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Repairing the roads through Eastby in the mid-19th century
In 1865 the newly created Highways Board for East Staincliffe (an area that covered parts of the modern Craven district) took over the maintenance of public roads in Skipton and its neighbouring townships, including Embsay and Eastby.
Before 1865 each village or township was responsible for maintaining their own roads. Surveyors were elected annually at Vestry Meetings along with other posts which included Poor Law Guardian, Overseer, Assessors, Constables and Churchwardens.
The Highway Minute Book for Eastby from 1855 to 1864 has survived in the family of the last village surveyor, Thomas Greenwood, innkeeper of the Mason’s Arms, and gives an insight into the surveyors responsibilities, and how and by whom the roads were repaired.
The people of Eastby had responsibility for the upkeep of two roads. The obvious one, known as ‘Town Street’ or ‘Town Gate’, ran from the boundary with Embsay at Priors Syke, where the Eastby sign is today, plus Eastby Bank up to the moor boundary with Halton East, just beyond the present cattle grid. The 19th century surveyors measured this at 2,332 yards. The people of Eastby were also responsible for the upkeep of part of Low Lane from the Embsay boundary at Kempley Beck to the boundary with Halton East where Berry Ground Beck crosses the road. They measured this at 1,052 yards. Measuring was done using a Surveyor’s Chain. A Chain was 22 yards long, and 80 chains made a mile, a mile being equal to 1,760 yards.
William Parker of The Heugh (1813-1899) was a professional surveyor and land valuer, and his niece Annie Parker Greenwood of the Mason’s Arms recorded in her diary for Thursday 6th December 1877: ‘Uncle William, S Mason & Kendall here with their chains measuring the roads, we gave them lunch & they got properly wet’. They were out again the next day when they told Annie that the distance from the Elm Tree to the Mason’s Arms was the same as that from the Mason’s Arms to the huts on Halton Height. This was during the construction of Upper Barden Reservoir when additional repairs were needed because of the heavy machinery being taken up Eastby Bank.
The Highway Minute Book for 13th April 1855 records that a meeting of the Vestry was held at the Mason’s Arms when two surveyors were elected to serve for the ensuing year. These were Levi Towler, co-owner (along with Benjamin Bell) of Eastby Mill, and Ralph Ludlam, the innkeeper of the Mason’s Arms. At the same meeting ‘the aforesaid surveyors were requested to lay a rate of 4½d in the pound’.
The duty of a surveyor was to determine where repairs were necessary, assess the amount of stone required, and allocate and supervise the work.
Much of Embsay and Eastby lies on sandstone which is not suitable for road surfaces as the impact from wheeled vehicles breaks it down to sand and grit. However, there are narrow outcrops of limestone running through the villages in an east-west orientation, which is much more resistant to wear. One outcrop is just a few metres north of the road through the village of Eastby, and the other a few metres north of Low Lane, where it is most accessible in the region of Berry Ground Beck, on the border with Halton East. Consequently, for the repair of Eastby Main Street and Eastby Bank, a limestone quarry was used in the field on the right of the road at the bottom of Eastby Bank, known as Prior Croft Delf. Limestone for the repair of Low Lane was taken from the field known as Berry Ground, adjacent to Berry Ground Beck.
Following their appointment in April 1855, the surveyors met at the Mason’s Arms on 10th May 1855 ‘for the purpose of Letting the different kinds of work for the repairs of the Highways of the Hamlet of Eastby’. They determined that ‘60 yards of stones (more or less)’ would be taken from Prior Croft Delf, and the work was let to Jonathan Mason at 1s/1d per yard to dig the stone and break it so that it would pass through a 2 inch ring. The work of transporting and spreading the stones on the road was a separate task and was let in three sections:
‘The leading & spreading of 20 yards of Stones from Prior Croft Delf to Prior Croft Sykes [Eastby Main Street]. Let to John Heyworth at 4½ pence per yard.’
‘The leading and spreading of 20 yards of Stones from Prior Croft delf to Sheltercliffe Corner. Let to Jonathan Mason at 8½ pence per yard.’
‘The leading & spreading of 20 yards of Stones from Sheltercliffe Corner to the end of Road on Moor. Let to James Stackhouse at 1s/2½d per yard.’
The different amounts paid reflected the increasing difficulty of carting and spreading the stone on Eastby Bank.
With regard to Low Lane, they allocated ‘The getting & breaking of 20 yards (more or less) in Berry Ground delf.’ This was let ‘to James Stackhouse at 1s/7½ per yard’.
‘The leading & spreading into such parts of the Low road, as the surveyor shall appoint, and to his satisfaction, (the above 20 yards). Let to Joseph Heyworth at 6 pence per yard.’
In addition to repairing the surface of the road it was also necessary to deal with drainage, and the surveyors also allocated work on digging and clearing dikes at the sides of the road.
‘The diking on the sides of the Road, from Pinfold to the end of the boundary on Moor (where the surveyor shall require the same to be done). Let to James Stackhouse at 1½ per rood.’
‘The diking & Couling of the Town gate from Pinfold to Heugh Gate, the keeping the same clean from the present time, until the 25th March 1856. Let to William Parker at 5½ pence.’
‘The diking from Heugh Gate to Prior Sykes. Let to William Parker at 1½ pence per rood.’
‘Couling’, also spelt ‘Cowling’ in the Minute Book, was where stones were used to line some of the dikes, as can still be seen in the road near Eastby Chapel. This is also recorded in 1856 when a quantity of ‘Edge Stones & Paving Stones’ were set ‘in the Dike opposite to the Mill’. The dimensions for the Edge Stones had to be ‘18 Inches deep & to be paved 18 Inches wide, & to be 6 Inches deep from the top of the Edge Stones to the Pavings.’
Most of the dikes that lined the road through Eastby are now covered by tarmac, with modern drainage.
Whilst stones from Prior Croft delf were mainly recorded as being wheeled and broken ‘across the road’ (in the ‘lay-by’ on the opposite side of the road), it is also recorded that ‘a quantity of Lime Stones and Great Stones’ were broken in the Yard at Eastby Mill. These may have included sandstone blocks, as the surveyors also recorded that repairs were made to the bridge adjacent to Eastby Mill in 1860.
Limestone was used from Berry Ground delf ‘near the beck’ to repair Low Lane, although stone for Low Lane is also recorded as being taken from ‘Bond Croft delf’ in 1862. This was probably sandstone to line the dikes.
The entries for other years are similar but with different surveyors appointed for most years, and a variety of local men taking on the work. Meetings were all held at the Mason’s Arms where Thomas Greenwood took over as innkeeper from Ralph Ludlam in 1858.
These small outcrops of limestone were also used to improve the fields by burning the stone in limekilns and spreading on the fields. There would have been a limekiln near Prior Croft delf, as the 1847 tithe map shows that the field across the road was called ‘Kiln Croft’. There was also a lime kiln at Berry Ground as recorded on 27th April 1887 in the diary of Elizabeth Greenwood (widow of Thomas Greenwood) when she wrote: ‘Tom [her youngest son] fetched us some lime from Berry Ground Lime Kiln.’
Sources:
Embsay with Eastby Vestry Minute book 1827 to 1870 (North Yorkshire Record Office).
Parker/Greenwood Family Archives: “Eastby Highway Minute Book, 1855 to 1864”; Diaries of Annie Parker Greenwood 1875-1878; Diaries of Elizabeth Greenwood 1872-1889; (with kind permission of the Dawes family)
British Geological Survey – https://www.bgs.ac.uk/map-viewers/bgs-geology-viewer
Embsay-with-Eastby Tithe Map and Award, 1847-8; and 1965 O.S. Map (North Yorkshire County Record Office)
David Turner, Embsay with Eastby Historical Research Group
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