Historian's unique collection of Hutton Magna artefacts

CHURCHWARDEN, flower club chairwoman and oracle of village history – Marian Lewis keeps busy.

Her unrivalled collection of papers, photographs and artefacts of Hutton Magna were displayed in a special presentation earlier this year at the village hall.

Dozens of villagers young and old perused the collection ranging from receipts for electricity to royal family trees.

Mrs Lewis tells me there is a lot that’s gone on in her village in the past millennium and was pleased so many fellow villagers had shown an interest. She says: “We got about 30 there so I was quite pleased with that. Everybody seemed to enjoy it – that’s the main thing.”

Mrs Lewis has lived in Hutton Magna all her life.

Her passion for her village has meant an accrual of fascinating snippets of the dale’s social history. She even wrote her own book – Backwards Glances – to chronicle the life and times of Hutton Magna. Mrs Lewis adds: “They used to have a school in Hutton Magna – in 1752 there was an advert in the London papers for scholars to come to that school. The pupils were of the care of the curacy – it was closed in 1860 so that was quite a bit of information on that one. When I did Backwards Glances I got these archives in Northallerton – a lot of it is family stuff and from people who left the village who said I could have it.”

Her collection of billiard club minutes from July 1911 reveal how Hutton Magna’s branch was understandably keen to retain its table.

And her copies of minutes from the parish council reveal how an emergency meeting was called in 1963 when rumours spread of the bottom of the village becoming a car park.

“There was lots about different things when you get the minutes out,” she says.

“Like when we got mains water and sewerage. Mains water arrived in the 1960s. It was a tap, a pipe and a cesspit as the toilet down the garden before that.”

Some of the reports explain how all the work in the parish, besides feeding cattle, was suspended when Queen Victoria died. The shop and the public house were both closed and the blinds were drawn for most of the day.

Mrs Lewis also tracked down the Easton family, of West Layton Manor, who played a vital role in the renovation of the village church. She says: “When the church was rebuilt there were two donations of £100 – in those days it was a lot of money. Miss Easton died in 1913 and left more than £1million. She paid for the organ, the bells in the church and the vicarage so she was quite a wealthy lady.

“She used to put a sovereign on the top plate when she came.”

Mrs Lewis’ archives also reveal the day-to-day travails of Hutton Magna Cricket Club, which folded in the late 1960s, and the then flourishing village youth club.

She adds: “The cricket club used to play in the Swaledale League. We did have a youth club in the village which started in 1960 – in 1965 we had 65 members and they came from all the villages around.”

We take running water and a steady mains electricity supply for granted now – but there was a time well within living memory when these were novelties in Hutton Magna. Before then, men like Robert Jackson kept the village connected.

Mrs Lewis explains: “He put electricity into the village hall off his generator. He used to charge the village hall for so much electricity depending on what event they were having.”

Receipts reveal how Mr Jackson charged 12s and 6d for a Whorlton Whist drive – and there were many more records to be found in his home when he passed on.

“He started his business in 1922,” adds Mrs Lewis.

“In those days when you wrote a cheque they used to send the used cheques afterwards. When he died they were all in his house.”

Mains electricity finally arrived in 1952 ahead of the Queen’s coronation.

There was a longer wait for mains water before sewerage pipes were fitted in September 1962. In the 19th century water was brought from three-quarters of a mile away at Warden Hill Spring, courtesy of Wycliffe Estate – which worked well until 1940.

But Mrs Lewis’ records reveal how a severe frost burst the pipe and threatened to dry up the village completely. Farmer William Green stepped in with a 100 gallon tank to keep Hutton Magna going before Startforth Rural Council took over the operation in 1941, fitting two more taps in the village. Mrs Lewis says she’s been asked if she’ll do more presentations in future.

She adds: “I have got enough material to do it on a different theme. It would be more about the youth club and the post office.”