Hutton Rudby Mechanics' Institute, founded 6 November 1850

So little is known of the Hutton Rudby Mechanics' Institute, that I quote this piece in full.  It gives such a flavour of the event and the times and the hunger for learning and self-improvement among working men.  An impressive 400 people packed the large room of the Flax Spinning Mill by the River Leven to celebrate the Institute's first anniversary:-

York Herald, 15 November 1851

SOIREE OF THE HUTTON RUDBY MECHANICS INSTITUTE 

On Thursday, November 6th, the first anniversary of the Hutton Rudby Institute was celebrated in the large room of the Spinning Mill, the use of which was kindly allowed for the occasion.  The room was tastefully decorated with evergreens, and though the day was very unfavourable nearly 400 persons sat down to tea, which was provided gratuitously by the ladies of the village, who presided at the tables.  Mrs Burnett, the well-known vocalist, assisted by Mr S J Taylor, who presided at the pianoforte, sung several popular songs, during the evening, and added greatly to the enjoyment of the assembly.  As soon as tea was over, and the room had been cleared of tables, &c., the Rev J S Barlow [actually the Rev R J Barlow] was called to the chair. 

The CHAIRMAN opened the proceedings by assuring the meeting that he felt duly sensible of the honour they had conferred upon him.  As he had not been accustomed to take part in public meetings, he consented to take the chair very reluctantly, fearing he should damage the cause they were met to advocate.  He said few things could be more cheering to a person in his position, than to see efforts made to elevate the tastes and habits of his parishioners, especially the tastes and habits of the labouring classes, and he sincerely trusted they would avail themselves of every means of improvement which was offered by the Institute. 

The SECRETARY read the report, from which it appeared the Institute had been established one year; that it numbers upwards of sixty members; that a reading-room well supplied with newspapers and periodicals; and a library well supplied with books had been opened; that the committee had expended about forty pounds during the year, and that they had a creditable balance in hand. 

Mr JOSEPH TAYLOR, of Middlesbro', addressed the meeting, at considerable length, on the advantages of mechanics' institutes.  He said the object of those institutions was to give young men facilities for mental culture, and to assist them to acquire such a knowledge of business as should enable them to compete with men who had been favoured with a superior education in their boyhood, or had enjoyed the advantages of living in larger towns.  He made a powerful appeal to the young men present, who had not joined the institute, to come forward and do so.  He said it was impossible to say to what a man would attain who resolutely "willed" to be "onward." 

HENRY PEASE, Esq., of Darlington, on presenting himself, was warmly applauded.  He said they were not to expect a great speech from him, he did not take himself the credit of being an eloquent speaker.  He had long been connected with mechanics' institutes; he had some knowledge of what they had done for the people, and if he could say anything that evening calculated to promote the interests of the Hutton Rudby institute, it would afford him much pleasure.  He said there was nothing Englishmen respected more than manliness of character; and to possess true manliness of character, a man must be educated; ignorance was slavery.  He would advise every young man to apply himself studiously to one branch of education until he had mastered it.  He would urge upon every young man the necessity of depending upon himself; to trust in no man, and in no body of men; to trust in nothing but his own efforts, and God's blessing upon those efforts.  Determine to do credit to yourselves, and credit to the institute of which you form a part.  He was very anxious they should attend well to the classes.  He would advise them to adopt a good system of reading.  It was astonishing how little some people appeared to know, though they read a great deal; they read without any system, and they could not command either true ideas, or proper expressions, when they wanted them.  He urged upon all the importance of doing their best to improve their position.  He said there were [illegible] encouraging examples of men who had attained the highest positions, with everything apparently unfavorable at their start.  He had seen much of Mechanics' Institutes, and he knew their tendency was for good; let those institutes be well conducted, and have the support of which they were worthy, and he was certain they would see, in every town, a different and a better state of things. 

Mr JOHN TAYLOR, made some useful remarks on the claims of Mechanics' Institutes.  He said he had several times visited Hutton Rudby to advocate Temperance, and it gave him much pleasure to be with them on that occasion.  He was certain the formation of the Mechanics' Institute would constitute an important era in the history of Hutton Rudby, and he trusted it would meet with that support, from the inhabitants generally, as should make it a real blessing to the village and neighbourhood. 

The meeting was also addressed by Mr John Jordison, of Middlesbro', G O Wray, Esq., R R Burgess, Esq., and Mr Joseph Hutton, of Stokesley. 

A vote of thanks was given to the chairman, and, about half-past ten o'clock, the largest and most enthusiastic meeting, ever held in Hutton Rudby, was brought to a close.

We know that by the end of the century the Institute was housed at the top of North End, and perhaps in 1851 it was already installed there.  The photograph below is thought to have been taken in the 1880s.

North End, Hutton Rudby

The building was later used as a Reading Room and Library, then a Snooker Hall, and in the 1960s it became a shop.  Originally it was a long, low building but it was altered in about 1900 when a mock-Tudor black-and-white frontage was added.

Postcard of North End, Hutton Rudby

This second photograph shows the new frontage.

For more on the vicar, Robert Barlow, see my book, Remarkable but still True, the story of the Revd R J Barlow and Hutton Rudby in the time of the cholera.  It's on this blog and Chapter 1 can be found here

Henry Pease (1807-81) was a member of the Darlington Quaker family.  He was a director of the Darlington & Stockton Railway, creator of the seaside resort of Saltburn, a peace activist who went to see the Tsar of Russia in an attempt to stop the Crimean War.  A short account of his life can be found here and there is more on his part in the opening of the railway line that ran across Stainmore here.  (I know I travelled on the line across to Penrith with my father, but was too young to have any memory of it now.  What a shame it's gone).

You will perhaps have noticed that though the village ladies supplied the refreshments, the young village women were not to have any share in the opportunities provided by the Institute ...


Thanks to Malcolm McPhie and the Facebook page of the Hutton Rudby and District Local History Society for the photos.  Many more photographs of North End can be found there.

The Rising of the North 1569

Exactly 450 years ago, the Rising of the North or Northern Rebellion of 1569 was reaching its crisis, as readers of Chris Lloyd's recent piece in the Northern Echo will know.  Don't miss it!  It tells the story of the siege of Barnard Castle and gives the numbers of County Durham men who were hanged after the Rising when Elizabeth I took her savage vengeance.

In Cleveland, Thomas Layton of Sexhow was a Queen's man and he played a part in the suppression of the Rising.  For the full story, check out my account of his cousin Thomas Milner of Skutterskelfe: the life & times of a Tudor gentleman. 

And when you travel along the road between Hutton Rudby and Stokesley, remember the man from the tiny hamlet of Braworth who was hanged there for his role in the Rebellion.

More on Joseph Honeyman (d 1848)

Dave Honneyman has just contacted me to say that the Joseph Honeyman of my last post (the seaman who died of cholera on board the brig Zephyr in the West Dock at Hartlepool at the end of October 1848) was, as I thought, the son of Thomas Honeyman and Ann Whorlton and it was Joseph who appeared in the Hutton Rudby census of 1841 as a cartwright's apprentice.

Dave tells me that Joseph's cousin Thomas joined the Navy in 1844 and he wonders if that was the reason that Joseph went to sea.

Thank you, Dave!  So nice to hear from you.  Anybody researching the Honeyman family should check out the information that Dave sent me in 2013, which can be found here:  Honeymans and Whorltons.

Joseph Honeyman of Hutton Rudby, dies of cholera in 1848

York Herald, 4 November 1848

CASE OF CHOLERA, AND CAUTION TO DRUNKARDS

On Tuesday last, an inquest was held before Mr John Settle, at the Angel Inn, in Stranton, on view of the body of Joseph Honeyman, a native of Hutton Rudby, in Yorkshire, and who was a seaman on board the brig Zephyr, then lying in the West Dock, at Hartlepool, on board of which the deceased was viewed by the jurors.  

From the evidence, it appeared that the deceased had been drinking for several days, in London, previous to the vessel leaving the Thames, and that he had got quit of about nine sovereigns in eight days, during which time he had been drunk every day.  

When off Flambro' Head on Saturday last, the deceased was suddenly attacked about five o'clock in the afternoon with illness.  He was sick and vomited very much, he was purged and subjected to cramps, and was also cold at the extremities.  He lingered about thirty hours from his first being seized, and died on board the Zephyr, at the harbour of the West Dock.  

Dr Green, of Hartlepool, attended the deceased on the arrival of the ship, and, at the inquest, he stated that deceased's was a case of malignant Asiatic cholera, the exciting cause being drink.  Deceased was 24 years of age.  Verdict, "Natural death, from Asiatic cholera."

On the Hartlepool History Then and Now website you can see a Public Notice dated 8 August 1848 warning the inhabitants of the cholera:

From information received almost daily in this country, from many parts of the Continent, it is manifest that, that dreadful scourge of human life, the CHOLERA, is spreading its devastating influence over many parts; and, from all accounts, the inhabitants of this country have the strongest reasons for dreading its quick approach to these Isles; and of all the towns in the kingdom, none can have greater cause of fear than Hartlepool ...

The same website has a picture of the West Harbour and Dock dated 1848.

A few weeks before the death of Joseph Honeyman, the Darlington and Stockton Times of 14 October 1848 had carried the report that "considerable apprehension and alarm" had been excited in Hartlepool the previous Saturday when a rumour spread that a young passenger on the Highland Chief out of South Shields had died of the cholera.  

It was Dr Green, with a police officer, who went aboard to establish the facts, and he decided  that it had not been a cholera case.  The belongings of the poor young man, Isaac Forsyth Arthur, were removed ("his trunk, portmanteau, &c") and the Highland Chief continued on her voyage to Naples.  The jury decided that he had died from exhaustion, caused by sea-sickness.  He was about 20 years old, and had been a student in the Free College at Edinburgh.

This was the second visitation of the Asiatic cholera to the United Kingdom.  Hutton Rudby itself had suffered in the first terrible epidemic in 1832.  For a full account see 'The Year of the cholera', chapter 11 of Remarkable, but still True, my book about the Rev R J Barlow of Hutton Rudby.

Already in 1832, a link had been made between alcohol and the disease.  To quote from that chapter:

The abuse of alcohol was frequently linked with vulnerability to cholera, by the newspapers and the doctors.  It struck a chord with the public, as this was the dawn of the temperance movement, and alcohol now carried increasing associations of poverty and lack of self-control.  Moreover, the usual medical advice was to abstain from strong liquor during the epidemic and take wine in moderation.  In fact the gastritis and malnutrition caused by excessive use of alcohol did favour the disease.

And the unfortunate young man at the heart of this story –

There is one Joseph Honeyman in Hutton Rudby in the 1841 Census who was of the right age.  Joseph, aged 17 or 15 (it is hard to tell whether 7 or 5 was the correction) was the son of Thomas Honeyman, weaver, and his wife Ann, and he was in 1841 a cartwright's apprentice.  He must have left the village for a more exciting life ...

Mrs Annabel Dott & the Goathland Homes for Officers: correction

I've just amended a couple of posts in the fascinating story of the redoubtable Mrs Annabel Dott – the series of blogposts that make up the account of her life and work begin here – on hearing from a member of the Dott family. 

I had used a photograph of a pleasant-looking lady which was believed by some members of the family to show Annabel Dott, but it doesn't – it's definitely a photo of a Mrs Crebin.

My contact says of Annabel, "My feeling is that she would look a bit more fierce than Mrs. Crebin does" and I must say that I agree!

I'm still hopeful that one day a photograph of Annabel Dott will turn up ...

Taitlands near Settle, home of Thomas & Jane Redmayne

If you've ever read about John Richard Stubbs and his family on this blog – A Boroughbridge Boyhood in the 1850s introduces them – you might remember his visits to Taitlands, the country house near Settle where his mother's sister Jane Henlock lived with her husband Thomas Redmayne (c1797-1862) and their children.  

Jane was Thomas's third wife – the first two died young, probably in childbirth – and she brought up his daughter Jane and her own two children, Mary and Henry.

And now you can see photographs of Taitlands, which was for many years a youth hostel and has,over the last decade been lovingly restored to glory.  I'm sure the estate agents who are offering it for sale won't mind if I reproduce one of the photos here – perhaps it will prompt a reader to buy this beautiful house!

Taitlands, near Settle

John Stubbs describes visiting Taitlands several times in his diaries.  The house was barely twenty years old when he first knew it, as Thomas Redmayne had only begun building it in 1831, and so it must all have looked very new and grand to John.  When he was a teenage boy at Giggleswick School he used to visit the family.  In 1853 for example:

Saturday 29 January 1853  Went to Taitlands Aunt was poorly rode the horses came home with Uncle

One Friday, he went out there with a schoolfriend without telling Mrs Stubbs, with whom he was lodging, where he was going.  Mrs Mary Ann Stubbs was another of his aunts, the widow of his father's brother William Morley Stubbs.  She helped her sister Miss Isabella Henlock keep a school at The Terrace, Settle.  They also took in boys who attended Giggleswick School as lodgers:

Friday 30 September 1853

In the evening walked with T Bramley to Taitlands on the sly   Mrs Stubbs & Co knew not

After John left school, he visited the Redmayne family there on several occasions.

In August 1856 he stayed there for three weeks and described in his diary driving his aunt and cousins in the Phaeton – going shooting – taking a shot at a rabbit in a field "where I ought not" – visiting old schoolfriends – and enjoying "a little dance" when visitors came to Taitlands.

In 1857 he travelled there with his aunt Miss Isabella Henlock (not to be confused with her second cousin Miss Isabella Henlock of Settle).  Aunt Bell was there to visit her sister Jane Redmayne, and John was there to combine business with pleasure.  He went shooting with his cousin Henry Redmayne ("shot 2 hares"), went to Skipton Sessions from Settle station, and enjoyed the social life of Settle.  "Lots of folks" came to tea at Taitlands after calling on on his friend Thomas Stackhouse of Stainforth, who had recently married.

On Wednesday 13 January 1858 he travelled there for the wedding of his friend Dr Leonard William Sedgwick to Thomas Redmayne's daughter Jane.  John was one of the groomsmen and he stayed with Thomas Stackhouse.  I describe the customs of the weddings in rural Yorkshire in A Boroughbridge Boyhood in the 1850s: “Helped to arrange about the Wedding Breakfast”.  This was quite the grandest affair that John attended in those years:

Wednesday January 13

Went with Leonard & Mary Sedgwick to Taitlands to Leonards Wedding he paid my fare Tom Sedgwick joined us at Leeds   Fanny Stubbs met us at Settle Station   Had a Fly to Taitlands   Had tea there   Tom Sedgwick Wm Nixon & I went to sleep at Stackhouses Leonard went to Richardsons

Thursday January 14

Went to Taitlands to 1st breakfast & helped Uncle to arrange. Went back to Stackhouse’s got dressed   Took Leond to Church & they got wed.  Tom Sedgwick I Wm Stubbs Wm Nixon & Hy Redmayne were Groomsmen   Miss Nixon Mary Redmayne Mary Sedgwick Fanny Stubbs & Margaret Ingelby were bridesmaids. Went to Taitlands Sat down 30 to breakfast at ½ past 12  Bride & Groom started about 2. We some of us walked to Stainforth Foss & on to the rock in front of Taitlands went & had a 1st tea at Stackhouses Went to Taitlands we were above 50 of us Had a splendid dance Got to Stackhouses about ½ past 3 Went to bed about 5 Everything passed off firstrately

In September 1859 he left the office in Boroughbridge at about 2 o'clock taking three ferrets with him and arrived at Settle station at about 8 o'clock.  He visited friends and family in the area and he and his cousin Henry went about with guns and with the ferrets.  He spent his 21st birthday at Taitlands, going morning and afternoon to Stainforth Church – went with his aunt around Giggleswick and Settle as she made calls on friends and acquaintances – and went with the Redmaynes to Clapham to visit their relations the Marriner family at the vicarage and to have fun at Clapham Fair.  He and Henry went to a circus at Settle, went rabbiting about Horton, and shooting in Austwick Wood.  His stay lasted nearly three weeks.

And then in 1862 Thomas and Jane Redmayne died within days of each other.  Their son-in-law Leonard certified that Thomas died of "Chronic softening of the Brain 12 months" and of bronchitis, from which he had suffered for four weeks; Jane died of cancer.  

Their son Henry was only twenty years old, and the executors looked for tenants for Taitlands:

Yorkshire Gazette, 5 April 1862

To be Let, and may be Entered upon forthwith, Taitlands, a desirable Residence ... in the midst of very Romantic Scenery, with the Gardens and Grounds, and Seventeen and a Half Acres of Rich Grass Land.  The House comprises Entrance Hall, Dining, Drawing, and Breakfast Rooms, Eight Bed Rooms, besides Man Servant's Room, and Attics, Butler's Pantry, good Kitchens, Scullery, and excellent Cellars.  The Rooms are spacious and lofty.  The House is in good Repair, and in every respect a suitable Gentleman's Residence.  Good Coach House, Stables, Harness Room, and other convenient Outbuildings adjoining ...

The following year Henry's sister Mary married Dr James Sedgwick of Boroughbridge .  He was Leonard's younger brother and they were married in London, presumably from Leonard and Jane's house:

Morning Post 19 February 1863

Sedgwick - Redmayne.  On the 14th inst., at St Thomas's, Portman-square, by the Rev W Richardson, incumbent of Stainforth, Yorkshire, James Sedgwick, Esq., of Boroughbridge, to Mary, younger daughter of the late Thomas Redmayne, Esq., of Taitlands, Settle, Yorkshire

Five years later, Henry died at Taitlands:

Yorkshire Post & Leeds Intelligencer, 19 March 1868

Redmayne - March 13, at Taitlands, near Settle, aged 26, Henry Redmayne, Esq

Yorkshire Post & Leeds Intelligencer, 21 March 1868

Stainforth - Military Funeral - At Stainforth, on Wednesday, the members of the North Craven Rifles attended the funeral of Ensign Redmayne, who died on the 13th inst., aged 26 years.  The mournful procession, headed by the rifle corps, the band playing the "Dead March," proceeded from the deceased gentleman's residence, at Taitlands, to St Peter's Church, Stainforth, where his body was interred in the family vault.  The funeral service was read by the Rev Mr Hearnley, after which the accustomed number of three volleys were fired over the grave by the members of the corps

The Taitlands estate was offered for sale by Messrs Hirst & Capes of Knaresborough on 4 April 1868.  Hepper & Sons of Leeds sold the contents of the house.  A couple of their auction advertisements in the Yorkshire Post that June give us a flavour of the life that the family had known:

The Cabinet Furniture of Drawing, Dining, and Breakfast Rooms, in rosewood and Spanish mahogany; Chimney and Pier Glasses, Window Furniture, superior Brussels and Tapestry Carpets, Hearth Rugs, a number of Engravings, a few Books, a small collection of old China, Entrance Hall and fittings, a valuable Eight Days' Clock, which chimes every quarter and strikes the hours: cases of Stuffed Birds, Fire and Side Arms, the mahogany and other appointments of nine Bed and Dressing Rooms, Cut Glass, and transparent and stone China, in services; excellent Kitchen, Scullery, Laundry, and Dairy requisites

The Library of Books, loose Engravings, contents of bedrooms Nos. 5, 6, and 7, valuable guns, superior double brougham, two sets superior harness, Green's lawn mower, and various other effects.

John's friend Thomas Stackhouse bought the house.  He died on 1 April 1872, aged 38, leaving his widow and children to live in the house for many more years.

Stokesley races, 1727

This is the earliest newspaper notice for horse racing at Stokesley that I have been able to find.  You can see that it was a good financial investment for the subscribers to the Plate, as they were the only people entitled to supply the race patrons with food and drink.  

The racecourse at Stokesley was just south of Seamer Moor and more or less north of Brawith (which lies between Tame Bridge and Skutterskelfe); I think the name of Oneholmes Farm in the 19th century was Race Course Farm.  

The Toll Booth in Stokesley stood on the site of the present Town Hall, which replaced it in 1853.  

Newcastle Courant, 13 May 1727

On Trinity-Monday, the 29th Day of May, will be run for in a Field near Stokesley, in Cleaveland, a Subscription Plate, given by Stokesley Inhabitants, 3l. Value, by Galloways, 14 Handshigh or under, three Heats, each Heat 4 Miles, carrying 9 Stone, including Bridle and Saddle, each Horse, &c. to make the usual Allowance as in Galloway Plates, and paying 5s. Entrance, and to be enter'd the same Day betwixt 8 and 11-o'Clock in the forenoon at the Toll Booth in Stokesley; four or more to run or no Plate. 

On Tuesday, the 30th Day of May, will be run for, in the same Field another Subscription Plate, given also by the Inhabitants of Stokesley, 10l. Value, by any Horse, Mare, or Gelding, carrying 10 Stone, including Bridle and Saddle, three Heats, each Heat 4 Miles, each Horse, &c. paying 15s Entrance, and to be enter'd in Stokesley-Toll-Booth, betwixt the Hours of 8 and 11 in the Forenoon of the 29th of May, four or more to run or no Plate, and none to run that has won above 20 l. Prize at one Time, and both the said Races to be govern'd by Articles that will be produced at the Day of Entrance. 

This is to give Notice, that none but Subscribers will be allowed to set up any Tent, Hutt, or retail any Liquor in the Field, where the said Races are to be run.

For a full description of the Galloway pony, I refer the reader to Wikipedia.  It was a breed that is now extinct, but its influence can be seen across the Pennines in the Fell Pony and it was said to have "good looks, a wide, deep chest and a tendency to pace rather than trot."  In the 18th century Galloways were bred in Swaledale to haul lead ore. 

Younger readers might need to know that  3l. = £3, 10l. = £10, and 5s. and 15s. means five shillings and fifteen shillings respectively. (12 pence made 1 shilling; 20 shillings made £1).

This website gives the results of later race meetings held in 1752 and 1782.  I can't find the results of the 1727 races, I'm afraid.