frequent leadership such as falls to few who have to make their own way in the world.”

Few doubted that Sides’

“..public service had hastened his end.”

and in adopting the resolution for the adjournment of the proceedings the councillors stood in silence as a mark of their respect. The Monday following the Borough Court also adjourned in deference after tributes had been paid, as did the West Riding Magistrates Court a few days later.

On the day of the funeral, Monday 6th September 1937, the muffled bells of All Saints Church, Pontefract, rang 5088 changes of Kent Treble Bob Major in anticipation of the service which preceded interment at North Featherstone cemetery. Flags flown at half mast adorned public buildings throughout the town, including the churches of both parishes. The names of the dignitaries who assembled to follow the cortege as it processed along the route through town from ‘Fernhill’ to All Saints Church filled three columns of closely typed print in the local newspapers and thousands of members of the public lined the streets.

The church was crowded to overspill, necessitating attendance in the churchyard by those unable to obtain entry into the church as the Reverend A.G. Shipley, the Mayor’s Chaplain, assisted by Reverend C.C.T. Naters, Vicar of St Giles’ Church, conducted the service.

Yet, despite the fulsome tributes to a man who, loved or loathed, was a remarkable man Sides today goes unremembered and unremarked. Why should this be?

One reason may be found in the outcome of the dramatic events which had already begun to unfurl by the time of Sides’ demise and culminated in the outbreak of the war of 1939-1945. The advent of the war was to fully occupy the daily life of all sections of the local population leaving little or no time for sentiment or reminscence which mark the process by which myths are created. The war also wrought profound changes upon the psychological attitudes and behaviour of post war society removing barriers based upon social status and its concomitant deference for those in authority. Increased social mobility made the achievements of men such as Sides more commonplace and therefore less remarkable in public perception while technological developments allied to changed social attitudes meant that at both national and local level corruption and dubious practices in political circles were subjected to media examination which bred contempt for its practitioners. The advent of the welfare state made the poverty and hardship experienced by the working class in the pre war era passe, nullifying Sides’ achievement in overcoming poverty and class barriers while simultaneously removing the opportunity to pose as the benevolent and bountiful champion of the poor and needy, an image which Sides had carefully nurtured during his public career.

Thus, as Sides’s contemporaries followed him to the grave so memories of him faded and died. Those few who in the youth of the writer occasionally recalled him, often with a degree of admiration and even awe, have now departed the scene so that today about the only remaining vestige of his former prominence is Sides Road, the name of which few associate with that of the man.

Truly, Thomas Jeffries Sides is the forgotten man of Pontefract.

Sic transit gloria munid

TERRY SPENCER

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NOTES:
(1) Lewis B. ‘A Peoples’ History of Pontefract People’. (2003)
(2) Census Return, Featherstone, 1891. The return shows Thomas and his sister, Sarah, living at 8 Henry Street with Sarah their widowed mother, the birthplace of whom was Stafford. Sides’ father, William, had died aged 55m in 1889. By the time of the 1901 Census the family lived at 23 Green Street, Featherstone, at which time Sides’ occupation is given as ‘coal contractor’. I am indebted to Mr Tony Lumb for this information.
(3) Pontefract & Castleford Express 10-9-1937 p8. The Featherstone Hotel was built in 1894 c.f. Pontefract Advertisser 27-1-1894 & 17-3-1894.
(4) Ibid 1902-1913 passim for details of events held at the Featherstone Hotel under the aegis of Sides. For a report of the opening of the athletic ground c.f. ibid 4-10-1902. I am indebted to Mr. H. Pickard for this information. The land comprising the athletic track and recreation ground was sold in 1934 and is now occupied by the Catholic Church and Presbytery. Carters’ Knottingley Brewery Minute Book (1923-1938) p150 & p154. The Company made a donation of £25 to the “new Roman Catholic Church in Featherstone” in September 1936 c.f. ibid p273
(5) Pontefract Advertiser 12-3-1904 & 2-4-1904
(6) Pontefract & Castleford Express 10-9-1937 p8.

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