Farnhill Village Web Portal

Once the Kildwick estate was broken up, in 1949, Kildwick Hall passed through a number of private hands and was used for a number of commercial ventures. This article tells the story of the later owners of Kildwick Hall. It also investigates some of the people who were tenants of the Hall when it was still part of the Kildwick estate.

This update provides a large amount of new material resulting from our recent researches.
 

The 1846 tithe commutation document provides a lot of information about what Farnhill was like in the middle of the nineteenth century. We've used it to produce two articles:

The owners and tenants.
and
The tithe map (1845)
 

By the end of the 19th century Kildwick Church was in a bad way. At least one beam had fallen from the roof, smashing one of the pews below, and an architect reported that the building could fall down at any time. This article continues our researches into the work carried out to save "the Lang Kirk of Craven", and looks at how services were conducted while the church organ was out of action.

We've updated our piece on the bells at St. Andrew's church with details of the first-ever "History of the Lang Kirk", a booklet produced to raise funds for the new bells in 1914.

Perhaps and perhaps not - but if wasn't, then what was going on with all the peanuts ?.

Click here.

The Institute was founded in 1911 and was the gift of the Brigg family.

We've researched how the Institute came into being using newspaper reports of the period. We've also recently found out more information about the building before it became the Institute.

Read the full story here.

We thought you might to take a look at what other people have written about the history of Farnhill and Kildwick:

"The Villages of Craven - Farnhill" (an article from the Craven Herald of April 26th 1876)

"Kildwick Hall - Historical Sketch" by J.J. Brigg

"John Barritt obituary" (1809 – 1897)

"A History of Kildwick" notes for a lecture given by Will Cowling in 1951

Some "Notes on Farnhill" written by George Bottomley in 1950.

From the 16th to the middle of the 20th centuries, the village of Kildwick was owned by the Lord of the Manor. In a series of short articles, we tell the story of the owners of Kildwick Hall and the Kildwick Estate.

The updates made to our articles, originally published in 2017, revise the old texts and prepare for the story of the recent tenants and owners of the Hall, to be published next month.
 

The approach to St. Andrew’s Church from Kildwick bridge was a particular favourite of early photographers, and our archive contains a large number of images of this view taken throughout the 20th century.

For most of them it’s difficult to be precise about the date, but, by looking at small changes to the landscape over time, it is possible – for the majority – to suggest a sequence.

So here are some “Views from the Bridge”; some not quite from the bridge; and a few of the bridge itself.

This month marks the 80th anniversary of the mass escape of allied PoWs from Stalag Luft III during WWII - an event that became famous as "The Great Escape".

This update is a major revision of our original article, with lots of additional information about the Farnhill family who had a significant connection to the escape.

Kildwick Gas Works, which stood on the site occupied by the petrol station - behind St. Andrew's Terrace Crosshills, closed in 1955 and was demolished in the mid-1960s. The late Dennis Laycock's father, Fred, was manager of the works when it closed and, after his own retirement, Dennis wrote a notebook providing a short history of the works and details of its operation.

We are very pleased that Dennis allowed us to publish his handwritten notebook.

You can also view a short slideshow of pictures from Dennis's notebook and others of the gas works from our archive. Click on the image opposite.