ARKENGARTHDALE
Arkillesgarth (early xiii cent.); Alkergarth (xiii
cent.); Arkelgarth (late xiii–xv cent.); Arkelgarthdale (xiv–xvi cent.); Archgarthdale, Arkingarthdale
(xvii–xviii cent); Arkilgarthdale, Arkindale, Arkingarth (xviii–xix cent.).
Arkengarthdale is the valley of the River Arkle,
an early tributary of the River Swale, both streams
descending from the eastern spurs of the Pennine
Range, and forming part of the district known as the
Yorkshire dales. Chiefly composed of ling-covered
moorland, with here and there scattered sheep farms,
Gordon Home has characterized its scenery in this
description: 'The dales are entirely innocent of red
tiles and haystacks. The roofs of churches, cottages,
barns and mansions are always of the local stone that
weathers to beautiful shades of green and grey and
prevents the works of man from jarring with the
great sweeping hillsides.' (fn. 2) This is a very striking
distinction of western Yorkshire: the red-tiled roof
is almost inevitable on the Yorkshire moors that
slope down to the North Sea.
The parish is about 8 miles in length, and is
traversed throughout by the little River Arkle, formed
by William Gill and Annaside Beck, which gave
its name to the dale. The average height is 1,000 ft.
in the dale and 2,000 ft. on the moors. There are
in the parish 14,556 acres and 21 acres covered
with water, 2,238 acres being permanent grass and
100 acres wood and plantations. (fn. 3) No return of land
in cultivation has been made. The subsoil is Yoredale Rocks (with the two exceptions of Hurst Moor
and a tract bordering on Dam Rig, which are composed of Millstone Grit), the soil loam. Lead was
formerly worked in large quantities. The 'lord's
mine' in New Forest and Arkengarthdale (both held
in demesne by the Earl of Richmond) is mentioned
in 1285, when its profit was estimated at £4. (fn. 4) A
coal mine 'not occupied' was parcel of the manor
in 1435, (fn. 5) and the lord's coal mine of New Forest is
mentioned in the year following. (fn. 6) The farm of
the owner of Richmond's lead mines in the Forest
of Arkengarthdale was £20 in 1527–9. (fn. 7) When
Middleham, Arkengarthdale, New Forest and other
lordships were sold to the citizens of London in
1628, (fn. 8) all lead and coal mines in Arkengarthdale
and New Forest passed with them. Dr. Bathurst
obtained a lease of the mines at £3 10s. in 1655,
the year previous to his purchase of the manor. (fn. 9)
Later, in 1672, he leased them for £150 a year, and
this led to disputes between his son Theodore and
the lessee in 1682, when the owner complained that
the mines were worth much more. Depositions were
taken, and the agent employed by the lessee for the
mines said that at the beginning the work seemed
hazardous, but at the end of two years' time they
were worth twice as much as the lessee's rent
for them. During those two years he opened the
mines of Wind Egg, Moulds, Hasle Temple, West
Moulderside, and another little place on the west of
West Moulderside, and was not aware of any mines
having been opened since. Another deponent said
that when they were leased to the defendant they
were 'in a very meane condicion of profitt,' and he
'ran a very great hazard when he farmed the same,'
and had to spend a great deal of money in draining
them; another said he would not have ventured 6d.
for them. The profits according to deponents on
the other side varied from £63 to £480 from September 1658 until the lease, and one deponent said
that during the lease the profits of Moulds mines
amounted to £1,000, since the vein of lead ore was
sometimes 7 fathoms high and a yard broad. The
factor who received the lead, however, said he did not
believe the profits of the mines amounted to £1,000
in any year. Clints smelting mill was chiefly used,
but some of the lead was smelted at Gilling Mill.
Tithe was paid of all the lead that would not pass
through a riddle of which the loops were an inch
wide. (fn. 10) Lead, coal and slate are still found, but little
worked.
Index Map to the Wapentake of Gilling West
The road from Brough to Reeth, which becomes
in places a mere track, runs through the parish
parallel with the Arkle, and towards the lower part
of Arkengarthdale a road crosses the Arkle and
proceeds over Hope Moor to Barnard Castle.
The parish now comprises the villages of Arkle
Town (Arkilton, 1473), Booze (Bowehous, 1473),
Langthwaite and Whaw (Kiwawe, 1282; le Kuawe,
1285; Quaghe, 1342), and the hamlets of High
Green, Seal Houses (Westselehous, Estselehous, 1473)
and Eskeleth (Exherlede, 1282; Eskerlythe, 1342). (fn. 11)
In 1282 the lord had pastures at Helwathe, Hallegate, Kexthwaite, which were hamlets of Arkengarth
dale in 1604, at Stirkthwaite (now Storthwaite) and
at Fagardegile (Fawgargill, 1473; now Faggergill),
as well as inclosures at Speccholmes and Hope. (fn. 12)
Other interesting names are those of Kidelhowe and
Smytheshagh (an ancient Intake) mentioned in
1342, Puncherfote (fn. 13) (1473), Horrock's Cross, Scollit,
Scabba Wath on Mud Beck, Hagg's House and
Bouldershawe. The tenants of Bowes were said in
1604 to have made unauthorized inclosures on
Arkengarthdale Moor. (fn. 14)
A Wesleyan chapel at Langthwaite was erected in
1882, the old one being used as a Sunday school.
There is also a small Wesleyan chapel at Whaw.
Forest
Bathurst. Sable two bars ermine with three crosses formy or in the chief.
Neither New Forest nor Arkengarthdale is mentioned in the Domesday
Survey, but before 1171 Conan Earl of
Richmond granted the forestry of these places to
Hervey, (fn. 15) ancestor of the Fitz Hughs. (fn. 16) Hervey's
descendant Henry son of Ranulf was summoned in
1241 to show by what warrant he claimed to hold
the forestership of New Forest and Hope in the
'Forest of Richmond' and to have herbage and dead
wood. He made default, (fn. 17) and seems to have lost
his right. From this time the lords of Richmond
appointed their own officers in both forests (fn. 18) until
the forest passed, like the manor, to the Middleham
fee.
In 1308 the house of the Earl of Richmond at
Arkengarth was burned and his forester Adam Arkelgarth killed by marauders (fn. 19) ; in 1310 his free chase
was entered, (fn. 20) and in 1343 the Askes, Cleasbys and
others trespassed on the chase, then in the custody of
Queen Philippa. (fn. 21) William Newsham, constable of
Richmond Castle, was appointed in 1399 master
forester of New Forest, (fn. 22) which seems at this time to
have included Arkengarthdale, with the nomination
under him of two foresters at the foot of Swintonhowe, one at Hope, two at Bowes and two at Arkengarthdale. (fn. 23) A bow-bearer was appointed in 1535, (fn. 24)
and the office was still or lately in existence in
1608. (fn. 25)
The forest came to the Crown with the manor
(q.v.), and it, together with the chases and parks, was
reserved by Charles I when he sold the manor in
1628, though the right of hawking and hunting
was conveyed to the grantee. The steward of the
lord of the manor in 1670 incited the customary
tenants to kill the deer, as these did damage to their
holdings, saying that 'the king had no forest or deer,
but the deer were landlord Bathurst's, for if he, the
said steward, were a tenant he should kill them.' (fn. 26)
The Crown granted a lease of this forest in 1688 (fn. 27)
and again in 1697–8 as 'the forest or chace disafforested of Arkengarthdale alias New Forest in
Arkengarthdale.' (fn. 28)
Manor
ARKENGARTHDALE in 1285 was
held by the earl in demesne, (fn. 29) and remained
in the possession of the lords of Richmond
until 1444, when two-thirds of the manors of Bowes,
New Forest, Arkengarthdale, and East and West Hope,
the tolls and all other appurtenances and the reversion
of the third part held by the Duchess of Bedford for
life, (fn. 30) were granted in tail-male to Richard Earl of
Salisbury, with successive remainders to his brothers
in tail-male. (fn. 31) From this time (fn. 32) Arkengarthdale
descended with Middleham (fn. 33) (q.v.) until 1628,
when, with Middleham, the lordship of Arkengarthdale, New Forest and East and West Hope
(Hoppes) was sold by Charles I
to the citizens of London. (fn. 34)
The citizens sold Arkengarthdale in 1656 to Dr. John
Bathurst, (fn. 35) physician to Oliver
Cromwell. (fn. 36) The customary
tenants had agreed in about
1590 to relinquish to the
queen their claim to tenantright estates and to receive
in lieu thereof leases for forty
years, to be renewed every
forty years. (fn. 37) Dr. Bathurst,
however, wished to make new
arrangements with the tenants,
and was heard to say on one occasion, with Cromwellian autocracy, that if they did not yield to his
demands he would send them all to Ireland (fn. 38) ; and
either on another occasion or in a garbled version of
this speech, that not only would he turn the customary
tenants out of their farms, but send them to Barbadoes
or Virginia to plant. (fn. 39) In 1658 he granted leases of
2,000 years, or other long terms, of all the inclosed
lands of the manor, together with certain defined rights
for the leaseholders over the common and waste, subject
to the payment of fixed annual rents and fines for
renewal of leases every twenty-one years, and on the
death of the lord or tenant. Most of these leases
have been purchased by the present owner and his
predecessors, and the reversion in remainder is now
vested in him.
From John Bathurst the manor descended to his
son Charles Bathurst the elder, and from him (fn. 40) to his
son Charles Bathurst, who was succeeded by his three
daughters. The representatives of these co-heirs, (fn. 41)
Sir Charles Turner, William Sleigh and Charles
Francis Forster, who held as tenants in common, sold
one undivided third share in 1808 to George Brown, the
maternal great-uncle of the present owner; he bought
a second third in 1811 from William Sleigh and
Charles Turner; the third was purchased in 1821
from Charles Francis Forster by the Rev. John Gilpin
of Sedbury Park (of the same family as the Rev. Bernard
Gilpin, 'the apostle of the North,' who died in 1583).
His son was George Gilpin, who took the additional
surname of Brown on coming into possession of the
settled estates passing under the will of George
Brown. George Gilpin Brown died 28 November
1889, and the estates, including the manors of
Arkengarthdale, New Forest and Hope, devolved
on his eldest son, the present owner, Mr. George
Thomas Gilpin Brown.
The lord of Richmond's court at Arkengarthdale
is first mentioned at the end of the 13th century. (fn. 42)
James I held courts here in 1610 and 1611. (fn. 43) By
1829 a united court was held for the manors of
Arkengarthdale, New Forest and Hope at Scarr House,
Arkengarthdale. (fn. 44) The court is now held once a year
at the schoolhouse, and the jury still exercise the
ancient right to fine petty offenders in a sum not
exceeding 40s. Probate jurisdiction used to belong
to the court baron, and there is a register of wills
dating from 1724 to 1800 in the custody of the
steward. The last will proved was in 1812, after
which the court baron was supplanted in this respect
by the court of the archdeaconry.
Church
The church of ST. MARY THE
VIRGIN is a plain modern building,
erected in 1818 at the cost of the estate
of George Brown; the old church was pulled down
owing to the foundations becoming undermined by
the Arkle Beck. It consists of a chancel with a north
vestry, a nave and a west tower. The nave and
chancel are of equal width, with a flat plaster ceiling
and five two-light windows on each side. At the
east end is a three-light window and at the west is a
wooden gallery entered from a staircase in the tower.
The tower is in three stages with diagonal buttresses,
and the bells, three in number, are modern.
The plate consists of a chalice, paten and flagon,
all modern.
The parish registers begin for burials in 1722 and
for births and marriages in 1727. The tithe map is
among the parochial records.
Advowson
The church was appropriated to
Egglestone Abbey before 1292, (fn. 45)
and was held by this abbey until
the dissolution of the monasteries, (fn. 46) after which the
rectory and church, with the other possessions of
the abbey, were granted by Edward VI to Robert
Strelley and Frideswide his wife. (fn. 47) They have since
followed the descent of Startforth advowson. (fn. 48)
The living is a perpetual curacy designated a
vicarage.
Charities
The grammar school was founded
by will of John Bathurst, M.D.,
dated 23 April 1659. (fn. 49) By a scheme
of the Charity Commissioners dated 12 June 1906
the net income is applicable as to £26 a year in the
maintenance of scholarships, to be awarded to boys
and girls resident in either of the manors of Arkengarthdale and New Forest, and the residue of the
income in providing prizes of £2 or under to boys
and girls, in assisting the children to continue their
education, or in contributing to the cost of their
outfit.
This parish is entitled to benefits, under the
charity of Matton Hutton, at the Newcastle-uponTyne Infirmary.