JOURNAL 2000 | North Craven Heritage Trust |
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The general impression gained from walking the paths and tracks north of
High Birkwith farm today would probably be that of desolation. Up to the latter
years of the nineteenth century, however, the situation was quite different.
Old Ing and Nether Lodge are the only occupied
buildings between High Birkwith farm and
Gearstones and the land in between seems to consist
of low-potential pasture and moorland, interspersed
with the occasional improved meadowland. In the
nineteenth century the area in question formed a discrete
estate made up of four farms, collectively known
as Netherlodge Estate.
The earliest mention of the estate that I have
come across dates from the 1791 Enclosure Award for
Selside and Shaw Park which refers to ‘an Estate called
Netherlodge’. One person to benefit from that award
was Christopher Bateson, described as a yeoman and
resident at the time in Selside.
In 1821 a detailed, scale plan (Figure 1 is a copy)
was drawn up by one Richard Clapham of
‘Christopher Bateson's Estate at Nether Lodge’.* At
the time the estate only consisted of 61 acres though it
did include 295 sheep gaits** and 24 beast gaits on the
surrounding unenclosed moorland pastures of Carrs,
Cammside and Cow Close. The precise location on
the plan of the house at Nether Lodge suggests that it
is the now ruinous structure just to the west of the
present house, described in 1887 as newly built.
A second plan exists, dated 1851 (Figure 2). James
Greenwood of Gisburn was commissioned to survey
and map what had become a much more extensive
estate. Greenwood was paid at the rate of 8d. an acre,
receiving £18.6s.8d. in total, which means the estate
now extended over 550 acres. Four farms made up the
estate (Figure 3), namely Nether Lodge, Syke, Ling
Gill and Dry Lade, which now belonged jointly to
James William Farrer (1785-1863) and Oliver (1786-
1866), his brother, of Clapham. During the first half
of the last century they avidly bought up land in
upper Ribblesdale (Figure 4) from various landowners.
By 1841, however, both Dry Lade and Ling Gill
were seemingly unoccupied and abandoned. The
1841 census returns make no mention of these farms,
not even listing them as unoccupied and there is no
mention of them in any subsequent census return.
Howson, writing in 1850, described Old Ing as the
‘second farmhouse’ on the road from Ling Gill bridge
to Horton, Syke being the first. Dry Lade is thus not
mentioned. In 1841 Syke was occupied by John
Haygarth, aged 70 and described as a farmer,though
he is shown on the 1821 map as occupying land at
Dry Lade. The evidence would suggest that Syke and
Dry Lade were being worked as one unit by 1841.
Fig 4 - Remains of outflow ditch from The Mill Dam
By the 1851 census Haygarth had gone and
Thomas Milton was living at Syke. In the Estate
Rental Book there is an entry for 1834 that William
Milton (Thomas's father) was paying rent for Ling
Gill farm; in the 1851 census William occupied
Nether Lodge; while transfer of ownership of Syke
and Dry Lade farms in 1852 was from the Miltons to
the Farrers. The Miltons were clearly far more than
struggling subsistence farmers, especially given the
joint sale price of the two farms (Figure 4). These facts
would further indicate that all three farms were being
worked as one, despite keeping their separate identity
on the 1851 map.
Ten years later Syke was occupied by Jeffrey
Milton,Thomas's brother, while Nether Lodge was
split between two families. In 1871 both Nether
Lodge and Syke were worked by members of the
Lambert family: Francis junior, aged 25, lived at Syke
with Francis senior, aged 52, farming Nether Lodge.
The Lamberts, incidentally, had earlier farmed both
Camm and Thorns. In subsequent censuses Syke disappears
from the record so it had obviously been
abandoned in the 1870s and subsumed within Nether
Lodge farm.
Perusal of the parish register transcripts, from
1617 to 1835, reveals that at all four farms there was
frequent change of occupance, if not ownership. At
Syke six families occur between 1729 and 1871; at
Ling Gill ten names crop up between 1653 and 1834;
at Dry Lade four between 1745 and 1835; and at
Nether Lodge seven between 1736 and 1871. So much
for the supposed demographic stability in the Dales in
days gone by!
The estate remained in the Farrer family until
death duties necessitated its being sold off in 1951-52.
Ruins of the three abandoned farm houses can still be
seen from rights of way. Dry Lade is marked on current
Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 maps as Dry Lathe
(Grid reference SD 8018 7786). A barn still stands
and remains of the house form a rectangular mound
between the barn and Cam Road. The small enclosure,
marked A on Figure 2, was the vegetable garden
for this farm. The home paddocks and gardens of
Syke farm are shown on the Ordnance Survey map as
pecked lines, and the site of the house and adjoining
shippons and barns (SD 8040 7874) are clearly visible
from the path from Ling Gill to Greenfield. The
extensive ruins of Ling Gill farm (SD 7979 7854) are
visible from the path from Ling Gill bridge along
Scald Bank to Nether Lodge, a path that skirts the hay
meadows of Ling Gill farm.
*The spelling of Nether Lodge used in this article
follows that used in documents consulted.
** Gait or gate refers to the right to pasture sheep
or cattle on common pasture land so 295 sheep gaits
would allow a specified farmer to graze 295 sheep on a
specified common.
Figure 4
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Land Purchases in Upper Ribblesdale by the Farrers of
Clapham
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Farm | Purchase Date
|
Purchase Price
| Purchase From
|
---|
Camm | 1815 | £1968 | C. Tennant
| 1819 | £2600 | James Jackson
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| Gearstones farm & inn | 1817 | £1750 | Lister trustees
| 1846 | £2100 | Francis Whalley
| New Close fields | 1830 | £288 | Lister & Milton
| Ling Gill | 1815 | £1050 | Town
| 1821 | £475 | Atkinson
| Thorns | 1824 | £1000 | James Lister
| Netherlodge | 1830 | £1935 | Elizabeth Bateson
| 1852 | £1800 | R. Chapman
| Syke | 8152 | £2150 | Milton
| Dry Lade | 1852
|
References
Farrer, Dr J A. 1998. Personal communication.
Howson, W. 1850. An Illustrated Guide to the Curiosities of
Craven. London: Whittaker, and Settle: Wildman.
Ingleborough Estate Field Book 1873.
NYCRO ZTW III/MIC 1726/3/1.
Ingleborough Estate List of Farms 1887.
NYCRO ZTW III/MIC 1726/4/13.
Ingleborough Estate rentals 1834-1888.
NYCRO ZTW III/MIC 1726/6.
Map of an Estate comprising the several farms of Netherlodge,
Syke, Ling Gill and Dry Lade the Property of James William
and Oliver Farrer.
NYCRO ZTW XI/MIC 2234/54-59.
Pedigrees of the County Families of Yorkshire, compiled by
Joseph Foster: West Riding 1874.
NYCRO ZTW/MIC 2827.
A Plan of Christopher Bateson’s Estate at Nether Lodge 1821.
NYCRO ZTW XI/MIC 2234/3/46-48.
Figure 3
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Netherlodge Estate in 1851
| Farm | Acreage | Beast Gaits Held*
|
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Netherlodge | 91 | 159
| Dry Lade 88 |
| Syke | 310 | 16
| Ling Gill | 59 | 58
| * on Carrs, Camm End and Cow Close
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