History of 8 Aberford Road
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Apples, Arithmetic and the Aristocracy!
History of 8 Aberford Road
Barwicker No.124
Summer 2017
I love researching property history, finding out the details of what
properties were used for, who lived there, when they were built and the
stories of events they were part of. An opportunity to do this sort of
research presented itself in December 2013 when I purchased number
8 Aberford Road, Barwick-in-Elmet, a detached house overlooking All
Saints Church on the corner of Aberford Road and Chapel Lane. A
quick glance at the house would suggest a 1970s property but peeling
back the facade has revealed a much more fascinating story.
The house has three bedrooms, a kitchen, lounge, dining room,
bathroom, etc. However, it has a quirky layout with different levels,
there are nooks and crannies, walls show evidence of different types of
construction, in parts of the downstairs they are 4 foot thick. In the loft
a modern roof built onto breeze block walls appears straightforward
but look slightly below and you find the breeze blocks are placed on
top of stone walls. A huge stone chimney breast in the centre of the
house has a cavity accessible from the loft which goes all the way to
the ground floor. The 1970s house appears to be wrapped round a
much, much, older house.
The house plot is also strange, an L shaped area raised on the side of a
hill, part of the garden is enclosed with rough limestone built walls 9ft
high with strange filled in openings.
Once the house purchase was completed I eagerly awaited the deeds
from the Solicitor, hoping to unlock its secrets. I was much
disappointed when I only received a copy of the electronic deeds from
the Land Registry which were very brief. It appears all the original
deeds have been thrown away probably many years ago. The only clue
in the modern deeds is that mine and mineral rights were excluded
from the purchase. From my extensive research around Barwick I
know the Gascoigne family as the local estate owner included these
clauses when they sold land, so I had a clue.
My usual approach to research is to carefully go back in time from the
known to the unknown using linkage records (deeds, sale record, etc).
I had little to go on.
The previous owners indicated they had purchased the house in 1995.
I started to ask neighbours and search the Historical Society's resource
room. The name Perkins appeared a couple of times, most interesting
was a single sheet of paper the Society had on buildings near All
Saints Church "Notes on Barwick - J. T. Kirk - December 1977 .... Mr
D. Perkins - modernised cottage was original farm house to Low Farm in Parlington Court". Photographs came to light to show that the house had been modernised in the early 1970s, fitting in with the actual
discoveries inside.
I searched the Council records of the Tadcaster Rural District Council
(the Council for the area in the early 1970s) which are split between
Leeds Archives and North Yorkshire Archives in Northallerton. There
I discovered that in April 1971 Mr and Mrs D. Perkins had been
granted planning permission for alterations and modernisations of 8
Aberford Road. Sadly, the detailed plans which would have
accompanied the permission had been destroyed in the "weeding" of
the records before they were deposited by the Council into the
Archives.
I now had the scent of a trail, another name which had appeared in my
initial investigation was Ingham and that was the key which unlocked
the extensive Barwick property records and information started to pour
in. In September 1970 William Henry Ingham of Rose Cottage, 8
Aberford Road, died, the local paper the Skyrack reported
"MR INGHAM. - The death has occurred at the age of 74, of Mr. William
Henry Ingham, Aberford Road, Barwick, well known in the village."
Mr Ingham, before his illness, was local representative of the "Skyrack
Express," and an active member of the Labour Party, the United
Nations Committee and the Maypole Committee."
His will left the house to his wife Annie, who died in 1974 and then to a relative
Louisa Mary Perkins. The link between the two families had been
found.
I now moved my research to Wakefield and the West Riding Registry
of Deeds (a record of all freehold property sales in the district from
1704 to 1970). There I found that in March 1953 William Ingham of 8
Aberford Road had purchased two condemned houses adjoining 8
Aberford Road on Chapel Lane which were unoccupied and subject to
a demolition order made by the Tadcaster Rural District Council.
I was now not researching one house but the history of two or three! The
story will now continue in separate articles telling the history of
the Aberford Road house and the Chapel Lane houses, and what a
story I found they have to tell!
DAVID TEAL
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