Prologue
Moors, Dales and Vales
An introduction to the Farndale Story
|
Some
inspiration for our Story. |
When the
light grey boxes appear in the Farndale story, click on the hyperlinked title,
to follow the link
The
Farndale Story
This is the story
of one family’s journey through two thousand years of British history. This is
as much the story of those who still use the name Farndale, as anyone who has a
Farndale ancestor. It is also a story of Yorkshire’s history, told by the path
that one family took. It is additionally a story shared by countless others who
weaved their way through British history. It is an Everyman story.
The modern
Farndale family descends from the original inhabitants who first cultivated
Farndale from the early thirteenth century. The family linkage to this
relatively small, rural valley in North Yorkshire provides a beacon which makes
it possible to navigate the medieval records. We’ve found significant records
of individuals back to the thirteenth century, who themselves were descended
from the first inhabitants of the dale.
Farndale was
part of the large medieval estate of Chirchebi or Kirkbymoorside. Whilst
much of that estate including Farndale remained a wild place until well after
the Norman Conquest, there was a smaller region, only a few kilometres south of
Farndale which was a known area of stability and agricultural settlement. So
we’re able to tell our deeper ancestral history through the story of the people
of that antique place which takes us through Anglo Saxon back to Roman times.
Work on the
story of the Farndale family was started by Martin Farndale in the 1950s. After
about 1500, when parish records started, we have detailed records of all, or
nearly all those who were or are called Farndale. All modern Farndales, or
anyone descended from Farndales, are part of the same wider family, and can
trace their ancestry back to the families who lived around Skelton north of the
North York Moors from the mid sixteenth century.
We therefore
all share the same deeper ancestral history of the period before 1500, of which
the early chapters of the Farndale Story will tell.
Before the
thirteenth century, the place that came to be known as Farndale was an unknown
place, a forest flowing down through the valley from the high moors. By the
Anglo Saxon period, Farndale formed part of the great estate known as Chirchebi,
which is called Kirkbymoorside today.
The Venerable
Bede described the area around Farndale in the early eighth century, among
steep and distant mountains, which looked more like lurking-places for robbers
and dens of wild beasts, than dwellings of men.
It came to
be a place where nobles sometimes hunted, a small section of enormous lands,
which would be passed about from unfaithful nobleman to faithful nobleman,
across the giant chessboard of England of the Middle Ages where the Kings and
the aristocracy played out their game of thrones.
To the south
of Farndale, along the Hodge Beck as it flows out of Bransdale, the dale which
runs parallel to Farndale, lies Kirkdale. Kirkdale is located at the edge of
the wild lands of the dales and the moors, but at the northwest corner of vast
agricultural lands, long settled. The Vale of York sweeps south towards York.
The Vale of Pickering, once a prehistoric lake, sweeps east towards Pickering
and beyond.
We know from
the Domesday Book survey that Kirkdale was at the centre of a smaller northwest
section of these flat agricultural lands. This smaller region stretched from
Kirkby Misperton and Muscoates to the south and up to
Gillamoor at the approach to the dales in the north.
The River Dove and the Hodge Beck flowed out of the dales and through Kirkdale
and Chirchebi (Kirkbymoorside) and met at a confluence in these lands.
Settlements
around Kirkdale and Kirkbymoorside which were referred to in the Domesday
Survey, 1086
Kirkdale was
therefore the centre of the Anglo Saxon, and before that Roman, community that
would, in the early thirteenth century, extend its lands of cultivation into
Farndale, as the wooded dales were slashed and burned, a practice called
assarting, to provide extensions of the farmed land, into Farndale and
Bransdale.
Therefore,
knowing that the modern Farndale family is descended from those who once eeked out their survival in Farndale in the mid thirteenth
century, it is probable that those villeins or serfs from Farndale from whom we
descend, themselves had their ancestral roots amongst the folk of Kirkdale and
its agricultural surroundings.
It’s
therefore probable that our distant ancestors are those people who inhabited
the region around Kirkdale in Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian and early Norman
times.
The Stage
for our Story
Our first
task, before telling the Farndale Story in thirty three Acts, is to set the
scene, to stimulate your imagination to fill the gaps in its telling.
|
And let
us, ciphers to this great accompt, On your
imaginary forces work… Think
when we talk of horses, that you see them Printing
their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth; |
For
'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings, Carry
them here and there; jumping o'er times, Turning
the accomplishment of many years Into an
hour-glass: for the which supply, |
Admit
me Chorus to this history; Who
prologue-like your humble patience pray, Gently
to hear, kindly to judge, our play. |
(Shakespeare,
Henry V, Prologue)
|
Since
'tis your thoughts that now must deck our story, and carry them
here and there, here is some inspiration to help fine tune your
imagination as you start to read the Farndale Story. |
In setting
the stage for our story, you should first understand the scenery in which our
history is told. The geographical setting of our story should be imagined in
three distinct landscapes.
The moors
are the windswept and barren heights which have always been a harsh and bitter
place.
The dales
were probably largely impenetrable and heavily forested for much of their
ancient history. They are relatively steeply sided valleys, with Bransdale
following the Hodge Beck and Farndale running parallel and following the River
Dove.
The vales
are ancient agricultural lands of two vast vales, of York and Pickering. They
are rich lands for farming.
Nestled at
the edge of the dales, as they pour out into the flat agricultural lands, at
the north west corner of the Vales, is Kirkdale, the original cradle of our
family. And it turns out that Kirkdale has quite a story to tell.
The
beginning of one family’s story
A genealogy
is the assembly of a multiplicity of related stories, of struggle, initiative,
tragedy, achievement, ambition, of following calls to battle, taming our own
lands, and travelling to new ones. The Farndale Story tells of all those things.
All the
world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their
exits and their entrances and one man in his time plays many parts. His acts
being seven ages.
At first the infant, mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms. The Farndale story will tell of puking infants.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel and shining morning face, creeping like snail unwillingly to school. The Farndale story will tell of whining schoolboys.
And then
the lover, sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad made to his mistress’
eyebrow. The
Farndale story will tell of sighing lovers.
Then a
soldier, full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, jealous in honour,
sudden and quick in quarrel, seeking the bubble reputation even in the cannon’s
mouth. The Farndale
story will tell of bearded soldiers until the Army chose to ban the
growth of facial hair, after which it will tell of clean shaved soldiers.
And then the justice, in fair round belly with good capon lin’d, with eyes severe and beard of formal cut, full of wise saws and modern instances and so he plays his part. The Farndale story will tell of wise lawyers and law makers.
The sixth age shifts into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon, with spectacles on nose and pouch on side; his youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide for his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, turning again toward childish treble, pipes and whistles in his sound. The Farndale story will tell of slippered sexagenerians.
Last
scene of all, that ends this strange eventful history, is second childishness
and mere oblivion; sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. The Farndale story will continue to the final scenes of each of our actors.
(William Shakespeare, As You Like It)
The Farndale Story is a time machine
to transport you to multiple stops in time through the story of one family. If
you allow it, you will encounter the emotions, experiences, ambitions and
passions of those who you meet. The matrix is your
portal into these multiple and ancient worlds, though many of these worlds of
different times might not be so very different to our own.
Glossary
As you start
exploring our history, in the box immediately adjacent to this Prologue you
will find a glossary, which might help if you encounter some medieval language
or words from time to time with which you need some assistance.
Go Straight to Act 1 – The
Family Cradle
or