Act 22

Great Ayton

The story of three large families who lived in Great Ayton

The Great Ayton Podcast This is a new experiment. Using Google’s Notebook LM, listen to an AI powered podcast summarising this page. This should only be treated as an introduction, and the AI generation sometimes gets the nuance a bit wrong. There are a some instances in this podcast where there are mistakes about the exact relationships and an overlap of generations. However it does provide an introduction to the themes of this page, which are dealt with in more depth below. Listen to the podcast for an overview, but it doesn’t replace the text below, which provides the accurate historical record.

The Wheelwright The craft of the wheelwright.

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Scene 1 - The Seventeenth Century Great Ayton Family

George Farndale was born into the Skelton 1 Line and baptised on 3 October 1624, the son of William and Jane Farndale. George married Meriall Young in about 1653. It is likely that Meriall came from Great Ayton and that is where they married. Philip Farndale, who was born in about 1650, was probably their eldest son and he had a daughter Elizabeth Farndale who was baptised in Great Ayton on 28 February 1675. Their second son was William Farndale who was baptised in Skelton in about 1654, so they were still living at Skelton in the mid 1650s. William later married Mary Bennyson of Great Ayton on 27 September 1678 and they had a daughter, Elizabeth Farndale who was born there.

George and Meriall’s third child was their daughter, Elizabeth Farndale, who was born in about 1655. It seems likely that by about this time the family had moved to Great Ayton. Elizabeth later married Thomas Taylor of Great Ayton in 1675. George and Meriall’s fourth child Else Farndale was born in about 1656. Richard Farndale was born in about 1657, George Farndale in about 1658 and Meriall Farndale in about 1659.

It is not clear what occupation George pursued in Great Ayton, but a will was proved on 18 February 1679 of George Young, who was the older Meriall’s nephew. He left 10s to his cousin, Meriall Farndale the younger and another 10s each to Meriall and Alice who were her daughters. He also gave a share to George Farndale, who was an apprentice with James Peacocke, in a ship called the James Peacocke.

It seems likely that the family had some interest in the maritime trade which was thriving in Whitby, and perhaps they were involved in joinery, taking on some maritime related work.

This was the first line of the family, the Great Ayton 1 Line, who settled in Great Ayton in the seventeenth century.

The more substantial association of the family with Great Ayton came in the nineteenth century, when two twin brothers, both born into the large extended Farndale family of Kilton, sons of Samuel and Elizabeth Farndale of Kilton, moved to Great Ayton.

Scene 2 - The Cartwright’s Family

Joseph Farndale (1795 to 1877), the son of Samuel and Elizabeth Farndale of Kilton was baptised at Brotton on 25 October 1795. On 10 April 1817 Joseph married Mary Hill at Great Ayton. By that time they were both of Great Ayton, so Joseph had moved to that parish.

Their son Richard Farndale was born on 15 February 1818 and registered in the Parish records of Nunthorpe, now southern Middlesbrough, and about ten kilometres north of Great Ayton. Richard died at birth. John Farndale was born 20 November 1819; Ann Farndale on 4 November 1821; Elizabeth Farndale on 12 October 1823; and a second Richard Farndale on 31 July 1825. Joseph was recorded as a cartwright at the time of his son Richard’s birth in 1825 and when Richard was married in 1850. Nunthorpe at that time was a village and part of the parish of which Great Ayton was a part, rather than part of Middlesbrough as it now is. It seems likely that the family lived in Nunthorpe until 1832, as that is where the children were born until that date, but moved into Great Ayton itself by the end of 1834, when Jane was born there. Joseph apprenticed as a cartwright and later took his own cartwright business to Great Ayton itself. Joseph Farndale was born on 21 October 1827; William Farndale on 28 November 1830; Thomas Farndale on 21 April 1832; Jane Farndale on 25 December 1834; and Mary Farndale on 12 March 1837. This was the Great Ayton 2 Line of the family.

Land tenure, 1847 Tithe Map showing land held by Joseph Farndale

So Joseph and Mary Farndale had a large family of ten, though their eldest Richard had died at birth. The family were living in Great Ayton, where Joseph was working as a cartwright in 1841 and 1851. It seems that as a cartwright, Joseph also had woodland in his possession, which he presumably used to supply his own cartwright business, but which operated itself as a substantial timber supply business. He sold 2,120 oak trees along with ash and other timber to timber merchants in 1851.

By 1861, Joseph and Mary, by then 66 and 68 respectively, were living at Top Garth in Great Ayton with Joseph’s older brother, William Farndale, who had also worked as a wheelwright and cartwright, though at Pinchthorpe near Guisborough, but had reached the age of 84. By this time Joseph was working as a joiner. By 1871, Joseph and Mary had moved to Main Street at Great Ayton and by then 77, Joseph had retired as a joiner.

Mary died on 28 February 1874 at the age of 81. Joseph died three years later on 20 April 1877, aged 88.

Great Ayton The history of Great Ayton

Joseph Farndale 1795 to 1877 The father of a large Great Ayton family, who was a cartwright

The Second Generation

John Farndale (1819 to 1862) was also working as a cartwright, perhaps with his father, by the age of 20 in 1841. By 1845 he moved to New Shildon near Bishop Auckland where he married Ann Thompson Bainbridge, the daughter of a shoemaker. They had five daughters and they settled in Bishop Auckland, where John worked as a joiner. When he died on 1 September 1862, an obituary appeared in the Methodist Recorder. John Farndale, son of Joseph and Mary Farndale, was born at Nunthorpe, near Ayton, in Yorkshire, and died at New Shildon, Darlington Circuit, September 1st 1862, aged forty three years, His parents were moral and his mother has for a number of years been connected with the Wesleyan Society. About eighteen years ago he removed to New Shildon, and began occasionally to attend the chapel, but did not become decidedly religious until about four years ago, when there was a gracious revival. For some time he was under heavy conviction, and could not find any rest for his soul, until one day when at work alone, he realised a sense of sin forgiven, and was made happy in God. He immediately joined our society, and remained a steady, consistent, and devoted Christian up to the time of his death. He was a teacher in our Sabbath school, and laboured with much earnestness in our prayer meetings. He was emphatically a man of prayer, not only in his closet, but he regularly conducted family worship, reading his Bible and praying with and for his family. About three years ago the diseased which terminated in his death commenced, but in all his affliction he was resigned to the will of God. He was frequently visited by the friends who generally found him with a Bible or Testament near him. Repeating such passages as the following, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.” “our light affliction, which are but for a moment,” etc. and “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” In the last struggle he was more than conqueror; death to him had lost its sting. He exclaimed in triumph, “Glory be to God! Glory be to God!” About half an hour before he died, he called his children to him and told them to love Jesus, and be good to their mother, and then he softly fell asleep in Jesus.

Ann Farndale (1821 to 1889) married Thomas Knaggs on Christmas Day 1847 at Great Ayton. She was a dressmaker at the time of her wedding and Thomas was a widower, and another cartwright. By 1851, Thomas was a master cartwright, employing three men in Westgate, Guisborough. By 1861, still living at Three Fiddles Yard in Westgate, Thomas had become a broaching machine manufacturer. Broaching can be traced back to the early 1850s, with the first applications used for cutting keyways in pulleys and gears. He later reverted to his trade as a cartwright.

Elizabeth Farndale (1823 to 1848) married a tailor called William Rigg in Great Ayton in 1847, but she died the following year aged only 24.

Richard Farndale (1825 to 1915) worked for a farmer at Little Busby south of Stokesley by the age of 18 and married Esther Thwaites in Stokesley in 1850. They had three sons and a daughter, all born in Great Ayton. Richard continued to work as an agricultural labourer until about 1881 by which time, at the age of 55, he was working as a cartwright. Esther died at the age of 68 in 1893. Richard was retired by 1901 and lived to the age of 90 in 1915.

Joseph Farndale (1827 to 1895) also became a cartwright in Westgate, Guisborough by the age of 25 in 1851. He was unmarried and lodging with the Wilkinson family. On 10 May 1856, then a joiner, he married Margaret Robson at the Parish Church at Great Ayton. They had a very large family, though many of their children died at birth or in infancy. The family moved to Middlesbrough by 1861, but by 1863, Joseph seems to have moved backwards and forwards between the Lake District and Middlesbrough. The family appear to have moved to Ulverstone, and then permanently to Barrow-in-Furness between 1871 to 1873 and Joseph became a contractor builder there. He died in 1895. We will explore his family of Barrow in Furness and later Newcastle in Act 30.

William Farndale (1830 to 1915) was also an unmarried apprentice cartwright in Westgate, Guisborough by the age of 20, in 1851. He was apprenticed to his brother in law, Thomas Knaggs. William married a blacksmith’s daughter, Susannah Rodham, on 15 November 1855. By 1861 he was back at Top Garth in Great Ayton, a joiner employing three men in his business. By 1871 he was a master joiner with two apprentices. In 1876 he recovered £5 in costs in damages from a nineteen year old clerk who had shot his dog. In action to recover the sum of £10, the value of a dog which was alleged to have been wantonly shot at great taken, on the 6th of march last, was heard before Mr E R Turner, Judge, at Stokesley County Court on Friday. The case, which was tried by a jury, excited to considerable interest, and the court was crowded during the hearing of the suit. The plaintiff, for whom Mr Dale, of York, appeared, was William Farndale, a joiner, living at Great Ayton and the defendant was Thomas Hogg, a clerk, 19 years of age, residing at Nunthorpe, who was represented by Mr Fawcett, of Stockton. The shooting of the dog was admitted. The dog was described as a black and tan retrieve are, and a quiet, docile, and harmless creature, much thought of by the plaintiff and everyone who knew it. It was six years old, and had never shown any symptoms of rabies. On the night of the 6th ult, it accompanied its master to the Buck Hotel, where it remained an hour and a half, being patted and fondled in the meanwhile by several persons in the house and it was alleged that on its way home by itself, it was deliberately shot and had its head nearly blown from its body. The defence was that the dog had shown it ferocity on the road, which left no doubt in the minds of several persons that it was mad. It attacked to Mr Hauxwell, who, however, was fortunate enough to get out of the way, and it fell into a ditch by the roadside, where it lay frothing at the mouth, and attempting to bite everything near it. This led to the defendant, after a short consultation with several persons standing around, to borrow a gun from Mr Hauxwell, and shoot the poor animal. A number of witnesses were examined on both sides. A veterinary surgeon, who examined the body of the dog, found no symptoms of rabies. His Honour held that no one had a right to shoot a dog, even supposing it was mad, unless it was necessary to do so to protect themselves. In the present case he thought the dog had been shot unwarrantably, and he recommended the jury to return a verdict for the plaintiff, but not for the amount claimed. The jury, after deliberating for some minutes, returned a verdict for the plaintiff for £5 and costs, to be paid at 8s per month. William’s wife, Susannah Farndale died on 23 September 1876 at the age of 47, and her gravestone is in Great Ayton churchyard.

In 1878, William, a 46 year old widower, married 27 year old Mary Jackson who was a local farmer’s daughter. They had a daughter and three sons, though their eldest son died at birth. William was still working as a joiner in the High Street, Great Ayton in 1901 and later also took on building work, but he had retired by 1911 when he lived at Hazel House in Great Ayton, a property with five rooms. William died on 15 April 1915 and left an estate worth £1,380 10s 4d.

Thomas Farndale (1832 to 1915) was working for a farmer at Bramhill Farm, Ormseby by 1851, at the age of 19. In 1856 he married a farmer’s daughter, Mary Ann Jameson, in York, by which time he was working as a joiner. They had three sons and a daughter and the family moved to Hopperton at Great Ouseburn, about twenty kilometres northwest of York. Thomas continued to work as a joiner and the family eventually moved to Leeds by 1871. He seems to have done well for himself as by 1891, Thomas and Mary was living on his own means at Harrogate Road, Pannal, Knaresborough, aged 57. By 1901 he was a widower and retired joiner living at Moorfield Private House, Kirk Hammerton, Great Ouseburn. He was later referred to as having bene a master joiner. He died aged 82 on 26 May 1915, leaving an estate worth £1,496 10s.

Jane Farndale (1834 to 1903) became an unmarried house servant to her brother in law , Thomas Knaggs and sister Ann Farndale in Westgate, Guisborough by the age of 16 in 1851. In 1855 she married a millwright called George Shepherd at Great Ayton. They had two daughters and a son and George became a master millwright in Great Ayton.

Mary Farndale (1837 to 1862) was also an unmarried servant, in Great Ayton, aged only 14, in 1851 and she was servant to a 73 year old widow who was a landowner aged 24 in 1861. Mary Farndale died on 5 March 1862 and was buried on 8 March 1862 at All Saints, Great Ayton aged only 25.

The Third generation

Of the third generation of the Great Ayton 2 Line, William Farndale (1851 to 1915) was also a joiner in Great Ayton living in the high part of the village by 1881. He married Jane Atkinson, a farmer’s daughter, in 1876 and they had two daughters. By 1887 he seems to have taken an interest in property dealing. In August 1887 he advertised the let of a nine roomed house, pleasantly situated in Yarm between Great Ayton and Middlesbrough and in May 1890, describing himself as a joiner, he was advertised as the agent to show a two lot property of a dwelling house and cottages near the High Green in Great Ayton. By 1891 he was working as a millwright, and as a joiner and was regularly acting as an agent in property sales in Yarm and Great Ayton. He then started to work as a builder and in 1899 he won a tender to build a footbridge. At the meeting of Stokesley Rural District Council, Mr T G Fawcett presiding, the following resolutions were come to; That the surveyor of the Ryedale District Council be asked to meet Mr Dixon with respect to the approach to the Fangdale Beck Bridge; that a reward of £2 be offered for information re the damage done to the Black Beck Bridge, Bilsdale; that the clerk be instructed to write to Mr Moss asking him to remove the water that flows up on the highway from the new garden recently made by Mr R B Turton at Kildale. It was further unanimously resolved on the proposition of Mr. Wilson that the Council undertake the work of repairing the footpath at Crathorne, subject to Mr Dugdale bearing half the cost, estimated at £20. Tenders for a new footbridge between Busby and Sexhow were received as follows: Mr Farndale, Great Ayton, £7 17s 6d; Mr Wake, Carlton, £8 15s; and Marmaduke Hebden, £9; and it was finally decided to accept that of Mr Farndale. The following tenders were also received for the construction of a new stone bridge over the stream crossing the highway between Stokesley and Broughton. In 1901 he was described as a property agent and in 1911 he was described as a millwright. On 19 December 1914, John Lax of Mount Pleasant, Norton left a substantial estate worth £23,809 and William Farndale was the beneficiary of £500 if residing with him at his death. When William died the following year on 5 August 1915, he left an estate worth £1,656 17s 11d. His wife Jane Farndale, died on 20 August 1916. They are both buried at Great Ayton cemetery.

William’s brother was George Farndale (1853 to 1925). By 1871, unmarried and aged 16, George was a millwright apprentice in the Main Street at Great Ayton. In 1881 he was working as a millwright, still single, boarding with the Easton Family at the Green Tree Inn.

The mill race entering Grange Mill at the west end of Great Ayton

He was still a millwright in 1891 and by 1901 had moved to Hull, where he worked as a mill engineer. He married Minnie Pollard in Lancashire in 1906, but he was a widower by 1911 when he was working as a millwright mechanic at the Old Jolly Farmers, Sawmills, Crayford, Kent. By 1921 he was at Ipswich, working as a millwright for Thomas Robinson and Son Limited who were engineers from Rochdale. He was boarding with the Muttock family. He died aged 71 at Burton on Trent in 1925 when he was overcome by gas in a tragic accident. No further evidence being available, the Burton on Trent Deputy Coroner yesterday recorded a verdict of “accidental death” at the adjourned inquest on George Farndale, 71, the Yorkshire millwright, who was found dead on Thursday in a gas filled bedroom at a house in Horneglow Street, where he lodged. The Deputy Coroner then took evidence with regard to the death of Farndale's landlady, Mrs Sarah Burgess, 77, who was found unconscious in the room and died in the Infirmary on Saturday. Inspector Haynes described the gas bracket in the room where Mrs Burgess and Farndale were found as being of an old fashioned type. The tap, he said, turned around completely, having no “stop”. It was very loose, and the slightest touch would turn it on. Also recording a verdict of “accidental death” with regard to Mrs Burgess, the deputy, coroner remarked: “I think this case shows the great danger of having bad gas fittings. The fittings in this room were particularly dangerous.

William and George had a brother, Joseph Farndale (1855 to 1918). Joseph was working as a shoemaker by the age of 15 in 1871 at Great Ayton. He married Sophia Housman in 1881. Joseph became a bootmaker in Harrogate and Joseph and Sophia had six children including Edith Farndale, George William Farndale who later became an entertainer and one of the Yorkshire Mummers, Charles Frederick Farndale, and Esther Farndale. Edith, Charles and Esther all worked in the clothing and drapery industry.

The fourth sibling of this family was Mary Elizabeth Farndale (1859 to 1891) who worked as a dressmaker in 1881 in Great Ayton by the age of 22. She had a son born in Great Ayton out of marriage, in 1887, William Barnes Farndale. Mary died aged 32 and is buried in Great Ayton. William Barnes Farndale became the hotel manager of the White Horse Hotel in Ripon by the time of the Second World War.

John Joseph (“Jack”) Farndale (1882 to 1946) won a free hand drawing prize in Great Ayton at the age of 11 in 1893. By the age of 19 he was a joiner working in the village. He was mobilised as a wheeler in the Royal Garrison Artillery in May 1916. Earlier that year he had given testimony in favour of a Great Ayton man charged with poaching, whose charge was dismissed. He played for the Great Ayton tradesman cricket XI by 1924.

He was involved in the organisation of a carnival and motor gymkhana in 1930. Great Ayton, with all its regrettable unemployment, is making a great effort to raise funds to proceed with the repair of the fabric of the parish church. A carnival and motor gymkhana is being organised to take place on Saturday, 14 June, when it is anticipated that a record crowd will be present. The effort is in the hands of the parochial church committee, who have been successful in enlisting the services of Mr A K Cumbor, whose ability and organising events of this character is so well known and highly appreciated, and who is supported by the Vicar, the Rev W Lawson Smith, and Mr J Farndale. The gymkhana has been specially arranged by Mr. Porter, of the Synthetic and Nitrates Limited, Billingham, whilst the attractive and novel posters advertising the event have been cleverly designed and executed by Miss Walsh, a local 17 year old artist. He died in 1946 and is buried at Great Ayton.

Jack’s brother William Farndale (1890 to 1947) was another joiner in Great Ayton who was a Lance Corporal in the Royal Engineers between 17 November 1915 to 30 December 1918 and eventually honourably discharged for a disability possibly related to gassing.

It is not clear who Fussy Farndale was in the Great Ayton football team of 1910, but he must have been from these families.

The Farm Worker’s Family

Joseph Farndale’s twin brother was Henry Farndale (1795 to 1857), the son of Samuel and Elizabeth Farndale of Kilton was baptised at Brotton on 25 October 1795. Henry’s first marriage was to Elizabeth Appleton in Great Ayton on 20 May 1819, when he was 24 years old. They had a family of four daughters and three sons. We met John Henry Farndale, who was killed in a mining accident in 1866, in Act 18. We met Robert George Farndale, who was a bootmaker and moved to Hartlepool in Act 19 Scene 4. His family became employed in the heavy industry of the shipbuilders of Hartlepool.

Henry was still working as an agricultural labourer in 1841 and he was a widower by 1851. He married a 41 year old servant, Ann Richardson in Great Ayton in 1854, when he was 49 years old. He died three years later in 1857.

Henry and Elizabeth had an older son, William Appleton Farndale (1823 to 1908) who became a miller and married Jane Campbell, the daughter of a shoemaker, in 1846. He later worked as a farm labourer and as a gardener and they moved to nearby Great Broughton. William and Jane had a family of five, but four died in infancy. The surviving son was also called William Appleton Farndale and he did farm and cattle work at Fir Tree Farm in Easby just south of Great Ayton by 1911. He joined the Yorkshire Regiment in the First World War. When in October 1915 Private W Farndale was drafted out to France a few weeks ago. In a letter to friends at Great Broughton, he jocularly remarks that, now he has gone, he has got the Germans on the run. He served in France and Italy. He died in 1948. William and Jane had a son Cyril Ernest Farndale (1921 to 1985) who served in the Anti Tank Regiment of the Royal Artillery between 1939 and 1942. Another son, Ken Farndale (1922 to 1992), moved to Wetherby and his family were the Wetherby 2 Line. Their daughter, Ethel Doreen Farndale married Joseph Hall in Richmond. Their youngest son was Ronald Farndale (1932 to 1956) who was disabled and cared for at the Claypenny Colony in Easingwold.

The Farndale family were thus associated with Great Ayton from about 1655 until the early twentieth century. In the Victorian era the Farndales were a significant family in the village where they worked as cartwrights, joiners and millers.

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