Prologue
Moors, Dales and
Vales
An introduction to the Farndale Story
|
Some
inspiration before we begin our tale |
The
important position, in all ages, of that portion of the country at present
known as Yorkshire was such, that any history connected with its divisions, has
a particular bearing upon the general development of the nation, and this holds
good in a special degree in considering the antiquities of Ryedale and the
adjacent districts of North Yorkshire[1].
The
Farndale Story
This is the
story of one family’s journey through two thousand years of British history.
This is as much the story of those who still use the name Farndale, as anyone
who has a Farndale ancestor. It is also a story of Yorkshire’s history, told
through the path that one family took. It is additionally a story shared by countless
others who weaved their way through British history. It is an Everyman story.
The modern
Farndale family descends from the original inhabitants who first cultivated
Farndale from the early thirteenth century. The family linkage to this
relatively small, rural valley in North Yorkshire provides a beacon which makes
it possible to navigate the medieval records. We’ve found significant records of
individuals back to the thirteenth century, who themselves were descended from
the first inhabitants of the dale.
Farndale was
part of the large medieval estate of Chirchebi. Whilst much of that
estate including Farndale remained a wild place until well after the Norman
Conquest, there was a smaller region, only a few kilometres south of Farndale
which was a known area of stability and agricultural settlement. So we’re able to tell our deeper ancestral history through the
story of the people of that antique place which takes us through Anglo Saxon
back to Roman times.
Work on the
story of the Farndale family was started by Martin Farndale in the 1950s. After
about 1500, when parish records started, we have detailed records of all, or
nearly all those who were or are called Farndale. All modern Farndales, or
anyone descended from Farndales, are part of the same wider family, and can
trace their ancestry back to the families who lived around Skelton north of the
North York Moors from the mid sixteenth century.
The family
therefore all share the same deeper ancestral history of the period before
1500, of which the early Acts of the Farndale Story will tell.
Before the
thirteenth century, the place that came to be known as Farndale was an unknown
place, a forest flowing down through the valley from the high moors. By the Anglo Saxon period, Farndale formed part of the great estate
known as Chirchebi, which is called Kirkbymoorside today.
Chirchebi
(Kirkbymoorside) estate, 1066
The Venerable
Bede described the area around Farndale in the early eighth century, among
steep and distant mountains, which looked more like lurking places for robbers
and dens of wild beasts, than dwellings of men[2].
It came to
be a place where nobles sometimes hunted, a small section of enormous lands,
which would be passed about from unfaithful nobleman to faithful nobleman, across
the giant chessboard of England of the Middle Ages where the Kings and the
aristocracy played out their game of thrones.
To the south
of Farndale, along the Hodge Beck as it flows out of Bransdale, the dale which
runs parallel to Farndale, lies Kirkdale. Kirkdale is located at the edge of
the wild lands of the dales and the moors, but at the northwest corner of vast
agricultural lands, long settled. The Vale of Pickering sweeps south towards York
and, once a prehistoric lake, eastward towards Pickering and beyond.
We know from
the Domesday Book survey that Kirkdale was at the centre of a smaller northwest
section of these flat agricultural lands. This smaller region stretched from
Kirkby Misperton and Muscoates to the south and up to
Gillamoor at the approach to the dales in the north.
The River Dove and the Hodge Beck flowed out of the dales and through Kirkdale
and Chirchebi (Kirkbymoorside) and met at a confluence in these lands.
Settlements
around Kirkdale and Kirkbymoorside which were referred to in the Domesday
Survey, 1086
Kirkdale was
therefore the centre of the Anglo Saxon, and before that Roman, community that
would, in the early thirteenth century, extend its lands of cultivation into
Farndale, as the wooded dales were slashed and burned, a practice called assarting,
to provide extensions of the farmed land, into Farndale and Bransdale.
Therefore,
knowing that the modern Farndale family is descended from those who once eeked out their survival in Farndale in the mid thirteenth
century, it is probable that those villeins or serfs from Farndale from whom we
descend, themselves had their ancestral roots amongst the folk of Kirkdale and
its agricultural surroundings.
It’s
therefore probable that our distant ancestors are those people who inhabited
the region around Kirkdale in Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian and early Norman
times.
The Stage
for our Story
Our first task,
before telling the Farndale Story, is to set the scene, to stimulate your
imagination to fill the gaps in its telling. 'tis your thoughts that now
must deck our story, and carry them here and there[3],
|
Some
inspiration to help fine tune your imagination as you start to read the
Farndale Story. |
In setting
the stage for our story, you should first understand the scenery in which our history
is told. The geographical setting of our story should be imagined in three
distinct landscapes.
The moors are the windswept and barren heights
which have always been a harsh and bitter place.
The moors
above Farndale
The dales were probably largely impenetrable
and heavily forested for much of their ancient history. They are relatively
steeply sided valleys, with Bransdale following the Hodge Beck and Farndale
running parallel and following the River Dove.
Wooded dales Farndale
as it is today
The vales are ancient agricultural lands of
two vast vales, of York and Pickering. They are rich lands for farming.
Agricultural
land in the Vale of Pickering
Nestled at
the edge of the dales, as they pour out into the flat agricultural lands, at
the north west corner of the Vales, is Kirkdale, the
original cradle of our family. And it turns out that Kirkdale has quite a story
to tell.
Kirkdale
The
beginning of one family’s story
A genealogy
is the assembly of a multiplicity of related stories, of struggle, initiative,
tragedy, achievement, ambition, of following calls to battle, taming our own
lands, and travelling to new ones. The Farndale Story tells of all those
things.
All the
world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits
and their entrances and one man in his time plays many parts. His acts being
seven ages.[4]
At first the infant, mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms. The Farndale story will tell of infants.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel and shining morning face, creeping like snail unwillingly to school. The Farndale story will tell of schoolboys.
And then the
lover, sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad made to his mistress’
eyebrow. The
Farndale story will tell of lovers.
Then a
soldier, full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, jealous in honour,
sudden and quick in quarrel, seeking the bubble reputation even in the cannon’s
mouth. The Farndale
story will tell of soldiers.
And then the justice, in fair round belly with good capon lin’d, with eyes severe and beard of formal cut, full of wise saws and modern instances and so he plays his part. The Farndale story will tell of lawyers and law makers.
The sixth age shifts into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon, with spectacles on nose and pouch on side; his youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide for his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, turning again toward childish treble, pipes and whistles in his sound. The Farndale story will tell of sexagenarians.
Last
scene of all, that ends this strange eventful history, is second childishness
and mere oblivion; sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. The Farndale story will continue to the final scenes of each of our actors.
The Farndale Story is a time machine to transport you to
multiple stops in time through the story of one family. If you allow it, you
will encounter the emotions, experiences, ambitions and passions of those who
you meet. The matrix is your portal into these
multiple and ancient worlds, though many of these worlds of different times
might not be so very different to our own.
Glossary
As you start
exploring our history, in the box immediately adjacent to this Prologue in the
Matrix, you will find a glossary, which might help if you encounter some
medieval language or words from time to time with which you need some
assistance.
Go Straight to Act 1 – The
Family Cradle
or