Kilton, the Lost Village

The story of the lost village of Kilton

“No place can equal Kilton for loveliness”

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The Pastoral Scene

In The History of Kilton, With a Sketch of the Neighbouring Villages, By the Returned Emigrant, John Farndale, in 1870, from the perspective of the height of the industrial revolution which had swept through Cleveland, remembered with nostalgia the village of his youth:

No place can equal Kilton for loveliness, standing as it does, in the midst of sylvan scenery, beautiful landscape and woodland scenery, and what a perfume of sweet fragrance from wild flowers, particularly the primrose-acres that would grace any gentleman’s pleasure ground for beauty and for loveliness. Kilton, as it is situated, is fitted only for a prince.

We believe Kilton had the pre-eminence of many of its neighbouring villages. We knew no poachers, no cockfighters, no drunkards, or swearers. Kilton people were church-going people, yet, on a Sunday afternoon, what hosts of young men and young women mustered for play, their song was:

There is little Kilton, lies under yon hill,

Lasses anew lad, come when you will;

They’re witty, they’re pretty, they’re handsomely bound,

A lo! for the lasses in Kilton town.

This district once abounded with wild animals – the badger, the otter, the wolf, the stag, and the wild boar, which are now extinct; but the fox, the hare, the rabbit, the squirrel, the dormouse, rat, hedgehog, the martin, the foumet, and the snake all abound in this district, wrote John. The feathered game tribe comprise the pheasant, the partridge, the black grouse, the woodcock, and the snipe. The songsters are the thrush, the blackbird, the jay, the lark, the linnet, the bullfinch, the starling, the cuckoo, etc.

The Geography of Kilton

Once a thriving settlement, Kilton today comprises mostly farmland, with a small settlement at Kilton Thorpe. To the east is the narrow ravine of the Kilton Beck Valley through which the Kilton Beck flows towards the sea at Skinningrove. In the midst of the heavily wooded area of that valley lie the ruins of Kilton Castle. About two kilometres to the north is the town of Brotton and Carlin How and Craggs Farm. To the south of Kilton Thorpe there are the scrag heaps and disused buildings of the industrial graveland of the old ironstone mines.

In his Guide to Saltburn by the Sea and the Surrounding District, With remarks on its picturesque scenery, John Farndale wrote:

Kilton stands unrivalled for its antiquity, and its beautiful scenery cannot be excelled. The brightest and fairest scenes in Italy cannot be compared to the lovely prospects which Nature displays in this secluded part of Cleveland. This place stands on a ridge of rich loomy land, with Huntcliffe on the north, known to all sea-men. On the east is the beautiful bay of Skinningrove and the hall of A C Maynard Esq, formerly the residence of F Easterby Esq. Skinnngrove was once a noted place for smuggling. On the north west is Old Saltburn which was formerly considered the King of the Smuggling World. Near which is New Saltburn, about to become one of the most fashionable sea bathing places on the eastern coast, thanks to the enterprising gentlemen who conduct the railway operations in this neighbourhood, and who are the public’s benefactors, in a commercial, social point of view, and are indeed, in every sense of the word, the friends of the people.

In his memoires he described Kilton as of great interest with a great hall, stable, plantation and ancient stronghold in ruins (Kilton Castle). It is still a small place he wrote and he described how many had left it and made their name.

We start our exploration of Kilton’s history, by rolling out some maps.

Kilton’s history was closely linked to the history of Skelton. Geographically, Kilton lay in the agricultural lands to the southeast of Skelton, only five kilometres from Skelton Castle. Skelton Castle and Kilton Castle would have an obvious geographical proximity.

Kilton: A Survey of a Moorland Fringe Township, by Robin Daniels, 1990, reconstruction of the historical landscape of Kilton

The following are extracts from the estate plan of 1767 (“Joseph Tullie’s Estate Plan”), with many thanks to Tony Nicholson for his help and annotations

Five houses on each side of the street, as described in John Farndale’s works. Other houses highlighted yellow.

Kilton Lodge

Robin Daniels redrew the Kilton Township Estate Plan of 1767 onto the 1856 OS 6 inch map:

The 1767 map shows a landscape which, while containing much of its medieval past, had undertaken a dramatic transformation. Enclosure of the medieval fields had taken place and probably partly as a result of this, the number of farmsteads had increased from perhaps five in the medieval period to eight in 1767. An Estate village had been established at Kilton. There was a hunting lodge at Buck Rush, and a number of new buildings had been built. Two new roads had been constructed. The first linked Brotton to Kilton Thorpe and cut through the enclosure boundaries of Middlefield. The second ran from Kilton Lane to the new farm at Stank House, and continued on to the Lodge and Buck Rush. This was a broad eighteenth century road which contrasted with its medieval predecessors.

The Kilton of 1767 was a significant evolution from medieval Kilton. Some of the early medieval properties either side of Kilton Lane still had buildings on them, but the village of Kilton had been moved to the north. A fine estate village had been created, with a street and green and two rows of cottages facing each other across it. A post mill was shown at the western end of the South row.

The street and green were not a thoroughfare, and only gave access to the hall at the end of the road. There is no trace on the ground or maps of there ever having been a thoroughfare. The new two row settlement cut existing property boundaries.

By 1845 this village was in decline. There was no indication of the post mill and new sets of buildings had begun to develop to the east of the road. The tithe map of 1845 makes it obvious that the growth of the second half of the eighteenth century was not being sustained. The lodge had disappeared, as had the buildings at the earthworks at Stank House. Two of the farms within the western part of the village had also gone. The village was reverting to an intensity of settlement very similar to its medieval past. Land use in 1845 was predominantly arable, as it had been in the medieval period, but there seems to have been more pasture then at the height of medieval cultivation.

Kilton 1853 showing Kilton, Lumpsey (top left) and Buck Rush (bottom centre)

The 1856 map shows the continuing decline of Kilton. There was a courtyard farm under development in the north row and the present Kilton Hall Farm had been built to the south of the village, probably indicating the absence of the landowner and the establishment of a substantial tenant farm.

The 1856 Map of Kilton, surveyed in 1853:

Kilton in 1888:

Kilton in 1893:

Substantial changes occurred at Kilton in the late nineteenth century. The estate village was demolished and a range of brick built farm buildings were constructed over the site of the village. These buildings served Kilton Hall Farm, which was the only domestic dwelling to the west of the road. On the opposite side of the road, a row of estate cottages were built in the same architectural style as the outbuildings.

Following the decline in the eighteenth century, a consolidation took place in the nineteenth century, perhaps between 1870 and 1893 and certainly between 1856 and 1893. The attempt to foster a village at Kilton was abandoned and a single, substantial farm was established. To the west, Greenhills Farm moved from its position on the western boundary into the centre of its area. Elsewhere, farmhouses were renewed and estate cottages were built. The financing of these measures may well have been derived from the ironstone mines, but there is little else to indicate the impact of industrialization on the landscape. The estate was not dependent on industry and so the landscape of Kilton survived the closing of the mines and Kilton today is primarily an agricultural landscape, almost completely given over to crop production.

John Farndale wrote in 1864 that the picturesque appearance of this place, its antique character, and the great longevity of its inhabitants strike home to my fondest and earliest recollections. I frequently imagine I still hear sounding in my ears the things our father’s fathers told us, and which were done in their day and in the old time before them. The days of ignorance, however, have departed. Our privileges are much greater than our father’s fathers of old enjoyed; and, therefore, as the march of intellect moves on at that rapid pace, more is expected at our hands. Yea, during the last fifty years of Reform has been actively at work, and through the length and breadth of the land Improvement has advanced with rapidity far beyond all preceding times. We can now by telegraph communicate intelligence to all parts of the world – we can breakfast in Edinburgh in the morning, dine in London the same day, and proceed to France. What a contrast to what was done seventy years ago! Men at that time had to grope their way, as it were, in the world – though many persons even then as now rose to eminence and wealth.

There are a few areas of grassland which coincide with the original medieval earth works.

The area now consists of individual farms with the exception of the small hamlet at Kilton Thorpe, the school of which has since been converted into a private dwelling. The estate workers’ cottages at Kilton and adjacent to the castle remained in use by the estate. The steep sided valley of Kilton Beck became heavily wooded. There was some small scale quarrying in the valley, but this was unobtrusive.

The ironstone mining finished in the 1960s and has left behind the great spoil heap at Kilton mines. The earthworks of the railways, built to service the mines, still survive along with a solitary signal post which is set to halt.

By the twentieth and into the twenty first century, Kilton had evolved into an established agricultural landscape, with an advent of renewable energy in more recent years.

Countryside at Kilton in 1980 Kilton in 2016

Kilton Hall

John Farndale fancied himself something of a poet and wrote:

Kilton Hall as in ages past

Most beautiful to all around,

Ah! ruthless hand that gave command,

And now no trace of it is found.

John explained that Kilton formerly belonged to the Houses Thweng and Lumleys, who were lords of the manor. Dr Waugh, Dean of Carlisle, and Miss Waugh, into whose hands the estate came, sold it to Mrs Wharton, and this lady made a present of it to the late J Wharton, Esq., of Skelton Castle, MP for Beverley, a gentleman of memorable name. Here was built a neat hall, much admired, and when the sun early in the morning cast its beams upon it and lit its vast windows with Nature’s glory, it was a sight to affect the heart and raise the thoughts to the Great Source of all beauty and splendour, both in nature and grace. A spirit of jealousy led to this fine structure being pulled down, and now not one stone on another remains to tell where it once stood, except stables, granaries and coach houses, yet in good preservation.

Kilton Hall, sketched for John Farndale’s books from memory, as it stood in 1795.

John Farndale wrote Kilton Hall was a very neat building, with stables, coach houses, lawns and plantations, and the old castle adjoining had a fine bowling green and excellent fish ponds, fed by a rivulet running through a field close by, and which was in a good state of preservation until it was lately filled up and ploughed. Contiguous to the old castle walls there was a fine orchard, which I had the management of about fifty years ago. But this has nearly gone into decay – the towering pear and other fruit trees have become leafless and dead, and withered like an old man ripe from the grave. Such are the changes which a few years make. Thus, it is with inanimate things, so it is with us. We must all fade as a flower, we must all die, for all flesh is grass. “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of the Lord endureth for ever”.

Here, let me not forget to notice that, in this enchanting park, rich preserves of game of all kinds, especially that most beautiful bird the pheasant, are numerous, and almost all other game. I have seen rise out from new sown wheat, in my father’s castle field, no less than eighty pheasants at one time. Fifty years later, on my last visit to the old castle, I saw rise out of the same field fifty beautiful pheasant cock, when they soon buried themselves in the vast forest around the old castle. It was here Redman, the poacher’s gun burst and blew out his eye. It was also here Frank, the keeper, shot a large eagle near the old castle, which is now preserved.

Kilton Hall in about 1890

Kilton Lodge Farm in about 1920 at the time of Charles Farndale

Kilton Hall in 2016

A history of Kilton to the Norman Conquest

Having explored the geographical evolution of Kilton, it is time to tell the history of the village from its beginnings.

There is evidence of an initial pattern of dispersed settlement of individual farmsteads in prehistoric times. There is ridge and farrow evidence of early agriculture around Kilton Hall and near Kilton Thorpe. An iron age cooking jar was found near Kilton Hall.

The name Kilton may be derived from the Scandinavian language, and may refer to a farm settlement in a narrow valley.

The village is recorded in the Domesday Book, in 1086, when it was called Chitune. It comprised two areas of land. The first consisted of two ploughlands and eight acres of meadow. The second comprised half a ploughland. Before the Norman Conquest, these were the lands of Thorkil and Uhtred. After the Conquest, the first area became property of the King, and the second passed to Count Robert of Mortain.

Kilton Thorpe was also mentioned in the Domesday Book as Torp or Thorpe, a Scandinavian word for a small settlement. There were again two separate areas, this time each of one ploughland, and again ownership passed from Thorkil and Uhtred to the King and Count Robert of Mortain respectively. Since there were many Thorpes in northern England, the settlement became known as Kilton Thorpe. At Kilton Thorpe there was a manor and one and a half caracutes of land and at Kilton, one caracute.

The lands at Chitune and Thorpe were described as wasteland by 1086, perhaps the consequence of the harrying of the north.

Count of Mortain was banished for conspiracy in 1088 and both villages, the two and a half caracutes, another five and a half caracutes and eight acres of meadow passed to Robert de Brus. At this time the manor of Little Moorsholm also formed part of the Kilton Fee. That of Great Moorsholm did not join the Kilton Fee until 1272. It seems too that the Soke of South Loftus, six caracutes of land, joined the Kilton Fee soon after the Doomsday survey. North Loftus was much bigger and was part of the Chester Fee.

Alan de Percy founded the Fief of Kilton in the Barony of Percy in 1106. His tenant was Walter who subdivided the fiefdom into (1) the Fief of Kilton proper; (2) the Lordship of Hinderwell; and (3) the Lordship of Kirkleatham. In the Fief of Kilton there were the manors of Kilton Thorpe and Little Moorsholm the Soke of South Loftus.

Kilton Castle was probably founded by Pagan Fitzwalter de Thweng (born in about 1080). It was built in about 1135 to 1140, initially in timber.

By 1140 his son Osbert began the stone construction, using the local orange-brown sandstone.

In 1166 the subtenant of Kilton was Ilger de Kilton and remained so until 1190.

Kilton Castle

The stone castle was probably completed by William de Kylton between 1190 and 1200. Rev Ord in the History of Cleveland wrote: As a fortress, it must have proved impregnable previous to the introduction of artillery; being placed on a high jutting eminence, surrounded by steep precipices, except to the west, where the ditches, foss, inner vallum, and traces of the barbican gate are distinctly observable. The castle was built on a promontory of rock above Kilton Beck with steep valley walls plunging about 90 metres down to the Beck. The ground on the far side of the Beck rose to a similar height, but sufficiently distant from the castle to be a threat. To the west was a narrow strip of land protected by a deep ditch on either side.

Within the inner ward the Castle had a Great Hall, kitchens, a private chapel and the apartments of the Lord of the Manor. In time, the Castle had gardens, and a fishpond. However the Castle was unusual by not having a Keep, which may have caused it to become obsolete by the fourteenth century.

Kilton Castle, in the collection at Kirkleatham Museum

The ruined castle in 2016 lying in thick undergrowth

Kilton Castle occupies a promontory of land over the precipitous valley of Kilton Beck. The promontory is long and narrow and therefore dictated the shape of the castle. There is a steep drop to the south and consequently this area was never defended by anything other than a wall. Access to the castle was via a narrow neck of land to the West.

The first documentary reference to the castle was in 1265, when a chantry was granted to the Chapel there. Buildings must have been must have therefore existed before that time. An Inquisition Post Mortem of 1355 recorded at Kilton a certain little castle and nothing of value with the walls and ditches that is able to be repaired for less than 41s per annum. The castle was probably ruined by this time.

John Farndale wrote that in this township too stands an old Norman Castle. Few ruins in England can vie this venerable relic of Norman architecture. There is also a fortress here, which in the olden times must have been impregnable. This baronial fortress was no doubt the most powerful one in Cleveland, and in the days of cross bows, broad swords, and battle axes it would be quite secure. But when Cromwell, that inveterate foe to all Roman edifices, came near, he heard and was led by the bell at noon, to the opposite mount, levelled his destructive cannon against this structure, and brought it to the ground.

Kilton Castle with Old Reynard and the two dogs that took him as he leaped from the Watch Tower in the presence of the Author, and Consitt Dryden Esq., sixty years ago (from John Farndale’s Returned Emigrant)

John Farndale also wrote that the castle is situated in a park belonging to the ancient families of Thweng and Lumley’s. Baron Lumley, of Kilton Castle, died in battle, having joined the Earl of Kent and others to restore King Richard, then deposed. Kilton Manors, for there were two, became forfeited to the crown, but restored to the Thwing’s and Lumbley’s, by Henry IV, and by marriage to Wm Tulley Esq., who died at Kilton Hall, and was interred in Brotton Church 1741, aged 72 years. Then to Dr Waugh, of Carlisle, and next in kin to the Misses Waugh, who sold the estate to Miss Wharton, of Thirsk Hall, a rich old lady, and this lady presented it as a gift to her nephew, J Hall Wharton Esq., MP, and now it is the property of JT Wharton Esq., of Skelton Castle. At the above date Kilton Hall was then a beautiful building, much admired. Mr Ord, in giving a description of Kilton Castle, says “Few ruins in England can equal this venerable relic of antiquity – as a fortress it must have proved impregnable previous to the introduction of artillery. Standing on a high triangular precipice unapproachable except on the west, and here it was defended by a moat and draw bridge, and large massive gate way doors.

The castle would have provided economic opportunities for the surrounding countryside. When the Castle was inhabited, there was a village of some size occupying the site of the modern farmstead of Kilton Hall, some 600 metres north west of the Castle. There was a park attached the castle which was described in 1323 as a certain park without beasts of the chase in which there was no profit apart from herbage thereof.

The 1767 map shows a close in front of the castle, although this doesn’t appear in the tithe map. The 1856 map shows two features which were described as moats, but which were probably the fish ponds. Two buildings joined this and were probably the forerunners of the estate cottages which were built here in the late nineteenth century. Of the castle, the Reverend John Graves wrote at the beginning of the nineteenth century the edifice is now in so ruinous a state, as to render it impossible to form any idea of its former strength and magnificence... the ruins... are seen on the point of a rugged steep, washed by a mountain stream, brawling among fragments of rock, at a great depth beneath. The banks of the river rise swiftly, and being wooded on either hand, encompass the point on which the castle stands, and forms a picturesque foreground.”

The castle remained a picturesque ruin, but a row of a state cottages in the same style as those at Kilton were built in the late nineteenth century. The northern arm of the fish pond was still visible as a depression within a field, but the southern arm had disappeared altogether.

The remains of Kilton Castle, 1893 The remains of Kilton Castle in 1913

Today the ruins are almost impenetrable, hidden in woodland amidst a bed of nettles and thick undergrowth.

Medieval Kilton

Peter de Mauley tried to besiege the castle between 1215 and 1216 when Sir Richard de Autrey occupied the castle. After King John’s death in 1216, a settlement was agreed between de Mauley and de Autrey.

In 1222 de Autrey died and his widow, still aged only 22, was given by the owner of Kilton Castle, Sir William de Kylton, to Sir Robert de Thweng (1205 to 1268) through marriage to Matilda de Kylton, niece of Sir William de Kylton and widow of Richard de Autrey. This coincided with a dispute with the Prior of Guisborough about the ownership.

After an attempted appeal to Rome, the frustrated Sir Robert rebelled and raided church property in about 1232, using the nickname Will Wither, or William the Angry. It is said that he then distributed the spoils, Robin Hood like, to the poor. He was excommunicated in consequence, but was supported by other local noble families including the Houses of de Brus, Percy and Neville. Another appeal to Henry III met with royal support and Pope Gregory IX was persuaded to rule in his favour. The rebellion came to an end.

When Sir Robert died in about 1268, the castle passed to his son, Marmaduke de Thweng, who had married Lucia de Brus in about 1247. Marmaduke had been born and baptised at Kilton Castle in 1225. His eldest son Robert was born at Kilton Castle in 1255, then came seven more sons and five daughters, the last born in 1276. The second son Marmaduke born in Kilton Castle in 1256 moved to Danby and Kilton went to his eldest son Robert who died in 1279 leaving only a daughter Lucia.

In 1285, after Marmaduke’s death, Lucia de Thweng, who had been born in Kilton castle in 1279 and baptised in the castle chapel, inherited her father’s lands, initially through the custody of the King, until she came of age.

Lucia was married, against her will, to William de Latimer, but they were divorced in 1305 after Lucia famously eloped with a Knight (not unlike Joan the Fair Maid of Kent, landowner of the Farndale lands). Lucia returned to Kilton Castle, though it is possible that even by this date, the castle was falling into ruin. Lucia, who died in January 1347, by design avoided the de Thweng estates falling to her own sons, and ownership of Kilton passed to Lucia’s Uncle, Marmarduke Thweng, the First Baron Thweng.

The First Baron’s son died without heir, and his grandson was killed at the Battle of Stirling Bridge, and so, in 1341, the castle passed to his eldest daughter, Lucia de Lumley.

From the collection at Kirkleatham Museum

Marmaduke II de Thweng played a prominent part in the Scottish wars and a major part in the Battle of Stirling Bridge on 11 September 1297 where his eldest son Marmaduke was killed.

Kilton castle stayed in the hands of the Lumley family until 1537 when George Lumley was executed for his participation in the Pilgrimage of Grace, the Yorkshire based uprising of 1536 protesting against Henry VIII’s break with the Catholic Church. The Crown then took possession of the castle and certainly by the end of the sixteenth century, the castle was in total ruin.

By 1537 when the Crown took possession of Kilton Castle it was a gaunt, grim, ivy clad ruin.

The already ruined castle is said to have been attacked during the Civil War. John Farndale wrote When Cromwell came that way, He heard the bell at noon; Fixed his cannon as they say, And brought the castle down. Yet, not all – as some still remains, cemented together like iron bound with ivy, for ages to come. However, this is unlikely, as by that time it had been uninhabited for 240 years. It was probably in ruins by 1355 when it was described as a certain little castle and nothing of value with the walls and ditches that is able to be repaired for less than 41s per annum.

Adjacent to the Castle, medieval Kilton comprised both Kilton and Kilton Thorpe and there were farmsteads at Stank House, Buck Rush and Greenhills. The farming was probably of a mixed nature, growing cereals and rearing sheep and cattle. Teams of oxen ploughed up one side of each strip and turned the soil towards the centre creating the ridge and farrow corrugations which are still visible today. Blocks of ridge and farrow were called furlongs and at the end of each strip was a headland, where the ploughs were lifted from the soil and turned around.

Ridge and farrow corrugation at Kilton, taken in 2016

There was milling at Kilton Mill. The road from Brotton to Kilton probably dates to the medieval period as the ridge and furrow archaeology is consistent with this. The road from Kilton to Kilton Thorpe is also medieval. The amount of ridge and farrow in the area of Kilton suggests that almost all the land was cultivated.

Before proceeding further with Kilton’s history, we will take a closer look at Stank House, Buck Rush and Greenhills.

Stank House Farm

Significant ridge and furrow evidence in the vicinity of the present Stank House Farm and the earthworks suggest a medieval farmstead in two fields to the east of the present farm. The name of the farm suggests a fish pond and was probably derived from the fish pond at the Castle, which is close to the site.

The original farmstead of Stank House had been built of the stone of Kilton Castle. In the east wall of the outbuildings is a large carved stone which would appear to have once born a coat of arms, now completely obliterated.

Two farms are shown on the 1767 map, one on the site of the medieval earthworks and the other to the west. In 1767 the farmhouse stood at the head of a long close, just to the west of a post medieval track. It had no outbuildings. The building was much the same in 1845, but by 1856 it had gained a courtyard arrangement of outbuildings.

Stank House, 1853 Stank House 1856 Stank House in 1893

In 1882 a fine brick farmhouse, more redolent of railway than rural architecture, was constructed to the east of the eighteenth-century farmhouse and probably contemporary with this an extra block of buildings was inserted into the courtyard arrangement. The farm stands like this today with no trace of the eighteenth century farmhouse.

Stank House Farm in about 2016

Buck Rush

There are no medieval earthworks at the present site of Buck Rush Farm, but there are some to the east. There are also the remains of a possible house platform.

The estate map of 1767 shows the site occupied by the earlier lodge, a complex of three buildings with an enclosure, the boundary of which crosses ridge and furrow excavations. There is a rectangular enclosure containing a plantation to the north of the buildings. This is probably a post medieval hunting lodge with direct access to the woods.

William Farndale pulled down the old Kilton Lodge, connected with the, by then, ruined Kilton Castle, to build the new family home. John Farndale, his son wrote connected with the castle is Kilton Lodge which my father pulled down to build a new house.

The 1856 Ordnance Survey map describes the woods as Lodge Woods. The 1767 map had also shown a farmstead at Buck Rush, to the west of the lodge. In 1767 this comprised two buildings, and a kiln field to the southeast may suggest that their construction provided lime for mortar as well as for the fields. Between 1845 and 1857 Buck Rush developed into a courtyard farm and the buildings from the mid eighteenth century disappeared.

Buck Rush 1853

The present farmstead at buck rush comprises a late nineteenth century stone farmhouse with a courtyard arrangement dated from the mid nineteenth century.

Buck Rush Farm about 1912, part of Kilton Lodge Farm under Charles Farndale.

Greenhills

The name Greenhills is applied to the western arm of Kilton and may be derived from grundales, meaning green strips, suggesting strips not always under plough. There are extensive ridge and furrow excavations but no medieval earthworks have been found. There must have been at least one farmstead in this area in medieval times.

The 1767 map records three farmsteads in this part of Kilton, one adjacent to Rough Close with a farm building and enclosure; a second adjacent to Well Close and comprising four buildings within an enclosure; and the third being a group of three building situated at Greenhills on the west part of Kilton. The complex of buildings at Greenhills developed between 1845 and 1856, but did not constitute a courtyard farm.

Green Hills Farm, 1893

In the late nineteenth century Greenhills farm moved and it may occupy much the same position as the eighteenth century farm at Rough Close. The farm survives today.

Eighteenth century Kilton

In about 1680 a Mr Thomas Thweng purchased the Castle from the Crown, probably a descendant of a junior branch of the family. He didn’t live in the ruined castle and it was probably he who built the original Kilton Hall some one mile away from its stone. His only daughter Ann married William Tully and at the east end of the chancel of old Brotton church, which no longer exists, was a large memorial which said Sacred memory of William Tully of Kilton in this county, Esq, who departed this life 27 May 1741 aged 72 and is interned underneath this monument. He married Ann sole daughter and heiress of Thomas Thweng of Kilton Castle in this county, Esq, by whom he left no issue.

In the eighteenth century, the medieval fields were enclosed, and the farmsteads had moved to their present locations.

An advertisement of 30 March 1754 offered To be Sold. Now Growing at Kilton, within two miles of the Sea, near Guisborough, in Cleveland, Yorkshire. A Large Quantity of full grown oak, ash and elm etc. For further particulars, inquire of William Jackson of Guisborough, who will fell said trees.

An article on 11 December 1770 reported on Mr Turner’s Hounds, the hunt founded by the smuggler, John Andrew, later the Roxby and Cleveland Foxhounds, which passed through Kilton.

Perhaps the start of a constant battle between landowners and tenants and poachers, started on about 24 August 1771 when the following report appeared. Whereas the Game and Fish within the Lordship or Manor of Kilton, in the North Riding of the County of York, have, of late years, been greatly destroyed in the night and at other times, by poachers and other persons, without the leave of Joseph Tullie Esquire, Lord of the said Manor; Notice is hereby given, that all unqualified persons killing game or fish within the said Lordship, will be prosecuted with the utmost rigour: and it is particularly requested that no gentleman will hunt, shoot, or fish within the said Lordship, without Leave in Writing of the said Mr Tullie.

On 18 July 1778 a contract offer was issued concerning Lofthouse Bridge. Any person willing to contract for the building of a Carriage Bridge over the brook dividing the townships of Lofthouse and Kilton, near to the highway leading from Kilton to Lofthouse aforesaid, may deliver in a plan and proposals as soon as possible, to Mr Lawson of Stokesley. Mr Farquharson of Lofthouse will show the place where the intended bridge is to be erected.

John Wharton was the eldest son of Joseph William Hall-Stevenson of Skelton and succeeded his father as Lord of Skelton in 1786, inheriting the ruinous Skelton Castle. He demolished the old Skelton Castle and between 1788 and 1817 built a similarly named Gothic country house in its place. By 1829 he was in debt and spent the next 14 years in the Fleet Debtors Prison, where he died childless in 1843. He had married Susan Mary Anne, the daughter of General John Lambton of Lambton, County Durham. He had two daughters who both predeceased him and was succeeded by his nephew, John Thomas Wharton. He had changed his surname to Wharton in order to inherit his great-great-aunt Margaret Wharton’s estate at Gilling, near Richmond, Yorkshire

John Thomas Wharton of Gilling, to whom John Farndale’s books are dedicated, succeeded to the Skelton estate after his uncle, John Wharton had died childless and in poverty in 1843.

John Farndale imagined his return to Kilton after years of absence, and gave a contemporary experience of the profound change that had impacted on Kilton, when he recalled:

some one hundred and twenty parents and children, besides men-servants and women-servants; I remember ten farmers occupant of some seven hundred acres of land, and now it’s absorbed into one large farm, by laying field to field, and adding farm to farm. Surely this gentleman must be Lord of Kilton Manors, for formerly it comprised two Manors. Then he asked, where are all those respected farmers? Had they and their sons to find a home in some far-away land, and to perish out of sight? I see in the book recorded and registered in olden time, the names of farmers who once occupied this great farm – R and W Jolly, M Young, R Mitchell; W Wood, J Harland, T Toas, J Readman, J Farndale, S Farndale, J and W Farndale, all these tenants once occupied this great farm; now blended into one.

I remember what a muster at the Kilton rent days, twice a year, when dinner was provided for a quarter of a hundred tenants, Brotton, Moorsholm, Stanghoe, those paid their rents at Kilton; and were indeed belonging to the Kilton Court, kept here also, and the old matron proudly provided a rich plum pudding and roast beef; and the steward also a jolly punch bowl, for it was a pleasure to him to take the rents at Kilton, the day before Skelton rent day. The steward always called old J Farndale to the vice-chair, he being old, and the oldest tenant. Farndale’s was the most numerous family, and had lived on the estate for many ages. Kilton had many mechanics, and here we had a public house, a meeting house, two lodging houses, and a school house, to learn our ABCs, from which sprang two eminent school masters, who became extremely popular; we had a butcher’s shop, we had a London tailor and is apprentice, and eight other apprentices more; we had a rag merchant and a shop which sold song books, pins, needles, tape and thread; we had five sailors, two soldiers, two missionaries, besides a number of old people, aged 80, 90 and 100 years. But last, not least, Wm Tulley Esq., who took so much interest in the old castle – planted its orchard, bowling green, and made fish ponds, which were fed by a reservoir near the Park House, Kiltonthorpe, Kilton Lodge, together with all these improvements around the castle, which are now no more.

Robert Jolly was a farmer and a strict Wesleyan. Initially his farm was continued by his sons after he died. However this was the start of a period of rapid change and John Farndale recalled that the little farms were joined together, about 150 acres each. Every farmer had to move to a new farm. The sons of Robert Jolly each moved away at this time, one became a lifeguard to George III and the other eventually became a minister. William Bulmer was another native of Kilton and married with nine children, he made his living buying and selling, but all his children moved away into 'respectable' situations.

Many of the farmers were weavers too. George Bennison, had two looms and also prepared a colt for Northallerton fair once a year. The children of these farmers continually moved away from the district and from agriculture. John Farndale wrote and now they disappear, but where are they gone, I know not.

John Farndale also wrote of the late eighteenth century:

Kilton formerly contained a few tradesmen – namely two joiners, two coopers, two weavers, one butcher, a publican, a water miller, a rag merchant, an old man with nine children, two sailors, and a banker’s cashier. At one time it had four sailors – one was taken prisoner in the French War, an old man, aged 87, and yet living – another, a missionary to the French prisoners, died in France, aged 87, a noble fellow, was formerly in the Life Guards. Seventy years ago Kilton had eight farmers; it now has only one. It had then fifty four children, now only seven – then twenty four parents, now only five – and then nine old men and women rom eighty to one hundred and five years of age. The inhabitants of this village, as may be expected, were long lived; most of the old men were of the giant tribe, their ages averaging at death eighty seven years. My children’s children comprise the sixth generation of our family that has lived at Kilton estate upwards of two hundred years.

In former days the inhabitants of this district were Jacks, and Toms, and Mats; now they are either Misters or Esquires, and thick as mushrooms around us. In those days there were no Mistresses or Ladies among them, they were all Dames – there wore no silk gowns, no veils, no crinolines, no bustles; but home spun garments, giving employment to the inhabitants, warmth and comfort to the wearers, and lasting for fifty years. Specimens at home.

Kilton Castle was used as a local source of building material. William Farndale pulled down the old Kilton Lodge, connected with the, by then, ruined Kilton Castle, to build the new family home in 1798. John Farndale wrote connected with the castle is Kilton Lodge which my father pulled down to build a new house.

John Farndale recalled one family named Swales noted for oddness and singularity of manners. When they dined together they all dipped into one dish. The parent once called out for bread, exclaiming “I eat bread to every thing.” A little urchin answered “Now, Fadder, thou lies, thou doesn’t eat bread to cake!” When the old man died, a large multitude gathered at his funeral. He was brought through Kilton to Brotton to be buried, and this youth was noticed last at the grave side, and looking into the grace he at length broke the silence and said “Farewell, fadder!” and a second time he said, “Farewell, fadder!” and a third time, with all his might, making the welkin ring, he exclaimed, “Farewell, fadder!” and then left the graveside with a sad heart and a sorrowful countenance. The end of this rough, untutored fellow was untimely. In an evil hour his cart overturned over him, and two nights and a day he lay dying. The following lines he intended for his tombstone:-

Whea lies here? Whea dye think?

Poor Willy Swales, he loved a drop o’ drink.

Drink to him as you pass by,

For poor Willy Swales was always dry.

There was another servant of my father’s, named Ralph Page, equally as singular as Willy Swales. As Ralph was once busily ploughing, a French Privateer, threatening land at Skinningrove, fired into the town. Those in the district who had guns assembled on the cliffs and fired a volley in return. To intimidate the enemy the women mustered strong and attired in red cloaks and shouldering sticks, to represent a body of soldiers, they stood far away in the distance. Ralph took little notice of the privateer, not bothering his head either with the French or the English, only they let him be, when a young woman passing in haste, cried out “Ralph, French is landing.”. Ralph, turning round, with the greatest coolness replied, “Then run yam, and sup all’t cream,” and unconcerned he ploughed away as though nothing was the matter.

The next day the king’s cutter arrived, and the privateer and her had an engagement, when the Frenchmen were beaten and the vessel taken, to the great joy of the inhabitants of the surrounding district.

Here let me narrate one anecdote more of a man whom I well knew, and who lived and died at Moorsholm. There was an assize trial at York, about a water course running under ground, and Paul, for that was the man’s name, who was a fine upright fellow, with a high brow and a bluff face, had to appear as a witness on the occasion. When Paul went into the witness box, the counsellor on the opposite side having silenced a man of letters, very promptly said to Paul, as he stared at him, “Well Mr Baconface, and what have you to say on the subject?” “Whya.” Replied Paul, with a significant grin, “If my bacon face and thy calf face were boiled together they wad mak good broth!” The councillor looked abashed, and the whole court roared with laughter. The counsellor recovering his self possession, then tried to put Paul into a fix about the watercourse by inquiring what he knew about it, and in a triumphant tone of voice he said, “And how, my man, do you know that the same water ran out of the course that ran into it?” “How did I know that?” reiterated Paul, “Whya, I tuek care thou sees t’ muddy watter before it went in, and it cam out muddy.” The court enjoyed a hearty laugh, and the result was, the learned councillor lost his cause.

Kilton Hall 1795 sketched by John Farndale

There was an announcement on 19 January 1799: Education. Miss Greens’ respectfully acquaint their friends and the public that their school opens again on Monday 21, at Kilton Lodge, near Guisborough, where YOUNG LADIES are taught every branch of useful and ornamental education on the following terms: Entrance £1 1 0. Board, English grammar, and every kind of needle work £16 16 0. Writing and arithmetic £1 1 0. Geography £1 1 0. Use of piano forte £1 4 0. Use of drawers £0 5 0. Each Young Lady to bring a pair of sheets, two towels, spoon, knife and fork, or pay one Guinea for the use of them.

In her thesis, The Impact of Agricultural Change on the Rural Community - a case study of Kilton circa 1770-1870, Janet Dowey wrote The most predominant family at Kilton was the Farndales, their ancestry ages old. Its most distinguished member John Farndale wrote numerous books on the area. Kilton, the village itself had been a thriving community consisting of a public house, a meeting house, two lodging houses and a schoolhouse, from which sprang two eminent schoolmasters. A butcher's shop, a London tailor and his apprentice and eight others, a rag merchant, a shop which sold some books, pens, needles, tape and thread. Five sailors, two soldiers, two missionaries plus a number of very old people.

The picture John Farndale paints is of a peaceful rural community who boasted of no poachers, no cockfighters, no drunkards or swearers, a church going people who met together on a Sunday afternoon. Kilton at that time had nearly 20 houses and a population of 140 men, women and children, a Hall, stables, plantation and the old Castle plus 12 small farms. When John wrote these books he was speaking of a time long since passed.

Robert Jolly was a farmer and a staunch Wesleyan. After his death his farm was carried on awhile by his sons. This being the time of Nelson's death (1805), John Farndale went on to say that there was great reformation in Kilton estate, the little farms were joined together, about 150 acres each. Every farmer had to move to a new farm. The sons of Robert Jolly each moved away at this time, one became a lifeguard to George III and the other eventually became a minister. William Bulmer was another native of Kilton and married with nine children, he made his living buying and selling, but all his children moved away into 'respectable' situations.

Many of the farmers were weavers too, one in particular, George Bennison, had two looms plus his land and also prepared a colt for Northallerton fair once a year stop. The children of these farmers continually moved away from the district and agriculture. John Farndale recorded and now they disappear, but where are they gone, I know not.

John Tuke wrote it is observable, but in those families which have succeeded from generation to generation to the same farm, the strongest attachment to old customs prevails. For conduct and character, the farmer under survey must deservedly rank high among their fellows in any part of England, they are generally sober, industrious and orderly; most of the younger part of them have enjoyed a proper education, and give a suitable one to their children, who, of both sexes, are brought up in habits of industry and economy. Such conduct rarely fails meeting its reward; they who merit, and seek it, obtain independence, and every generation, or part of every generation, may be seen stepping forward to a scale in society somewhat beyond the last.

Agricultural change was probably already occurring before it was accelerated by the industrial revolution. Thomas Hardy in Tess of the D'Urbervilles, wrote all mutations so increasingly discernible in village life did not originate entirely in the agricultural unrest. A depopulation was going on." The village life which Hardy wrote about had previously contained side by side with agricultural labourers an interesting and better informed class. These included a carpenter, a Smith, shoemaker, huckster together with nondescript workers in addition to the farm labourers. A group of people who owed a certain stability of aim and conduct to the fact of their being life-holders or copyholders or occasionally small freeholders. When the long tenancy holdings ended, they were rarely again let to identical tenants, and they were usually pulled down, if they were not needed by the farmer or his workers. Cottagers who were not directly employed on the land were looked upon with disfavour, and the banishment of some starved the trade of others, who were thus obliged to follow. Families such as these had formed the backbone of the village life in the past who were the depositories of the village traditions, had to seek refuge in the large centres. There was a movement of the rural population towards the large towns being really the tendency of water to flow uphill when forced by machinery.

Nineteenth century Kilton

On 21 June 1806 the death of George Thompson of Kilton was reported on 29 May 1806. He had been master of a ship, the Glory, of 98 guns, who had been involved in more than 25 engagements across the world during his life.

The Skelton and Kilton Terrier in 1809 provided a detailed record of the tenanted farmland in 1809. A ‘terrier’ is a record of field names, with reference number, land use, acreage, value per acre and rent.

The Kelton land included records of the landholdings of William Bennison, George Bennison, William Farndale, Robert Solley, Robert Barker, Ralph Newbiggin, William Stephenson, Ralph Mitchell, John Farndale, and William Wood.

The Roxby and Cleveland Foxhounds met at Kilton Mill on Monday 24 November 1817. There were many notices of such hunts over the following years. The Roxby and Cleveland Hounds were formed by the notorious smuggler, John Andrew of the White House at Saltburn.

The Topographical Dictionary of Yorkshire by Thomas Langdale of 1822 described Kilton, in the parish of Skelton, east division of the wapentake and liberty of Langbarugh, 7 miles from Guisbrough, 15 from Stokesley, 16 from Whitby, population 129. Kilton Thorpe was also listed with the same description, but no population was given.

On 22 November 1823, there was a report that man traps and spring guns had been set in the woods, plantations and pleasure grounds of John Wharton Esq at Skelton, Kilton, Brotton and Great Moorsholm to stop trespassers.

On 11 June 1825, there was notice of the diversion of a part of the highway at Skinningrove and Kilton leading from the market town of Guisborough to Lofthouse, of a length of 344 yards and 15 feet in breadth, and for making a new highway more commodious to the Public to replace that section from a lane at Kilton and Lofthouse and extending south east and north east through and over the lands of John Wharton Esq and John Maynard.

There were general elections in 1832 and 1835. On 14 September 1833, notice was given that the three gentleman appointed to revise the list of voters for the North Riding of the County of York would come to Guisborough on 11 October 1833 in order to revise the list of voters for a number of towns including Kilton and Brotton.

On Saturday 5 September 1835 notice was given that a Commissioner had been appointed to execute An Act of for Inclosing Lands in the Manor of Skelton, in Cleveland, in the County of York and in doing so the Kilton Road was to be divided and inclosed. The Act of 1813 was passed for the enclosing of the lands of the manor of Skelton and the Commissioner was appointed to make inquiries and examine witness living within the manor boundaries.

In the nineteenth century, the opening of the Kilton and Lumpsey ironstone mines, and the arrival of the railway into the township, had a major impact on the landscape.

Janet Dowey in The Impact of Agricultural Change on the Rural Community - a case study of Kilton circa 1770-1870, wrote The Kilton John Farndale knew and loved …had changed beyond belief. Several of the very old and large estates were less crowded than they had been; where a better cultivation had taken place, the small cottages had given way gradually to shape a farm worthy of the person having such money to improve it. A lot of the field structures and hedges were still in place, only some of the hedges had been taken out to make bigger fields. The hedge structure at Kilton was probably there 50 years before John Farndale was born. In one instance a hedge appears to have been put in to divide a field.

The industrial revolution was impacting on Kilton. There was an unstoppable force which centralised craftsmen from the small villages, saw a revolution in farming methods and farming machinery, and the gradual replacement of villages by towns. The Napoleonic Wars had an influence on the price of farm produce, the price of food was kept at a fairly high level during the war. After the war finished the price of grain fell to one of its lowest levels, along with falling meat prices, and disastrous harvests. This provided the impetus to find new methods of efficiency in harvesting. Landlords enlarged the farms and brought in farmers with the resource for modernisation. The mechanisation of farming practice on the one hand and the progressive growth of urban factories on the other, combined to drastically alter that rural life. Turnpike roads, the invention of the railway and the canal networks brought revolutionary economic and technological change. Enclosure or amalgamation of the Kilton village farms, accelerating by the 1860s, completed the fate of the village.

Kilton’s fate was fundamentally changed by the combined forces of the monstre farm and the Industrial Revolution.

John Farndale lamented

And now dear Farndale, the best of friends must part,

I bid you and your little Kilton along and final farewell.

Time was on to all our precious boon,

Time is passing away so soon,

Time know more about his vast eternity,

World without end oceans without shore.

Amidst his nostalgia though, John Farndale was an admirer of Victorian innovation. Now much has changed, we oft times have looked and looked again, but no corner of this large farm has been neglected. Witness, this rich stack yard of 100 acres of wheat, the staff of life, and 100 more, oats, beans, peas, hay, clover, potatoes and turnips piled up against the winter storms. In the fold are housed 100 head of sheep, a stable with 14 farming horses, besides the young horses, pigs and geese in abundance, carts, wagons, ploughs and harrows and all implements.

Somewhat flamboyantly (my great x3 uncle was prone to Victorian melodrama), John Farndale, wrote On entering his hospitable hall I said, “Sir, I am reminded of the battle of Waterloo, when Wellington and Blucher with their lion-looking men accidentally met pursuing the fugitive French, when those two great generals, with uncovered heads, congratulated themselves and their victorious armies, and so may I you; your father and mine almost in equal circumstances placed us in this world to fight our passage through. If providence do point a demarcation and you follow, all well, but if you cross the line of providence your case will not be like the two generals, their’s were one equal interest – the salvation of their country and themselves. I find yours have been on the defensive, mine on the aggressive; you never left the citadel and therefore met no foe, but to the contrary, I have battled the world round, and therefore often found in fierce engagements with the foe. The contrast is widely different – peace on the one hand and war on the other. But all are equal in the grave. And now I will advertise what shall befall Kilton in those later days. Kilton will stand most pre-eminently above all the villages around. In imagination even now I see splendid terraces, standing in view of Lofthouse, Easington, Handale Abbey, Liverton, and a hall exceeding far the former one; I see a parsonage house and school house and cottages, many already, plantations, and a most splendid agricultural homestead on the best modern plan. Good success to JT Wharton Esq., of Skelton Princely Castle. He clearly had a grand idea for Kilton’s future.

On 2 November 1839 Hannah Mitchell of Kilton won a sovereign for the best cheese made out of the district at the Whitby Cheese Fair.

White’s History, Gazetteer and Directory for 1840 described Kilton as a small neat village, with 80 inhabitants and 1,510 acres of land, all the property and lordship of John Wharton Esq and formerly belonging to the ancient family of Thweng, who had a castle here, of which some traces still remain. Amongst its inhabitants were Joseph Newbegin, victualler; Thomas Robson, miller; and Matthew and Martin Farndale, George Jennings, George Moore, Thomas Raw & Joseph Thompson, farmers.

In Kelly’s Post Office Directory of 1872 Kilton was described as a township, 6 miles north east by east of Guisborough, and one south from Brotton. Here was formerly a castle of which but few traces remain. Here are church schools, recently erected and supported by John Thomas Wharton esq who is lord of the manor and landowner. The population in 1861 was 93; in 1871, 222; acreage 1,723; gross estimated rental £1,731; rateable value £1,593.

In his Returned Emigrant, John Farndale imagined his return to Kilton after years of absence when he took the well known lane down to Kilton, when at Howe Hill, and seeing a towering chimney above all; what misgivings now trouble his unprepared, peaceful breast. But when he neared his father’s homestead, and no place of it could be found, he moved forward, and looking right and left, he saw some twenty cottages and farmsteads, and behold that beautiful hall and stables that once graced this little town had all disappeared. And he would have enquired had there not been some eruption or some hostile invasion, or had the city not been burnt to ashes, for said he, here are marks of violence and desperation. But “I know nobody no not I, and nobody, nobody here cares for me,” and he lifted up his voice and wept aloud. And he began to examine the book of records, and genealogies of former days, days of his fathers’, and of his youth.

In his Guide to Saltburn by the Sea and the Surrounding District, he wrote, The picturesque scenery, however, in this neighbourhood still retains its loveliness, and the late John Wharton, Esq., of Skelton Castle, did much to improve its beauty. On every side where there was any waste land he planted it with wood to a great extent, and a large number of larches and oaks then planted, I planted with my own hands. On visiting this place lately, what was my astonishment on perceiving that many of these larches were cut and measured fifty cubic feet, while the oaks were in thriving condition and measured twenty four cubic feet. The site of these plantations is delightful, as they are finely sheltered from the piercing north winds.

The scenery of these woodlands, together with the woods of Lady Downs and the Earl of Zetland, appear so truly picturesque from Kilton height that it is utterly impossible for my pen to describe it. Beyond these woodlands rise in view the village of Lofthouse, with the Alum Works, and the seat of the late Sir Robert Dundas. These works are now superintended by William Hunton Esq., an old school fellow of mine. A little further on lies Easington and Boulby Alum Works, conducted by G Westgarth, Esq., a gentleman much respected. Still further, situate on the sea shore, stands the well known fishing village of Staithes, formerly proverbial for the roughness and rudeness of its inhabitants. Though rough, however, they were then as they are now a hardy, kind, and hospitable people, who obtain a living by braving the perils of the great deep. Poor Thrattles, once reckoned the King of Staithes, and who was a good fellow, is now no more, and the place is much changed since bis days. But the reader, perhaps may not care about lingering at Staithes, so we shall take our stand again on Kilton How Hill, from whence may be seen the most delightful scenery in the district.

In an article on Methodism in Cleveland, The Methodist Recorder on 17 April 1902 described local methodism and the prominent role of Charles Farndale‘s family.

… But the Kilton of Wesley's time was a very different place to the deserted village of today. It could then boast of crowded streets and many shops. It was evidently a place “Where health and plenty cheered the labouring swain” and where oft times “All the village train, from labour free, led up their sports beneath the spreading tree”. But alas.as in the case of sweet Auburn “All these charms are fled and desolation saddens all thy green”.

Wesleyan services were held in a cottage until through certain changes, whole streets were left empty, and have sent since being demolished.

For very many years services have been held in the spacious farm kitchen of Mr C Farndale, Kilton lodge, which was also that of his father before him. Methodism in the neighbourhood and the cause of righteousness generally owes much to the high Christian character and active interest in all good works displayed by this devoted Methodist family. Here the preachers have always found a hearty welcome and ministers and others who know the circuit spent under this hospitable roof.

Lumpsey

There is extensive ridge and furrow work in the area of Lumpsey, which suggests medieval agriculture.

The estate plan of 1767 shows a farmhouse and a range of buildings at Lumpsey, as does the tithe map.

Lumpsey, 1853 Lumpsey Mines by 1893 Lumpsey Mines in 1913

By 1856 this had developed into a courtyard farm.

The establishment of an ironstone mine in this area in the late nineteenth century led to the destruction of the farm and no buildings survive.

Kilton Woods and Kilton Beck

John Farndale wrote:

Kilton is a small village, but the vale in which it stands abounds with woodland scenery. At a short distance stands the remains of the old castle of Kilton, which once belonged to the Thwings, where centuries ago there were no doubt great doings; but time here has wrought vast changes, and the history of this once important stronghold is now nearly buried in oblivion.

From the ruins of the castle there is a fine view of the vast forest in which it stands, with the river crawling through blocks of huge stones till it reaches the sea at Skinningrove. Here I remember planting, fifty years ago, the first trees near the old castle walls, and they are now as lofty as their sires two hundred years old. Here as I stand how reflection crowds my mind. There is no corner of this wood unknown to me. I have traversed it a thousand times when a boy. I have captured in it the owl, the crow, the cushat, the hawk, the cuckoo, and every other forest bird, and also the squirrel, the weasel, the foumart, the badger, the snake and the fox. How often I have heard the retreat of the huntsman’s horn, like Joab at the death of Absolom, and how exulted when three cheers proclaimed the death of poor Reynard. I remember once the fox hard run by the Cleveland and Roxby hounds, and he took refuge between the old castle walls and the ivy creeping between. Here he kept safe till the hounds came up, when he boldly bounced in the very face of his enemies, and was soon overcome. Mr J Codling, of Roxby, caught him yet alive, and brushed him in the presence of Consett Dryden Esq., myself and a few others, and we made the wood resound with three cheers.

Here in the spring time when Nature is bursting into new life and beauty, and every hill is carpeted with wild flowers, when the feathered choir sing in joyful and delightful concert, and the busy bee with its drony tone passes and repasses, how sweety it is to stand and admire the skill and muse the praise of Him who brought them into being.

John couldn’t resist another attempt at some poetry:

Kilton Woods

Here blooming flowers, with fragrant lips, Sweet pleasure gives to me, While happy birds with gladsome voice Now flirt from tree to tree.

The river as it onward flows Its pleasant winding way, Sings with smiles of calm content Its message day by day.

On mountain high and valley low The voice of God I hear, And by the sea, the rippling sea, I ever feel him near.

I gaze upon the silent night And in the heavens above, And in golden letters, clear and bright, The stars sing God is love.

The cuckoo with her well known voice, Sings ever as she flies, And joyful tidings brings to all, She never tells us lies.

She sucks the eggs of other birds, Which makes her voice more clear; And when she sings, gay spring is come And summer’s drawing near.

Petrifying springs, depositing carbonate of lime, abound in this locality. Amongst the most remarkable may be noticed a spring in Kilton Wood, a little to the south of the castle, and a remarkable sulphurous spring, which issues from the aluminous schistus on the banks of the beck near Kilton Mill. One gallon of water of this spring was found to be seventy two garins heavier than a gallon of distilled water. In the immediate vicinity of Kilton Castle there is also another petrifying spring, depositing carbonate of lime.

Kilton Mill

A mill was recorded at Kilton in 1323 and 1344 when it was worth 30s per annum. The 1767 map shows a mill perhaps in the approximate location of the medieval mill.

The 1767 map shows a complex of at least three buildings, wrongly labelled as Wilton Mill. The mill building is shown extending over the stream and the wheel may have been contained within a housing. The complex changed little by 1845, but by 1856 it had grown, with the addition of a courtyard farm.

A large nineteenth century mill with its outbuilding still stands on Kilton beck and may occupy much the same location as its medieval predecessor. It is no longer used for milling purposes.

Chapel Fields

These three fields lie on a medieval trackway from Kilton and were given the name Chapel Fields on the 1767 map and the 1845 tithe map. The significance of the name is not obvious. Perhaps a chapel once stood in these fields or perhaps the rent from the fields were provided for the upkeep of a chapel.

Kilton Thorpe

The form and extent of the medieval settlement at Kilton Thorpe is difficult to determine. An area of earthworks survives at the northwest corner of the present village.

Three buildings were shown on the 1767 map and by 1845 these had shrunk to two. In 1857 those buildings to the south of the road had disappeared altogether, to be replaced by a single building set back from the road and at right angles to it. The buildings to the north of the road had been extended possibly with the construction of a state cottages and another farmstead.

Kilton Thorpe and Kilton Mines, 1893

The Kilton mines were sited to the south of Kilton Thorpe and were opened in 1871. Their main impact on Kilton had been the creation of a large spoil tip which continues to dominate the skyline. Both Kilton and Lumpsey mines were served by railways and the abandoned embankments and cuttings of the railways are still visible.

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Meet Old Johnny Farndale, William Farndale, Charles Farndale and John Farndale the Author.

The webpage on Kilton includes research notes, chronology and reference to sources.