In the 1990s Peter Meadows was working on an article on the subject of a lost Cleveland house called Angrove (also Anngrove or Ann-grove) Hall, which once stood between Great Ayton and Stokesley. The results of his work were keenly anticipated but, as far as I can tell, it was never completed. His draft article was the basis of Dan O'Sullivan's piece on Angrove Hall on the Great Ayton History Society pages on wikidot and I was given sight of the draft article many years ago by Dr Geoffrey Stout, but I have not been able to discover whether the draft article itself survives. Finally I decided to investigate Angrove Hall myself and the account that follows is the result [1].
(The Great Ayton History Society's wikidot pages are no longer active, as the Society is in the process of creating its own website. I will alter my references to link to the new website when it is operational. In the meantime, my apologies.)
Richard Blakeborough's ghost story
On 11 August 1900 the Northern Weekly Gazette proudly announced that Mr Richard Blakeborough, "the well-known author of 'Yorkshire Wit, Character, Folklore, and Customs' and 'T'Hunt of Yatton Brigg'" would be contributing to the newspaper
a series of unique complete stories, into which he has woven in his own inimitable way a variety of remarkable
Old Legends, Folk Tales,
and
Ghost Stories of North Yorkshire
under the title "Tales our Grandfathers Told"
On 25 August 1900, Richard Blakeborough's column began with a story of some 3,500 words entitled 'The Mystery of Ann Grove Hall' with the subtitle in brackets '(The Manor House, Stokesley)'.
Blakeborough's story was an exciting tale featuring in swift succession: a master of Angrove Hall who was enraged by the suspicion that his daughter planned to elope with the undercoachman; his allegation that the man had stolen valuables that he was entrusted to take to Stokesley; the disappearance of the coachman and his reappearance as a ghost; the hunt by the man's tenacious sister for the truth of her brother's fate with the aid of the witch Hannah Waugh and the Great Broughton blacksmith; and the exposure by means of magic charms of the master as a murderer. The man's body is at last discovered and the Hall decays, falling
into such ill-repute that no one could be prevailed upon to live in it, so it was closed, and never inhabited again, thus fulfilling the prophecy, which Hannah Waugh is reported to have made to the master of Anngrove, one day when she met him in Stokesley town, he being in company with several others at the time. Said she, brandishing her staff in his face
Thoo'll a'e thi day,
Bud lambs 'll plaay,
An' loup on t'grund where Anngrov' stan's.
Neea lahm (lime) s'll ho'd
S'all hap up t'deed o'thi tweea han's
Indeed, Blakeborough wrote, Hannah Waugh's prediction had come true and "not a stone" was left of "the ill-fated Manor House, Anngrove Hall".
By the time he repeated the story in his column in the Whitby Gazette on 1 December 1905, he had made the tale still more exciting and lively with the addition of a great deal of the dialect speech for which he was famous. He also made a small change in the name he had given one of his characters. In his original version he had given the name Thomas Mease to a groom at the Hall. Possibly it had been pointed out to him that Thomas Mease (1792-1862) had been a well-known Stokesley business man as he has altered the name to Thomas Moses.
Three farms (Angrove East, Angrove West and Angrove North) preserve the name of Angrove today. Its gate pillars can still be seen, as they were moved to the entrance to Stokesley Manor House when Angrove Hall was demolished 2. (The date of the demolition is generally accepted to have been 1832, as given by Peter Meadows and as stated in Dan O'Sullivan's article.) Richard Blakeborough's ghost story is still retold, and versions can be found online.
So what was the history of Angrove Hall? And what relation does the ghost story bear to that history?
Richard Blakeborough informed his readers that details of the murder and Angrove Hall itself were hard to establish. Some old people believed that the murder happened in about 1840; some said it took place "quite a hundred years (say 1725) before the place was allowed to fall into ruin". Some said the body was soon discovered; in the version he favours, the action plays out over generations. Certainly Blakeborough knew little about the house, believing that it was an old manor house and referring to it as the Manor House of Stokesley.
In fact, Angrove Hall was only built in about 1760 and had a lifespan of barely 70 years. Its owner and builder was called Thomas Wayne.
