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After he left Kellington, John Farrar rented a farm at Brackenthwaite, Rigton, near Harrogate from Lord Harewood. He did not sever his ties with Kellington completely as he sent lambs on at least two occasions to Mr. Hirst, and visited Kellington in March 1863 when Hirst lent him £100 'to pay land bond off at the bank.' John's second son, also called John, was born in 1860. The family may have by then been living at Rudding Farm, though the birth certificate gives them as being at nearby Rigton. His wife Caroline died in 1863 at the young age of 32, and John married her sister, Ellen, at St Mary's Trinity Church, Nottingham in June 1864. The following August they had a son called William. Rudding Farm is situated on a corner close to the road in Brackenthwaite Lane. One building bears the date 1891 and was presumably erected during John's tenancy. Once a year, like other tenants, he would attend a dinner given by Lord Harewood. Out of the three children, John showed more interest in agriculture and worked for his father on Rudding Farm. He supplemented his wages by rearing pigs. In 1883 he married Alice Mary Maud, but she did not get on well with his step-mother. They had two children, Ann and Hilda, before leaving the Rigton area to take up farming at Calverley near Leeds. John Farrar was remembered by Mr. 'Benny' Kent, of Tatefield Hall near Rudding Farm, as a 'big man, a lover of horses, and a bit of a farrier'. He died in January 1894 and was buried in Kirkby Overblow churchyard next to his first wife Caroline. Apparently Ellen bestowed most of her affection on her own child William and treated her step children rather badly. Ellen inherited John's possessions and with her son William, moved to the Stockport area of Cheshire. After his mother's death from cancer, William purchased property at Greave-fold, Bramily from Robert Booth. Here he carried on a business selling groceries and alcohol in an establishment called The Defence. William married Jennet Kent and had two daughters, Elsie who married a Westbrook and Ida who married William A Jones, a banker. The youngest daughter (Else?) died after swallowing a sixpence placed in a cake. William died in 1938, aged 72, and was buried next to his wife and daughter in St Chads cemetery, Bramily, Cheshire. Henry, John and Caroline's eldest son, who was born in 1856, was more mechanically minded than his brother John and did not take to farming, though he was described as an agricultural labourer in the 1891 census. He married Sarah Ann, the daughter of John Hardcastle, a farmer, in the Wesleyan Chapel, Harrogate on 26 December 1881. They moved about a bit and their eldest son John Henry was born at Guisley in 1882. A daughter Caroline was born the following year and another two sons, William and Charles Wallace arrived when they lived at Hungate lane, Methley. Henry's mother-in-law, Mary A Hardcastle, a 'widow having her own means' was living in the house at Methley in 1891. Later, the family moved to Temple Hirst. Eventually Henry purchased threshing machine equipment and took a house in Burn. This house had earlier been the Shoulder of Mutton inn, but according to a local newspaper report in 1910, it lost its licence because, 'the landlord had not emptied a barrel of beer that he had tapped the previous harvest.' By then another two children, Ida and Ernest had been born. Henry eventually owned three steam powered threshing machine sets and earned a living visiting local farms threshing corn, and sawing timber. In 1908, Alice J A Eylar visited England with her husband who worked for an American typewriter company. She was a granddaughter of Jonathan Farrar who emigrated to America and was determined to contact her English relations. She first contacted Henry and William Houseman at Bolton Percy, relations of Jonathan's wife Mary (née Kilby). In May 1909, the Housemans, who owned a car, drove the 200 miles to Ealing to visit Alice. They promised to drive her to Kellington when she visited Yorkshire. In August, Alice visited the Housemans at Bolton Percy. They took her to see Brumber Hill, the Kilby's farm, then to Kellington. She described Kellington church as 'the most beautiful and interesting', and she searched for her ancestors grave in the church yard. 'We searched diligently among the old grave stones and are rewarded by finding the graves of our grandfather's parents with the following inscription, which is worn that it took a long time to decipher ... Sacred in the memory of Henry Farrar late of Kellington, who departed this life in the 55th year of his age. Also on the stone was a poem: 'Afflictions
sore with patience bourne followed by: 'Elizabeth F., wife of the above who died Apr. 7, 1815 age 72 yrs.' Alice described the stone as 'like a box, 6 feet 3 inches long, 3 feet wide, and 2 feet high, and the writing on the large flat surface.' She also found the graves of her grandfather's sisters Hannah Harding with husband and Elizabeth Poskitt and husband. The print of Kellington church near the top of the previous chapter shows several tombs were like boxes, However, most of the graves now consist of flat slabs. William Houseman climbed the church tower in an attempt to find the footprint left by Jonathan, but was unable to identify it amongst the hundreds of others. They then talked to an old resident who told them the Farrar house had been torn down about 30 years earlier and the spot where it stood was then called 'The Farrar Garth'. Alice was also told that a member of the family called Jonathan was living at Snaith, and that Henry was at Burn (or Temple Hirst?) Alice wrote to Snaith but her letter was returned 'Not Known'. She also wrote to Henry saying: 'I am a member of the Farrar family of America, a grand-daughter of Jonathan Farrar formerly of Kellington'. She said how she had visited Kellington the previous summer and had been told of relations still living in the area. She mentioned that her ancestor Jonathan had returned to Kellington in 1872, two years before his death, and that 'a son of the brother was occupying the Kellington home.' Henry replied to Alice's letter and she wrote back: 'I cannot tell you how much pleasure it gave me to have a letter from you and to have found one of our relations'. She mentioned a newspaper cutting which presumably Henry had sent her. 'Your newspaper account of grandfathers family must have been in error, my grandfather Jonathan left four sons and four daughters, most of them had large families and the unusual part of the family is the fact that they hold together the family tie is a very strong one with them and very few of them are not proud to be a Farrar.' Alice had brought a copy of The Farrar Newsletter to England, used to keep the American families in contact with each other, and she planned to visit Henry later in the year. Alice was again in Bolton Percy in the Autumn of 1910, and William Houseman drove her to Burn to visit Henry. He was out when they arrived which left little time to talk on his return. From her description written later in the Farrar Newsletter, she said he was about 45 (he was then 54) and he told her that the Farrar name was the oldest on the Harwood rent roll. She also learned how Mr Hirst had bought the Kellington farm and pulled the house down to build stables. Henry talked about older relations who were still alive: 'Jonathan [an uncle] a retired draper of Hull, was living at Scholes, near Leeds. Mrs Wallace [a cousin or aunt on his grandmother's side?] at Torksey, near Lincoln. Alice decided not to contact them as they were elderly and 'feeble' and unlikely to tell her any family history. Henry also told her of his brother John and half-brother William, and that his step-mother had died only two months previously. The household goods had recently been divided. In the drawing room, Henry had an engraving of Countess Louise Harwood which had been in the Kellington home. She offered to buy it, but Henry would not sell. Alice noted other possessions in the house: 'He also had there a Grand-father's clock which had rested out of sight under a bed for 20 years and an old mahogany piano of very old pattern. There had been a Bible among the household goods which contained a page of record of the John Farrar branch we thought ... Mr Farrar new nothing further back than our great grandfather who is buried in Kellington church yard.' Apparently Henry's half-brother William had another grandfather clock from Oglethorpe Hall which Henry thought he cared little for. Alice wrote to him asking to buy it, but she appears not to have received a reply. On the way back to Bolton Percy, Alice called at Birkin and met a Poskitt cousin. His mother, who was 80 years old was there at the time and distinctly remembered Jonathan's visit to Kellington in 1872, having entertained him and his daughter Jane. Some of the Poskitts were still at Kellington, living in a new house between the village and church, and others had emigrated to New Zealand. Henry died at Burn on 28th July 1924 and was buried at Brayton Church, Selby. In his will he described himself as a 'threshing machine proprietor' and the gross value of his personal estate was estimated at ,890 9s. 1d. Sarah Ann (neé Hardcastle) died on January 15th 1934, and was then living at 11 Mayfield Terrace, Harrogate. Charles Wallace Farrar married Sarah Anne, the daughter of Fred and Mary Elizabeth Armitage (née Cross), farmers of Hemingbrough in 1913. They lived for a time at Burn and Temple Hirst. Charles Wallace operated a threshing machine for several years until an accident dislocated his shoulder and forced him to give up the work. Though handicapped, he was able to drive and became an insurance agent for the Britannica Insurance Company. After this he went into business repairing watches and clocks and selling cycle parts in a shop in Wide Street, Selby. Eventually he was forced to move into smaller premises and finally gave up the business due to ill health. Charles Wallace died in 1956 after a prolonged stay in Pontefract hospital. He was buried in Haddlesey churchyard. Sarah Ann died the following year and is buried next to him. Their son Horace, is also buried at Haddlesey. References: Family Recollections by Dorothy, daughter of Charles Wallace Farrar My parents, Charles Wallace Farrar and Sarah Annie née Armitage, were married at Hemingbrough Methodist Church on January 29th 1913. At first they lived in a cottage at Burn, next door to my grandparents house, in Holly House. I understand my eldest brother Herbert was born there. They moved to Temple Hirst, to a house near the river bank. I have been told that is were I was born in 1919. Next they moved to Hirst Courtney, to a house down a road in a field. From there I attended Hirst school where Miss Stewart was the teacher. I remember her as a stout lady who used her hand to administer punishment. After the death of my grandfather Farrar in 1924, grandma went to live with her sister Abigail who lived near Harrogate. I was about 9 years old when the family moved back to Burn to live in Holly House, the house my father's parents had lived in. It was a four square house containing four bedrooms, a sitting room and kitchen at the front, and a back kitchen and pantry. Outside were a big wash-house containing a fire copper, a pump from a well and a big tank for rainwater. Father had a threshing engine and machine and went around farms in the area threshing corn for the farmers. It was a hard life getting up early to light the fire in the engine to get steam up before the men came to work. After a day's threshing he had to move the engine etc. to another farm ready for another day; this work was usually carried out in the winter months, with dark nights and mornings. Father would come home very dirty and tired. Times were hard in those days, the farmers could not sell their corn so could not pay for the threshing, some paid in kind, potatoes or anything they had. When father was out of work he had to do any sort of job. I remember once he got a night job at the Hippodrome Picture House in Selby. He had a red uniform and looked very smart. I have been told that Holly House was once a public house called the `Shoulder of Mutton'. Burn was a small village, there was a pub called the `Wheat Sheaf' one shop, a post office in Mrs Harrand's house, a garage, blacksmith's shop (where father's brother Earnest lived) Websters' wood yard and a Methodist Chapel. There were also some farms. One farmer Mr. Makie, brought milk round in a pony and trap. Mr Stronock, a green grocer from Selby came round with fruit and vegetables. Bullocks ran a bus service to and from Selby. Father was a Methodist Local Preacher and on Sundays went to various chapels conducting services. If it was an afternoon and evening service, some member of the chapel would invite him to their home for tea. Uncle Ernest and his family lived on the opposite side of the road to us. He was also a local preacher. He also had a threshing set the same as father. Websters were the main people in the village. There were three brothers, John was the farmer, William had the wood yard and Percy had charge of the Sunday School which we attended. The highlight of the Sunday School year was the Anniversary. It was held on a Sunday in Summer and the girls had new dresses, and the boys new suits. We sat facing the congregation and sang special hymns which we had practised, and recited poems which we had learned. There was usually a special preacher to conduct the afternoon and evening services. One day in the following week we would walk round the village singing hymns, after which we were given tea in the Sunday School. Once a year the children and parents were taken on the 'Trip' (a great treat), to see the sea. We were taken on a coach to Bridlington. We played on the sands and later met at the 'Mecca Café' and were given fish and chips for tea. To earn money to spend on the trip, we went with mother pea pulling. We had a bucket or basket which we filled with peas and the farmer would weigh them and pay us about 3d a peck. Later in the year we children went to Mr. Bell's farm to pick potato harrowings. Local women would scratt potatoes during the week, the farmer would drag the land over and on Saturdays and holidays we would pick the harrowings off the land. The field at the back of our house as I remember it was a narrow, longish piece. We children spent many happy hours playing in it. There was a pond with a tree growing over it, one or another of us often fell in it. It also had a good blackberry hedge. We had an old iron bed stead end which we propped up against the hedge and picked the blackberries. Another place we played in was a field down the lane belonging to the wood yard where they stored and seasoned the wood. We children often went across the road to Uncle Ernest's and Aunt Annie's to play with their three girls, Aunt Annie made lovely chips. We spent our Saturday penny at Mrs. Smith's shop. I can remember the chocolate buns she sold. They had thick chocolate on the top and cost 1d each. We didn't seem to have many toys. Mother's brother, uncle Herbert, gave us a book at Christmas. My sister had a doll which I pulled to pieces. My father had one of the first busses to take the village people to Selby market on Mondays. It was a motor wagon with a body on the back fitted with seats. Father also had a taxi; he fetched Miss Stewart from Temple Hirst station and took her to Hirst Courtney school. Mother had a relation in Selby who had a draper's shop (Mr. and Mrs. Peircy). At spring cleaning time Mr. Peircy would come with his carpets to clean. We hung them on lines in the yard and beat them, then we would drag them upside down on the grass in the field. In return we were given some cast off clothes belonging to their daughter, Gwen. Mr. Peircy had a motor bike and side car and travelled around with samples of drapery. We attended the Church of England School at Brayton. We had to walk about one-and-a-half miles to get there and took sandwiches for our dinner. There were four classrooms. Miss Ethel Walker was the infants teacher, next Miss Hilda Walker (no relation), then Miss Dorothy Dickson, (where I finished up) and the head master's class. While I was at school a head master died (Mr. Groves). The school planted bulbs in Brayton church yard in memory of him. The vicar visited the school on Fridays. On one occasion my friend and I were playing with cigarette cards Instead of paying attention, he told us we would be playing with cigarette cards on the day of judgement. The school children walked to church on feast days. Sometimes we went to Brayton Barff for nature study. The school was on the village green where we played hockey but there was a field in the village where we went for other games. On the other side of the road from the green there was a field with a mulberry tree in it where we played at dinner time. I don't think we had a school uniform but I had a beret of which I was proud. Two girls from Burn used to tease me and one day going home from school they took my beret off me and threw it over a hedge into a field. I was terrified of these girls. I stopped the village bus and got on. I had no money and I got into trouble when I got home. Mother once had a paper round, after attending school I had to walk to Selby to meet the paper train from Leeds. There were other people waiting and a man would hand out our allocation of papers. Then I went to the market place to catch a bus to take me to Burn. I got off at Burn Bridge and delivered papers on my way home. My brother took the rest of the papers round the village. My mother's parents were very good to us in those days. They had a farm at Hemingbrough. I was sent on the bus to Selby, then on to another bus to Hemingbrough and brought back such things as eggs, bacon, butter, lard and anything they had to spare. Mother's sister made some of our clothes. In 1933, I left school at fourteen and went to work for Mother's parents on the farm. At that time mother's brother, Uncle Herbert, lived at the home, they had a daily maid, who later married uncle and went to live next door. He worked on the farm. I helped in the house and on the farm. The house consisted of three bedrooms and an attic, two front rooms, a kitchen at the back and a dairy down three steps and under the stairs. For water we had a pump outside the back door (the well was under the kitchen floor). For lighting we had oil lamps, candles and outside stable lamps. The stable was next to the kitchen, on the wall near the door was growing a plum tree, under which was a stand with a bowl on for us to wash ourselves. Next came the granary steps, above the stable was the granary. The lavatory was next under the steps. We had a two seater with buckets which granddad emptied into the fold. Next to that was the pig-sty and the wash-house with a fire copper and mangle. After that came the coal house, the farm buildings and stack yard. Apart from feeding and milking, there was no work done on Sundays. Granddad was a Sunday School superintendent and chapel trustee. The Methodist chapel was next door to the farm and we all went there. We had cows and reared calves, sold milk at the door and made butter once a week. There were hens in the stackyard and we sold eggs. A Pig was fattened for our own use. At pig killing time we made Pork pies, sausages and brawn. We rendered fat for lard and gave a fry to relatives and friends. A fry consisted of liver, kidneys and pork pieces we could not use for pies etc. When relatives and friends killed a pig we got a fry back in return. The hams and sides were salted down and later hung. Granddad had two working horses. There was also a pony and trap. In the garden were fruit trees, apples, plums, and pears. There were raspberries, gooseberries and black currents. Grandma used to take fruit and produce to Selby Market on a Monday. We got up very early to pick the fruit, rasps were weighed in pounds and put on rhubarb leaves. What we did not sell was made into jam. Anything we had to sell, eggs, chickens etc. was collected by a carrier to take to Selby. Grandma walked to Hemingbrough station (which was at Cliffe) to catch a train to Selby; the carrier would have taken the goods to Selby and grandma would sit outside the shops in the market place with the other farmers wives to sell the produce. Here is a tale told about the carrier man. He would spend his day waiting for the empties in the pub, by which time he would be in no state to be in charge of the horse. It was said that the horse took him home. Grandma reared turkeys, chickens and geese, and just before Christmas there was great activity when they were plucked and dressed ready for the table. In the fields were grown potatoes, peas, turnips as well as celery, wheat and oats. So much of the land was permanent grass where in summer the cows were taken to graze. In the winter the cows stayed in the fold. The potatoes were stored in a pie in the field, covered with straw and soil and in the spring were sorted and sold, the turnips were chopped and fed to the stock, the peas and celery were sold by Mr. Hewitt who came from Leeds and took them to Leeds Market. The wheat and oats were stored in the Dutch barn and in a round stack awaiting threshing day. I have always been connected with threshing, but this is another side of it. In the farm house, the day before threshing day we, Grandma, Aunt Maud (as she was later) and I would be busy making tea cakes (dinner plate size) and apple and curd pies ready for the men's drinkings. The next day the threshing machine driver and his mate would come in for breakfast (the machine would have come the night before). The driver would have been early to light the fire to get steam up ready for when the men arrived. About 10 am we would make a bucket full of tea (we had pint mugs which we kept for such times). The men would knock off work and have the tea, buttered tea cakes and pies. In the meantime, a joint would be in the oven getting ready for dinner. Potatoes and vegetables would also be prepared. The best dinner service would be got out, (we didn't have enough ordinary plates) neighbouring farmers came to help and as some were related they were given dinner as well. If it was a full days threshing there were afternoon drinkings as well. There would be a few hangers on, Grandma was known for good food. The farm house had an attic with a stone floor in which apples were stored. In the winter when there was not much work on the land we would have a rug on the go. This was a piece of harding or sacking stretched over a frame into which we put clips with a peg. Clips were pieces of old clothes cut into pieces about an inch wide and four inches long. Sometimes we made a pattern, depending on the colours of the clips, often with a dark border. It took a long time to cut up the clips and to make the rug. It was a dirty job too for some of the clothes we cut up were not very clean. They were hard wearing and lasted long time. We always had something to do. Grandma knitted socks on four sock needles. I stayed there about a year before, in 1934, going to work in a house in Burn belonging to Mr. Thurston who had a chemist shop in Selby. It was also a farm run by his son, Eric. It was not far from where we lived and I went daily, going home to sleep. Mr. Thurston was a widower, he had a house-keeper (Mrs. Cheeseborough). I stayed there for about eighteen months. I lost that job by falling off my brother's bicycle and breaking my elbow while on an errand for Eric. Mr. Giles had the garage, (he was also a chauffeur for Mr. Percy Webster) and he took me to Selby Hospital to have it set. It was not set right and fifty-five years later it is still bent. In about 1936, the family moved back to Temple Hirst into the house near the river. It was a small house. Two up and two down. It had an orchard which, at the bottom, the River Aire ran past. When it was in flood, water came over the bank. There was a row of cottages near us, at the end was a shop run by Mrs. France. The chapel, where we attended Sunday School services, was just down the road. Miss Elsie Denby played the organ and father and Mr. Stones were in charge of the Sunday School. When father went preaching, I sometimes went with him on a bicycle. There was a pub in Temple Hirst called the `Sloop'. Hirst Courtney was joined on to Temple Hirst and there was a post office, general store and a pub called the Royal Oak. A new school was built about 1935 at Temple Hirst and there was a station where a few trains stopped, so we were able to go to Selby, York or Doncaster by train. There were no service busses at that time, but by hiking or walking to Haddlesey we could get to Selby, York or Doncaster by bus. My family were re-housed about this time. In 1936, I went to work at Haddlesey Manor. It was a fairly large farm where men from the village came to work. The farm house was right on a corner between Haddlesey and Temple Hirst. There were five bedrooms, dining room, sitting room, two kitchens, two dairies and a large room we called the ball room. Two horsemen lived in it as well as me. There were four in the family, Mr. and Mrs. Stoker, John and Jenny. My wage was 12/6 per week which I gave to mother and she bought my clothes. I stayed there for about three years after which I went to work at the Midland Bank in Selby. I was maid for Mrs. Brooks, the manager's wife. I was then getting 15/- per week and I was allowed to keep it and buy my own clothes. Life was different in a town. The food was not as good as on a farm. I had Sunday off and Wednesday night. I saved up and bought a bicycle for £8. 2s. paying one shilling a week until I could pay it all off. Then I could go home on Sundays. I made good friends in Selby. I went to the James Street chapel where there was a club which I joined. The meetings were held in the Sunday School. In summer we often went on cycle rides. In winter there were indoor activities. I think I was there just over a year and was there when the war broke out. I lost that job through having my finger bitten by a horse. Blood poison set in and I had to have my finger nail and my toe nail removed. I was home for a while and being war time, I tried to join the WAAF. I was graded 3C owing to the blood poison in my system. I went back to grandma's at Hemingbrough in 1940 where conditions had improved. We had tap water and later electricity. Uncle Herbert was married and lived next door with aunt Maud. He still worked on the farm. There was a bus service to Selby and Hull. Soldiers were billeted in the village and food was rationed. We had ration books and clothing coupons. There was a tractor to work the threshing machine instead of a steam engine. We had a wireless by then and listened to the news, hymn singing, Twenty Questions and such programmes. I helped at Sunday School Chapel. My grandparents were very strict. I was not allowed to go to dances, so I never learned to dance. I made friends with a farmer's daughter (Kathie Dennis) whose father was strict too. We could go to the pictures and joined the Red Cross whose meetings were held at Howden. We had to walk one way as there was only a bus one way. It was five miles. We also joined the Civil Defence, as there was a few of us, we had transport. The Methodist Club at Selby was turned into a services club so I went to help to run it. We worked on a rotor system. There were airfields all round us at Burn, Riccall, Breighton and Pollington to name a few. Servicemen could come and have a snack, tea or coffee. There were games, darts, dominoes etc. It was during this time I met James W Swann, my future husband. He lived on a farm at Osgodby with his parents which I passed on my way to and from Selby. We were married at James Street Methodist Chapel on March 20th 1947. My sister Gertrude married W Broom on the same day. The winter of 1946-7 had been bad, we had a lot of snow. When it melted the rivers became very full. On the way to Temple Hirst after the wedding we went through flood water. Jim and I rented a house at Hemingbrough, we did not go away on honeymoon and went straight to the house. It was a Thursday when we were married, during Saturday night the river burst its banks at Barlby and flooded the villages in the area. Early Sunday morning Jim had to go to Osgodby to help riddle potatoes. The pie was in the field and the flood water was approaching. The farmers nearby turned out to help and a lorry stood on the road to take them away. A hay stack in the same field was lost. Many people had to be rescued by boat and lost belongings. The army came with boats to help. We moved as much as we could upstairs and watched the flood water coming nearer, but it did not reach us and we did not lose anything. Jim was able to get to Osgodby by going a long way round. The house we rented was small, 2 rooms and a pantry downstairs, and 2 rooms upstairs. We had to kneel to look out of the windows, but could look into the room downstairs through the bedroom floor. There was no running water and we had to fetch it in a bucket form the land-lady's (Miss Carr) yard. There were three cottages in the yard, the first occupied, the next was empty, and ours was the last. We had to share a bucket toilet, down the yard. It had to be emptied in the land-lady's hen run. There was a fire copper in the coal house for heating water to wash with. Rain water ran off the roof into a water butt which we used for washing. To have a bath we had a tin bath in front of the fire. The rain water was not very clear but was very soft. We bought the furniture in the house from the land-lady for £30 and paid 7/6 per week in rent. In 1947, milk was 41/2 a pint delivered to the door by friend Kathie. A large loaf of bread was also 41/2 bought from Harry Hallet's shop. Paraffin for the lamps was one shilling a gallon from the same shop. We had a wireless set which ran on accumulators which had to be charged up. My brother Herbert did that for us, taking one away and bring one back. I still went to the farm to help grandma. (Granddad died in 1946 aged 82 years). On December 23rd 1948 Carol was born. Grandma died in 1950 aged 86 years. Both funerals were very well attended, the chapel was full. They were very well known and many of the people were related one way or another. It was in November, there were many wreaths and that night we had a keen frost which spoilt them all. Uncle Herbert did not carry on with the farm, it was rented and later sold. All my grandparent's belongings were laid out in the yard and auctioned off. Before Mary was born, when Carol was small, I had a seat for her on my bike and I took her to Selby or Goole. Sometimes to Temple Hirst to see my family. Otherwise we got on a bus to Selby, changed to another for Haddlesey, and walked to Temple Hirst. Mary was born while we lived in the Main Street, April 1952. We had electricity by then. When Mary was about 21/2 I went to work for Mrs. Falkingham. She came with me while Carol was at School. In 1955, we got a Council house (No 7 Hull Road). We had been at Main Street for 8 years. Number 7 was a better house having 3 bedrooms, living room, small kitchen, pantry, and a downstairs bathroom. It had electricity and cold water. Outside was a cold house, wash house and a bucket toilet. We had to dig a hole in the garden and empty it ourselves. Later the Council emptied for us. The bath had a cold water tap and we had to light the fire copper to heat water for a hot bath and carry the water to the bathroom. We could empty the bath by its plug. There was a Yorkist Range for cooking, at the side of the fire was a small boiler with a tap on the front. We had to fill it with a bucket and it heated enough for washing up etc. but not enough for a bath. Before we left in 1970, we had hot and cold water, a new fire place with a back boiler, and a water toilet. I seemed to have spent a lot of my life at Hemingbrough, and a lot of holidays at grandma's. It is a fairly large village with a church that has a tall spire, and a Methodist chapel which we attended and I taught in the Sunday School. We had a large Sunday School, at one time there were about 50 children attending. At the Sunday School anniversary, the chapel would be full of parents and friends to hear the children sing and recite. After the Anniversary we went round the village singing hymns and then had a tea party. This took place during the week. We had a trip to the sea-side in July. I arranged the coaches sometimes too, the children travelled free, but parents had to pay. Carol and Mary were christened in the chapel and they attended Sunday School when they were old enough. We all worked hard for the Sunday School and chapel raising money to pay for prizes. We went carol singing round the village, had autumn fairs etc. and collected waste paper in the village. We stored the paper in the chapel until we had enough for a lorry to take it to Rostran's Selby paper mill. Hemingbrough had two pubs, the 'Crown' and the 'Britannia'. Cowlings had the post office. We had a fish and chip shop near us run by Mr. Driffill. Mr. Hallett had a shop too. Mr. Howden, who killed his own meat, was the butcher and there was a yard where bricks and tiles were made. Mr. Tune sold petrol, Mr. Faithwaite was the undertaker and joiner. There was a tennis club, first in granddad's paddock, then in Brick Yard Lane. A new school was built in about 1964. If we needed a doctor, we had to go to Selby. A committee was formed in the village and money was raised to buy a field for athletics, cricket, football and a children's play area. The tennis club also moved there and I was elected treasurer. The field was opposite our house in Hull Road. In 1964, the Faith Mission moved into the area. They were an interdenominational group based in Edinburgh. They had mobile hall and a caravan and two young men and ladies visited homes in the villages inviting people to their meetings. They had some good meetings and most people were kind to them, helping them with food or giving them a meal. The people we met we liked very much and followed them to other villages when they left Hemingbrough. I still keep in touch with some to them. Some have gone abroad as missionaries Jim cycled to Osgodby each day. I worked for Mrs. Falkingham for about 14 years and later for Charlie and Fred Terry. Carol and Mary attended Hemingbrough school until aged eleven, after which they went to Barlby where a new school had been built. Carol left school at 16 and went to work in the sewing room of Wetheral's Contracts. When Mary left school, she went to work at Sturge's at Selby as a laboratory assistant. We were at No 7 Hull Road for about 15 years. Jim's father had taken Millfield Farm over in 1920 when the house was built. Such farms were intended to give ex-service men a start in farming after the First World War. Jim had his name added on the agreement, so that he became half tenant at 21, and when his father died, he could occupy the farm without having to apply for tenancy. After Jim's father died in 1968, his mother moved into a hospital in York where she stayed for 9 years. She died in 1977 aged 89. It took 2 years to modernise Millfield farm house as it was in a bad state. It had three bedrooms, kitchen, scullery and pantry, coal house and a bucket toilet across the yard. It was a small holding belonging to East Yorkshire Count Council, headquarters at Beverley. They put in new windows, fire places, sink, cupboards, new floors upstairs, a back boiler behind the kitchen fire place and they took part of one bedroom to make a bathroom. Electricity was put in, an outside water toilet built and the outside of the house was repainted. The farm buildings consisted of a Dutch barn, barn with granary above, stable, half covered fold and two other buildings. There was 67 acres of land. Some grass, other arable and 16 acres privately rented. We moved in in July 1970. In the change to the Ridings, ownership passed to the North Yorkshire County Council. We had an agreement with the Council that we remained tenants for as long as we farmed the land to their satisfaction and paid the rent twice a year, April and October. The landlord repaired the house and buildings. If we wanted to improve anything we could pay for it ourselves, with their approval, or they would do it and put the cost on the rent forever. If we paid for it ourselves, it became the Council's after so many years. We had to give 12 months notice to leave. On the farm we grew wheat which we took to Rank's flour mill in Selby. Barley partly sold and partly fed to the cattle which we kept in the fold. Oats we grew for cattle food. We had a mill in the barn for crushing grain. Potatoes were grown for sale, they were stored in a pie at the end of the field until spring when they were sorted and sold keeping the small one for sets for next year. We grew sugar beet under contract to the British Sugar Co. who provided the seed (which we had to pay for). Jim took the beet to the Selby factory (until it was closed) by tractor and trailer. When it closed we had to employ a lorry to take it to York. We could not take it without a permit and we had permits which were dated. We also grew mangles and turnips for cattle food. The mangles were stored like potatoes until the turnips were all used up, these were left in the land and pulled as needed. They were chopped and fed to the cattle mixed with sugar beet pulp. This was the pulp left after the sugar had been taken out of the beet. It was mixed with molasses and sold back to the farmer. The pulp was dry and we had to soak it in water and feed it to the cattle mixed with rolled oats, barley, turnips and mangles. We cut grass for hay which was stored under the Dutch barn. Some was fed to the cattle and the surplus sold off in the spring. The bullocks in the fold yard were usually bought as stores from York cattle market, kept in the grass after it had been cut for hay, and brought in the fold in Autumn to be fattened over the winter. They went to Selby fatstock market when they were fat enough. We also had a few hens running around to keep us in eggs. Carol married Christopher Swift at Barlby Methodist Chapel on 22 May 1971. They bought a house in Osgodby, then in Barlby, then Thorpe Willowby and at present at Cliffe Common. Emily Louise was born on September 12th 1979. Mary married Ian Smith at Barlby on September 7th 1974. Kelly Jayne was born on 28th May 1977, Kimberly Anne 18th September 1979. Mary and Ian went to live at Cliffe. In 1982, after twelve years on the farm, Jim and I retired and bought and renovated a railway cottage, No 1 Baxter Lane. We have an acre of land, half of which is farmed by a farmer, the rest are lawns and flower and vegetable gardens. Jim died in October 1985. |
