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Abstract
Between the late-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, West Mill, in Askrigg, North Yorkshire, was the base of a regionally important hay rake making business undertaken by the Burton family. Set within Wensleydale, an agricultural landscape organised around hay making, hay rakes made by the Burtons were sold across much of the north of England. Using documentary, archaeological, and oral evidence, this paper examines the construction of a typical Burton hay rake, the surviving evidence for this process at West Mill, and how the rakes were used. The significance of the business to the wider Wensleydale agricultural community is also discussed.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Professor and Mrs Blake for allowing free access to the West Mill complex and surrounding area. It should be noted that the mill is private property and may only be visited through prior arrangement with the owners. Thanks are also due to Mr Andrew Craske, who made available (and allowed the reproduction of) historic documentation without which this paper would have been much poorer, and to the various relatives and descendants of the Burton family who have kindly shared their memories with the author. Ed Dennison, Richard Lamb, Martyn Mawson and Robert White commented upon earlier drafts of this paper.
Notes
1 White, Month in Yorkshire, 168.
2 Moorhouse, “Anatomy of the Yorkshire Dales,” 312–3; Moorhouse, “Buildings in the Medieval Landscape,” 50–9; Pacey, Yorkshire Dales Field Barns, 98–100.
3 Long and Davies, Farm Life, 47–52; Gamble and St Pierre Hay Time, 14, 24–6, 40–1, 57.
4 FitzRandolph and Hay, Timber and Underwood Industries, 153; Brassley, “Silage in Britain,” 75–7, 85.
5 Brassley, “Silage in Britain,” 75–7, 85.
6 Business Ledger of W. H. Burton and Sons, Askrigg, relating to hay rake making between 1907 and 1926 (collection of Mr Andrew Craske).
7 Pontefract and Hartley, Wensleydale; Pontefract and Hartley, Yorkshire Cottage; Hartley and Ingilby, Life and Tradition.
8 Hartley and Ingilby, Life and Tradition, 132–3; www.merchantandmakers.com/rudds-rake-factory-traditional-hay-rakemaker (first accessed January 2015).
9 The resulting three volume unpublished EDAS archive report (S. Richardson and E. Dennison, West Mill, Askrigg, North Yorkshire: Archaeological and Architectural Survey. 2010/388.R01, for Professor D Blake, 2012) is deposited with the Authority’s Historic Environment Record at Bainbridge, North Yorkshire.
10 FitzRandolph and Hay, Timber and Underwood Industries, 92.
11 Longnon, Cazelles and Meiss, Très Riches Heures, 7; Taylor, Swaledale and Wharfedale.
12 FitzRandolph and Hay, Timber and Underwood Industries, 140.
13 Fussell, The Farmer’s Tools, plate 64; Heumader and Schmid, Hoibat, 29, 41, 83.
14 FitzRandolph and Hay, Timber and Underwood Industries, 140.
15 A very similar rake is still made by the Rudd family of Dufton, Cumbria; www.merchantandmakers.com/rudds-rake-factory-traditional-hay-rakemaker.
16 Pontefract and Hartley, Wensleydale, 126; FitzRandolph and Hay, Timber and Underwood Industries, 91; Martyn Mawson, ‘pers. comm.’
17 Pontefract and Hartley, Wensleydale, 126; FitzRandolph and Hay, Timber and Underwood Industries, 85, 92.
18 Hartley and Ingilby, Life and Tradition, 132–3.
19 35 mm colour slide of Burton hay rake taken in 1995 near Askrigg by Robin Minnitt (copy in collection of Professor and Mrs Blake).
20 FitzRandolph and Hay, Timber and Underwood Industries, 140.
21 Hartley and Ingilby, Life and Tradition, 132–3.
22 London and North Eastern Railway receipt (9 May 1944) detailing carriage of rakes from West Mill to R Launder via West Hartlepool station (collection of Professor and Mrs Blake).
23 Barrett and Diment, No Five O’clock, back cover.
24 B. Kershaw, Power from Water, (undated pamphlet and accompanying map, collection of Professor and Mrs Blake).
25 Census returns of 1881 for Askrigg (The National Archives) RG11/4875, 1.
26 www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/NRY/Aysgarth/Aysgarth90.html (first accessed January 2015); North Eastern Railway note (July 1898) from Goods Department at Thirsk to Askrigg concerning payment for carriage of two bales of rakes (collection of Mr Andrew Craske).
27 Due to its multi-phase development and the constraints of local topography, the West Mill complex has an irregular ground plan set out on south-east/north-west and north-east/south-west alignments; however, for ease of description, the long axis of each building is considered to be aligned east/west. Similarly, due to the rising ground level to the north, the ground floor level as entered on the southern side of the mill complex becomes a semi- or full basement on the northern side, but the entire lowest level of the complex has been termed the ‘ground floor’.
28 Pontefract and Hartley, Yorkshire Cottage, 65.
29 Pontefract and Hartley, Wensleydale, 126; Hartley and Ingilby, Life and Tradition, 132; Kershaw, Power from Water.
30 Hay, “Hydroelectricity Generation,” 35–53; Kershaw, Power from Water.
31 Hartley and Ingilby, Life and Tradition, 132.
32 Pontefract and Hartley, Wensleydale, 126.
33 FitzRandolph and Hay, Timber and Underwood Industries, 123–4; www.merchantandmakers.com/rudds-rake-factory-traditional-hay-rakemaker.
34 FitzRandolph and Hay, Timber and Underwood Industries, 123–4.
35 Hartley and Ingilby, Life and Tradition, 132.
36 Hartley and Ingilby, Life and Tradition, plate 163; www.merchantandmakers.com/rudds-rake-factory-traditional-hay-rakemaker.
37 Pontefract and Hartley, Wensleydale, 126; FitzRandolph and Hay, Timber and Underwood Industries, 124; Hartley and Ingilby, Life and Tradition, 132–3.
38 Hartley and Ingilby, Life and Tradition, plates 162 and 164.
40 Pontefract and Hartley, Wensleydale, 126.
41 Hartley and Ingilby, Life and Tradition, plates 162 and 164.
42 Pontefract and Hartley, Wensleydale, 126.
43 Hartley and Ingilby, Life and Tradition, 132.
45 FitzRandolph and Hay, Timber and Underwood Industries, 124.
46 Burton and Sons, ledger book.
47 FitzRandolph and Hay, Timber and Underwood Industries, 16.
48 Burton and Sons, ledger book.
49 Mrs Audrey Heasman, ‘pers. comm.’
50 FitzRandolph and Hay, Timber and Underwood Industries, 123, 139–40; Hartley and Ingilby, Life and Tradition, 132–3.
51 Hartley and Ingilby, Life and Tradition, 132–3; London & North East Railway invoice dated Jul 1944 detailing charges for carriage of rakes from Askrigg (collection of Mr Andrew Craske).
52 Card to West Mill dated 1921 from Hardy and Holgate Ltd., Ironmongers, York, regarding rakes broken in transit (collection of Professor and Mrs Blake).
53 Gamble and St Pierre, eds., Hay Time, 239.
54 FitzRandolph and Hay, Timber and Underwood Industries, 140.
55 Trinder, “Market Town Industry,” 75–89.
56 Letter to W. H. Burton (4 January 1917) from Fisher and Sons, Ironmongers and Iron Merchants, Market Place, St Neots (collection of Mr Andrew Craske).
57 FitzRandolph and Hay, Timber and Underwood Industries, 125.
58 For example, see Hartley and Ingilby, Life and Tradition, 122–9.
59 Long and Davies, Farm Life in a Yorkshire Dale, 50.
60 Hartley and Ingilby, Life and Tradition, 126; Gamble and St Pierre (eds), Hay Time, 25, 32.
61 Horne, Complete Grazier, 457; Hartley and Ingilby, Life and Tradition, 126; Gamble and St Pierre, Hay Time, 32–3.
62 Hartley and Ingilby, Life and Tradition, 126–8; Gamble and St Pierre (eds), Hay Time, 35, 40–1.
63 Course, “Engineering Works in Rural Areas,” 152, 155.
64 Ibid., 151–3.
65 Richardson, South Elmsall Provender Mill.
66 FitzRandolph and Hay, Timber and Underwood Industries, 154.
67 Hawkes, A Land, 187.