The Story of Church View Cottage

A Brief and Partial History of Church View Cottage, Middlesmoor, its Owners and some of its Occupiers.

This history comes from the bundle of documents, indentures and deeds that go with the present cottage.  The older ones are all on parchment in a variety of handwriting and are beautiful and tantalising objects.  Other information comes from gravestones in the Churchyard:  Ruth, Henry and John did an inventory of the stones on the upper levels as part of a GCSE project in about 1987.  Yet more information comes from Julia and Constance’s memories, the 1901 Census and other webby sources.  Some late additions come from Dinah Lee’s excellent book about Middlesmoor (2006) and some notes she kindly sent us in January 2007.

1609

The earliest record we have is reference to a 3,000-year lease established in 1609 by the Manor of Ramsgill or Netherdale (Nidderdale is called Netherdale on some old maps), first referred to in a document of 1786. It relates to the whole parcel of land consisting what is now Dale Head and Church View cottages, together with the land on which Church Cottage (the Lockerbies’) now stands.

1766

The first deed that we have relating to the property is a probate of a John Beck’s will dated 11 March 1766.  ‘... I give to my dear and loving wife Mary Beck my dwelling house with all its appurtenances thereto belonging together with two cattlegates up on Middlesmoor Inmoor and I also give my said wife Mary Beck all my household goods horses beasts goods and cattle and chattels of every kind and all that God has blessed us with in this world ...’  So John Beck was a man of property and lived on the site, possibly in some part of the structure that is now Church View and Dale Head cottages.  There is then a gap in the record for 19 years.

Dinah Lee tells us that John Beck appears in an old record book dating from the late 1700s as Overseer of the Poor, so he was clearly a respected member of the community. An entry for 1766 lists various payments by him to locals for such things as peat, ‘father’s board’ and burial; and thatching (not much thatch around now).

1785

In 1785 the property passed from John Firth of Middlesmoor, gentleman, to Joseph Summersale of Dacre with Bewerley, butcher.  ‘All that messuage and dwellinghouse and tenement with the brewhouse stables outbuildings yard garth and gardens thereunto ... adjoining the church yard on the south side ...’

1786

A year later, in 1786, it passed from Joseph Summersale to Richard Ryder of North Side Head (now Stephen Ramsden’s farm) for the remainder of a 3,000 year term starting in 1609 for £56/9s.  The property was described as ‘... Dwellinghouse messuage or tenement, gardens hereditaments and premises ...’  The indenture describes the rent of 5/- per year to be paid ... ‘unto the Chief Lord of the Free(sic) of the same premises’ .

1817

In 1817 Richard Ryder elder passed it on to his son Richard Ryder younger, innkeeper.  ‘... all those four messuages dwellinghouses or tenements with the gardens outhouses and premises thereunto adjoining ... also three sheep gaits and pasturage for three sheep and the right and privilege of cutting turf upon a moor or common called Rigs Moor ... and also a pew or seat in the gallery of the chapel of Middlesmoor ...’  for a sum of £120 plus the duty ... ‘yielding yearly and each year unto the Chief Lord of the Fee(sic) thereof the rent of 5/-‘ ...

The one dwellinghouse became four at some time between 1786 and 1817: Richard Ryder elder extended and/or subdivided it and apparently lived there until at least 1817. The property is described in the 1817 indenture as being occupied by Richard Ryder elder, James Walker and Ann Reynard.  Was the fourth cottage unoccupied or occupied jointly by one of the three?   

Richard Ryder younger is buried in the churchyard.  Born 1771, died 19 October 1854 aged 83 years.  Married Judith, born 1775, died 20 November 1839 aged 64 years.  One son buried in same grave: William, born 1811, died 8 November 1877 aged 66 years.  He evidently took over the property from his father at the age of 46.  As an innkeeper did he maintain the brewhouse that was part of the property in 1785?  Or was he the innkeeper at the present Crown, or the King’s Head, in the building that is next up the hill to the Chapel?

1855

After his death (in 1854) it passed in 1855 (the next indenture) from Richard Ryder, late of Middlesmoor, yeoman, to his four children: William, of Middlesmoor, grocer; John, of Aiskew nr Bedale, labourer (signed with an X); Ellen, married to Thomas Rayner of Lofthouse, farmer; and Jane, married to Thomas Busfield of Thorns House nr Bainbridge.  Richard Ryder’s personal estate was ... ‘wholly inadequate to his debts’.  His appointed executor, William Foster, sold and assigned the property to Francis Brown of Middlesmoor, joiner, for £163. The property was described as ‘... four leasehold cottages situate in the village of Middlesmoor with the outbuildings and garden on the north side of the church yard and three sheepgaits on the West Moor or Peat Moor belonging thereto and also a pew or seat in the gallery of the chapel of Middlesmoor ...’

(3 names underlined above are 3 of only 7 electors in Pateley Bridge, 1835 who lived in Middlesmoor.  2 others were another Thomas Rayner, and a Busfield – Jonathon.  The 2 who don’t figure in the history of this land are Miles Verity and Simon Horner.)

The 1855 conveyance names William Ryder, grocer (as above, son of Richard, born 1811); James Harrison; Thomas Lambert; Metcalf Beckwith as (... heretofore ...) tenants before1855.  Their names are presumably given in order to help identify the property concerned.  Current tenants in 1855 were George Simpson; James Harrison (again, or still); Thomas Metcalf, with one vacant. 

In the graveyard James Harrison, formerly of Middlesmoor, died at Syke on 17 Sept 1870 aged 61. Wife Ellen died “at Moscow” (presumably Ayrshire not former USSR) 1902 aged 78; children: Mary died aged 8, 7 October 1845; Thomas, died 16 March1878 aged 30.

Francis Brown (born 1805) died 1 March 1858 aged 53 (his grave is in the Churchyard) and his wife Jane (born 1813, died 1890), to whom he left everything (so long as she remained a widow) died on 30 June 1890 aged 77, (same gravestone), still a widow.  Under the terms of Francis’ will the property then passed, …‘equally share and share alike’ ... to their five surviving children, or their successors.  The five were Elizabeth (who married Thomas Pratt), Thomas, Margaret, Francis and Richard (named in that order). Margaret, incidentally, married Henry Storey 5 March 1867, and died 29 July 1874 aged 37, same gravestone as her parents, together with 2 other brothers, Richard and Rayner, who both died in infancy.

1891

The executors of Francis’ will (Matthew Verity, Thomas Lawson and others on behalf of the 5 Browns) sold the property to Thomas Pratt, farrier, of 43 Blossomgate, Ripon (whose wife was Elizabeth nee Brown (married women were not allowed to own property until 1882 – so at this date it would still have been unusual) for £230 in November 1891: ‘... all those four messuages or cottages situate in Middlesmoor aforesaid with the outbuildings belonging thereto and the garden on the north side of the churchyard with two messuages or cottages erected thereon and also three sheepgaits on the West Moor or peat moor belonging thereto and also a pew or seat in the gallery of the chapel of Middlesmoor and which said cottages were then in the occupation of Thomas Brown and others.’  Who those ‘others’ were, is not revealed.  

So Thomas Pratt (and Elizabeth) bought out the interest of Elizabeth’s four sibs who each received one fifth of the £230.  Thomas Brown, the only one of the 5 siblings described as ‘of Middlesmoor’, may have stayed on as a tenant of his big sister in one of the cottages.  Dinah Lee makes two references to Thos. Brown, joiner, having his workshop in what is now the front garden of Church Cottage, and doing some work on the Church (for £10.13.6d) at the beginning of the nineteen hundreds.

It also seems to be the case that Francis Brown built what is now Church Cottage, as two cottages, at some time between 1855 and 1891.  The 1853/6 First Edition OS map at 1:10,560 (6”:1 mile) shows the Churchview group as they are but with a building or group of buildings facing them across the lane and no building where Church Cottage now sits. The buildings were possibly the remains of the old brewhouse and stables.  They would have blocked off the light and view from Churchview – so no ‘Churchview’ then – and would have made them much less desirable.  Francis Brown did us a great favour by pulling them down and building the new cottages to the east.

We found the Pratts in the 1901 Census, living at 12 College Road, Ripon: Thomas Pratt, age 71, retired ‘black shoeing smith’; Elizabeth, wife, age 67; Jane Ann, daughter, age 30.

1907

Thomas Pratt’s will (he is described as a JP, of 12 College Road Ripon), is dated 6 February 1907. It appointed his daughter, Jane Ann Pratt and Francis Brown of Thornaby on Tees (perhaps Jane’s uncle, Elizabeth’s brother, the brother-in-law to Thomas Pratt?) as executors of his will.  Thomas Pratt died on 10 July 1909.  Francis Brown jnr. died in Thornaby on Tees on Christmas Day 1929.

So from 1909 the property was effectively owned by Jane Ann Pratt who continued to live in her parents’ house in Ripon.

The 1909 edition of the OS (at 1:2,500) shows the buildings more or less as they are now.  The Churchview group is shown as four units; Church Cottage is shown as two units with a small outbuilding on the eastern side; the garden of Church Cottage is shown divided with a separate building at the western end next to the Churchyard (Thos. Brown’s joinery shop).  Jonty’s house is marked as an Inn.

Next we have a Compensation Agreement dated 9 July 1935 between John Todd and John Arthur Edison, who represent the Manor of Ramsgill or Netherdale, and Jane Ann Pratt, of 12 College Road Ripon, Spinster, the ‘... owner of the land parcel of the said Manor ...’.  This agreement, under the Law of Property Act 1922, was to compensate for the ‘... extinguishment of the Manorial incidents saved by Part V of that Act affecting all those cottages and premises situate at Middlesmoor ... and all other (if any) of the property of the said Jane Pratt situate in and parcel of the said Manor ...’ for ‘... £1/4/9d with interest thereon payable half yearly at the rate of £5/10 per centum per annum from the date thereof until paid.’

There is also a receipt dated 9 July 1935 of £5 paid by Jane Pratt for the redemption of the leasehold rent of 5/- per annum to the above John Todd of Mill Hill, Brompton, Northallerton.

1939

Property searches in 1952 noted that Demolition Orders under the Housing Act 1936 were passed by Harrogate County Court and served on the cottages on 25 February 1939.  We don’t have copies of the Orders so we don’t know in what ways they were unfit.  At one stage all six cottages shared a privy to the east of Church Cottage, with a water tap in the wall opposite Church View.  The plan sketched by JST in 1952 shows a WC in the present position in No4 and one in the front left hand corner (viewed from outside) of the No3 bedroom but no bathroom in either cottage.  There was a sink in each kitchen and presumably a tin bath for Sunday treats.  The general level of facilities and condition must have been pretty poor to attract the Order and it may be that Jane Pratt put toilets and a water tap into each cottage as a result of the 1939 Order.  She probably spent as little as possible on the cottages over the 50 years or so she was in charge of them, but then she probably got very little rent and was unable to afford any other improvements.

Dinah Lee, who moved into the village in 1939, remembers that No.1 was … “occupied by two German prisoners of war who worked on the farms.  They painted colourful murals on the bedroom walls (one being the tree of life) and made wooden toys.  Later cottages 1 & 2 were occupied by evacuee families from London, who stayed some time.  One of them, Miss Cameron, eventually married a local shepherd, William Joy and went to live at Armathwaite.  Her son John still has links with the area. At one time No.3 was occupied by a Mrs Sykes, whose son was drowned in the sewerage at the bottom of Church Bank.  No.4 was occupied by George Verity and his wife.  I am not sure about the dates for these. Reg Lee and Mr and Mrs Harker would live in Nos. 1&2 about 1948. 

Mrs. Bell lived in No.4 with her two sons after the death of her husband, Nelson Bell, licensee of the Crown Hotel.

From 1954 – 1959 No.3/4 was rented by Mrs Nora Bradley. She and her husband had the Crown Hotel at Lofthouse, but he died before they could move in.

I have no recollection of anyone using the outside water tap in the wall opposite or the toilets behind Church Cottage.  I think probably water and indoor toilets would be put into the property in the late 1930s – this seems to have been the case with other property.”

1952

On 14 March 1952 Jane Ann Pratt appointed James Edward Brown of Dewsbury, retired furnisher (son of Richard Brown, see below) and James Francis Mountain of 8 College Road, Ripon (neighbour) as additional trustees of her father’s will.  She died two weeks later on 30 March 1952 aged 81.  This is the point at which J Tennant bought part of the property from the executors.

We found James Brown and his family in the 1901 Census in 1 Lacy Street, Dewsbury.  The family consisted of father Richard, aged 55, born Middlesmoor, own account house furnisher / shopkeeper (he was the younger brother of Elizabeth Pratt, Jane Ann’s mother); his wife Anne, aged 55, born Dalton, Yorks; sister Lucy, aged 17; James, aged 15; and Mary Middleton, aged 38, servant, born Rawmarsh, Yorks.  So James was Jane’s cousin and would have been 66 in 1952. Perhaps James was a/the beneficiary as well as an executor? Note that both Richard Brown and Francis Brown jnr. are described as furniture dealers in 1891)

Searches in August 1952 said that the four cottages were in the occupation of Messrs Lee, Harker, Kirkbride and Bell.  Reg Lee, see above; Mrs Mary Bell, later of Church Cottage.

According to the 1952 property search three of the cottages had been ‘requisitioned’ by the Ripon and Pateley RDC.  This may refer to the period when Nos. 1&2 were used first by POWs and then by evacuees.  In answer to a question in the search about operative Development Plans, compulsory acquisition, road improvements etc. likely to affect the property it said that a Planning Scheme was in the process of preparation.  Did this involve demolition of the houses? Middlesmoor Bypass?

A later reference says that the Orders were served on 25 May and 28 November 1946 (why two dates? don’t know) ‘in exercise of powers delegated by the Minister of Health under and by virtue of Regulation 51 of the Defence Regulations 1939’.   Presumably because they were considered unfit for human habitation.  They continued in habitation for another six years.

John Tennant bought the four cottages (1-4 Churchview Cottages) on 28 August 1952. The assignment was between the executors JE Brown and JF Mountain (solicitor’s managing clerk), and JST (lecturer) for the residue of the 3,000 years for £165.  This purchase included the three sheep gaits on the West Moor or Peat Moor and the pew or seat in the chapel gallery.  It also included the right of way past the ... ‘Vendor’s neighbouring property’. Since the vendors here are the executors of Thomas Pratt (Jane-Ann Pratt)’s will, the implication is that the beneficiary of this will may have retained ownership of the Church Cottage pair, perhaps to be bought and improved by Mr and Mrs Bell.

JST then sold 1&2 to a Mrs Bellingham of Harrogate (October 1952) and they separately carried out the necessary improvements to meet the requirements of the Demolition Orders.  The works on 3&4 were carried out in 1953 by Edgar Foxton & Sons of Bewerley.  He blocked up the front door of 3, made internal doorways between the (now) kitchen and sitting room, and the bathroom and back bedroom; put in the bath, basin, cylinder and immersion heater; made the fireplace in the sitting room; put in the range in the kitchen; concreted the floors etc., for £300.

JST, in his 60s, personally excavated the earth from the back of the cottage in an attempt to cure the damp.

There is a letter from the Inland Revenue, District Valuer, dated 24 April 1953, headed ‘The Compensation (Defence) Act 1939’ saying that a provisional settlement had been reached with JST for £86.7.6d for No.3 and £10.7.6d for No.4. A note in JST’s hand says he accepted on 25/4/53.  It seems that this amount was paid to him – in compensation for we know not what, as he’d only just bought the property.  Perhaps this was an early form of grant for refurbishment – JST paid £300 for necessary works to bring the cottages up to a reasonable standard and was paid £96.15 by the Council.

So JST paid £165 for the four cottages, sold 2 – we don’t know for how much (perhaps £80?), and then received a compensation payment related to his two, of  £96 15s, which, after the £300 he spent on refurbishment,  left him with net costs of about £290.

A letter from Ripon and Pateley Bridge Rural District Council dated 29 July 1954 confirms that the Harrogate County Court quashed the Demolition Orders on 23 July 1954.

From 1954 to 1959 the cottage was rented to Nora Bradley (see Dinah Lee’s notes above). Julia and Constance Tennant stayed with her for a few days b&b after cycling from Harrogate in about 1955.

It was rented (briefly) in 1959 to Mr J Nichol of Midlothian for £40 a year.  The lease was then transferred to a teacher/Bradford HMI and his family (living in Leeds), Jean and Bill (Alfred) Curry who were tenants from 1960 to August 1972, just before JST died in October 1972.

1974

The cottage then passed to JST’s three daughters, Julia, Constance and Ruth (officially in 1974: the solicitor was inordinately slow) and stayed in joint ownership for about ten years.  Ruth (and Henry) Brown bought out the other sisters in October 1984: Connie, living only 40 mins away, never made much use of the cottage, and Julia’s family had by then (temporarily) out-grown its use.

Henry was granted a 50-year full-repairing etc. lease on the cottage by Ruth in March 1989.  After her death in November 1989 it formally passed to JCB under her will, but with HB as sitting tenant for £1 per year rent until 2039.

The Sheepgaits

John Tennant apparently wrote to Ramsden’s agent in 1954 asking if the estate would like to pay rent for the three sheepgaits.  He got a fairly cool response saying that they were not recognised: he (the agent) met the Gaitholders annually and hadn’t met any that were not there.  JT pointed out that this did not mean that the right did not exist, quoted the several indentures quoted above and asked could he keep his bees there please.  There is no record of further correspondence.  There is, however, an agreement dated January 1957 with John Liddle of Ivy House Farm, Middlesmoor to rent the three sheepgaits for 7/6d per year.  We’ve no idea whether this rent was ever paid: it certainly hasn’t been paid in the last 30 years and we’ve no intention of collecting it.

The gallery in the chapel was demolished when the chapel/church was improved / rebuilt in 1866.  We presumably still have a right to levitate at the back of the church.

Summary of Occupation

The original property boundary was defined in 1609 as the subject of the 3,000-year lease by the Manor of Ramsgill or Netherdale and consisted of the land now occupied by our four/two cottages together with the land across the lane occupied by Church Cottage and its garden.  Up to 1786 there was one dwellinghouse on the site together with its outhouses (privy etc) and brewhouse and stables. 

At some time between 1786 and 1817 Richard Ryder elder converted and extended the one house into four cottages with their ‘facilities’ in the outhouses across the lane, but continued to live in one of them.  Definitely a down-market move: the end of single owner-occupation.  He passed the cottages on to his son, Richard Ryder younger, in 1817, who continue to rent them out until his death in 1854.  One of his sons, Thomas, was a tenant in 1855.  It was a time of intensive mining activity in the valley and perhaps the other cottages were let to miners’ families.  But the venture was clearly not very profitable for he died with debts that could only be paid by selling the cottages. 

Francis Brown bought the four cottages in 1855 on the death of Richard Ryder.   He knocked down the old buildings across the lane that must have blocked the view and the light and built the two cottages that are now Church Cottage, with a joinery shop for Thomas Brown (his son) on the western side.  The whole property then stayed in the same family for nearly 100 years.  It passed from Francis Brown, to his wife Jane (1858), to their daughter Elizabeth and son-in-law Thomas Pratt (1891); and to their daughter Jane Ann Pratt in 1907.  The cottages were condemned as unfit for human habitation in 1939 but nevertheless carried on being lived-in until 1952.  On Jane’s death (1952) they were sold out of the family to JST, who promptly sold Nos1 &2 to a lady from Harrogate and renovated Nos3&4 into Churchview Cottage. The cottage was rented to Norah Bradley until 1959, then to the Currys until 1972, when the three Tennant sisters took over.

Origins?

Some part of our cottage may have been in existence in 1609 when the original 3,000-year lease was drawn up and was perhaps extended or modified in the great building boom of the late 1600s.  But there may well have been a dwelling on the site going back to when Middlesmoor was first developed as an upland grange of Byland Abbey.

The abbey was founded in 1134 by the Savigny order, an off-shoot of the Benedictines, which was absorbed into the Cistercian order in 1147. The abbey was finally built on its present site in 1177.  Mowbray, the owner of upper Nidderdale, granted Byland a large chunk of Nidderdale, which had officially been derelict since Normans wasted it, in 1143.  The monks started to build their granges etc. after a new agreement in 1172 when Mowbray was short of cash. Middlesmoor was one such grange and may have had a chapel, or it may have acquired the chapel in 1484 when the records show that a chapel/church was authorised for burials..  The abbey was surrendered to the authorities organising the dissolution in 1538.

Some detective work could be done on the various discontinuities in the masonry of the cottage.  The fabric of the cottages was obviously added-to and renovated at various times. The masonry of No4 is less well dressed and coursed than that of No3 and the line where it has been ‘toothed in’ is obvious, suggesting that No4 was a later addition.  The masonry of No2 seems to merge seamlessly with No3 and they both, unlike No4, have projecting sills.  There are differences in the masonry of No1 and No2 that suggest differences in age and there are surviving quoins in the junction of No1 and No2 that suggest No1 is older.  The rear lean-to parts of No2 and No3 also merge together including the shared window to the stair.  This would imply three stages of construction.  Maybe Richard Ryder had two goes at extension in the 30 years he was in charge.  The main windows were probably ‘Georgianised’ with sash windows replacing ‘Yorkshire sashes’ or mullioned casements (you can see the remains of mullion seatings on the sill of the front bedroom of No.4, but this may have been a salvaged sill from another building).  This could have happened when Richard Ryder, elder, did his works (most likely?), or when Francis Brown owned the property between 1855 and 1891 and when Church Cottage(s) were built.  The window surrounds of No2 and No3 Churchview are very similar to those of Church Cottage and the same mason could have done both. A photo in Dinah Lee’s book shows 2x6-pane vertical sashes in all the front windows.

Since 1952

When Ruth first remembered seeing our bit of the building it was still two cottages.  No.3 was empty but Mrs Mary Bell was living in the end one with hens running around the earth ground floor.  She subsequently moved into (and possibly improved) Church Cottage (the Lockerbie cottage) and lived there (brewing amazing potions from anything that grew in the garden) until she left in1976? to live near her son in Selby.  Connie claims that she measured 4’6” in any direction. 

When the Currys left in 1972 we bought a lot of their furniture including the round table, the Grandfather clock, the amazing mallard teapot, and many toys including the train set and building blocks: they were retiring to another part of the country and had no further need of the stuff.

After the Currys left, the family and others progressively renovated the cottage.  Willy and myself spent a very dirty weekend ripping out the entire lath and plaster ceilings upstairs, and nailing up plasterboard.  Connie organised the replastering of the ground floor and upstairs ceilings, and the rewiring.  The timbers were treated, a chemical damp-proof course was injected, layers of old wallpaper were stripped and replaced with woodchip, and a vinyl floor was laid in the kitchen.  From then on both Brown and Jary holidays in the 1970s included repairs and redecorations, but the major redecoration and improvement works were carried out by Ruth and Henry during the 1980s.  The wallpaper we had put on all the upstairs walls in the 1970s was taken off (that which hadn’t fallen off by gravity assisted by chronic damp) and the limed walls were rubbed-down, stabilised and emulsioned.  The upstairs floors of No.4 were sanded and sealed.  Large quantities of glass fibre insulation were stuffed into the roofspace.  The windows were stripped and painted (it felt like) several times.  Two rotten casements were replaced.  Several of our visitors have also helped to repel the ravages of time and make subtle improvements. Friends of the Jarys provided the living room carpet.

We had the roof repaired and re-covered in 1973 by a builder who had done some work for us in Preston, which turned out to be mistake.  He bodged the job and by 1984 the inside wall of the boys’ bedroom resembled a waterfall when it rained.  The roof was re-done in 1984 by H W Baines from Ripon who knew about stone roofs and replaced all the slates with stock from the same quarry.  He said that it would last 80 years.

Ruth bought out her sisters in 1988 and left the cottage to John in her will with HB as sitting tenant during his lifetime or for 50 years from 1989.

The back garden has been a long battle.  Couch grass invaded everything we planted. Heather (and Jeremy) Rowlatt from next door tamed it for several years after Joan Ruth died (about 1993??) until they moved away in 2000, but the couch grass is returning.

When Henry and Mary married in 1991 the Illeman family’s oak chair and chest of drawers, and a newer bed were among the additions.  And in 2003 on the death of HB’s parents, many things from 24 Moor Drive Leeds found their way up the dale, notably the “mouseman” Thompson of Kilburn coffee table, the footstool, rug, and of course, books.

The latest round of building works started in 2002.  David Crighton from Northallerton stabilised the gable end with stainless steel and epoxy resin, and repointed it with lime mortar (it was in a dangerous state of decay).  He relaid the front flags to be dustbin-wagon-proof, and fixed the gutters.  Skipton Glass put in new UPVC double-glazed windows throughout.  David Crighton dry-lined the inside of the gable wall in January 2003.

In November/December 2008 we had new vinyl flooring laid in the kitchen and living room; we had kitchen units and a new sink installed in the kitchen; the wiring was rationalised into new fuse boxes; all the wiring was checked and new points installed in the kitchen (in a fit of zeal the electrician also installed smoke alarms – quite over the top); the electrician installed new storage heaters; and Dave Gomersall from next door, as well as supervising all the works, removed the old fireplace in the living room and installed a stove. 

From the summer of 2020 (the Covid-19 summer) John, Julie Max & Felix Brown made visits to the cottage as regularly as we could and embarked on a major programme of decoration and refurbishment. Dan Curston & family were also regulars who provided expert maintenance skills.

In the spring of 2026 Henry formally handed over the running of the cottage to John and we, in conjunction with Dan Curston, decided on a set of improvements and upgrades to the cottage. These included the installation of a log burner in the kitchen, replacing the old cast iron cooking range which had been out of commission for decades. Yorkshire Stoves & Fires opened up the cavity behind the range, revealing an interesting mix of traditional stone and brickwork around the hearth. The flue was lined, the existing cavity boarded in and Yorkshire stone flags were laid as the hearth, and a log burner installed … during a week when temperatures reached 30C in Nidderdale.

H&M July 2003

Updated December 2008

JB update June 2026