Introduction and Updates

 

This website has been created to display historic photographs and local history information for Coverdale, in the Yorkshire Dales.

 

It is a work in progress, so please excuse the "pages under construction". We are also fine-tuning the layout.

 

If you have any historic photos and/or information we would appreciate contributions. We would also  like to upgrade existing pictures with clearer photos. Please write to tartarus@pavilion.co.uk. All contributions will be acknowledged.

 

With all best wishes,

Ray Russell and Rosalie Parker, Carlton, Coverdale.

 

We will note new information as it is added:

 

19th February 2018:

Many thanks to John Simpson who has remembered the words of a song sung at a Carlton concert party organised by the Methodist minister, Rev D. Wright, c.1958:

 

There’ll always be an England

Is a cry that we all know,

But here’s a little ditty that

Will set you hearts aglow.

It’s all about a little place

That’s known both far and near

A little place called Carlton,

Here in Coverdale so dear.

And if sometimes we leave it for a while,

You’ll always hear us singing with a smile:

 

Chorus

There’ll always be a Carlton, I declare,

A Carlton here in Coverdale so fair,

Many other places think they’re cute,

But this great truth not one of them

For a moment can refute,

Of all the places that lay claim to fame

The fairest one has Carlton for its name,

And though Earth should pass away one day

And all things must depart,

There’ll always be a Carlton in my heart.

 

Now Braidley, Woodale, Coverhead

You pass right through, you know,

And up the dale and out the top

Via Park Rash you go.

Each person that you come to will

Say their place is quite the best,

And so they will at Gammersgill

And Fleensop and the rest,

For some its Calbergh, or Penhill’s great pile,

for me I’ll go on singing with a smile:

 

Chorus

 

They tell you up in Horsehouse

It’s very, very old,

And o’er the dale at Scrafton

Many wondrous things are told,

Of Arkleside and Melmerby

There’s much that can be said,

At Gildersbeck and Agglethorpe

The people are well bred

And Coverham has its once monastic style,

For me I’ll go on singing with a smile:

 

Chorus.

 

Its customs old are quite a few

And of them much I’d tell

A sports day once a year is held,

Which people love so well.

It’s foresters and Robin Hood

In Sherwood green do go

Around the town with hired band

Alternate years or so.

To pie suppers folks come from many a mile.

And you can hear them singing with a smile:

 

Chorus

 

You’ll wonder what in Carlton

Makes me love it such a lot*

I love it for the things that are,

And things that just are not,

It’s Little Side with rippling brook,

Its stone grey buildings neat,

Its village hall where Ynstitute

And other great things meet,

It’s one long street of over half a mile

And as you walk it sing with me and smile:

 

Chorus

 

We love this place called Carlton**

For its lack of soot and grime

The bleat of lambs we hear in spring,

The sweet scent of hay-time,

From Penhill’s slope there pours and pours

Such water, oh so pure,

And then I near forgot it but

There is just one thing more.

IT MAY HAVE SANITATION IN A WHILE,

and then we’ll all be singing with a smile:

 

Chorus

 

* Sung by a man engaged to a girl from Carlton

**This last verse was written before Sewage works came to Carlton

 

 

 

25th July 2017:

Ivy Cottage and Coverdale Lodge:

Many thanks to Martin Stott and Dagmar Sandhorst for photos of Ivy Cottage and Coverdale Lodge which have now been added to the Carlton general views page.

 

22nd March 2017:

Coverdale World War I Veterans' Project

Is a member of your family listed on the First World War veterans' plaque in Coverham church or Carlton Memorial Hall? Would you like to have his story recorded as part of a project to commemorate the centenary of the end of the war?

   My grandfather, Richard (Dick) Walls, served along with his four brothers. He didn't do anything extraordinary after the war but he had survived, albeit with a small injury, to marry, work and contribute to his community.  Dick's place - and your relative's place - in history shouldn't be forgotten.

   So whether you know very little about your ancestor or you have a treasure trove of anecdotes to share, please get in touch. We can help with researching war records and ultimately the amount of information included will be up to you. It is hoped that by November 2018 we can produce a display and a booklet in memory of these men.

   Thank you.

        Val Slater ((Member of the Middleham and Dales Local History Group)

        Email - val.slater@btinternet.com  Tel: 01609 770524

 

16th January 2017: Many thanks to Isobel Jenkins for information on the Thistlethwaite and Farnells of Thistle Cottage, Carlton. Pioneers of motoring, they were responsible for the first cars in Coverdale. Photographs of the cars and family are courtesy of the Wensleydale Camera Club, as well as Liz Shehan and Norman Johnson. Thanks are also due to Charles Clough and Jim Evans of Carlton who helped identify the early cars, and M. Worthington-Williams of The Automoblie who generously identified cars and provided some useful information about each.

 

19th September, 2016:

Many thanks to Mike Horner for the above photo of a Foresters Day parade, early 1950s. Can anyone identify the  lady in tweed jacket and skirt, wearing a hat?

Many thanks to Isobel Jenkins for a very useful history of Horsehouse school. Thanks also to isobel for a photograph of Miss Westaway, author of A Year in Our Village, a short book about Carlton, albeit with the names disguised. Isobel has also provided a photo of the Coverdale WI on a visit to London, an event mentioned in Miss Westaway's book.

 

18th August 2016:

Many thanks to Mabel Handley for two photos we have now added to the West Scrafton pages. Names and dates to follow...

 

Thanks also to Chris Hogg for a portrait of Henry Storey, a stonemason who lived and worked in and around Coverdale. We have created a page of Coverdale People to cover those who cannot be tied down to one particular hamlet. Thanks to Chris we also have a photo of Henry's son's wedding party at Griff Mill.

 

5th August 2016:
Many thanks to John and Margaret Simpson for the "Speed" illustration above from the Yorkshire Evening Post, 52 years ago.

 

28th July 2016:

Many thanks to Alison Dixon for the photograph of an Arkleside doorway. Which house is it, and what was the public house? Thanks to Alison we have also added a photograph of the Carlton Methodists' New Year party, c.1960.

 

5th July, 2016:

Many thanks to Alison Dixon for a group photo, circa 1900, taken at West Scrafton. Thank you also to Linda Dent for the Foresters Day photo with Raymond Brown as the Robin Hood.

 

2nd July, 2016:

We can now be fairly certain that the photo above is of the first car owned by Coverdale residents. The woman to the left is probably Sarah Thistlethwait. With her husband, George (taking the photograph) they owned this vehicle which has no number plate, and can therefore be dated to earlier than 1905. The Thistlethwait's lived at Thistle Cottage. Mrs B.E. Connor (nee Farnell) stated in the Dalesman that contrary to other reports, however, the first car ever seen in Carlton was that of the Thistlethwait's good friends, Mr Albert Farnell, the first car dealer in the Britsih Isles (whose Garage was in Bradford.)

 

30th June 2016:

Many thanks to Tony Harrison for letting us use a few photos of West Scrafton from The West Scrafton Photograph Album.

 

21st June, 2016:

Many thanks to Chris Hogg who has very generously allowed us to reproduce historic photographs and postcards from his excellent book, Wensleydale & Coverdale Through Time, Amberley, 2013. We would thoroughly recommend anyone with an interest in this website to buy a copy for, not only the additional photographs, but the wealth of information it contains.

 

Many thanks, also, to Norman Johnson for sending two photos of Carlton, one showing the outside of The Moorcock public house, and the other of the first car in Carlton.

 

16th June, 2016:

Many thanks to Clive Torrens who has allowed us to reproduce a number of photos from his book, Bygone Yorkshire: Wensleydale, Drystone Publications, 1997. We have been able to add images to the Carlton, Horsehouse and Coverham pages.

 

Thank you to Isobel Jenkins who has written an account of the Coverdale Foresters Friendly Society.

 

Thanks also to Colin Hinson, who has given us permission to reproduce photographs taken in Gammersgill, and on the road between Gammersgill and Carlton.

 

10th June, 2016:

Many thanks to Valerie Slater for more information and photographs of the Coverdale Foresters, of the Foresters Arms, and also photos of the Coverdale plays.

 

9th June, 2016:

Many thanks to John and Margaret Simpson for the Coverdale Memorial Hall Souvenir Brochure from which we have excerpted photographs for the Coverdale Institute and Memorial Hall page.

 

Thank you, also to Val Slater for identifying the Ronin Hood, and the date of the 1932 Foresters photographs.

 

6th June 2016:

Many thanks to Isobel Jenkins for cuttings from the short-lived Wensleydale Advertiser reporting on Foresters Day in Coverdale.

 

5th July 2016:

Many thanks to Isobel Jenkins for passing on a photograph of the Coverdale Band, given to her by Betty Fraser (whose father, Mr Dodsworth, is in the picture)

 

Thanks also to Dot and Tony Keates for a photograph of the sheep washing in Melmerby in the 1950s, Agglethorpe Hall, and photos of Griff Mill.

 

Tony Keates has also provided a Brief History of Griff Mill.

 

 

3rd June 2016: The website is online! Many thanks to:

Mike Horner for Carlton photographs.

Raymond Brown for Foresters photographs.

The Foresters Arms.

Arthur Staples for photographs from Horsehouse in Coverdale, A selection based on the History of Horsehouse Exhibition,

and especially to

Isobel Jenkins, for her Carlton School photographs, and for providing the impetus to put this website online.