Act 16

Return to the Vale of York

The story of the part of the family who returned to Yearsley and the Ampleforth area, south of the North York Moors and close to the family’s original ancestral home.

Farndales of Yearsley Podcast

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Ancestral Dilemma

The fourth and last family Hub settled around Yearsley, south of Ampleforth in about 1786. Yearsley is only about ten kilometres from Kirkdale and within the agricultural lands of Kirkdaleland, where the Farndale Story began. So this part of the family, which grew to become a sizeable part of the modern family, returned to their homelands.

It was Elias Farndale II (1755 to 1831) who settled in the lands around Yearsley. He was the son of Elias Farndale I (1733 to 1783) who married Elizabeth Raper of Topcliffe in Thirsk on 28 February 1754 and then lived in Thirsk. I have not been able to find a record of his birth, so I cannot be sure of his ancestry, which at first seems to leave this important section of the Farndales, with a gap in their ancestry.

Since the Ampleforth Line of Farndales emerged in the early eighteenth century in a region so close to the original family lands, it is tempting to deduce that this was a family who never left the Vale of York and were linked to our medieval history by unknown families who had continued to live in this area. However although we struggle with a birth record for Elias Farndale I, there are good parish records from the mid sixteenth century and it is obvious that by the end of the sixteenth century, the footprint of the family appeared almost entirely in Cleveland for two hundred years until the early eighteenth century. For that reason, it seems far more likely that this family moved back to the Vale of York, and before their arrival in Thirsk and then the Yearsley area, they had shared the family history with those who had settled in Cleveland.

Given the individuals who might have been candidates to have been parents of Elias Farndale I, it seems most probable that Elias Farndale I’s parents were William and Mary Farndale of Liverton and Brotton who were at Stainton near Middlesbrough in about 1725. It therefore seems most likely that the Ampleforth Line of Farndales trace their ancestry back through the Brotton 1 Line, who we met in Act 12 Scene 2.

Scene 1 – Return to the homelands

Elias Farndale I (1733 to 1783) married Elizabeth Raper (1732 to 1776) of Topcliffe, at Thirsk, on 28 February 1754.

They had a son, Elias Farndale II, who was baptised in Thirsk on 16 July 1755.

Elizabeth Farndale died in 1777 at the age of 45 and was buried in Brotherton, near Pontefract. Elias Farndale I died in 1783.

Elias Farndale II married Dorothy Heseltine (1757 to 1840), daughter of Geoff Heseltine on 14 June 1785 at Ampleforth, when Elias was about 30. Their first child, Ann Farndale, was born at Ampleforth in 1786.

By 1788 the family had moved to Windgate Farm, where William Farndale (1788 to 1871) was born.

Although there is a Wildon Hill Farm, about two kilometres west of Coxwold, this must be a reference to a farm in Yearsley. Windyridge Farm at Yearsley, is close to a Bronze Age barrow. There is also a property called Windygates near the High Lions Lodge, so it is possible that this was the location of the farm.

Elias was a farmer there. Yearsley fell within the parish of Coxwold.

Yearsley

The home from the early eighteenth century of a large section of our family

Windridge Farm

Some time later, in 1835, an Edward Ewbank was seeking to prove his entitlement to land and he gave evidence that the Ewbank land extended to a boundary with the ground of Elisha Farndale in Yearsley by a small stream. Mr Edward Ewbank, of Gilling, proved that his grandfather formerly rented the Gilling Warren, and that his jurisdiction extended over the lands now occupied by the appellants. He remembered a stone, having G on one side and Y on the other, which was put down 26 years ago, in the place of an older one, and which, along with some others cover formed the boundary between the parishes. William Heseltine, 66 years of age, was born at Gilling, and had lived there for all his life, his father had a warren under Lord Fairfax, on whose estate there were three; he had received information from his father respecting the boundaries; they were also separated from Elisha Farndale by a small stream of water; his ground was in Yearsley, and the witness’s in Gilling. John Trousdale, aged 68, had known Gilling 52 years last Martinmas, and knew the enclosures of the appellants; he had cut turf there for the rector of Gilling; had never heard of the perambulation 38 years since, by the Yearsley people. John Rymer, who had known Gilling 39 years; and John Clark, who had lived with the rector of Gilling, 53 years ago, corroborated the account of the former witnesses.

Yearsley

William Farndale (1788 to 1871) moved to Bishop Wilton, twenty kilometres east of York, and we will return to his family soon.

Elias Farndale II and Dorothy had two more children, Jethro Farndale (1790 to 1882) and Elias Farndale III (1793 to 1861), both baptised in Ampleforth. Elias and Dorothy’s family were the Ampleforth Line.

Jethro Farndale (1790 to 1882) married Alice Clarke at the parish church in Coxwold on 29 July 1822 and by 1824, when their son William Farndale was baptised at Coxwold, Jethro was a farmer at Yearsley. Jethro and Alice also had five other children, all baptised at Coxwold, John, Mary, Elias, Alice and Elizabeth Farndale. By 1841 Jethro had moved to Coxwold where he worked as an agricultural labourer and he continued to pick up agricultural work at Coxwold until about 1880.

Coxwold Parish Church Coxwold

John Farndale moved to Easingwold, a large town about seven kilometres southwest of Yearsley by 1841 at the age of 14 to live with the Sivers family who was a shoe maker and took him on an apprentice. In time, he became a cordwainer. A cordwainer was a shoemaker who made new shoes from new leather. The cordwainer's trade was distinguished from the cobbler's trade, according to a tradition in Britain that restricted cobblers to repairing shoes. Over time the term cobbler has become widely used for folk who both make or repair shoes.

In 1856 John Farndale married Sarah Ann Brittain in Leeds and they set up home in Bramley near Leeds, and we will meet them again in Act 19.

Alice Farndale married William Simpson who was a farmer in Coxwold in 1866.

Elizabeth Farndale died at Easingwold in 1855, when she was only 21. Jethro’s wife, Alice died at Easingwold in 1880. Jethro then seems to have lived in retirement at Coxwold from an annuity and he died, also at Easingwold, in 1892.

Jethro and Alice Farndale’s granddaughter, Annie Farndale married Thomas Horner and lived with her grandparents for a while. The Horners then moved back to Windygate Farm at Yearsley where Thomas worked as an agricultural labourer, and they had a family of seven Horners.

Elias Farndale III (1793 to 1861) married Jane (who came from Rosedale) in about 1815 and they had six children. William, George, Ann, Elias were all baptised at Coxwold. The family then moved to Bishop Wilton where John and possibly Dorothy were born. Elias worked as an agricultural labourer at Bishop Wilton.

William Farndale moved to Birdsall in the Parish of Wharram-le-street, south of Malton, by 1841, where he worked as an agricultural labourer and on 24 November 1843 he married Ann Wilson of nearby Settringham. They settled in a cottage in Settringham, and they had a daughter Ann.

George Farndale also headed Malton way and became a farm labourer there by 1841 when he married Mary Milner. He settled in Westgate in Old Malton which is immediately north of Malton itself. They had a daughter, Mary Ann, and George died of typhus fever on 4 February 1844. Mary Ann died when she was only 17.

Elias Farndale moved south to Thearne, just north of Hull and married a lass of Thearne called Mary Ann Carling. Their wedding was in nearby Beverley on 26 November 1846. They then moved to Sculcoates which is now part of the City of Hull and Elias worked as a farm labourer there. Elias and Mary had four daughters, Mary Jane, Fanny, Martha and Emma who all settled in Sculcoates. Martha was the subject of evidence in the divorce proceedings of Arthur James better known as Arthur Dacre, a well known actor who later murdered his wife, as he had been violent to Martha during an opium influenced incident in about 1883. Martha had suffered bruising.

So the Ampleforth family became refocused on the area around Malton, northeast of York, particularly at Settringham, Bishop Wilton, Huttons Ambo and later Kirkham Abbey.

We next turn to those who settled at Bishop Wilton.

Scene 2 – Bishop Wilton and Aberford

William Farndale (1788 to 1871), born in at Wingate Farm, Yearsley, married Margaret and in 1822, they had their first child, another William Farndale (1822 to 1899), at Bishop Wilton, fifteen kilometres to the east of York. They had five other children also born in Bishop Wilton, Elizabeth, Sarah, Robert, Leonard and probably another Elias. The older William worked as a farm labourer in Bishop Wilton and was a widower by 1861, aged 73, but was still working then. He may also have been a market gardener. He died at Pocklington, southeast of York and only five kilometres south of Bishop Wilton, in 1871 at the age of 82.

The younger William Farndale (1822 to 1899) married Mary Leppington of Pocklington by 1846. He continued to rent a dwelling house which was situated on the north side of the town of Bishop Wilton aforesaid; also the excellent garden, immediately behind the said dwelling houses, and containing half an acre, more or less. William and Mary had thirteen children, Ann, John, Thomas, Mark, Margaret, George, Mary, Fred, Alice and Minnie. There was another John, George and Thomas who might have been part of this family, but as they share Christian names, this needs further checking. William Farndale was a shepherd and he won the first prize for shepherding at the Wetherby Agricultural Show in 1863. The family seems to have moved to Aberford near Tadcaster by about that time and then to Barwick in Elmet by 1881, when William continued to work as a shepherd. He was a widower and retired shepherd by 1891 and died in 1899 living in Aberford. So by 1863, the family had moved to Aberford and Berwick in Elmet, two small villages close to and east of Leeds.

John Farndale became a worsted spinner at Clayton in Bradford and we will pick up his story in Act 19. Thomas Farndale married Mary Hannah Weighill and became a cattleman at Colton, further into the environs of modern Leeds. Thomas and Mary had two children, Ethel, a dressmaker in Hunslet, Leeds and George Weighill Farndale, an infantryman in the first world war who was killed in action at Arras during the Third Battle of the Scarpe. Mark Farndale was a gas stoker in Barmet in Elmet and later a handyman at Potterton Hall who lived until 1944 when he was 88. Margaret Farndale was a lodgekeeper in Aberford.

George Farndale went to Londonderry in Ireland in 1900, where he married Millie before returning to Black Fen Lodge and South Lodge at Bramham near Wetherby where he worked as a farm labourer. George and Millie had two children.

George and Millie’s eldest son was (William) James Farndale (1900 to 1953) who was born in Ireland and joined the West Yorkshire Regiment in World War 1. He was five feet and 2 inches tall, with brown hair, a fresh complexion and hazel eyes with moderate flat feet. He was a market gardener and later worked for the Lane Fox family at Bramham Park.

Bramham Park

Bramham Park is an eighteenth century country house between Leeds and Wetherby. The house, constructed of limestone with stone slate roofs in a classical style, is built to a linear plan with a main range linked by colonnades to flanking pavilions. The house is surrounded by two hundred hectares of landscaped park with a series of follies and avenues laid out in the eighteenth century landscape tradition, surrounded by five hundred hectares of arable farmland. The Baroque mansion was built in 1698 for Robert Benson, 1st Baron Bingley. Following a serious fire in 1828 the Bramham Park house was then left empty and derelict for eighty years until it was restored for George Lane-Fox in about 1908, about a decade before James Farndale was working there. George Lane-Fox became 1st Baron Bingley when the title was recreated in 1933.

James Farndale worked in the Lane Fox gardens and was later referred to as an estate gardener. He married Annie Thompson in 1933, but they didn’t have children.

George and Millie’s daughter was Margaret Annie Farndale and she lived with George and Minnie at Bramham Park, where she was a housekeeper, and later married Ernest Smith, a gardener in Bradford.

There was a John W Farndale (1875 to 1963) who was part of this family who became a horseman on a farm at Aberford. He married Annie Eliza Thompson in 1898 and later Jane E Wade in 1911. He had two families through his two marriages, the Wetherby 1 Line and they made a home at Boston Spa, near Wetherby. John later worked as a domestic gardener for Lord Allerton at the Firs, Wetherby. When the smithy at Boston Spa caught fire in 1952, the fire destroyed the village blacksmith shop of Mr J W Harker, at Walton, near Boston Spa, at dawn today. A van and equipment also were burnt out. Mr Harker was aroused by Mrs Farndale who is in her 70s, and her daughter, Eileen. With neighbours he attacked the fire with buckets of water until firemen arrived from Tadcaster. John’s son Arthur Farndale was a patrol man on the LNER railway. His daughter by Annie called Lillie Farndale died in a tragic accident in Leeds. On 7 April 1933, Accidental Death was the verdict at a Leeds inquest today on Lily Farndale, 23, domestic servant in the employ of Mrs Saffer, of Lidgett Lane, Moortown, who died from toxaemia following burns. The girl’s father, John William Farndale, of Walton Boston Spa, said his daughter told him she was in the kitchen at Mrs Saffer’s, playing with Mrs Saffer’s 6 year old son, when a ball thrown by the boy, and which she caught, caused her to overbalance onto the fire. Mrs Saffer said she heard Farndale screamed, and saw her in flames. She helped to extinguish the flames. John’s son by Jane, Norman Farndale became a farm horseman at Wetherby and another called John Farndale became a bus conductor in York.

There was also a George Farndale (1877 to 1954), part of this family who worked as a farm labourer at Aberford before he worked as a farm labourer, and later a general and state labourer in Lancashire. George married Mary Agnes Graham in 1906, and their daughter Gladys Farndale (1907 to 1996) was a cotton weaver at the commercial mill at Great Harwood in Lancashire by the age of 13 in 1921. In 1933, she was part of the cast of a comedy performed by the Orchard Street Players, Oh Susannah!

One of the younger sons of William Farndale (1822 to 1899) and Mary was Alfred Leperton Farndale, known as Fred. By the age of 15, Fred Farndale was working as a pony driver at an underground pit at Aberford. He died at the age of 17 and was buried at Aberford on 13 July 1901. He was working at Garforth, southwest of Aberford, which was a coal mine. The record of Garforth Colliery by the Durham Mining Museum shows that on 11 July 1901, Farndale, A, aged 17, a driver, was run over by a set of tubs when travelling out bye on engine plane. Tried to save his pony.

William and Margaret Farndale also had a son Robert Farndale (1832 to 1877) who was baptised in Bishop Wilton on 17 June 1832. Robert left Cleveland for London where he settled in Putney as a gardener. He later became a carpenter and lived at Providence Cottage, Cooper’s Arms Lane, Putney. He died of epilepsy on 21 December 1877, aged only 45.

The Cooper’s Arms, Putney

His son Robert Farndale (c1850 to c 1888) married Caroline Lester in Putney on 16 August 1869 and he worked as a joiner. Robert and Caroline had three daughters, Annie, Edith and Theresa, but Robert died in about 1888 when he was only about 44. His widow, Caroline then worked as a laundress in Putney. Annie was a domestic cook, Edith a housemaid, and Theresa a domestic help.

Scene 3 – Huttons Ambo

In Medieval times Huttons Ambo consisted of three settlements, Hutton Bardolf, Hutton Colswayn and Hutton Mynchon, which gradually evolved into the current two villages, High Hutton and Low Hutton. Ambo is Latin for both, so Huttons Ambo means Both Huttons.

Jethro and Alice Farndale’s son William Farndale (1824 to 1910) married Bessy Langdale on 24 July 1847 and William initially worked as an agricultural labourer living in the Langdale household at Barton-le-Street, near Malton. By 1861, he was a licensed hawker at nearby Appleton-le-Street, where his family lived in a cottage which was part of a 93 acre farm. The costermonger or hawker was someone who sold his wares by crying them out in the street. By contrast, pedlars travelled the countryside with their wares. The coming of the railway provided a fast and economical way to deliver merchandise throughout the country and largely ended the travelling pedlars by the latter part of the nineteenth century but costermongers and hawkers continued to trade.

William and Bessy Farndale had a large family of thirteen children, John, William, James, Mary, Elizabeth, James, George, Robert, Annie, Jane, Thomas, Charles and Alice.

In about 1864 the family moved to Huttons Ambo. In the late nineteenth century, like eighteenth century Kilton, Huttons Ambo must have been a small rural hamlet, crawling with Farndales. By 1866 William was working as both a hawker and a letter carrier, and he later became the post master of Huttons Ambo.

The second son, William Farndale (1849 to 1927) was a footman when he married Jane Gale at Bedale on 8 February 1870. William and Jane had their own family of seven, the Stockton 3 Line. In about 1881, the family moved to Stockton, where William became a car man and later a boilersmith labourer. Their son William Farndale moved to Norwich, and we will meet him in Act 20. Their son, James Farndale worked in an iron foundry and for a time in steam engine works in Stockton. In 1909 James Farndale became a brother of the Order of Druids Friendly Society and later joined their committee, during which time a resolution was unanimously passed condemning the State Insurance Bill in its entirety, the meeting pledging themselves to use their upmost legitimate powers towards its repression. The State Insurance scheme was discussed in Parliament in August 1914 and related to the introduction of National Insurance, originally a scheme for health insurance for industrial workers. James joined the Royal Field Artillery in the First World War. Their son Tom Farndale became a general and fitter’s labourer and machine helper whose children included Wilf Farndale who was an aircraft engineer who later emigrated to New Zealand.

William and Bessy Farndale’s sixth child was James Farndale (1857 to 1921) who worked for a farmer of 270 acres at Hinderley Farm near Malton by the age of thirteen, but settled with his family in Huttons Ambo, where he took work as a gardener. He married Elizabeth Shepherdson in Huttons Ambo on 7 June 1890, and they had ten children, Mary, John, Blanche, George, James, Beatrice, Thomas, Charles, Julia and Liby. James was still working as a gardener, ‘jobbing’, at the age of 53, but was invalided by 1921 when he was 63. Their children were all brought up in Huttons Ambo. Their elder daughter, Mary, was a domestic servant there and she had four children out of marriage, one of whom James Neville Farndale, emigrated to Australia. John was a farm wagoner in Huttons Ambo, who became a driver in the Royal Field Artillery in the First World War. Charles was a stable boy and groom in Huttons Ambo who served in the Royal Tank Corps in the 1920s. Julia moved to Hampshire where she was house parlourmaid in the family of Captain Brian Williams of the Life Guards before she married Cornelius Sykes in Paddington in 1946.

William and Bessy Farndale’s seventh child was George Farndale (1859 to 1931) who became a footman at 34 Belgrave Square in London before he returned to Kirkham, where he was postman. Their eight son, Robert Farndale (1863 to 1933) was a butler in Wales including to the Piercy family at Marchwiel House near Wrexham.

Thomas Farndale was the eleventh child of William and Bessy Farndale. Thomas worked on farms by the age of 15 and by the age of 17 in 1883, a farmer of Ganton Wold Farm near Pickering claimed £1 compensation from him when he ran away on 7 January 1883 after he could not settle. He married Sarah Pugh of Stockton on 5 December 1889 and he worked on farms near Stokesley and later was a stocksman at Witterby Gardens, Headlam, between Darlington and Barnard Castle. He had a family of six, Thomas, Annie, Robert, James, Sarah and Clara, who eventually settled around Thornaby in Middlesbrough.

Alice Farndale married John McLean of Malton in 1890, where they settled, and they had four children, Elizabeth, John, Henry and Edward who all took the Farndale name, although a fifth, Alfred McLean took the paternal name.

In 1886 Alice and her father William were witnesses to a tragedy when a mother and her child were killed in the local river at Huttons Ambo. In case of what appears to be a deliberate murder and suicide occurred at the village of Huttons Ambo, near Malton, on Thursday morning, and has caused the greatest excitement in this usually quiet neighbourhood. It seems that for about two years past there had lived in the village a Mrs Harriet Stillborn, widow of the late Mr Charles Stillborn, whose family were highly respectable farmers in the district. Mrs Stillborn, who was 40 years of age, was left with two children, a girl and the boy, on the death of her husband about two years ago, and she has since maintained the family by keeping a little grocery shop in Low Hutton. Of late, it is stated, she has not acted very rationally. On Thursday morning, just after half past eight o’clock, she was seen by Miss Alice Farndale, a young lady resident in the village, to take her two children by the hands and go across the fields in the direction of the River Derwent, which flows very near her house. Miss Farndale states that the children were screaming at the time, and seemed very reluctant to accompany their mother. Fearing, therefore, that something was wrong, Miss Farndale ran to tell her father, who immediately followed Mrs Stillborn, and was greatly alarmed to see the children and Mrs Stillborn floating down the river. Springing onto the overhanging branch of a tree, Mr Farndale succeeded in getting hold of the youngest child, Arthur Ernest Stillborn, aged 4 ½ years, whom he had once dragged out. Meanwhile two men, named Thomas Baker and Thomas Dickinson, had seen the action of the unfortunate woman from the other side of the river, and they ran down and tried to get the bodies of the mother and daughter out of the water. The river, being somewhat rough and “wavy”, as well as running rapidly, on account of the “fresh”, carried both bodies nearly a quarter of a mile, down to a place called Laysike, and both were got out before they sank. Of course the greatest excitement prevailed for some time, but whilst Mr Farndale ran up to his house with the body of the little boy, those on the bank did the best they could to restore animation in the mother and daughter, who were laid by the river side. Dr W T Colby, of Malton, was immediately telegraphed for, and the bodies of Mrs Stillborn and the child who were carried to an empty cottage near her own residence. The little lad meanwhile was seized with convulsions, and had several fits, but his rescuers continued their efforts to restore him, and in this they fortunately succeeded, as the poor little fellow about two hours after he was taken out of the water had quite recovered consciousness. Dr Cobly, with Sergeant Watson, of Malton, arrived on the scene shortly before eleven o’clock, and at once set about to resuscitate Mrs Stillborn and the other child, both of whose bodies were warm, but the efforts of both himself and assistants were entirely useless. Dr Colby was of the opinion that Mrs Stillborn had died partly from the shock and partly from the drowning. The child Annie Stillborn, who was thus deprived of life, was a fine, bright, healthy girl of nine years of age, whilst the mother did not appear to be of strong physique.

By this time William Farndale had become the post master of Huttons Ambo.

Scene 4 – Kirkham Abbey

George Farndale (1859 to 1931), after serving as a footman at 34 Belgrave Square in London, returned to the vicinity of Huttons Ambo in the mid 1880s and settled in Kirkham, just across the River Derwent, where he became the postman. In 1888 he married Eliza Warters of Scrayingham, which is between Malton and York. In May 1895, when conveying letters from Kirkham Abbey to Birdsall, George Farndale was thrown from his horse and dislocated his shoulder. On Friday a rural postman, named Farndale, who conveys the letters from Kirkham at Abbey to Birdsall etc, was thrown from his horse and had his shoulder dislocated. Dr Colby, Malton, attended to the injury.

George and Eliza Farndale had four children, Lily, Ethel, William and Florence. In August 1902, Ethel Farndale, whose conduct had been most praiseworthy in the Sunday School, and Ada Johnson, who had achieved the same distinction in the day school, were crowned with chaplets of beautiful roses in the school yard at Westow, near Kirkham Abbey, by Mrs Speck, wife of the vicar of Langtoft. Songs and exercises, which reflected much credit upon the head mistress, Mrs Fisher, and her assistants, formed part of the proceedings. Ethel became a book keeper in York and later a butcher’s clerk. Lily also moved to York, where she was a dressmaker by 1911. William Farndale also moved to York by 1911 where he became a gardener. He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps in the First World War and was later an insurance agent with the Prudential. Florence also joined her siblings in York, where she became a clerk to chemists at Collingate. William’s daughter, Denise Farndale emigrated to USA and became a US citizen.

Scene 5 – Back to Cleveland again – Thornaby, Middlesbrough

Thomas Farndale (1866 to 1935) had married Sarah Pugh of Stockton on 5 December 1889 and he worked on farms near Stokesley and later was a stocksman at Witterby Gardens, Headlam, Barnard Castle. They had a family of six, Thomas, Annie, Robert, James, Sarah and Clara, and after a life working around Stokesley and Barnard Castle, the family settled around Thornaby in Middlesbrough.

Thomas Farndale Sarah Hannah Pugh

Robert Farndale (1893 to 1975) married Violet Wood in Middlesbrough and Robert worked for the heavy industrial firm, Head Wrightson and Co, at Thornaby on Tees, which made large industrial products, which often needed special transport to move them to site. The firm made bridges including Fulham Railway Bridge and Barnes Railway Bridge in the late nineteenth century and during the early twentieth century rearmament, they also built naval landing craft. Robert and Violet had two daughters, Violet and Miriam.

Robert Farndale

James Farndale (1895 to 1977) worked in animal husbandry and served with animals in both world wars. He served in Egypt in 1915. He married Mary Fairburn in 1920 and was a cartman in Thornaby working for a carting contractor, I D Harrison. James and Mary Farndale had nine children, James, Rubina, George, Frederick, Clifford, Lillian, Keith, Rosalie and Harold. James ran a business in the 1960s, James Farndale and Sons Limited. Rubina and Rosalie were both nurses and Rubina worked on the hospital ward at the Eston Hospital. Frederick lived in New Zealand for a while. Clifford emigrated to Australia and his family were the Australia 2 Line. Keith Farndale married Doreen Delmer and had a large family, the Thornaby Line. Harold married Sandra Hampton and they settled in Stockton.

James Farndale

Four Family Hubs

This large section of the family, the Ampleforth Line, who thus settled around Yearsley in the late eighteenth century, soon spread across the Vale of York to a cluster around Malton and another east of Leeds, with the Thornaby family moving back to Cleveland.

We have now met the four hubs of the family, into which the small family emerging around Kirkleatham and Wilton from the sixteenth century, had grown. We have met the Kilton family who dominated that small village for two and a half centuries. We have met the family of Brotton and Loftus who spread across Cleveland often in transition from rural to urban opportunities, sometimes struggling and often becoming influential players in the new towns they settled in. We have met the mariners of Whitby, and their adventures at sea. In this Act, we have met the family who chose to return to the ancestral medieval homelands, probably unaware that they were doing so, who themselves spread widely across the Vale of York and some returned to Cleveland.

From these four hubs, the family would encounter the challenges of industrial change, the adventures of travel across the lands of a new empire, and the realities of twentieth century warfare.

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