Farnhill Village Web Portal

The Institute was founded in 1911 and was the gift of the Brigg family, but was its creation politically motivated; a scheme thought up by a Liberal family designed to upstage the plans for a Conservative Club ?

We've researched how the Institute came into being using newspaper reports of the period. We've also recently been given copies of the Deed of Gift of the Institute building to the village and the programme for the opening of the Institute on 9th December 1911 - 110 years ago.

Read the full story here.

Two destructive mill fires in Farnhill, one in December 1905 and the other in March 1906, effectively ended industrial development within the village, as well as causing significant unemployment and hardship. Read our article about the devastating fires of 1905 and 1906, which we have updated with additional information on the history of what happened to Farnhill Mill after the 1905 fire.

You can also view a slideshow of photographs taken at the time.
 

In August 2013 we posted a short piece in our "Mysteries" section asking if anyone knew where the building known as Farnhill Wood Cafe and Cyclists Rest used to be located. Since then, every now and again, additional information has come to light that has allowed us to slowly resolve the mystery. So we think we’ve finally got the mystery sorted – but we know that it’s only a matter of time before someone comes forward with more information that might cause us to have yet another rethink.

Read our current thoughts on Farnhill Wood Cafe and Cyclists Rest.

Since we last updated our short piece on the Kildwick school prize-winning choir of 1957, we've received another photograph of the choir with their trophy. We're also closer to putting names to almost all of the faces.

Our archive includes a number of maps of Farnhill and Kildwick. Here are some, dating from 1577 to 2012 in approximately chronological order, made into a slideshow. It's interesting to see how views of the area have changed.

We've updated this slideshow with some items recently donated to the History Group.

Click the image opposite to view.
 

One of our on-going projects is to document how Farnhill and Kildwick celebrated the 20th century Coronations and Jubilees.

We've recently received a number of additional photographs taken on the day of the Coronation of our present queen, 2nd June 1953, showing the Farnhill and Kildwick "queen" and her entourage.

You can read this updated article, or you could view all our articles on the Coronations and Jubilees.

The history of education in Kildwick could go back as far as Tudor times. With the help of two descendents of former masters of Kildwick school, this article provides an outline of schooling in the village from those earliest times up until the start of the 20th century.

This update to our original article includes information fon the first schoolmaster of the school to gain a formal qualification.

Using existing published material, a little bit of original research, and some personal recollections, we have compiled a history of all the vicars of Kildwick from Simon de Haplesthorp in 1267 to Julie Bacon, the most recent vicar, who left the parish just a couple of months ago.

As you might expect, they were a mixed bunch; and this article has been subtitled "the good, the bad; the loved, the hated; and at least one who was of "unsound mind"".

The History Group archive contains a number of scans of paintings and drawings of the two villages – some of them quite old, others more recent. Many are unsigned and/or undated. This slideshow contains a selection of them, in approximate chronological order.

This update includes a 1930 Xmas card, a drawing of the "Old Priory", and some recent work by local artist (and History Group member) Anna Hewlett.

Click the image opposite to view.
 

Earlier this month the bell-tower at St. Andrew's was opened to visitors for an afternoon.

It seems appropriate, therefore, to publish an article on the history of the Kildwick bells and bell-ringers.

From the late 1970s until 1990 Kildwick participated in the “Best Kept Village Competition” organised by the Yorkshire Rural Community Council - and it's record was very good ! Read the details here.

Once the Kildwick estate was broken up, in 1946, Kildwick Hall passed through a number of private hands and was used for a number of commercial ventures. This article tells the story of these 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 includes personal recollections of later owners of the Hall from people who read the original version of this article.
 

Just a few weeks after Farnhill Chapel closed its doors for the last time, members of the History Group were allowed in to take photographs. This slideshow is a selection of the pictures we took that day.