1. The Wandesfords of Kirklington

When Alice Wandesford was born, she was put in the care of a wet nurse – pregnancy and labour always left her mother far from well.  It was 13 February 1626 and at the time the family was living at the Hall at Kirklington on her father's estates in Richmondshire in the North Riding of Yorkshire.  

At her baptism by the Rector of Kirklington, it must have seemed to everybody that the future – if, with God's grace, she survived all the childhood perils of illness and accident – looked promising for her and for the country.

Young King Charles

Queen Elizabeth had died childless in 1603 when Alice's parents were small children, and the Stuart king James VI of Scotland had become the ruler of the three kingdoms of Scotland, England and Ireland – Wales had been conquered by England 350 years earlier.  With one king ruling both England and Scotland, there was at last not even a lingering fear of war between the two countries.  No more need, after many centuries, for either country to keep troops on the border, no more low level warring and sudden incursions, and the violent outlawry of the Border Reivers had finally come to an end.  

And the new King James VI & I was a Protestant king – the Wandesfords, and those of their opinion and allegiance, could feel that the Church of England was secure.  A little more than fifty years earlier, a longing among many for the return of Catholicism had brought about the Rising of the North in 1569.  Alice Wandesford's great-grandfather Christopher Wandesford had ridden aged twenty to reinforce Sir George Bowes' garrison holding Barnard Castle for the Queen against the besieging rebel forces.  In Kirklington itself, twenty-two men who held to the old faith had joined the Rising, including the village constable.  When the Queen exacted her terrible retribution against the ordinary people – far more terrible than anything her father King Henry or her sister Queen Mary had done – three of them were appointed by the Queen's commander to be hanged in the village.  And as a dreadful warning for the future, the bodies of the hanged men were to be left "till they fall to pieces at the hanging place".  But those days were over.  The Church of England now looked secure.

And now King James had been dead for less than a year and his son Charles was monarch of the three kingdoms – in fact, his coronation in England had only just taken place.  

The new King Charles was a shy, sheltered young man of twenty-five.  He would soon prove to be a man of fixed ideas and little experience.  And not a little slippery.  There were worries.  Many of his English subjects were already wishing heartily that he had broken with his father's example and come to respect the ancient, hard-won limits on his power over the people of England.  If only, people thought, he wasn't so completely dependent on the Duke of Buckingham, his late father's handsome favourite.  

Charles I by Gerrit van Honthorst, 1628

And if only, many of his English and Scottish subjects began to fear, the King's religious policies did not look so suspiciously hostile to their own dearly-held Puritan and Presbyterian beliefs.  This was a serious matter.  Religious toleration was not a virtue in those days – the future of the immortal soul was at stake, and how could a nation be secure and peaceful if people incurred God's wrath by heresy and irreligion?  What if, some people began to wonder, the King was actually planning to draw the country back to Catholicism, the religion of his own French Queen?  Catholicism was reviled and dreaded by all Protestants, however much they might live peaceably alongside their Catholic relations and neighbours.  They feared the reimposition of the Pope's authority and tended to greatly overestimate the number of Catholics.

But how peaceful and hopeful the future was for the three Kingdoms of the British Isles, especially compared to Europe, which was mired in conflict and suffering from the appalling toll of the terrible Thirty Years War.

Kirklington & Yorkshire

Alice's birthplace Kirklington lies in a sheltered basin in the pleasant, undulating country between Bedale and Ripon.  Fifteen miles to the north lay another of her father's properties, and Alice was to come to know it well.  This was Hipswell Hall in the parish of Catterick on the southern bank of the River Swale.  The North Riding stretched from the northern dales of Swaledale and Wensleydale, the high fells at the Westmorland border and the source of the Tees eastward to the important ports of Whitby and Scarborough.  It was a vast and thinly populated agricultural area, home to perhaps some 120,000 of England's five million people – and about 2,800 of them lived in Scarborough.  

Kirklington Hall by David Rogers CC BY_SA 2.0

At the centre of Yorkshire lay the Ainsty and City of York, the second capital of England, the centre of the King's government in the North, and quite as good – its inhabitants were sure – as London.  The East Riding, like the North Riding, was agricultural.  It bordered on the independent borough of Hull, Yorkshire's most important port.  The West Riding – where most of Yorkshire's population could be found – was increasingly industrial.  Its inhabitants made their livelihoods through the woollen industry, mining and metalworking, many of them living in large villages and thriving cloth towns like Leeds.  The West Riding's independent and self-sufficient workers were strongly Nonconformist and Calvinist – not for them a respect of church hierarchy and ritual observance.  

Mr & Mrs Wandesford of Kirklington Hall

Alice's father, Mr Christopher Wandesford, had inherited his estates fourteen years before she was born, when he was only twenty.  Auburn-haired and ruddy-cheeked, he was a good, serious and devout young man.  He had just decided to become a clergyman when his father died, leaving him with his younger siblings to provide for out of an inheritance burdened with debts – the late Sir George had been both careless and extravagant.  To be fair to Sir George, it was not only his extravagance that had left his son with impoverished and reduced estates.  Misfortune played a part.  For a hundred years, each heir had been under age and that meant that most of the rents had been taken by the monarch, who also had the right to marry the heir off as they pleased.  Christopher was the fifth under-age heir in succession and it cost his grandfather Ralph Hansby £900 to buy off King James so that Christopher could choose his own bride.

Christopher Wandesford (1592-1640)

After his father's death, Christopher left his studies at Cambridge for Kirklington, where he set about restoring the family fortunes, diligently studying law and providing for his siblings.  Within two years he was able to look about for a wife and his choice fell on Alice Osborne, daughter of one of the wealthiest men in London.  Carefully brought up by her mother in all that a good education and the Court could provide, she was proficient in writing, singing, dancing, and playing the harpsichord and the lute.  And she was as serious and devout as Christopher himself.  They married in 1614 and settled at Kirklington Hall.  

Mr Wandesford took in hand some of his land and, by farming it himself, provided for his own household while giving a weekly allowance of corn to the poor of the townships and villages on his estates.  He provided his cottagers with wool so that they might add to their income by weaving and Mrs Wandesford encouraged spinning for the linen industry by growing hemp and flax.  The Hall had been rebuilt by Mr Wandesford's grandfather Sir Christopher in about 1571.  Mr and Mrs Wandesford's additions were practical:  new stables, a large walled orchard and a new dairy, its water supplied by lead pipes running from a cistern near St Michael's Well, close by the mill race.

Their daughter Catherine was born the year after they married, and Christopher and Joyce soon followed.  And perhaps the Wandesfords might have remained always on their Yorkshire estates, improving their land and developing new industries, if it had not been for a strong and lasting friendship that was to determine the direction of Mr Wandesford's life.

Next: 2. Mr Wandesford enters politics: 1620-1630 

Alice Wandesford in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms

The next series of posts are set in the 17th century.  It is my retelling of the life of Alice Wandesford during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms – the much more accurate name now given to the English Civil War of the 1640s.  

Alice was a girl of the Yorkshire gentry, thirteen years old when the Wars began and thirty-four at the end of the republic and the restoration of the monarchy.  It was a time of tumultuous upheaval in which Britain was permanently changed and during those years the North Riding witnessed skirmishes, small battles, sieges, large armies, and military occupation.

Alice Wandesford (1626-1707) began to write about her life when she was 47 years old, to defend herself against slander following a disastrous rupture with a woman she had looked on as a friend.  Her work is known – and studied – as The Autobiography of Mrs Alice Thornton of East Newton.

She rewrote it and added to it and in all, she wrote four books.  In 1875, the Surtees Society published a composite version edited by Charles Jackson and this is available online for free on Google Books.  

The second of her books, thought for the last hundred years to be lost, was found in the Durham Cathedral Archives in 2019 by Dr Cordelia Beattie, a Senior Lecturer in Mediaeval History, University of Edinburgh.  Dr Beattie also found the fourth book among papers in private hands.  With luck, before long all four will be available in print and online.

I have used the Surtees edition and Raymond A Anselment's 2014 edition of My First Booke of My Life, available as an ebook.

I hope I've written an account which brings the times to life.  I decided not to use footnotes for that reason.  But I've used so many sources – these are the invaluable ones:

The Story of the Family of Wandesforde of Kirklington & Castlecomer ed. by Hardy Bertram McCall 1904.  It can be found here 

The BCW Project  

This is an endless source of information – Timelines, Biography, Military, and Church and State.  And there is plenty on Wikipedia.

For the Parliamentarians of Yorkshire: 
The Extent of support for Parliament in the Yorkshire during the early stages of the First Civil War by Andrew James Hopper (1999) here 

A guide not to be missed:
The First Great Civil War in the Tees Valley 1642-1646: A Guide by Robin Daniels and Phil Philo here

For Ireland:

This interview with Dr. Micheal Ó Siochrú by Cathal Brennan gives a very useful overview: here  

The personal and professional relationships between Thomas Wentworth, Earl of
Strafford and his closest advisors by Charlotte Kate Brownhill 2004: here 

The King's Peace and The King's War by C V Wedgewood

Perhaps before long the re-enactment socities will be able to hold events again – until then, and for a taste of the 17th century, why not watch the 2016 promotional video made by the Sealed Knot?  It's on youtube here 

A note about Richmondshire and the North Riding

Yorkshire was divided into three Ridings (thirdings): North, East and West.

For a map of the pre-1832 parishes of the North Riding, see here

The North Riding covered a smaller area than today's administrative area called North Yorkshire, which has a population of about 1.16 million.  (The population of England is nearly 67.9 million).

Richmondshire was the name given to the western part of the North Riding.  It contained the Borough of Richmond and the wapentakes of Gilling West; Gilling East; Hang West; Hang East; and Hallikeld.  See here.  Nowadays, Richmondshire is the name of a district council within the county council of North Yorkshire.  

(I've explained the part of the North Riding called Cleveland here)

Next post: 1. The Wandesfords of Kirklington

William Weldon Carter & Eden Lodge, Hutton Rudby

In Spring 1880, this advertisement appeared repeatedly in the Yorkshire newspapers:

The Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough, 15 April 1880 

Desirable Country Residence 

To be sold, and may be entered upon immediately, EDEN VILLA, within eight miles of Stockton, near Hutton Rudby, and one mile from the Potto Station on the Whitby Railway.  The House is most favourably situated, commanding magnificent views of the Cleveland Hills, and in the midst of a fertile country. 

The House contains Drawing and Dining Rooms, Front and Back Kitchen, Scullery, Larder, Wash-house, Cellar, &c., and five good Bedrooms and W.C.  The Outbuildings consist of two Coach-houses, 2-Stall Stable, Cow-byre, etc. 

There is Hard and Soft Water on the premises. 

The premises are well and substantially built, and are in first-class order; they stand upon one-and-a-half acres of Land, well stocked with Shrubs, Ornamental and Fruit Trees.  There is also eight-and-a-half acres of rich Pasture Land adjoining the House, making in all ten acres of splendid Land. 

Applications to be sent in to the owner, William W. Carter, Eden Villa, Hutton Rudby, Yarm.  Further particulars may be obtained from 

EUGENE E. CLEPHAN,

Architect and Surveyor,

Stockton-on-Tees.

March 16th, 1880.

Eden Villa was the house built by William Surtees when he came back from Australia in 1868 with his son, the only survivor of his first marriage, and his Australian wife and their little girls.  He built them a house in the fields beyond the edge of the village and he called it Eden Cottage after his grandmother Eden Dodds.  

He was a stone mason by trade and now he established himself as a builder and contractor.  But he had more adventurous plans.  First he set up the Albion Steam Crushing and Cutting Mills in Middlesbrough and then he bought land at the corner of Doctors Lane and began work on his new project – the Albion Sailcloth Works, equipped with a horizontal steam engine driving six looms.  And then, before the Works had really begun, he died in 1877 aged 53.  His widow sold up and took her children back home to her family in New South Wales.  (The whole story is to be found in Hutton Rudby 1876 to 1877: the Albion Sailcloth Mill)

I always wondered when Eden Lodge, as it is now called, took on its present appearance.  It seems to me that William Surtees' Eden Cottage must have been a modest building because he needed his money for his business ventures.  

The advertisement from the spring of 1880 reveals the answer.  William Surtees very probably had outbuildings for his tools and equipment but I suspect he was far too busy a man to have time to stock an orchard and put in shrubs.  The hard and cold water may well have been his work – a well drawing hard water from an aquifer and a rainwater collection system for the soft, ideal for washing.  

It was William Carter who must have enlarged the house, perhaps converting the outbuildings into coach-houses and stables.  He bought more land and, with the assistance (I would guess) of the architect Eugene E Clephan, he created an idyllic miniature country estate.  In fact, in his brief ownership he had gentrified Eden Cottage.

The story of William Weldon Carter, to give him his full name, is one of steady success and sudden failure in the retail trade and of the parting of the ways between brothers.  It's also the story of a long-running Stockton drapery firm, which must have been very frequently visited by people from Hutton Rudby; there were close ties between town and village.

In 1841, two brothers called William Weldon and George Richardson Weldon from Beverley were doing well as drapers in Stockton-on-Tees.  Living with them on the shop premises, as was usual at the time, were two assistant drapers and three apprentices.  Business may have been getting on well, but William and George evidently were not – in the spring of 1842 they ended their partnership and each struck out on his own.  William's business was now William Weldon & Co at 32 High Street [1]

By 1850 William had shops in both Stockton and Middlesbrough and had taken his sister's son William Weldon Carter into partnership with him.  William Weldon Carter was still a very young man, born in Hull in 1827 to Margaret Weldon and Richard Carter, a commercial traveller.  His younger brother Thomas Vincent Carter had joined him by the spring of 1851 and they lived with their uncle, three shopmen, an apprentice and three servants at Todds Buildings, which seems to have been on Yarm Lane.  It was a thriving concern.

Meanwhile, George Richardson Weldon was in a much quieter way of trade at 62 High Street.  Eventually he retired from business to farm 40 acres on Oxbridge Lane.  

But William Weldon's partnership with his nephew William was not long lasting – it ended in July 1852.  It looks as though young William, on his travels for his uncle's business, had fallen for a girl and on 7 August 1852 he and Elizabeth Whistler were married in London.  She was the daughter of a draper, which was perhaps how he had met her.  (In the marriage register, he described his own father as a gentleman).  It seems he had ended the partnership with his uncle in order to emigrate.

The young couple went to Australia – as did William Surtees and his wife half a dozen years later – but, just as for William Surtees, their voyage ended in tragedy.  Elizabeth died in Collingwood, Victoria on 10 March 1853 after only seven months of married life.  

By 1861 William Weldon was doing very well.  William Weldon & Co had expanded into the four buildings of numbers 30 to 33 High Street and William had pulled them down and replaced them with a single four-storey building.  He no longer lived at the shop but in great style in West End House on Yarm Lane, in the fields outside Stockton [2].  The house was set well back from the road in its own grounds and the entrance to the drive was flanked by two gate lodges.  His pleasant and quiet nephew Tom [3] was still living with him and working alongside him.  His nephew William, who had returned from Australia a few years earlier and had been married since 1858 to Mary Ellen Ellison, was running the Middlesbrough branch in East Street.  (Middlesbrough began as a town on the north side of the railway line and that was where the middle classes then lived.)  William and his wife lived on the premises with seven staff, both male and female, aged between 14 and 40.

At around this time William Weldon took both his nephews into partnership with him and the firm became William Weldon, Carter & Co.

And then William Weldon Carter's luck took a downturn again when he fell ill.  In February 1863 William Weldon instructed a Manchester accountant to dispose of the "stock-in-trade, fixtures and goodwill of his branch drapery concern".  Such a sale in the booming new town of Middlesbrough was expected to have a broad appeal and this advertisement appeared in the Liverpool press: 

Liverpool Mail, 28 February 1863 

... The shop is large, modern and well lighted, having been built expressly for the business, and occupies the first situation in the town.  The trade is a first class and profitable one, and the returns average £10,000 per annum.  Present amount of Stock £3,000 or thereabouts.  A clever business man, or two active young men, who know how to buy and sell, may make a fortune in a few years.  The business at Middlesbro has hitherto been managed by the proprietor's nephew, who is unable from ill health to conduct it any longer, and hence the reason of its disposal.

It isn't clear to me whether William Weldon actually sold the business.  At any rate, William Weldon Carter and his wife and baby son returned to Stockton.  It was a busy few years for the family.  William and Tom's widowed mother Margaret died aged 59 at her brother's house and the following year it was from there that her daughters were married, Agnes Sarah to the shipbuilder George Craggs and Margaret Ann to the Bishop Auckland metal merchant Henry Kilburn.  Perhaps William Weldon found he missed the female company because at the end of 1865, he married.  He was 59 years old and his new wife Elizabeth Ann Benson was 30.

Five years later, on 24 July 1870, William Weldon retired from business to live out his retirement in comfort and dignity at West End House and William and Tom Carter became Carter Bros.  They branched out, buying an interest in Robert Gray & Co, a big drapery concern in Blyth. 

So in 1871 the younger generation was in charge.  Tom had just married and he and his new wife Jane Robinson Dickin lived at 4 Barrington Crescent.  William had bought a house at 2 West End Terrace for his family of three young children.  

Everything was looking promising.  The brothers sold their share of Robert Gray & Co back to Robert Gray, had their shop at numbers 34 to 37 High Street demolished and new premises built on the site.  In early June 1874 they celebrated with a ball for their employees.  The Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough reported on 13 June that over 500 people were present and that

The dances took place on the ground floor, and the show room was metamorphosed into a supper-room.  Dancing was kept up with great spirit till an early hour in the morning

The new buildings were heralded by an enormous advertisement in the Gazette on 3 July 1874 ("Great Extension of Business Area") and we can see the extent of the goods they sold in an advertisement in early December that year.  

Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough, 2 December 1874 

Carter Bros.,

Wholesale & Retail Drapers

Stockton-on-Tees

Desire careful and special attention to the undernoted Departments, which certainly contain by far the Largest, most varied and fashionable, together with the Cheapest Stock in the District of Cleveland.

They listed Costumes ("Fifty Homespun, at 29s 6d, ticketed in the town at 39s 6d"), Skirts, Jackets, Shawls, Flannels and Furnishing, which included carpets, matting, hearthrugs and paperhangings.

In the winter of 1875 they led the area in Early Closing for the winter months.  The Daily Gazette thought all the town's tradesmen could "advantageously and profitably" follow their example.  It doesn't mention the shop assistants.  These were the days of punishingly long working hours.  It wasn't until 1886 that the number of hours were restricted to 74 just for the under-18s and, with staff living on site, unpaid overtime was common.  The reduced opening hours meant that Carter Bros would close on Saturdays evenings at nine and on other weekdays at 6 o'clock.  (One early polemic against the system, Death and Disease behind the Counter, was written by the barrister Thomas Sutherst in 1884 and can be read here.  The cause of the shopworkers was later taken up by The Lancet).

And then in 1879 William and Tom's partnership came to an end.

By this time, Mrs Surtees and her little daughters had left Eden Cottage and William Weldon Carter had bought it.  Was it intended as an investment or did he intend to live comfortably in the country?  We don't know.  He still owned 2 West End Terrace and he must have spent a good deal of money on Eden Cottage to turn it into Eden Villa.  And he had plans for his future ...

Meanwhile in Stockton, it was the end of an era.  William Weldon died at home on 5 June 1880 aged 74.  The Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough reported on 8 June that

There was a large following at the funeral, most of the leading tradesmen and inhabitants of the town being present to show their respect for the memory of the deceased gentleman.  Mr Weldon was the founder of the old established firm of Weldon and Carter, drapers, now known as Carter and Co, and was generally esteemed for his strict business integrity and general uprightness. 

Over the road from the Oxbridge Lane cemetery where William was buried, his brother George now lived in one of the recently-built large houses called The Ferns.  Five years later, he too would be buried in the cemetery.

William Weldon Carter must have had high hopes for the future at the beginning of 1880.  He was living at Eden Villa, his little country paradise.  In March his son William Weldon Carter junior passed the preliminary examination of the Law Society and his proud parents had announced the fact in a notice in the Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough.  And then something began to go wrong with the finances.  

Eden Villa was repeatedly advertised for sale but there were no buyers.  The mortgagee lost patience and both properties were ordered to be auctioned on 30 September 1880 at the Vane Arms in Stockton.  This must have been a very unwelcome moment for William's brother Tom who was at that point renting 2 West End Terrace from his brother.  The auction notice described the house as 

a very comfortable and commodious House, and conveniently situated

while the description of Eden Villa ("a very desirable country Residence") now included a Croquet Ground.  

(The mortgagee's solicitors were Hirst & Capes in Harrogate, and if that sounds familiar to keen readers, it's because it features here in A Large family in 19th century Harrogate and in the story of John Richard Stubbs, which begins on this blog in July 2014)

This advertisement at the beginning of December shows that William's new plans were maturing: 

Sunderland Daily Echo, 3 December 1880 

New Drapery Store

212, High-Street, Sunderland

(Two minutes' walk from the Station on the right)

William Weldon Carter

Wishes the General Public to know,

without giving a Long List to read,

they will find all their requirements 

at Prices undoubtedly the Best

Value in the North

He and his family now lived comfortably at Oaks West in Sunderland, where William Weldon Carter junior, in spite of his Law Society examination success, was an apprentice draper and the two daughters had the benefit of a governess living in the household.  Eden Villa was empty; before long it would be the home of the Thorman family.

A few months later, William Weldon Carter announced the opening of a new shop selling "General Drapery Goods & Paper-Hanging" at 50 & 51 Church Street, West Hartlepool.  He advertised heavily.  It would be a cash only business, he explained in a long notice in the Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, 2 August 1881.  The goods would be marked at 

fixed and unalterable prices, and will be sold strictly for cash across the counter, thus saving bad debts, and deferred interest, so that cash buyers will be supplied with goods at such prices as would prove utterly ruinous to credit-giving houses.

Was this a public-spirited policy or did he need immediate payment for his cash flow?  He was hoping to "meet many of his old Stockton connection and friends" and he had an offer to make that might help poach customers who would otherwise go to his brother's business in Stockton:

Buyers from the country travelling by rail or carrier will be allowed their fare one way on purchases of one pound, and return fare on two pounds

No wonder relations between him and his brother Tom were strained.  A notice had appeared in the Hartlepool Northern Evening Mail, 22 July & Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, 23 July 1881

Messrs Carter & Company, Drapers etc, Stockton-on-Tees, 

Beg to inform their Customers and the Public that they have no connection with the Carter from Sunderland who is opening Sutton's old shop at West Hartlepool.  

and directly below it was another notice

Note this – William Weldon Carter wishes the public in general to know that he has NO CONNECTION whatever with Carters' of Stockton nor has he any desire to be connected with them in any way whatever

On 20 August another advertisement appeared in the Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail – William Weldon Carter would be delaying the opening of the Hartlepool shop until 27 August 

In consequence of the enormous pressure of Business in connection with his SUMMER CLEARANCE SALE now going on at Sunderland

But financial disaster was looming and it arrived all too soon:

Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough, 22 September 1881 

LOCAL FAILURE – William Weldon Carter, hosier, draper, and milliner, late of Hutton Rudby, North Riding, but now of 50 and 51, Church-street, West Hartlepool, and of 212, High-street West, and of The Oaks, Sunderland.  Debts, £5,000; assets not ascertained.  The solicitors are Messrs Dodds and Co., Finkle-street, Stockton.  Mr F H Colison, public accountant, Cheapside, London, has been appointed receiver

An end to all his dreams.  

In Stockton, Tom was quietly prospering.  This advertisement from c1893 shows the extent of his business, which had become Carter & Co when Carter Bros was no more

And after that ... 

William Weldon's widow Elizabeth married Dr Thomas William Fagg the year after her first husband's death.  She continued to live on at West End House while the town steadily built up around it.  She certainly lived in comfort, as can be seen from an advertisement in the Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough 20 October 1891 for "2 Vine Houses of Black English Grapes."  She died, again a widow, in 1914.

William Weldon Carter makes a brief reappearance in the newspaper advertisements in the first three months of 1891.  He was the manager of the Darlington Mills shop in Dovecot Street, Stockton – this was the large and well-known woollens and worsted company of the Pease family in Darlington – and so he was once more in direct competition with his brother.  After that he disappears from the record.  He died in late 1904 at the age of 79 and was buried in the Oxbridge Lane Cemetery.  His son William died in 1912 aged 49 and was also buried there.  

Tom Carter died at home at 8 West End Terrace in December 1896, leaving a widow and seven children.  In his obituary, William's role in the early years of the business is quite forgotten:

Northern Echo, 28 December 1896 

Death of a Stockton tradesman

The death took place on Saturday morning, at his residence, West End-terrace, Stockton, of Mr Thomas Vincent Carter, the founder and chief partner of the firm of Messrs Carter & Co., drapers, High-street.  The deceased gentleman took an active part in the management of the business until about three and a half years ago, when he was seized with a stroke, and since then he has been in a helpless condition and under the medical care of Dr Hind.  

Mr Carter was a native of Beverley, Yorkshire, and was about sixty-three years of age.  In 1874 he built the present extensive premises, after having carried on a smaller business adjoining for some time, having succeeded to it on the death of his uncle, Mr Weldon, and about ten years later three other gentlemen joined him in partnership.  He leaves a widow and a family of seven.  The elder of his two sons is in a large drapery establishment in London, and the younger Vincent, is in the Stockton business, which has been under the direction of Mr H G Robson, the managing partner since Mr Carter's illness.  The deceased gentleman was of a genial but quiet nature, and was highly esteemed amongst a large circle of business and private friends.

Carter & Co became D. Hill, Carter & Co Ltd after his death.  They were a presence on Stockton High Street until just before the Second World War.  Nowadays, the new buildings that the Carter brothers opened with such a fanfare in 1874 are occupied by the Enterprise Arcade:

The Enterprise Arcade is on the far left

[1]    I have drawn a great deal of information, above all on the buildings themselves, from this ECM Heritage report and this Heritage Stockton article.  Other sources: London Gazette entries relating to the partnerships; digitised newspapers.

[2]      For West End House, see photograph and comments on the the Stockton picture archive

[3]      Thomas Vincent Carter is referred to as Tom in the notice placed in the press by Robert Gray on the occasion of the Carter brothers buying a share on Gray's drapery business.  Tom's obituary in the Northern Echo, 28 Dec 1896, given at the end of this piece, describes him as "quiet".

North Yorkshire dialect – & the White Horse of Kilburn

As I said in On the Sea Cliffs of Cleveland, my last blogpost, one of William Stott Banks' great interests was Yorkshire dialect.  

He began his walks in Cleveland rather disappointed:

16 July 1864  Wakefield Free Press

Walks in Yorkshire X:  Cleveland - Upper Eskdale - over moors to Lewisham Station

A first journey anywhere is always open to doubt; but it is necessary to begin somewhere, and so we decide upon starting off with Roseberry Topping in Cleveland, that sweet green cone, from childhood believed to belong to Margery Moorpoot and associated in one's head to a broad north Yorkshire dialect supposed to be spoken by men and women with laughing mouths opening from ear to ear across great red cheeks; but, sad to say, our little-boy's dream will not come true, for these things will seem to have quite gone out if they ever were in; nobody will as a matter of course call Ayton "Canny Yatton," though many still think Roseberry "b'biggest hill i' all Yorkshur, aboon a mahle an a hawf heegh an as cawd as ice at t' top on't i' t'yattist day i' summer," which it is not; nor will any peculiarity of face be seen, nor the farmers be found in any sense to come under the denomination bumpkins.

Margery Moorpoot was a character from farce who, when asked where she came from, declared 

Ah was bred and boorn at Canny Yatton aside Roseberry Topping

and when asked where that was, replied

Ah thowght onny feeal hed knawn Roseberry. – It's biggest hill in all Yorkshire. It's aboon a mahle and a hawf heegh an' as cawd as ice t' top on't i' t' yattest day i' summer; that it is. 

And that is why William Stott Banks writes of a "little-boy's dream" and "great red cheeks".  He must have been remembering going to a theatre to see a farce played, complete with heavy stage makeup and comic country 'bumpkins'.  

Margery Moorpoot was the creation of a Stockton man, the playwright and poet Joseph Reed (1727-83).  

There is a wikipedia entry for Reed, drawing on the Dictionary of National Biography entry, and there is an account of Reed, with his own comic description of his early life, on page 85 of The Local Records of Stockton and the Neighbourhood by Thomas Richmond (1868), which can be read online here. 

Joseph Reed succeeded to his father's business as a ropemaker, but was always devoted to literature and in 1757 he moved his business and family to London.  In 1761 he made a great hit with 'The Register Office: a Farce' in which Margery Moorpoot, a Yorkshire servant looking for work at a register office in London, featured and which was popular for years.  In one revival, the part of a female author called Mrs Doggerell was played by the celebrated comic actor Mrs Jordan – mistress of William IV and mother of Amelia Fitzclarence, wife of 10th Viscount Falkland, whose memorial can be found in Hutton Rudby church, (see The People behind the Plaques)

The text of dialogue between Gulwell of the register office and Margery Moorpoot can be found transcribed here on Genuki.  It's from Specimens of the Yorkshire Dialect (1808) *.  

Roseberry Topping – from this angle it still looks like a cone

William Stott Banks deplored the loss in Yorkshire of the old ways of speech and dialectal words.  He might not have come across anybody referring to Canny Yatton, but he did find that Snick Gate was pronounced Snek Yat, Stokesley was Stowsleh and Raindale was Raindil, and on the next walk he was reassured:

20 August 1864 Wakefield Free Press 

Walks in Yorkshire X: Bilsdale - Ryedale - Hambleton Hills 

To answer a doubt which lately arose and moreover not to overstate things, we have been under obligation of inquiring whether the striking peculiarities of dialect, not heard on our last walk, but put down in books as characterising Cleveland 30 or 40 years ago, have ceased to the extent supposed; and it may be said, so far, that while what was noticed before is generally true, there are here as all over persons whose manners and speech have not yet undergone the changes that schooling, quick travelling and more extended intercourse with other places and people are everywhere bringing about.

And in that walk he included pronunciations such as Wainstones (pronounced wean or wearn) and he reported the speech of people he met.  

At the end of the walk he reaches Gormire and the White Horse of Kilburn.  As the wikipedia article on the White Horse explains, while some say that the horse was made by the schoolmaster, his pupils and some volunteers, a tablet near the carpark gives the credit to one Thomas Taylor.  

The tablet was put in place after a restoration following a public appeal in 1925.  The Horse had been renovated after a public appeal a generation earlier:  

29 June 1896 Bradford Daily Telegraph 

The notable Yorkshire landmark, the White Horse of Kilburn ... was originally completed on the 4th of November, 1857, by the projector, Mr Thomas Taylor, a native of Kilburn and for many years a resident in London ... The projector dying something like a quarter of a century ago, the figure was neglected and got from bad to worse, and at the commencement of the year was so overgrown with weeds that it was found necessary to ask for outside aid for its renovation, or otherwise to allow it to become obliterated altogether.

In 1925 it was the Yorkshire Evening Post that raised the funds and on 15 August 1931 the newspaper proudly reported – along with an account of the money spent on the 'grooming' of the horse that year – that it was in "fine fettle" and that 

The history of the White Horse is set forth in the following inscription on the tablet which is let into the ground near the back of the statue:- 

The Kilburn 'White Horse'

This figure was cut in 1857,

on the initiative of 

Thomas Taylor,

a native of Kilburn.  In 1925

a restoration fund was subscribed

by readers of 

The Yorkshire Evening Post,

and the residue of £100 was

invested to provide for the 

Triennial 'Grooming' of the figure.

The wikipedia article quotes Morris Marples in his book White Horses and Other Hill Figures (1949 and still available secondhand from a 1980s reprint) as giving the credit to Taylor, a native of Kilburn, who was a buyer for a London provision merchant.  "He seems to have attended celebrations at Uffington White Horse in 1857, and he was inspired to give his home village a similar example."

A report in the Northern Echo of 2 July 2004 reveals that both schools of thought are right – the horse was the idea of Thomas Taylor and it was carried out by his friend, the village schoolmaster John Hodgson with the schoolchildren.  The newspaper's source was one of the Hodgson family – and he held a copy of the original drawing, with all the measurements, that Thomas Taylor sent to John Hodgson.  It had been passed down in the family over the generations and the only other copy is in the Yorkshire Museum in York.  There is a photograph of the drawing on this website.

When William Stott Banks and his walking companions came to the White Horse it was less than 10 years since it had been cut.  He begins by describing the scene.  The white mare he refers to can only mean White Mare Crag.

Just below Whitstone cliff is the lake Gormire covering about sixteen acres, and here, as in Berkshire, we have a white horse newly chalk't every year, and a white mare too.

There they encountered a Kilburn woman who lived between Whitstone Cliff and Roulston Scar, and what she told them is interesting, not only for the dialect, but also for the details she gave them of the creator of the White Horse.  

T'wite mare is under Wissuncliff an' t'wite 'orse is just a back at'bank facin t'toon o' Kilb'n.  T'wite 'orse wodn't shew itself aboon as it wod below.  It's clean'd a' brack'ns ivery year and chalk't oot.  Tommy Taylor at's gone tuv Australia 'ed it pick't oot for a memorandum not so very monny years sin; may be ten years mebbe.  Taylor wur born at Kilb'n an 'e got a taumst'n put up for all t'family livin an' deead an' put their names on, a particular sort of a man.  Ther's none on 'em left noo.  Ther's 'unerds an' thoosans comes to Gormire.  I's gawin that rawd in a minit.

I think that Thomas Taylor must be the cheesefactor (that is, he would be buying cheese from the makers to be sold in the London markets) who is to be found in the 1851 census living with his wife Ann and their six children at Kilburn Cottage, Central Hill, Lambeth.  He was born in Kilburn in about 1808 and we can see his attachment to his birthplace in the choice of a name for his house.  As to whether they all went to Australia at some point, I don't know!  In the 1861 census Thomas and Ann and two of the children were in Central Hill, Lambeth, but I know no more than that.  As to the tombstone that Thomas Taylor had made, I have no idea!

Dialects constantly change and language adapts over time and place.  There has been noticeable 'levelling' of dialects across Europe and in North Yorkshire I expect we have all noticed the slow disappearance in some areas of the old ways of speaking.  So William Stott Banks' transliteration of the people he heard as he walked in North Yorkshire in 1864 is to be treasured, and it is always a joy to listen to the old lilting speech to be heard in the voice of the late Maurice Atkinson in the videos on the Hutton Rudby and District Facebook page.

And, with words dating from long before Banks' time, the Yorkshire Historical Dictionary of historic terms from early documents (1100 to c1750) is great!

*There is an ebook of Specimens of Yorkshire Dialect or you can read it online from this link, which Blogger won't let me edit so it is very long:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=sTJAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=%22specimens+of+the+yorkshire+dialect%22+1808&source=bl&ots=mNcq-4HSbt&sig=ACfU3U0rtJc_BJ1v7dre2dXXZ5PhaJb7Cg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjmv_nXsILtAhVyt3EKHdOPDh44ChDoATAFegQIBhAC#v=onepage&q=%22specimens%20of%20the%20yorkshire%20dialect%22%201808&f=false 

On the Sea Cliffs of Cleveland: 1864

A more appreciative and detailed account of the walk taken by J.G. in 1866 (see last blogpost) is that described by William Stott Banks in On the Sea Cliffs of Cleveland, which appeared on 1 October 1864 in the Wakefield Free Press and West Riding Advertiser [1] .  In his voice we hear someone with an acute eye for the landscape, someone deeply interested in places and people, their language and their lives.

William Stott Banks (1820-72) was a self-taught, self-made man.  He only had a few years of formal education and that was in the Wakefield Lancasterian School – in the Lancasterian system, the teacher taught the top pupils and they taught the younger or weaker pupils, so saving the cost of paying more teachers and ensuring that in large classes a child got at least some personal attention.  He started work at the age of 11 as office boy for a local solicitor and when he was 18 he kept his family with his wages.  So it was by self-education and by hard work that he became a solicitor, clerk to the Wakefield Borough Magistrates, and mainstay of the Mechanics' Institute.  Never forgetting his own past, he was impelled by a strong desire to help the education and well-being of others.

He was also the author of the acclaimed Walks in Yorkshire, which began in 1864 as a series in the Wakefield Free Press and in 1866 appeared in book form – I have listed the articles in the Notes below under [2].  

He had a deep interest in dialect and wrote one of the earliest glossaries of a Yorkshire dialect in his List of Provincial Words in use in Wakefield, so he is always attentive to how placenames are pronounced and the variety – though he found it had lessened with more widespread education – of local accents.  And so he noted in his articles on Cleveland that Cringley [Cringle] Moor and Cold Moor End were pronounced "Creenay and Caudmer End", that Chop Gate was Chop Yat and Slaethorn Park in Baysdale was Slaytron.

He had an appreciative eye for distinctive features of the landscape, describing Roseberry Topping as "that sweet green cone" and Freeborough Hill as "peculiar, round topt Freeburg".  And he liked facts and figures, so in this article he includes, for example, details of the number of cobles at Staithes.

In On the Sea Cliffs of Cleveland, Banks begins by outlining the extent of Cleveland, which was the name given to the ancient wapentake of Langbaurgh.  (I've relegated my explanation of 'wapentake', local government and how the names Cleveland and Langbaurgh have been used over the years to footnote [3]).  

The litany of names in his opening paragraph has a lyrical quality:

Cleveland is bounded by the Tees and Sea Coast from near Newstead Hall, two and a half miles above Yarm, to East Row Beck the same distance N.W. of Whitby; then by this beck for a mile inland, whence the boundary, turning south, crosses Swarth Howe to the Esk opposite Sleights; follows the Esk and the Murk Esk and the beck below Hazle Head to Wheeldale Howe; runs westward along the high tops of the moors, Shunner Howe, Loose Howe, White Cross, Ralph Cross and Flat Howe, and by Stoney Ridge, over Burton Head; continues by Hasty Bank, Coldmoor End and Cringley Moor; bends south at Carlton Bank for above two miles and then again goes west over Arncliff, north of Mount Grace, and down the Wisk, and turns round Appleton up to the Tees again – thus taking in a good deal of moorland and sea coast, beside the broad level of the Cleveland vale.

This is a picturesque and valuable tract of country, has lands good for farming, fine woods, much ironstone and alum shale – the former fast altering the aspect of many parts – numerous country mansions, villages and towns and enterprising fishing population, places for sea side visitors, a large centre of iron smelting (Middlesborough), two or three alum works, passenger and mineral railways completed and in progress.  It is now more interesting to holiday tourists than it probably will be after further development of its mineral wealth, when others of the hitherto quiet dales shall be busy with furnaces and black with their smoke.

He and his friends began this stretch of their Yorkshire walks by making for the coast:

Travelling after dark towards Redcar, the glare of successive furnaces accompanied by clouds of smoke, alternating with the gloomy breaks that come in between, give a striking appearance to the iron-smelting country.

The works were within 4 miles of Redcar but the locals assured him that the smoke didn't reach them.  He calculated that at the end of August 1864 there were 250 lodging houses and inns in Redcar and Coatham, catering for above 1,000 visitors, and as for fishing, there were only 8 or 10 cobles, carrying 3 men a piece.

From Saltburn by the Sea, 

a new place so called to distinguish it from the little old village of two or three houses, lying just below in a hole near the level of the seashore

they climbed Huntcliff and went on through fields.  A farmer had advised them

"gang doon t'gress an you'll get t'liberty o' cuttin off a vast o' gains" and so [we] came to Skinningrove by tortuous footways over the wasting sea cliffs, some cut down to mere gables of soft soil and destined soon to fall under the influence of sea and wind.  Timid people would find the narrow tracks difficult in a strong breeze with the rough sea beneath.

Harvesters were busy with "machine as well as scythe and sickle" cutting the wheat.  They followed the path along the cliff edge to Boulby Cliffs

In many parts we find no more space between the boundary wall of the fields and the edge of the upright cliff than is needed for the feet, and some of us were led for assurance of safety to hold by the wall ... 

These cliffs, partly from their perishable nature and partly from alum workings – extensive at Boulby – are continually falling; but for folk with steady heads this is one of the finest walks in the county

They walked down to Staithes, passing the Boulby alum house "half way down the long steep bank which ends at the Staithes hollow".  He writes appreciatively of Staithes, of its situation and its people: 

The ordinary tides come almost up to the houses and the sea is continually making breaches.  On ground now covered by shingle, houses and shops and a sea wall stood fifty years back.  There was the drapery and grocery shop kept by Saunderson whom Captain Cook served for eighteen months in his youth, but about 1812 the sea broke in and Mr Saunderson's successor removed stock and furniture and took the stones of the building and rebuilt the shop in Church street where it may still be seen.  

The fishermen of Staithes are strong, brave men ... and the women are helpful and as handy as they ...

Sixteen yawls belong to Staithes each carrying ten men and boys, and in the same months when these are employed twenty cobles manned by three men each are used.

He discusses how much they might earn – the large boats at least £20 a week an the cobles £6 a week – and he describes how, having stayed the night at the Black Lion

One of the party went in the morning to see what herrings were in but the wind was blowing strongly from the north-east and only the large boats could go out and catches were down.  A fish buyer said

"Neen at t'other 'ed neen; bud ah 'eerd somebody saying as ah coom doon t'street Mark ed six or seven thoosan – oo monny es eh?"  "About five unerd ah 'eerd!"  "Shotten uns?"  "Ahs seer ah deen't knaw"

(Shotten herring were fish that had spawned)

He describes the fish – which "comes to several West Riding towns" – "salted and drying in the air, long white rows of it stretcht on rods upon the cliffs".  There being no safe anchorage for the yawls, from Saturday morning to Sunday evening and when unemployed, they were taken into the Port Mulgrave harbour.  As they walked over to Rosedale Wyke, they saw 15 yawls sailing round to Staithes.

He was struck by Runswick – 

a fine bay ... the sloping banks, furrowed by streams, are large enough to hold a town of 5,000 people; but the village is stuck on ledges in a nook not unlike (in relation to available space) a corner cupboard in a room ... They say there is no horse and cart in the place and only ten fishing cobles and the population is about 410

... In the shale across the bay are the caves called hob-holes; and at the corner of a deep furrow which has a little beck through it the footpath goes up the steep and slippery Claymoor Bank and thence through fields to Goldsboro' and Lyth.  Climbing Claymer bank was found a serious business by some of us.  We were told by a farmer it was a road that did not please anybody, but we all got up and I hope those who likt it least may live long to remember it.  

We had pleasant views on our way of the broad blue sea with numerous ships, for the wind had changed and was now off the land, and we passed several tumuli, one remarkable for its size and position, on which stood a quiet horse patiently enjoying the splendid outlook over land and sea

Towards evening we strolled into Mulgrave Park by the Lyth gate and walkt through the grounds to the ruins of the old castle, a mile or so from the present house; saw the fine prospects down the slopes to the sea and to Whitby, with its abbey and lighthouses, and lookt into the deep and woody glens that cross the Park ... We stayed that night at the Ship Inn at Lyth and were very comfortable

Lythe, he wrote

stands on a hill which ends in the alum shale rocks of Sandsend Ness where are alum works.  The alum house is at Sandsend, the last sea side village of Cleveland, a tidy place contrasted with Staiths and Runswick, most of the residents of which are employed in alum making.  A little further on is East Row Beck, the Cleveland boundary, and stepping across that we entered the liberty of Whitby Strand opposite Dunsley Bay, and from there followed the new highway to Upgang and thence the cliffs into Whitby.

Do those examples of William Stott Banks' attractive, easy evocation of familiar scenes invites you to read more of his work?  You can find the volume Walks in Yorkshire: the North East, comprising Redcar, Saltburn, Whitby, Scarborough and Filey, with intervening places; and the Moors and Dales between the Tees, the Derwent, the Vale of York, and the Sea by W.S.Banks (Pub. London and Wakefield 1866) for free in Google Books [4].  Or you can buy a modern reprint.  The companion volume for the North West of Yorkshire evidently hasn't been scanned but secondhand copies of the original 1866 edition of Walks in Yorkshire: In the North West & In the North East can be found via online booksellers.

Notes

[1]    The Wakefield Free Press was a newspaper of eight pages, published every Saturday and costing one penny.  It ran from 1860 to 1902 and was owned by William Rowlandson Hall, a master printer aged 30.

[2]    The articles that appeared in the Wakefield Free Press:

27 Feb 1864  Walks in Yorkshire I. [an account of a walking tour with friends] Malham II 

5 March 1864  Ingleburg Cave, Chapel - Dent - and King's Dales III

12 March 1864  Wensleydale - Chapeldale - and Ingleburgh IV.

26 March 1864  Up Swaledale and across Wensleydale into Ribblesdale V

16 April 1864  Nidder - Langster - and Litton Dales.  Penyghent. VI

14 May 1864  Sedberg - Through Garsdale to Cotterfoss and Hawes - by Greenside, Dod and Cam Fells to Selside.  Past Moughton into Clapdale VII

25 June 1864  Upper Teesdale - Greta Dale and intervening Dales VIII., concluded on 

2 July 1864     do.-

16 July 1864  Cleveland - Upper Eskdale - over moors to Lewisham Station IX

20 Aug 1864  Bilsdale - Ryedale - Hambleton Hills X

10 Sept 1864  Western Slopes of the Cleveland and Hambleton Hills XI

1 Oct 1864  On the sea cliffs of Cleveland XII

12 Nov 1864  Ilkley to Simon Seat - Burnsal and Rilston to Cold Coniston XIII

17 Dec 1864  At and about Pomfret XIV

31 Dec 1864  The Howgill Fells XV

In February 1866 the walks were published in book form

1 The North-West: Among the Mountains and Dales, from the Wharfe, Aire, and Ribble, to the Western and Northern limits of the County

II The North East: On the Moors and in the Dales between the Tees, the Derwent, and the Sea

In 1871 he published Walks in Yorkshire: Wakefield and its neighbourhood

[3]    Short(ish) and slightly tedious explanation of wapentakes etc:

A wapentake was a sub-division of the North Riding of Yorkshire; both wapentake and Riding are names that date back to the Danelaw – Yorkshire was divided into three Ridings (= thirds).  

For centuries, the wapentakes were a unit of civil administration (including justice) but the rapid and radical social change of the 19th century meant reform was needed and so in 1889 the administrative county of the North Riding came into being, governed by a County Council with Middlesbrough being a Borough Council.  

Then in 1967, local government in the area around the River Tees was reorganised and the short-lived unitary County Borough of Teesside was created.  It lasted until 1974 when a reorganisation of local government in England created another short-lived authority, the two tier Non-Metropolitan County of Cleveland (which lasted from 1974 to 1996).  At the same time, it was decided that Langbaurgh would be the name of one of the four districts of the new Cleveland authority and that it would be pronounced Langbar.  I can't remember why they came to that decision; perhaps someone will tell me.  Previously, the name was pronounced Langbarf, as can be seen from the Victoria County History (published 1923), which can be found on British History online here

Cleveland was replaced by unitary authorities in 1996: Redcar and Cleveland, Stockton-on-Tees, Middlesbrough and Hartlepool.  Now, together with Darlington, these authorities are members of the Tees Valley city region (that is, a combined authority with a directly-elected mayor) administered by the Tees Valley Combined Authority.  The current Mayor is Ben Houchen.

Cleveland was also the name of the Parliamentary constituency created in 1885; it was replaced by the Redcar constituency and the Cleveland & Whitby constituency in 1974.

[4]    Blogger won't let me edit the hyperlink for Walks in Yorkshire: the North East, comprising Redcar, Saltburn, Whitby, Scarborough and Filey, with intervening places; and the Moors and Dales between the Tees, the Derwent, the Vale of York, and the Sea, so here it is in full

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=UKwKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA15&source=gbs_toc_r&hl=en&pli=1#v=onepage&q&f=false

Biographical notes on William Stott Banks

There is a wikipedia entry for him and he appears in the Dictionary of National Biography, which notes of his books, "Both works are remarkable for their completeness and happy research".  He was a good friend of the parents of the novelist George Gissing (1857-1903). 

He married Susanna Hick of Wakefield, daughter of Matthew Hick, watch maker, on 5 January 1850.  They lost four children as babies or in early infancy: William Henry; Oliver; Godfrey (died aged 3); and Alexander.  

William Stott Banks died at home in Northgate, Wakefield, at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon of Christmas Day 1872.  He was 52 years old.  His health had begun to fail some time earlier and in August he left for a tour of the Continent in the hope of recovery; he had been home a few weeks when he died.  He left his widow Susannah and two children, Dorothy aged 7 and Roland Campion aged 4.  Susannah died little more than a year later on 18 February 1874, and on 21 February 1880 Roland died.  Only Dorothy survived and she married in 1888 and had a family.  Her husband was the Revd Thomas Alexander Lacey, M.A, later Canon of Worcester Cathedral.  I think she may have been living with her mother's sister Arabella, who had married Joseph King.  They lived in Clifton, near York, and it was there that Dorothy's wedding took place.

The Sheffield Independent of 28 December 1872 recorded William's death:

Death of Mr W S Banks, of Wakefield

Mr W S Banks, of the firm of Iansons, Banks, and Hick, solicitors, Wakefield, died at his residence in Northgate, about three o'clock on the afternoon of Christmas Day.  Mr Banks, who was a self-made man, was well known amongst the legal profession.  He was the author of 'Walks in Yorkshire' and some other similar works.  His health gave way some time ago, and in August he started for a tour on the Continent.  He returned home a few weeks ago, and gradually sank.

And the Wakefield Express of 4 January 1873 described how the funeral procession started from his home in Northgate at 11 o'clock.  There were members of the Borough Police Force, headed by the officers, marching in double file, and six feet apart and then followed between forty and fifty gentlemen (councillors etc).  Behind came the mourning coaches carrying his widow and members of her family, including her sister Mrs King.  There were magistrates, the mayor and aldermen were there.

It was observable that several of the principal tradesmen along the line of route to the Cemetery had caused two or three shutters to be put up as a token of respect, and a great number of persons were to be seen as the funeral cortege passed along, notwithstanding the gloomy weather, witnessing the last of one so highly esteemed.

He was interred in the vault where his four infant children lay.

The Wakefield Express of 18 January 1873 carried a report of the Borough Magistrates' meeting.  They appointed a new clerk in Mr Banks' place and one of the magistrates, Dr Holdsworth, paid this tribute:

... Mr Banks was a self-made man – he was one of those gentlemen who had to work his way up in the world almost from obscurity.  

He was brought up in the Lancasterian School, and the only education he received in early life was in that institution, which he appears never to have forgotten.  He had devoted an amazing amount of time in past years to the cause of education, the value of which he could well appreciate; and after personally struggling very hardly with those difficulties which will ever beset the path of self-educated men, his great anxiety was to promote the intellectual and social well-being of others.  

By assiduous application to business and study, at the early age of eighteen he attained such a position that he became the support of his family; and, like a truly worthy young man, he maintained the, saving them from the bitter experience of poverty, and rendering happy an otherwise perchance needy home.  

As a public man, we know that for the past twenty years he has been connected with the Mechanics' Institution, which, in a great measure, owed its origin to his exertions, and to which he rendered invaluable assistance in the capacities of librarian, treasurer, and secretary; whilst he assisted other institutions in a variety of ways.  Nor must we omit to express our regret at the loss of a public official of this court – who both in his capacity as a lawyer and as clerk to the magistrates has performed his duties most efficiently.  

Having seen a very great deal of Mr Banks in his capacity as the clerk to the magistrates, I personally acknowledge the good advice and counsel I have always received from him.  So far back as 1862 and 1863 – upon the occasion of the marriage of the Prince of Wales, when there were many regulations necessary to be made – when his services were especially called into requistion – I personally received great kindness and assistance from Mr Banks.  His legal knowledge then proved, as in other cases of emergency, to be very extensive; indeed, he could be looked up to for sound advice upon all occasions of difficulty.

Walk the Cleveland Way – in 1866

An ideal trip back in time for anyone planning to walk the Cleveland Way when lockdown is over, or for people who know it well.  Actually, this isn't actually the whole Cleveland Way but only a section of it.  It's an account written in 1866 of a two day walking holiday along the coast from the newly-built and select resort of Saltburn by the Sea to the ancient town of Whitby.  The writer, who styles himself J.G. (in those days, newspaper articles were anonymous), is drawn by the prospect of a hearty walk and the scenery, but it's the industry and geology that really capture his attention:

Yorkshire Gazette, 14 July 1866

A visit to the Sea Cliffs of Cleveland

The Yorkshire sea coast is upwards of 100 miles in extent, and is, more or less, interesting to the tourist.  The coast of the East Riding begins at Spurn Head, and ends near Filey, and that of the North Riding from near Filey to the Tees mouth, near Redcar.  Desirous of spending a couple of days on the sea coast, and of seeing some of the ironstone districts of Cleveland, about which much has been said, we happened to look into a little book styled North Yorkshire by John Gilbert Baker, lately published, and at page 148 it is stated 

Now that the railway runs to Saltburn on the one side, and to Whitby on the other, this grand sweep of craggy coast is brought within the range of easy access to tourists, and it is to be expected that it will be more visited, and become better known than it has been.

The tide is often inconvenient for paying a visit to the crags from below, and to skirt their upper edge necessitates 

a good deal of rough scrambling, but to those who are able to make it, and who care for either magnificent scenery or geology, the walk between Saltburn and Whitby will richly repay the exertion.

Here is the very tract of country mapped out for a two days' trip, embracing in its range everything that is requisite for healthy exertion and for a general knowledge of the ironstone strata of the Cleveland hills.

The train which left York at 6 a.m. arrived at Saltburn at 9.30 on Tuesday, the 26th of June.  The Zetland Hotel, not far from the station, was built by the Stockton and Darlington Railway Company at a cost of £30,000, and on each side, with a southern front, are built rows of handsome lodging houses and shops and detached villas.  On the sands were ten bathing machines, and besides the usual comforts of a popular sea-bathing town, there is the two mile romantic walk of Skelton Glen, the entrance to which is opposite the beautiful range of lodging houses.

Zetland Hotel today
by Donnylad, licensed by CC BY-SA 2.0