ONE of Bentham’s oldest residents has died, aged 101.

Emmanuel Jackson, known as Manny, was born in 1912 at Bideber Mill, once a corn mill serving Westhouse, near Ingleton.

When he was four, the family moved to Hardacre, near Clapham, with their possessions all loaded onto a horse and cart.

His brother John was gassed in the Great War but survived and went on to manage Co-operative shops in Low Bentham and Ingle-ton.

Mother Isabella made but-ter from a shorthorn herd, which was sold at the Co-op – and there was such a demand that shoppers would queue on to the pavement.

From Hardacre, Manny walked to school and chapel in Newby. The teacher at Newby School, Mrs Slater, was one of the first in the area to have a motor car and this seemed to engender in Manny and his brothers a lifelong interest in cars and motor bikes.

Manny was apprenticed as a joiner to William Wilson but in the Depression of the 1930s business was quiet, so he worked for the new Bentham Electric Company in Duke Street. He also helped his father build the Sandaber houses on Tatterthorn Lane in Bentham.

During the Second World War Manny worked at Yeadon Airport, making and maintaining the wings of early Anson fighter-planes.

He met his future wife Nesta Wrathall while roofing on School Hill, close to what was Dewsbury’s Garage.

They were married at St Margaret’s, Bentham, in June 1943, but it was a low-key ceremony as Nesta had just received news that her brother, Jack, had been killed on HMS Dasher and another brother, Edward, was a prisoner of war.

Manny bought Bentham Sawmill in 1950 and the couple lived next door. The business grew from two to 27 employees and had a reputation for quality. It was bought out by Naylor Myers.

Manny and Nesta were supporters of Bentham generally and Manny was president of Bentham Show.They retired to Clapham and enjoyed village life, gardening and walking. More recently they returned to Bentham and spent alter-nate seasons with daughter Marion and son Russell and their families.

His funeral at his home church of St Oswald’s, near Westhouse, was full of relatives and friends spanning five generations from most corners of Britain and the Channel Islands.