Historians, knights and the relics of Teesdale's lost heritage

What do a group of knights, an old barn and a threshing machine have in common? Editor Trevor Brookes catches up with amateur historian John Hay to find out more

FUTURE inhabitants of Barningham with an interest in what went before them will be able to count themselves incredibly lucky.
Thanks to the work of enthusiasts, the village’s history has been charted through the centuries – from ancient field boundaries to dueling aristocrats.
Barningham Local History Group was formed in 2009. Much has been recorded, but one mystery remained – where was the village mill? Historians had suggested there was a mill in Barningham in the 13th century but no one knew where. Retired villager John Hay picked up the case.
“Barningham has several fields with mill in the name so there must have been a mill somewhere, but no one had been able to find out anything about it. We found Mill Hill Farm but it couldn’t have been a mill because it’s above the beck,” said Mr Hay.
The search led Mr Hay to the Keeper of Muniments at Westminster, where an archive of manuscripts is kept. It was a strange place to find 30 or so Latin documents about distant Barningham.
One recorded how Willian, son of Stephen de Berningham, sold the mill rights in exchange for land at “Sageberge” in the 14th century.
The deed recorded that the mill was on Norbeck Hill, to the east of Norbeck Bridge, solving the long-standing village riddle. But to those who had staunchly believed Mill Hill Farm was the right location, it now begged the question – if not a mill, then what?
Neil Turner, famed for his cocktails and repertoire of jokes he regularly serves up at the Milbank Arms, was able to provided some clues.
“Neil told me that it was a byre and that there had been families living there,” Mr Hay said.
Inside was a gin gang. Gin is short for engine and gang for going. The words are from Northumbrian dialect and describe how a horse walked in circles to drive a threshing machine via wooden gears, drive shafts and drive belt.
“It makes sense because older residents have said there were plenty of horses in the area. It’s not plough land so they may have been used to run the gin gang,” said Mr Hay.
Mr Hay went for a look at the old byre. He discovered a wonderful relic of Britain’s agricultural history.
“Gorgeous” stone arches and ornate door hinges stood as a tribute to the village’s farming past with remnants of old machinery dotted around, including a grain-coating barrel, winnowing machine and seed grinders. Plaster could still be seen on the walls.
“It’s rather sad to see it all there – it should probably be in a museum,” says Mr Hay.
Mr Turner recalls working at Mill Hill in his teens when machinery had largely replaced horses. There was still wallpaper on the walls of the old home, which had been painted pink, red and blue. Census records say Mill Farm was uninhabited by 1911. Just a few decades earlier, in 1861, six people lived there – George Flower, 45, from Cockfield, his wife, Ann, originally from Bath, and their four children all under the age of 11, Isobel, George William and Sarah Ann.
Locals say operations at Mill Farm stopped in the 1970s when it was adapted to hold livestock and store hay.
Former journalist Jon Smith has been a major contributor to Barningham Local History Group. Phil Hunt is now the chairman and Mr Hay acts as vice chairman.
“The village has been analysed so thoroughly and we are now beginning to look back more at the social life of the village now,” said Mr Hay. “So I decided to go back even further to the early social life of Barningham.”
His study into Barningham’s gin gang started with the Latin deeds held at Westminster. What Mr Hay found extraordinary was how knights such as Wiilliam de Skargiile, Hugh de Ask and Robertt de Wiclif had witnessed the transaction, in 1321.
Mr Hay said: “The Magna Carta does not say much about Barningham but if there wasn’t much here, how come we’ve got all these deeds which show these knights who are clearly named after local places?”
In today’s money, those names would be Scargill, Aske and Wycliffe. It’s John’s guess that they are of Norman stock.
“They were descended from those who came over with William and smashed King Harold’s army at Hastings.”
Mr Hay has carried out an indepth study into what life was like for those knights who lived in Barningham in the 14th century.
“It ties nicely with the mills study,” he said.
The fact that Mr Hay’s ‘Knights of Barningham’ and ‘Mills of Barningham’ research failed to win top prize in history group’s awards in 2015 or 2016 shows the standard of Barningham Local History Group.
Helen Bainbridge, of Reeth’s Swaledale Museum, judged this year’s contest, which was won by Linda Sherwood.
Ms Bainbridge said: “I only wish that Reeth and Swaledale had a similar competition. Perhaps we should launch one but I suspect it would have difficulty coming up to the standards of the work presented here.”