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THE
HILLS, THE PARKERS AND LANGCLIFFE
There
is a gravestone near the wall behind Langcliffe church, with the inscription:
"In
memory of the late John Hill of Langcliffe, who died July 6th 1851, aged 56
years. Also of Sybil his wife, who died March 29th 1885, aged 75 years. Also of
Robert, eldest son of the above, who died September 9th 1904, aged 65 years.
Also of Jane, daughter of the above John Hill, who died March 8th 1910 in her
65th year."
This
must be one of the earliest gravestones in the churchyard, as Langcliffe Church
had been consecrated on 25th September 1851. John Hill must have died in a bad
period of the village's history, when Langcliffe High Mill was closing, many
people were leaving to obtain work in Accrington, and "grass grew in old
Langcliffe streets." Who were these Hills, and what influence did they have
on the village? John's father was another Robert (baptised at Giggleswick in
1762, died in 1846), and his father (baptised Robert, or "Robertus",
in 1721 at Giggleswick) was "of Bark," which may mean Bargh, near
Stainforth. These last pieces of information come from a 1775 probate of a will,
and from the Giggleswick Parish Register, published by the Yorkshire
Archaeological Society (1986), where Robertus is described as the son of
Henerici (Henry), of Stainforth.
John
and Sybil (also known as Sybilla, her photograph is below) had six children, of
whom Robert was the eldest. He seems to have been a small-time property
developer, described as 'gentleman' in his will. There is a plaque on the wall
of the cottages in New Street, inscribed Jubilee Cottages - "RH-1887,"
and this is presumably Robert, who must have had them built.
John's
second son, William, became a butcher near Barrow-in-Furness, Jane died a
spinster, and daughter Mary married Tristram Ovington, who owned Langcliffe
Paper Mill until he went bankrupt following the bursting of the mill dam. Then
Hector Christie of Langcliffe Place bought it, rebuilt the dam, and leased the
paper mill to John Roberts in 1880. Grace married Christopher Yeadon, a cotton
mill warehouseman.
The
second daughter of John and Sybilla, Alice (on the left), was born in 1849, and
in about 1872, married Christopher Walker Parker, of Upper Settle. Christopher,
born in 1846, was the son of John Parker and Mary Ann Walker, and this tradition
of using family names on the mother's side seems to have persisted fitfully in
our family for many years. The Parkers were joiners and carpenters, and their
business at the Green in Upper Settle lasted well over a hundred years from
about 1840, when John left home in Stainforth. His father, Thomas, was a
carpenter, born in 1787, and his father John, married in Giggleswick to Rebecca
Green in 1786, seems to have come from Manchester. This first John Parker's
baptism is not mentioned in the Giggleswick Parish Registers, but his father has
been identified as Cuthbert, of Manchester, Scotforth near Lancaster, and
Bentham. I believe that other Parkers who lived in Langcliffe may have stemmed
from this first John Parker, but I am not sure.
Christopher
Walker Parker (on the right) and Alice Hill had nine children, one of whom,
William Hill Parker, was my grandfather. William married Edith Johnson, of Paley
Green Farm, Giggleswick, and after leaving school at the age of 11, became
General Manager of Settle Limes Quarry at Horton-in-Ribblesdale. He died in
1937, still working for Miss Carrie Delaney, who owned Settle Limes.
Alice
seems to have been a determined lady. She bought about thirteen cottages and
some land in and around New Street from the estate of her brother Robert in
1906, and in 1912, seven more cottages, including five in Middle Fold, plus some
land, all from George Arthur Paley, of Bury St. Edmunds (no doubt a member of
the famous Paley family who used to live in Langcliffe, behind the Big Tree).
Alice died in 1923, two years before her husband. She left her Langcliffe
property to her eight surviving children, and for many years the rents were
collected, on behalf of the family, by Miss Harriet Parker, who lived with two
of her sisters at Bridge End, Settle. Some readers may remember her as the
infant teacher at Giggleswick village school, or calling each week for the rents
in Langcliffe until a few years before she died in 1979, aged 88. The level of
the rents can be gauged by the 38 (new) pence a week paid by the last tenant in
the 1970s. Clearly, the Parker family felt that, divided between so many heirs
of Alice Hill, and in a climate of controlled rents and a fashion for home
ownership, the cottages should be sold. In the period following the Second World
War, and lasting until 1974, all the cottages were sold, mainly to sitting
tenants. I bought the last one, in Middle Fold, because the tenants at that time
did not want it.
I
still value very much this connection of the Hills and the Parkers with
Langcliffe, and would very much like to find out more about them; where they
lived, and what they did.
Acknowledgement
Roger
Hill Parker sadly died earlier this year (2001).
He had already written a draft copy of his family history and we are very
pleased to be able to include it here, by kind permission of his widow.