I’ve been writing about my family for some time now and decided to go back and look at the siblings of my grandparents. I came across John, the eldest brother of my granny Charlotte. He was born in Cliffe, Yorkshire on 12 March 1892 to my great grandparents William Ireland Barrett (1859-1942) and Charlotte Mary Burton (1870-1942). By the 1901 census the family had moved to Skipwith and John was a student at the Skipwith National School, having previously been educated in South Duffield. (See the following Ordnance Survey map for Yorkshire CCII.SW published in 1910.)

By the 1911 census John was working as a waggoner on Manor Farm, Skipwith: the farm run by his grandparents Thomas Burton (1842-1912) and Sarah Palframan (1844-1920). His grandfather Thomas died the following year, and Sarah took over the running of the farm. As World War I approached she continued to run Manor Farm. Sarah was a tenant of the Escrick Estate who owned the farm. In a letter she received from them on 27 August 1917 changes were made to the acreage of her farm. Sarah’s continued tenancy of the farm was conditional on her ‘keeping as much stock as you can to get manure as much more food must be produced on your farm if you wish to remain on it’. The following photograph is a more recent picture of Manor Farm.

John and Emily went on to have a family and so far, I have found three daughters and four sons. By 1921 John was a farmer at Little Skipwith, Yorkshire. However, in 1939 John was a farm foreman living with Emily at Swan Farm, near Deighton with sons Thomas (1918-1984) and John (1933-1937). Their son Joseph (1920-1988) was a general farm labourer at a nearby farm called Parks Farm and son William (1917-1984) was a cowman working for his grandfather at Manor Farm, Skipwith. The following map shows the location of Swan and Parks farms near Deighton and Spring House Farm where John died in a cottage linked to the farm on 8 February 1978 aged 85. John left effects worth £1,768 in his will.

What surprised me when I researched John and his family was that they lived near the village of Escrick where I lived when I was a child. I don’t remember meeting them. I do think I visited Manor Farm with my father, although I just remember cold stone floors and being given a home baked scone. I would like to know more about the family members mentioned in this blog post. Do contact me if you have any further information which you are willing to share with me.

Note: the maps used in this blog has been reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the following creative commons licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ and sourced from the NLS maps site https://maps.nls.uk/.

Bibliography:

1939 Register. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed November 2025.

Births, marriages and deaths. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed November 2025.

Census records. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed November 2025.

England and Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed November 2025.

Escrick Estate Letter 1917. Papers of the Forbes Adam/Thompson/Lawley (Barons Wenlock) Family of Escrick, 1387-1988. Collection ref U DDFA. http://catalogue.hullhistorycentre.org.uk/ : accessed November 2025.

National School Admission Registers & Logbooks 1870-1914.

OS Maps. https://maps.nls.uk/ : accessed November 2025. . https://www.findmypast.co.uk/ : accessed November 2025.

Thomas, J. (2011) Manor Farm, Skipwith. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Manor_Farm_-_geograph.org.uk_-_2561435.jpg : accessed November 2025.

Yorkshire baptisms, marriages and burials. https://www.findmypast.co.uk/ : accessed November 2025.