Ryedale Folk Museum

Whilst researching in the museum's library today anything to do with Bert Frank (Ryedale Folk Museum's founder I stumbled a cross the 1890 edition of the Bulmer's History & Directory of North Yorkshire . The entire contents are accessible online; http://www.genuki.org.uk/index.html Similar to a census it provides a valuable insight to life in the region at that particular time. Here is an extract of some trades people from Hutton-le-Hole, p.908; Baxter, Thomas, tanner Clark, James, joiner Cole, Joseph, bootmaker Pateman, Pennock, birdstuffer Stephenson, Mark, tailor The Waind's do get a mention on p.906, John is entered as a farmer at Ankness Farm, East Bransdale.Other tradespeople include; Duck, S, joiner and wheelwright at Lofthouse Fawbart, Robert, gamekeeper Lancaster, John, schoolmaster Teasdale, Robert, huckster The remarkable difference between 1890 and present day are the number of people who are skilled in their profession. The small rural communities befo...

Whalebones were often a feature of the farm gateway in the Ryedale area. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many farmers sons would go to sea with the whaling ships from the local ports such as whitby. The whalebones erected on the farm gateway were like a badge of honour, to show you had relatives at sea whaling. Please have a look at a previous blog post about a local man Wiliam Stockell, amongst his many adventures he spent time whaling. http://ryedalefolkmuseumarchive.blogspot.com/2009/05/eventful-narrative-of-william-stockell.html Jonathan Severs, B.A (Hons)

Some more footage of Tractor Day 2009. Can anyone spot a former Prime-Minister?

The horse, a sight common on most farms was phased out on most by 1958 when there were less than one hundred thousand working horses left on farms in Great Britain by 1958 [1] . The horse, the source of power on most farms was indispensable, even when steam power arrived to power labour saving machines such as the threshing machine. How else could the land be ploughed, harrowed, rolled, sown and the crop harvested? Horses were used in haytime and all other aspects of heavy work. Tractors, the modern replacement for the horse, once unreliable and expensive became cheap and more reliable as time progressed. Manufacturers such as Massey-Ferguson, Ford and David Brown all made cheap tractors that were not just used for pulling trailed implements. The Little Grey Fergie was the first mass produced tractor equipped with a Power Take Off (PTO) used to implements such as power balers and muckspreaders. The Grey Ferguson was also attired with a hydraulic three point linkage and a front loader c...