Hutton Rudby and District Local History Society on Facebook: old photos

Visit the new Facebook page of the Hutton Rudby and District Local History Society and you'll find it a source of the most fascinating old photographs.

This is thanks to the hard work of Malcolm McPhie and he tells me there are plenty more to follow - just keep visiting the page!

Anne Hutton, wife of George Wilson

The marriage announcement for Anne Hutton and George Wilson, founder of the Hutton Rudby Sailcloth Mill, shows that her father's name was George, and that the family lived in Pilgrim Street, Newcastle.

(George Wilson and his partner Mr Robinson took a newly-built warehouse at 79 Pilgrim Street the following year)

Durham Chronicle, 17 June 1836

In Newcastle, on the 9th inst.,  ... at St Andrew's, Mr Geo. Wilson, of Hutton Rudby, Yorkshire, to Anne, eldest daughter of Mr George Hutton, Pilgrim Street

Otter hunting on the Leven, 1830

To remind us of how far we have come:-

Bell's Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, 8 August 1830

SEVERE OTTER HUNT. - On Monday, the Stockton and Hutton-Rudby Otter Hunters met at Leven-bridge, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, at four o'clock in the morning, and at six found a large dog-otter, which they, at length, succeeded in killing, after an excellent hunt, both by land and water, for nine hours.  He was so powerful and large, weighing twenty-six pounds, that although there were eight couple of hounds attacking him in a wood, he nearly tore them to pieces, many having been obliged to be carried home.  On the whole, the day's sport was very fine, and the hunt is allowed to have been the best and severest ever known in this part of the country.

At least we don't view that sort of horror as sport any more.

Joseph Hill Appleton (1811-80) and the Meynell family

A reader has been in touch and would like to be in contact with anyone who has any information on the family of Joseph Hill Appleton (born in Richmond, Yorks in 1811, died in Attercliffe, Sheffield in 1880).  He was the son of John Appleton (1775-1852) and Margaretta Clare Ann Hill (born in Great Ayton in 1783).  Margaretta was reputed to be the daughter of a Mary Meynell.

Joseph Hill Appleton said that he was the great-grandson of Christopher Meynell of Hunterbanks Farm, Crathorne.

My correspondent would like to know how Margaretta Clare Ann Hill was connected to the Meynell family and would dearly love to make contact with the purchasers of the 18th and 19th century Ephemera relating to the Appleton Family of Sheffield which came up for sale at Tennants of Leyburn in September 2008.

His particular interest is in an album made by Joseph Hill Appleton entitled "Appletonia", showing a connection to the Appleton family of Appleton Wiske, North Yorkshire, and he would be happy to pay for high resolution scans of the contents.

Anyone who can assist, do please contact me and I will put you in touch.

John Jackson (1743-1808), schoolmaster of Hutton Rudby

In the Schoolmasters section of People of Hutton Rudby (Sadler to Seamer), I had a little bit of information about the Rudby schoolmaster John Jackson, taken from The Church and Parish of Rudby in Cleveland by the Rev Arthur Eddowes (published 1924).

He took his information from The Bards and Authors of Cleveland, which was written and published by George Markham Tweddell, the Stokesley printer, in 1872.  The full title was The Bards and Authors of Cleveland and South Durham and the Vicinage.  Tweddell has a short chapter on John Jackson

who for six-and-twenty years was master of Rudby School, was so much esteemed as a classical and mathematical teacher that the sons of the principal inhabitants of Stokesley used to travel daily to and from his academy to avail themselves of his instruction.  Many of the sundials still existing in Cleveland are of his manufacture, that at Rudby Church being one.  

Tweddell quotes in full the lyrics of the song The Cleveland Fox Chase, for which John Jackson wrote both the words and the music.  It begins

The glimpse of Aurora appears o'er the hills,

The morning's inviting and fair;

The murmuring streamlets and fine purling rills,

Along with the sweet-scented air,

Invite the gay sportsmen; and first do appear

The two noble chiefs of Greenhow,

With famed Gis'brough's lord, and the hounds in the rear,

In hopes to cry off - Tally-ho!

(The gentlemen mentioned were Sir William Foulis, Bt, his brother John Robinson Foulis, and William Chaloner, owner of the hounds).

John Jackson was evidently a man of many talents.  The notice of his death in the Hull Packet of 21 June 1808 records

On Friday the 27th ult. that very useful member of society, Mr John Jackson, of Hutton Rudby school, aged 65.  He was a universal scholar, and many years a contributor (in every department) to those learned and entertaining annual publications, the Ladies' and Gentlemen's Diaries.

(I think the Diaries was an Almanac-style publication)

As for The Bards and Authors of Cleveland, which covers authors and poets from Caedmon to Francis Mewburn, the solicitor for the Stockton & Darlington Railway, you can read it here, as archive.org now has the text online.  A full account of its contents is to be found here on the website dedicated to the life and works of George Markham Tweddell (1823-1903).

Photographs of Hutton Rudby

Looking for photographs of Hutton Rudby, old and new?  Go at once to Malcolm McPhie's Facebook page Hutton Rudby Karting incorporating village history 

So many pictures that have never been seen before – don't miss the one looking downstream under Hutton Rudby bridge with the mill chimney beyond. 

Definitely not to be missed!

Hutton Rudby celebrates a Royal Wedding, 1863

Newcastle Chronicle, 21 March 1863

HUTTON RUDBY. - Among the Yorkshire villages, none were more conspicuous in their celebrations of the marriage of the Prince of Wales than Hutton Rudby.  

A correspondent says that on the wedding day the British and Danish flags were seen waving in the air from the summits of the Cleveland Sailcloth Manufactory, and in various prominent places of the village.  The Hutton brass band sent forth its animating and melodious strains, and Mr George Wilson provided a liberal banquet for all his workmen and their wives, in which the band joined them, and all enjoyed themselves most heartily.  

A subscription was set on foot to provide the juveniles and poor of the village with tea and plum cake, and through the exertions of Miss Garbutt and Mrs Henry Chapman, and the liberality of Miss Righton, sufficient funds were raised so as to enable them to give out a general invitation to the whole of the inhabitants of Hutton Rudby to come and partake of a bountiful supply of tea and plum cake, and some five or six hundred availed themselves of the treat.  

The tea was served in the National School-room, which was lent for the occasion by the Rev J Barton [actually the Revd R J Barlow], the vicar, who did all in his power to promote the festivities of the day.  In the evening, an immense bonfire blazed on the village green, and the day's proceedings finished with a grand display of fireworks.

For the story of the political ramifications of the marriage of the Prince of Wales with Alexandra, daughter of Prince Christian of Denmark, on the 10 March 1863, don't miss the website called the Heirs to the Throne Project. 

This is a Research Project based at the University of St Andrews and its full title is Heirs to the Throne in the Constitutional Monarchies of Nineteenth-Century Europe (1815-1914).  Their article on the marriage of Bertie and Alix, with full details and illustrations, is a must-read.