December 2011

Your letters

A cold and frosty morning

Frosty mornings were different when I was a child. How could that be? Waking up in a bedroom which was chillier than usual, the window panes would have a thin, opaque coating of frozen condensation, formed in a random pattern of loops and swirls, far beyond the skill of any abstract artist. A tentative scrape with a fingernail allowed a peephole view of the world outside, a world now enhanced by a sparkling white cover. Then it was off to school.

The first intake of breath came with a gasp as the crisp cold air entered our lungs and then exhaled like steam from a locomotive. The ground underfoot crunched slightly as we walked and already our fingertips would be feeling the nip of winter through our gloves. Of course, frosty mornings aren’t really different nowadays. They just don’t seem the same through double glazing and car windows.

Mr R Dobson, Halifax

Historic Barkston Ash

Regarding June Hall’s letter (Oct) mentioning where the centre of Yorkshire was. It has always been assumed that the village of Barkston Ash near Tadcaster could claim this title. Modern measurements show this to be almost correct.

I was born and raised in Barkston Ash. We were taught at school about the Danish Wapentake which is mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086. Barkston Ash was here long before then.

The ash tree has had a number of replacements over the years. One past resident climbed to the top of the ash tree to place a Union Jack there in honour of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.

Barkston Ash took its name from a family called De Barkeston, long since extinct. The Ash Tree public house was built in 1769 to serve food to travellers on the London to York stage run.

Doris Hayton, Knaresborough

My great holiday train ride

After reading ‘Our very own great railway journey’ by Ian McMillan (Sep) I recalled happy memories of a very similar journey from Nottingham’s now non-existent Victoria Station to Penistone. As two eight and nine year olds, my cousin and I would be sent to stay with Gran’s old friend Mrs Polly Sylvester at Crimble Clough near Slaithwaite. We were from a market gardening family who were always busy in the summer so we stayed with Aunty Polly.

We were put on the train at Victoria, loaded into the guard van along with our bikes. Labels in our coat buttonholes with name and address; the guard must have looked after us well (I think perhaps given a generous gift of some fruit and vegetables from our nursery garden by Uncle Walker, Dad’s brother). I remember well the journey through the differing countryside of industrial towns and then wonderful moors, and then the fabulous Penistone Viaduct.

We were then met at Huddersfield by Aunty Polly’s nephew who I seem to remember was called Terry Sylvester.
We had wonderful times in those holidays which seem so long ago – I am now seventy years old. I recall trips up onto the moors to pick bilberries and playing near the beck which was opposite the cottage, the fabulous fish and chips which we went down to Slaithwaite to get. It was wonderful to read Ian McMillan’s article and bring back school holidays in 1950-51.

I wonder if any of Aunt Polly’s relatives are still around the area. Her nephew Terry, who I think went on to have a career in motorcycle sport, had a shop in Huddersfield. I expect he is quite a senior citizen now. She also had a nephew and niece by the name of Mallinson. It would be interesting to hear from them.

Jill Sayner, Melton Mowbray (formerly Jill Hortor, Hortor’s Nursery)

Towering over the water

Mrs C Kirkbright, Helmsley, wrote enquiring into the purpose of a structure she came across (Nov).
I think she refers to the Leighton/Roundhill Reservoir Sighting Tower, above Arnagill Crags, (there is a much small stone folly quite nearby) which was built at the turn of the century by Harrogate Water Corporation.

This tower was one of three used, employing ‘triangulation’ to align the construction of a water pipeline from nearby towards Harrogate. There is another, Carle Tower, still visible, but the third northern one, which was constructed of wood, no longer exists. The tower is also sometimes referred to as Colsterdale, Arnagill or Carlsmoor Tower and it is now a listed structure.

Barrie Sharples, by email

Autumn rhymes

Further to Mr McMillan’s deliberations on the difficulties of adding to the plethora of autumn verses (Nov), here is one I made earlier:

Autumn
The tang of wood smoke somewhere adds the zest
That seasons this dull misty autumn morn,
While condensation beads on cars at rest
In village streets this foggy Yorkshire dawn.

A watery sun bleeds through the vaporous air
With promise of a second dawn today,
Whose advent will be dry and bright and fair,
And light us as we stumble on our way.

Ian Giles, by email

Nonus the limit

Regarding Geoffrey Teasdale’s Quirky Names letter (Aug), my family history enquiries haven’t revealed any complete ABC names as his have, but my great-grandfather was a Nonus as he was the ninth son, the two before him being Septimus and Octavius. (The first six boys had more usual first names: James, William, Alexander, George, John and Francis.) I guess great-grandma stopped hoping for a girl after Nonus!

Sally Irwin, Hawkwell, Essex

Links to Joseph Bramah

The article on the Joseph Bramah public house in Barnsley (Oct) proved of particular interest to me as the carpenter to whom Joseph Bramah was apprenticed was Thomas Allatt, my 5x-great-grandfather.

Thomas’s home and business were at Stainborough Fold not far from Joseph’s father’s farm. Research has led me to believe that Joseph’s initial intention was to work on his father’s farm but that an accident causing a leg injury precluded this prospect.

In Silkstone Church there are two commemorative plaques to Joseph and in the graveyard close to the main door is the grave of Thomas Allatt (1727-1797) and his wife Hannah (1729-1809).

Steve Allatt, Whitacre Heath, Birmingham

Driving the Dales

After reading September’s drive and walk, I thought I would describe my favourite drive which is about 130 kilometres or about eighty miles in real money:

Leave Richmond on the A6108, signposted Leyburn. Turn right on the B6270, signposted Reeth. The next part of the route is along a very twisty road and over narrow bridges. Continue on through Reeth, Gunnerside, Muker and Keld.

After Keld the road climbs and brings you to open moorland where it is worth pulling off the road to take in the stunning views. Continue on towards Nateby. At the T-junction turn left onto the B6259. Turn left onto the A684, signposted Hawes. Just after the turn is the Moorcock Inn – if you’re thinking of lunch.

Continue on the A684 through Hawes, Bainbridge, Aysgarth. NB: The Aysgarth Falls are spectacular and well worth a visit (especially after heavy rain). Continue on to Leyburn. Look for the A6108 to take you back to Richmond.

I like this drive because when you turn towards Reeth you get views of the Swale on your left and right, with the scenery changing almost with each corner. Then there is the climb up with the view opening out before you and then back down to civilisation when you’re back on the A684, and the run back towards Leyburn and Richmond was for me always nice, looking forward to my evening.

Neville Withers, London

Job senior slept in our forge

Having researched the history of the Rayners of Burley and of Burley Woodhead for some thirty-eight years, I was naturally intrigued to read Phil Penfold’s article about the Hermit Pub at Burley Woodhead and his other reference to Job Senior sleeping overnight in the blacksmith’s shop.

Though Phil does not say which blacksmith’s shop, I can personally vouch for the fact that the blacksmith’s at Burley Woodhead was certainly one of them. In about 1856-57 my great-great-grandfather, Thomas Rayner, formerly of Burley forge opposite the Malt Shovel, moved to start or to take over the forge on the Green at Burley Woodhead and strong family lore gives us to believe that Job Senior was allowed to sleep overnight in that forge – but only when the weather was too inclement to sleep in his hovel on the moor.
The forge fire was, of course, not allowed to go out and was usually just banked down to keep it lit overnight.

David K Rayner, Bradford

Theft at Rankins Well

I too, when I was the same age as Pauline Hey, used to play in the area of Rankins Well (Can You Help, Aug).

In around 1926 a theft took place at the well; a drinking cup went missing. It was chained to sandstone rock near the water. This may seem trivial but it was blacksmith-made in wrought iron, not sheet metal – a work of art. I remember it by its weight. The mug and its chain are still missing. I wonder if the small stone trough of water still exists. You cannot leave anything about nowadays.

F Lowe, Chingford

Can you help?

In September’s Walking with Dalesman by Steve Goodier, he doesn’t mention the cross and what is obviously a memorial on Pule Hill. Could anyone please tell me what it represents and is anything written on the stone in front?

M Angus, Bolton

Can readers recall Station Parade in Harrogate before the bus station was built? As a schoolboy at St Roberts in the 1940s I regularly used to walk up Station Parade, past the bus station and Timothy White’s and Taylors Chemist, to the shop selling the Beano and Dandy. Sometimes I would accompany my granddad to the nearby barber’s shop. Here he would hold my hand as I was terrified by the sight and especially the smell of customers having their hair singed.

At that time I was unaware of the marked contrast between the Victorian buildings on one side of Station Parade and the modern concrete bus station on the other. Since then I have wondered how this development came about. Does anyone have information as to when the bus station was built and more interestingly, what it replaced? What kind of buildings existed between Station Parade and the railway? I would be most interested to learn more about this episode in my home town’s recent history.

Dr A A Lyne, Ruthin