For the lead miners of the Yorkshire Dales, the decline started in the mid to late 1800s; the iron ore supplies of the Yorkshire Moors declined by 1930; this resulted in few opportunities for work in the mines. The miners transferred their skills, some moved to coal mining in other areas of England and some emigrated. Some of those who emigrated headed to areas of Wisconsin, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Michigan; others went south to Australia. The miners and their families often moved through association with others, family members or neighbours, in chain migration; this led to communities developing in another place, taking their traditions and surnames with them.

Join me in an exciting project led by ProjectKin, Migration Stories; my routes and paths for the project are those taken by Yorkshire miners, see the section of the project at Yorkshire Miners to North America and Beyond.

Take a look at the different migration paths at Projectkin | Migration Stories 🐦‍⬛ and how to get involved.

What next? If you have a story of an ancestor, or a person of interest, who was a miner in Yorkshire and who moved to start a new life elsewhere then get in touch; either through this Substack page or storiesofourgenerations@gmail.com, titled Migration Project Yorkshire Miners.

I will be adding articles about lead mining, iron mining and coal mining over the coming weeks to help with your research.

Let’s see how many stories we can gather, how many destinations we find and where the miners and their families settled.

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By exploring the lives of the Yorkshire miners we can aim to identify connections and build networking patterns to discover more about them and their communities.

Migration is a big topic, by focusing on a specific group allows for a manageable research aim and objectives. The aim here is to gather stories of Yorkshire miners who emigrated; the objectives are to identify where they left from and where they settled, who migrated with them and who was left behind.

Are you interested?

By working together we can remember these hardworking people and learn about their roots.

August 1^st is the anniversary of the Battle of Minden when the Light Infantry, formerly the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, wore a white rose.

August 1^st is also the anniversary of the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834 through the Slavery Abolition Act. The connection to Yorkshire is that philanthropist and abolitionist, William Wilberforce, born in Hull, led the campaign.

Anyone who has attended my talks about researching in Yorkshire will know that I put a lot of emphasis on understanding the boundaries, and the changes to boundaries, in Yorkshire over time.

Until 1974 the historic county of Yorkshire was made up of three Ridings, a third of the county known as a Riding; the North Riding, East Riding and West Riding. This changed to four counties, North, South, East and West Yorkshire; creating major implications for researchers.

When researching your ancestors pre 1974 it is essential that you understand these historical county divisions. What if your ancestor lived in the North Riding of Yorkshire but the modern county for that place is now in County Durham? You would need to know when and where the changes took place and, importantly, know that the records are now held in the Durham records office, not the North Yorkshire records office.

The county boundary changes are explained during my course with Pharos Tutors, ‘Researching Your Yorkshire Ancestors’. This is a 4-week, online course which runs annually; the next course starts on 1^st February 2027, that’s 6 months today! Visit Yorkshire Ancestry | Online Genealogy Course | Pharos Tutors

To coincide with Yorkshire Day, The Genealogist has released over 378,000 Yorkshire Parish Registers, this will be a welcome boost for anyone searching for a baptism, marriage or burial record.

Enjoy Yorkshire Day wherever you are!

Yorkshire Day - The Yorkshire Society

Slavery Abolition Act Takes Effect in Empire (1834) – London | 1834-08-01

News | TheGenealogist

The monarch could grant trading rights to a town, or borough, through a market charter allowing a weekly market or fair. The purpose was to regulate trade, though gaining a market charter often brought prosperity to a place through prestige and economic importance.

From 1199 to 1516 royal grants, recorded on charter rolls, gave the details of the name of who the charter was granted to, the day of the week the market was to take place and where the market was to be held; if the day of the market was to be changed then a royal licence was required.

The Gazetteer of markets and fairs in England and Wales to 1516 lists the markets alphabetically by town within a county; a description of each market is given with the economic wealth.

The largest town in Yorkshire is Leeds and 2026 marks the 400th anniversary of the Leeds Charter. Before 1600 Leeds was a rural village which grew into a centre for the cloth trade; however, due to decline in sales and some unscrupulous traders the reputation was starting to become damaged. To overcome this a group of wealthier merchants negotiated to acquire a Royal Charter which was granted on 3^rd July 1626 by King Charles I.

The charter changed Leeds through the creation of a borough, which included villages such as Armley, Beeston, Bramley, Chapel Allerton, Farnley, Headingley, Holbeck and Hunslet.

Historically, the market in Leeds was held in Briggate, the main thoroughfare from the river. As the market became busier, the woollen cloth merchants moved their markets to Cloth Halls in the early 1700s.

It wasn’t until 1822 that the general Kirkgate Market opened, in 1857 the market was covered creating one of the biggest indoor markets in Europe.

It is remarkable that today we have documentation of the 400 year old market charter for Leeds. The original charter was known to be lost during the Civil War in the 1600s but a copy was made. The copy remained unknown until the 1950s when a bookshop owner, in Canterbury, discovered a piece of vellum, written in Latin, behind some bookshelves. He was planning to have it made into a lampshade when he fortunately consulted a specialist who was able to verify the document as the only surviving copy of the Leeds charter.

The document may have been destined to light up a room but it now lights up the history of Leeds 400 years later.

The copy of the Royal Charter for Leeds is held by the West Yorkshire Archives Service.

For further information about the history of markets and market towns see: Farmers, markets and trade in England 1200–1900, Wendy Thwaites; The Local Historian, Journal of the British Association for Local History, LOCAL, May 2007, Volume 37 No 2, pgs. 76-98 www.balh.org.uk

Markets and fairs - The National Archives

Centre for Metropolitan History Institute of Historical Research

The Leeds Charter of Incorporation 1626: What’s it all about? | Catablogue

How Leeds Royal Charter was saved from becoming lampshade - BBC News

Apologies to my readers for the long gap since my last post, I have been rather busy delving into more Yorkshire research; hopefully, I’ll be able to share some of this with you over the year.

For now Save the Date: the wonderful Society of Genealogists has organised a free event ‘Researching in West Yorkshire, Kirklees’ on Monday 11^th August 2026 at 14:00 – 16:00 UK BST.

This is part of regular UK county events the Society of Genealogists is organising, with more areas of Yorkshire to be included in the future. The August event is focussing on the area of Kirklees, this covers Huddersfield and the towns of Batley, Cleckheaton, Dewsbury, Heckmondwike, Holmfirth, Meltham and Mirfield.

Very approximately, the area outlined in red is Kirklees in the south west of West Yorkshire.

If your ancestors were from this area of Yorkshire the event will help you to know where records are held and to bring an understanding of the area.

There will be short talks from Huddersfield & District Family History Society, West Yorkshire Archive Service and the University of Huddersfield research centre, known as the Heritage Quay. The British Association for Local History and the Vision of Britain will provide an insight into the local and social history of Kirklees.

Book your free space at Researching in West Yorkshire (Kirklees) | SoG

Kirklees is the name of the borough created in 1974, merging eleven local districts. Historically, a diverse collection of towns and villages which grew from small rural agricultural communities and cottage industry weavers to become part of the industrialised woollen industry of northern England.

Kirklees Landscape AI generated.

With industry came railways and canals creating employment and transport networks across the region. As the population grew, housing became crowded in the towns with tough living conditions for many. Over time, agriculture was diminished and eventually the mills went into decline; these factors created a push-factor for migration to the USA and Australia.

Visit Kirklees - Local Heritage Hub | Historic England to see images of Kirklees from the 1850s to today to visualise the changing landscape, including mills and a weaver’s cottage.

The next in the county series from the Society of Genealogists is Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire on 7^th September 2026. Again, this is a free event with contributions from archives and discussion about collections. Researching in Cambridgeshire & Huntingdonshire | SoG

I hope to see you on 11^th August when I will be joining the panel for Kirklees, West Yorkshire history.

P.S. The latest series of All Creatures Great and Small finished filming last month so we have some new episodes to look forward to. It is always fun for me to see my village on screen transformed back through time.

As a genealogist I specialise in Yorkshire family history research, I also cover a great deal of work in local history as I believe that bringing family and local history together provides us with a social history. Social history is when family history comes to life, when we might be able to piece together the lives of our ancestors and how they lived.

I am delighted to be able to let you know that I can share some of my Yorkshire knowledge and research tips with you through a new course - Researching Your Yorkshire Ancestors, you can find out more here . This is an online 4 week course with the highly regarded genealogy tuition company of Pharos Tutors.

If you would like to know where to find records in Yorkshire, what industries your ancestors may have worked in and why they may have moved in or out of Yorkshire then join me in March, see enrolling instructions at Pharos Tutors: https://www.pharostutors.com

I’m excited to teach about Yorkshire family history research with people from all corners of the researching community; hopefully, I’ll see some of you there!

My ancestors are from Yorkshire, England and at first glance appear to have had very ordinary lives working in coal mines, mills and in agriculture, but was this out of choice or circumstance? On my maternal line is my grandmother’s Hemingway family, by digging deeper into their lives I uncover individuals who are not only hard working but are deep thinking people who try to make a difference in the community.

My ‘ordinary’ ancestors were the coal miner who was a trade unionist, the mill worker who volunteered in the fire brigade, the farm labourer who worked in a mental health asylum, the injured soldier who volunteered in the hospital, another mill worker who taught sign language. My grandmother brought her children up to go to the library and between them they devoured books; on reflection, my grandmother was an intelligent and learned woman who, through circumstances, had not been able to further her education. This was repeated with my own mother who won a scholarship for the Grammar School, but she could not continue as her widowed mother could not afford to support this; my grandmother must have been heartbroken to see her very intelligent daughter join the queue for the tram to go to work.

However, one Hemingway ancestor, Joseph, took the opportunity to leave coal mining by emigrating to America. It’s quite a story about how a young man left his close-knit family to find new opportunities; Joseph became a mine Superintendent and worked at the Cambrian Coal Mines, he was a professor hailed as ‘the best authority on coal in the two hemispheres’ and an inventor in the processing of coal to coke.

Join me with ProjectKin on 12^th February 2026 to hear about the life of Joseph Hemingway.

Thu Feb 12th 6:00pm - 7:00pm (GMT)

Speakers’ Corner: Migration Stories with Jude Rhodes and Kyla Bayang

Visit: https://projectkin.org/events

My notes have been rather sparse this year with snippets about All Creatures Great and Small, the start of the A-Z of Yorkshire Dales and other Yorkshire related notes. I endeavour to increase my content over 2026 and we have plenty more Dales to cover.

For this Christmas edition I have looked at newspaper archives to see what was happening 100 years ago at Christmas time in Yorkshire; here are a few entries.

The Yorkshire Post Tuesday December 1^st 1925

The Yorkshire Weekly Post Christmas edition had a front cover of a snowy Briggate, Leeds from the 18^th century showing a stagecoach, the issue cost 3d (three old British pennies).

AI generated image https://chatgpt.com/

The issue was 56 pages and reportedly full of articles and Christmas messages from Yorkshire writers including Halliwell Sutcliffe who was an eminent writer on the life and landscape of Yorkshire.

He lived at a pre-Elizabethan house at Linton in Craven, near where I live in Upper Wharfedale; the house had been a grange for the monks of Fountains Abbey when the house was known as White Abbey.

White Abbey, Linton.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/

There were headlines in the newspapers after Christmas Day giving an insight into local events; on Christmas morning, in Driffield, a fire broke out in a grocery store, it was believed to have been caused by mice nibbling a stock of matches! Belfast Telegraph, Saturday 26^th December 1925

Travellers using the railway between Whitby and Scarborough had their journey disrupted by a landslide near Ravenscar which destroyed 30 yards of the line on Christmas Eve; the travellers were conveyed by a motor bus. The landslide was caused by floods following a great snowstorm, this also affected the Filey Golf Company which lost part of the course. The Scotsman, Saturday 26th December 1925

There was a Christmas outbreak of smallpox with 50 new cases diagnosed at Rawmarsh near Rotherham since Christmas Eve, it was feared that the outbreak was worsened by Christmas parties and social gatherings. The isolation hospital was full to capacity and patients were taken to the Sheffield hospital; queues of people were waiting to receive a vaccination. The Edinburgh Evening News, Monday 28^th December 1925

On a brighter note, residents in Hull woke on Christmas Day to roofs and streets covered in a large layer of snow, this followed what was reported as an exceptionally busy Christmas Eve for shop keepers.

At various institutions inmates and patients (I guess this refers to mental health hospitals and general hospitals) spent a happy time with the children ‘lacking none of the pleasures of the more fortunate youngsters in the city.’ The article fails to mention that the children did not have the pleasure of a family Christmas and probably refers to the food and a gift. The city of Hull had a large population of poor families, 3,000 poor children were fed Christmas fayre by the 4^th East Yorkshire Regiment at Londesborough barracks.

The 4th Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment was a unit of the Territorial Force and were known as the ‘Hull Rifles’, more than 75% of the battalion volunteered at the start of WWI for service abroad; they had a difficult time serving at the battle of Ypres and in 1916 they fought on the Somme.

Londesborough Street drill hall, Kingston upon Hull - geograph.org.uk - 3856326.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/

The police were not particularly busy on Christmas Day with only 2 prisoners appearing at the Police Court, it was reported that neither were charged of drunkenness. The Daily Mail, Saturday 26th December 1925

It is worth noting that only one of the newspapers mentioned above was a local Yorkshire paper, when researching family and local history remember to search the newspapers widely, you never know what might be written about a person or place of interest.

This small insight into Christmas lives 100 years ago has similarities with Christmas today – travel disruption, community health concerns and the increased burden of financial struggles through the expectations of the Christmas period.

For those of us who have family, shelter, health and a sumptuous meal to look forward to let’s take some time to consider everyone who will struggle this Christmastime. For anyone spending the holiday period alone it is a perfect time to delve into some family history and see what new nuggets can be discovered leading to a new journey into the past in 2026.

https://wartimememoriesproject.com/

Newspaper archives – www.findmypast.co.uk

However, according to the updated Ancestry www.ancestry.co.uk Ancestral Origins new regions my ethnic origins are the East Midlands, England. My initial feeling was of disbelief that my beloved Yorkshire no longer exists as a region in the Ancestry ethnic groupings, then my feelings turned to ‘I need to sort this’.

I have had quite a lengthy chat with AI Leif, my question to Leif was:

I would like to know why Ancestral Origins has removed Yorkshire in England and grouped it in the East Midlands region. The geographic area of the East Midlands does not include Yorkshire, it is comprised of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland. https://www.ukcitymap.com/east-midlands-region.html

Yorkshire is the largest county in England and to not have Yorkshire as a region will mislead Ancestry users.

Leif replied:

“AncestryDNA uses a reference panel made up of DNA samples from people with long family histories in specific regions. The regions are determined by genetic similarities rather than modern political boundaries, which can sometimes lead to unexpected groupings.” Chat 15th October 2025 www.ancestry.co.uk

The update to the ethnicity regions is aiming to improve clarity and precision; therefore, I replied that the reference panel have not made reference to the largest county in Yorkshire, with a population greater than that of Scotland, and has created far less enhanced clarity and precision.

The reply was a repetition of the previous response with a further reply from myself that boundaries are being used incorrectly in this instance and the region created by Ancestry does not accurately address DNA ethnicity. Regarding the reference panel I also have a long family history in the specific region of Yorkshire, backed up with DNA data, and do not plot my ancestors according to modern political boundaries

Leif was very pleasant and apologised for any frustrations caused and asked me to clarify what specific aspect of DNA ethnicity I felt were not being addressed by the current regional grouping. Of course, I replied that the specific aspect was that Yorkshire is no longer exists as a region and that the boundaries being used are ambiguous and not necessarily correct.

The conversation continued in the same vein. Leif then asked if I would like to be connected to an agent – I still don’t know if this was an AI agent or a human being, my ignorance perhaps.

The new agent explained that the update introduced changes to regions in England, and that Yorkshire may now be grouped with East Midlands based on shared genetic connections. The update is to provide more precise regional distinctions.

Again, I explained that the region is incorrect, Yorkshire is the largest county in England and is not geographically part of the East Midlands. The update has made it less precise by not including Yorkshire.

The repetitions continued until the agent thanked me for the feedback and information and would pass it to the relevant team for further investigation.

It would appear that a lack of understanding of the historical and modern boundaries of England of the Ancestry knowledge has led to poor labelling of regions, of course Yorkshire still exists as a county, in fact there are four Yorkshire counties. In the green coloured part of the East Midlands region on the new update seven major towns are marked, six of these are in Yorkshire so how can Ancestry get the labelling of a region so wrong?

At the moment I am beginning to wonder if all my years of research has been incorrect and that my family and ancestors thought they were living in Yorkshire but they had got that wrong, maybe I am actually from Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire or Rutland.

Bishopdale is within the parish of Aysgarth, it is north of Upper Wharfedale and south of Wensleydale. The area on the map below is a rough location of Bishopdale.

The view below is of Bishopdale looking to the north showing the hill, over Kidstones Pass, towards the hamlet of Cray in Upper Wharfedale.

Gordon Hatton, Bishopdale - geograph.org.uk - 124296.jpg, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/

The name Bishopdale makes us think that the origins were ecclesiastical, but the dale is named after historic landowner Lord Biscopp.

There are four township settlements in the dale: Newbiggin, Thoralby, Bishopdale and West Burton (Burton cum Walden). West Burton was evident at the time of the Domesday book in 1086; Newbiggin is likely a newer settlement of the Norman period, the name means ‘new’ ‘building’.

Over the medieval period Bishopdale was part of a deer park held by the Lords of Middleham, the walls and field patterns began during manorial ownership marking boundaries. The fields were subdivided into the pattern we see today during the period of Enclosure in the 1700s and 1800s which established the dale in sheep farming.

As you drive down Bishopdale to join Wensleydale the site of Bolton Castle appears on the hill, this was strategically rebuilt in the 1300s by Sir Richard le Scrope where the routes into Wensleydale and Bishopdale could be viewed for any approaching hostilities. In 1568 Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned at Bolton Castle for six months after she had fled from Scotland, she then was taken to Tutbury in Staffordshire.

Descending into Bishopdale from Upper Wharfedale, over Kidstones Pass, brings Long Ridge farm into view. This traditional farmhouse was built in 1653 for George and Elizabeth Dodsworth though the origins of the house are probably earlier, it has a huge 13 foot arch over the 4 foot deep inglenook fireplace housing a bread oven.

A little further along the dale is another farmhouse, Ribba Hall. Built in the late 1600s Ribba Hall is a typical farmhouse of the dale with an adjoining stable and a hayloft above; the photograph below shows the steps going up to the hayloft. I always wonder when I see old paths and old steps how many feet have trodden on the stone over the years creating the worn patterns of today.

There was a school at the head of the dale, another near the village of Thoralby which closed in 1964; the school at West Burton is still educating local children through the Federation with Aysgarth and Bainbridge schools.

West Burton is the largest village in Bishopdale and still has the original stocks on the green, these were erected before 1660, it is known that they were used to punish a Quaker was for attempting to hold a meeting against the wishes of the village community.

The population in Bishopdale peaked in the early 1890s with a 30% decrease in the following 30 years when the population plateaued for another 20 years before a gradual decline to the current time as people moved to the convenience of towns for work; in 1822 West Burton had a population of 478, today there are about 300 residents.

Bishopdale is probably known by many visitors as a route from Wensleydale to Wharfedale but exploring this smaller dale brings the history to life with the traditions of a Yorkshire Dale where local communities farmed, mined, travelled to market and brought up their families creating the heritage for today.

References

https://www.cumbriacountyhistory.org.uk/

https://www.historyhit.com/locations/bolton-castle/

https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101318311-longridge-farmhouse-and-outbuilding-

Life and Tradition on the Yorkshire Dales, M Hartley & J Ingleby, 2018 (Long Ridge)

https://historicengland.org.uk/ (Ribba Hall)

https://westburton-yorkshire.org.uk/history-of-west-burton/

https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/

GENUKI: Aysgarth Supplementary, Yorkshire (North Riding) (population)

I live in the Yorkshire Dales and never tire of the beauty and specific characteristics of each of the many dales, there are over 50 dales in the area but most people only know of the main ones: Wharfedale, Wensleydale and Swaledale. Most dales have a tributary dale such as Littondale off Wharfedale and Waldendale from Wensleydale.

Today the Yorkshire Dales is a much visited tourist destination but in the past it was a hive of activity, especially in farming and lead mining.

One of the thriving lead mining areas was in Arkengarthdale and it is this dale that I will focus on for this short article.

Arkengarthdale lies

Arkengarthdale is a remote valley in the Yorkshire Dales, now designated as the Yorkshire Dales National Park, England. The map below identifies Arkengarthdale being midway between the east and west coasts of Northern England and seventy miles north of the city of Leeds.

Arkengarthdale is the most northern dale in the Yorkshire Dales National Park; however, Teessdale and Weardale are further north but not within the National Park. Arkengarthdale today is sparsely populated and the moors still show evidence of the once prolific lead mining industry. The narrow road from the small town of Reeth, at the junction with Swaledale, passes through the villages of Arkle and Langthwaite reaching the highest pub in England, the Tan Hill Inn.

Today it is hard to imagine the noise, grime and activity which the residents will have lived with day in and day out. The lead mining industry itself was noisy with the blasting, digging, building and rushing water of the hushes; hushes were used to clear the top layer of soil and vegetation to expose the surface for the veins of lead.

The constant noise of hammering metal on metal was also present from the many blacksmiths needed to manufacture iron products and to shoe the numerous horses required for the lead mining and for the residents in the dale. The children walking to school and the families going about their daily life in nailed boots and clogs will have sent a clattering noise through the dale as well as the trundling of carts and horses; the carts, or waggons, on rails carrying lead were called bouses.

The process of lead mining, a dangerous and laborious task, had different stages; the miners worked underground and children were employed to scrape the lead from the flues. The flues ran up the hillside ending with a large chimney, remains can still be seen today.

It was also a hive of activity above ground once the lead had been extracted. The lead had to be sorted and cleaned, known as dressing, before being smelted in furnaces to melt the lead which was poured into moulds creating blocks; water wheels were used to create the power to work the bellows.

Some of the jobs recorded in the census returns are:

· Lead miner – these were the most numerous

· Waggoner

· Lead ore dresser – this was often done by boys

· Clogger

· Shoemaker

· Blacksmith

· Mason

· Lead ore smelter

· Lead ore washer – this was often done by boys and women

· Lead agent – this was a prestigious role

Lead mining was poorly paid and many men also worked as farmers running their own smallholding to supplement the wages and to provide food for the family. It wasn’t unusual to see entire families working in lead mining.

Arkengarthdale is synonymous with CB. CB are the initials of Charles Bathurst whose family had owned Arkengarthdale since purchasing the land in 1656. Charles Bathurst, a descendant, developed a lead mining business employing many of the workers living in the dale, mainly in the villages of Arkle Town, Langthwaite and Booze. The image below shows the rear of the old peat house, carpenter shop and blacksmiths to one side of CB Yard, the main office was also situated in the yard along with some cottages for workers.

An important consideration when researching the lead mining families of Arkengarthdale is migration. Men and families came to the Yorkshire Dales from Cornwall and Derbyshire to use their transferable mining skills but once the lead ore reserves began to decline, in the latter part of the 19^th century, the men and families migrated out of the dale to find employment. Some went to the cotton mills in Lancashire and many others emigrated to America and Australia.

If you would like to know more for your personal research please click the pay subscription button; you can also send me a message stating your family of interest to storiesofourgenerations@gmail.com

Having written about Arkengarthdale, which starts with the letter A, it has occurred to me that I will write a series of short articles working through the alphabet of places in the Yorkshire Dales. So the next article will be B………….

www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/things-to-do/get-outdoors/lead-mining-in-the-dales/lead-mining-in-arkengarthdale

https://uwfs.org.uk/a-short-tale-of-two-smelt-mills/

www.mylearning.org/stories/lead-mining-in-the-yorkshire-dales/69

1861 census www.ancestry.co.uk

Subscribe now

The approximate route and the location of Blubberhouses is shown on the map of Yorkshire below.

The meaning of the name Blubberhouses is probably a place where houses are near a bubbling stream. Where there was a good water flow it was a good location for a mill, powering the wheels to create the energy.

When we think of Yorkshire and mills it is the large industrial mills of the West Riding of Yorkshire that comes to mind, creating an increase in population of the towns of Leeds, Bradford, Keighley. However, mills were prevalent in rural areas also, such as Linton Mill near Grassington in Wharfedale, Gayle Mill in Wensleydale and Blubberhouses in the Washburn Valley.

Why do I always think of Moses, my 3x great grandfather, when I am in Blubberhouses?

Moses was born near Harewood, between Harrogate and Ripon, on 17^th March 1800 and baptised in Harewood on 12^th April 1801. www.ancestry.co.uk

He married Margaret who was from Fewston, a village near Blubberhouses. When they had their son, Samson, Moses was working as a weaver; this is known from Samson’s baptismal record when he was baptised at the Wesleyan Methodist chapel in Knaresborough on 25^th May 1834. www.ancestry.co.uk

I am aware of Moses working at the mill in Blubberhouses from a poem he wrote, the words are now on display in the Washburn Heritage Centre. https://washburnvalley.org

The poem provides a great deal of information about the conditions, as perceived by Moses, in the mill at Blubberhouses; it includes evidence of pauper apprentices from Norwich, Hull and London working at the mill, known as West House Mill, who may well have then settled in the area.

Moses’ poem:

Mr Coldbeck’s Spinning Mill 1877

At the foot of Hardisty Hill

Stands the corn and the spinning mill

Once a place of trade and fame

Perhaps will never be like again,

The employer hundreds he employed

And in his service many a life destroyed

Some he got to write and keep the books

Others to watch and overlook,

Some he got from London some from Hull

Some proved witty some but dull

Some left their scanty bread at Norwich

And was little better for Coldbeck’s porridge

Some he got to spread the line so thin

As others could it rightly spin

Some to rove and card the tow

While thus employed received many a blow

Those that had care and oversight,

Used their skill and all their might

In tirenising one,

The orphan and the poor

Some they maimed or killed outright

By running them both day and night

Composed by Moses French of Kettlesing Head

Coming to Blubberhouses from the south the church is on the right at the crossroads, Hardisty Hill leaves the crossroads to the north with the trees on the left; seen on the photograph below.

St Andrew's Church at Blubberhouses - geograph.org.uk https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0

The Girls Apprentice House and the Boys Apprentice House were on Hardisty Hill and still stand today as private homes.

The mill, built in 1797 for the flax and linen industry, was very large and will have been an imposing site, opposite the church, when travelling the road from Otley to the south. historyofscaifehallfarm.pdf

Today all that is left of the mill is the site, a good-sized flat area and perfect for the Blubberhouses Cricket Club.

"Blubberhouses cricket club - geograph.org.uk - 7136608" by Gordon Hatton is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

The dark satanic mills of the industrial towns are very different from the mills scattered around rural Yorkshire, these rural mills provided employment for local people and new opportunities for those who were apprenticed to the area.

I am incredibly proud of my ancestor for being so literate and eloquent and for his ability to tell his story of the experiences in the mill – however, he did wait until the mill had closed before he wrote the poem!

Look out for a future post about Moses French and the timeline of his various occupations after being a weaver – toll collector and farmer; in Yorkshire of course!

This time we’ll take a look at the life of a bus driver in Grassington (the real Darrowby in the current series).

The bus arriving at Darrowby is a regular site in the All Creatures Great and Small TV series; the production team create an excellent illusion that the pretty village green where the bus pulls up is fictional Darrowby, it is in fact the village of Arncliffe, a few miles further north than where the market square scenes are filmed in the actual village of Grassington.

Check out this clip to see James on the bus All Creatures Great and Small: Episode 1 Scene on YouTube 30 Dec 2020. For motor enthusiasts the bus was a The Leyland Lion KW 1961 which started service in 1927.

So, who would be a real person who drove the bus in the 1930s and 1940s of Grassington, aka Darrowby?

The 1939 Register has a listing for John S. Falshaw living on Wood Lane, Grassington and an occupation of Bus Driver. John’s date of birth is given as 17^th March 1902 and he was married.

A search of the Yorkshire Baptism record set on www.findmypast.co.uk gives 3 possible baptism entries for a John Falshaw in 1902/1903; a John George, a John William and a John Sydney. Fortunately, the entry in the 1939 Register gives an initial S. after John; therefore, it is likely the bus driver was John Sydney Falsaw. The baptism record shows parents Frederick and Ada Ann and the baptism took place in Hubberholme Parish Church. Hubberholme is 12 miles north of Grassington, higher up Upper Wharfedale, Yorkshire Dales; it is the parish church for Buckden. The baptismal date is 18^th May 1902, two months after the birth date on the 1939 Register, and John’s father, Frederick, is a farmer.

Hubberholme church dates from the 12C and is in an idyllic setting on the banks of the River Wharfe. J. B. Priestley, writer and playwright from Yorkshire, was a regular visitor to Hubberholme and his ashes are buried in the church yard. The wooden church furniture was made by the ‘Mouseman’, Thompson of Kilburn, North Yorkshire.

To verify we have identified the correct John Falshaw a search of the 1911 census will hopefully show his parents as Frederick and Ada and add more detail of the family.

The 1911 census does indeed provide verification of John’s parents as Frederick and Ada. At the time John was a schoolboy and had a younger brother, Frederick, and two younger sisters, Nora and Alice.

The family were living at Prospect House in Buckden at the head of Upper Wharfedale where Frederick was a farmer and mail contractor; probably this was the connection to John becoming a bus driver.

Frederick born c.1877 Aysgarth, Wensleydale

Ada Ann born c.1877 Preston under Scar, Wensleydale

John Sydney born 1902 Buckden, Upper Wharfedale

Frederick Arthur b. c.1904 Buckden

Nora born c.1908 Buckden

Alice Ann born c.1910 Buckden

The family also had a farm servant living with them to help on the farm, 24 year old Robert Banks, he will have been known to the family as he was also born in Buckden.

The map below shows the locations of the places mentioned at the head of Upper Wharfedale and in Wensleydale; Aysgarth is about 7 miles from Buckden over a large hill dropping into Bishopdale in the direction of Aysgarth. It is a very rural area with a sparse population.

Grassington is 10 miles south of Buckden, further down the valley of Wharfedale.

The farm where Helen, in the TV series, lived before she married James is filmed just a few miles north west of Hubberholme, in Langstrothdale, a branch off Wharfedale where the road leads to Hawes, Wensleydale.

The next census of 1921 gives an update on John Sydney Falshaw, the place where the family were living was actually the hamlet of Cray, just north of Buckden; as marked on the map. The farm was quite substantial as Frederick employed agricultural labourers including three itinerant workers living at the family home, each of these men gave their place of work as no fixed place. The census was taken in June 1921 therefore the farm will have been busy preparing for hay making requiring the extra labourers.

By 1921 John had 2 more younger siblings, James aged 6 years and Marjorie was a baby of 6 months; John was now 19 years old.

We know from the 1939 Register that John was married and had moved to Grassington. On the 25th October 1928 John returned to Hubberholme church to marry Clara Rigby, she was a 22 year old spinster living in Buckden, her father was Richard Rigby. We now know that John was a bus driver from at least 1928. Coincidentally, his witness at the marriage was William Arthur Chapman who is an ancestor of my own grandchildren. The Chapman family started public transport in Wharfedale from their premises in Grassington, after moving from the Buckden area; originally horse-drawn vehicles which then progressed to charabancs – open topped motor buses.

The image below will be familiar to viewers of All Creatures Great and Small, Chapman’s horse-buses ready for passenger in the square. The large building at the top of the square, known as the Liverpool Warehouse, is often filmed where Siegfried, Tristan and James walk to the ‘Drover’s Arms’, really the Devonshire Hotel. The building used as the home and veterinary practice can just be seen above the carriage with the upper window showing.

Below, Chapman’s charabanc before the introduction of the motor buses John Sydney Falshaw drove.

By looking into the life of a bus driver in Grassington, using the character of a bus driver in All Creatures Great and Small, it has provided a glimpse into the introduction of public transport in this rural area and of the migration within Upper Wharfedale.

References

1939 Register www.findmypast.co.uk

Yorkshire Baptisms www.findmypast.co.uk

Hubberholme The Churches of Upper Wharfedale and Littondale (upperwharfedalechurches.org)

1911 Census of England, Wales & Scotland www.findmypast.co.uk

1921 Census of England & Wales www.findmypast.co.uk

Yorkshire Marriages www.findmypast.co.uk North Yorkshire County Record Office; reference PR/HBB 1/10

I have decided to try and take a person, who actually lived in the village, matching their occupation to those used by the characters in the programme.

I am hoping to find a vet, or may be recorded as an animal doctor, a housekeeper, a veterinary student, shop keeper, barmaid, schoolchild, Mrs Pumfrey equivalent etc. Grassington is also one of my One Place Studies so I will be able to add the research for these people to the study.

Let me know if you have a favourite character you would like me to find an equivalent to in real life and I will see what I can discover.

BUS DRIVER

John Sydney Falshaw – really was a bus driver in Grassington

The bus arriving at Darrowby is a regular site in the All Creatures Great and Small TV series; the production team create an excellent illusion that the pretty village green where the bus pulls up is fictional Darrowby, it is in fact the village of Arncliffe, a few miles further north than where the market square scenes are filmed in the actual village of Grassington.

Scan the QR code to see James walking to the bus in the TV series. For motor enthusiasts the bus was a The Leyland Lion KW 1961 which started service in 1927.

So, who would be a real person who drove the bus in the 1930s and 1940s of Grassington, aka Darrowby?

The 1939 Register has a listing for John S. Falshaw living on Wood Lane, Grassington and an occupation of Bus Driver. John’s date of birth is given as 17th March 1902 and he was married.

A search of the Yorkshire Baptism record set on FMP gives 3 possible baptism entries for a John Falshaw in 1902/1903; a John George, a John William and a John Sydney. Fortunately, the entry in the 1939 Register gives an initial S. after John; therefore, it is likely the bus driver was John Sydney Falsaw. The baptism record shows parents Frederick and Ada Ann and the baptism took place in Hubberholme Parish Church, Hubberholme is 12 miles north of Grassington, higher up Upper Wharfedale, Yorkshire Dales; it is the parish church for Buckden. The baptismal date is 18th May 1902, two months after the birth date on the 1939 Register, and John’s father, Frederick, is a farmer.

Hubberholme church dates from the 12C and is in an idyllic setting on the banks of the River Wharfe.

J. B. Priestley, writer and playwright from Yorkshire, was a regular visitor to Hubberholme and his ashes are buried in the church yard. The wooden church furniture was made by the ‘Mouseman’, Thompson of Kilburn, North Yorkshire.

Hubberholme_Church_-_geograph.org.uk_-_836828.jpg ‎ Andy Beecroft / Hubberholme Church / CC BY-SA 2.0

To verify we have identified the correct John Falshaw a search of the 1911 census will hopefully show his parents as Frederick and Ada and add more detail of the family.

The 1911 census does indeed provide verification of John’s parents as Frederick and Ada. At the time John was a schoolboy and had a younger brother, Frederick, and two younger sisters, Nora and Alice.

The family were living at Prospect House in Buckden at the head of Upper Wharfedale where Frederick was a farmer and mail contractor; probably this was the connection to John becoming a bus driver.

Frederick born c.1877 Aysgarth, Wensleydale

Ada Ann born c.1877 Preston under Scar, Wensleydale

John Sydney born 1902 Buckden, Upper Wharfedale

Frederick Arthur b. c.1904 Buckden

Nora born c.1908 Buckden

Alice Ann born c.1910 Buckden

The family also had a farm servant living with them to help on the farm, 24 year old Robert Banks, he will have been known to the family as he was also born in Buckden.

The map below shows the locations of the places mentioned at the head of Upper Wharfedale and in Wensleydale; Aysgarth is about 7 miles from Buckden over a large hill dropping into Bishopdale in the direction of Aysgarth. It is a very rural area with a sparse population.

Grassington is 10 miles south of Buckden, further down the valley.

The farm where Helen, in the TV series, lived before she married James is filmed just a few miles north west of Hubberholme, in Langstrothdale, a branch off Wharfedale where the road leads to Hawes, Wensleydale.

The next census of 1921 gives an update on John Sydney Falshaw, the place where the family were living was actually the hamlet of Cray, just north of Buckden; as marked on the map. The farm was quite substantial as Frederick employed agricultural labourers including three itinerant workers living at the family home, each of these men gave their place of work as no fixed place. The census was taken in June 1921 therefore the farm will have been busy preparing for hay making requiring the extra labourers.

By 1921 John had 2 more younger siblings, James aged 6 years and Marjorie was a baby of 6 months; John was now 19 years old.

We know from the 1939 Register that John was married and had moved to Grassington. On the 25th October 1928 John returned to Hubberholme church to marry Clara Rigby, she was a 22 year old spinster living in Buckden, her father was Richard Rigby. We now know that John was a bus driver from at least 1928. Coincidentally, his witness at the marriage was William Arthur Chapman who is an ancestor of my own grandchildren. The Chapman family started public transport in Wharfedale from their premises in Grassington, after moving from the Buckden area; originally horse-drawn vehicles which then progressed to charabancs – open topped motor buses.

The image below will be familiar to viewers of All Creatures Great and Small, Chapman’s horse-buses ready for passenger in the square. The large building at the top of the square, known as the Liverpool Warehouse, is often filmed where Siegfried, Tristan and James walk to the ‘Drover’s Arms’, really the Devonshire Arms Hotel. The building used as the home and veterinary practice can just be seen above the carriage with the upper window showing.

By looking into the life of a bus driver in Grassington, using the character of a bus driver in All Creatures Great and Small, it has provided a glimpse into the introduction of public transport in this rural area and of the migration within Upper Wharfedale.

References

1939 Register www.findmypast.co.uk

Yorkshire Baptisms www.findmypast.co.uk

Hubberholme The Churches of Upper Wharfedale and Littondale (upperwharfedalechurches.org)

1911 Census of England, Wales & Scotland www.findmypast.co.uk

1921 Census of England & Wales www.findmypast.co.uk

Yorkshire Marriages www.findmypast.co.uk North Yorkshire County Record Office; reference PR/HBB 1/10

I have decided to try and take a person, who actually lived in the village, matching their occupation to those used by the characters in the programme.

I am hoping to find a vet, or may be recorded as an animal doctor, a housekeeper, a veterinary student, shop keeper, barmaid, schoolchild, Mrs Pumfrey equivalent etc.  Grassington is also one of my One Place Studies so I will be able to add the research for these people to the study.

Let me know if you have a favourite character you would like me to find an equivalent to in real life and I will see what I can discover.

MRS HALL – fictional cook and housekeeper in Darrowby

Elizabeth Symonds – really was a cook and housekeeper in Grassington

The 1939 Register for England and Wales [1] includes Elizabeth A Symonds who was living in Grassington, at Rose Bank, and was working as a cook and housekeeper for a widow named Eleanor Madders. This is the period of the earlier programmes of All Creatures Great and Small therefore it can be assumed that Elizabeth’s life will have been similar to that of Mrs Hall’s. Though being a housekeeper for just an older widow will have been very different from the busy household of the veterinary practice and house of Mr Farnham.

Mrs Madders was the widow of John William Madders, they had married in 1896 in the south west area of Manchester, Lancashire [2] and later moved to the Fylde coast, Blackpool [3] and then to Grassington. The home was a very large, detached property on the north west edge of the village and will have required a lot of upkeep for Elizabeth as the only housekeeper. The Madders were a very wealthy family, Mr Madders left £58,000 to his wife and daughter, Isabel Eleanor Madders when he died in 1930; [4] this is equivalent to over £3 million today. [5]  

Looking for Elizabeth further back in time she is found on the 1921 census for England & Wales, [6] aged 39 years, living in Grassington. At this time, she was also a housekeeper but for a different wealthy couple, James and Nellie Raper. Mr Raper was the managing director of Issac Holden & Sons Ltd., a very successful wool combing business supporting the massive textile industry in Bradford.

The 1921 census provides a place of birth for Elizabeth which enables further research into her earlier life. Elizabeth was born 16^th February 1882 in Brimington, Derbyshire, England; a coal mining area. [7] [8] Her parents were Alfred and Dorothy and when Elizabeth was 9 years old she had two younger brothers, George and Wilfred; a servant was also living with the family. Alfred was a greengrocer, perhaps his wife helped him in his work while the servant helped with the children and housework.

By 1901 Elizabeth, now 19 years old, had four more younger brothers; Alfred, William, Reginald and Lenard. However, Elizabeth was no longer living with her family, she was now a servant for husband-and-wife Arthur and Annie Blackburn in Bradford, Yorkshire. [9] At the time, the house on Grantham Road would have been in a suburb in a row of stylish terraced houses. This will have been a big change for Elizabeth, leaving her family and the coal mining landscape for a large and industrial textile town.

Bradford was an international hub for the textile industry, at the time Elizabeth was working and living in Bradford over half of England’s wool production was in Bradford. [10]

It is most likely that Elizabeth left school seeking work and the wealthy men in the mills and associated works who had moved to make their fortune in Bradford advertised for domestic servants and Elizabeth took this opportunity and moved to Bradford for work. In 1891 about one in three women between the ages of fifteen and twenty were working in domestic service. [11] There are numerous newspaper adverts ‘Domestic servants wanted’ in the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer during 1901. [12]

What is very likely is that, through her work, Elizabeth met wealthy families in the textile industry; as they became wealthier many moved to large houses in rural areas away from the noise and grime of the city. This is probably how Elizabeth came to be working and living in rural Grassington.

While the fictional Mrs Hall worked for a vet in fictional Darrowby, Elizabeth actually was a cook and housekeeper in Grassington. I wonder if Mr Farnham will leave something in his future will for Mrs Hall; Mr James Raper left Elizabeth £200 if she was employed by him at his death in 1928, this is equivalent to almost £11,000 today so it is likely that Elizabeth stayed with the Rapers until this time and then found employment with Mrs Madders. [13]

Elizabeth’s story provides a glimpse into the history of women at the turn of the century who moved to find work in domestic service and finding themselves living a different life from the one they were born into.

References

1 1939 England and Wales Register www.ancestry.co.uk

2 England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915 www.ancestry.co.uk

3 1911 Census of England & Wales www.findmypast.co.uk

4 Scotland, National Probate Index (Calendar of Confirmations and Inventories), 1876-1936 www.ancestry.co.uk

5 Inflation calculator | Bank of England

6 1921 Census of England & Wales www.findmypast.co.uk

7 1939 England and Wales Register www.ancestry.co.uk

8 1891 Census of England & Wales  www.findmypast.co.uk

9 1901 Census of England & Wales www.ancestry.co.uk

10 Bradford at Work: People and Industries Through the Years   www.northernlifemagazine.co.uk

11 Women and domestic service in Victorian society - The History Press

12 www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

13 Yorkshire Post & Intelligencer 12 June 1928 www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

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The perfect day for me to start writing posts about Yorkshire and family history. Why? Because I am a professional genealogist with a specialism of family and local history in Yorkshire, England. www.storiesofourgenerations.co.uk

My posts will often be focussed on Yorkshire and the wealth of history which has impacted on families and local history over the centuries. I aim to reach out to share my knowledge of researching family history throughout Yorkshire and hopefully helping, or entertaining you, on the way.

I was born in Yorkshire and am proud, and lucky, to still live in Yorkshire alongside four generations of my Yorkshire family. I live, and grew up, in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales and my paternal and maternal ancestors are from the historic counties of the North, West and East Ridings of Yorkshire.

I look forward to sharing my knowledge and insights through regular subscription posts and offering extra hints and tips for paid subscriptions with opportunities for Q&As.

It may surprise people that the modern county of Yorkshire covers a bigger area than Greater London, has a population larger than that of Scotland and the economic output is twice as much as for Wales. That helps to put into context the size of the county which is now generally split into four smaller counties – North, East, South and West Yorkshire; created following the county boundary changes of 1974 and roughly creating these counties from the three historic Ridings.

Yorkshire has a diverse landscape. The coastline is 100 miles long running down the east side of the county, the coast has been involved shipping, smuggling and tourism. The industrial areas of Yorkshire, predominantly in West Yorkshire, have been important centres of coal mining, steel works, railways, canals, textile mills and administration.

The rural areas to the east are arable farming while the rural north are busy hill farming areas rearing sheep on the Pennine hills, this landscape produced many years of lead mining in the dales. Much of Yorkshire is a tourist destination for the diversity of city life, historic abbeys and houses and the magnificent countryside of the Dales, the Wolds and the coast.

Maps through the centuries :

https://commons.wikimedia.org to view the 1611 map of Yorkshire, John Speed

Yorkshire Administrative Map 1832 - Category:Maps of Yorkshire - Wikimedia Commons

North,west,east&southyorkshire - Category:Maps of Yorkshire - Wikimedia Commons Dr Greg and Nilfanion - File:Yorkshire_and_the_Humber_counties_2009_map.svg

Each area of history, trade, people and places will be explored in future blogs.

As August 1st is Yorkshire Day, we can take a look at some of the words used in the county over past centuries, these may vary from place to place and differences in the way they were spoken depending on local regional dialect.

Today pubs and inns are denoted by a sign, usually with the name and image to represent the pub or brewery. A fine example is the Boars Head in Ripley, North Yorkshire; the boar’s head being the crest of the Ingleby family of Ripley Castle. Before these elaborate signs an alehouse, pub, was identified with a pole outside a house indicating that they sold ale; these poles were known as ale rods, ale stakes and ale wisps.

We associate the word arrest with someone being taken into custody by the police or suddenly stopping something. In the past arrest was used when legally removing property from someone and placing it in a secure place; the secure place was often known as a pound. Hence the use of the word pound for where animals were impounded in an enclosure.

Peaks on a hat to shield from the sun are nothing new, a bongrace was a brim on the front of a bonnet to provide shade over a woman’s face. John Hartley, West Riding poet, wrote a poem called Ahr Mary's Bonnet, this provides some light-hearted insight into the West Yorkshire dialect:

Have yo seen awr Mary's bonnet?

It's a stunner - nooa mistak!

Ther's a bunch o' rooasies on it,

An' a feather daan her back.

Yollo ribbons an' fine laces,

An' a cock-a-doodle-doo,

An' raand her bonny face is

A string o' posies blue.

Just in case you need some words translating:

Have you seen our Mary’s bonnet?

It’s a stunner – no mistake!

There’s a bunch of rosies on it,

And a feather down her back

Yellow ribbons and fine laces,

And a cock-doodle-doo

And round her bonny face is

A string of posies blue

Why is it useful to understand old words in a region that have been used over the centuries?

When family historians are looking through archival records and trying to decipher the words on the wrinkled, marked and torn pages some words make no sense at all. It could be that the word has not been seen before or it could be that the word is familiar but does not appear to make sense in the context of the document.

Taking the time to understand the greater context of a document and researching the meaning of words used in the past can bring more accuracy to a transcription of a document. This then creates a clearer understanding the people and items mentioned in the document providing more background research and a comprehensive family history understanding.

Over the coming weeks and months there will be topics, discussions and advice for anyone with an interest in Yorkshire family history and local history.

Yorkshire Facts and Statistics | Yorkshire Enterprise Network (yorkshirenetwork.co.uk)

Re: Ripley Castle and the Ingl - Genealogy.com

Ahr Mary's Bonnet - a Yorkshire dialect poem by John Hartley • MyLearning

The Yorkshire Historical Dictionary, Redmonds & Medcalf, 2021, YAHS

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