A Blog post by our Volunteer Archivist Janet Senior
Cataloguing documents at Markenfield Hall brings me into contact with many fascinating items. A few weeks ago I discovered papers relating to the sale by the 5th Lord Grantley of the Brimham Rocks Estate. This was an astonishing find for me as I had no idea that this historic area had once been owned by the Grantley family.
A little while ago a battered tin trunk arrived at Markenfield Hall from Hutchinson & Buchanan, a firm of solicitors in Ripon. It was packed to the brim with papers relating to the Markenfield Hall Estate and the Grantley family stretching back to the late 19th century. Since then I have been slowly working my way through them. What a fascinating collection they are and they have added greatly to our knowledge of that period.
Though not many in number, the papers relating to Brimham Rocks are a case in point. Up until 1530 the Brimham Rocks area was in the possession of Fountains Abbey and the land was used for grazing. After the Reformation the lands reverted to the Crown and were eventually sold to Sir Richard Gresham, who also bought Fountains Abbey. In 1780 the Brimham Estate was purchased by Fletcher Norton specifically for the hunting rights. He built Rocks House in 1792 to be used as a hunting lodge. Later a tea room was added. From then until 1900 Rocks House was the home of the person who acted as “caretaker” for the rocks.
One of these so called caretakers was William Brown. William was born in Ripley in 1852 – the Ripley registers record some members of the Markenfield family marrying Brown family members! He was a farmer at Maud Farm but lived at Rocks House. His farm, according to a summary of farms dated 1898 and found amongst the H & B papers, was one of the largest on the Estate. The entry for William says:
“Included in Wm Browns Rent viz £90 is the priviledge of shewing the Rocks at a charge of 6d per head to Visitors”
When Lord Furness bought Gantley Hall and the Grantley Estate in 1900 he believed he was also purchasing the Brimham Estate. On realising this was not the case Lord Furness was not happy. The papers dealing with his purchase of the Brimham Estate are among those I have been cataloguing. The first asking price was £17,000. So in early 1910 Lord Furness sent his son to inspect the estate and form an opinion on what it was really worth.
After hearing his son’s report Lord Furness offered £14,000. Along with his offer he lets slip the information that he thought Brimham was included in the 1900 sale and was not happy he had been misled. After a few weeks negotiation the price was settled at £15,000 – which would be approximately £2,054,079 today. Within weeks of his purchase Lord Furness was transporting rocks from the area to Grantley Hall for his Japanese Garden.
A summary of the farms owned by 5th Lord Grantley, that comprised the Brimham Estate in 1898 can be found below.
Janet Senior. July 2021
We have a moat 