AN ADVENTURE IN HISTORY

[Stanley]

AN ADVENTURE IN HISTORY

My name is Stanley Graham and I’ve lived in Barlick since 1959 when I bought Hey Farm and lived there until 1978. I admit to being besotted with local history, I find it fascinating to delve into the past and get a better understanding of the place where I live. This has enriched my life beyond measure and what follows is an example of the sort of activity I delight in.
This is not finished work, enquiries like this are never complete, there is always something new to learn. Some of the assumptions I have made based on the evidence I have found will be wrong. There is no shame attached to this, the only time a local historian goes to the bad is when he or she is certain that what is written down is right. There are no undeniable facts in this sort of work.
All I ask is that you read what I have written, look at the evidence and go out and make your own mind up about my ‘facts’. I promise that in the process you will gain much enjoyment and get some healthy exercise! If you need any help or want any pointers as to how to proceed ask the library staff or contact me. I can’t promise you the right answer but I may be able to give you some clues as to where to look. Have a go and enjoy!

STONY GROUND

[This piece was triggered off by a letter in the BET from Owen Duxbury in which he talked about the quarries at the top of Tubber Hill and solved a mystery for me.]

Owen Duxbury’s piece on the canal in Barlick View last week (Feb 25 2000) solved a mystery for me. During 1970, while doing some research in Leeds I came across a scrap of paper that looked like the remains of an old estate map. It showed an enclosure called ‘Loose Games’. I made a guess from the shape of it that it was at the top of Tubber Hill opposite Hardisty’s bungalow. Owen has given me the answer because he said that Jim Hardisty’s brother told him that the Upper Hill Quarry was also known as Loose Games Quarry.
Now of course I have another problem! Why Loose Games? For years I have wondered if it had anything to do with the rough games that used to be played in villages and which seemed to provide some sort of social safety valve for aggression. I shall probably have to wait another twenty years to find the answer to that one but that’s what history is like, you learn the answer to one particular question and it throws up more queries.
Owen also mentioned Gledstone Hall and this triggered off some thoughts about the building of the New Hall. Jimmy Thompson, who was the blacksmith in West Marton in the 50s when I worked for the dairy, served his apprenticeship with Walter Hoggarth who ran West Marton Forge at that time. Jimmy once told me that he served the first three years of his time running a portable forge up at the new hall sharpening chisels for the masons working on the site. Like all the other villagers he couldn’t understand why Old Gledstone had been abandoned and was to be demolished. All that is left now of the original hall is the stable block and when I worked for Richard Drinkall of Yew Tree farm in the village as a wagon driver we used to store our hay-making machinery there.
The stables are a masterpiece of the bricklayers art. Externally the building is square but the central courtyard is round so the construction has to make the transition from square to curved as it moves inwards. This meant that cunning vaulting had to be built and almost every brick is hand cut and rubbed to shape to achieve this effect.
Percy Graham was alive in those days and had lived in Marton all his life. He told me that he worked for the Gledstone Estate as a wagon driver when the new hall was under construction and his first job every morning was to drive round the surrounding villages picking up the workers who rode on the back of the wagon. He said that his first driving offence was committed in Earby while doing this. He was overtaken by a bobby on a bicycle who pulled him up and prosecuted him for ‘Driving at a Furious Pace’!
According to Percy, Sir Amos Nelson, the cotton magnate who owned the estate having bought it off the Roundell family (in 1920) decided he wanted a new hall and engaged Sir Edwin Lutyens to design it for him. At that time I didn't know the date of the sale but did know that Roundells were negotiating the water rights in Eastwood Bottoms in Barlick with the Calf Hall Shed Company in 1903 so they must still have been the proprietors then. Having set an architect on and arranged for the building to be done by direct labour from the estate he set off on a world cruise. On his return he was so aghast at the scale of the works that he stopped work immediately and cut back on the design. The main drive was supposed to head out to the north from the front of the hall and curve to the west up the hill, eventually meeting the Gargrave Road at Top Lodge opposite Marton Scar Farm. The lodge was built as were two subsidiary lodges in front of the hall but the drive was never completed. Hoggarth was allowed to finish the great wrought iron overthrow and gates he was making for the front of the hall. Jimmy told me that Walter made a special drill for cutting square holes in the cross bars for the uprights to pass through, he showed me this in the 1950s. Jimmy never ceased to bemoan the fact that it never got a coat of paint on the inside after it was first erected and over the years it suffered badly from corrosion. He said that Sir Amos was too mean to have it done.
Owen triggered off another thought about stone and Barlick. How many people have ever noticed the small enclosure on the left hand side of the road as you come down the narrow section of Manchester Road above Letcliffe Park gates? It is badly overgrown now and has a tree growing in the middle of it but this was once a very important place for many people in the town. The Health Trust at Skipton will doubtless be surprised to hear that it probably belongs to them! Known as ‘Poorbones’ by old Barlickers, this was the place where anyone who was on Outdoor Relief from Skipton Workhouse (which later became Raikeswood hospital) knapped stone used for road repairs to qualify for relief under the Poor Law. I never pass there without thinking of all the poor souls who laboured there in all weathers to try to earn enough to keep body and soul together. We should get it listed and mark it as a reminder of how cruel life could be in those days.

February 2000