Miles Veevers (1820-1869) was originally from Burnley, the son of a master painter and interior decorator. The eldest of 8 children, Miles followed his father into the trade, together with one of his brothers, Thomas. They were highly successful, building up a firm which employed over 35 men. Miles had married Sarah Jane Fletcher of Embsay in 1848, and after the death of her brother James in 1864, they had moved to Embsay to run the Millholme Weaving Shed (they also had business interests in at least two mills in Burnley, and continued to keep a second home at nearby Habergham Eaves).

In 1867 Brackenley House was extended to 10 rooms, to accommodate the Veevers family of 7 children – Elizabeth, Annie, Fanny, Frank, Sarah Jane, Arthur, and Miles Fletcher – and 2 servants. But two years later, Miles died at the age of 48. He bequeathed the contents of his sizeable wine cellar to his widow – which may explain his death from cirrhosis of the liver.  

His widow Sarah continued to live at Brackenley House, living off the rental income from several properties she held across Embsay, Skipton and Burnley, plus railway shares, and proceeds from selling her share in two Burnley Mills. Her children were aged 7 to 19. In the 1881 Census she still had 6 of her children living at home, two of her sons now at work – Arthur as a clerk for a woollen merchant, and Miles as a solicitor’s clerk. Tragically one of her daughters, Annie, died aged just 22, after a 5 year battle with tuberculosis which destroyed her liver and bowels, before a final bout of meningitis killed her. It was Arthur who took on the family business, including the Millholme Weaving Shed, which he tenanted out to Hallam and Ward. In 1885-1886 he built 12 cottages for the workers – these are on the high terrace (1 to 12 Skipton Road into West Lane) between Embsay Mills and West Lane – these became known as ‘Veevers houses’ or ‘Veevers cottages’. 

The electoral registers compiled in December 1888 included an entry for Sarah Jane Veevers. Although women could not vote in Parliamentary elections, some (mostly unmarried or widowed) were eligible as property owners to vote in local elections. Although her name was reprinted in the 1889 and 1890 electoral registers, she had in fact died suddenly of a stroke in October 1889, at the age of 65. 

The Ordnance Survey map of 1889 shows Brackenley House, gardens and neighbouring field (which in 1847 had been owned by Thomas Baynes Preston). This is the earliest map available which actually shows Brackenley House and includes a row of trees standing behind the wall in the field known as Curlew Mew. Today the clean-cut dressed stone wall which surrounded the estate can still be seen along Skipton Road, although partly demolished to make way for 16 and 18 Skipton Road when they were built. Blands Mill, on the other side of the road, had by now been demolished to make way for gardens for the main house. 

Arthur married a nurse, Anna Crowther, and they had 3 children by 1899. In 1891 he started jointly farming with his brother Miles at Ellergill Farm, on Brackenley Lane. Soon after their mother’s death he sold much of the family’s Embsay properties. Brackenley House, with its coach-house, dairy, stable and gardens (including those on the other side of the road on the site of Blands Mill) was purchased by his sister Fanny’s husband, William Bolland Clayton, a farmer at Brackenley Farm. (Another sister, Sarah Jane, married William’s brother, George Edward Clayton. Sadly she died of pneumonia, aged 35, at Thorpe in Burnsall parish, in 1892.)

William also took the opportunity to purchase from his brother-in-law the farm of which he and his father had been tenant farmers for many years.

Also sold were Veevers Cottages, a shop (sold to a Mr. Wilson), and Bow Bridge House (which had already been converted into two cottages). Arthur’s youngest brother, Miles, purchased all the railway shares which Arthur had inherited.

Arthur became a significant local figure, acting as a trustee for the local Bolland Charity, a school trustee, and as a polling officer during elections. But like his father he was an alcoholic. He died at the age of 41, shortly after moving to Cheshire. His newspaper obituary noted he “made numerous friends by his uniform kindness and urbanity”. A few years later, his widow migrated to America with her three children.

His brother Frank, had also moved away from Embsay and went to the Isle of Man to be a farmer, where his cousin Jane had been brought up. She had married a Congregationalist minister there. In 1894, Frank also married on the island, but his marriage was not a happy one. Like his father and brother, he had a drink problem. His wife filed for divorce in 1897, but withdrew the petition, and they moved to Blackpool. She suffered horrific domestic abuse which landed Frank in court in 1903 and again in 1905. Despite this, his wife Catherine stayed with him until she died in 1907. Subsequently, Frank lived the rest of his life with a widow called Grace, although they never married. His ‘independent means’ finally ran out and in his late 70s he had to work as a gardener. He died in 1940 in Essex.

The youngest brother, Miles Fletcher Veevers, was like Arthur, a popular local figure in his younger days. He played rugby for Skipton, “considered one of the best three-quarters in the district”, and trained as a solicitor’s clerk. He was a polling officer, and while farming with his brother Arthur at Ellergill, Miles won prizes at the Craven Agricultural Show for his cattle. But in his late 20s he suffered some kind of breakdown. Like his older siblings, he had been left a considerable inheritance by his mother, enabling him to retire from farming.  By 1895 he was living quietly in Linton, in a cottage next to the church. There he became an enthusiastic player for Grassington Cricket Club. His alcoholism was exacerbated by a lung infection and it was reported that he had been behaving very strangely for about a week before attempting to drown himself in the river at the back of the house. Rescued by his ostler (horse groom), he was brought back inside his house, attended by a housekeeper and one of his sisters. But he escaped later the same day and jumped into the river to his death. He was 31 years old.

Less is known about the surviving sisters. But they do not appear to have suffered similar mental illness. The eldest, Elizabeth, never married, living at Brackenley House until moving to Cheshire to live with a cousin, Eliza Fletcher. She died in 1935 aged 83.

Sarah married local farmer’s son, George Edward Clayton, who lived at Brackenley Farm. In 1881 they migrated to Texas, but returned within a few years to live at Litton, then at Masham, and Thorpe in Burnsall. Sadly, Sarah died at the age of 35, shortly after the birth of her third child – baby Dorothy also died 9 months later.

Fanny married George’s brother, William Bolland Clayton, and lived at Brackenley Farm for some years. But she was a widow within 7 years. After 3 years on her own, she gave up the farm and other Embsay properties, and went to Derbyshire to care for her 14-year-old nephew. In 1914 and 1918, living in Cheshire, she finally sold off the remainder of her Embsay properties. She died aged 87, in 1941 in Cheshire, leaving an estate worth well over £5,000.

While William and Fanny lived at Brackenley Farm, they had tenanted Brackenley House out to Frank Harrison. Within 4 years he and his wife had left Embsay. Very little is known about them due to his name being so common, and there being no census return while they were living in Embsay to provide useful information.

Jane Lunnon, Embsay-with-Eastby Historical Research Group, April 2026.  
The next article will continue the history of the residents of Brackenley House into the 20^th Century.  

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