Mrs Annabel Dott & the Goathland Homes for Officers

I came across the story of Mrs Annabel Dott and the Goathland Homes for Officers quite by accident.

I was flicking through a volume of the old Harmsworth Encyclopaedia, published in the early 1920s, and I found to my surprise that there was an entry for the village of Goathland:

Goathland.  Parish and village of N.R. Yorkshire, England.  It is 8m S.W. of Whitby, on the N.E. Rly.  Here is a cottage colony for disabled officers.  Goathland Moor lies 2m S. of the village, and is noted for its cataracts.  Pop 519

I was intrigued – I had no idea there had been a "cottage colony for disabled officers" at Goathland.  I soon found that the houses were the work of a remarkable woman, Mrs Annabel Dott.

Annabel Dott is best described as a woman builder who, self-taught, designed (with a little help) and built the Goathland cottages herself.  It was her first major design & build project; others followed.  In 1917 she and her husband generously offered to give the Goathland cottages to the county to be homes for disabled officers returning from the First World War.  Their donation was gratefully accepted and the scheme ran from 1919 to 1931.

Born in 1868, she was a woman unafraid to operate in a man's world.  She was part of the campaign for women's suffrage and equal rights and a founder member of Women's Pioneer Housing Ltd, a London housing association formed to fill the urgent need for homes for the women who remained in the workforce after the end of the First World War, or who, in increasing numbers, entered the world of paid work after 1918. 

I also found that I was joining a band of Annabel researchers and admirers.  This is my contribution to the field of study.

I feel obliged to add here that readers from outside the county will probably know Goathland best as Heartbeat territory from the much-loved TV series, in which it appeared as Aidensfield.  (I see that Heartbeat location tours are offered these days.)  And of course Goathland station on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway featured in the first Harry Potter film too.

I will post this research in separate chapters, which I think will make it easier to follow, but I will place acknowledgements at the foot of each chapter, with my thanks to everyone concerned.

I have removed the photograph that previously illustrated this blogpost, as I am assured by a member of the family that it showed a Mrs Crebin, not Annabel Dott

The story of Annabel Dott begins with 1. Mrs Annabel Dott (1868-1937): her family