Local History Visit to Farnhill and Kildwick 27 June 24

Main image courtesy of Farnhill History Group

Early settlers existed on the high moors of Farnhill and Kildwick, which rise sharply above the deep Aire valley, but we pick up the history in about the 14^th century.  A family of de Fernhills had given way to William the Conqueror who had made his dominant presence known and created his Norman barons over broad estates.  The whole area around Skipton was given to Robert de Romille, succeeded by Cecilia and then Alice who granted considerable lands to the newly arrived Augustinian Canons who established their existence at Bolton Priory.  The Priory built Kildwick Grange in the early 14^th century, essentially as a dairy but also for rearing goats.   A group of manors was formed by Geoffrey de Neville in 1303, including Farnhill which made up a Knight’s Fee for feudal services to the Honour of Skipton Castle.  Eventually the manor passed from Margaret de Neville to Roger de Clifford, with the Honour of Skipton, and remained with the family until the death of Lady Anne Clifford in 1676.  The succession was then to the Earls of Cork and finally to the Cavendish family, Dukes of Devonshire.  The medieval Catholic military Order of the Knights Hospitaller also held land in this area, with twenty farms in the Parish of Kildwick in c.1540, and the St. John’s Cross is sometimes found on early property frontages.

Robert Benson, a lawyer and businessman, saw an opportunity between 1660 and his death in 1676 to buy estates of gentry who had fallen into debt after the Civil War.  He acquired several manors including Farnhill.  His son, Robert, inherited these estates.  He was a politician, entered Parliament and received a peerage as Lord Bingley in 1731 – of Bramham Park.  The estates eventually, through marriage, passed to the Lane Fox family.

There was a John de Coplay of Fernhill in the 14^th century whose daughter married an Eltofte, which family built FARNHILL HALL in the 15^th century and remained Lords of the Manor within the Bolton Priory Estates through the 17^th century.  The Hall was a medieval ‘fortified’ tower house with a central open hall, a solar tower wing and a service block.  Small tenanted farms of the manor  managed stock, crops and woodlands with game, the farmsteads clustered within the township of High Farnhill, their outlying fields had barns for storage and to protect animals.  A manorial cornmill existed by the river near High Farnhill allowing tenants to grind their cereal crops, and a new cornmill continued this into the 19^th century, using the waters from Cononley Beck.

A rough and arduous trade route existed from Skipton through Bradley, Farnhill, Kildwick, Keighley and southwards, on the high ground but below the moors.  Farnhill Wood is ancient and still generating, and in the 14^th century Kirk Wood extended from Kildwick to Snaygill and northwest.  These woodlands were an important part of the economy and had to be well managed.   However, farmers were clearing areas of woodland to increase their productive capability.  A drovers route through Farnhill from the high road was down Starkey Lane to cross the river, and the valley was becoming less marshy so was suitable for stock-grazing.  The monks of Bolton Priory were responsible for the building of the original Kildwick Bridge in the early 14^th century, presumably a wooden bridge, to access their lands and tithe corn across the river Aire.

Due to the power of labour shortage in the period 15th-17th centuries, following battles, wars and plagues, local inhabitants progressed from living by subsistence farming to being ‘free’ men, yeomen, profiting from agriculture, mineral working and home-textile production. They could afford to rebuild their homes in stone on the original footings, and Farnhill village developed down the hill to abut Kildwick where is the ancient church.  A beck running down from the moor at Low Farnhill is the boundary with Kildwick, where is the church.  The site of this CHURCH OF ST. ANDREW has been a place of worship for over 1000 years and has had a dramatic history.  Its original presence was Saxon, built on the low edge of woodland, a building heavily oak-timbered and thatched with straw overlaid with turf.  It had a broad, low tower, without a porch.  The church was almost destroyed in 1272 during a Scots’ invasion…the Canons of Bolton Priory lengthened it in the 15^th century by adding a Chancel, and further extensions took place in the 16^th century….the porch was added in the 19^th century.  Numerous Coats of Arms are to be seen within the church including de Romille, Currer, Swire, Eltofte and the Priory of Bolton.  There is also a monument for Robert de Styveton, a Knight Templar of the 14^th century.  West of the church tower is the old school house, built by the Rev. J. Pering, Vicar of Kildwick in 1839.  The 17^th century White Lion inn is also in close proximity to the church, and, with stabling, accommodated regular stage coaches.

The canal opened in 1774 and is actually carried ABOVE the village road. This aided the development of the textile industry, Farnhill having four wool and cotton mills at one time, before fires destroyed two.

A lime kiln was built into the canal embankment to burn lime for mortar to be used in the construction of local mills and housing.  In 1823 the malt kiln closed and was converted into Farnhill’s second textile mill, owned by Aked Brothers.  The former four-storey cotton mill was occupied by Greens, worsted spinners, and Thomas Dennison.  Farnhill also had a small tanning industry with tan pits and sheds on land between the canal and Skipton old road.  This had closed by 1900.

Many older houses were replaced and a row called Middleton was built by the Farnhill Order of Odd Fellows for local workers, and a current cottage used to be the Ship Inn.  In 1875 a third mill, Airedale Mill was built on the opposite side of the canal but burned down in 1905. The terraces of houses built for the millworkers on the township slopes, especially on STARKEY LANE, are looking very smart.

We walked up the ancient flagged footpath beside the beck and by the Glebe field to High Kildwick, just below ancient woodland and the moor, where the OLD VICARAGE is, originally dated early 17^th century.

Over the back door of the vicarage, on a square stone (‘tho very illegible) is a reference to Francis Little, Vicar from 1661-1678.  The house had fallen into disrepair during the Civil War period and was restored.

KILDWICK HALL is an imposing presence to the right, built in 1642 by the Currer family who retained the Hall until the 19^th century when the manorial rights were bought by Sir Matthew Wilson of Eshton Hall.  The Currers were supporters of the Parliamentary forces, some of whom were based at the Hall during the Civil War c.1644. Occupiers of Kildwick Hall changed many times in recent decades.

A little way past the Hall is the PRIEST’S HOUSE, (Prior’s House), dating from the 16^th century, but an earlier house on this site is reputed to have been the dwelling of the canons who came from Bolton Priory to perform the sacrament (a deacon not being allowed to do so.)  There is still much evidence and structure on this high road dating from early centuries, including a roadside stone trough situated well below the current road level!

THE GRANGE, about half a mile further on from the Priests’ house, is now a community of houses but in the late 13^th century was the grange farm of the canons of Bolton Priory.  The present buildings date from the late 16^th century upwards and are impressive.  Roger Coates lived here, a zealous Puritan and staunch supporter of the Commonwealth regime; a member of Parliament in 1653, and local Justice of the Peace.   The family Swire had also been occupants, and between Coates and Swire areas of waste lands and common moor had increased use, with enclosures.

This ancient parish of Farnhill and Kildwick provided another opportunity to recognise and appreciate the centuries of rural progression through agricultural and textile industrial evolution.

Phyllida

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